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.
Start prepping your Trump first-term FOIAs
President Donald Trump’s first-term records will be subject to Freedom of Information Act requests on Jan. 20, 2026, at which point requesters should be able to visit either FOIA.gov or the official Trump presidential library website (not to be confused with the Trump museum/hotel potentially being built in Miami) to submit their FOIAs. But in practice, it remains unclear if any first-term records will see the light of day, as Trump has famously demonstrated a complete disregard for records preservation laws.
The records, at least the ones Trump didn’t successfully shred or flush down the toilet, are currently housed at a National Archives and Records Administration facility near Washington, D.C. NARA plays a key role in accessing and reviewing presidential records that are subject to FOIA, but Trump’s unwarranted firing of senior leadership there last year, as well as budget cuts to the already strapped agency, may slow or otherwise compromise potential releases.
None of this should dissuade requesters, however. FOIA will be an important tool in uncovering the Trump White House’s communications on key first-term issues, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the 2020 election.
The secret legal justification for Venezuela military action
For the second time in recent months, reports have confirmed the existence of classified legal rationale justifying the Trump administration’s potential illegal military actions. The latest Office of Legal Counsel memo allegedly sanctions the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and co-indictee, Cilia Flores. Earlier reports uncovered the existence of a separate opinion justifying the lethal targeting of alleged drug boats.
Both documents should be made public immediately. FPF has filed FOIA requests for each, but also calls on members of Congress with access to these memos to make them public by reading them into the Congressional Record.
FPF, 404 Media FOIA suit reveals scope of ICE access to Medicaid data
A FOIA lawsuit brought by FPF and 404 Media recently unveiled the data-sharing agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that authorizes Immigration and Customs Enforcement to access data for nearly 80 million Medicaid recipients. FPF and 404 brought the suit after our initial FOIA requests were ignored. The agreement shows the extent of the personal details ICE sought access to, such as banking information — including routing numbers, account types, and account numbers — IP addresses, and Social Security numbers.
In December, a federal judge ruled that ICE could use the data in deportation cases beginning on Jan. 6, 2026.
John Cusack: Remove paywalls for FOIA-based reporting
Activist, FPF board member, and actor John Cusack sat down for a Q&A with Columbia Journalism Review about removing paywalls for FOIA-based reporting.
“There’s an irony in the fact that FOIA-based reporting often ends up behind a paywall, because the public owns government records. We fund their creation through taxes, and we fund the agencies that produce them,” Cusack said. “So when the journalist files a FOIA request, the story is the product of public investment.”
He went on to add: “Now, this is not an argument against paying journalists, or that the realities of the journalism business aren’t fraught. I get that part of it. Newsrooms need to survive. But the news isn’t just a business. It’s enshrined in the First Amendment.”
What I’m reading
NASA’s largest library is closing amid staff and lab cuts
NASA has closed its largest research library, located at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Agency officials will take the next 60 days to review which of the facility’s massive holdings will either be stored or thrown away. All of the library’s holdings are federal records and must be preserved in accordance with their records schedules, and such a short time frame for reviewing the extensive collections should raise serious concerns that records may be unlawfully destroyed.
EPA’s December website edits cap off yearlong assault on climate info
The Environmental Protection Agency took down at least 80 web pages that discussed climate change, its impacts, and its causes. Despite the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive efforts to hide and destroy climate information, “the planet is changing,” says climate and transparency researcher Rachel Santarsiero. “Temperatures are going up, seas are rising, and storms are getting more extreme.”
DHS trades paper FOIA requests for digital filings
DHS recently issued a new rule stating that, with limited exceptions, it will no longer accept paper FOIA requests. The rule’s purported intent is to make the FOIA intake process more efficient, although it’s possible it will ultimately allow DHS to simply deny more FOIA requests more quickly.
Transparently yours,
Lauren Harper
Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy
Freedom of the Press Foundation
