Why did President Obama rewrite the Freedom of Information Act without telling the rest of America?
An April 15, 2009, memo from then-White House Counsel Greg Craig instructed the executive branch to let White House officials review any documents sought by FOIA requestors that involved “White House equities.” You might rightly ask,
What the heck are White House Equities?
That phrase is nowhere to be found in the FOIA, yet the Obama White House effectively amended the law to create a new exception to justify keeping public documents locked away from the public.A serious breach
The Greg memo is described in detail in a new study made public today by Cause of Action, a Washington-based nonprofit watchdog group that monitors government transparency and accountability.
How serious an attack on the public’s right to know is the Obama administration’s invention of the “White House equities” exception?
“FOIA is designed to inform the public on government behavior; White House equities allow the government to withhold information from the media, and therefore the public, by having media requests forwarded for review. This not only politicizes federal agencies, it impairs fundamental First Amendment liberties,” Cause of Action explains in its report.
Equities are everything
The equities exception is breathtaking in its breadth. As the Greg memo put it, any document request is covered, including “congressional committee requests, GAO requests, judicial subpoenas and FOIA requests.”
And it doesn’t matter what format the documents happen to be in because, according to Greg, the equities exception “applies to all documents and records, whether in oral, paper, or electronic form, that relate to communications to and from the White House, including preparations for such communications.”
Essentially, the change gives the White House effective carte-blanche to decide what information it wants to divulge and how to present it, but perhaps just as sinister, the change means FOIA deadlines are a thing of the past. Since the White House equities exception took effect, it may potentially be impossible for some requests to meet the 20-day mandatory response deadline.
Is this actually “the most transparent administration in history?”
Source: Washington Examiner
Throwthisposout !!!
THIS MAN IS TRYING TO BE YOUR LAST PRESIDENT. HE WANTS TO BECOME THE KING OF AMERICA. LORD PLEASE HELP US IF THIS HAPPENS.
He stopped media coverage at the border! Wtf? We have a right to see whats going on there! Our nation is gonna be getting sick from these people! Why cant we witness the disaster he created? Time to think real hard yall
Not allowed to do that he has to obey the law the way it was written and that is treason hang him
IMPEACH HIM NOW THIS IS NOT WHAT WE ELECTED HIM TO DO. TO TAKE OVER OUR COUNTRY. HE IS OVER-REACHING WAY FARTHER THAN ANY ONE KNOWS. HE NEEDS TO BE IMPEACHED AND THROWED OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE.
Prison
A president who does not have to follow the law, and can rule by executive action is no longer a president, he’s a dictator
He has gotten away with so much, no other president would have been able too.
HE IS SUCH A TERRORIST,HES TRYING TO $#%&!@*UP AS MUCH AS HE CAN! CHECK HIS BANK ACCOUNT WE’RE MISSING 2 BILLION DOLLARS, WHO IN GOVERNMENT HAS THE BALLS TO SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THROWED OUT LONG AGO! HE NEVER PROVED HES BORN HERE.BUT NOBODYS EVEN LOOKING INTO IT.HES GIVING OUR MONEY TO FUND HIS TERRORIST,AND HED THIS WARNING, HES GOING TO START A WAR HERE, AS SOON AS HE GETS OUR WEAPONS,
Get rid of the elites by whatever means necessary !