Whitehouse, Blumenthal, Schiff File FOIA Requests to Break Through Trump Administration Stonewalling

Trump administration has sought to evade accountability by repeatedly thwarting congressional Democrats’ constitutional authority to conduct routine oversight
Washington, DC– U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights, Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, on Friday submitted a batch of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Department of Justice seeking records of various episodes of potential executive branch misconduct or corruption.
FOIA provides a statutory right for the public to request and receive government records.  Members of Congress typically need not resort to seeking records through FOIA because the Constitution grants Congress broad oversight authority that includes the power to obtain information relevant to their legislative responsibilities.  The Senators filed these FOIA requests after parallel inquiries and requests have been summarily ignored or met by incomplete answers from recalcitrant Trump administration officials despite Congress’s constitutional oversight power.
“The ‘no transparency’ Trump administration has repeatedly thumbed its nose to my many legitimate oversight requests.  For Democrats, there’s plenty of dripping contempt, insults, and stonewalling of Congress’s constitutional oversight authority.  But for Republican priorities, there’s a fast-track for document dumps,”said Senator Whitehouse.“FOIA requests are our last resort to get answers to questions that are important to the American public.”
“We’re filing these FOIA requests because we’ve been stonewalled and slow-walked by the Trump Administration for too long.  By resisting and preventing our efforts for oversight, this Administration is allowing corruption, deception, and misconduct to take hold and fester within our government.  Congressional oversight is needed to root out fraud and abuse— trademarks of this Administration.  These FOIA requests are an attempt to bring about desperately-needed accountability and transparency,”said Senator Blumenthal.
“It is Congress’s constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight of the executive branch, but under Donald Trump, the administration has either stonewalled or outright refused to answer many of the questions the American people are asking,”said Senator Schiff.“Under Senator Whitehouse’s leadership, my colleagues and I are filing these FOIA requests to finally get answers on some of the administration’s most egregious actions.”
A summary of the twelve topics about which the Senators filed FOIAs requests is below:
Whitehouse has long urged his Congressional colleagues to take up bipartisan reform efforts to strengthen Congress’s hand in executive branch oversight.  Whitehouse and Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) held a series of hearings during the Biden administration that culminated in a bipartisan report detailing the logjam of information disputes between the executive branch and Congress that is thwarting Congress’s constitutional authority to conduct oversight.