President Donald Trump’s tweet about ending payments made to Syrian rebels was not an “official acknowledgement” of the existence of CIA records about those alleged payments, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled, reversing a district court’s order requiring the agency to confirm or deny whether it had such records.
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The CIA can reject a public records request seeking information on U.S. payments to Syrian rebel forces because a tweet from former President Trump didn’t officially acknowledge such records exist, the D.C. Circuit found.
Read moreThe Freedom of Information Act authorizes district courts to order federal agencies’ to make certain documents publicly available, the Second Circuit ruled, siding with the New York Legal Assistance Group in its case seeking access to unpublished opinions issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals.
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The U.S. government need not release statistics on guns used in suicides or attempted suicides, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday, reversing what had been a victory for gun-regulation advocates.
Read moreA federal court in New York rejected the federal government’s attempt to not specifically identify the tape of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in a Vaughn index. President Donald Trump’s statement admitting that U.S. intelligence agencies had reviewed the tape and that the government is in possession of it, and another statement made by Vice President Mike Pence, preclude the government from claiming that identifying the tape would reveal “undisclosed classified information.”
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cannot claw back documents it disclosed by mistake revealing the names of oil lobbyists who planned a chummy “happy hour” outing with senior EPA officials, a federal judge has ruled.
Read moreThe government watchdog group American Oversight sued the Trump administration Wednesday, claiming Health and Human Services, the Federal Drug Administration and the CDC have stonewalled its requests for communications with Pfizer about a coronavirus vaccine.
Read moreThe Ninth Circuit held that the Center for Investigative Reporting is entitled to make a FOIA request seeking records of weapon ownership from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The so-called Tiahrt Rider of the Consolidated Appropriations Acts of 2005, 2006, 2010, and 2012 does not exempt the data from public disclosure.
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The Los Angeles Times sued a trio of government agencies claiming they are withholding crucial documents detailing allegations of widespread sexual abuse and misconduct at ICE detention centers.
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The U.S. Supreme Court dove in Monday to debate over when the public has the right to access secret government documents that could illuminate the rationale behind endangered species protections.
Read moreWASHINGTON — A federal judge denied the National Lawyers Guild’s FOIA request for further disclosures from Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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Federal agencies are working to exempt dozens of major energy projects from key environmental laws under a June executive order, according to records disclosed through a court battle.
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Los Angeles County’s rollout of a $300 million custom-made voting system this past March stalled voters at polling places for hours and left a lot of unanswered questions.
Read moreClassified images withheld from a Freedom of Information Act request seeking military investigation records relating to terrorist attacks in Iraq between 2004 and 2011 should not be released, the Second Circuit ruled. A law firm representing hundreds of U.S. service members injured or killed in such attacks is not entitled to the records under the official disclosure doctrine.
Read moreA federal judge dismissed Judicial Watch’s request for the disclosure of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s subpoenas to telecommunications providers as part of its impeachment inquiry into the activities of President Trump.
Read moreA New York appeals court granted BuzzFeed’s request to unseal a settlement in a business debt lawsuit involving Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has been accused of laundering money for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Police unions failed Tuesday to block a civil rights group from publishing thousands of NYPD disciplinary records, broadening a repository first made public this weekend by the ProPublica.
Read moreA federal judge in Washington found nothing suspect in the National Security Agency’s redaction of information in records relating to alleged “unmasking” requests from Obama officials directed at Trump campaign associates.
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The New York Times and its reporter Charlie Savage sued the Department of Justice in a federal FOIA complaint for information on the DOJ’s lawsuit against Omarosa Manigault Newman seeking a fine of $50,000 after she published a book critical of President Trump, which “has raised the question of whether and how White House officials influenced the Justice Department decision to bring legal action against a Trump critic.”
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Attorneys for news outlets suing for records from the Mueller investigation accused the Justice Department on Thursday of applying redactions that back up President Donald Trump’s echoing claim of the probe being a “witch hunt.”
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