Posted on 03/31/2011 9:49:50 PM PDT by Nachum
New emails and testimony from Department of Homeland Security FOIA officer Catherine Papoi reveal that a former Obama campaign staffer repeatedly asked Papoi and her team to redact portions of politically sensitive documents, as well as portions of documents that were already publicly available.
Papoi, who came under fire at DHS for complaining that sensitive FOIA requests were being vetted by political employees, testified on March 3 that Willard Clint Carte, a DHS attorney with the title of confidential assistant, attempted to block a FOIA request for DHS Secretary Janet Napolitanos calendar in which Napolitanos secretary had referred to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Senator Clinton. According to Papois testimony, Carte asked that Clintons title be changed on the calendar in order to spare the department embarrassment.
The front office wanted that changed before the response went out the door and we were pushing back saying that once you cast your net and retrieve a record, you cant alter a record because of mere embarrassment, Papoi said in her testimony.
According to Papoi, FOIA officers are told they can only cast their net one time. Once you have retrieved the records, they lose
the living nature where they are evolving, and the statute requires that you retrieve the records and then process them, she testified. DOJ has also opined that you dont cast your net twice, you cast once. You retrieve the records and you process them. So [the front office, where Carte worked] also suggested making the changes and then recasting our net, and it was explained that also was unacceptable.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
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Infiltration is what communists do best. After infiltration, it is corruption.
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Papoi claims that she was demoted within DHS for raising concerns about the FOIA process.
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