American Oversight, CREW, and EPIC Condemn Trump Administration’s War on Transparency

On Wednesday, American Oversight hosted a press call detailing the organization’s robust transparency and accountability efforts during the first month of the new Trump administration and discussing the current state of federal transparency.

American Oversight interim Executive Director Chioma Chukwu and Deputy Executive Director Liz Hempowicz were joined by Donald Sherman from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Enid Zhou from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). The speakers on the call discussed the Trump administration’s attempts to avoid transparency and dismantle government oversight standards. The experts also highlighted how watchdog organizations are tracking, analyzing, and challenging the administration’s obstruction tactics to protect democratic values and the public’s right to transparency and accountability.

“Transparency is not a privilege, it’s a pillar of democracy. But today, we face a deliberate assault on open government. The Trump administration has been actively working to keep the public in the dark, dismantling safeguards that ensure access to government records and decision making,” said American Oversight’s Chioma Chukwu. “Transparency would expose the truth, and the truth is clear: The administration is pushing deeply unpopular policies, massive tax cuts for billionaires, paid for by slashing health care and food assistance for working families. They’re dismantling oversight and suppressing information because they know that accountability would stop them.”

“DOGE, this nebulous initiative, has operated in the shadows and clumsily dismantled agencies and canceled vital programs under the guise of cutting inefficiency,” said American Oversight’s Liz Hempowicz. “Internal records can answer many of the questions that the public has about DOGE, questions that come not because Americans across the country are in the D.C. bubble, but because they feel the effects of DOGE’s assault on our government every day.”

“President Trump has given Elon Musk and DOGE maximal authority to unwind agencies in a weekend, to cancel contracts and programs that benefit millions of Americans and really inflicted chaos and harm on all corners of not just everyday Americans, but also in many cases, international partners and colleagues. And that maximal authority has been accompanied with minimal transparency and accountability for DOGE and Mr. Musk,” said CREW Executive Director and Chief Counsel Donald Sherman. “Why has this administration gone above and beyond to shroud their conduct and secrecy? And I think the answer for that is clear: It’s because their conduct is highly illegal, which they can’t get a public mandate for, and it’s also deeply unpopular, and has inflicted real harm on everyday Americans.”

“The first Trump administration was not an example of openness and transparency, and round two is worse. The gutting of the federal workforce invariably includes FOIA offices that greatly impact people’s ability to get information quickly,” said EPIC Senior Counsel Enid Zhou. “Many of these offices have historically been overburdened with large backlogs of requests and are chronically understaffed. The workforce reduction and this administration’s attempts to circumvent FOIA are only going to exacerbate existing issues and prevent access to information that is critical to public oversight. While the current administration touts radical transparency, these actions, and all of its actions, are radically not transparent. The administration has demonstrated that it doesn’t value proactive disclosure of information or FOIA.”