News Roundup: Happy Birthday, FOIA

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Independence Day is also the anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed FOIA into law on July 4, 1966. In his signing statement, Johnson praised the importance of openness for democracy and said the legislation affirmed American principles. But he also wrote that he felt some documents shouldn’t be available to the public.

White House Press Secretary Bill Moyers later said that “LBJ had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the signing.” Nevertheless, FOIA has become an important part of Johnson’s legacy.
Records show Johnson personally removed strong language supporting open government from the press statement.

After Watergate, President Gerald Ford wanted to approve amendments to the Privacy Act of 1974 to strengthen FOIA.

Donald Rumsfeld, then-White House chief of staff, and his deputy Dick Cheney were worried it could allow leaks.
Antonin Scalia, then assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, said the bill was unconstitutional and even asked the CIA to lobby a White House staffer against it.
Ford vetoed it, but Congress overrode his veto, creating the core of FOIA that’s still in place today.

FOIA has been amended many times over the decades, including the most recent update: the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016. It strengthened the FOIA ombudsman, put a time limit on the use of the deliberative process exemption, mandated more proactive openness, and wrote into law a specific presumption of openness. But there can be issues with enforcing the reforms.

FOIA ombuds offices have little actual authority to ensure agencies adhere to FOIA requirements. Often, this results in arduous delays.
FOIA also requires “prompt” production of records, but many agencies continue to under-resource their FOIA operations and as a result develop significant backlogs. The lack of timely responses undermines FOIA’s ability to inform citizens about what the government is up to when that information is still pertinent.

Despite these limits, Independence Day provides an important opportunity to celebrate the principle that the public has a right to know what our government is doing.

On the Records

Trump’s Call to Arizona Governor

In late 2020, former President Trump tried to convince then-Gov. Doug Ducey to overturn Arizona’s presidential election results, the Washington Post reported this week. It’s unsurprising given what we have previously uncovered about Trump’s attempts to sway the election results in Georgia and Arizona.

On Dec. 23, 2020, Trump called the lead investigator heading up Georgia’s review of the November election and pressured the investigator to find “the right answer.” We obtained an audio recording of the call.
Records we uncovered showed that Arizona Senate President Karen Fann boasted in a December 2020 email that she had received a “personal call from President Trump thanking us for pushing to prove any fraud.”
Earlier this year, the watchdog Documented found that Donald Trump donated $1 million to the discredited Arizona “audit,” based on financial filings and emails and texts we obtained through public records requests. The records we obtained show that in June 2021, Phil Waldron — who was active in Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 loss — texted Doug Logan, the CEO of lead “audit” contractor Cyber Ninjas: “Kurt is going to talk to 45 today about $$.”
Of course, Trump wasn’t acting alone in his post-election efforts to undermine democracy. Read more about our investigation into the nationwide network of election deniers working to erode trust in our elections.

News Roundup: Happy Birthday, FOIA

On the Records

Trump’s Call to Arizona Governor

Other Stories We’re Following

Election Denial and Voting Rights

In the States

National News

LGBTQ Rights

Abortion and Reproductive Rights

Government Transparency and Public Records Law

Trump Accountability and Jan. 6 Investigations