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Weekly Rundown 8-28-2015

August 28, 2015 by

Cause of Action in the News:

Daily Caller – Watchdog Wins Big FOIA Decision In Federal Appeals Court

Cause of Action has won a major victory for government transparency!  The courts have agreed that it isn’t right for government agencies to use expensive fees to pick and choose who is and who isn’t “a representative of the news media”.  Federal agencies would use this refuse FOIA request fee exemptions and stop smaller/lesser known news outlets and reporters, making them pay the very expensive FOIA fees.  Thanks to this victory, more people have access to the government documents that rightfully belong to the American people.

Daily Mail – Former attorney general says classified email scandal ‘disqualifies’ Hillary Clinton from serving as president – IF she’s prosecuted for breaking federal law

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey says that by law Hillary Clinton should be disqualified from being president if she unlawfully destroyed government records.  Cause of Action Executive Director Dan Epstein said “The manner in which former Secretary Clinton stored official email correspondence during her tenure as Secretary of State, and her conduct with those emails subsequent to her resignation, trigger applicable laws and regulations relating to federal records and also raise criminal concerns. At least one applicable penalty is the disqualification from holding the office of President.”

In Other News:

Washington Times – IRS finds yet another Lois Lerner email account (‘Toby Miles’ account linked to government business)

It has been discovered that Lois Lerner was using an email address under the name “Toby Miles”.  This is at least the third email that Lerner was using in addition to her government email and another personal email.  This information was revealed years after the IRS targeting scandal started.

Daily Caller – Clinton’s New Three-Pronged Strategy To Respond To Email Scandal Doesn’t Even Address Emails, Server

Hillary Clinton has a strategy to win back the trust of the people, but not talk about what is the biggest concern the people have.  The former secretary of state plans on educating people on the process of how a document is classified.  Then she wants to focus on the issues, her private server not being one of them.  And finally Mrs. Clinton will actively attempt to defend her time as secretary of state.  With her having to change her story so many times, maybe that’s just easier.

NY Post – Caroline Kennedy used private email for government business

Although the State Department defends our ambassador to Japan, Inspector General Steve Linick reported, “confirmed that senior embassy staff used personal email accounts to send and receive messages containing official business.” The Inspector General confirmed that Ambassador Kennedy was using a personal email account in an official capacity.

Wall Street Journal – The EPA’s Own Email Problem (Another government employee, another private account, another crashed hard drive.)

That’s right, another government email scandal.  Phillip North, a biologist for the Environmental Protection Agency, was using a private email to conduct EPA business to ensure results fell in line with his own personal beliefs.  Instead of being the unbiased scientist, Mr. North used a private email account to advance his own agenda and has since left the country.

Filed Under: Blog

Cause of Action Scores Victory Against IRS: Federal Judge Says Agency Can’t Use Laws Meant To Protect Taxpayers To Protect Itself

August 28, 2015 by

Media Contact: Geoff Holtzman | geoff.holtzman@causeofaction.org | 703-405-3511

WASHINGTON — In a significant victory for transparency advocates, a federal judge today ordered the IRS to turn over potential requests that the White House may have made to the agency in search of private taxpayer information.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that the IRS cannot hide behind taxpayer confidentiality laws, known as section 6103 of the tax code, in order to refuse to say whether those records may exist.

Cause of Action Executive Director Dan Epstein issued the following statement in response to today’s ruling:

“As we have said all along, this administration cannot misinterpret the law in order to potentially hide evidence of wrongdoing. No administration is above the law, and we are pleased that the court has sided with us on this important point.”

In her opinion, Judge Berman Jackson wrote:

“Congress amended section 6103 in 1976 ‘in the wake of Watergate and White House efforts to harass those on its ‘enemies list,’’ in order to ‘restrict[] government officers and employees from revealing ‘any return’ or ‘return information,’’ and its ‘core purpose’ is to ‘protect[] taxpayer privacy.’

“So, this Court questions whether section 6103 should or would shield records that indicate that confidential taxpayer information was misused, or that government officials made an improper attempt to access that information.

“The IRS argues that ‘section 6103’s definition of ‘return information’ . . . makes no distinction based on the purpose for which a person might seek disclosure of the documents.’ But accepting this argument would require a finding that even requests for return information that could involve a violation of section 6103 constitute ‘return information’ that is exempt from disclosure under FOIA Exemption 3 and section 6103.

“The Court is unwilling to stretch the statute so far, and it cannot conclude that section 6103 may be used to shield the very misconduct it was enacted to prohibit.”

BACKGROUND

Cause of Action filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (“TIGTA”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) to discover any records of an investigation into whether unauthorized officials at the White House may have illegally accessed private taxpayer information.

