- You can only stay on the sidelines for so long.
These are unprecedented times,
and it seems like every day,
the rule of law is being eroded little by little.
And frankly I'm sick of it.
So I'm going to do something about it.
I'm suing the White House, the CIA,
the Department of Justice and a whole bunch of others.
This is not a joke.
This is actually happening.
Let me give you some background.
You might recall that back in January,
President Trump was impeached
and he was facing a trial in the Senate.
- Article one is adopted.
(gavel thumping)
(senators clapping)
- And one of the people that seem to have a lot
to say about the particular charges that were levied
against the President,
was former National Security Advisor John Bolton.
And in what can only be described
as an act of pure cowardice,
John Bolton refused to testify before the Senate.
And instead decided to write a book with his observations
and presumably the things that he would have testified to
at the Senate trial of the President.
- I didn't think the Democrats had the wit
or the political understanding or the reach.
- Now that's problematic for a whole host
of legal and moral reasons.
But one of the legal issues is that,
as a former National Security Advisor,
in order to publish a book, Bolton had to go through
an onerous pre-publication review process.
During the course of that review process, the government
would likely take out a whole bunch of information
that it doesn't want to be published.
And I didn't trust the government
to do that pre-publication review and censoring
of John Bolton's book in good faith.
Under normal circumstances, but doubly so when we're talking
about things that strike at the heart of our democracy
and the President's impeachment trial.
So back in February, I filed some FOIA requests
against the National Security Council,
the CIA, the Department of Defense,
the Department of Justice, the Department of State,
basically anyone that would have possibly gotten a copy
of John Bolton's book and had something to say about it.
Now, normally under this review process,
the government can simply say that this portion of the book,
is classified and therefore it cannot be published
and there's some back and forth.
But there's nothing that forces the government
to really provide reasoning for the demands
that they're making and in some circumstances,
the government doesn't even need
to claim that the things are classified
just that they are prohibited from being disclosed.
So who knows what they prevented Bolton from saying?
So the point of Legal Eagles FOIA requests was to obtain,
or at least force the government to properly process
these redactions under FOIA.
Information that the government was attempting
to prevent John Bolton from publishing in his book.
And we also sought to obtain information
about what process the government was using.
Were there any political considerations
in terms of preventing John Bolton
from saying certain things?
And did the government prevent him
from saying unclassified information
that he had a right to say,
because it was politically damaging.
Not surprisingly, the government has stonewalled
our FOIA requests.
So, we're filing suit.
We are suing the government, the White House, the CIA,
the Department of Justice,
the Department of Defense, the Department of State,
and a whole host of other federal government agencies
to find out what they prevented John Bolton from saying.
The goals are simple.
To force the government to disclose the information
that it didn't want John Bolton to disclose to the public.
To either force them to un-classify the information,
to admit that it was never classified in the first place
and at the bare minimum to force them to explain
why and how that information is classified
and why it cannot see the light of day.
This is actually what happened when Jason Leopold
of Buzzfeed filed a FOIA request
and eventually a lawsuit to enforce that FOIA request
for the original Mueller Report.
We got a lot more information about the vague redactions
that the DOJ had actually done
to the initial release of the Mueller Report.
And we found out that a lot of those redactions
were completely improper.
And because I don't necessarily trust the government
to have conducted a good faith investigation
in this particular case.
We also want the correspondence,
to know who was making this decision,
why these decisions were made.
And as I covered in my other video
on the whole John Bolton case,
the timeline doesn't line up here.
Because allegedly, one of the government employees,
cleared John Bolton's entire book for publication
only to have that decision changed at the last minute,
by a political appointee.
A political appointee who had basically zero training
in terms of over-classification.
It's entirely possible that this whole process is rife
with political machinations designed to hide
the white house from unflattering information
that should see the light of day.
So because the government has stonewalled our requests,
we're filing suit.
We're going to ask a federal judge to enforce our demands,
to make sure that the government complies with them
and to disclose this information.
This is not a stunt.
This is not a joke.
We are actually filing a federal lawsuit
to enforce our FOIA requests as we are entitled to do.
And like any good lawyer, I have teamed up with
some of the best National Security lawyers in the country.
Specifically in this case,
I am working with the National Security Counselors,
which is a nonprofit organization.
And their executive director, Kel McClanahan,
who has more experience with FOIA requests
and FOIA litigation than probably anyone else.
And we're committed to taking this to the mat.
We want people to be actively engaged,
and we want people to have the information
that is important about their government.
Democracy only works when the people are informed
and have access to the information
that is critically important.
And if the Senate isn't going to give the president
a fair trial, when it comes to impeachment,
then the only check on Executive power
is at the ballot box.
- The primary way that we reign presidents in
is not through impeachment, it's through elections.
- And that only works
when people have the necessary information,
including the information that the government
doesn't want its citizens to have.
So this will be the first in a series of videos
that chronicles the adventures
of suing the federal government to disclose information
that probably should have been disclosed in the first place.
This would not be possible
without the help of the National Security Counselors.
There's a link in the description to be able to donate
to the National Security Counselors,
which is a 501(c)(3), so your donation is tax deductible.
And it would mean the world to us,
if you would consider donating to the cause
because lawyers and litigation are expensive
and we are committed to taking this thing
as far as it needs to go.
Because we believe that this cause is just,
and no one else is going to do it.
And any donations made above the cost of this litigation
will go towards the other charitable work
that the National Security Counselors do.
Which includes but isn't limited to,
representing whistle-blowers,
representing journalists in FOIA requests,
suing to strike down anti-transparency policies
and practices and advocating for pro-transparency
and accountability reforms in the law and the government.
And it'd be great if this was not a one time thing,
I'm hopeful that this lawsuit
will create real and lasting change,
or at least be able to disseminate important information
related to the heart of our democracy.
But it would also be great to be able
to right other injustices
and to be able to uphold the rule of law in other contexts.
So I'm hopeful that this won't be a one off thing
and that Legal Eagle can create some law,
not just explain it.
So to you Legal Eagles, I thank you for your support.
And until next time, I'll see you in court.
This time literally.