Oklahoma Treasurer’s Office used Signal for anti-ESG policy discussions, lawsuit says
April 25, 2025
Jordan Harvey, chief of staff for Oklahoma Treasurer Todd Russ, used messaging app Signal to communicate and coordinate policy with several groups actively opposing environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, according to an open records lawsuit.
Harvey told a deposition in February that she had used the app in late 2022 and early 2023 to receive briefing documents from organisations opposed to ESG efforts and then forward them to personal and work email addresses.
At that time, Russ was working on the Oklahoma Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, in which he was tasked with creating a list of prohibited financial businesses for state or local vendors with corporate policies deemed to be hostile to fossil fuels.
Harvey received and forwarded the messages using her own personal cell phone, she said, as she had yet to be issued a state cell phone at the time.
The Signal messaging platform has been a pivotal part of recent revelations that high-ranking members of the Trump administration had unwittingly shared plans regarding co-ordinating war efforts with a reporter who had been included in the chat.
“I set my communication not to delete,” Harvey told a deposition about her personal use of Signal. “The other person or people on the thread have the same ability to set the deletion time period. And then all parties on that thread are subject to that.”
Harvey added that although the treasurer’s officer had turned over the documents she received on Signal under an open records request, the office was unable to provide the related Signal messages as they were no longer viewable by the time the records request was made in July 2023.
In the deposition, Harvey said that an email she had sent to the governor’s office in May 2023, attaching documents referencing Net-Zero Asset Managers Alliance emissions goals and questions, made reference to three active anti-ESG groups: State Financial Officers Foundation, Heritage Action for America and Consumers’ Research Inc.
Those groups are now opposing efforts by the plaintiff, Alabama-based FOIA Professional Services LLC, to comment on the Signal messages that were sent to Harvey.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the treasurer’s office said it does not comment on active litigation.
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Last Updated: 25 April 2025