We sent this FOIA after TIGTA admitted that it had launched such a review in response to a letter from six Republican senators. However, TIGTA’s forthcoming report was never released to the senators or the public.

Our FOIA request to both agencies was then divided into two separate FOIA lawsuits; one against the IRS and one against TIGTA. The court’s holding today requires the IRS to go back and search for records that it previously tried to shield from disclosure.

Filed Under: Media, Press Release

Weekly Rundown 8-14-2015

August 14, 2015 by

Cause of Action in the News:

Wall Street Journal – Opinion Journal: Hillary Email Scandal: What’s Next?

Watch Cause of Action’s executive director Dan Epstein talk about the Hillary Clinton email scandal with Mary Kissel on Opinion Journal.

National Law Journal – Clinton Email Saga Means Work for Big Law

Clinton has defended her use of a private email server to conduct official business. Several judges are overseeing lawsuits in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia over access to those emails as well as emails and other records from former Clinton staffers at the State Department. They’ve expressed frustration with the department’s speed in making documents public. Government watchdog groups Judicial Watch and Cause of Action filed a lawsuit earlier this year accusing the State Department of violating federal recordkeeping laws.

The Hill – Turmoil mounts surrounding Clinton emails

According to Cause of Action’s Dan Epstein Hillary Clinton is setting herself up to be a “cooperating witness for a potentially larger criminal investigation beyond Ms. Clinton herself.” Hillary Clinton is attempting to shrug off the fact that classified emails have been found that were held on her private server.

Washington Free Beacon – Cronyism Lawsuit Against Energy Department’s $25 Billion Green Energy Program Advances (Federal judge rules ‘political favoritism’ lawsuit against DOE can proceed)

“For the first time, a federal district court has confirmed there is a legal remedy when cronyism influences federal administrative discretionary spending. This groundbreaking opinion establishes that the government owes everyone—not just presidential campaign donors—a fair shake when awarding government funds.” Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action sums up the court’s decision to allow our lawsuit against the Department of Energy to continue.

In other news:

Washington Post – Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server turned over to FBI

The e-mail server used by Hillary Rodham Clinton when she served as secretary of state was turned over to the FBI late Wednesday afternoon from a private data center in New Jersey, according to an attorney familiar with the transfer.

Fast Company – TECH GIANTS: HERE’S WHAT THE FTC MEANS BY “COMPETITION”

THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION (SORT OF) EXPLAINS HOW EXACTLY IT DEFINES ANTI-TRUST BEHAVIOR. This may be good news for leading tech firms: For the first time in more than a century, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has defined what “competition” means and what constitutes “anti-competitive behavior.” The decision is significant for companies like Google, Facebook, Intel, and Apple, which have all received unwanted scrutiny from the FTC—though it may not clear things up as much as they would like.

Fox News – Watchdog accuses OPM of hindering hack investigation

The Office of Personnel Management has intentionally slowed the investigation looking into the data breach of millions of federal employees claims the OPM inspector general.  Inspector General Patrick McFarland has said that he is no longer sure that the OPM chief information officer is “acting in good faith”.

Filed Under: Media, News

Weekly Rundown 7-30-2015

July 30, 2015 by

Cause of Action in the News:

Wall Street Journal – Forcing Hillary’s Emails Into the Open (Why we’re suing to make the government do what it seems disinclined to do: get to the bottom of this murky matter.)

Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action, wrote in the Wall Street Journal to better explain what we are trying to achieve in our suit for the turnover of Hillary Clinton’s emails. He describes how our approach is different and how we continue to strive for accountability for those in government. We feel that it is important that the government unravels this “murky matter” and be honest with the American people.

Daily Caller – Non-Profit Watchdog Wants Probe Of Biggest Tax-Return Leak Ever

Cause of Action continues to stand up for the American people and protect against the government’s abuse of taxpayer information. We have challenged the Treasury and Justice Departments to investigate the handover of more than one million pages of confidential tax information that should not have been released.

In other news:

Politico – Report: Criminal probe urged over Clinton email use at State

The Justice Department has received evidence from at least one inspector general regarding the emails that Hillary Clinton sent as Secretary of State from a private server. This new information may eventually lead to a criminal investigation in Clinton’s actions.

Washington Post – OPM to federal agencies: We got hacked, but you have to help pay for the response

After the Office of Personnel Management failed to protect the personal information of millions of employees (including contractors and military personnel) they have demanded that other government agencies donate to the cleanup. In addition agencies have been asked to pay for the monitoring and protection offered to those effected by the breach.

The Hill – Cruz calls for abolishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Senator Ted Cruz says that the agency is not checked as it grows in influence. Many businesses are burdened by the additional regulations imposed on them by the CFPB, causing them to focus on meeting regulatory requirements instead of their customers. Senator Cruz says that the only way to stop this abuse of power is to totally dispose of the CFPB.

