A Department of Transportation component slammed the brakes following semi-furious opposition to its proposal for “on demand” law enforcement surveillance of commercial vehicles a year and a half ago.
It took another six months to turn over the records after a FOIA lawsuit to compel their release, a day before they were due in court Thursday, with no indication yet from FMCSA when it would release a final rule.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed an official complaint against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday, alleging the two entities have failed to produce documents regarding the release of immigrant detainees into Tennessee.
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The Department of Homeland Security is not only hiding the purported legal basis for its authority to police misinformation, disinformation and malinformation – the latter sometimes jeered as “true but inconvenient” – but also any explanation for invoking an unexpected Freedom of Information Act exemption to hide them.
Hastily stitched together 22 years ago to prevent another Islamic terrorist attack but since turning its sights on domestic political disputes, the agency gave Just the News a lengthy defense of its work against disinformation but not an answer to how disclosure of its “MDM Space” legal authorities would imperil law enforcement work.
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A Michigan woman is leading an effort to try to oust elected officials in her township for allowing the maker of electric vehicle batteries with ties to China to open a plant in her township.
The headquarters for battery maker Gotion Inc. is in California, but its parent company, Gotion High-tech, is based in China, which is raising concern about its connections to the Chinese Communist Party and national security.
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The Star News Network is suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation alleging the law enforcement agency has broken a critical First Amendment guard in repeatedly denying Freedom of Information Act requests seeking the Covenant School killer’s manifesto.
Filed Wednesday, the federal lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee to order the FBI to release Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto and related documents and to issue a declaration that the agency violated FOIA in denying the request for the information.
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Nine days after President Biden’s inauguration, a Department of Homeland Security office proposed creating several “Choose Your Own Adventure” videos to show Americans how to identify and mitigate “radicalization and potential violence.”
Among the Americans that worry the sprawling bureaucracy created in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: middle-aged pro-life women, white men who question the government, and divorced mothers who suspect “government connections to child abuse and trafficking.”
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For months, the National Archives and Records Administration has insisted it had nothing to do with the federal criminal investigation into memos containing classified markings that were found at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate since it referred the matter to the FBI in February 2022.
“When NARA identified items marked as classified national security information within the 15 boxes, NARA referred this issue to the DOJ,” acting Archivist Debra Wall wrote Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), now the House Intelligence Committee chairman, on August 16. “Since that time, the DOJ has been exclusively responsible for all aspects of this investigation, and NARA has not been involved in the DOJ investigation or any searches that it has conducted.”
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When the existence of the Disinformation Governance Board burst into public view, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there was nothing sinister to hide and claimed the office was rooted in “best practices.”
A year later, Mayorkas’ department is refusing to let Americans see most of the legal justifications and talking points it created to defend the now-disbanded board from “blowback,” FOIA documents showed.
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Citizens United filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State Department and the Interior Department for records relating to President Joe Biden’s “Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting.”
The conservative nonprofit submitted a FOIA request to the agencies on June 16 but did not receive a response within 20 working days as required, Citizens United stated.
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A conservative group on Tuesday demanded Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson comply with the Michigan Court of Appeals ruling to release unredacted documents in response to their Freedom of Information Act request.
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled against Benson last Thursday, requiring her office to release the documents in response to a FOIA initially sought by Michigan Rising Action.
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The Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) district, which has faced widespread backlash and scrutiny over its handling of a two-time rapist, is now dealing with over 500 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by county parents, Breitbart reports.
The sheer amount of new requests represents an increase of more than five times the previous yearly average; from 2012 to 2018, the average amount of FOIA requests for LCPS was about 90. Roughly 40 percent of the new requests have been filed on behalf of the group Fight for Schools, a nonprofit watchdog group that has been fighting for transparency from the school board.
As the process of fulfilling a FOIA request under Virginia state law, much like the federal equivalent, is a time-consuming process, LCPS “has begun billing VFOIA requesters because it cannot handle the current volume free of charge,” according to LCPS Public Information Officer Wayne Byard. In addition, the district has had to hire twice as many staffers to focus solely on processing such requests.
