Tag: foia

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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FBI refuses to release documents in probe into possible nationwide voter registration fraud

The FBI took over a 2020 probe into voter registration fraud that began in Michigan but has denied a Freedom of Information Act request regarding the investigation, citing an exemption in that law regarding ongoing investigations.

According to the dozens of pages of police reports from the Muskegon Police Department and Michigan State Police, a firm called GBI Strategies was under scrutiny as an organization central to alleged voter registration fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The matter was initially investigated by city and state authorities before the FBI took over. 

Contacts between local law enforcement and the FBI continued into 2022 but there is no evidence of what happened after that in the memos obtained by Just the News through requests made under Michigan’s own Freedom of Information Act.

Last week, the FBI denied a Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts request from Just the News regarding records from the investigation into GBI Strategies.

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46 Pages FOIAed Emails Between CDC Leaders, Dr. Fauci, Dr. Collins, and White House, NIH, HHS, Show They Knew About Vaccine-Induced Myocarditis and Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia, a Blood Clotting Disorder. Emails Over 80% Redacted.

Attorney Edward Berkovich submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stating, “I request emails sent by and received by Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, Sherri A. Berger, and Kevin Griffis (all of whom are CDC personnel) on dates beginning February 1, 2021 through May 31, 2021, containing the word myocarditis.” DailyClout reported on the initial 472-page production from that FOIA on August 29, 2023.

Mr. Berkovich recently received 46 additional pages, over 80% of which were fully redacted, involving other government entities such as the White House and Executive Office of the President, as part of this production. Of the 46 pages, only two pages were released without any redactions. Seven pages were partially redacted pages, and 37 pages were fully redacted. The redactions were “pursuant to 5 U.S.C. §552 Exemptions 5 and 6.” According to the CDC cover letter accompanying this production:

  • “Exemption 5 protects inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency. Exemption 5 therefore incorporates the privileges that protect materials from discovery in litigation, including the deliberative process, attorney work-product, and attorney-client privileges. Information withheld under this exemption was protected under the deliberative process and presidential communications privileges.The deliberative process privilege protects the decision-making process of government agencies. The deliberative process privilege protects materials that are both predecisional and deliberative. The information that have been withheld under the deliberative process privilege of Exemption 5 are both predecisional and deliberative, and do not represent formal or informal agency policies or decisions. Examples of information withheld include recommendations, comments, opinions. The presidential communications privilege protects documents solicited and received by the President or his immediate White House advisers who have broad and significant responsibility for investigating and formulating the advice to be given to the President.“
  • “Exemption 6 protects information in personnel and medical files and similar files when disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. The information that has been withheld under Exemption 6 consists of personal information, such as a telephone number. We have determined that the individual(s) to whom this information pertains has a substantial privacy interest in withholding it.”

In this FOIA production, the first set of emails are dated May 24-25, 2021, with the subject “Draft WH [White House] Script and Slides.” Abbigail Tumpey, former Associate Director for Communication Science for CDC’s Public Health Infrastructure emailed Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, CDC Director and ATSDR Administrator, with Sherri Berger, Deputy Director for Policy, Communications, and Legislative Affairs/Chief Strategy Officer; Robert (“Robbie”) Goldstein, MD, Massachusetts’ Commissioner of the Department of Public Health (DPH), a former Senior Policy Advisor at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School; Paul Fulton, CDC Press Officer; and Jason McDonald, a CDC spokesperson and Public Affairs Specialist CCed. These emails had a “draft press conf script and slides for [Dr. Walensky’s] review” attached. However, the 10 pages of the script and slides are fully redacted.

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UAP Documents and Videos Surface from U.S. Customs and Border Protection

In a new development concerning Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), a batch of documents and videos has emerged from the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The unexpected find came to light thanks to X user “Dr.Disclosure89 (@Docneuroeo)”, who alerted The Black Vault about this discovery.

As of now, the origins of this release remain a mystery. There are two main possibilities: either CBP took the initiative to proactively disclose these materials to the public, or they were released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The Black Vault currently has multiple FOIA cases with CBP. Some of these requests were transferred to other agencies, while others remain open with CBP.

To get to the bottom of this, The Black Vault reached out to CBP for clarification. But after navigating an intricate phone menu system, no representatives were available to provide a comment or an explanation about the nature of the release.

While the actual context and background of the released documents and videos remain unclear, they offer a glimpse at some new cases, though much of the resolution seems to be on the low side. The Black Vault will also be seeking higher resolution versions of the videos, along with higher resolution scans of the documents.

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U.S. Government Monitoring Pregnant Moms’ Social Media Posts

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) premier law enforcement agency monitors expecting parents’ online posts about their pregnancy and reproductive health issues, according to internal emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the online privacy activist group, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

The U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE), the DHS agency that conducts criminal investigations and enforces U.S. immigration laws, is one of a handful of government agencies that use a software tracking tool called SocialNet.

SocialNet pulls citizens’ online data from a host of websites, including BabyCenter, a reference and pregnancy tracking site where new and expecting parents can post information about their health and pregnancy experiences.

Eva Galperin — cybersecurity director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a leading nonprofit defending civil liberties in the digital world — said the revelation is “concerning.”

“When people post about their pregnancies to BabyCenter, they’re usually doing it without the expectation that ICE or the local police are checking up on the status of their pregnancy,” Galperin told The Defender.

“ICE could potentially be reading information about your reproductive health and about your pregnancy or your children,” she said, adding that this is particularly concerning due to the current political climate surrounding pregnancy and abortion.

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US F-22 Raptor ‘Shot Down’ A UFO & Not A Chinese Spy Balloon Over Northern Canada In Feb – Reports

In an unexpected twist, a new report suggests that an object initially believed to be a Chinese balloon, downed by an F-22 fighter jet in February over the Yukon territory in northern Canada, may belong to the category of ‘unidentified anomalous phenomena’ or ‘UAP.’ 

The UAP is the official term used for what is more commonly referred to as “unidentified flying objects” or “UFOs.” In the last few months, the Pentagon and American lawmakers have accelerated their investigations into what they call ‘unidentified anomalous phenomena’ or ‘UAP. 

On September 6, CTV News, based in Canada, reported that in February, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received a classified memo on “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP).” 

Based on information obtained through a freedom of information request, the report revealed that an unidentified object was detected and shot down over northern Canada’s Yukon Territory on February 11.

The incident occurred shortly after an F-22 aircraft downed a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. 

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U.S. Navy Confirms They Have Visuals of “Near Misses” With UAP; All Remain Classified

In the 2021 UAP report published by ODNI, there were 11 “near misses” that were referenced. The Black Vault filed numerous cases to get these in 2021, as at that time, nothing was known about them.

The case files of the 11 “near misses” were eventually released and listed as the Range Fouler reports (see: Range Fouler Debrief Forms and Reports)

But one of the cases filed by The Black Vault also went after the photos/videos related to those 11 cases.

That Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) was denied, as a review by the FOIA office (also The Black Vault’s request) showed that the requested visual(s) were 100% classified across the board.

So, the MDR was denied based on that review. It is unclear if all 11 had imagery, or just 1. Regardless, these would definitely provide a close-up look at the encounters, if they are ever released.

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NASA UAP / UFO Related Internal Communications

According to NASA, “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is responsible for unique scientific and technological achievements in human spaceflight, aeronautics, space science, and space applications that have had widespread impacts on our nation and the world. Forged in response to early Soviet space achievements, NASA was built on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and other government organizations, as the locus of U.S. civil aerospace research and development.”

The following is a large archive of internal NASA related UAP / UFO communications, consisting primarily of e-mails, along with their attachments.

The cases are broken down below, along with links to the documents released.

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