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.
Weaponization of the classification system continues
The FBI raided warmonger John Bolton’s home on Friday morning, allegedly searching for classified information.
As of this writing, the raid appears to be a continuation of the fight over Bolton’s 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” which is sharply critical of President Donald Trump. At the time, White House lawyers and the Justice Department made bogus claims that the book contained classified information to keep it off the shelves.
The book padded Bolton’s wallet but didn’t damage national security.
And while Bolton is loathsome, he still shouldn’t be a victim of a weaponized classification system.
Here are a few important points to remember as this story plays out:
- Overclassification is rampant, and 75% to 90% of information is overclassified. A big part of the problem is that “damage to national security” is a vague term, and most classification decisions are inherently subjective (there are limited exceptions, including for information about weapons of mass destruction).
- The president has near-exclusive control over the classification system. This makes it too easy for any administration to abuse and politicize classification. One potential fix? Congress could start regulating classification.
- Classified information is discovered “in the wild all the time,” as Nate Jones of The Washington Post points out. Usually, the government decides it can stay there.
There are plenty of valid reasons to attack John Bolton, but, at least in this case, mishandling classified information probably isn’t one of them.
And, if the government is serious about reining in mishandling of classified information rather than using it to attack the administration’s critics, then it should not pass a proposed bill that would make it easier for more people to obtain security clearances and hold onto them for longer.
CBP says it has no records about agents wearing AI glasses, even though agents wear AI glasses
404 Media recently reported that a Customs and Border Patrol agent at a June immigration raid outside of a Home Depot in Los Angeles was seen wearing the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses.
Naturally, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with CBP for documents concerning agents’ use of these devices on Friday, August 8.
Even though CBP has a backlog of over 130,000 requests and regularly takes years to respond to FOIAs, much less search for records, they were able to assure me within one business day that they’d conducted a comprehensive search and there were no documents responsive to my request.
Either CBP didn’t conduct a thorough search, or a rogue agent decided to wear personal smart glasses to an immigration raid — or both. I’ll be appealing.
What I'm Reading
Lawmakers win round in spending fight with White House
The White House was forced to restore a public website that tracks all of the funds appropriated by Congress, thanks to a lawsuit brought by nonprofit groups Protect Democracy Project and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The website has been statutorily mandated since 2022, but the White House relied “on an extravagant and unsupported theory of presidential power” to try and take it down.
ICE aims to spend millions on decked-out vehicles for D.C. operation
Immigration and Customs Enforcement claims it needs “gold-detailed vehicle wraps emblazoned with the words ‘DEFEND THE HOMELAND’” and new cars so urgently that it didn’t have time to conduct an open bidding process for the work or the vehicles. And yet, I can’t get the government to expedite the processing of my FOIA requests about its takeover of Washington’s police department because the government doesn’t believe the media has an urgent need to inform the public about its activities in the nation’s capital.
Transparently yours,
Lauren Harper
Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy
Freedom of the Press Foundation
P.S. Check out what our friends at Muckrock are working on by signing up for their newsletter, too. For the Record is MuckRock’s weekly newsletter that keeps you informed on public records transparency battles, threats and wins. Sign-up to get original reporting, access to FOIA trainings and more.
