White House Press Office STONEWALLING FOIA requests on "GANNON"

[Nothing Without Hope]

Any legal mavens out there know how long they can continue to stonewall these FOIA requests? What's the time limit for response and what are the consequences for not turning over the documents?

Because, as this entry in the blog Journalists Against Bush's B.S. (JABBS) reports, the stonewalling has been going on for three months and counting.

http://jabbs.blogspot.com/2005/05/three-months-later-white-house-press.html
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Three Months Later, White House Press Office Has Not Released Documents on J.D. Guckert

The White House Press Office has not responded to a Feb. 10 request to turn over documents relating to the press credentials of J.D. Guckert (aka "Jeff Gannon").

The request was made by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). A copy of his letter to White House Press Secretary Scott McLellan can be found by clicking here: http://lautenberg.senate.gov/~lautenberg/press/2003/01/2005210903.html.

(snip)

Without the documents or other help from the White House Press Office, Lautenberg and other Senate Democrats can't undertake a thorough investigation into how Guckert received press credentials, which allowed him to ask questions of McClellan and in one case, President Bush.

A similar request for information, made April 25 by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) and Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY), has also been ignored. Their letter can be found by clicking here: http://clips.mediamatters.org/pdf/conyers_slaughter_gannon.pdf.

(snip)

[punpirate]

1. By law, the agency receiving the request...

... has to acknowledge the request within thirty days. After that, they can stall, stall, stall, claiming any number of necessary delays. If it's a really damaging revelation in the documents, it will usually have to be taken to court, in order to get a judge's order to release the documents. That can, typically, take two or three years....

[Nothing Without Hope]

3. Thanks. So the information isn't so "free" after all, is it?

Shameful. n/t

[punpirate]

8. That's another aspect of the law that's being abused...

... these days. The 1976 changes to the FOIA law specified that agencies were entitled to recover "reasonable" costs for searching for documents, time for any necessary redactions and copying charges, but that agencies could forgo those charges if the requesting party could show that the costs were a burden.

For many years, small community environmental groups and the like were given a pass on costs because they were mostly volunteer and had little in the way of funds. Once the Bushies came in, everyone has been getting big bills for document searches (I've read of large searches being estimated at $150,000 or more), and the feeling is growing that inflated costs are being used to deter FOIA requests.

Never has been "free" and is getting much less so under the Bushies.

[Nothing Without Hope]

9. This administration is criminal right down to the basic routines of

beaurocracy. It's totally permeated. Imagine all the good workers that had to be thrown out or forced to act in a way that was against their conscience.

[rumpel]

18. Aha! This is how * is going to balance the budget.

Just kidding. :)

[LightningFlash]

2. But instead, the Secret Service has been fulfilling....

Those requests, and released documents which Conyers and Slaughter have both seen.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/19/9154/09837

Now there is also video of his occupation there....Someone is leaking things from the WH.

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. I surely hope so. The secrets behind this one are very damaging to

the criminal gang in the WH.

[annabanana]

11. WH press office requested & received Guck appt everyday

(copied from Kos link above)

It is clear from the first FOIA release, reported by ePluribus Media on Monday, that the difference between having a security clearance and using it can be quite large. From the Secret Service's earliest remaining appointment request -- on Dec. 20, 2004, until Jan. 26, 2005, when he asked "the question," -- the White House press office requested and received an appointment for Guckert every day.

During that span, Guckert shows up on the Secret Service access control logs only six times. If examined without context, these records give the impression that Guckert was one of the pack when clearly he was not.

Despite repeatedly parroting the Bush administration's agenda as "news;" despite receiving a "stipend" from a dummy news agency co-founded by a "friend" of Karl Rove and the current Chairman of the Williamson County, Tex., Republican Party; despite being denied credentials as a journalist by a committee of journalists, Guckert had an open invitation to the briefing room as far back as the current records extend.

[Al-CIAda]

13. .

[laheina]

20. Great reading!

I love it that you guys keep me up to date when I can't read all of the blogs.

The article said that jimmy jeff's site is up and running--and he's back to bragging!?

Anyone have more info?

[CWebster]

4. What else is new?

SOP

[radfringe]

6. why am I not surprised?

any requests for info that may prove to be "embarrassing" for command cuckoo-bananas is blocked, stonewalled, swept under the rug, buried, or put into a lock-box

and they call it "transparency"

http://www.cafepress.com/radicalfringe

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. kick - let's keep the pressure on n/t

[Al-CIAda]

10. .

[NVMojo]

12. there are no credentials to release!!!

[undeterred]

14. Do they have plans to eliminate FOIA?

It would seem to fit with their agenda.

[annabanana]

15. -.-

[laheina]

19. Some of the language coming from their camp

leans that way. It's all very doublespeak. In one breath they talk about transparency and limiting access to government info.

[Imagevision]

16. Gannon/Guckert passes secret service background check

Obviously courtesy of Rove and or Cheney. It appears the bot Gannon did some white house servicing on his own time. Dead serious!!

At least Clinton preferred females (with no offense to gays)

we do need to keep this story kicked , Bushco expects it to also just fade away into obivion.

[gratuitous]

17. The reason they're stalling is very simple, say it with me

National security!

[HeeBGBz]

21. The documents haven't returned from the laundry yet

I'm sure they will be bright and clean when they finally get them.