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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was aware that at least 10 members of its staff committed alleged sex crimes against children, though only one employee was ever prosecuted, according to released documents first reported by BuzzFeed News.
One CIA employee had “inappropriate sexual activity with an unidentified two-year-old girl” and confessed to having sexual relations with a six-year-old, according to internal CIA reports dating from 2004 to 2019 accessed by BuzzFeed through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The employee was fired but never charged.
Another employee allegedly bought pornographic films depicting young girls, while another claimed to have viewed thousands of sexually explicit images of children, according to the documents. These employees also were not charged with any crimes.
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Federal officials have allegedly discovered unused files from Robert Mueller’s unsuccessful Special Counsel investigation, and may decide to release them soon as an “alternative” report, according to Politico.
The documents recently found amongst Department of Justice (DOJ) files consist of findings by one of Mueller’s deputies, Andrew Weissmann, that were not included in the final report that was made public in early 2019. Weissmann first discussed his unreleased findings in a book he published last year called “Where Law Ends.”
“At least for posterity, I had all the members … write up an internal report memorializing everything we found, our conclusions, and the limitations on the investigation,” Weissman claims, “and provided it to the other team leaders as well as had it maintained in our files.”
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Training materials for the Springfield, Mo., school district told teachers they could be engaging in white supremacy simply by insisting the English language be used or calling police on a black suspect, according to records released under a freedom of information request.
The materials, provided to Just the News, include a 40-plus slide training deck that proclaimed its goal was to train teachers on how to address “systemic racism and xenophobia” in the school district and to understand the difference between oppressors and the oppressed. Critics say the slide deck is part of a larger Critical Race Theory curriculum that parents are increasingly rejecting.
It included an “oppression matrix” that identified privileged social groups capable of oppression as including “white people,” “male assigned at birth,” “gender conforming CIS men and women,” “heterosexuals,” “rich, upper-class people” and “Protestants.”
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A new timeline of events in the controversial National School Boards Association (NSBA) letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland shows that the NSBA was in contact with the White House before sending the letter to President Joe Biden.
Emails obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from the group called Parents Defending Education request show that NSBA President Viola Garcia sent a memo to state NSBA chapters on October 12 describing its work against parents who were protesting at school board meetings nationwide. Some of those protests regarded mask mandates and liberal activism within schools.
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Whistleblowers—and the truths they tell—far too often become the first casualties in the clash of bigger forces with other agendas. People tend to oversimplify complex stories to fit their preferred political narrative or to protect their own interests.
If the facts do not fit neatly into a convenient set of preconceptions, too often they are ignored, dismissed, or twisted to cater to well-known biases. This tactic is common among those who are the subject of whistleblower disclosures. They often attempt to change the subject to avoid accountability by pointing a finger at the whistleblower, even if they don’t know who it is.
It’s probably just a “disgruntled employee” who has “an axe to grind.” The implication is that there is no need to look into it. Nothing to see here. Move along.
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“Idon’t think parents should be telling schools what they teach,” Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe said in a recent debate.
A wealthy Virginia school district outside Washington, D.C. went even further this week, with the help of a law firm tied to the former governor.
Represented by Hunton Andrews Kurth, Fairfax County Public Schools is suing two parents for learning about its dirty laundry from a state Freedom of Information Act request. It filed an emergency motion for a preliminary injunction Tuesday.
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Members of the media pressured officials when Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick’s autopsy contravened the popular narrative that he essentially was beaten to death during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to records obtained by Judicial Watch.
Journalists challenged the Washington, D.C. medical examiner’s office regarding its finding that Sicknick in fact died of natural causes, according to those records.
The watchdog organization acquired the records via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, a spokesperson confirmed. The records include emails from journalists asking about the autopsy report that was released some three months after Officer Sicknick died.
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A group of Michigan parents was asked to fork over approximately $400,000 by the Forest Hills Public Schools before the district would comply with a Freedom of Information Act request they had submitted. The district later lowered the cost to about $2,200.
The FOIA was sent to FHPS on May 11. The request sought “any and all writings” that used such words as equity, diversity and inclusion.
