Government Agencies Want the Right to Lie About Documents They Have in Their Possession

Robert Wenzel
Economic Policy Journal
Oct. 20, 2011

A proposed rule would revise section 16.6 of the Department of Justice's Freedom of Information Act regulations to allow agencies relying on an exemption under 5 USC section 552(c), which applies to certain law enforcement records and information on other sensitive national security investigations, to respond as if the documents did not exist.

OpenTheGov.org writes:

...the proposed rule will dramatically undermine government integrity by allowing a law designed to provide public access to government information to be twisted to permit federal law enforcement agencies to actively lie to the American people. The provision would also impede the judicial review that Congress intended to ensure government agencies are properly interpreting FOIA exemptions.

Moreover, the proposed rule is unnecessary. The government can already craft a response to FOIA requests for the records in question that does not confirm whether excludable records exist without lying to the public.