Free Republic

Only days before the presidential election, the FBI released a 17-year-old archive of documents from a long-closed investigation into Bill Clinton's presidential pardon of a fugitive financier, prompting questions from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign about its timing. The release comes amid the bureau's controversially timed review of emails from a Hillary Clinton aide. The 129 pages of heavily censored material were published Monday on the FBI's Freedom of Information Act webpage and noted by one of the bureau's Twitter accounts Tuesday. Earlier in October, the FBI unit published historical files as far back as 1966 about Donald Trump's father, Fred...

The clerk of Lincoln Township, Michigan — a small township near the tip of the Thumb — publicly criticized a citizen for filing a Freedom of Information Act request. The Huron Daily Tribune reports: Clerk Irvin Kanaski also called upon township residents at Monday night’s meeting to chide Arlene Schipinski for seeking the information surrounding a $1,100 private donation to the township’s legal fund. Kanaski said Schipinski’s requests cost the township $2,300 to $2,500 in legal fees, not counting the time he and Treasurer Patricia Weber put into handling the request. “This cost is more than double that of the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A backup data device containing Hillary Clinton’s emails exists in the FBI’s possession. The FBI is now challenged to produce the long forgotten device. The FBI received a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request “VIA CERTIFIED MAIL” Wednesday from Judicial Watch. The existence of this device is generating behind-the-scenes frenzy in the Beltway as the FBI continues to get hammered over its investigation of the Clinton email scandal. FBI director James Comey conducted an investigation based on small partial email discoveries here and there. The fact that the FBI did not look at all of her...

Judicial Watch today released received responses under oath from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton concerning her email practices. Judicial Watch submitted twenty-five questions on August 30 to Clinton as ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan. The new Clinton responses in the Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit before Judge Sullivan was first filed in September 2013 seeking records about the controversial employment status of Huma Abedin, former deputy chief of staff to Clinton. The lawsuit was reopened because of revelations about the clintonemail.com system (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-01363)). Judicial...

Although Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton may mot be happy with WikiLeaks’ release of emails coming from her and her staff, that doesn’t mean that she isn’t above doing the same thing herself. But unlike Julian Assange‘s group, she just doesn’t want her name associated with it. Newly-released Clinton emails confirm that the former secretary of state approved a plan in early 2015, shortly after her own email scandal broke, to fight fire with fire by publishing Republican lawmakers’ rejections of Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] requests for their own private emails. Although State Department emails are subject to FOIA...

Judicial Watch Targeted by Obama Administration Federal Contractor Tells Local Official to Keep Syria Refugee Plans Secret Judicial Watch Targeted by Obama Administration Three years ago we reported on videos produced by the Government Services Administration (GSA) that show senior GSA officials and staff participating in costumed playacting and parodies. Here’s a flavor: The Rocky Jog – With the Rocky movie theme blaring in the background, senior GSA officials lead employees on an extended jog through the corridors of the GSA’s New York office and the streets of Manhattan. The jog is initiated by Ben Kochanski, deputy regional commissioner,...

According to a report by the inspector general of the General Services Administration, Obama administration political operatives continuously slow walked open records requests and punished the legal group Judicial Watch for their activism. Judicial Watch has several FOIA lawsuits against the administration and in every case, the administration sought to delay complying with the requests, even going so far as to overcharge the group for fees related to the searches.

‘[O]ne email exchange occurring shortly before Secretary Clinton joined the Department [of State] that demonstrated a reluctance to communicate the requirement [of printing and filing email records] to incoming staff.’ – Office of Inspector General Report (Washington DC)—Judicial Watch announced today that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to obtain records regarding an email exchange that took place before former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took office citing a “reluctance to communicate the requirement [of printing and filing email records] to incoming staff.” The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District...

The incomplete records of the Hillary Clinton email investigation released by the FBI raise questions about the conduct not only of Clinton but of her top aides and the staffers working under their direction. Perhaps the most serious is whether the Clinton team destroyed evidence which they were under legal order to save and produce to congressional investigators. Out of a massive investigation, the FBI has released just two documents: a heavily-redacted version of its summary report and a writeup — the so-called 302 — from agents' July 2 interview with Clinton. The rest, including reports from interviews with other...

