This week marks American Oversight’s fifth anniversary.

Since opening, we’ve used public records requests and litigation to uncover and publish over a million pages of records.

For our fifth anniversary, here are five times our work led to greater accountability.
1. Exposing the Trump Administration’s Response to Racial Justice Protests

As Americans took to the streets in June 2020 to protest the police killings of Black people, the federal law enforcement response in many cities took a sharply authoritarian turn.
In Washington, DC, the protest response included deploying low-flying helicopters and armored vehicles.

We submitted scores of public records requests to learn more about the federal government’s response to the protests.
Among other records we obtained as part of this investigation, we learned that the Secret Service requested a Blackhawk helicopter with "fast rope" commandos to help reinforce the White House amid protests against police violence in June 2020. washingtonpost.com/politics/secre…
2. USPS Records Reveal a Scrapped Pandemic Plan

In Sept. 2020, we obtained a trove of documents via #FOIA that included a draft press release about a plan to send masks to every American household early in the pandemic.
americanoversight.org/document/usps-…
Additional reporting by the Washington Post revealed the Trump White House had scrapped the plan.
washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020…
3. Creating a Better Public Records Policy for All in Georgia

Last year, we reached a landmark settlement with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office regarding its open records policy.
ajc.com/politics/georg…
In Oct. 2020, we sued Georgia’s Office of the Secretary of State for repeatedly stonewalling our records requests. After more than a year of litigation, we reached a settlement. The office agreed to steps to streamline the process of requesting and obtaining records.
The settlement will enhance public access to government records, requiring the secretary’s office to improve training for staff and to provide requesters with better information about costs, timeline estimates, and the status of their requests.
americanoversight.org/american-overs…
Raffensperger’s office also agreed to provide training, guidance, and supervision to staff to ensure the office complies with its statutory obligations.

Here are the full terms of the settlement:
americanoversight.org/american-overs…
4. Fake Electoral Certificates

We obtained the fake "electoral certificates" submitted to Congress by Trump supporters in seven states as part of the failed attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
americanoversight.org/fake-electoral…
These fraudulent documents are a critical piece of the coordinated, multi-state effort to reverse the 2020 election and subvert the will of American voters.
DOJ confirmed it is looking into the fake certificates and experts have said it could pursue criminal charges.

Congress has also gotten involved. The January 6 Select Committee issued subpoenas to 20 Trump supporters who signed the bogus slates of electors.
5. The Arizona “Audit” and Trump’s Team

We’ve been investigating Arizona’s bogus review and the “Big Lie” that’s fueling it. Our investigation has uncovered more than 80,000 pages of records that highlight the partisanship in the “audit.”
The records include documents indicating that Senate President Karen Fann had been in touch with both former President Trump and Rudy Giuliani. We obtained a Nov. 28, 2020, email in which Fann said, “I have been in contact with the Trump legal team many times this week.”
In a Dec. 2, 2020, email, Fann said that she met with Giuliani “6 times over the past two weeks.” She also stated that she and Arizona Speaker of the House Russell Bowers met with Giuliani and the Trump legal team on December 1.
These are just a few of the more than one million pages of records we’ve uncovered through public records requests and litigation during the past five years. Explore our investigations and documents library at our website: americanoversight.org.

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More from @weareoversight

Mar 17
This week marks American Oversight’s five-year anniversary.

For five years, we’ve fought to restore integrity, promote transparency, defend democracy, and fight for a government accountable to us.

Here’s what we’ve investigated and uncovered in the last half-decade.
1. Corruption and Abuse of Power: The Trump administration brought unprecedented corruption, misconduct, and abuse of office to all levels of the federal government — from the Ukraine scandal to family separation to its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Through public records requests and litigation, we worked to uncover the facts.

In early 2017, we obtained records proving that former Attorney General Jeff Sessions lied about his Russian contacts on his security clearance application.
americanoversight.org/after-american…
Read 25 tweets
Mar 17
NEW: We filed a brief in support of our previous motion for a Wisconsin court to find the Assembly, Speaker Vos, and the Assembly clerk in contempt for failing to comply with a previous order to produce records related to Wisconsin’s election review.
americanoversight.org/american-overs…
The motion also asks for Vos to be fined $2,000 per day until all documents responsive to our requests are released.

At issue are records of the contractors conducting the election review from before the creation of the Office of Special Counsel at the end of August 2021.
Those contractors include Michael Gableman, the attorney who was hired to conduct the investigation and who is now acting as special counsel.
Read 6 tweets
Mar 16
We’ve been investigating the Wisconsin Assembly’s partisan election review.

Last week, there were major developments in our litigation and we uncovered more than 700 pages of records. Here’s what you should know. THREAD. Image
Our lawsuit forced the release of more than 700 pages of public records from the Wisconsin election investigation — revealing that the probe has done little actual investigating, despite the extensive efforts of the Wisconsin Assembly to shield those documents from the public. 2/
As the judge put it when ordering the records to be released, they amount to “much to-do about nothing.” Our review of the documents found that they do not support the conclusions put forward by attorney Michael Gableman in the problematic report he recently released. 3/
Read 10 tweets
Mar 15
We uncovered records that showed Michael Gableman, the attorney leading Wisconsin’s election review, billed taxpayers for his trips to the Arizona “audit” and Mike Lindell’s “cyber symposium.”

Now, the assembly says it will subtract money from future payments to Gableman.
Gableman traveled to the Arizona “audit” and to election conspiracy promoter Mike Lindell's "cyber symposium" last summer.

Records we obtained show taxpayers paid for the trips, even though Speaker Vos said they wouldn’t.
jsonline.com/story/news/pol…
Records we uncovered in November show that taxpayers also footed the bill for Gableman’s hotels during his August trip to South Dakota to attend a “cyber symposium” hosted by My Pillow CEO and prominent election denier Mike Lindell.
americanoversight.org/expense-record…
Read 7 tweets
Mar 14
Today is the first day of #SunshineWeek, a week that celebrates and promotes access to information and open government nationwide.

To kick things off, we want to explain exactly what the Freedom of Information Act is and why it is such a powerful transparency tool. #FOIA Image
The Freedom of Information Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966. FOIA is a law that gives anyone the right to request records from agencies in the executive branch.
Yes, anyone can file a FOIA request! Many journalists, scholars, watchdog organizations, and more use FOIA requests to research what goes on behind the scenes in government. You can request records such as emails, text messages, paper documents, videos, and more.
Read 18 tweets
Mar 14
It’s #SunshineWeek! Throughout the week, we will talk about #FOIA and transparency.

We also want to highlight what other transparency organizations are doing this week. Here’s a few events we’re excited about.
Today, @NARA will host a conversation about the importance of open government between Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero and Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden.
Tuesday at 1 PM ET, @POGOwatchdog is hosting a #SunshineWeek Twitter Spaces discussion about #FOIA and whistleblowers. We’ll be joining moderator @Melissa_Wasser for a great conversation.
Read 5 tweets

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