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Transparency

The Chaotic Release Of Long Sought After JFK Files

March 21, 2025 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , , ,
The National Archives published two batches of records from the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection after President Donald Trump spontaneously announced that all remaining files would be released. “This is a breakthrough. The absurd and suspicious redaction that have denied us the full story are, for the most part, removed,” declared renowned reporter Jefferson Morley, known for his work publishing the JFK Facts newsletter. He’s also the vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, which maintains a searchable database for exploring released files.

Who’s Running The DOGE Wrecking Machine?

March 16, 2025 By Christopher Bing, Avi Asher-Schapiro and Annie Waldman, ProPublica. , , ,
When President Donald Trump announced his marquee government cost-cutting initiative, he left no doubt about whom he intended to run it: Elon Musk. Still, questions about the scope of Musk’s authority have hounded the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency ever since. As DOGE began to order massive budget cuts and layoffs, and those affected by the moves began to raise questions in the press and in court about their legality, administration officials equivocated on Musk’s exact role, asserting he was simply a senior adviser to the president and had no official position in DOGE.

FBI Redactions On Seth Rich Index Leave No Answers

March 12, 2025 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , , ,
The attorney in the freedom of information case against the Federal Bureau of Investigation seeking the contents from the computers of a murdered staffer of the Democratic National Committee has criticized the number of redactions in the index that the bureau turned over to the court late Monday night. “Lots of things in the Seth Rich indexes don’t pass the smell test,” wrote Ty Clevenger, the attorney for Brian Huddleson, a Texas businessman, who filed a Freedom of Information Act request in September 2017 seeking to learn whether Rich was the source of WikiLeaks’ 2016 publication of DNC emails that impacted that year’s U.S. presidential election.

Pentagon Directive To Expand Access To Military Courts Falls Short

January 29, 2025 Ziva Branstetter, ProPublica. , , , ,
More than two years after ProPublica sued the Navy over its failure to provide public access to military courts, the Department of Defense has for the first time directed U.S. military branches to give advance public notice of preliminary hearings, a crucial milestone in criminal cases. These “Article 32” hearings end with a recommendation about whether the case should move forward, be dismissed or end in a nonjudicial punishment. DOD General Counsel Caroline Krass issued the guidance earlier this year, directing the secretaries of the Navy, Army, Air Force and Homeland Security (which oversees the Coast Guard) to post upcoming preliminary hearings, provide access to certain court records and publish results of military trials — known as courts-martial — on a public website.

Biden’s Legacy: Fundamentally Changing Nothing For Whistleblowers

January 15, 2025 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , , ,
When Joe Biden was vice president under President Barack Obama, he was part of an administration that waged an unprecedented war on leaks. President Biden may not have been as zealous as Obama, however, he periodically harnessed the very machinery that Obama and President Donald Trump wielded to enforce secrecy and silence whistleblowers. With the Espionage Act, the Obama Justice Department prosecuted more United States government employees and contractors who disclosed information to the press than all previous presidents combined.

Judge Orders CPS To Come Clean On Deleted Assange Documents

January 11, 2025 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , , ,
Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi has been waging a legal battle for seven years against the Crown Prosecution Service to discover the truth about a CPS claim that it deleted a number of documents Maurizi has sought in a Freedom of Information request about the case of Julian Assange.   Now a judge on the London First-tier Tribunal has ruled that the CPS must explain to Maurizi what it knows about when, why and how the documents were allegedly destroyed. The Jan. 2 ruling was first reported by Maurizi’s newspaper il Fatto Quotidiano on Friday.

Biden’s Record And What That Means For The Next Administration

December 30, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , , ,
As the Biden presidency comes to a close, Clearing the FOG speaks with author and journalist Kevin Gosztola about his current series on Biden's legacy. Gosztola reports in The Dissenter on Biden's failure to fulfill his campaign promises when it comes to government transparency, accountability and press freedom, as well as how these have eroded through successive presidencies this century. Gosztola describes how it has become more difficult to access information about what the government is doing and the abuse of the state secrets privilege to hide crimes being committed by entities such as the CIA. He also discusses what we can expect from the incoming Trump administration.

Biden’s Legacy: Leaving FOIA In Shambles

November 21, 2024 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , ,
President Joe Biden’s administration promised a “recommitment to the highest standards of transparency,” and officials were well aware of the extent to which Donald Trump’s administration had engaged in censorship and undermined the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Despite promises, when it came to FOIA and the public’s right to know, the Biden administration was just as bad or slightly worse than the Trump administration during its last fiscal year in office. In fiscal year 2023, United States government agencies censored, withheld, or claimed that they could not find any records two-thirds of the time.