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The widower of Ashi Babbitt, the Air Force veteran who was killed by a Capitol Police officer on January 6th, has filed a lawsuit seeking to finally uncover the name of the guilty officer, the New York Post reports.
Aaron Babbitt filed the lawsuit in the Washington D.C. Superior Court, demanding all information related to his wife’s murder, including video footage and statements from witnesses to the incident, in addition to seeking the identity of the officer who fired the fatal shot. Separately from this lawsuit, Babbitt’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit for $12 million against the Capitol Police, according to the Babbitt family’s attorney Terry Roberts.
Babbitt had previously filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), but the MPD failed to respond by the original May 12th deadline, by which time they either had to provide the material or give a formal response explaining why they could not hand over the materials.
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In a shocking abuse of state power against a private citizen, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) asked if she could have a restaurateur who defied lockdown before she could join “Tucker Carlson Tonight” for an interview about her defiance.
“Do we know her whereabouts? We should just have her picked up before she goes on. This is outrageous,” Nessel said in an email to staff on March 12.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) will not allow full capacity at high school graduation ceremonies this year, despite rapidly declining COVID-19 cases and deaths nationwide.
Thursday, she vetoed legislation that would have exempted high schools from the state’s 50 percent capacity limit on indoor gatherings, according to Detroit News.
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The Michigan House unanimously passed a flurry of bipartisan bills seeking to reform the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by including the governor and legislature under the new Legislative Open Records Act (LORA).
The House passed the package during “Sunshine Week,” which celebrates government transparency, and after reporters used FOIA to expose Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration gifting $253,000 in secret, taxpayer-funded severance packages.
The bill package is virtually identical to bills introduced in the 2015-16, 2017-8, and the 2019-20 legislative session other than technical changes and effective dates.
Those packages all failed.
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A Freedom of Information Act request from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni concerning an endowment gift to the University of Michigan has led to a lawsuit against the school for not responding.
According to the complaint, ACTA filed the request on behalf of an alumnus who wanted to obtain information relating to an endowed gift. The lawsuit explains that the University’s initial response came five days later than legally required, along with an estimate that it would take approximately seven hours to complete, and up to forty-five days to produce the documents along with a fee.
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A judgment allowing or prohibiting the inspection of Fulton County’s mail-in ballots may occur as early as next week. The plaintiffs, organized by the election integrity organization Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia (VoterGA), have been engaged in litigation for nearly a month to obtain an inspection of those ballots.
VoterGA had anticipated receiving a ruling allowing them to inspect the county’s mail-in ballots during their last hearing on January 15. However, after three hours debating the county’s compliance with open records requests concerning the mail-in ballots, akin to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requirements, Chief Judge Brian Amero decided to only address that issue.
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Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) faces a lawsuit for falsely denying the existence of records documenting the $83,000 removal of the Capitol’s Confederate monuments.
The plaintiff in the case, David Webster II, requested documents under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from Filler-Corn upon learning she’d removed the Confederate statues and busts. In her response, Filler-Corn states repeatedly “The requested records do not exist.” However, Webster II discovered many of the documents in question.
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The House on Thursday passed legislation that would allow the public to view past police investigative records.
The bill, sponsored by Del. Chris Hurst (D-Montgomery County), passed the Democratic-majority body by a vote of 59-Y 37-N, and three not voting, mostly along party lines except for five Republican delegates voting on the prevailing side.
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The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday ruled 6-1 in favor of a Michigan resident attempting to acquire public records through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Susan Bisio had sued the city of the Village of Clarkston in the Oakland Circuit Court claiming it is violating FOIA requirements in 2015.
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The Ohio Roundtable filed a Freedom of Information request with Dr. Amy Acton of the Ohio Department of Health to allow all Ohioans to “see the math” behind the construction of Dr. Acton’s latest model which is controlling public policy decisions in Ohio.
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A federal judge on Monday ordered Hillary Clinton to appear for a deposition as part of a lawsuit filed by the watchdog group Judicial Watch, saying in a ruling that the former secretary of state’s written responses so far in the case have “left many more questions than answers” about her decision to use a private email system while in office.
Judge Royce Lamberth also granted Judicial Watch permission to depose Cheryl Mills, a top aide to Clinton at the State Department.
