FEC agrees to pay NRA $25,000 for hiding key documents
By Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner, Aug. 8, 2023
The Federal Election Commission agreed today to pay $25,000 to the National Rifle Association for hiding documents critical to the gun lobby’s effort to defend itself in a costly election lawsuit.
The embarrassing agreement will cover the costs NRA lawyers spent in its Freedom of Information Act suit against the FEC.
Read more here.
IRS Can Hide Fraud ID Docs From FOIA Request, 8th Circ. Told
By Anna Scott Farrell, Law360, Aug. 7, 2023
The IRS was right to withhold its techniques for questioning fraud suspects from a retired Harvard law professor's records request under the Freedom of Information Act, the U.S. government argued Monday,...
Read more here (accessible with free registration)
Underlying case information is here.
On August 4, 2023, the Office of Government Information Services published Assessing Freedom of Information Act Compliance through the National Archives and Records Administration’s 2022 Records Management Self-Assessment, which discusses the results of six FOIA questions posed to agency records officers.
Three Men Battle the FBI Over Buried Civil War Gold. ‘Stuff Just Doesn’t Add Up.’
Treasure hunters are aiming to prove there were tons of loot in the ground in Pennsylvania—and that the government took it
By Kris Maher, Wall St. J., Aug. 5, 2023
DENTS RUN, Pa.—Dennis Parada points to a weedy spot where he believes the Federal Bureau of Investigation dug up nine tons of Civil War-era gold, worth more than $500 million, and made off with it in the middle of the night.
The patch of ground halfway up a mountain in western Pennsylvania lies at the heart of the treasure hunter’s quest to recover the trove and prove it was snatched from under his nose. The matter is now playing out in federal court.
At 70, he has been chasing the Dents Run gold for more than 40 years. “It’s definitely a major coverup,” says Parada, who has the mustache of a 19th-century gambler and smokes his cigarettes down to a stub.
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The Paradas sued the FBI last year in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. seeking enforcement of a Freedom of Information Act request. They now allege the FBI has failed to turn over certain records and doctored some photos to conceal a night dig.
The FBI declined to comment on the lawsuit, but denies it kept digging at night.
Read more here (subscription required).
The FOIA case docket is available here.
The FOIA Complaint is available here.
Ramaswamy sues DOJ, files fresh records request for Trump indictment details
By Julia Miller, The Hill, Aug. 2, 2023
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday announced he’s suing the Department of Justice (DOJ) and filing a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) records request for more details about the recent indictments of former President Trump.
Read more here.
Some U.S. government agencies are testing out AI to help fulfill public records requests
Open government and civil rights advocates warn that using AI to answer Freedom of Information Act requests may create new problems.
By Lewis Kamb, NBC News, Aug. 1, 2023
A few federal agencies have started to use sophisticated artificial intelligence tools to help deal with immense caseloads of Freedom of Information Act requests, but some transparency advocates warn that the government needs additional safeguards before more widely deploying the technology.
At least three agencies — the State Department, the Justice Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — have tried out or are now testing machine-learning models and algorithms to help search for information in repositories holding billions of government records, federal officials confirmed to NBC News in recent interviews.
Read more here.
Via Email from Reporters Committee:
Hello,
As of today, August 1, 2023, iFOIA is retired. Thank you for more than 10 years of support!
As a reminder, we recommend FOIAMachine and MuckRock as free alternatives to iFOIA.
If you were an iFOIA user and you want to stay connected with the Reporters Committee, you will need to proactively sign up for our newsletters and updates.
Thank you for using iFOIA!
Sincerely,
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
On July 28, 2023, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a final rule with proposed amendments to the agency’s Freedom of Information Act regulations, which were last updated in 2007. The proposed revisions are “due to organizational changes and subsequent amendments to the FOIA.” Comments are due on or before August 28, 2023.
The Freedom of Information Act needs to be modernized
By Curtis Schube & Gary Lawkowski, The Hill, July 24, 2023
In the past few weeks, the explosive contents of an email sent by former chief medical adviser and COVID guru Anthony Fauci, discussing the possible origins of COVID-19, have come to light. That email was part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) response from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Like many of the documents in the response, the CDC had completely redacted the email. The redaction rendered the response virtually useless despite it clearly being in the public interest. Only the action of the House Oversite Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic brought the contents of the email to light. It leaves one to wonder, is FOIA living up to its intended purpose?
Read more here.
The U.S. Trade Representative will update its FOIA regulations regarding expediting processing, according to a notice scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on July 25, 2023. Specifically, USTR will adopt two examples from DOJ’s guidance as to what qualifies as a “compelling need”: (1) the failure to obtain requested records on an expedited basis could reasonably be expected to pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual; and (2) with respect to a request made by a person primarily engaged in disseminating information, there is urgency to inform the public concerning actual or alleged Federal Government activity.
Public comments will be accepted for 30 days from the notice’s publication date.