Just FOIA'd HUD for information from its web team about this clear Hatch Act violation. You can, too - just go to FOIA.gov

I asked the FBI to expedite the release of the tape of "border czar" Tom Homan being bribed. FBI said it couldn't see how there wasn't an urgent need to provide the public more information about (checks notes) an active federal official taking bribes and denied expedition of the request.

Hegseth wants to silence whistleblowers and force journalists to act as military stenographers, not reporters. That's how abuse runs rampant and taxpayer funds are wasted. Protect whistleblowers. Protect the press.

This story is a must-read and a great example of why inspectors general (under threat) are so important

Title should read, "Florida officials vote to donate land to Trump". End of story. The land would be a gift to a private foundation, no library required

cool let's have more unchecked corruption

There's a lot of news and it's hard to keep track. If you want help staying on top of federal secrecy developments (think FOIA, whistleblowers, IGs, declassification, etc.) you can check out my ongoing database of secrecy news stories, The Classified Catalog. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Make War Crimes Easier to Cover Up Again

"No more anonymous complaints" is a threat to whistleblowers and the public who relies on them to know when abuses are being committed. Without whistleblowers (and the journalists who help tell their stories) we wouldn't know about botched Afghanistan withdrawal, Abu Ghraib, and much more.

❗Hegseth said he's going after whistleblower rules, the office of the inspector general, and "frivolous" and anonymous complaints. At the same time DoD is trying to force reporters to not print anything w/o approval. What will happen? Military abuses will go hidden, taxpayer $$ will be wasted.

Good article but this shows most classification not warranted in the first place: “In most cases, the resulting articles were nuisances rather than threats to national security.” This means info is segregable and entire documents don’t often deserve secret stamp. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/o...

Smart move by two young upstate NY reporters: they filed a FOIA for body cameras worn by the sheriff’s deputies at an ICE raid. These are almost always civil raids so there’s no ongoing criminal investigation that would require that footage to stay confidential. Replicable by any media outlet.

The National Security Agency ‘expedited’ a FOIA request — then took 1,827 days to process it. The Defense Department ‘expedited’ another — it took 1,119 days. The list goes on. Now, Trump wants requesters to pay $50k if a court expedites a FOIA lawsuit? No way.

I would love to read more about this take in the paper Khashoggi worked for. Oh wait…

“Pay 50k for Information Act”

The NSA took 1,827 days to process a FOIA request it granted expedited processing. DOD IG took 1,119 days. The list goes on. But Trump's DOJ wants FOIA requesters to pay a 50k bond if court grants expedited processing for suit about records Trump STOLE from the public and took to MaL? GTFO

This takes FOIA fee bullying to a whole new level

Want to read the Epstein files? Or important climate reports? You’ll probably need a FOIA office for that. Use FPF's new tool to help us tell Congress that Trump’s decimation of FOIA offices is unacceptable. Americans deserve access to all their records.

Constitutional law expert Luke Beck suggests Labor’s proposed FOI clampdown is ripe for a legal challenge www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

This reporter helped expose the falsity of ICE's narrative on the fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez. His work is a perfect example of why we don't have secret police. Journalists have a constitutional right to cover protests and their aftermath. Release @peoplesfabric.com immediately.

Hope he orders the declassification of the fatty arbuckle files next. But seriously, why not just make agencies abide by the automatic declassification requirements that already exist instead of going through the obituary pages from the 1930s to see what gets released next?

The Trump administration has given a whole new meaning to "Kitchen Confidential." Here's @freedom.press top 5 dumbest things the government has done, or kept secret, ostensibly to protect national security (with an evergreen example from @nsarchive.bsky.social)

Journalist Mario Guevara has been in ICE custody for over 100 days "for doing nothing other than doing his job," @laurenleharper.bsky.social told @npr.org's 1A. "The administration is using not just the FCC, but other agencies to really go after speech they don't like.”

Have FOIAd the draft global trends report, b5 be damned. LMK if you want to fight a b5 case

Home Depot announcer: prices for all bathroom vanities on aisle 12 are (checks notes) classified for national security and other reasons. Any coupons for these items no longer apply because (checks notes) pricing changes could damage to national security. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Journalist Mario Guevara has been detained for over 100 days. Now, he faces deportation —for just doing his job. The same energy that defended Jimmy Kimmel should be used to defend Guevara, a journalist who is not facing any charges. Watch @seth-stern.bsky.social on @meidastouch.com for more.

