Introduction
This article is published in partnership with The Daily Beast
This weekend emails about Ukraine military aid released to the Center for Public Integrity triggered a new round of conversations about the timeline of the White House’s decision to halt the aid, the issue at the heart of President Donald Trump’s impeachment.
The documents from the Pentagon and the White House Office
of Management and Budget were riddled with blacked-out paragraphs, hiding what
the administration argues is sensitive information. But there was enough
information in the emails to kick-start demands for an unredacted version of the
documents to be shared with the public, including Congress, which had not seen
them.
The public cannot hold elected officials accountable in a
culture of information blackout. That’s why Public Integrity filed a Freedom of
Information Act lawsuit to get the Ukraine documents. Americans should know
about a moment destined for the history books.
On Sunday, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
(D-NY) called on the administration to release unredacted versions of the
emails. “Until we
hear from the witnesses, until we get the documents, the American people will
correctly assume that those blocking their testimony were aiding and abetting a
cover-up, plain and simple,” Schumer said. He reinforced the point in a “Dear Colleague” letter today.
The Ukraine documents, however, are not a partisan issue.
They’re a public concern.
A July 25 email about the freeze on aid sparked much of the
media conversation. As we reported, “The email includes a written instruction
that the Pentagon ‘please hold off on’ distribution of the funds and says that
‘given the sensitive nature of the request’ the information should be ‘closely
held.’’’ The email was sent 91 minutes after the end of the now-infamous call
between Trump and Ukraine President
Vlodymyr Zelensky. The timing may have been coincidental given that the
aid was held up by Trump earlier that month, but without access to a clean
version of the emails we have zero context about what officials were thinking
and doing.
Public Integrity’s research editor and FOIA attorney, Peter Newbatt
Smith, made clear the stakes for the nation when we won our legal fight for the
documents on November 25. In her order, U.S. District Judge Colleen
Kollar-Kotelly agreed that “this is not an ordinary FOIA case,” given that
impeachment proceedings were then under way in the House of Representatives.
Lawmakers, she wrote, were delving into “the same subject matter as the
documents requested by [Public Integrity]. As such, the requested documents are
sought in order to inform the public on a matter of extreme national concern.”
Judge Kollar-Kotelly told the Pentagon to release the
documents in two tranches: one on December 12 and the other on December 20. The
first tranche was so heavily redacted – on government claims that the
blacked-out material was “sensitive” and “privileged” – that we asked for
relief from the court the next day. The second tranche was slightly more illuminating
– it included the “91-minute” email — but still loaded with redactions.
We argued to the judge that much of the redacted text
“appears on its face to be factual information, rather than deliberative
material” that doesn’t have to be disclosed under FOIA. She’ll receive briefs
from the parties after the first of the year; we expect a ruling in March, by
which time Trump may have faced a Senate impeachment trial.
The ripple caused by the December 20 emails —not only among pundits
and politicians, but also among citizens who emailed us and followed us on
social media—demonstrates the hunger for more knowledge about the events of
last summer. At a time when local
newspapers are struggling and misinformation is widespread, access to reliable
information is the thread that keeps our democracy intact.
Information is currency in our democracy. And access to
information is power. When the public and the press are denied information, we
are poorer as a nation.
Our fight over the Ukraine documents means taking on a
president. But it just as easily could be a mayor, a city council member, a county
commissioner or a school board president anywhere in America.
After an interview Sunday morning with Jeff Smith, Public
Integrity’s national security editor, MSNBC host Joy Reid said, “Thank God for
the Freedom of Information Act.”
We agree.
