New: USPS has agreed to release Postmaster General DeJoy’s calendars in response to our #FOIA lawsuit.
USPS previously refused to do so & had claimed the calendar, which is kept on a government computer & accessed by agency staff, is a personal record not subject to FOIA.
In September, we sued the #USPS for DeJoy’s calendar.
We haven’t been the only ones trying to find out how Postmaster General DeJoy has been spending his time. USPS also refused to produce them to Congress in response to @AOC’s request, and Congress ultimately issued a subpoena: tinyurl.com/y2ramrlr
This week, OSC opened a case file after we called for an investigation into whether Mike Pompeo’s rush to release Hillary Clinton’s emails violates the Hatch Act.
So, for #FOIAFriday we’re reviewing why the Hatch Act matters.
The Hatch Act prohibits partisan election work while on official duty. But it isn’t just about election fairness & preventing a candidate from deploying power for their own advantage; it also ensures that public service & governance come before political ambitions.
Employees across the government take great pains to obey the Hatch Act. Employees of federal agencies are suspended or face serious consequences for violations. In June, for example, two federal workers were suspended without pay for Hatch Act violations.
A new report says the parents of 545 children separated at the border can’t be found.
We obtained a January 2018 memo from DHS highlighting problems with the early “pilot” family-separation program.
One “negative impact” listed: “New populations of U.S. orphans.”
The memo was based on DHS Civil Rights/Civil Liberties office’s investigation of 27 of the 950 “family separation matters” the office had received since 2016.
It cited problems with “inconsistent, inaccurate, or no record-keeping for all arriving family members” in DHS systems;
a “lack of communication” between DHS and HHS, which is charged with caring for unaccompanied minors, leading to “family fragmentation”; and “problematic outcomes” such as “nursing mothers and infants separated.” documentcloud.org/documents/6257…
Around 6:45 PM on May 15, 2020—a few hours before @Politico first reported on Linick’s firing—James Bacon, an aide to Trump’s controversial director of presidential personnel, responded to an email about “IG” from Nilda Pedrosa, then the White House liaison to State.
Later that night, Pedrosa forwarded the email to two of Pompeo’s top aides: Brian Bulatao and Ulrich Brechbuhl. Brechbuhl also re-forwarded some redacted content on the IG on both Friday night and Saturday.
We obtained nearly 400 pages of Mike Pompeo’s personal emails from his time as CIA director.
These records reveal a problematic amount of official business conducted over private email and show Pompeo fielding questionable investigation requests. americanoversight.org/pompeos-use-of…
The emails also include multiple indications of Mike Pompeo’s wife Susan Pompeo’s engagement with CIA officials during his tenure as director, adding to public reporting of her extensive and potentially inappropriate level of involvement at both the CIA & State.
Throughout his time as director, Pompeo appears to have regularly received official schedules at his personal email account — an unusual arrangement for high-level government officials, who generally have access to government systems at their home offices and on work phones.
We obtained documents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection that add further detail to the deaths of two people detained at the border: Jakelin Caal Maquin and Felipe Gómez Alonzo.
Customs and Border Protection produced reports and documentation relevant to deaths in DHS custody that were used as briefing materials in preparation for the Mar. 6, 2019 House Homeland Security Committee hearing, "The Way Forward on Border Security."
These materials Included Incident Reports completed by the CBP Office of Professional Responsibility in response to the deaths of Jakelin Caal Maquin & Felipe Gomez Alonzo.
After the Oct. 6 tweets, Buzzfeed News filed 3 emergency motions to release the Russia-related documents it had FOIA’d. The federal judge presiding over the cases ordered DOJ to get a declaration from Trump clarifying his intent. buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonl…
This is the latest instance of the president’s tweets sowing confusion or controversy. Such posts are often depicted as “rogue” statements. DOJ has previously argued that both that his tweets are presidential actions and that they are not. reuters.com/article/legal-…