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The Coalition for Property Tax Justice filed a federal class-action lawsuit claiming the city of Detroit, Wayne County, and state officials “eviscerated” every homeowners’ due process rights by denying them the ability to appeal inflated property taxes.
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The FBI’s top press officer during the Hillary Clinton and Trump-Russia investigations accepted tickets to a Washington Nationals game from a CNN correspondent and lied about it repeatedly during interviews with the Justice Department’s inspector general, according to a report obtained by The Daily News Foundation.
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by Kevin Mooney Major news outlets, seemingly more prone to investigative reporting in the Trump era, are much more aggressive in seeking records from the Environmental Protection Agency than they were in the final years of the Obama administration, The Daily Signal has learned. ABC News, CBS News, the Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Politico are among 20 news organizations showing a large increase in Freedom of Information Act requests, according to EPA numbers obtained by The Daily Signal. The 20 media outlets include not only news organizations with liberal perspectives but some, such as CNN, BuzzFeed, Mother Jones, and Huffington Post, that freely mix news coverage and left-leaning opinion. According to the data, the biggest percentage increase in FOIA requests to the EPA by the 20 media outlets occurred between 2016, Barack Obama’s last year as president and 2017, Donald Trump’s first year as president. The organizations made a total of 626 FOIA requests to the EPA in 2017, more than doubling the 249 requests in 2016. Dating to 1967, the federal Freedom of Information Act requires disclosure, upon written request and with exceptions, of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the…
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by Chuck Ross The Obama White House kept tabs on a Freedom of Information Act request for information on former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton’s email accounts that the State Department improperly denied, according to newly released emails. The emails, which were provided to Judicial Watch, show for the first time that the Obama White House was aware of the Clinton-related FOIA request, which the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) submitted to the State Department in December 2012. The State Department denied the request in May 2013, claiming that no responsive records existed. That despite officials at the State Department, the White House, and even President Obama himself knowing that Clinton used a personal email account for government business. The State Department’s inspector general determined in a report released on Jan. 7, 2016 that the State Department’s denial of the CREW request was “inaccurate and incomplete.” It is not clear from the emails why the White House was interested in the request. But Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton has a theory. “These documents suggest the Obama White House knew about the Clinton email lies being told to the public at least as early…
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Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI-02) recently stood outside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) headquarters asking for answers about a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request he submitted. Pocan claims the request was filed in October 2018 and sought information on the “arrests of 83 individuals in Wisconsin,” who were presumably arrested and deported by ICE. “More than four months after submitting my request, the agency is clearly using delays as an effort to hide something. While we will not know until the agency provides the information, I have reason to believe that the data on the arrests will show that ICE has targeted immigrants with no prior criminal record to stoke fear in our community,” Pocan said in a recent press release. According to Pocan, ICE claims it has responded to his request on two occasions, but those responses were allegedly just acknowledgments of his request. “Despite multiple meetings, letters, a FOIA request, and unannounced visits to the agency’s office, ICE will not provide information regarding communication with local law enforcement officials and information about whether the arrested individuals held criminal records,” he said. Frustrated with the delay, Pocan recently stood outside ICE’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., where…
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by Richard McCarty Abigail Spanberger is mad. Real mad – and threatening legal action against the Congressional Leadership Fund. Spanberger is the Democrat candidate for Congress in Virginia’s 7th District. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, recently obtained a document showing that Spanberger worked at the controversial Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia. Apparently, she didn’t want voters to find that out. How was this fact uncovered? Earlier this summer, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed with the National Personnel Records Center seeking “access to certain records contained in the official civilian personnel file of former federal employee Abigail Spanberger. Specifically, this request seeks records reflecting Ms. Spanberger’s employment dates, annual salaries, title, and position description.” This request was forwarded to the Postal Service, which also employed Spanberger. In its response to the FOIA request, the Postal Service included a document disclosing her employment at the Islamic Saudi Academy. Why might Spanberger have wanted to hide the fact that she worked for the school? The school, which was funded by the Saudi embassy, was dubbed “Terror High” by its critics. It had problems before she began working there, and those problems continued after she left. In 2001, two graduates of the…
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