Tag: foia

ACLU Sues ICE to Release Records of Detainment Facilities

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), seeking to compel the agency to disclose records related to specific operations, according to the complaint filed on Oct. 1.

The lawsuit, filed jointly by the ACLU and its Virginia and North Carolina affiliates in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, concerns the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

According to the lawsuit, ICE issued a request for information (RFI) on May 28, seeking information on available detention facilities capable of housing single adult populations to support the agency’s Washington field office.

An RFI is issued to gather information regarding services or products from suppliers. In this case, ICE wanted information on detection facilities. While ICE owns five detention facilities, it relies on private prison companies and other facilities to detain a majority of people in its custody, the lawsuit states.

On Aug. 8, plaintiffs submitted a FOIA request to ICE, asking for records of responses to the agency’s RFI.

“[The FOIA] was enacted to facilitate public access to government documents,” the lawsuit reads.

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FBI Releases LAX “Jetpack” Case Files; Pilot Interview Contradicts Jetpack Description

The FBI has released a detailed set of investigative files on the so-called “Jetpack Man” sightings near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The release on October 1, 2025, followed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by The Black Vault first filed August 3, 2021 and resubmitted November 27, 2021 after an initial denial. The Bureau originally withheld all the records under FOIA exemption (b)(7)(A) for ongoing investigations but reversed its position with the second request after nearly four years.

When the sightings first made headlines in 2020 and 2021, they were widely portrayed as encounters with a person flying a jetpack near commercial aircraft. Yet the FBI’s files show that at least one pilot later walked back that description. In one case, the China Airlines captain who initially thought he saw a “jetpack” told investigators on reflection that “he did not believe it resembled the shape and size of a human” and noted that “there were no propellers or jet propulsion devices attached to the object.”

The records released mark the first “interim” disclosure for this case which remains open, indicating that additional material may still be forthcoming. For this release, 250 pages were reviewed, bit only 130 were released. It is unclear what is in the 120 pages completely withheld.

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All Analysis and Records Withheld on DoD’s Own Released UAP Footage

The Department of Defense (DoD) has denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking records connected to the review, redaction, and release of a UAP video published by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) earlier this year.

The request, filed May 19, 2025, sought internal communications, review logs, classification guidance, legal opinions, and technical documentation tied to the public posting of the video titled “Middle East 2024.” The video, showing more than six minutes of infrared footage from a U.S. military platform, was released in May 2025 and remains unresolved by AARO.

The DoD confirmed that responsive documents exist, but a September 19, 2025, final response stated that all records are being withheld in full.

The denial cited multiple FOIA exemptions, including:

  • Exemption (b)(5): covering deliberative inter- and intra-agency material.
  • Exemptions (b)(7)(A), (B), (C), and (E): law enforcement provisions shielding records that could interfere with enforcement proceedings, risk an unfair trial, invade personal privacy, or reveal law enforcement techniques.

AARO described the video as depicting “an apparent thermal contrast within the sensor’s field of view” that may be consistent with a physical object, but noted that without corroborating data, “the available data does not support a conclusive analytic evaluation.”

The Pentagon’s decision continues a recurring pattern in UAP transparency efforts: footage may be released for public viewing, but records explaining the deliberations and analysis behind such releases remain withheld.

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NJ Man Secures Nearly 1 Million Documents From Detroit’s 2020 Election, Including Copies of Absentee Ballots and Signed Envelopes in One of Largest Election FOIA Hauls In U.S. History

TICK TOCK…Detroit election officials and Michigan’s dirty Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson have officially been put on notice.

After years of being gaslighted by some of the most dishonest people in election history, The Gateway Pundit, along with some of the most respected election investigators in the state, are about to blow the lid off the lies about Detroit’s “secure” 2020 election that helped to give Joe Biden an inexplicable victory in the must-win state of Michigan.

On Election Night 2020, President Donald J. Trump appeared to hold commanding leads in key battleground states — approximately 100,000 votes in Wisconsin, 300,000 in Michigan, and 700,000 in Pennsylvania. For Joe Biden to erase those margins, his performance in the outstanding vote would have needed to be dramatically stronger, particularly in heavily Democratic strongholds such as Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia.

