Judicial Watch Sues CIA: ‘Illegal Secrecy’ on ‘Anti-Trump Russia Investigations Must End’
by Michael W. Chapman, CNS News:
Because the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under the Obama administration refused to answer a request to release a 2015 unclassified report about Russia’s interference in foreign elections, the government watchdog group Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the CIA in federal court today, March 8.
House Representative Mike Turner (R-Ohio) has been pushing for the release of an unclassified version of a report “assessing Moscow’s interference in foreign elections, particularly across Europe,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Dec. 13, 2016, as noted by Judicial Watch in a press release.
Judicial Watch made a standard FOIA request to the CIA back in December 2016. The CIA did not respond. The response deadline was Jan. 24, 2017, four days after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president. Now, Judicial Watch has filed the lawsuit: Judicial Watch v. Central Intelligence Agency.
“The fact that the administration is picking and choosing the information it releases and who they release it to ought to give everybody concern that the administration is manipulating this,” said Rep. Turner in the WSJ article.
An unclassified version of the report would allow the American people to read and understand the situation, and not just leave the information in the hands of privileged and selected members of Congress.
