There is a draft press release for a plan for “U.S. Postal Service to Deliver Face Coverings to Every American Household.” This release suggests this plan made it pretty far off the ground but never came to fruition.
The documents include many memos on potential loans to USPS from Treasury, including conditions that would be placed on CARES Act funding and Treasury’s ability to impose such conditions.
The documents show that in an April 9 meeting, Amazon executives “stated their concerns” about USPS finances and questioned the Postal Service’s “viability to them as a continued shipping partner.”
The documents also shed light on Trump lawyer Stephan Passantino’s involvement with USPS. The Trump Org hired Passantino last year to help it handle subpoenas from the House. Trump’s reelection campaign has paid him $60,000 since April for legal consulting.
Passantino appears to have given USPS legal advice on Covid-19 and vote-by-mail issues. Passantino worked with Rick Hohlt—a longtime Republican lobbyist.
As the Post writes, “The documents, which mostly span March and April, depict an agency in distress, as its deteriorating finances collided with a public-health emergency and a looming election that would be heavily reliant on absentee ballots.”
“I see President Trump’s fingerprints all over,” said our @AREvers. “It’s clear from the president’s public comments, and the actions of his administration, he has a major agenda for the post office — and we see a lot of it in black and white here.”
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It’s #SunshineWeek, a week that celebrates & promotes access to information and open government nationwide.
Today, we’re highlighting the power of #FOIA with a thread about its past, present, and future.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed FOIA into law on July 4, 1966. Records show LBJ personally removed strong language supporting open government from the press statement. He only agreed to sign it after DOJ suggested he include a signing statement. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/…
In his signing statement, LBJ praised the importance of openness for democracy and said the legislation affirmed American principles. But he also wrote that he felt some documents shouldn’t be available to the public. nsarchive2.gwu.edu//nsa/foia/FOIA…
Yesterday, D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments on presidential immunity in Trump’s election interference case.
Judges questioned both sides about our amicus brief arguing the D.C. Circuit lacks jurisdiction to hear Trump’s appeal on his immunity claims. Here’s what that’s about:
In Trump’s federal election interference case, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that Trump is not entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution. Trump appealed the ruling, hoping to delay the trial set for March.
Late last month, we filed an amicus brief that argues that the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit lacks jurisdiction to hear Trump’s immunity appeal until after he is tried by a jury, convicted, and sentenced. americanoversight.org/american-overs…
As we approach the anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, former President Trump faces criminal charges for attempting to subvert the election. An amicus brief we filed in this case could thwart his effort to delay his trial until after this year’s election. latimes.com/opinion/story/…
In the election interference case, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that Trump is not entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution. Trump appealed that ruling, hoping to delay the trial set for March.
Last week, we filed an amicus brief arguing that the D.C. Circuit lacks jurisdiction to hear Trump’s appeal on his immunity claims until after he is tried by a jury, convicted, and sentenced. americanoversight.org/american-overs…
For more than a year, we’ve been investigating how the election denial movement led several states to leave ERIC, a nonpartisan organization that helps maintain up-to-date voting lists.
The same people who tried to overturn the 2020 election worked behind the scenes to influence the ERIC exodus by promoting false claims and conspiracy theories — priming states for post-election chaos that could be used to deny election results in 2024. americanoversight.org/the-right-wing…
The records we obtained also show that states have scrambled to find viable replacements — none of which provide ERIC’s security, reliability, or effectiveness.
Jared Kushner and Steve Mnuchin secured billions in investments from Middle East nations after leaving the Trump administration. We obtained travel records related to their trips to Persian Gulf states in the final weeks of the admin. #FoiaFriday
Documents released through our ongoing lawsuit against the Treasury Department and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation include flight itineraries, travel authorizations, and expense records from three separate trips.
In 2020, Kushner launched the Abraham Fund, a U.S.-sponsored program purportedly intended to raise $3 billion for projects in the Middle East.
In the final weeks of the administration, Kushner and Mnuchin met with Gulf nation officials, ostensibly to discuss the fund.
The effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election was built on a decades-long campaign by conservative activists and lawmakers. Here’s a look at this activism prior to the 2020 election and how the “voter fraud” narrative was built. #FoiaFriday
In the last two decades, a robust “election integrity” movement has grown out of a conservative backlash. Activists have long used overblown claims about fraud to justify voting restrictions aimed at ensuring a conservative electorate.
In the weeks before the 2016 presidential election, as Donald Trump’s prospects were looking dim, he claimed without evidence that the election was “absolutely being rigged” for Hillary Clinton and that “large scale voter fraud” was taking place.