Fox News – EPA ‘secret science’ under the microscope as GOP lawmakers seek ban

The Environmental Protection Agency bases many of its regulations on studies that they have actively kept from the American people. The agency, while claiming to support transparency, claim that there are many issues that get in the way of releasing the data of the studies. This unknown data is what has led to the most costly regulations imposed by the EPA. New legislation would require that all pertinent research be available to the public when certain rules are delivered. The opposition claims that this legislation would hinder the ability of the EPA.

Filed Under: Media, News

The Government is STILL Watching You

June 26, 2015 by

Cause of Action demands the Treasury Department stop collecting user location data online

WASHINGTON – Cause of Action, a nonpartisan government accountability organization, has submitted a letter to the Treasury Department requesting it cease the unauthorized collection of users’ location data online and investigate the program. Additionally, CoA has requested all relevant information on this data collection through a Freedom of Information Act.

While performing its oversight work recently, Cause of Action utilized a Bureau of the Fiscal Service (“BFS”) website under the control of the United States Department of the Treasury to conduct research.

We were surprised to find that when we attempted to access the Treasury Financial Manual located at tfm.fiscal.treasury.gov, the website prompted us to allow it access to the our current location.  We were presented with a message stating the website “wants to track [the user’s] physical location,” and required us to choose to allow the Treasury Department to access our location or to not allow.

“In light of an unprecedented data breach at the Office of Personnel Management that affected as many as 18 million people, and the subsequent White House cover-up, it goes without saying this new discovery of more government data collection is incredibly troubling,” Cause of Action Executive Director Dan Epstein said. “We have dedicated ourselves to finding out what is going on behind the government curtain and continue to be amazed at the woefully failed White House pledge to run the ‘most transparent’ administration in U.S. history.”

Cause of Action believes that the location access request by Bureau of the Fiscal Service constitutes an unwarranted invasion of privacy, could discourage individuals from accessing government information, and is unlawful under applicable statutes, regulations, guidance, and policy. We are concerned that BFS is collecting data on the location of website users without any proper authority.

Cause of Action has requested that the Treasury Department cease the unauthorized collection of information at tfm.fiscal.treasury.gov, review the propriety of this collection of information, and submit this matter to the Office of the Inspector General for investigation.

CLICK HERE TO READ OUR FOIA REQUEST

CLICK HERE TO READ OUR REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION

Filed Under: Press Release Tagged With:

Daily Caller: IRS Finds 6,400 New Lois Lerner Emails…Gives DUMBEST EXCUSE YET For Not Releasing Them

June 14, 2015 by

Read the full story: Daily Caller

The Internal Revenue Service found 6,400 more Lois Lerner emails — but they’re not handing them over in court.

The IRS’ latest excuses are nothing short of infuriating.  Department of Justice lawyers Geoffrey J. Klimas and Stephanie Sasarak, acting as counsel for the IRS, submitted a U.S. District Court filing June 12 in the case Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service. The court filing, provided to The Daily Caller, claims the IRS received new Lerner emails from the Treasury Department’s inspector general (TIGTA) but can’t fork over the emails to Judicial Watch, a nonprofit group suing to get the emails. Why? Because the IRS is busy making sure that none of the emails are duplicates  – you know, so as not to waste anyone’s time.  However, the inspector general already made sure that none of the emails were duplicates, so the IRS’ latest excuse falls flat. Here are takeaways from the court filing….

TIGTA gave the IRS 6,400 Lerner emails that they recovered from backup tapes:…. TIGTA already checked for duplicate emails:… But the IRS is going to go ahead and do some “deduplication” anyway, just to make sure TIGTA de-duplicated correctly:…

The deduplication might take a long time:…

The IRS isn’t going to start de-duplicating the emails it has until AFTER it reviews “Lerner communications which were not forensically recovered.” In other words, they’re going to review Lerner emails that they DON’T HAVE before they look at the ones that they DO have:…

The legal advocacy group Cause of Action is also encountering ridiculous excuses in its own lawsuit to get Lerner’s emails. Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew, Obama’s former White House chief of staff, seized all of the emails that went back and forth between the IRS and the White House and won’t hand them over, arguing that since confidential taxpayer information was illegally disclosed in the emails, then it would be illegal to make the emails public – since they have confidential taxpayer information in them. Get it?

Filed Under: News Tagged With:

Documents Obtained by Cause of Action Show that Officials Worried About Hillary’s Emails But Took No Action

June 4, 2015 by

Earlier this year, Cause of Action sought documents from the State Department OIG and the National Archives and Record Administration (“NARA”) regarding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server to conduct official State Department business.

The State Department OIG claimed that there were no responsive documents to our FOIA requests from Harold Geisel’s tenure as the department’s Acting Inspector General.

