WASHINGTON — Two presidentially-appointed inspectors general were paid about $168,000 more than the law allows from 2016 through 2020, and the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency’s Integrity Committee (“CIGIE-IC”) refused to open an investigation into the excess payments—according to a Department of Defense memorandum (“DOD memo”), confidential sources, and a whistleblower disclosure …
Challenges Improper Redactions of Answers to Senate and Incomplete Search in FOIA Case “The public has a right to learn everything it can about the NIH’s decision to delete genetic information at the request of Chinese researchers in the midst of a worldwide pandemic,” said Jason Foster. WASHINGTON — Empower Oversight filed an amended complaint today against the …
WASHINGTON —After suing the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) for documents related to potential conflicts of interest in its cryptocurrency-related enforcement decisions, Empower Oversight has obtained the first documents from the SEC as a result of this litigation under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The documents consist of emails between two now-former senior SEC officials and any …
WASHINGTON — Empower Oversight has filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking to compel it to provide documents related to the independence of Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into wrongdoing in the origins of the Trump-Russia probe and the 2016 election. At issue are two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from 2021, dated July …
WASHINGTON — Empower Oversight sent a letter to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt outlining research on the origins of COVID-19 relevant to the Attorney General’s ongoing civil suit against China, its Communist Party, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences for their roles in the global pandemic. The letter points …
UPDATE (February 11): On the afternoon of Friday, February 11, 2022, the government filed a motion (PDF) in the litigation referenced below, asking the judge for an extension of time to file its answer to the suit. WASHINGTON—Empower Oversight filed a lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking to compel the SEC to comply with several Freedom …
WASHINGTON — Empower Oversight has won a portion of its appeal of six Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking documents that would explain the extreme delays of an investigation into whistleblower retaliation and other misconduct at the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General (FHFA-OIG). New documents reveal that an independent investigative report …
WASHINGTON — Empower Oversight filed a lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) seeking to force NIH to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and disclose documents related to a request by Chinese researchers to remove genetic sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from a database controlled by NIH. In July, Empower Oversight submitted a detailed FOIA …
Grassley Thanks Whistleblower Groups Led by Empower Oversight for Supporting Coalition Letter WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) announced in a statement submitted to the U.S. Congressional Record that the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) has agreed to changes to improve whistleblower protections in the Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA). Grassley …
WASHINGTON — Joining more than 20 whistleblower groups, Empower Oversight signed on to a letter thanking the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for advancing the IG Independence and Empowerment Act (H.R. 2662) out of committee. The coalition wrote, “As reported out of committee, the IG Independence and Empowerment Act contains a number of priorities we are eager …