Pajamas Media’s Patrick Poole first broke the story of the Holder Department of Justice’s decision to quietly scuttle prosecutions against the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its co-founder. The charges concerned financing of terrorism, and DOJ scuttled them despite the US attorney’s office in Dallas having spent close to a decade investigating them. The question is, who made the decision to scuttle the charges, and why? Now, Judicial Watch is suing over the Department’s failure to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests concerning the decisions:
On May 9, 2011, Judicial Watch sent a FOIA request to the DOJ’s Office of Information Policy (OIP) seeking access to the following:
- The March 31, 2010 memorandum entitled “Declination of Prosecution of Omar Ahmad from
Attorney General David Kris to Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler.- “Any and all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the Office of the Attorney General (AG), the Office of Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Office of the Associate Attorney General (Assoc. AG) and the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) or any CAIR groups concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad.”
- “Any all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the Office of the AG, the Office of the DAG, or the Office of the Assoc. AG and the U.S. Congress concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad”
- “Any and all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the office of the AG, the office of the DAG, or the office of the Assoc. AG and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad.”
On May 9, 2011, Judicial Watch also filed a similar request with the DOJ’s National Security Division (NSD) seeking access to contacts and correspondence between the NSD and CAIR, Congress, and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas regarding the decision not to prosecute. The time frame for these requests is January 20, 2009, to May 1, 2011.
Both DOJ divisions have acknowledged receipt of Judicial Watch’s request, and were required to respond by June 14 and June 13, 2011, respectively. However, to date, both have failed to produce responsive documents or indicate when a response is forthcoming.
There is much more at the link.
President Obama promised to deliver the most transparent administration in American history. What he has delivered instead is probably best captured by this photo of documents his administration handed down in response to a FOIA concerning a different DOJ scandal, Gunwalker:
Even when the administration does eventually comply with a FOIA request, they do their best to keep the public from learning anything.
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