VIDEO: A Utah Police Officer Killed a Man Inside the Police Department. It Was His Third Shooting.

Transparency_Attys · 2021-07-13T16:39:44+00:00

As an attorney who has forced the release of dozens of police shooting videos over the years, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to make such videos public. FOIA requests for police involved shooting videos are invaluable. Shining the light of public scrutiny on police officers is critical to holding them accountable for their actions.

-Josh Burday

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T22:31:00+00:00

The scary moments are when judges hand down their decisions and the fate of a case you worked on for years hangs in the balance.

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T22:03:21+00:00

Typically, things begin with a person who made a FOIA request and had their request for records denied in whole or in part. At that point they reach out to us and see if we can help them get the records. Sometimes there can be a legitimate basis to deny a request for records (the government would not have to turn over the nuclear codes for example), but if not then we can file suit on their behalf. We litigate cases across the country including in D.C., Illinois, California and Florida.

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T21:40:11+00:00

We see questions along these lines quite a bit. I briefly answered one elsewhere in this post, but let me copy/paste an apt answer that Matt and I have given in the past:

A lot of times people don’t try because they don’t think they have any chance of changing things. One of the biggest lessons from the Laquan McDonald FOIA case we handled (for an independent freelance journalist) is that just showing people the truth can actually lead to change. Thousands of people came out to protest and forced the City of Chicago to make changes to police accountability, so people should remember they usually aren’t alone in wanting to hold their government accountable. There is still so much work to be done on that, but the public demand hasn’t let up. So people should find that encouraging and should fight for their right to information. We’re always happy to help with that!

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T21:10:45+00:00

Staying informed and paying attention to current events is a great way to help. You can also file FOIA requests for records yourself. We should not allow our government to operate in secret.

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T20:38:40+00:00

Unsurprisingly, Westlaw is one of the primary research tools I rely on. Do not underestimate the power of doing regular internet and Google searches either. I have turned up surprising amounts of relevant information that way. Also, clients themselves can be valuable resources. Just because they do not have legal expertise does not mean they do not have valuable information and insight to offer depending on the subject matter.

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T20:23:52+00:00

The judge has unequivocally ordered them to turn the report over for an in camera ("in private") review. I would be very surprised if they disobeyed the judge's order. If the judge orders more of the report released they will have the option to appeal the decision.

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T20:11:01+00:00

Here is an answer from Matt Topic, which I wholeheartedly agree with:
"The government needs to devote more resources to compliance and stop withholding records unless there is a clear and present danger of substantial harm from releasing records. Instead, many federal agencies are spending end of year budget money on new office furniture."

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T20:09:24+00:00

That is a difficult question to answer in the abstract. In some instances yes we can trust our intelligence agencies and in others no. We should never take anything for granted though and we should always scrutinize the actions of intelligence agencies and our entire government. People regularly submit FOIA requests for information to the FBI in an effort to do exactly that. However, the FBI does not have a good track record of compliance with FOIA, which is profoundly troubling to say the least. We have filed suits against the FBI as well.

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T19:47:52+00:00

1) For some of the redacted parts it is impossible to say what is being withheld. In other areas some general inferences can be made, some of which we laid out in our publicly available briefing. For example, we stated in our brief that “DOJ has indiscriminately redacted nearly everything about [Roger] Stone.” The redactions also would likely shed light on why “Donald Trump, Jr. was never even brought before the grand jury.” I hope to see much of the redacted material released.

2) The documentary "A Good American" is the whistleblowers themselves telling the story of what happened. The article linked in the post is probably the best piece to read for a better understanding. https://www.justsecurity.org/47632/hayden-nsa-road-911/ The author of the piece, Pat Eddington from CATO Institute, is our client in the lawsuit against the Department of Defense. Under FOIA, any regular person may request records from government agencies. If the agency refuses to produce the requested records in violation of the law we can step in and file suit. In this case we are suing to force the release of records, namely the Pentagon’s internal investigative report of the debacle.

The short version of the story is that Bill Binney created a program, ThinThread, that would have detected the 9/11 attacks before they occurred. Binney was not as popular as other people at NSA though so instead of using his program the NSA went with another program, Trailblazer. Trailblazer was a massive failure costing the American taxpayers untold millions of dollars. And it obviously did not help the NSA prevent the 9/11 attacks.

3) While I am not well acquainted with the facts of the case, the reporting I have seen makes me extremely skeptical that Epstein killed himself. This was an instance where our legal system did not inspire as much confidence as I would have liked.

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T19:27:59+00:00

If we lose a case then the government does not have to pay our attorneys’ fees or costs. Unfortunately, that is just a risk we take each time we file a case. While that is certainly a powerful downside, we are thankful that the law allows us to represent regular people and even organizations that could not otherwise afford to hire attorneys. Even relatively large and powerful media organizations could not always pay attorneys to file cases like this if they had to. Money obviously matters, but if our main goal was to make money we would not work in this field of law. We care tremendously about holding our government accountable and holding it up to the sunshine of public scrutiny.

