This month, the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection will hold eight hearings to shed more light on the violent attack.
We’ve also been investigating. Here’s some of what we uncovered. #FoiaFriday
Last November, the @washingtonpost published an exhaustively reported story showing the attack "was neither a spontaneous act nor an isolated event.” The Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting cited records we’d obtained. washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/05/09/…
The Post’s report cited Secret Service records we obtained. On the morning of Jan. 6, a Secret Service alert said some people arriving at the “Save America” rally were “wearing ballistic helmets, body armor and carrying radio equipment and military-grade backpacks.”
The Secret Service records we obtained show that at 11:35 a.m., just minutes before Donald Trump left the rally at the White House, D.C. police responded to reports of a man with a rifle nearby.
But even in the aftermath of the Jan 6. insurrection attack, Trump and his supporters have continued to try to cast doubt on the 2020 election, including through a number of bogus election investigations in various states.
The Post also cited records we obtained about the Arizona Senate’s sham election “audit.” We uncovered an email Karen Fann sent to a constituent who complained that Fann wouldn’t say that the “audit” would result in the election’s decertification.
“Our only goal is to get this audit finished before they try to shut us down again,” Fann said. “Sometimes honey does better than vinegar when you want to get something done. The vinegar will come at the end.”
We’ve filed multiple lawsuits to shed light on the deadly Jan. 6 attacks. Learn more about our investigation here: americanoversight.org/investigation/…
On Oct. 1, 2021 — the same day Michael Gableman issued subpoenas for election materials in Wisconsin — Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan sent OAN host Christina Bobb copies of Arizona “audit” subpoenas. americanoversight.org/cyber-ninjas-e…
“In case this helps you with anything in [Wisconsin] coming up.” His email also includes messaging language and details about the ballot review that he wrote in response to a reporter’s article.
While it’s unclear what Logan intended with his email, it appears to have been sent shortly after Gableman, the lawyer leading Wisconsin’s election investigation, issued his initial subpoenas to elections officials. Gableman sent out another round of subpoenas a few days later.
In Jan., Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin established a tip line inviting parents to report when their children were being taught supposedly “divisive” subjects at school, such as historical inequality. We’ve filed public records requests to investigate. americanoversight.org/investigation/…
Youngkin’s initiative parallels wider efforts by right-wing leaders across the country to build support among their base by vilifying the discussion of such topics in the classroom, in what amounts to a political attack on public education.
The governor’s office promoted the tip line’s email address as a vehicle to enforce Youngkin’s first executive order to “end the use of inherently divisive concepts, including Critical Race Theory” in K-12 schools.
Marco Rajkovich, a commissioner on the federal mine safety agency, used a “Network” of advisers that appears to have included a coal executive when considering personnel issues, reports @politico.
Rajkovich chaired the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission during the Trump administration. He called his group of at least 70 advisers the “Network” and kept the group’s existence and members’ identities private.
The commission’s current chair, Arthur Traynor, learned of the “Network” and expressed concern that the group appeared to include top executives of coal and mining companies. The commission is meant to regulate those companies, not cater to their interests.
NEW: We just obtained another set of documents that had previously been held by Arizona “audit” contractor Cyber Ninjas. The documents show further evidence of links to partisan election reviews in other states. americanoversight.org/document/arizo…
On 10/1/21 — the same day Michael Gableman issued subpoenas for election materials in Wisconsin — Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan sent OAN reporter Christina Bobb copies of Arizona “audit” subpoenas, writing: “In case this helps you with anything in [Wisconsin] coming up.”
It is unclear exactly what Logan intended. The email appears to have been sent just after Gableman’s initial subpoenas were issued. Gableman issued another round of subpoenas a few days later. jsonline.com/story/news/pol…
NEW: As of April 2022 — more than 9 months after Michael Gableman was hired to conduct Wisconsin’s partisan election review — the “office to-do list” for the investigation included “research best election practices” and “research machines,” records we obtained show.
It’s concerning that Gableman’s Office of Special Counsel apparently still had not conducted this basic research a month after he submitted his second interim report and testified to the Wisconsin Assembly about it.
In October, Gableman himself admitted that he did not know how elections worked after he was hired to conduct the election inquiry. Seemingly, his office has not made much progress.
NEW: We sued the National Archives and Records Administration for failing to release records related to the agency’s January 2022 repossession of 15 boxes of items from former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. americanoversight.org/american-overs…
In February 2022, the @washingtonpost reported that NARA officials retrieved 15 boxes of materials from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. Later reporting revealed that some of the documents were marked as classified and top secret. washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…
Trump previously dodged his obligations to preserve records. In January 2022, the Post reported that some of the records that NARA turned over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection had been “ripped up and then taped back together.”