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 misleading Freedom of Information Act statistics, how the world’s largest transparency project may now be in jeopardy, and more of this week’s top secrecy news stories.

Justice Department says government released 93.72% of FOIA records in 2024

The Justice Department office in charge of FOIA compliance, the Office of Information Policy, has released its government-wide FOIA report card. To the surprise of FOIA requesters everywhere, DOJ reports that the government released 93.72% of all “substantively processed” FOIA requests last year.

This misleading figure is obtained by counting heavily redacted documents as “partial releases,” and excluding requests that agencies wrongfully deny or close because they can’t find the records, among other spurious reasons.

The whitewashing isn’t new. OIP regularly publishes misleading FOIA statistics, to the point that Rep. Jason Chaffetz once told erstwhile OIP director Melanie Pustay that she must be living in “la-la-land” if she believed her own reporting.

But the report did contain some new information, most notably that FOIA requesters are submitting considerably more FOIA appeals than they used to. This is an excellent development because the government often releases more information on appeal.

White House move threatens world’s largest transparency project

The White House recently terminated the entire membership of the State Department’s Historical Advisory Committee.

HAC is a group of independent historians that oversee the declassification of the Foreign Relations of the United States series, arguably the world’s largest transparency effort that the State Department is statutorily obligated to publish “no later than 30 years after the events that they document.”

The FRUS is also required to be a “thorough, accurate, and reliable” record of US foreign policy, but dismantling HAC will make it easier for the government to publish false or incomplete narratives about relationships with adversaries and allies alike, which will undermine efforts of current and future policymakers.

Upcoming FRUS volumes that will be impacted by the lack of independent voices will include those covering:

  • The collapse of the Soviet Union
  • The Gulf War
  • The formation of the European Union
  • The Rwandan genocide
  • The Afghan Civil Wars and the rise of the Taliban
  • The al-Qaida bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya

The Classified Catalog

In its first 100 days, the Trump administration deleted thousands of datasets, shut down agency FOIA offices, used disappearing messaging applications that destroyed federal records, and mass-fired agency watchdogs.

It’s hard to imagine what the next 1350 days of the administration will hold, but it’s a good bet that even more secrets will be kept, more information will be destroyed, and more officials will be censored. This will prevent the public from meaningfully debating domestic policies from climate and health issues to foreign affairs.

To help combat this rising government secrecy, Freedom of the Press Foundation launched a secrecy news tracker, called The Classified Catalog, that will help journalists, FOIA requesters, and members of Congress keep track of Trump’s assault on our right to know — and fight back.

On a related note, I joined Seth Stern, FPF’s advocacy director, this week on a special edition of The Dissenter’s podcast to talk with host Kevin Gosztola about Trump’s attacks on transparency and press freedom during the first 100 days and what we expect looking ahead. Check out the podcast here.

What I’m reading

The legal battle for DOGE transparency (Columbia Journalism Review). Kyle Paoletta has a good piece on how civil society groups are fighting for access to government records. As I told Paoletta, “More transparency means less corruption and potential for state capture. It’s an existential issue, and not one that our federal records laws or the people in the bureaucracy are equipped to deal with when you’re facing someone who moves as quickly as Elon Musk.”

Trump administration ignores watchdogs amid 39 funding investigations, GAO says (Politico). The Office of Management and Budget is not complying with oversight requests from the Government Accountability Office, which is Congress’ watchdog agency and the supreme audit institution of the United States. In a serious country, agencies would ignore Elon Musk and respond to the comptroller general.

DHS removed 100+ civil rights and civil liberties records (Project on Government Oversight). Nick Schwellenbach saved and backed up 160 Department of Homeland Security investigative records from the department’s civil rights watchdog before they disappeared from the agency’s website in February. The records date from 2014 through 2024 and primarily involve complaints about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. All of the saved records are available on POGO’s website.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time.

Transparently yours,

Lauren Harper

Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy
Freedom of the Press Foundation