A bipartisan group of senators want to create an independent commission to assess the nation’s response to Covid-19 and future pandemic preparedness. This would go a long way toward understanding what went wrong, why, and how to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
"Months of cascading failures starting in the earliest days of the pandemic have led to untold numbers of preventable deaths,” said our @AREvers.
“This catastrophe, like 9/11 before it, will require a thorough investigation to hold those responsible accountable, and to make sure that we are prepared before the next pandemic hits.”
The vital work of understanding exactly what went wrong has already begun. We’ve been investigating the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic since early 2020.
We created an oversight tracker that monitors the ongoing investigations into the Covid-19 pandemic response, and an online library of primary source documents, hearing transcripts, and reports from congressional committees and government watchdogs. americanoversight.org/areas_of_inves…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
New: We’re challenging excessive redactions of USPS chief DeJoy’s calendar.
USPS’s shifting arguments for hiding DeJoy’s calendars from FOIA requests threaten to create blanket exemptions for practically any USPS records. americanoversight.org/american-overs…
Today, we submitted a brief challenging an argument from USPS that was used to justify the near-complete redaction of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s calendars. We’ve been fighting for these records for months, but USPS continues to obscure the documents.
In July 2020, we FOIA’d DeJoy’s calendars to investigate the undermining of USPS.
But in August, USPS rejected our FOIA, saying the “calendar maintained on a USPS computer” was for DeJoy's personal use and the entries ”are not agency records subject to the FOIA.”
New: We obtained new records of Stephen Miller’s communications from DOJ.
In one email, former AG Sessions praised Miller for a speech Donald Trump delivered to the United Nations that “would never have been said by Hillary.” americanoversight.org/document/doj-r…
Miller responded, “Thank you! I believe it was a historic moment.”
The records also show internal frustration with critical press coverage of the Trump administration’s family-separation policy. An official from the Office of Public Affairs considered a June 2018 Politico article a “hit piece on Sec. Nielsen and the zero tolerance policy.”
In June 2020, Postmaster General DeJoy hired four staffers with ties to his businesses.
New records show one of those staffers was informed his resume would be released in response to a FOIA before it was disclosed — in heavily redacted form. #FOIAFriday
On August 17, 2020, we sent a FOIA request to USPS for the resumes and SF-50s of employees who had been working in DeJoy’s office since June 15, 2020. americanoversight.org/document/foia-…
On September 8, a USPS HR manager emailed Patrick Fiorentino to let him know USPS received the FOIA request and that his resume would be provided in response. americanoversight.org/document/usps-…
New: In response to our #FOIA for communications between former AG Barr’s office & US Attorney John Durham, we obtained a voicemail left by Durham for Seth DuCharme.
Like many records linked to the Durham investigation, the voicemail is heavily redacted.
Durham had been appointed by Barr to investigate the origins of the government’s own investigation into former President Trump’s ties to Russia — and his inquiry was repeatedly touted by Trump’s allies as an effort to counter the narrative of the Russia investigation.
Barr was unusually involved in Durham’s investigation — meeting with him 18 times in the 7 months after the Mueller investigation ended— undermining the principle that federal prosecutors are supposed to be free from political interference.
We continue to receive records related to the deaths of people in the custody of immigration authorities during the previous administration.
CBP documents show some officials were hesitant to respond to a request for information from Congress regarding deaths in custody.
According to the records, the CBP Office of Congressional Affairs received a request for information about deaths in custody in 2018. An employee shared a report with the requested information and asked for “approval to release to OCA personnel.” americanoversight.org/document/cbp-d…
An individual whose name is redacted wrote, “The info below is accurate, but I would recommend 4th floor visibility and concurrence on this request prior to releasing to” the Office of Congressional Affairs.
In a March 2020 email to Alex Azar, former DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen recommended a corporation specializing in rapid DNA technology that DHS had used to conduct DNA testing at the border. americanoversight.org/in-march-2020-…
In May 2019, just a month after Nielsen resigned as secretary, DHS began a pilot program to conduct DNA testing at the border using that company’s technology. cnn.com/2019/04/30/pol…
The program had the stated goal of determining the veracity of migrants’ claimed family relationships, which Nielsen and other Trump administration officials had claimed were often fake.