The Trump administration is challenging a Watergate-era mandate for the preservation of presidential records. In April, the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion calling the 1978 Presidential Records Act unconstitutional and saying it exceeds Congress’s powers. The federal law requires the president to turn over all records to the National Archives by the end of their term. Following that memo, staffers at the Executive Office of the President were told to follow a new set of guidelines when it comes to official records – including making previously mandatory preservation rules discretionary. Under this directive, text messages, for example, no longer have to be preserved unless they are “sole record of official decision-making.” Federal
I’m repeating my mantra: Always. Appeal. Your FOIA denials. In March 2022, I submitted a request for a copy of an inspector general report from the Department of Defense about an undersea surveillance system that dates back to the beginning of the Cold War. The IG’s FOIA office denied my request, stating that the entire report was classified. I immediately appealed, instructing the agency that it had to segregate material that could be publicly released and account for the foreseeable harm that would result if the report was disclosed. It took about four years, but I won and recently received a heavily redacted copy of the report. Federal
“Democracies die behind closed doors.” ~ U.S. District Judge Damon Keith, 2002
