Third of four targeted family dairies set to auction off herd next week, even while new documents reveal secret meeting between feds, wealthy attorney targeting the farms
PRESS RELEASE – April 15, 2025
Press Contact: Dillon Honcoop, Communications Director, dhoncoop@savefamilyfarming.org
(SEATTLE, Wash.) Recently-obtained public records are raising troubling questions about possible collusion between longtime U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials and an influential lawyer against family farms here in Washington state, even as another one of the targeted farms is set to be auctioned off next week.
The new documents reveal officials currently in the Trump EPA held a closed-door “coordination” meeting with lawyer Charles Tebbutt and activists associated with him, regarding the federal agency’s lawsuit against family farms in the Lower Yakima Valley. The trove of emails obtained by Save Family Farming in a recent public records request also shows a pattern of recurring meetings between the EPA officials and other activists and groups connected with Tebbutt.
Even as the troubling new details come to light, it’s already too late for most of the family farms both Tebbutt and the EPA have targeted, including one dairy farm that’s auctioning off its herd next week. The multigenerational Cow Palace family dairy is slated to officially shutter in May following the April 26th auction.
“Why the EPA, legally represented by the U.S. Department of Justice, would legitimately need to secretly coordinate with any private attorney on a high-profile lawsuit is hard to answer – but even more so when the lawyer in question already has his own separate case making accusations against one of the same family dairy farms,” said Ben Tindall, Save Family Farming Executive Director.
Court documents show another Yakima-area family farm that closed after being targeted by Tebbutt and the EPA, Liberty Dairy, has been unable to satisfy Tebbutt’s legal demands after stonewalling by longtime EPA officials on necessary approvals, in a situation that reeks of backdoor coordination.
“The appearance of corruption within EPA Region 10 regarding its attack on these farms is deeply troubling,” said Tindall. “We call on President Trump, national EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and Region 10 Administrator Emma Pokon to immediately put a stop to secret coordination between entrenched officials within their agency and activist attorneys.”