After the Flint water crisis came to light, multiple state employees in the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality were reassigned out of the department, which oversees water quality. We were interested in finding out more: Where were these employees reassigned and were they being punished for malpractice? So on March 30, the Mackinac Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the department to find out. And then we waited. And then we waited some more. And then we waited more still. People and the press have a right to public information, even if it’s inconvenient to a government...

Perhaps the most interesting development in this most interesting of presidential election seasons has been the convergence of the power of the Freedom of Information Act with the power of the Internet. The impact of these conjoined forces may well determine the political fate of one of our presidential candidates. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was signed into law, fittingly, on July 4, 1966. This piece of legislation, which has been amended and strengthened numerous times since its inception, is a testament to that unique "American exceptionalism" of which Barack Obama was so famously dismissive at a NATO summit...

Just announced - State Dept to turn over Clinton email records to JW.

Entire Disc of Records Uncovered by FBI Were Not Provided to State by Clinton in December 2014 (Washington DC) – Judicial Watch today announced that the State Department has agreed to produce to Judicial Watch all emails sent or received by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that were uncovered by the FBI in its investigation of Clinton and her use of the clintonemail.com system: [T]he FBI completed its transmission to the State Department of documents recovered by the FBI in the course of its investigation in connection with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail...

So much for the public’s (free) right to know about government decisions and actions—the Department of Justice (DOJ) has slapped Judicial Watch with a startling $50,000 bill to search for public records the agency claims don’t exist. That’s nearly the median annual income in the U.S., which is $53,000 according to census figures. Keep in mind that Judicial Watch is a nonprofit educational foundation dedicated to government transparency and accountability.

Washington (CNN)Newly released emails from Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state raise questions about the nature of the department's relationship with the Clinton Foundation. Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, released 296 pages of emails from the Democratic presidential nominee, including 44 that Judicial Watch says were not previously handed over to the State Department by Clinton. The emails, many of which are heavily redacted, raise questions about the Clinton Foundation's influence on the State Department and its relations during her tenure. In one instance, top Clinton Foundation official Doug Band lobbied Clinton aides for a job for someone...

A conservative legal group is accusing state Democratic officials of conspiring to flout public records laws in order to keep secret details of a campaign to bring racketeering charges against climate policy dissenters. Democratic attorneys general led by New York’s Eric Schneiderman are seeking to block efforts to obtain documents about their efforts by invoking an overbroad claim to secrecy in ongoing legal proceedings, according to the Energy and Environment (E&E) Legal Institute. “These activist AGs are trying to write themselves out from freedom of information laws their legislatures have written them into,” E&E senior legal fellow Chris Horner said...

The recent release of House Benghazi Committee interview transcripts includes one from a now-retired State Department official who appears to have given inconsistent statements about his knowledge of Hillary Clinton’s email practices. During an interview with the committee last year, John Bentel, the former director of the Executive Secretariat’s information resource management division, which manages records and communications for State Department’s leadership, claimed he had no knowledge of Clinton’s use of personal email account or private server. But emails recently released by Judicial Watch — as well as findings laid out in a recent State Department inspector general’s report —...

une 30, 2016 Today, as we approach the 50th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, President Obama has signed into law the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016. In our democracy, the FOIA serves as a vital tool to keep citizens informed about the operations of their government. Since its enactment in 1966, the FOIA has been amended on a number of occasions to adapt to the times and changing priorities. The FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 contains several substantive and procedural amendments to the FOIA, as well as new reporting requirements for agencies. In order to assist agencies in...

A little more than a year ago, Quartz’s David Yanofsky did what many data reporters do every day: He submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for a set of statistics from a government agency. Yanofsky wanted immigration statistics about who enters the country from the International Trade Administration, the only government agency that compiles comprehensive records of this kind. The ITA got back to him and said that he was welcome to the data set — all he had to do was cut a check for $173,775. After weeks of paperwork and haggling with the agency, Yanofsky is now...

The latest batch of emails from Hillary Clinton's term as Secretary of State exposes two new troubling developments in the long-running scandal. First, it turns out that Clinton managed to avoid turning over one key email, despite her repeated promises that she gave the State Department every single work-related email from her private email server. As the Associated Press reported, in the missing email, Clinton admits that her private setup was a problem. Excerpt, more at: http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/clinton-e-mail-scandal-state-dept-disabled-its-own-security-systems-to-accommodate-hillary/