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Oct. 25, 2026\n/\nLauren Harper
\nLosing public ownership of presidential papers would be no small problem.
\nNational Security Agency FOIA release
\nDear Friend of Press Freedom,
\nI’m Lauren Harper, the first Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), and welcome to The Classifieds. Read on to learn about the week’s top secrecy news.
\nThe D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments last week in our fight to stop the Trump administration from privatizing presidential papers. The battle stems from a Justice Department memo declaring that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional and that White House files are now the president’s personal property — not the public’s.
\nFPF and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued over this attempt to hide the most consequential records in government — and in May, we won an emergency preliminary injunction requiring the White House to follow the law.
\nPolitico notes that the appeals panel hearing our case had deep reservations about the government’s arguments, with Judge Patricia Millett asking: “Can the president then offer on eBay to sell them, all of our national security secrets, to the highest bidder?”
\nThe government’s response was, in short, “yes.”
\nEarlier this month, the White House staged another declassification stunt focusing on records related to President Trump’s unlawful hoarding of classified records at the end of his first term.
\nThe records were “released” through the White House’s purported “transparency” task force, led by journalist and conservative commentator John Solomon. In fact, the documents were made public years ago.
\nNotably, Solomon also serves as one of Trump’s official representatives to the National Archives, along with FBI Director Kash Patel. This position grants him VIP access to the president’s records — even as Freedom of Information Act requesters will likely wait years, if not decades, to see Trump’s files.
\nIt’s the latest example of this administration’s disingenuous approach to declassification projects. Previous examples from this term include:
\nAt the same time the White House coordinates releases intended to flatter the president, it is systematically undermining FOIA offices and sidelining career professionals at the National Archives — the twin engines of government transparency.
\nThe risks of politicizing declassification are extraordinary. The George W. Bush administration famously promoted bad intelligence to bolster its long-standing desire to invade Iraq — a precedent that should loom large while we are at war with Iran.
\nIn addition to selectively declassifying records it finds convenient, the Trump administration is revoking the security clearances of intelligence officials who disagree with its policies and curtailing official access to classified information for defense officials who need it to do their job. The goal is clear: prevent unfavorable or contradictory intelligence from ever being created in the first place.
\nNone of this is to say the Trump administration shouldn’t declassify information. Of course it should. But declassification must be systematic, robust, and sincere — not used as a taxpayer-funded spin operation.
\nThe recent deaths of Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias, at a Geo Group facility in Texas, and Julian Curo-Churata, at a LaSalle Corrections facility in Louisiana, bring the number of people who have died in ICE custody this year to 29 — an alarming count that is on track to surpass last year’s record high. (This figure does not include those who died immediately upon release from ICE custody, a reporting loophole that may obscure more fatalities the agency is responsible for.)
\nThe unanswered questions from mourning families about how these deaths occurred underscore the urgent need to extend FOIA to the private facilities that contract with ICE.
\nThe federal government knows private facilities are more dangerous than government-run ones, and that they’re far more secretive because they aren’t subject to FOIA. If we can’t shut down these private prisons, we can at least make them transparent. Use our action center to demand that Congress extend FOIA to private prisons.
\nThe New York Times
\nA New York Times FOIA lawsuit has forced the FBI to release 38 pages of its investigation into the CIA’s torture program — and about 2,000 more pages are supposedly coming. This release is thanks in part to the 2016 amendments to FOIA, which required agencies to narrow the application of Exemption 5 and explain what the foreseeable harm would be if the records were released.
\nThe Office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison
\nCould we see a beefed-up version of EFTA that forces the Justice Department to fully comply with the transparency law? Yes, if a coalition of 17 state attorneys general is successful.
\nOriginally published by Freedom of the Press Foundation under a CC BY 4.0 license.
","headings":[{"level":1,"text":"DOJ says presidents should be able to sell secrets on eBay","id":"doj-says-presidents-should-be-able-to-sell-secrets-on-ebay"},{"level":2,"text":"What I’m Reading","id":"what-i-m-reading"},{"level":2,"text":"US begins disclosing CIA interview reports from scrutiny of post-9/11 torture","id":"us-begins-disclosing-cia-interview-reports-from-scrutiny-of-post"},{"level":2,"text":"Attorney General Ellison urges swift passage of latest Epstein Files Transparency Act","id":"attorney-general-ellison-urges-swift-passage-of-latest-epstein-f"}]}}