Tag: foia

FOIA Documents Reveal Secret 2020 Election Day Meeting With CISA, Dominion, ES&S, ERIC, FBI, Leftist Organizations, State Officials, and Others – Only Recently Discovered

Recently, investigative journalist Yehuda Miller received several FOIA documents that completely reshaped what we were told to believe about the 2020 US presidential election.

We will be publishing several of these explosive documents in the coming days.

The election was billed by the Democrat Party, Joe Biden, the mainstream media, and former CISA Chief Chris Krebs as the most secure election in US history.

But was 2020 really the most secure election in US history?

In the coming days, Yehuda Miller and The Gateway Pundit will release a series of FOIA documents that prove that the statements by Chris Krebs under oath were most certainly false and that he clearly knew these statements were not accurate.

Today, we are releasing information on a secret 2020 Election Day phone call organized by The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

CISA describes itself as the operational lead for federal cybersecurity and the national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience. However, since its founding, CISA has morphed into a much more sinister and politicized organization.

Founded in 2018, CISA was originally intended to be an ancillary agency designed to protect “critical infrastructure” and guard against cybersecurity threats. In the years since its creation, however, CISA metastasized into the nerve center of the federal government’s domestic surveillance and censorship operations on social media.

By 2020, CISA routinely reported social media posts that allegedly spread “disinformation” to social media platforms. By 2021, CISA had a formal “Mis-, Dis-, and Mal-information” (MDM) team. In 2022 and 2023, in response to growing public and private criticism of CISA’s unconstitutional behavior, CISA attempted to camouflage its activities, duplicitously claiming it serves a purely “informational” role.”

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FOIA’d Emails Reveal MI AG Nessel Personally Visited Detroit USPS Distribution Center Day Before 2020 Election After Whistleblower Claimed “Thousands of ballots are sitting” Inside Post Office Warehouse

On Monday, November 2, 2020, only one day before a critically important presidential election, Michigan’s Democrat Attorney General was busy investigating a claim by a USPS whistleblower who worked at the Detroit USPS distribution center.

According to FOIA’d documents obtained by independent investigator Yehuda Miller and shared on Twitter,  a postal worker, who asked to remain anonymous, first told MI Rep. Ellissa Slotkin’s office that “thousands of ballots are sitting in the main Detroit postal service distribution center (references their warehouse).” The whistleblower mentioned that “there are boxes and boxes of ballots that have not been counted and the reason being given is because there are not enough sorters.”

The whistleblower complaint was forwarded to MI AG Nessel’s Chief of Staff, Zaineb Hussein.

Good Afternoon Zaineb,

I hope you are safe and well.

Today, our office received a message from another congressional office regarding a postal worker concerned about absentee ballots being held at a local postal distribution facility.

The postal worker reached out to Rep. Slotkin’s office to express concerns about the facility they work at. The postal worker didn’t want to provide a lot of details and wanted to remain anonymous. The worker reported to Slotkin’s office that thousands of ballots are sitting in the main Detroit postal service distribution center (references their warehouse).

The worker mentioned that there are boxes and boxes of ballots that have not been counted and the reason being given is because there are not enough sorters.

We wanted to flag this issue for Secretary Benson’s awareness, but we will also be reaching out to our postal liaison to bring this matter to their attention as well.

Please feel free to let us know if you have any additional questions.

Larissa Richardson | District Director
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, MI-13
O: (313) 463-6217
Personal Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

Instead of contacting the MI AG’s office, Democrat Rep. Ellisa Slotkin’s office contacted Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s office with the complaint.

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What Did Victoria Nuland and Ambassador Bridget Brink Have to Do with the Death of US YouTuber Gonzalo Lira in Ukraine Prison?

The Gateway Pundit has filed a FOIA request with the US State Department to find out what role Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland played in the death of US journalist Gonzalo Lira Jan. 11. Disinformation expert Eoin Lenihan called for an investigation of Ukraine’s loony trans spokesperson going by the name of “Sarah Ashton-Cirillo” in connection with Lira’s death.