FPF knows one way to get to the bottom of what happened. We filed our own FOIA request with the National Archives about this fiasco. Stay tuned.

One of the red flags about this release is that it took about three weeks. That is...insanely fast. I am submitting a FOIA request to NARA *right now* for records and processing notes regarding the Sherrill release. Willing to bet it takes a lot longer than three weeks.

To add a bit of context of why this is strange/worrisome: NARA's National Personnel Records Center has tons of experience redacting personal information from service records in response to FOIA requests. It's basically their whole job. And they usually do it very well. This is highly abnormal.

Goes to show why you need professional, nonpartisan leadership at the agency. (They also released the record in 18 days, which is...fast)

Got my latest batch of records back from the FBI. Can't wait to read them! Oh, wait...

group photo/polygraph time

Trump broke the law but, shoulder shrug, why reinstate the IGs since Trump would just remove them again anyway? "Unfortunately, this court cannot provide plaintiffs more.”

The public can't engage in secretive, censorial government. That's why @freedom.press filed 3 new FOIA lawsuits this week. We have the appetite to keep challenging capricious secrecy and threats to press freedom - and we'll keep showing up in court to prove it. Fight with us. Here's more:

The Trump administration is targeting journalists. Join FPF's @laurenleharper.bsky.social on @npr.org's 1A to discuss the importance of press freedom, how to fight government secrecy, and more. 🌐 Listen online: the1a.org/ 📻 @wamu.org 88.5 FM in D.C. metro area 🕒 Thursday, Sept. 25, 10 a.m. EDT

A really important thing about this FOIA release is that it includes emails between ICE and Palantir employees. 3rd party communications are not automatically exempt from FOIA release, no matter what corporations or the government may try to claim.

gotta hand it to the us park police, i didn't expect to be filing a foia request about a trump-epstein statue removal/theft this am.

I filed a FOIA request with DHS back in May for a copy of the pitch for this show. They just denied it in full because releasing it could reveal trade secrets. lolol what trade secret? that America is nightmare bizarro land?

I want to thank @cjciaramella.bsky.social for sharing his winning FOIA appeal language - it's especially helpful for us non-lawyers. I just got a b7e denial from ICE and am absolutely going to benefit from this. (also wonderful that @muckrock.com makes it so easy to search their platform)

new from @kylietcheung.bsky.social in @teenvogue.com: recently, men have impersonated plainclothes ICE agents to assault women—only possible, she argues, because state agents commit violence with impunity. "To be clear, men wouldn’t be posing as ICE agents and assaulting women if ICE didn’t exist."

ICE's first mistake (in this context) was signing a contract with spyware maker Paragon. It's second mistake was ignoring a @404media.co FOIA request about it for over a year. That's how you get slapped with a FOIA suit. Good for 404.

Want to know how many Americans are starving and need help? Too bad. The Trump administration is - yet again - discontinuing data collection on a key policy issue. Not collecting info in the first place is as bad as deleting it from an agency website - possibly even worse.

Timely piece from @davelevinthal.com One difference between ICE and CBP during the first Trump administration and the second is that both are now designated security agencies. This puts them in the same category as the FBI and gives them more leeway to hide info from FOIA re agency personnel.

Will the FBI tell us if it knew Charlie Kirk was in danger? FPF filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out. Read about this story and more in the latest edition of our secrecy newsletter, The Classifieds.

It’s nearly a quarter century since the Sept. 11 attacks, yet “a substantial body of records” about the event remains classified. In theory, they should automatically be declassified when they turn 25 next year. But this won’t happen. Learn why in @laurenleharper.bsky.social’s latest article:

It's been against the law to release mugshots prior to a conviction in Utah since 2021.

ICE just released updated detention statistics. 58,766 in ICE detention facilities as of September 7, 2025. www.ice.gov/detain/deten...

Many 9/11 records should be automatically declassified next year. But a broken classification system practically ensures this won't happen. It doesn’t have to be this way. Investing in a centralized and automated solution could free 9/11 records, and many more.

Want to read the Epstein files? Or important climate reports? You’re probably going to need a FOIA office for that. Use FPF's new tool to help us tell Congress that Trump’s decimation of FOIA offices is unacceptable. Americans deserve access to their records — all of them.

FOIA offices are being decimated across federal agencies, leaving the government unable to fulfill public records requests. Don’t let this blatant attack on transparency fly under the radar. Use our new, easy tool to tell your representatives to safeguard FOIA.