As the night wore on, reports emerged — often inconsistent — that some precincts had stopped counting, sent workers home, or restarted tabulations under unclear circumstances. To this day, there is confusion and disagreement over the extent of these pauses and whether any state laws or procedures were ignored in the process. What cannot be disputed is that vote totals from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania continued to change throughout the night, long after many Americans had gone to bed.

By the early morning hours of November 4, Wisconsin had flipped blue, followed soon after by the must-win state of Michigan. Days later, Georgia and Pennsylvania flipped for Biden as well. For many observers, the abrupt turnarounds — combined with conflicting reports of election-night disruptions — fueled deep skepticism about the integrity and transparency of the process.

Michigan lawmakers and election integrity investigators have spent an untold number of hours and resources to prove the election in Detroit was rigged. To date, they have not been able to secure the documents needed to verify what they believe happened that led to an inexplicable victory for Joe Biden in the presidential race.

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Second Video Surfaces of Michigan Democrat City Councilman Allegedly Stuffing Ballots in the Dead of Night

A second surveillance video has emerged showing Hamtramck City Councilman Abu Musa, a Democrat from Wayne County, Michigan, allegedly engaging in late-night ballot-stuffing operations just days before the August primary.

Click on Detroit obtained over 800 hours of surveillance footage through a FOIA request, revealing two disturbing incidents.

In the first video, a black pickup truck pulls up to Hamtramck City Hall in the dead of night.

The footage shows three men inside, including what appears to be Councilman Musa in the backseat, while the driver is aggressively stuffing bundled absentee ballots into the dropbox.

Only four days later, a second clip shows Musa in the passenger seat of a different vehicle, handing over three large stacks of ballots to the driver, who then deposits them into the dropbox, according to Click on Detroit.

Michigan State Police have confirmed that these videos are now part of an active criminal investigation, which is being compiled for potential referral to prosecutors.

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Trentadue To Trump, Bondi: Release The OKC Tapes

During last night’s ZeroHedge panel on the Oklahoma City bombing, attorney Jesse Trentadue (whose brother Kenneth Trentadue was murdered by the FBI then covered up in the wake of the OKC bombing) had two requests for the Trump administration: “[release] the videotape of the bombing and unseal John Matthews’ deposition, because the Department of Justice has it sealed, and President Trump’s Department of Justice is fighting to keep it sealed.”

Trentadue filed a FOIA lawsuit in 2008 to get the surveillance tapes — which the FBI is on record acknowledging exist — but the bureau has told him “they can’t find it”.

“You would think if you had a videotape showing who committed this horrific crime, wouldn’t that have been exhibit number one in McVeigh’s criminal trial? The reason it wasn’t because I believe that second person was an FBI operative who got out of that truck.”

Investigative reporter and author Peter Schweizer, who hosted the ZH panel, responded: “Let’s make sure that those two messages are delivered to Pam Bondi.” 

Well as our other guest, Margaret Roberts, pointed out… it already has been delivered… by Jesse.

“Those are the two critical calls to action. Jesse has a letter on Attorney General Bondi’s desk since March asking the Justice Department to stand down from its opposition to unsealing the John Matthews deposition.”

Roberts recently published her book Blowback: The Untold Story of the FBI and the Oklahoma City Bombing (available here).

She continued, “The other area here that needs addressing is the FOIA process. This is supposed to be the citizens’ last resort for obtaining records that belong to the American public. This story belongs to the public, not locked away in secret government vaults. The many exclusions available to the secret keepers inside these government agencies make it almost impossible.”

“Jesse has navigated this flawed process so masterfully, and yet this FOIA action to release the videotapes has just been sitting marooned for more than a decade. John Matthews told Jesse he had been pressured by the FBI not to tell his story… FOIA needs to be fixed.”