The Gateway Pundit filed the following Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the State Department today:

What communication was there since Feb. 24, 2022 between the US State Department and the US Embassy in Kiev regarding US citizen Gonzalo Lira?

Specifically, what communication was there since Feb. 24, 2022 between Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador in Kiev Bridget Brink regarding US citizen Gonzalo Lira?

What communication was there since Feb. 24, 2022 within the US Federal Government, and between the US Federal Government and the Ukrainian Government, specifically with the Ukrainian Security Service SBU, regarding US citizen Gonzalo Lira?

It usually takes approx. one month to receive a response to a FOIA request, according to the Office of Information Policy of the Department of Justice.

According to ZeroHedge contributor Liam Cosgrove, Gonzalo Lira’s father Gonzalo Lira Sr. wrote:

My son, GONZALO LIRA, died in a hospital in Kharkiv between 11-12 pm Ukraine time yesterday January 11th, 2024.

I cannot accept the way my son has died. He was tortured, extorted, incommunicado for 8 months and 11 days and the US Embassy did nothing to help my son. The (person responsible for) this tragedy is the dictator Zelensky with the concurrence of a senile American President, Joe Biden.

Please read his file enclosed from that kangaroo Court hearings and you will see that the charges were a political question and Biden gave the green light to that bloody dictator to put my son in prison. My pain is unbearable. The world must know what is going on in Ukraine with that inhuman dictator Zelensky.

IF YOU BELIEVE IN DEMOCRACY AND DECENCY, MAKE THE WORLD KNOW WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO A DECENT AND VERY INTELLIGENT MAN WHO PREDICTED THAT UKRAINE WOULD NEVER WIN A WAR AGAINST RUSSIA AND THE FINANCIAL PUNISHMENTS WOULD BACKFIRE ON THE USA.

Gonzalo Lira Sr. then posted a link to all the Ukrainian court documents charging Gonzalo Lira with “spreading Russian propaganda”.

There is no evidence Gonzalo Lira had any ties to Russia.

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Feds Will Release Marijuana Rescheduling Memo And Related Documents ‘In Their Entirety’ In Response To Lawsuit

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has agreed to release documents related to its recommendation to federally reschedule marijuana “in their entirety” amid litigation over a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that was filed by a lawyer last year.

“Good afternoon and thank you for your patience,” a Department of Justice attorney handling the case said in an email to attorney Matt Zorn on Thursday. “The agency has advised that it will release the letter and its enclosures in their entirety.”

Zorn posted a screenshot of the email on his blog, noting that the release could mean that “rescheduling is imminent—or not.”

When the government announces a marijuana rescheduling through a Federal Register notice, he pointed out, it would “attach the letter and its enclosures” to that posting.

Zorn last month obtained more than 250 pages of the rescheduling advisory letter and supporting documents sent by HHS to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) last year, though the vast majority were released only in highly redacted form.

In a phone interview with Marijuana Moment, Zorn said the new development comes after a “little scuffle” with the federal government over the timeline in his FOIA lawsuit. The Justice Department had filed a motion to vacate a deadline for summary judgement that was set for January 18, and while Zorn said he would typically accept such a request, he instead filed an opposing brief and the judge ultimately denied the government’s motion.

He added that, “realistically, the lawsuit could have accelerated” the timing of the government’s scheduling announcement, though it’s also possible that just the letter will be released without DEA immediately announcing a decision in the ongoing scheduling review.

In October, HHS released a highly redacted version of the one-page letter from the health agency to DEA in response to public records requests by news organizations such as Marijuana Moment and lawyers, including Zorn.

Shane Pennington, a lawyer who co-writes the On Drugs blog with Zorn, applauded his colleague’s work in pushing for the documents to be released.

“Matt has demonstrated once again that litigation is a powerful tool for unlocking doors, solving problems, and doing the ‘impossible,’” he told Marijuana Moment in an email. “I’m proud to work with him on On Drugs and so many other projects.”

Broadly, the documents are believed to discuss new scientific information that’s come to light in recent years, which HHS suggests might necessitate rescheduling marijuana.

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Feds hide anti-white discrimination complaints, names of policy architects from FOIA suits

How many anti-white discrimination complaints have been leveled by employees against the federal watchdog for workplace discrimination? Who is shaping federal policy on “indigenous knowledge” and its implications for scientific research?

The public apparently won’t get those answers unless a judge says so.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and National Science Foundation invoked Freedom of Information Act exemptions on personal privacy to withhold select information from separate FOIA requests by Hans Bader, a former Education Department lawyer under President Trump.

Bader, through his family foundation, has gone on a FOIA tear against various agencies, which sometimes respond with largely unreadable productions. 

The State Department blacked out the vast majority of emails deliberating on how it should respond to reporters asking about its funding of the Global Disinformation Index. A December 2022 report by the entity found the 10-riskiest online news outlets were all conservative leaning, sparking arguments that it is attempted to starve predominantly conservative publishers of advertising revenue.

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Feds Release 250+ Pages Of Redacted Documents On Marijuana Rescheduling Recommendation, Detailing Cannabis’s Medical Value

More than three months after news leaked that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) was recommending that marijuana be moved to Schedule III under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the agency has finally released a tranche of documents related to its recommendation and the detailed review it undertook on cannabis’s accepted medical value.

Among the materials newly made public are correspondence from HHS officials to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram as well explanations of the health agency’s reasoning for the recommended change after conducting a required eight-factor analysis under the CSA. Most pages are heavily redacted, however, and some were withheld completely.

The documents were posted online Thursday by attorneys Shane Pennington and Matt Zorn, coauthors of the blog On Drugs. Zorn previously submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain the records.

“We haven’t had a chance to wade through it all,” the two lawyers wrote, “but are putting it up here now and will follow up as soon as we’ve studied everything more deeply.”

In response to the FOIA request, HHS “reviewed 252 pages of records,” releasing just two pages in their entirety. Another 236 were redacted in part, while 14 pages were withheld completely. All the released documents are embedded at the end of this article.

Broadly, the documents outline new scientific information that’s come to light in recent years subsequent to an earlier denial of a rescheduling petition, which HHS suggests might now necessitate rescheduling marijuana.

“The current review is largely focused on modern scientific considerations on whether marijuana has a CAMU [currently accepted medical use] and on new epidemiological data related to the abuse of marijuana in the years since the 2015 HHS” evaluation of marijuana under the CSA’s eight-factor analysis.

HHS also notes that it “analyzed considerable data related to the abuse potential of marijuana,” but added that it’s a complicated consideration.

“Determining the abuse potential of a substance is complex with many dimensions,” HHS wrote, “and no single test or assessment provides a complete characterization. Thus, no single measure of abuse potential is ideal.”

Most subsequent pages of the document were withheld completely.

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FOI request reveals Bellingcat collusion with Western intelligence

An email sent on November 12 2020 by an officer within Amsterdam’s National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) shows a Bellingcat investigation was intentionally shared with the agency prior to publication, so as to assist the Dutch spooks in shaping media strategies and messaging following its release. The revealing communication is irrefutable proof of the cozy relationship the self-styled “independent investigative collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists” enjoys with Western intelligence services.

In the message, marked “high importance,” the undisclosed author explained that Bellingcat would soon publish research amounting to a deeply libelous attack on independent journalists and researchers, who challenged the mainstream narrative surrounding Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. As such, the Dutch intelligence officer wrote, “it is probably smart to put together interdepartmental wording for this already”:

“Because the article highlights several sides (MH17 but also COVID19) it is probably wise to wait a while and see if; a. the mainstream media pick it up; b. from which angle the media pick up and highlight it (MH17 or COVID); c. from this angle to determine the wording and therefore which department is in the lead; d. coordinate the language as much as possible interdepartmentally.”

The article in question, entitled “The GRU’s MH17 Disinformation Operations Part 1: The Bonanza Media Project,” was framed as an investigation into a now-defunct independent media venture named Bonanza Media which was established by Russian journalist Yana Yerlashova with the help of freelance Dutch researcher Max Van der Werff. 

