Tag: foia

UK Social Media Police Task Force Has Referred over 100 Online Posts for Arrest

A shadowy specialist police task force in Britain tasked with monitoring anti-immigration sentiment online has reportedly referred over a hundred social media posts to local police for potential arrests.

According to data released following Freedom of Information requests, the National Internet Intelligence Investigations unit has notified local police forces about 106 social media posts, The Daily Telegraph reported.

This included 50 posts in June in the wake of the disclosures surrounding the murder of teen Henry Nowak, who was stabbed to death by Sikh man Vikrum Digwa and had his pleas for help ignored by police officers, who refused to believe the dying student because his killer claimed to have been a victim of racism.

Footage of Nowak’s final moments sparked protests and riots in Southampton and drew accusations of two-tier policing on social media, with critics claiming that Nowak was treated differently from Digwa because he was white.

The National Internet Intelligence Investigations task force was established in the wake of the Southport riots, which erupted after Rwandan-heritage teen Axel Rudakubana killed three young girls and injured 10 others in a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swith dance party.

Rather than addressing the anger of the public and the role that immigration played in the tragedy, the left-wing Labour government of then-Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer branded the backlash as “far-right” and began a mass jailing campaign, arresting over 1,876 people, including some who merely posted on social media.

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FDA Continues Its Legacy of Radical Delays on FOIA Requests

We fund the government. We pay the salaries of its employees. They work for us—though they often seem to forget that. One of the ways we keep tabs on what they are doing is a tool called the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Congress passed this law specifically so that anyone can request emails, documents, records, etc., regarding the work our government is doing.

For years now, FDA has been dragging its feet when it comes to producing documents in response to FOIA requests. And not just dragging its feet—burying them in concrete. So much so that my firm has brought over 100 lawsuits against the federal government, on behalf of ICAN, just to get documents that should clearly have been produced. And even then, the government still drags its feet, wasting taxpayer money fighting us in court to generate more delay.

The 21-year FOIA request

Many of you are likely familiar with the FOIA case we filed for the Covid-19 vaccine licensure documents in which FDA wanted 75 years to produce the documents! Sadly, that was not an outlier. It was business as usual for the government in responding to FOIA requests.

Here is just one other example of FDA’s FOIA behavior. In a court filing on January 30, 2026, FDA told a federal judge that the FOIA request at issue, which was originally submitted on January 26, 2024, was “currently positioned 471” in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) Complex Track. Meaning, it was behind 470 other requests. FDA then conceded it “cannot reasonably estimate” when that request will reach the top of the track. Let that sink in. It cannot even estimate when it will comply with the law.

It gets worse. FDA then asked the Court to pause the litigation for “at least eighteen months, through and including June 25, 2027.” By then, FDA explained, it “anticipates” that it “will be in a better position to evaluate when it might be able to respond” to the FOIA request. Read that again. It doesn’t even commit to producing the documents by 2027—instead that’s the date it will evaluate the request’s status. That is not a commitment. That is a dodge.

While FDA pretends it cannot provide an estimate, we can reasonably estimate when it will produce these documents based on recent movement in the queue. In a 6-month period, the request at issue advanced just 11 positions in the queue—from number 482 to 471. If that rate continues, it will take more than 21 years before this request reaches the top of CBER’s Complex Track.

So much for transparency. And this is a FOIA request under the jurisdiction of a federal court. Imagine those requests that are stuck at the administrative levels.

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Investigation Exposes NIH Quietly Continuing Fauci-Era Kitten Experiments Despite Broken Promises to Phase Them Out

WJLA’s 7News I-Team has aired a detailed investigation this week into taxpayer-funded experiments on kittens at the National Institutes of Health.

The investigation raises serious questions about research that many Americans believed ended years ago.

Investigative reporter Scott Taylor detailed how newly obtained NIH records from White Coat Waste, a watchdog organization seeking to end cruel taxpayer-funded animal research, show the agency has been quietly continuing toxoplasmosis vaccine development studies on cats inside its Bethesda, Maryland, campus laboratories.

The I-Team report builds directly on The Gateway Pundit’s May exclusive revealing that Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases quietly moved the kitten experiments from the USDA’s Beltsville lab, which was shut down during the first Trump administration after White Coat Waste exposed it and public pressure forced the remaining cats to be adopted out, into NIH’s own internal facilities.

Records obtained by White Coat Waste through FOIA requests confirm the protocols were resurrected in 2021 by NIAID scientist Dr. Michael Grigg and remain approved through the end of 2026.

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Lawsuit demands USDA release records on glyphosate executive order

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is violating the law by failing to turn over records related to an executive order issued by President Donald Trump protecting production of the controversial pesticide glyphosate, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, seeks to force the USDA to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request the center submitted on Feb. 26 requesting records related to how and why the order was developed. 

