Transparency groups are growing frustrated that the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) is maintaining positions in some cases previously held by the Biden administration.
Organizations like the Oversight Project, Empower Oversight and Judicial Watch are waiting for movement on dozens of pending Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) cases, expressing disappointment that the DOJ is not giving greater attention to disclosing documents related to what they believe are past examples of government weaponization or misconduct…
Empower Oversight Founder Jason Foster questioned on X in May why the DOJ was “trying to help delay and oppose transparency” on one of its pending efforts. Empower Oversight asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in April to unseal the reasons non-disclosure orders (NDOs) were approved in 2017 when the DOJ subpoenaed phone and email records of Senate Judiciary Committee staff members.
A December 2024 DOJ Office of Inspector General (OIG) report found the department’s applications relied for years “on general assertions about the need for non-disclosure” rather than providing details about the cases. Keeping the DOJ’s reasoning for the NDOs hidden has prevented the public from “from scrutinizing the claims made by DOJ,” Empower Oversight argued in a brief.
“Those applications would provide important information to Mr. Foster, Congress, and the public about the extent to which DOJ complied with its own policies, the statute governing NDOs, and the separation of powers,” Empower Oversight wrote.
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit denied in May the government’s request to put the case on hold. The case is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C.
“Moving forward, this administration should stop opposing the unsealing of the records, stop wasting our resources, as well as taxpayer resources, with litigation delay tactics, and stop hiding behind the court,” Foster said in a statement to the DCNF.
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