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 the week’s top secrecy news.
Trump makes nearly $2 million by selling early access to government records
Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, reported that its revenue tripled to $3 million last quarter. Nearly two-thirds of that profit — $1.8 million — came from its new “Truth API” service, which charges Wall Street hedge funds and deep-pocketed subscribers up to $100,000 a month for advance access to President Donald Trump’s posts.
The ploy is obvious: Trump Media, in which the president is the largest shareholder, has stated that the effort is to monetize market-moving presidential statements on everything from tariffs to cabinet appointments. This could be very profitable to algorithmic traders, but it’s got a huge problem — it’s unconstitutional.
Official presidential statements concerning government business are public property, not private property that the president can use to further enrich himself, and selling preferential access to government announcements flatly violates the First and Fifth amendments. That’s why Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) and our partners at The Intercept are suing in federal court, seeking a preliminary injunction to shut down the program.
Whistleblowers warn Interior is destroying records about Trump’s building projects
After multiple whistleblowers reported that federal officials are destroying records related to Trump’s construction projects, including the ballroom and the arch, House Natural Resources Committee Democrats sent a slew of letters ordering agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service to halt the destruction and comply with federal preservation laws.
The Department of the Interior insists the claims are “100% false,” but given the administration’s flagrant disregard for record-keeping, lawmakers are right to take the threat seriously.
But letters alone are not enough. The Federal Records Act severely limits the public’s ability to sue over unlawful destruction, relying instead on senior agency officials for enforcement. Congress should amend the law to add a private right of action, giving the FRA real teeth.
The Fed’s missing phone calls
The Federal Reserve is an outlier among federal agencies: It regularly posts its leaders’ schedules online. A missing phone call between Chair Kevin Warsh and Trump demonstrates why this proactive disclosure — and the accuracy of those records — matters so much.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, agencies must proactively publish records that are frequently requested or of significant public interest. Complying with that mandate, the Fed recently posted Warsh’s September schedule in its electronic FOIA reading room.
However, the calendar does not mention a call with Trump, even though the president told reporters in mid-September that he advised Warsh on how to vote on interest rates during a phone call that month. This isn’t the first time a call has disappeared: A similar call Trump mentioned in August was also missing from that month’s calendar. And while Warsh told senators he’s simply not “in the business of sharing discussions” with the president, the calendar is still legally required to log his official business.
The Fed’s proactive release of these records made this news possible in weeks rather than months, as the average wait time for a FOIA request at the agency — even when expedited and information is granted — is 155 days. If the incoming Congress is serious about transparency, it shouldn’t stop at asking about the missing phone call. It should demand to know why other agencies routinely ignore these affirmative disclosure rules, especially when compliance would dramatically reduce agency backlogs and enable more accountability.
What I’m reading
Massachusetts voters approve public records expansion for governor, legislature
Eighty-six percent of Massachusetts voters approved a ballot measure extending the state’s public records law to the governor’s office and the legislature. Whether lawmakers comply is an open question, with Senate Majority Leader Cindy Creem saying only that “we’re working hard to consider the wishes of the voters and really also to do what our constitution needs to be done.” Gov. Maura Healey has said she will veto any attempt by the legislature to weaken the measure.
Who’s hiding secrets about Dag Hammarskjöld’s death?
The cause of the plane crash that killed United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in 1961 remains unknown. At the time, former President Harry Truman said Hammarskjöld “was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said ‘when they killed him.’” Allegations that he was assassinated in a CIA-backed plot persist, and the U.N.’s sixth investigation into the crash continues to blame the United States, Britain, and South Africa for refusing to declassify critical documents.