“The main thing we’re hoping to understand is who in particular pushed for this?” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit organization that advocates for environment and health issues.

The order was widely questioned by public health and environmental groups who saw the move by the Trump administration as directly benefitting Germany’s Bayer, which manufactures glyphosate in the US and is a key supplier of glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup. Glyphosate herbicides have been linked to health issues such as cancer, and Bayer is currently fending off tens of thousands of lawsuits brought by people suffering from cancer they blame on exposure to the company’s products.

Bayer has been lobbying for federal and state laws to protect it from further litigation, and has asked the US Supreme Court for a ruling that would preempt key claims in the lawsuits. 

The Supreme Court decision could be issued this week and will determine whether people can bring failure-to-warn legal claims against pesticide companies in the future.

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Citizen Sues Virginia Military Institute And Its Board, Alleging Secret “Group Text” Meetings, Withheld And Altered Public Records

A new lawsuit accuses the governing board of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) — one of the nation’s last state military colleges and a primary commissioning source for the armed forces — of conducting the public’s business in the shadows.

The verified petition, filed June 1, 2026 in York County Circuit Court (Morris v. Virginia Military Institute, No. CL26005973-00), alleges that some members of VMI’s Board of Visitors held unnoticed “meetings” by reply-all email and other means about official board business — including the day after their own FOIA officer warned them in writing that doing so was illegal, and despite repeated formal training telling them not to “Reply All.”

It further alleges that VMI withheld, redacted, and even altered public records to obscure how a prominent donor and board member was pushed off the board and the board president was forced to step down.

The specifics are striking. According to the petition, board member Donald Hall publicly admitted he was “the principal negotiator” working with the Virginia General Assembly and said former Governor Ralph Northam “was more involved than anyone in this room knows other than me.”

Yet the suit alleges VMI produced no records at all from Hall, none from the former governor, withheld voicemails and call logs, and redacted the identities of email correspondents.

The petition also alleges that VMI’s FOIA officer altered an online records-portal entry to erase his own name —replacing it with the anonymous label “Staff” — and that a process server hired to deliver public comments on important issues intended for the Board to be informed on was turned away from public open committee meetings.

The filing seeks a ruling that the secret meetings and other actions were unlawful, an order forcing board business onto official accounts and devices, and personal civil penalties of $500–$5,000 per violation against the FOIA officer, a board administrator, and six sitting board members — penalties payable to Virginia’s State Literary Fund, not to the petitioner.

The case carries a question of national resonance: how much should politicians control the governance — and the independence — of public universities, and how much of that maneuvering happens off the public record?

What are the implications of these actions on commissioning sources and military readiness?

It also invites an uncomfortable comparison. In the same period, Gov. Abigail Spanberger removed John Rocovich as rector of Virginia Tech’s Board of Visitors — a move he has publicly contested — while the VMI BOV and FOIA staff accused of operating in secret remain in place and operating.

Were the standards applied consistently, and who is really steering Virginia’s military college?

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Judge Grants Biden’s Request to Intervene in FOIA Fight, Blocks Public Release of 70 Hours of Audiotapes of His Conversations with Ghostwriter

A federal judge on Thursday granted Joe Biden’s request to block the public release of the audiotapes of his conversations with his ghostwriter.

The Oversight Project filed a FOIA lawsuit requesting records from Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden. The judge denied the Oversight Project’s request.

However, US District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, denied Biden’s request to use this case to block the release of the audiotapes to the House Judiciary Committee.

Earlier this month, it was reported that the DOJ was preparing to release damning audio of Biden’s interview with former Special Counsel Robert Hur. The Department is also going to release 2017 audio recordings of conversations with his ghostwriter in which he disclosed classified information.

Biden previously asserted executive privilege over the audio recordings related to then-Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into his stolen classified documents scandal.

Republicans have argued that Joe Biden cannot assert executive privilege over the audio since the transcript has already been released.

Then-US Attorney General Merrick Garland classified the audio tapes of Biden’s interview with Hur as “Top Secret” and locked it way in a SCIF.

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NASA Documents Show Renewed Internal Planning on How to Announce Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life

A newly released Freedom of Information Act response from NASA reveals internal discussions focused on how the agency would communicate a confirmed discovery of extraterrestrial life.

This includes details about a 2025 meeting convened to outline a formal communications protocol.

The records stem from a request seeking documents related to “agency-level planning, policy, or procedural guidance addressing the detection, reporting, analysis, or response to the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence, extraterrestrial life, or non-terrestrial technological signals.”

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2025 Meeting Focused on “Definitive Discovery of ET Life”

Central to the release is a June 2025 Microsoft Teams meeting invitation and related email correspondence documenting a discussion among NASA personnel and affiliated participants.

