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05/21/2015

Cause of Action Obtains New Documents Showing That The National Archives Feared That Hillary Clinton Might Try To Keep Her Emails Secret

Emails reveal that senior officials at NARA expressed concern privately that Mrs. Clinton would attempt to conceal her records

WASHINGTON – In December 2012, NARA Chief Records Officer Paul Wester notified several other National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) employees that NARA COO Tom Mills and NARA’s Director of the Federal Records Center Jay Trainer were concerned that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would take her records with her to the Clinton Library upon her departure from the State Department.

The information is contained in new documents that Cause of Action, a nonpartisan government transparency organization, has obtained via a series of public records requests to both NARA and the State Department.

Click here and here to view the documents

In one email, Wester stated, “Tom heard (or thought he heard) from the Clinton Library Director that there are or may be plans afoot for taking her [Mrs. Clinton’s] records from State to Little Rock.”

Wester said NARA needed “to make sure everyone leaving the Administration does not leave with Federal records,” adding that NARA was “aware of the issue and are working on it.”

Wester said Mills and Trainer “continued to invoke the specter of the Henry Kissinger experience vis-à-vis Hillary Clinton.” This is a reference to the long and litigious battle over former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s records.

In February 2015, days before the news broke that Mrs. Clinton used a personal email address during her time as Secretary of State, NARA received an inquiry from a staffer on the Congressional Benghazi committee seeking information about the State Department’s records management system. In a prepared a response that was to be sent to staffer, Wester wrote, “the State Department records management program and staff are considered very strong. NARA has awarded the State Department two Archivist Achievement Awards in Records Management in the past decade.”

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

“These records reveal that before Hillary Clinton exited the State Department, there were serious concerns about her violating federal records laws. Yet, despite knowledge by the State Department and the Archives, nothing was done about it. What’s clear is that without pressure from transparency organizations like mine, the public would never get the full story of what happened behind the scenes regarding Mrs. Clinton’s emails.”

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05/19/2015

Cause of Action Testifies Before Congress On Questionable White House Detail Program

WASHINGTON – Cause of Action Executive Director Dan Epstein testified before Congress today about CoA’s recent investigation into whether the White House may have illegally accessed confidential taxpayer information.

During a hearing held by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law, Epstein discussed Cause of Action’s finding that attorneys in the Justice Department’s Tax Division are being detailed to the White House to review the background files of potential presidential nominees.

As Epstein stated, the program raises ethical and legal questions because of these attorneys’ access to confidential taxpayer returns and return information.

“Cause of Action is concerned that this program may be a manner by which the President can be armed with information that may benefit him politically,” Epstein said.

Through a handful of Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests, Cause of Action found that the detailing of Tax Division attorneys to the White House has been unique to the current Administration. Since 2009, these attorneys, many involved in controversial matters involving confidential tax records, have served the President as “clearance counsel” – that is, vetting the President’s nominees by examining their tax records.

During its examination of these White House details, CoA found no evidence of policies, procedures, rules and/or guidelines that exist to ensure that detailed attorneys are appropriately screened to prevent confidential taxpayer returns and/or return information from being unlawfully accessed or disclosed. This means Americans’ most private information may be inappropriately disclosed to the White House.

Epstein noted two DOJ Tax Division attorneys in particular, Andrew Strelka and Norah Bringer. Prior to being assigned to White House detail, both served as trial attorneys involved in litigation concerning the IRS’s targeting of political groups.

It is known that Ms. Bringer accessed confidential taxpayer return information, and it is reasonable to assume that Mr. Strelka did the same.

“The American people deserve answers as to whether their most private information may have been shared with the White House for political gain,” Epstein told the committee.

In light of this concern, Cause of Action requested on April 15, 2015 that the DOJ Inspector General investigate the Tax Division’s practice of detailing attorneys to the White House. To date, the Inspector General has not responded to our request.

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04/15/2015

CoA Uncovers Questionable Practice between the DOJ and White House

WASHINGTON – Cause of Action, a nonprofit government accountability organization, has uncovered an ongoing practice at the Department of Justice whereby Tax Division attorneys, some of whom have worked directly on IRS targeting matters, are assigned to the White House to provide legal advice to the President.

“This ongoing practice raises ethical and legal questions because of these attorneys’ access to confidential taxpayer returns and return information,” said Cause of Action President Dan Epstein. “The public deserves to know whether ethical and legal safeguards have been in place to prevent taxpayer information from getting into the wrong hands — especially when those who access that information work in the White House.”

In order to determine whether such proper safeguards exist, we are today submitting a series of public records requests.

In particular, we’re seeking information about whether appropriate legal and ethical safeguards are in place at both the Office of White House Counsel, as well as the DOJ, to ensure that detailed attorneys are appropriately screened to prevent confidential taxpayer returns and/or return information protected under Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code from being unlawfully accessed or disclosed.

Read the Freedom of Information Act requests we are filing, as well as the letter we are sending to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz below.

CoA DOJ OIG Letter by Cause of Action

FOIA’s:

2015-4-15 FOIA Request ODAG

CoA FOIA Request DOJ-JMD re OWHC Details

CoA FOIA Request DOJ-OPR re OWHC Details

CoA FOIA Request DOJ-PRAO re OWHC Details

CoA FOIA Request DOJ-Tax re OWHC Details

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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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03/17/2015

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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03/16/2015

Treasury, Education and Homeland Security Departments Receive Failing Grades On FOIA Responsiveness

State Department gets a “D”, and is getting worse”

Cause of Action’s 2015 Grading the Government Report Card assigns grades to all 15 cabinet departments for their average response times in fiscal year 2014 to requests submitted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Eleven out of the fifteen agencies received a “C” or worse letter grade, with the Departments of Treasury, Homeland Security, and Education each receiving an “F” because they failed to comply with FOIA in submitting the required information. The State Department, which recently displayed its flawed approach to records retention in connection with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails, received a “D” grade.

“Our oversight mission – which focuses on transparency, and accountability in the Federal government – depends upon agency compliance with FOIA,” said Cause of Action Executive Director Dan Epstein. “Based on our findings over the past three years, Cause of Action has no reason to believe that agency performance under FOIA has improved, which is simply unacceptable to taxpayers who deserve a government that operates in the open.”

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE REPORT CARD

Cause of Action assigned letter grades to each agency by comparing information reported in annual agency reports against the required response time under the law. Seven agencies – the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, and Justice – received a “C” or “D” grade; only the Departments of the Interior, Veteran Affairs, Commerce, and Labor received an “A” or “B” grade.

Interestingly, Cause of Action’s reports over the past three years show that the State Department’s efforts are getting worse, and that the Treasury Department continues to be among the worst agencies on this issue.

 

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