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Mar 16 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: Darkness during this #SunshineWeek celebration

In court filings, DOJ & FBI refuse to say -one way or another- in response to my/@business #FOIA lawsuit whether Trump had a "standing order" to instadeclassify docs that he removed from Oval Office🧵
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
“The existence or non-existence of the alleged ‘Standing Order’ would bear on whether records with apparent classification markings were in fact classified - a key fact in the investigation,” wrote Joseph Bender, one of the FBI’s top FOIA officials, in a declaration
In FOIA circles, that response is known as a Glomar, named for a CIA ship designed to recover a sunken Soviet submarine, whose existence the CIA refused to confirm or deny in the 1970s.
Bender said in the filing that if the FBI were to confirm or deny the existence of the standing order, then witnesses or other “persons of interest” could “alter their testimony; destroy, adulterate, or fabricate evidence; or refuse to cooperate with the government altogether.”
Bender also said the bureau consulted with special counsel Jack Smith before it responded to us

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More from @JasonLeopold

Jason Leopold Profile picture
Mar 2
Here's a crazy detail from Kim Kardashian's FBI intv

“Kardashian put the trash bag full of cash in her carry-on bag and boarded a Southwest Airlines flight back to Los Angeles.” She collected the other $100K, again in a trash bag, during a later trip to party w/ Low in Las Vegas
Kim Kardashian told the FBI in February 2019 how she’d met Low and partied with him. Low offered her a work by Basquiat, prompting her then husband, Kanye West, to ask for a Monet...
In an office on Sunset Boulevard in April 2018, an FBI special agent, an IRS investigator & 3 DOJ prosecutors interrogated DiCaprio about Jho Low. DiCaprio struggled to recall details

As an FBI agent presented DiCaprio with emails & docs, the actor’s memory became less clear.
Read 8 tweets
Jason Leopold Profile picture
Mar 2
NEW investigative stories related to the $4.5B 1MDB scandal & accused mastermind Jho Low w/lots of new info

We have LEONARDO DICAPRIO & KIM KARDASHIAN'S FBI intv summaries where they recount to agents the bags of cash, artwork & more they got from Low
1/
 tinyurl.com/ubn28mfn
NEW: A wild tale of celebrity & political intrigue based, in part, on undisclosed FBI & DOJ docs that reveals for 1st time how Pras Michél of the Fugees got caught up in the 1MDB scandal & also negotiated the release of an American citizen held in China
2/
 tinyurl.com/4ktxrcad
These stories include an incredible cast of characters, such as the accused mastermind behind the $4.5B 1MDB scandal Jho Low, casino magnate Steve Wynn, GOP operatives Elliott Broidy & Nickie Lum Davis, an ex-DOJ atty, celebrities & involves the Obama & Trump admins

3/
Read 16 tweets
Jason Leopold Profile picture
Feb 12
SCOOP: FAA released 321 pages of emails in response to my #FOIA request for docs on the Southwest Airlines meltdown at the end of Dec

Heavily redacted docs show top DOT atty planned trip to Southwest HQ, WH involvement & DOT/FAA comms plan bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
DOT General Counsel John Putnam detailed a proposed agenda for the trip in a Jan. 1 email to members of Buttigieg’s staff. He called for 2 days of meetings with various employee groups, including crew scheduling, system operations and customer relations workers

W/@Schlangenstein
In a Dec. 31 email, Maren Matal, a senior atty in Southwest’s govt affairs dept, told FAA the carrier was working “in good faith to process an unprecedented volume” of refunds. The email included 2 photos showing rooms at Southwest’s offices crowded w/employees working on Dec 31
Read 4 tweets
Jason Leopold Profile picture
Feb 11
NEW/#FOIAFriday: NARA released 74 pages of emails that show agency officials working with a personal lawyer for President Joe Biden to recover documents discovered at Biden’s think tank.

STORY bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
The emails indicate that Biden’s legal team was in close communication with Gary Stern, the National Archives’ general counsel, and other Archives officials about the records and fielded numerous questions about whether any were stored in other locations.
“In terms of taking custody to any papers, yes, we are prepared to facilitate whatever access you need to accomplish NARA taking custody of whatever materials it seems appropriate,” Biden's lawyer, Bob Bauer, wrote to Stern after the documents were found last November.
Read 5 tweets
Jason Leopold Profile picture
Jan 30
SCOOP: Trump filed #FOIA requests w/IRS on June 14 & 28, 2019 seeking a wide-range of docs about IRS's behind-the-scenes deliberations over releasing his taxes to Congress

He said he was willing to pay up to $30K

I FOIA'd Trump's FOIAs

w/@laurapdavison
bloomberg.com/news/articles/… ImageImageImageImage
Trump filed two FOIAs in June 2019, a few months after Democrats first sought the documents, and a few weeks before then-House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal sued the Treasury Department and the IRS for the tax returns. ImageImageImage
The FOIA requests were filed by William F. Nelson of Morgan Lewis, who was formerly chief counsel of IRS during the Reagan admin.
Read 9 tweets
Jason Leopold Profile picture
Jan 18
UPDATE: A rep for Morrissey -- his tour manager --reached out to me after @nypost @PageSix pubed a story based on this response to my #FOIA request I got from Secret Service, which said the agency could not find docs re: a 2017 intv with the singer about his Trump comments

1/
Morrissey's tour manager shared emails with me showing a Secret Service official from the Protective Intelligence Division reached out in November 2017 to arrange an intv with the singer after he said he'd kill Donald Trump "for the safety of humanity"

2/
 google.com/amp/s/conseque…
Morrissey's reps then worked to arrange the interview with Secret Service, which his tour manager says ultimately took place at 1 pm at the Crosby Hotel in NYC on Dec 9, 2017. Morrissey was interviewed by 2 Secret Service agents for 30 mins.

3/
Read 6 tweets

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