Much of Bonanza’s work challenged Western assertions that separatist fighters in Donbass shot down MH17 with a Buk surface-to-air missile system provided to them by the Russian military. Ukrainian officials began pushing that narrative, citing audio recordings they claimed to have intercepted alongside material purportedly found on social media implicating the separatists, even before Malaysia Airlines publicly announced it had lost contact with the plane.

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Secret Service’s FOIA Documents Reveal DNA was Found and Preserved in White House Cocaine Probe, Contrary to Prior Claims — Secret Service May End Up Destroying Evidence

During his show on Fox News, Jesse Watters revealed that the Secret Service has been misleading the public about a cocaine investigation at the White House.

According to over 100 pages of documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the narrative surrounding the discovery and handling of cocaine at the White House appears fraught with inconsistencies and cover-ups.

The Gateway Pundit reported in July that Hazmat crews were dispatched inside the entrance gate near the West Wing of the White House to investigate a suspicious white substance that tested positive for cocaine hydrochloride.

At first, it was reported that the cocaine was found in the library, which is located on the ground floor of the White House.

Authorities changed the location of the cocaine found in the Biden White House. The cocaine was allegedly stashed in a “cubby” in a storage facility in the West Wing and NOT the library.

We are being told we may never know who actually brought the cocaine to the White House because the area “wasn’t necessarily covered by cameras all that well.”

On Monday, the Biden regime released the first photos of the 2 grams of cocaine found at the Biden White House over the summer were released in response to a FOIA request filed by The Daily Mail.

According to Watters, this shifting narrative raises questions about the accuracy and transparency of the Secret Service’s statements.

Further complicating matters, Watters highlighted discrepancies in the substance’s testing, with initial results indicating opioids and amphetamines, before being identified as cocaine. This raises doubts about the testing process and the subsequent handling of the evidence.

Secret Service closed its investigation into the Biden White House cocaine scandal without conducting any interviews.

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DoD Amplifies UFO Secrecy Yet Again: Additional Exemptions Reinforce “Law Enforcement” Claim

In the ongoing fight for transparency regarding Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), The Black Vault just encountered additional hurdles that make the effort even more difficult to achieve. A series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) appeals were filed to challenge the Department of Defense’s (DoD) use of exemption (b)(7) blocking access to various UAP and UFO related documents within the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). This specific exemption pertains to records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, which could interfere with enforcement proceedings.

The Black Vault argued that AARO, along with other past names of similar efforts like the AOIMSG and UAPTF, were not law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, there’s no acknowledged law enforcement investigation that requires the concealment of the requested information.

Last week, the DoD responded to six of these appeals, upholding the (b)(7)(A) and (b)(7)(E) exemptions. These exemptions concern potential interference with enforcement proceedings and the disclosure of techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, respectively, but again the DoD fails to present what “law enforcement” proceeding it would interfere with.

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Whistleblower says governor’s office illegally altered, withheld records related to podium purchase

An anonymous former state employee came forward Friday claiming to have evidence that the Arkansas governor’s office doctored documents and unlawfully withheld financial records that should have been made public under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.

Attorney Tom Mars, who is representing the whistleblower, sent a letter today to Sen. Jimmy Hickey (R-Texarkana) offering to have his client speak to auditors. Hickey yesterday requested that Legislative Audit, a nonpartisan agency independent from the executive branch, look into what’s come to be known as “podiumgate.”

The controversy concerns the $19,000 purchase of a lectern (or podium) by the governor’s office from an out-of-state events company earlier this year, as well as Gov. Sarah Sanders’ successful efforts to newly block access to certain governmental records.

Sanders recently pushed the state legislature to write a new exemption into the Arkansas FOIA in an attempt to prevent Matt Campbell, the Little Rock lawyer behind the Blue Hog Report blog, from accessing those records. Campbell’s FOIA requests uncovered the lectern purchase to begin with.

In the letter, Mars said his client can prove that someone in Sanders’ office altered documents that Campbell had requested through the Arkansas FOIA and that Sanders’ office pressured another government agency to withhold from the public documents that should have been made available.

His client is willing to give a statement to legislative auditors under oath, Mars said, and can provide documents for them to review.

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