(The Center Square) – The Washington State Republican Party and journalist Jonathan Choe have jointly filed an injunction in Thurston County Superior Court barring the state from scrubbing or removing public access to records related to child care centers in the state that receive public funds.
Choe, a journalist and senior fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth and Poverty, is investigating potential fraud at Washington daycare centers that receive taxpayer subsidies.
This investigation was initiated following self-described independent journalist Nick Shirley releasing a video alleging widespread child care fraud in Minnesota, some involving Somali providers. The video garnered significant media traction and caught the attention of the Trump administration, prompting the Department of Health and Human Services to freeze roughly $185 million in federal child care funding in the state.
“By December 31, just a day after his [Choe] work had begun to make news, along with that of other citizen journalists, he discovered that the state had already begun scrubbing this information from the website,” the injunction states. “Not only did this deletion of public information hindering his work, in re-confirming what he had already investigated, it prevented him from any further investigation because the State had removed address information that it previously had made publicly available.”
Several people and media organizations, including The Center Square, began posting videos about Washington child care centers, visiting sites, filming them, and asking on-site questions.
In response, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown put out a Dec. 30 statement warning that Somali daycare operators were facing harassment and threats.
“Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation,” Brown said. “Neither is filming minors who may be in the home. This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior. I encourage anyone experiencing threats or harassment to either contact local law enforcement or our office’s Hate Crimes & Bias Incident Hotline at 1-855-225-1010 or www.atg.wa.gov/report-hate.”
The inunction, filed on Monday, notes Brown’s statement and goes on to say, “In short, the State doesn’t think anyone ought to be allowed to ask whether a business that purports to offer child care does, in fact, offer child care.”
In a press release announcing the injunction, WSRP Chair and state Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, calls for more government transparency.
“Journalists and ordinary Washingtonians have been using these publicly posted documents to investigate credible allegations of corruption in how state and federal tax dollars are being paid to childcare centers here in Washington,” he said. “State bureaucrats hiding this public information from the people is illegal and unconstitutional. It certainly violates common-sense standards of government transparency and accountability. We need more transparency in Olympia, not less.”
Adding to the debate over balancing public safety with public accountability, late last year, Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island, pre-filed Senate Bill 5926, which aims to expand public records exemptions for child care providers, shielding personal information like names and addresses to prevent harassment.
Monday was the first day of Washington’s 60-day 2026 legislative session.
This is a developing story.
