Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

I’m Lauren Harper, the first Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), and welcome to The Classifieds. Read on to learn about this week’s top secrecy news.

FPF asks for emergency court intervention to preserve Trump records

This week, FPF — along with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the American Historical Association, and American Oversight — sought an emergency preliminary injunction to stop the Trump administration from ignoring the Presidential Records Act. Our goal is to stop the administration from dismantling the system that preserves America’s historical record.

This legal fight was made necessary by a radical April 1 Justice Department memo declaring the PRA, which allows for the eventual disclosure of presidential records to the public, unconstitutional, and claiming the president no longer needs to abide by it. One day after this memo was released, the White House issued a records preservation policy so inadequate that it all but ensures that records won’t be created or saved.

This directly threatens public access to records ranging from President Donald Trump’s first-term “love letters” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, to internal communications regarding the current military actions against Iran and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. And the threat doesn’t end with Trump: If the memo and the White House’s insufficient records policies stand, every future president, Democrat or Republican, gets to operate in secret.

This effectively privatizes history, and gives one person the ability to determine what becomes part of the American story. It also gives the president a blank check to destroy or even sell millions of White House records at any point — and the concerns there, including over national security — should be obvious. By fighting this in court, we’re trying to prevent any president, now or in the future, from operating in total secrecy.

FPF event focuses on tips and tricks from former FOIA officials

I recently hosted an online panel featuring three former Freedom of Information Act officials, who shared insider strategies for navigating the FOIA process. The discussion covered practical advice for journalists seeking government documents and explored how newsrooms can responsibly integrate artificial intelligence to streamline FOIA requests. If you missed the live event, you can watch the recording here.

What I'm reading

Trump releases UFO files, says public can judge for themselves

The Washington Post

Multiple agencies, from NASA to the Defense Department, have begun publishing documents concerning what the U.S. government calls unidentified anomalous phenomena in response to a directive from Trump. While a 2023 law already required the disclosures, it remains unclear how many releases are new, and how many documents remain secret. The release comes after Trump accused former President Barack Obama of revealing classified information when Obama said that aliens were real on a podcast.

Trump exempted some of the nation’s biggest polluters from air quality rules. All it took was an email

ProPublica

ProPublica used FOIA requests to get 3,000 pages of emails from the Environmental Protection Agency showing how easy it has been for coal and chemical executives to exempt their plants from compliance with the Clean Air Act. One executive, whose plant mines energy for bitcoin, argued the exemption was necessary for U.S. national security. The White House did not consult EPA scientists when approving the exemptions.

DOGE pitched AI-fueled ‘regulation extermination’ tool to HUD

FedScoop

FOIA requests filed by Democracy Forward spurred the release of documents detailing the Department of Government Efficiency’s use of an AI tool, SweetREX, to “exterminate” regulations across the Department of Housing and Urban Development, despite concerns the tool couldn’t properly assess compliance. It’s not yet clear if any regulations were amended or rescinded based on SweetREX’s recommendations.

FOIA news: Federal jury convicts Alexandria man on charges relating to the deletion of U.S. government databases

FOIA Advisor

Sohaib Akhter, one of the twin brothers accused of deleting at least 96 government databases after learning he’d been fired by the government contractor he worked for, has been convicted by a federal jury. The contractor, Opexus, runs FOIAXpress, a case management system used by roughly 80% of federal agencies. It hired Akhter and his brother Muneeb Akhter even though they had previously been convicted for hacking the State Department. Sohaib Akhter faces a maximum of 21 years in prison; his sentencing is scheduled for September 9.

Transparently yours,

Lauren Harper

Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy
Freedom of the Press Foundation