Comment by tremon
5 days ago
That's interesting, given that as an official government department they're subject to FOIA requests and as such have an obligation to persist their documentation.
5 days ago
That's interesting, given that as an official government department they're subject to FOIA requests and as such have an obligation to persist their documentation.
They declared that the DOGE stuff is official presidential records and thus not subject to FOIA.
https://www.businessinsider.com/musk-doge-records-public-inf...
Sometimes, the simplest explanation is the right one: they're fascists and the rules are not applicable to them.
> They declared that the DOGE stuff is official presidential records and thus not subject to FOIA.
which is pretty absurd and you would need to have a really corrupt court IMHO for this to hold up
The same one that declared that presidents are above the law and that the insurrection clause of the 14th amendment is basically meaningless? The one that slow-walked a bunch of cases related to presidential crimes?
I don't think it's actually hopeless - they have constrained him at times. But I would also avoid getting my hopes up.
Presidential Records Act is quite strong about capturing all records & releasing them. But after a 5 year delay.
During Trump 1 there was quite a habit of ripping up papers by the president. So there were some dudes hired to go take the ripped up papers and tape them back together. Really looking forwards to seeing some of those next year! https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/10/trump-papers-filin...
I suspect that what's happening is flagrantly incredibly evil & immoral, is a heinous crime against democracy. The people need to be ae to see what governments do and are, need to have some chance to learn and see what their governments really do. My dear is that the Presidential Records Act is being thrown out the window by these folks, that we will have nearly no record of so much of what this administration & it's "advisors" (Musk) do.
The National Archives and Records Administration doesn't currently have an Archivist. Trump fired the previous head a week and a half ago. The deputy head then retired over the weekend. It is currently sort of headed by Marco Rubio. He put Jim Byron, the President & CEO of the Richard Nixon Foundation in charge of it part time.
Trump seems to have it out for NARA since they originally reported the missing classified documents that Trump refused to return. I would not expect records to be kept in the manner they have been in previous administrations.
If you think they're going to follow FOIA law I have a bridge to sell you.
* Unless you're secretary of state.
What happened in that case, and do you believe the same standard should be applied currently?
In that case a corrupt politician with lots to hide was able to keep their crimes hidden using the secret service (who defended her house). I do not think that standard should be applied to anyone, ever.
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