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UPDATES: FOIA’d Emails Suggest More Biden Administration Politicking with Federal Programs

GAO has discerned some possible further politicking with and (surprise!) pen-and-a-phone scheming within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid. Further cross-checks are underway to confirm whether what appears to be is in fact the case but, for the moment, GAO is refreshing this post with more, recent document productions from CMS, here, here and here. Previously, GAO posted: See here for updates…

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UPDATES: FOIA’d Emails Suggest More Biden Administration Politicking with Federal Programs

See here for updates on CMS political coordination with the White House as covered in the Wall Street Journal and other publications. UPDATE: April 15, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: April 22, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: April 29, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: April 30, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: May 15, 2024 production is here. UPDATE: May 21,…

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GAO Weaponization Findings Covered in WSJ

Further on GAO’s recent post “FOIA’d Emails Suggest More Biden Administration Politicking with Federal Programs,” and records all available here, today’s Wall Street Journal has an oped by former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, “How Biden’s CMS Targeted Florida: An example of using government power to attack political foes.” The piece is paywalled but, as the title suggests, it focuses on…

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GAO FOIA Findings Covered in National Review

National Review has an article today covering GAO findings in Freedom of Information Act litigation. The article refers back to document productions in FOIA litigation available at this post, which is being regularly updated as more records come in. UPDATE IV: Most (97%, more than usual) records in a January 22, 2024 production were referred to the White House for…

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FOIA’d Emails Suggest More Biden Administration Politicking with Federal Programs

GAO’s work to examine the deployment of federal programs and agencies toward political ends—and how it comes about—has come across what seems to be yet another example of agency capture. Whenever an initiative quashed by a previous administration gets revived once those who killed it are no longer around to supervise, it warrants transparency. Ditto when agencies appear to single…

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Document Production re Civil Action 18-1739 (NIH 47805, NIH 47907)

Document Production Re: FOIA Case Nos. 47805 and 47907, Civil Action 18-1739     2018.09.28 _ Horner, Miller (NIH 47805, 47907 CA 18-1739) _ Prod Ltr     2018.09.28 _ (NIH 47805, 47907 CA 18-1739) _ Prod Encl

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IER vs US Department of State Complaint 18 – 1802

This is an action under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, to compel production under one FOIA request for certain described agency records, to which request defendant has provided no response whatsoever and therefore has denied. These records are of great public interest and would further illuminate State Department assistance with an effort by a lobbyist…

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IER vs. Treasury Complaint 18 – 1677

This is an action under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, to compel production under one request for certain described correspondence dated during specified periods in 2017 and 2018, to or from one Treasury official, which use specific, provided terms such as “Bloomberg task force”, “G20”, and “climate risk disclosure”.   Case: IER V TREASURY Complaint as…

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GAO vs HHS Complaint 18 -1739

This is an action under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, to compel production of records in response to two FOIA requests to a component of HHS, the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”) and specifically NIH’s National Institute for Environmental Health Studies (“NIEHS”). HHS has improperly denied the requests by failing to provide an initial determination,…

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GAO vs EPA Complaint 18-1742

This is an action under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, to compel production of records in response to two FOIA requests to EPA. EPA has improperly denied the requests by failing to provide an initial determination, produce responsive records or otherwise perform in accordance with its obligations under FOIA, as applied by this Court in…

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