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.”
Some one forgot to shred this….
Jason Lu – Obama has been one of the most successful presidents in history. 12 million new jobs, with overall unemployment lower than when he took office. A stratospheric stock market. Record corporate earnings. More health care available for more Americans at lower cost. Any president would be proud to have Obama’s record, and to have started from ground zero after George Bush wrecked the world economy and destabilized the Middle East is nothing short of amazing. I don’t blame George Bush per se, I’m just calling out his legacy of failure. No matter how you slice and dice it Obama has been far more successful than George Bush.
Crooks will do what crooks do.
Can I do that too??? Don’t like the rules so just don’t follow them!!!
Criminals. Despots. Wastrels and thieves.
DICTATORSHIP ALL THE WAY !! !
Scary
ABOVE THE LAW OBOZO. ARREST THE CLOWN NOW
This can’t be true! They cannot just exempt themselves from the law without Congressional approval! Did congress once again, cave in to Obama’s lawless actions?
So, if they did? I say, Americans don’t like paying a third of their hard earned income to a wasteful government! Let’s exempt OURSELVES from paying FEDERAL TAXES! They can’t arrest all of us! We have to start fighting back SOMEHOW!!!