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Archives for March 2015

03/26/2015

Cause of Action Calls for Full Investigation Into Questionable EB-5 Visa Program

WASHINGTON – Today, Cause of Action sent a letter calling on the Chief Public Integrity Officer at the Department of Justice to immediately investigate Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Sen. Harry Reid, Governor Terry McAuliffe and potentially others.

Cause of Action’s letter comes on the heels of a new DHS Inspector General report that revealed potential fraud in a well known visa-for-cash program administered by the DHS. The Inspector General’s investigation found that Mr. Mayorkas “exerted improper influence in the normal processing and adjudication of EB-5 immigration program benefits.”

Cause of Action’s Executive Director Dan Epstein issued the following statement:

“The DHS Inspector General’s report makes it clear that federal employees were pressured to make decisions that financially or politically benefited certain applicants and left many visa applicants felling deprived of a fair process from their government.

 

This practice of using undue influence to play favorites with government resources is a potential violation of the law and that is why we are calling for a full investigation into the program.”

Read the full letter here.

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03/25/2015

Washington Times: Scandals force Hillary Clinton to delay 2016 bid announcement

Read the full story: Washington Times

The government watchdog group Cause of Action is pushing for a federal investigation into the action by Mr. Mayorkas and all others involved.

“At a minimum, there needs to be a federal investigation,” said Daniel Epstein, executive director of the group. “Alejandro Mayorkas, Harry Reid, Terry McAuliffe and the others essentially conspired to defraud the United States.”

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03/20/2015

Politico: Hillary Clinton’s State Department wanted to cut back on email saving duties

Read the full story: Politico

During Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, department officials pushed to limit the number of emails and other electronic records the agency was required to save under federal rules.

 

In a March 2012 memo responding to a call from President Barack Obama to improve federal record keeping, State’s top records manager urged streamlining the rules so that much of the routine back-and-forth of government would be beyond their reach.

 

“The vast majority of working files are of short-term value and should be disposed of quickly. In the modern era, most drafts and various other working products are circulated for comments and approvals through email or on other collaborative electronic sites,” State Records Officer Tasha Thian wrote. “Under [the National Archives and Records Administration’s] overly broad view of what constitutes a record, essentially all working materials would fall under the definition of a record, many of which are not of long-term value once the final product is completed. This results in added costs.”…

 

“She’s basically recommending that the State Department should have a lot more discretion in terms of how it preserves records. We now have really good evidence what that means is: ‘We don’t want to preserve records,’” said Cause of Action’s Dan Epstein. “That’s a recipe for violating the Federal Records Act and avoiding transparency statutes like the Freedom of Information Act.”

 

Epstein pointed to the department’s disclosure last week that it did not begin automatically archiving official email accounts of top agency leaders until recently — in most instances, just last month. The move came about six months after agency officials were advised that Clinton’s use of a private email account was likely to complicate responses to document requests from a House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks.

 

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03/17/2015

ICYMI: Agencies Submit FOIA Reports After Cause of Action Gives Them “F’s”

Just hours after Cause of Action issued failing grades to the Departments of Treasury and Education on its 2015 Grading the Government Report Card, both agencies submitted their annual Freedom of Information Act reports for fiscal year 2014.

Cause of Action President Dan Epstein issued the following statement:

“Although they missed their mandated deadline by more than six weeks, we are happy to see the Education and Treasury Departments publicize their annual FOIA reports.

 

However, we’re disappointed that it took Sunshine Week and external pressure to get these agencies to comply with the law.

 

The federal government has a duty to operate transparently, and part of that includes making sure that annual reports are released on schedule.”

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03/17/2015

Bipartisan Open Government Coalition Calls For Independent Verification Of Clinton Emails

New letter asks State Department and National Archivist to investigate

A bipartisan coalition of government accountability organizations released a letter today calling for further investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

The letter, which is addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry and National Archivist David Ferriero, asks both men to “verify that Secretary Clinton’s emails containing federal records are transferred to the Department of State in their original electronic form, so that all such emails may be accessible pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.”

“The task of determining which emails constitute federal records should not be left solely to Mrs. Clinton’s personal aides,” the letter states. “Rather, the Archivist and State Department should oversee the process to ensure its independence and objectivity. To the extent that it is ascertained that any record emails were deleted, they should be retrieved if technically possible.”

Cause of Action President Dan Epstein issued the following statement:

“Secretary Clinton’s exclusive use of a private email system during her tenure as the head of the State Department potentially violated the Federal Records Act, was a clear breach of the State Department’s internal rules governing electronic communication and may have been a deliberate attempt to circumvent public oversight,” said Cause of Action President Dan Epstein. “The only way to ensure a transparent and open government is for public officials to follow the letter of the law. Secretary Clinton failed to adhere to that standard, and that is why our coalition is asking the Secretary of State and the National Archivist to take action.”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE LETTER

The full list of co-signers includes: Cause of Action, Society of Professional Journalists, The Sunlight Foundation, Defending Dissent Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation, MuckRock, National Coalition for History, National Security Archive, National Security Counselors, OpenTheGovernment.org, Pirate Times, and Project on Government Oversight (POGO).

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03/17/2015

Politico: Groups want digital copies of Hillary Clinton emails

Read the full story: Politico

A coalition of openness, historical and journalistic organizations is asking the State Department and the National Archives to attempt to retrieve digital copies of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails.

 

In a letter sent Tuesday to current Secretary of State John Kerry and Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, the groups complain that Clinton jeopardized the integrity of important government records by conducting her official business on a private email account and returning selected emails—in response to a State Department request—almost two years after leaving office.

 

“The manner in which the former Secretary’s emails were segregated from and only later returned to the State Department can set a dangerous precedent for future agency appointees,” the groups wrote in their letter (posted here). “Because it is of the utmost importance that all of former Secretary Clinton’s emails are properly preserved and transferred back to the State Department for accountability and historical record purposes, we are asking that you verify that Secretary Clinton’s emails containing federal records are transferred to the Department of State in their original electronic form, so that all such emails may be accessible pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.”

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03/17/2015

Washington Examiner: Transparency groups want Clinton’s emails preserved electronically for public

Read the full story: Washington Examiner

A broad-based coalition of non-profit advocates for greater transparency and accountability in the federal asked Secretary of State John Kerry and Archivist of the United States David Fierro to make publicly available in electronic format all of Hillary Clinton’s private emails dealing with official business.

 

“Because it is of the utmost importance that all of former Secretary Clinton’s emails are properly preserved and transferred back to the State Department for accountability and historical record purposes, we are asking that you verify that Secretary Clinton’s emails containing federal records are transferred to the Department of State in their original electronic form, so that all such emails may be accessible pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act,” the coalition said in a letter to the officials.

 

The coalition includes Cause of Action, Defending Dissent Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation, MuckRock, National Coalition for History, National Security Archive, National Security Counselors, OpenTheGovernment.org, Pirate Times, Project on Government Oversight, Society of Professional Journalists and the Sunlight Foundation.

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