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Feb 24 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is attempting to transform New College — a small, progressive public college — to be more conservative. We’re using public records requests to investigate. THREAD
#FoiaFriday Image
In January, DeSantis removed six of New College’s 13 trustees and replaced them with conservative allies. The new board then replaced the college’s president with Richard Corcoran, DeSantis’ former education commissioner.
nytimes.com/2023/02/14/us/…
Records we previously obtained shed light on Corcoran’s time in DeSantis’ administration. In April 2021, DeSantis’ chief of staff emailed his external affairs director what appears to be an agenda. On the list: “Direct Corcoran on Critical Race Theory.”
americanoversight.org/document/flori… Image
We submitted public records requests for the communications of the new board appointees, one of whom is Chris Rufo — a conservative activist who helped shape the right’s attacks on critical race theory.
americanoversight.org/document/recor…
We also asked for any meeting records and all planning documents related to faculty tenure or employee contracts.

Learn more about records we’ve requested related to DeSantis’ education policies here:
americanoversight.org/documents?docu…

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More from @weareoversight

American Oversight Profile picture
Feb 23
NEW: The Travis County District Court denied Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s and Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to dismiss a public records lawsuit brought by American Oversight.
americanoversight.org/judge-rejects-…
In June 2022, we sued Abbott’s and Paxton’s offices for failing to release several sets of records, including email communications with gun industry lobbyists following the Uvalde shooting, as well as any emails sent by Paxton around the Jan. 6 insurrection.
In attempting to dismiss our lawsuit, Abbott and Paxton took a position that would have eviscerated the public’s ability to enforce the state’s Public Information Act and limited public oversight of Texas government.
americanoversight.org/abbott-and-pax…
Read 5 tweets
American Oversight Profile picture
Feb 21
Last year, we sued DHS and DOJ for top Trump administration officials’ texts with prominent election deniers.

Now, DHS has told us that it cannot search for texts because of the agency’s prior practice of wiping government phones of departing personnel.
americanoversight.org/dhs-and-cybers…
Among the records we requested were communications between top Trump administration DHS officials and a broad range of activists and politicians who supported the effort to overturn the 2020 election.
It appears that those records may be gone. The Jan. 6 investigation led to revelations last summer that Secret Service texts and data from the days around the attack had been deleted, as had those of top Trump admin. DHS officials.
Read 9 tweets
American Oversight Profile picture
Feb 17
For years, we’ve been investigating the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance initiative, the immigration policy that formalized the separation of children from families.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the important records we’ve uncovered. #FoiaFriday
This week, the @washingtonpost published an analysis of the ongoing effects of this policy. Nearly 1,000 children remain separated and hundreds have not even begun the process of reunification.
washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/…
Through public records requests and litigation, we’ve obtained records of misleading responses from the Department of Homeland Security to external inquiries about the policy.
Read 10 tweets
American Oversight Profile picture
Feb 16
In 2021, a wealth fund chaired by the Saudi crown prince gave Jared Kushner’s company $2 billion.

We’re suing Treasury for records that could shed light on if & how Kushner used his role in the federal government to advance his private business interests.
nytimes.com/2022/05/22/bus…
In 2020, Kushner launched the Abraham Fund, a U.S.-sponsored program purportedly intended to raise $3 billion for projects in the Middle East. In the final weeks of the Trump admin., Kushner and Treasury Sec. Mnuchin met with Saudi officials, ostensibly to discuss the fund.
The Abraham Fund reportedly ceased to exist when Trump left office. Within six months of their departure from Washington, Kushner and Mnuchin had received billion-dollar investments from a fund led by the Saudi crown prince.
Read 5 tweets
American Oversight Profile picture
Feb 16
NEW: We obtained communications that county commissioners in Pennsylvania’s Butler County had with “election integrity” groups, including one organization that has leaned on false claims of widespread fraud to push for vote recounts throughout the state.
americanoversight.org/in-the-documen…
In August 2022, the Butler County Board of Commissioners authorized a hand recount of 2020 election ballots.
bradfordera.com/news/butler-co…
The Pennsylvania Department of State criticized the recount as “continued efforts to question the results and ultimately the will of Pennsylvania voters” that “contribute to sowing distrust in our system."
patch.com/pennsylvania/p…
Read 6 tweets
American Oversight Profile picture
Feb 15
NEW: Represented by @DemocracyFwd, we’re challenging an Aug. 2022 judgment allowing government agencies to withhold certain communications with Congress by using a FOIA exemption typically reserved for agency employees.
americanoversight.org/american-overs…
Our appeal was filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The communications we’re seeking include messages exchanged between Trump admin. officials in HHS & OMB & members of Congress or their staff in early 2017 regarding efforts to repeal or weaken the Affordable Care Act.
After we sued for the records in 2017, the agencies released records but withheld or applied heavy redactions to all substantive exchanges with Congress.

Last year, a federal judge ruled that the agencies could continue withholding the communications under the exemption.
Read 4 tweets

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