White House Intervened In Dept. Of Energy FOIA Requests

By Kathryn Watson, Daily Caller, Sept. 24, 2015

White House officials intervened in public records requests made to the Department of Energy, but federal investigators don’t know how many because required records weren’t kept, according to a new report from the DoE’s Office of Inspector General.

Federal investigators found the DoE sent four of the 55 public records requests they analyzed to the White House for review, but the corresponding case files documenting actions taken on those requests were “incomplete,” the inspector general said.

“Without full retention of case documentation, particularly documents showing changes to redactions or exemptions used, it was impossible to know with certainty what changes were made when the documents went outside the department for review,” the inspector general said. “Further, the lack of case documents potentially makes it much more difficult to defend FOIA appeals.”

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