FOIA Files Come behind the scenes as Bloomberg's FOIA expert uncovers interesting documents never seen before.

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Here's a link to the tips I posted. Please sign up for a FREE subscription at @bloomberg.com if you haven't already. I have some good stuff on deck in the coming weeks!

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Welcome back to FOIA Files! In February 2025, Russell Vought, the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, announced a new tipline to encourage companies to report CFPB enforcement or supervision staff who violated a “stand down order” on all agency work. I filed a FOIA request for a few days’ worth of tips. Let’s just say they largely were not credible. If you’re not already getting FOIA Files in your inbox, sign up here.

One of the first orders of business for the new Trump administration—and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency—was dismantling the consumer watchdog agency that was set up at the urging of Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. On Feb. 7, 2025 Trump named Vought, an architect of the Heritage Foundation’s conservative playbook, Project 2025, as acting director of CFPB. Project 2025’s more than 900-page manifesto for overhauling the federal government called for abolishing the CFPB. One day after assuming his role, Vought told CFPB staff to cease investigations and enforcement actions. He then told employees to stay home and not to perform any work. A few days later, an account on X popped up: @cfpb_tipline. “Are you being pursued by CFPB enforcement or supervision staff, in violation of Acting Director Russ Vought’s stand down order?” the account’s bio read. “If so, DM us or send an email.” Naturally eager to get my hands on some of those tips, I filed a request in March 2025 for them. I limited it to a few days after it was established. I figured that with all the news coverage about the creation of the tipline, that’s when the agency would’ve received a high volume of submissions. The agency sent me 158 pages. Guess what? No one blew the whistle on CFPB personnel. The ‘tips’ amounted to a lot of spam, a handful of profanity-laced messages about Vought, complaints about his leadership and typewritten lyrics to the Taylor Swift songs Epiphany and Dear John. There’s also a whole bunch of newsletter subscriptions addressed to Vought, who is also director of the Office of Management and Budget.

One person thanked the CFPB for setting up “this extremely critical tipline so I can voice my complaint that I’m being hounded unfairly.” I can only imagine what the direct messages in CFPB’s X inbox look like.

NEW FOIA Files newsletter is out! In Feb 2025, Russ Vought, CFPB's acting director, announced a tipline to encourage companies to report CFPB enforcement/supervision staff who violated a work stoppage order. I filed a #FOIA request for a few days’ worth of tips. Let’s just say they weren't credible

Thank you!!

@jasonleopold.bsky.social is always so generous offering free links to what seems like an incredible amount of work. If you can please consider supporting him with a subscription.

Check out this week's newsletter and the documents I pried loose at the link at @bloomberg.com. As always, it's free! Please consider signing up for a subscription if you haven't already.
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Now, with the OLC opinion concluding that the act is unconstitutional, Trump’s 2023 comments seem prescient.

Trump’s comments at the time ran counter to the plain language of the PRA, which says the “Archivist of the United States shall assume responsibility for the custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential records of that President.”

On another occasion he doubled down: “Whatever documents a president decides to take with him, he has the right to do so. It’s an absolute right.”

In public comments after Trump was indicted, Trump defended his actions. “Under the Presidential Records Act, which is civil not criminal, I had every right to have these documents,” he said.

Last week, Trump appointed a new acting archivist: Edward Forst, a former Goldman Sachs and real estate executive who’d been serving as the administrator of the General Services Administration.

Then in February, James Byron, who’d served as president of the Richard Nixon Foundation and as an adviser to Rubio at NARA, took over as acting archivist. In late March, Byron resigned. His last day was April 3

In her place he named Secretary of State Marco Rubio as acting archivist. Employees were fired and whole offices were gutted, including one that provides support to presidential libraries.

After Trump won the 2024 presidential election, the government dropped its criminal case. Trump then targeted NARA. Last year, a month after he was inaugurated, Trump fired Colleen Shogan, the then Archivist of the United States.

Eventually, the investigation led to an unprecedented FBI search of MAL in the summer of 2022 where agents found even more classified documents. In 2023, Trump was indicted on charges that he unlawfully retained and concealed the documents and obstructed justice by refusing to return them to NARA

One important point: another set of documents I obtained from the FBI showed that agents assigned to the investigation, dubbed “Plasmic Echo,” weren’t on board with the probe.

Another page from the file that says NARA initially found 767 pages of classified docs

The level of classification and the types of classified records found

The FBI documents also reveal the number of classified documents NARA discovered. It goes on to explain the type of classified records NARA found and the level of classification.

A page from an FBI file that says NARA made a criminal referral to DOJ after finding classified docs in the boxes it retrieved from MAL

When NARA finally retrieved 15 boxes in 2022, archivists found highly classified records commingled w/other records. NARA then sent a criminal referral to DOJ, which led to a DOJ & FBI investigation, as the docs I just obtained from the bureau in response to my long-running #FOIA lawsuit make clear.

Email from NARA lawyer to Trump's lawyer attempting to retrieve presidential records

The agency’s lawyers spent more than a year trying to retrieve the documents, which included a letter to Trump from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a letter Obama left for Trump.

When Trump left the White House in 2021, that’s when things hit the fan. It’s well known by now that Trump took with him boxes of documents to Mar-a-Lago that contained records that he was supposed to turn over to NARA in accordance with the Presidential Records Act

The thing about the PRA is that there’s never been any real enforcement mechanism. Last year, NARA told me in a statement the agency “has no authority to enforce records management within the White House” but can offer “our views on the proposed disposal of Presidential records in accordance" w/PRA

(I documented this through multiple FOIA requests over the past nine years)

Although NARA provided the Office of the President with a briefing in 2017 on adherence to the Presidential Records Act, Trump was prone to tearing up documents—he allegedly flushed papers down the toilet during his first term and his staff had to tape some records back together.

NARA's the keeper of America’s historical treasures. NARA ensures compliance w/the PRA during president’s time in office & is the legal custodian of the records after their term ends. Trump’s relationship w/NARA has been far from great: He once referred to the agency as a “very radical left group”

WH spox Abigail Jackson told me Trump “is committed to preserving records from his historic Administration and he will maintain a rigorous records retention program.” She added the admin "is already discussing with NARA how to move forward”

A NARA spox didnt respond to a request for comment

Although the legal opinion doesn’t explicitly say the OLC opinion is linked to the fight over the Trump White House records, the timing indicates the two might be directly connected. The OLC opinion now threatens the preservation of history itself

I paid from an FBI file showing that the National Archives and Records Administration sent a criminal referral to the justice department related to classified records Trump took from the White House

Just a few days earlier, I received another set of documents from the FBI about the probe into Trump’s improper retention of presidential and classified records after he left the White House in 2021.

NEW FOIA Files newsletter is out!

On April 1, the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel publicly released a bombshell 52-page opinion. It said that the Presidential Records Act is “unconstitutional” and that Trump “need not further comply with its dictates.”

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www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

In light of the number of appeals pending with this office. we do not wish to expend our verv limited resources on matters which are no longer of particular interest Accordingly, unless we hear from you by May 4, 2026, we will assume that you are no longer interested and close this appeal. If vou remain interested in having us process this case, please contact me by return email. Thank you for your consideration. U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor Division of Management and Administrative Legal Services

Like many other #FOIA requesters, I routinely receive letters from federal agencies questioning whether I am still interested in my older FOIA requests (yes I am)

This is the 1st time I rec'd a letter asking if I am still interested in my FOIA appeal

The FOIA struggle is real

Kash Patel emails (1.1 GB)

The first tranche of emails from the mailbox of Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, which was hacked by Handala, a hacking group that is believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence.

ddosecrets.org/article/kash...

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