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Leopold Report: FBI FOIA Team Erased High-Profile Names from Epstein Records, Including Trump

President Donald Trump’s name was among those redacted from documents tied to the late Jeffrey Epstein, according to a Friday report by Bloomberg, which cited multiple sources familiar with the FBI’s final review process. The revelation has deepened the divide between federal transparency efforts and growing demands from Trump’s own base for full disclosure of the Epstein files.

The report, authored by veteran investigative journalist Jason Leopold, states that a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) review team inside the FBI combed through thousands of pages tied to the Epstein investigation. The team, according to Leopold, was tasked specifically with removing the names of private individuals, including “prominent public figures” such as Trump, before the documents were released to the public.

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Over 11,571 Epstein Documents Currently On Appeal in One FOIA Case with Maureen Comey Involved

The public was told that no more Epstein files would be forthcoming.

Officials implied the only Epstein-related documents left were “child porn” that could, of course, not be released. The Justice Department, in a memo released on Sunday, said, “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted” about the Epstein case involving the sexual trafficking of children.

But one pending FOIA appeal by two litigants in New York, that the DOJ’s Maureen Comey is due to respond to later this month, has identified at least 11,571 more FBI documents alone related to the Epstein affair, almost all of them as-of-yet unreleased.

This is in addition to the estimated 3 million documents the government gave to Ghislaine Maxwell to prepare for her defense, and they are still active in that case.

The ongoing litigation relates to Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests filed by media entities to release Epstein-related documents. The litigation filed by Radar Online and James Robertson over a FOIA originally filed eight years ago involves over 11,571 documents that the FBI already admits are responsive to a search for Epstein documents.

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FOIA Crack Opens: ‘Mosul Orb’ UFO Video Finally Goes Public

A four-second clip of the ‘Mosul Orb’ Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) has finally surfaced after investigative journalist Dustin Slaughter won a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and its National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC).

In 2023, journalists Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp released a still image from the four-second video, showing the UAP above the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in 2016, reportedly from a CIA spy plane.

The video was filmed at 9:47 am Coordinated Universal Time on 16 April 2016, according to its timestamp.

During an appearance on Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp’s WEAPONIZED podcast, Slaughter said his 2023 FOIA filing hadn’t singled out the Mosul Orb; instead, he’d submitted a broad request for any UAP-related videos.

After what he described as stonewalling by the USAF and NASIC, Slaughter and his legal team filed suit in 2024.

The footage captures a mysterious sphere gliding right-to-left above Mosul’s rooftops. 

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What Are They Hiding? Judicial Watch Fights Pam Bondi and Kash Patel for Records on Biden Regime’s Twitter Censorship

Judicial Watch has sued the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to unseal records from meetings between Twitter executives and the Biden FBI to censor the American people. 

The lawsuit was filed in 2023 after the FBI ignored a FOIA request for the records of meetings between June 2020 and December 2022.

For some reason, Trump’s DOJ is still fighting against Biden’s censorship efforts, which specifically targeted conservatives, including The Gateway Pundit’s reporting on election fraud, being exposed.

Via Judicial Watch:

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that a hearing is ordered by U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan for June 18 at 11 a.m. ET in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for “Twitter Files” records concerning Hunter Biden’s laptop and other censorship. The only issue remaining in the lawsuit is the FBI’s continued hiding of records documenting two meetings between Twitter and the Biden FBI.

Judicial Watch filed the April 2023 lawsuit against the Justice Department, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence after the FBI failed to respond to a December 2022 FOIA request for the records of any FBI official and key Twitter employees between June 2020 and December 2022 (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice(No. 1:23-cv-01163)).

The lawsuit references Yoel Roth, Vijaya Gadde, and Jim Baker, who were prominent in internal discussions at Twitter about censoring the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story, as journalist Matt Taibbi revealed in the December 2022 release of the “Twitter Files.”

“It is frustrating beyond belief for Judicial Watch to have to go to federal court for basic information on Biden’s abuse of the FBI, using Twitter to censor and monitor Americans,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Fitton said after the hearing that the DOJ was “arguing why the American people should not be able to see what the Biden FBI was planning with Twitter.”

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