Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Obama Administration's Endemic Aversion to FOIA



This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act.  President Lyndon B. Johnson signed this bill into law on July 4th 1966 in an attempt to placate the citizenry into thinking their government is transparent and accountable.  Well, it was a nice attempt.


Past administrations have been recalcitrant in abiding by this law, but none have been as obstinate and deceitful as Obama’s.  Hillary Clinton willfully set up a private server and used her personal email to circumvent FOIA.  She’s not the only one.  Does anyone remember EPA administrator Lisa Jackson?  She used multiple non-governmental emails.  You might ask, to what purpose?  It should be obvious.  She was trying to skirt FOIA, as did Obama’s assistant attorney general Tom Perez. 





Labor Secretary nominee Tom Perez used his private email account to leak information about official business while he was assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said in a Wednesday letter to Perez.


Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said it appears Perez used his personal email account almost 1,200 times since 2009 to conduct official department business, including communicating with organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the New York Times, and Talking Points Memo.


It doesn’t stop there.  The secretary of Health and Human Services also used her private email to conduct government business.  And who can forget Lois Lerner from the IRS?  She used hers to plot against Tea Partiers.  This behavior seems to be endemic.  The Daily Signal published a survey that revealed 33% of federal government employees use their personal email to conduct business.





Isn’t it ironic that FOIA, the very law the Obama administration is trying to circumvent, is what revealed their duplicity.  If it weren’t for watchdog groups like Judicial Watch, we wouldn’t know what’s happening in Washington D.C.  They are doing the job the mainstream media refuses to do.

Source:




No comments: