Press

PRESS

March 16, 2009

CREW Files DOJ FOIA Request Concerning Status of White House Office of Administration

FOIA Requests (Legal Filings), Federal Agencies, Department of Justice, FOIA, The White House, Transparency, Press Releases

Washington, D.C. - Today, CREW filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) seeking a copy of an August 2007 OLC opinion concerning the status of the Office of Administration (OA) under the FOIA. OLC issued this legal memorandum while CREW was in litigation with OA over a FOIA request for documentation of the millions of missing emails from White House servers. On the same day the OLC concluded OA is no longer an agency subject to the FOIA, OA took the legal position in the litigation it was not an agency and therefore had no obligation to respond further to CREW's request. In making its request for the opinion today CREW noted DOJ had claimed in the past that the requested document is privileged, but in light of President Obama's commitment to transparency and accountability asked the agency to now release the record in response to CREW's FOIA request.

Click here to read CREW's FOIA request.
Click here to read the documents CREW received in response to this request.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions. For more information, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact Garrett Russo at 202.408.5565 or grusso@citizensforethics.org