More evidence that so-called “good government” laws, like FOIA, are illusory.
In response to a recent FOIA request submitted to EPA, one EPA staff e-mail read:
eDiscovery is apparently some centralized system for searching for e-mail and electronic documents. But rather than automatically using eDiscovery for all FOIA requests, EPA allows employees the option of searching their own computers themselves and providing what e-mail/documents they want — a lot like Hillary Clinton’s lawyers deciding which of the 55,000 e-mails Hillary would turn over the the State Department.
It’s the Freedom of What-Information-We-Want-to-Give-You Act.
FOIA laws were created to give people a chance to get documents which government agencies would not turn over.
However, most governmental units now use FOIA laws in reverse. Unless and until you file an FOIA request, they won’t even begin to think about giving you something. Then they ignore the law knowing that it is so expensive and time consuming to fight them (while they use your tax dollars to block you every step of the way.)
And with no penalty when they are finally caught.
I wonder if it would change things if the FIO requester (ie our host Steve) included a demand that eDiscovery be used for the search.
Of course, if you subscribe to the Clinton Rule, just keep all your emails on a private, secret server and you can then simply deny there are any emails at all. A much simpler dodge to FOIA requests than the above dodge.
The fox has definitely been put in charge of the hen house.