In ruling for @CREWcrew in a FOIA case seeking an OLC memo related to whether Trump could be indicted for obstructing the Mueller investigation, Judge Amy Berman Jackson says the (Trump) DOJ lied to her by saying it was predecisional when the decision had already been made. /1
When DOJ grudgingly showed her the memo, she saw that it was about actually strategy and arguments for Barr to quash the idea, which he had already decided to do - not predecisional as DOJ had told her in a sworn affidavit./2
ABJ says the evidence in the record contradicts what DOJ said, and shows bad faith. /3
She links DOJ misleading her about the memo to how Barr was disingenuous the public about the Mueller report, as Judge Reggie Walton has previous explained in depth. nytimes.com/2020/03/05/us/…
Notably, in a separate FOIA case brought by the NYT for WH Office of Management and Budget docs related to the freeze on aid to Ukraine that led to Trump's first impeachment, the same judge said DOJ lied to her about their contents, too. pacer-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/36/213164/0451…
Litigating FOIA cases -- where the govt says a doc falls under an exemption & so can be lawfully withheld -- relies upon DOJ & govt affiants being honest when describing its contents in sworn court statements. Here are two cases in which that system has demonstrably broken down.
Judges in FOIA cases should routinely demand to read the doc in question rather than deferring, sight unseen, to the government's claims about its contents when arguing that something is exempt and a case should be dismissed.
The sanction for discovering govt officials lied to the court should be more than ordering release of the doc. Limiting the penalty to release creates an incentive to lie about embarrassing docs: at worst, they will come out after a long delay that depleted their relevance. /end
P.S. Here's the ruling in the @CREWcrew case. citizensforethics.org/wp-content/upl…
P.P.S. In that same ruling in our FOIA case for the OMB/Ukraine/impeachment documents, Judge Amy Berman Jackson pointed out a third recent such discovery, in a February ruling by her colleague on the same district court for DC, Judge James E. Boasberg
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