Interior Secretary David Bernhardt defended on Wednesday the agency’s policy allowing politically appointed officials to review and comment on public records requests that relate to them. Appearing before a Senate appropriations subcommittee to testify about his department’s budget, Bernhardt said the so-called “awareness review” policy was legal. “It’s a process that’s very long-standing in the department,” Bernhardt told the committee. “We definitely formalized it,” he said. “It’s completely legal.” An office within the National Park Service warned in a December memo that the policy was “preventing” it from meeting its legal deadlines under FOIA.
Roll Call
An Illinois judge Thursday ordered Jussie Smollett's criminal case file be unsealed. Smollett was accused of filing a false police report claiming he was the victim of a hate crime attack carried out by two men on a city street in January, but less than three weeks after being indicted on 16 felony counts, Chicago prosecutors dropped all charges against the actor. On the same day the charges were dismissed in late March, Smollett's defense team requested that the evidence and records in the case be immediately sealed, and the state did not object, according to court documents. Lawyers for media outlets argued that the sealing of the records "violates the public's right of access to court records and proceedings" and "the matter has been widely publicized and the defendant and his attorneys have appeared on national television discussing the case," Thursday's decision document said.
NBC News
President Donald Trump won’t release White House visitor logs, he refuses to hand over his tax returns, he made staffers sign non-disclosure agreements and he’s balking at congressional investigators. Yet during a Rose Garden speech on Wednesday, he again proclaimed himself “the most transparent president” in U.S. history, adding to the reporters gathered before him, “I think most of you would agree.” It may be true that Trump reveals more of his personal thoughts and emotions than any of his predecessors. But by most other measures of presidential transparency, including the congressional oversight at issue during his White House appearance Wednesday, Trump operates behind dark-tinted windows. Trump isn’t the first president to throw around transparency-related superlatives. Soon after winning the presidency, Barack Obama vowed to make his administration the most transparent in history. And he did take steps toward that goal, including through the first-ever release of White House visitor logs. But watchdog groups often complained that Obama was betraying that promise when he blocked access to records or his Justice Department prosecuted government leakers.
Politico
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"Trump isn’t the first president to throw around transparency-related superlatives."
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