Thread by @alisonannyoung

Troubling example of how federal agencies -- regularly + increasingly with each administration -- redact information from documents that the public has every right to see. How legit are other redactions in Fauci's emails? ronjohnson.senate.gov/services/files… #FOIA #FOIAFriday h/t @thackerpd

Last month I reported on a secretive 2/1/20 meeting that Dr. Fauci helped organize among elite, international scientists to discuss early concerns the Covid-19 virus might have been engineered in a lab. Those emails were also heavily redacted.
usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

Here's what some of those emails about the meeting look like. They were part of a wideranging trove of emails obtained by @BuzzFeedNews -- only because they SUED to force compliance with #FOIA. And yet most information still withheld. buzzfeednews.com/article/natali…

To be sure, the Freedom of Informatin Act allows agencies to withhold certain types of information for specific reasons. A great resource for understanding and using the FOIA is found here: foia.wiki/wiki/Main_Page

But too often, agencies stretch the bounds of these exemptions to withhold information that is embarassing to the government. The deliberative process privilege in Exemption 5 is "one of the most abused" exemptions. rcfp.org/foia-deliberat… and rcfp.org/dc-circuit-for…