Celebrating American Oversight’s Transparency Victories This Sunshine Week

As we recognize the 20th anniversary of Sunshine Week — the annual celebration of transparency and open government — the public’s right to information about what our government is doing is under unprecedented threat. From destroying records that belong to the people to obscuring the work of the federal wrecking ball that is the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration is dismantling democratic safeguards, distorting facts, and concealing critical information. 

Our democracy depends on an informed electorate that has the information needed to hold its government accountable, and American Oversight has for years remained steadfast in its commitment to exposing the truth and protecting and affirming the public’s access to information.

Since its founding in 2017, American Oversight has uncovered public records revealing corruption, abuses of power, and influence networks, and the organization’s aggressive litigation and public education initiatives have driven important developments in government transparency:

• During the first impeachment investigation of President Trump, American Oversight obtained and published key documents related to the corrupt freezing of aid to Ukraine — documents that the first Trump administration had refused to provide to Congress in its wholesale obstruction of legislative oversight.
• In 2022, the Defense Department and the Army confirmed in court filings in a lawsuit brought by American Oversight that the phones of senior Trump administration officials had been wiped after those officials left the administration in 2021. The admission that the Pentagon had failed to preserve their messages, including any texts from the day of the Jan. 6 insurrection, sparked major concerns about the loss of information, and prompted the department to within days publicly announce a new policy regarding the preservation of text messages. So did the Department of Homeland Security. That same year, we also exposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s admissions in an American Oversight lawsuit that the agency had instructed Trump administration personnel to wipe their government phones when leaving their positions.

Our work has also protected access to government information in states across the country:

• Through our investigation of partisan inquiries into the 2020 election in Arizona and Wisconsin, we ensured the public had information about how those inquiries were being carried out and helped enforce compliance with state preservation and disclosure laws.
  • Our investigation of the Arizona Senate’s sham “audit” of Maricopa County’s election led to the state Supreme Court upholding rulings that records held by contractor Cyber Ninjas were public records that must be released.
  • And our investigation of attorney Michael Gableman’s inept and politically motivated election inquiry in Wisconsin revealed that his office frequently destroyed public records, leading to a settlement in which the office admitted that the destruction violated state law. This year, American Oversight was honored to accept the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council’s Citizen Openness Advocate award for our work prying records from the inquiry.
• We’ve filed public records lawsuits in states across the country, successfully fighting efforts by top officials in Florida, Texas, Virginia, and South Dakota to evade transparency obligations by dismissing our cases. Through those actions, we’ve uncovered important records about politicized education policy and the spending of taxpayer money and drew attention to unlawful delays in the release of public records. Our lawsuit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Paxton remains ongoing, with the state Supreme Court recently hearing arguments in the case.
• In Georgia in 2021, American Oversight reached a settlement with the secretary of state’s office regarding the handling of records requests. The agreement enhanced public access to records by requiring the secretary’s office to provide related training for staff and to ensure requesters receive better information about costs, time estimates, and the status of their requests.

Since last year’s Sunshine Week, we have had several victories for transparency at both the national and state level:

• In May, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of American Oversight, represented by Democracy Forward, in a years-old case regarding the release of records about 2017 efforts to weaken the Affordable Care Act. American Oversight had sued back in 2017 for related communications, but federal agencies withheld or applied heavy redactions to substantive exchanges with Congress. The appeals court made clear that agencies could not use what is known as the “consultant corollary” to evade public disclosure of records when supposed “consultants” (in this case, Congress) have their own interests at stake when it comes to agency decision-making.
• We reached settlement agreements in lawsuits, against officials in two Arizona counties, that were important reminders of residents’ right to hold local officials accountable under the state’s public records law. In Pinal County, our litigation revealed the office of Sheriff Mark Lamb’s significant failures in responding to records requests. And in Cochise County, our lawsuit — against the county and two supervisors who had delayed the certification of the 2022 election — forced the county to turn over thousands of pages of records, including communications that had been deleted but were recovered thanks to our lawsuit.
• In July, following an American Oversight lawsuit and pressure from partner organizations, the Georgia State Election Board — dominated by a far-right, Trump-aligned majority of three members — voted to withdraw rules that it had advanced during an illegal meeting and reconsider them during its next proper meeting. We had sued the SEB for violations of the state’s Open Meetings Act by attempting to push new election rules, including one provided by the state Republican Party chair, behind closed doors and without legally required public notice or a quorum.
• Our FOIA lawsuit against the Army and the Department of Defense for records related to a reported August altercation between the Trump campaign and Arlington National Cemetery staff led to the release of a heavily redacted incident report. The records effectively confirmed the existence of an open law enforcement investigation into the alleged incident.
• With the ACLU and Physicians for Human Rights, we published a groundbreaking report on deaths in ICE detention, which found that 95 percent of deaths between 2017 and 2021 could likely have been prevented with adequate medical care. The report — informed by more than 14,500 pages of documents obtained through FOIA and state public record requests and litigation, including major legal victories by American Oversight — underscored the importance of transparency. “The documents underpinning this report can’t undo the harm caused by ICE’s failures, but they can provide something invaluable: accountability,” said interim Executive Director Chioma Chukwu. “That’s why American Oversight fought to shine a light on these records — to provide answers to deserving loved ones and to ensure those responsible for preventable tragedies are made to answer.”

As the second Trump administration continues its anti-democratic march, American Oversight is continuing to fight to hold the president and his allies accountable by shining a light on government actions. We filed the first Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, sued to rescue documents of the U.S. Agency for International Development from further destruction, and are fighting in court for the release of Volume Two of the special counsel report on the investigation of Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. Follow our work by signing up for our newsletter and reading more about our ongoing investigations.