Thread by @weareoversight

Our efforts to expose misconduct and abuse of power have shed light on many issues.

This week, we’re highlighting what we’ve uncovered about key policy concerns—and what we’re still trying to find out.

americanoversight.org/open-questions…

First, the federal government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In September, we obtained a massive trove of documents from USPS that revealed a plan to mail masks to every American. The Washington Post reported the White House scrapped the plan.
americanoversight.org/document/usps-…

Documents we obtained also shed light on pressure from meat-packer Smithfield Foods to reopen processing plants despite rising coronavirus cases and local health department orders.
usatoday.com/story/news/202…

Frustrated emails we uncovered between the Illinois governor’s office and the White House were part of a larger pattern of state and local governments experiencing a lack of federal support during the pandemic.
americanoversight.org/weve-all-given…

Here’s what we’re still investigating:
-How are political concerns affecting CDC guidelines?
-How will the government manage a vaccine?
-Were coronavirus relief funds disbursed effectively?
americanoversight.org/areas_of_inves…

Next, here’s what we’ve uncovered and what we still want to know about immigration detention abuse and deaths in custody.
americanoversight.org/investigation/…

americanoversight.org/investigation/…

Through Freedom of Information Act requests, we received the full text of the DHS Inspector General investigation reports for two Guatemalan children, Felipe Gomez Alonzo and Jakelin Caal Maquin, who died in Border Patrol custody in December 2018.
documentcloud.org/documents/6839…

Outside reporting & statements made by relatives had already complicated the agency's narrative, but particularly in the case of Alonzo, the full text indicated that the initial summary released by the government was grossly oversimplified and incomplete.
buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfo…

We still want to know:
-Were detention facilities prepared for the COVID-19 outbreak and how has it affected detainees?
-Do public accounts of deaths in custody match internal records?

Next up, Ukraine and impeachment. Our efforts have shed light on the administration’s apparent attempt to pressure Ukraine to help the president politically.

For example, records we obtained revealed Department of Defense emails indicating that the decision to withhold aid from Ukraine was up to Trump: “Final decision rests with POTUS.”

americanoversight.org/final-decision…

We also received State Department records that show Rudy Giuliani’s assistant leveraged White House channels to connect with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — just as the smear campaign against U.S Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was heating up.
documentcloud.org/documents/6557…

We also obtained emails indicating meetings between former Energy Sec. Rick Perry & a former donor with Ukraine energy industry ties. Perry’s efforts to advance gas deals beneficial to his allies were tied up in the events that resulted in impeachment.
americanoversight.org/rick-perrys-en…

We’re still investigating:
-How much did Vice President Mike Pence know about Trump’s series of quid pro quos?
-What if any role did Attorney General Bill Barr play?
-Did the White House direct key agencies to obstruct the impeachment inquiry?
americanoversight.org/open-questions…

The integrity of DOJ has been rattled by the actions of Attorney General William Barr and the calls by President Trump for the department to investigate his perceived enemies and serve his personal interests over those of the American people.
americanoversight.org/open-questions…

Our investigations have already shown that Barr was deeply involved in the probe of the origins of the Russia investigation led by federal prosecutor John Durham.

Barr met with Durham 18 times in the seven months after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation ended.
americanoversight.org/documents-we-o…

Documents further revealed that Justice Department official Seth DuCharme — whom Barr appointed this summer to be the new U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York — was closely involved in Durham’s investigation.

Barr has also repeatedly commented on the progress of Durham’s politically charged investigation, a break from longstanding Justice Department policy, even as the department has withheld documents about the investigation from the public.
americanoversight.org/barr-continues…

We also uncovered new details about DOJ leadership’s unprecedented intervention in the criminal case of Trump associate Roger Stone in February. We obtained emails sent in the days before and after DOJ reversed its original sentencing memo.
americanoversight.org/new-details-ab…

Here’s what we still want to know:
-What role is DOJ playing in pushing false voter fraud narratives?
-How was “Operation Legend” designed and how is it being implemented?
-To what extent has agency leadership intervened in politically sensitive cases?

This week, we’re highlighting what we’ve uncovered about key policy concerns—and what we’re still trying to find out. We’ve been investigating industry influence and conflict of interests at agencies tasked with protecting natural resources, including the EPA and Interior Dept.

We obtained senior EPA officials’ calendars that show extensive contact with industry interests.
americanoversight.org/document/epa-c…

Other documents we requested show how former Koch Industries employee David Dunlap scuttled an EPA study into the effects of formaldehyde, even after he had recused himself from the project.

https://twitter.com/weareoversight/status/1270399487807234055

We also uncovered documents that appear to show Interior Secretary Bernhardt traveling to a conference involving former clients despite contrary internal ethics advice.
americanoversight.org/document/doi-e…

We still want to know:
-What’s the full extent of the Industry’s influence over DOI?
-What if any involvement did special interests have in the rollback of the Obama-era rule regulating methane emissions?
-What has BLM Acting Director William Pendley been up to?

We’re discussing what we’ve uncovered about key policy concerns—and what we’re still investigating. Next up: voting rights.

Access to the ballot and election integrity are critical, so we expanded into state-level oversight to shed more light on Americans’ voting rights.

We unearthed info about technical problems in Florida’s online voter registration system in 2018. Issues with that same system left it inaccessible to prospective voters on the state’s deadline to register for the general election this year.
americanoversight.org/new-documents-…

We’ve also received a number of records about Florida’s fraught fraught implementation of its felon enfranchisement initiative, revealing that the state was struggling to track outstanding fines
americanoversight.org/floridians-wit…

Documents we obtained from Gwinnett County, GA showed that when designing a procedure for detainee voting, a county official emphasized that it was the responsibility of the voter to initiate the voting process.

https://twitter.com/weareoversight/status/1313125282845519872

We’re still investigating other key voting rights issues, including:
-What costs do states incur to defend redistricting-related lawsuits?
-What is the true intent behind the various voter/ballot fraud task forces that have popped up over the past year?

The administration's family-separation program has created an ongoing humanitarian crisis that is still keeping hundreds of children from their parents.

We unearthed records that show a lack of planning and miscommunication inside DHS as the policy was carried out.

Even as then-Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen repeatedly denied the existence of a family separation policy, documents reveal that internally, officials were frequently discussing the subject.

https://twitter.com/weareoversight/status/1314583802287661056

We’ve also produced a timeline that details key documents we’ve obtained about the family separation policy planning process and deployment — highlighting how DHS’s office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was kept in the dark.
americanoversight.org/a-timeline-of-…

We still want to know:
-What directives and memos made it into the official family separation policy?
-To what extent has the Trump administration reintroduced family separation under the guise of Covid-19 response?
americanoversight.org/open-questions…