© Alex Brandon/AP
Judge Beryl Howell, chief of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled in the case brought by the nonprofit transparency group American Oversight that GSA, though it had delivered thousands of emails from the Trump transition team, had not "adequately supported" its decisions to redact some documents and withhold some email attachments in the name of privacy.
"While the FOIA request does not explicitly refer to attachments, the scope of the request for 'all records reflecting communications' plainly covered parts of email communications that were in the form of an attachment," the judge wrote in instructing GSA to turn over more documents. "GSA's blinkered literalism, distinguishing emails from email attachments, is at odds with the agency's 'duty to construe a FOIA request liberally.' "American Oversight's original request, filed in April 2017, asked for records relating to the Trump presidential transition team's contacts with GSA regarding Trump's controversial continued status as owner of the Trump International Hotel that his company created in the federally owned and historically protected Old Post Office building.
Comment: Outrageous. This judge should be disbarred. See also from 2011 and the same judge: Iran Rejects New York Judge's Finding that Tehran is Liable in Sept. 11 Attacks