The purpose of the meeting is described directly in the invitation:

“This is a meeting to work with Linda to develop ideas toward rough outlining of how an official communications protocol for a definitive discovery of ET life might look…”

The same communication indicates the effort was not new, referencing prior internal work:

“I’ll send around some materials/thoughts Mary, Jim Green, and I developed awhile back on this.”

The participants include individuals associated with NASA’s science mission and astrobiology communications efforts, including David H. Grinspoon and Linda Billings, both of whom have longstanding roles in public engagement and the societal implications of astrobiology research.

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Newly Released Documents Show UAP “Space Tiger Team” Built Around Space and Transmedium Cases

A newly released Department of War document obtained through a Freedom of Information Request request (FOIA case #24-F-1205) originally filed with U.S. Space Command (FOIA case #24-R-020), outlines the 2023 formation of a “UAP Space Tiger Team,” a coordinated effort led by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to address unidentified anomalous phenomena specifically within the space domain.

The document, a Joint Staff Action Processing Form dated November 20, 2023, describes a structured initiative aimed at integrating UAP considerations into space-based operations and detection frameworks.

Framework for “Spaceborne and Transmedium UAP”

The document explicitly defines the scope of the effort as extending beyond traditional aerial encounters, focusing on phenomena operating across multiple domains:

“The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) will convene and chair a Space Tiger Team to guide the Department’s development of the space integration framework for spaceborne and transmedium UAP…”

The use of the terms “spaceborne” and “transmedium” indicates that the framework is intended to address objects or phenomena operating not only in space, but also across different physical environments.

The document further states that the effort will:

“identify opportunities for space-based UAP detection in support of other domains, and to identify reporting and deconfliction mechanisms for space-based UAP detections.”

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Senator Finds More Evidence Federal Officials Evaded FOIA

A U.S. senator and his team say they have uncovered additional evidence that federal officials worked to evade requests made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Several emails obtained by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) showed personnel with the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were aware of FOIA requests and sought to evade them. FOIA enables people to request records from the government. It requires officials to retain and produce requested records, subject to certain exemptions.

In a Nov. 26, 2022, missive, Allison Lale, a medical officer with the CDC, asked a colleague about receiving safety analyses of COVID-19 vaccination from the FDA.

Pedro Moro, a CDC epidemiologist, responded. “I think that because of the FOIAs we may have asked FDA to stop sending these weekly data mining outputs,” Moro wrote.

“Oh interesting,” Lale said. She added that during calls for a CDC-managed program, “we used to just verbally mention” that certain terms had not triggered safety signals, or signs vaccines were causing problems.

“But we could also leave it out if that [sic] this creates more hassle,” she added.

In a separate email chain, FDA officials were told by an FDA vaccine safety analytic expert, Dr. Ana Szarfman, that the approach they were using to analyze the safety of COVID-19 vaccines was faulty. The information sparked a long discussion, during which officials considered asking the expert to contact an outside expert on the matter.

“Before we potentially reach out to Ana, we should meet internally – many considerations not suited to email…” David Menschik, an FDA official who distributed the data mining reports, wrote on April 15, 2021.

“Sounds good,” Bethany Baer, another FDA worker, responded. “Happy to meet and discuss anytime open on my calendar.”

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Former Senior NIAID Official Indicted for Concealing Federal Records During COVID-19 Pandemic

A former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) employee is facing indictment for his role in a scheme to evade Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in connection with COVID-19 research grants.

David M. Morens, 78, of Chester, Maryland, is charged with conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal, or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting. Morens served as a senior advisor in NIAID’s Office of the Director from 2006 through 2022.

“These allegations represent a profound abuse of trust at a time when the American people needed it most — during the height of a global pandemic,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “As alleged in the indictment, Dr. Morens and his co-conspirators deliberately concealed information and falsified records in an effort to suppress alternative theories regarding the origins of COVID-19. Government officials have a solemn duty to provide honest, well-grounded facts and advice in service of the public interest — not to advance their own personal or ideological agendas.”

“Circumventing records protocols with the intention of avoiding transparency is something that will not be tolerated by this FBI,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Not only did Morens allegedly engage in the illegal obfuscation of his communications, but he received kickbacks for doing so. If you have engaged in activity conspiring against the United States, we will not stop until you face justice.”

“When public officials deliberately circumvent the law to hide their communications from the public, they undermine the public’s trust and the integrity of our institutions. This was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic when transparency was needed most,” said U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes for the District of Maryland. “Our office will continue to hold accountable those who seek to evade their legal obligations for their own gain.”

“Public officials who disregard their legal obligations undermine the transparency that keeps our federal programs strong. The deliberate mishandling and concealment of records in a federal investigation is not just a breach of duty, it is a betrayal of public trust,” said Special Agent in Charge Marcus L. Sykes, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “HHS-OIG remains committed to working with our law enforcement partners to ensure that anyone who seeks to evade the law is held fully accountable.”

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