The White House is removing a federal regulation that subjects Office of Administration, which is in charge of archiving emails, to the Freedom of Information Act, claiming that court rulings find its office is not subject to the transparency law.
This comes on the heels of Hillary Clinton’s scandal where she stored years of state emails on her private server.
The exemption of the Office of Administration from the FOIA is listed in the Federal Register as a final rule, meaning that there will be no opportunity for public comment.
The timing of this removal brought some questions to the transparency advocates because it was on National Freedom of Information Day and during the debate over the preservation of Obama administration records. And it’s Sunshine Week, a week where news organization and watchdog groups bring issues of government transparency to the forefront.Anne Weismann of the liberal Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said:
“The irony of this being Sunshine Week is not lost on me.”
For 30 years, the Office of Administration has responded to FOIA requests. Until the Obama administration, groups on the left and right used the records to shed light on how the White House works.
“This is an office that operated under the FOIA for 30 years, and when it became politically inconvenient, they decided they weren’t subject to the Freedom of Information Act any more.” Tom Fitton from Judicial said.
CREW sued over e-mails that were deleted by the White House.
A federal appeals court in Washington ruled that the Office of Administration was not subject to the FOIA in 2009.
The appeals court ruled the White House would be required to archive the e-mails and not release them to the FOIA. Now the White House e-mails must be released under the Presidential Records Act, that will be five years after the end of the administration.
The rule change makes it so there will not be a formal process for the public to request the White House voluntarily disclose records. These records include the White House visitor logs.
The White House didn’t say why it waited almost six years to acknowledge the court ruling of regulations.
Brandi Hoffine, a White House spokeswoman says that the administration remains committed to work towards unprecedented openness in government. She stated:
“Over the past six years, federal agencies have gone to great efforts to make government more transparent and more accessible than ever, including by making information available to the public via our Open Government initiative and improving the FOIA process.”
Rick Blum, coordinator of the Sunshine in Government initiative for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press was not happy with ruling. He says the bigger issue is the that the Office of Administration is responsible for record-keeping. With the Clinton e-mail controversy, there should be more scrutiny of the record-keeping practices he thought.
“I think what we’ve all learned in the last few weeks is the person who creates a record–whether it’s running a program or writing an e-mail–is the one who gets to decide whether it’s an official record,” Blum said. “And there ought to be another set of eyes on that. That’s the essential problem.”
This does not matter, Obama’s admin is so transparent and honest.
They have a lot to hind cause of there evilness, lies and deals against this country for 8 years.
People voted mr obama president and both mr and mrs Obama are said to have both willingly surrendered their licenses to avoid charges along with disbarred. Career criminals in the White House and refuse to take corrective action.
We need laws that the people can vote out (terminate) politions that do not put the majority of American (legal only) citizens and the country’s best interest first and foremost. Of course it’s require pic IDs to vote. Another requirement to vote would be, voters must be honest tax payers. Meaning mostly, if you have history of the government supporting you for no good reason, you don’t get to vote. This rule doesn’t include people that actually earned $#%&!@*istance and etc.
This would encourage people elected into office to do the job.
Of course he wants to be exempt. He still has plans for screwing up the people of Americans.
But wait, this is supposed to be the most transparent administration ever. Actually I agree its very easy to see how crooked they are!
Trump will reenact the law
wonder why?
So much anger. The laws are there to protect us from cheats liars thieves in the government. Obey the laws
Impeach the TYRANT. He has failed in the running an destroying this once great country. The man child is acting like a little child. He knows its over for him an he will do anything to degrade the USA
Why dont our military remove him for high treason.