FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: Horror Stories; More Clinton Email Lawsuits

FOIA News (2015-2023)Kevin SchmidtComment

House Oversight Committee asks for FOIA horror stories

By Hadas Gold, Politico, May 6, 2015

The House Oversight Committee is reaching out to reporters, asking them to relay some of their Freedom of Information Act horror stories in preparation for a hearing next month on how to improve the FOIA process.

"Over the years I have heard from many of you that the FOIA process is broken," House Oversight Committee spokesperson Melissa Subbotin Sillin wrote in an email to reporters. "Many requests go unaddressed, come back heavily redacted for no apparent reason, or are ignored altogether. Both majority and minority committee members are coming together to do a deep analysis to find where the problems exist and what fixes need to be made. In order to do so, we need your help."

Read more here.  

State Department hit with 7 more Clinton-related FOIA lawsuits

By Josh Gerstein, Politico, May 6, 2015

A conservative watchdog group filed seven new Freedom of Information Act lawsuits against the State Department this week, all relating to Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state.

The suits, filed Tuesday and Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, seek all the work-related emails Clinton sent and received on her private accounts, as well as records about her use of a private server for her email, names of other State employees who used private accounts for work email and Clinton's messages related to the Benghazi attack. Also sought are details of the State Department's ethics review process for donations to the Clinton Foundation, details on Clinton's resignation and emails sent on a private account by Clinton's deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin.

Read more here