Justice Department Pulls Proposal Allowing Government To Lie About FOIA Requests

[kpete]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Justice Department Pulls Proposal Allowing Government To Lie About FOIA Requests

The Justice Department is withdrawing a proposed rule to the Freedom of Information Act which would have allowed federal agencies to say that certain law-enforcement and national security documents didn’t exist, even when they do.

“If the proposed regulations can be improved , we will work to improve them,” the Justice Department explained in a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). “We believe that Section 16.6(f)(2) of the proposed regulations fall short by those measures, and we will not include that provision when the Department issues final regulations.”

The regulation in question would have instructed agencies to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist.” Agencies will still continue using the phrase “there exist no records responsive to your FOIA request” when records in question are exempt from FOIA, as spelled out in a 1987 memo issued by Attorney General Ed Meese.

“When a citizen makes a request pursuant to the FOIA, either implicit or explicit in the request is that it seeks records that are subject to the FOIA; where the only records that exist are not subject to the FOIA, the statement that ‘there exist no records responsive to your FOIA request’ is wholly accurate,” the letter said.

Read more: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/justice_department_pulls_proposal_allowing_government_to_lie_about_foia_requests.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TPMmuckraker+%28TPMmuckraker%29

[Eric J in MN]

1. not much of a victory

Instead of a complete lie of "those records don't exist," we'll get the misleading "there exist no records responsive to your FOIA request."

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Yeah, but they did pull it...at least for now.

Perhaps there is the beginnings of some sensitivity public pressure, this being close to an election year.

[Demeter]

3. Now it's time to pull out the Meese Doctrine

and any offshoots thereof.

[tcaudilllg]

4. Disgraceful

But this AG is worst Dem AG ever.

[dotymed]

5. +100 but he is directly accountable to his boss.

It would be nice to get the twenty year ban on viewing the results of the investigation of war profiteering....,how fucking disgusting.

Yet "people" cannot understand why OWS has not made specific demands. Where to start? OVER!

Go OWS.

[PSPS]

6. Ed Meese lives on through "Sleepy" Holder.

[pam4water]

7. Now if they'd just pull Holder.

[defendandprotect]

8. If you want to "pull Holder" .... you have to PULL Obama ... !!!

[No Elephants]

9. WHAT THE FUCK?

Even proposing this is beyond the pale.

They really have totally forgotten that they are accountable to taxpayers for the very food on the plates of their children.

[Islandlife]

10. So the Justice Dept attempted to hold itself above the law

This can't be happening in the United States of America. The rest of the world see's what's going on. This is embarrassing.

Who do they think they are? Not the ones we were waiting for.

[Celefin]

11. The rest of the world sort of expects this kind of stuff from the US by now.

Sad, really.
It's how you do things today in the west.

20 years ago, something like this would have sent shockwaves around the globe.
Nowadays, not even arbitrary, remote controlled killings in every corner of the world raise much of an eyebrow.

The new normal.

[zogofzorkon]

12. What a complete surprise that the government needs to be allowed to lie

to actually lie.