The FOIA Revealed These Secrets

Welcome back to FOIA Files! And happy forthcoming Sunshine Week, an annual celebration (and a time to vociferously complain) about transparency (or lack thereof) and open government (debatable). The festivities start Sunday. The occasion also marks the second anniversary of my newsletter! Thank you to all my readers for the support, encouragement and tips! It’s a perfect opportunity to highlight some of the more noteworthy documents I’ve scored via the FOIA over the years. I hope that will continue to serve as motivation to the public to keep filing records requests, despite the roadblocks and … always appeal those denials! Check out this interview I did with the Reuters Institute for additional insight into my FOIA work! If you’re not already getting FOIA Files in your inbox, sign up here.

Before I dive in, a couple of announcements: I’ll be in Washington next week speaking on a couple of panels at Sunshine Fest and in Chicago on March 21 at FOIA Fest for a live taping of my podcast, Disclosure. Please send all of your burning FOIA and public records questions to jleopold15@bloomberg.net. My co-host, attorney Matt Topic, and I will answer them during our discussion!