The Freedom of Information Act is one of the most powerful public transparency tools at our disposal, allowing reporters and the public to pry open the inner workings of government to hold it accountable. FOIA requests for emails and other documents have provided evidence of the Trump administration’s corruption and incompetence, and embarrassing FOIA revelations were likely what led to the resignations of EPA administrator Scott “used Trump hotel mattress” Pruitt and DOI head Ryan “$139,000 door” Zinke.
Which is exactly why, in the wake of their leaving, Pruitt and Zinke’s replacements have sought to clamp down on the public’s ability to FOIA records. After looking into the FBI’s notoriously restrictive approach last August, and receiving ample criticism that prevented some proposed changes last November, DOI secretary Bernhardt signed a Secretarial Order this week making changes to how the department handles FOIA requests.
As you may remember, last year the DOI’s chief lawyer, former Koch employee Daniel Jorjani, faced scrutiny during his Senate confirmation for his heavy-handed involvement in FOIA decisions, and his potentially perjurious evasions of direct questioning about that involvement, which has traditionally been entrusted to non-political career staff.
With this decree, Bernhardt has basically turned the FOIA office over to Jorjani by establishing a new “litigation unit” and putting him at its head. As Jennifer Yachnin at E&E reports, this new office will put all the department’s FOIA personnel in different branches under Jorjani’s leadership, and empower him to guide the process and punish those who stray.
In effect, Center for Western Priorities’ Aaron Weiss told Yachnin, this allows Jorjani to “assert even more control over the release of public documents, especially any that might end up being damaging to him or Secretary Bernhardt.”
Weiss was even more succinct on Twitter, writing that “basically, it makes it much harder for departmental FOIA officers to follow the law and do things that Jorjani doesn’t like.”
Putting someone who was one of the Koch’s highest paid employees in charge of how the department handles FOIAs is the closest Bernhardt can get to the sorts of reforms he wants without having to make formal changes to the rules.
Though it would perhaps be naive to believe that Republicans will push back on this move, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. After all, if these changes are permanent, then it would mean a Democractic administration could also have a political appointee, instead of career staff, in charge of making these decisions. Given how intent conservative media was in trying to manufacture scandals in the Obama administration, this move would make it even harder for them to do so in the future.
And what’s that saying? What’s good FOIA goose is good FOIA gander?