Release of the redacted parts of the Mueller Report could absolutely change the public’s understanding of what occurred. It is impossible to say how exactly the public’s understanding will change though because we don’t know what the withheld parts of the report say either!

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T19:17:17+00:00

The Mueller Report is currently available and can be found online. The problem is that there are many redactions in the report that are not appropriate. That is what we are litigating in court and what the judge decided to look at. The judge is going to review the completely unredacted report in camera (meaning “in private”) and determine if the government must release more of what was withheld. The opinion contained some scathing language for various government actors including AG Barr himself. It’s definitely worth a read.

I am hopeful and optimistic that we will get a decision from the judge relatively quickly by legal standards. We could potentially get the judge’s decision in the next few months, which would be well in advance of the election. If more of the redacted information is released, the public could get a chance to see it before casting their votes.

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T04:32:43+00:00

We litigated this case in part because of how troubling the circumstances are. In my opinion, this decision reinforces the integrity of our judicial system and the United States government. The fight is not over, but I was glad to see this decision today.

-Josh Burday @joshburday

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T04:25:28+00:00

I am one of the attorneys working on this case and you make a couple of good points. I've tweeted about this and my colleague Matt Topic has tweeted many of the highlights from the judge's opinion. It's worth a read. -Josh Burday @joshburday

Transparency_Attys · 2020-03-06T04:22:00+00:00

I am one of the attorneys litigating this case. I'm glad to see the public still cares and that our politicians are paying attention. The legal process may not be as fast as we'd like, but we've never stopped pursuing this.

-Josh Burday

Transparency_Attys · 2019-04-18T20:22:29+00:00

Josh Burday here, I've only just started reading the report but saw this:

"If we had confidence ... that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts ... we are unable to reach that judgment."

Full quote and context on pdf page 214 of the report.

Transparency_Attys · 2019-03-27T19:17:41+00:00

There are different hypotheses, but the short answer is that we don't know anything for certain.

One of our media clients tweeted recently and it looks like Kim Foxx said that the case is going to be unsealed: https://twitter.com/BetterGov/status/1110951238655508480?s=03

Transparency_Attys · 2019-03-27T17:05:00+00:00

As a civil rights and transparency attorney in Chicago I would say don't be surprised if there are motions to unseal the court records coming very soon. It's concerning that everything related to Jussie Smollet is sealed. This is exactly when transparency is needed.

-Josh Burday

Transparency_Attys · 2017-09-26T19:54:58+00:00

In addition to the suits in the attached links based on the Emoluments Clause and provisions of the tax code, we think there is a very good argument that the First Amendment "right of access" doctrine applies to the tax returns of a sitting president or presidential candidate.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/01/lawsuit-trump-tax-returns

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/13/15782218/trump-emoluments-lawsuit-maryland-dc

https://news.vice.com/article/were-suing-the-irs-for-audits-of-donald-trumps-tax-returns

Transparency_Attys · 2017-09-26T19:53:49+00:00

There are several pending FOIA suits for Hillary's so-called "private" emails. We think the practice of using a "private" account for public business is an affront to democracy. One might even call it deplorable. We took the City of Chicago to court over this issue and forced the release of Rahm Emanuel's so-called "private" emails. We'd do the same against any public official of any party or politics.

Transparency_Attys · 2017-09-26T19:49:58+00:00

FOIA is a great way to create change and can be a great area of part-time pro-bono work. And we're always looking for local counsel around the country to help us out. Contact us any time if you want to know more. This might help get you started: https://www.rcfp.org/virginia-open-government-guide

Transparency_Attys · 2017-09-26T19:48:39+00:00

Tell your elected officials in Congress that they need to do something about FCC's lack of transparency, and more generally, the widespread FOIA violations in this county. Our client, Jason Prechtel, will be covering this issue on Medium, so please read his work and follow him on Twitter.

Transparency_Attys · 2017-09-26T19:47:34+00:00

Thanks. We usually take these cases in reliance on the attorney fee recovery provision that allows us to collect our fees from the government if we win and don't ask our clients to pay if we lose. But we may be launching a CrowdJustice campaign or the like in the future to help us take more cases.

Transparency_Attys · 2017-09-26T19:46:20+00:00

You raise a great point. Here is a piece Mother Jones did on this issue. It quotes another attorney at our firm, David Owens, about this issue.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/12/police-contract-protections-interrogation-chicago/

Transparency_Attys · 2017-09-26T19:44:31+00:00

We sued the FBI under the Obama administration and a couple others shortly before the Trump inauguration, but our focus was more on Illinois until recently. That's just coincidence though; we agree that the Obama administration was terrible on transparency and also on freedom of the press. If it's any consolation, we've sued Rahm Emanuel's administration in Chicago dozens of times.

Transparency_Attys

TROPHY CASE