ICE Has Been Lying About Its Racial Data Collection

November 2, 2024 Maddie Khaw, Scheer Post. , , , ,
The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) is calling for a Department of Justice investigation into Immigration Customs Enforcement after records revealed that it has been lying about its racial data collection practices and classifying Black immigrants as white. For years, BAJI and other organizations have demanded that ICE collect and publish racial and ethnic data about the thousands of migrants it detains each year in order to disclose and address racial biases. The Department of Homeland Security has responded that it does not collect such data. However, information BAJI obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit reveals that immigration agencies do maintain racial and ethnic data—but inaccurately so.

Fighting For More Evidence Of Assange’s Political Prosecution

October 24, 2024 Joe Lauria and Mohamed Elmaazi, Consortium News. , , , , ,
A tribunal in Britain is set to decide whether to order the government’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to prove it deleted emails that may have covered up more evidence of a politically motivated prosecution of Julian Assange. The three judges heard arguments on Sept. 24 in the nearly decade-long freedom of information saga regarding the emails that top British prosecutors say were deleted. They involved an exchange with Sweden during a Swedish prosecutor’s attempt, beginning in 2010, to extradite the WikiLeaks publisher from Britain. Assange was wanted in Sweden for questioning during a preliminary investigation into allegations of sexual assault, which was dropped three times, definitively in 2017.

Letter Carriers Convention Shapes Up To Be Open Bargaining Showdown

July 30, 2024 Tim Bash, Labor Notes. , , ,
City letter carriers have been working without a contract for more than 400 days, and leaders of the Letter Carriers (NALC) still refuse to provide any substantive updates from bargaining. As rank-and-file anger boils over, a new group called Build a Fighting NALC (BFN) is building momentum to demand a stronger and more transparent contract fight next time. We’re bringing an “Open Bargaining” resolution to the national convention, August 5-9 in Boston. As of this writing, two NALC state associations and 44 branches across the country have passed the resolution to show their support. There was a time when the NALC, under the leadership of President Vince Sombrotto (1978-2002), used to engage in contract campaigns, hold rallies, make its demands public, and keep members informed of contract progress.

Venezuela: National Lawyers Guild Electoral Observers Praise Fairness, Transparency Of Election

July 29, 2024 National Lawyers Guild International Committee. , , , ,
July 29, 2024 – A delegation of five election observers from the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) monitored the presidential elections in Venezuela that took place on July 28, 2024. The delegation observed a transparent, fair voting process with scrupulous attention to legitimacy, access to the polls, and pluralism. Despite the soundness of the electoral process, the U.S. backed opposition, with support from an anti-Maduro western press, has refused to accept the results, undermining the stability of Venezuela’s democracy. The president of the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, called upon the attorney general to investigate the attacks on the electoral transmission system.

Report: Certified Gaslighting

June 25, 2024 Earthworks and Oil Change International, Certified Disasters. , , ,
One year after the release of Certified Disaster, Earthworks, and Oil Change International’s new investigative report, Certified Gaslighting provides additional evidence that gas certification relies on unreliable technology and methods that allow fossil fuel companies to make unfounded claims about methane gas. While the oil and gas industry is increasingly turning to these so-called gas certification schemes, no matter the label – “natural” gas, “responsibly sourced,” “differentiated,” “certified,” or “next-gen” – the truth remains the same. Methane gas is a threat to people and the planet.

Railroad Workers Urge Rejection Of Ron Batory To Amtrak Board

May 7, 2024 Railroad Workers United, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Railroad Workers United (RWU) expresses serious concerns following the White House’s recent announcement nominating Ron Batory to the Amtrak Board of Directors, a decision that appears influenced by political maneuvers rather than a commitment to rail safety, labor interests, or Amtrak itself. Ron Batory’s tenure as the Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) was marked by policies favoring “operational efficiencies” (i.e., corporate profits) over the safety and well-being of rail workers and the public.

State Senator Seeks To Unearth Hidden Costs Of Developer Tax Breaks

February 6, 2024 Taya Graham and Stephen Janis, The Real News Network. , , , ,
For decades, Baltimore has doled out tax breaks intended to spur development. But the increasing use of incentives has not been matched by scrutiny of how much they cost the city, and who is benefiting. State Senator Jill Carter intends to correct that imbalance with a bill she has introduced to study a variety of tax breaks in-depth, with the purpose of determining if their use is both equitable and cost effective. “I think it’s important that people pay attention to how much money is thrown out to wealthy developers with no accountability,” Carter said. The bill would authorize a task force to gather data and recommend processes to increase transparency and accountability for how tax breaks are used.
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