[Letter from Erich O. Hart, General Counsel, Dep’t of State OIG to Cause of Action (May 15, 2015)]

NARA, however, confirmed that responsive OIG records existed, though it claimed exemption(s) over any such document(s).

[PDF pp. 1-2: Letter from Joseph A. Scanlon, FOIA Officer, NARA to Cause of Action (May 20, 2015)]

Emails show that, as early as 2012, NARA officials were concerned that Mrs. Clinton might alienate federal records from government control.

[PDF p. 3: E-mail from Paul M. Wester, Jr., Chief Records Officer, NARA to Margaret Hawkins, NARA, et al. (Dec. 11, 2012)]

By 2012, the State Department had replaced its outdated cable communication system with the State Messaging and Archive Retrieval Toolset (“SMART”), which “contains an email management component for capturing record email.”

[Politico: Dep’t of State, Summary Current State of Records Management at the State Department, at 2 (Mar. 27, 2012) http://images.politico.com/global/2015/03/18/statenara2012.pdf]

SMART is supposed to operate so that when “Department personnel send cables and record emails, a copy of the message is automatically sent to the Department’s official archive, which is an enterprise-wide electronic repository.”

[Politico: Dep’t of State, Summary Current State of Records Management at the State Department, at 2 (Mar. 27, 2012) http://images.politico.com/global/2015/03/18/statenara2012.pdf]

Since 2009, however, NARA consistently identified problems with the SMART system as a permanent recordkeeping system at the State Department, but no action was taken to address the issues.

[PDF p. 148: Email from David Langbart, NARA to Michael Kurtz, NARA (Nov. 2, 2009) (discussing major problems with SMART’s technical handling of email attachments)]

NARA also was aware of the failures across the State Department to retain record emails.

[PDF p. 152: Email from David Langbart, NARA to Michael Kurtz, NARA (Jan. 22, 2010) (discussing problems with State employees not properly using SMART’s “record email” retention function)]

Despite this awareness, NARA, under then-acting IG James E. Springs, failed to secure Mrs. Clinton’s emails in July 2014, although it had the opportunity, as implied in meeting notes between NARA and State.

[PDF pp. 54-57: NARA – State Dep’t Meeting Notes, eRSC Meeting (July 14, 2014) (noting that rollout should “move in to [deputy secretary] on to the Office of the Secretary” and “[a]ll submitted to NARA by Dec. 2016”; explaining that senior officials’ emails serve as a “catchers mitt” to preserve departing officials emails)]

During that same July 2014 meeting between NARA and State, NARA notes, “program office using gmail with no r/k system — Must be maintained in r/k system *which should be the eRSC*” The handwritten notes even indicate, “adoption of Google Aps at DOI has almost been a total disaster.”

[PDF p. 53: NARA – State Dep’t Meeting Notes, eRSC Meeting (July 14, 2014)]

In October 2014, NARA had reason to know that the State Department was seeking a legal justification for noncompliance with applicable regulations relating to email records.

[PDF p. 58: Email from William P. Fischer, Agency Records Officer, Office of Info. Programs & Servs., Dep’t of State to Lisa Haralampus, NARA, et al. (Oct. 20, 2014) (Former NARA official W. Fischer seeking “to ensure that whatever we say is consistent with law and regulation” with respect to a “Draft Email Policy”);

[PDF p. 59:  Email from Paul M. Wester, Jr., Chief Records Officer, NARA to Gary M. Stern, Gen. Counsel, NARA, et al. (Mar. 2, 2015) (forwarding discussions about Clinton’s email use, reflecting concerns about Mr. Fischer’s attempt to justify what was later to be disclosed as Clinton’s potential alienation or destruction of federal records).

In February 2015, weeks before news emerged revealing Hillary Clinton had been using a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State, the State Department sent a memo to NARA that would suggest State and NARA were both aware of email preservation issues with State Department Senior Officials.

The memo alerted NARA that the State Department had recently issued guidelines “reminding [Senior Officials] of their overall records management responsibilities, including e-mail, and issued a directive to preserve electronically the e-mail of Senior Officials upon their departure from the Department.”

[Letter from DOS Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy to NARA Archivist David Ferrerio (February 2, 2015)  http://foia.state.gov/_docs/Records/FY2014%20Senior%20Agency%20Official%20for%20Records%20Management%20Annual%20Report.pdf]

Given NARA’s stated concerns with SMART, its knowledge in 2012, its opportunity to remedy in 2014, and its knowledge of the State Department’s efforts to remedy the process in February 2015, NARA either was aware of the failure to preserve Hillary Clinton’s emails or was extremely negligent in its efforts to monitor the preservation of senior officials’ emails.

Filed Under: Press Release Tagged With: