The US Freedom of Info Act allows private citizens to obtain a wide variety of government information…but I am unsure of how to use it. My example: a local (state politician) that I believe to be corrupt. This man has a law practice, and represents clients , while he is drafting laws pertaining to those clients. This is an obvious conflict of interest, and I would like to obtain:
-the financial records of his law practice
-his clients listed by action
-his personal income tax returns
-his court records (he is known to have been stopped several times by the police, for drunk driving)
So, how to I invoke this powerful law?
I also understand that this man keeps close tabs on inquiries, and has been known to retaliate against those seeking information about his activities…shouls I also get the FBI involved?:eek:
The court records are public domain so you shouldn’t need to resort to FOI for access to them. The rest wouldn’t be covered by the act because as you say, it covers the government’s behaviour with respect to openness and transparency. But as a private individual, I can’t see how this man can be compelled by FOIA to offer up his client list or tax returns. Good luck.
IANAL. Keep that in mind. Here’s a cite I managed to find using this astounding interweb searching device.
Here’s a few things I can tell you based on my own experience with FOIA, once again, noting that IANAL and much of this could be flat out wrong. I have, however, made FOIA requests before with success…
1.) FOIA really only applies to federal agencies. It is, after all, a federal law. Individual states may or may not have their own equivalent laws.
2.) FOIA, and most state equivalents, doesn’t mean you get to know anything you want about any politician. The politician’s private business is probably, well, his own business unless you want to go to court.
3.) Read the text of FOIA, it should be included in the cite I provided. If you really want more info, the ACLU might be a good start. If you’ve got serious accusations though, they’re something best handled by the courts.
To start with your stated question:
The federal Freedom of Information Act only applies to federal agencies, none of which are involved in this case, from what I can tell.
Many states have various similar laws which apply to state agencies and possibly also local governments but of course the details of what they cover and how to use them vary from state to state. You could try searching your state’s web page too see if they have anything.
The only way you could (legally) get a look at his private practice’s financial records or income tax returns would be if state law required people holding his particular political position to disclose them (which I doubt), or he voluntarily disclosed them.
There is a chance state law might require that a legislator disclose his private clients, but depends on the state.
I don’t know anything about what types of court records are public and how to get them, maybe someone else can chime in.
As for the real question of what to do about this guy, I can’t really give much advice based on this short description. The best thing might be to get a reporter interested in the story, as they have experience and resources to follow this kind of thing. Really you don’t need to document every thing, just get a few examples.
His law office records are not a matter of public record and are exempt. Communications between his clients and him are protected under attorney-client privilege.
I’m not sure if the IRS is obligated to give you a copy of his federal tax return under FOIA. Court records should be readily available.
Under a FOIA request, the agency has a certain number of days to respond to your request. They don’t have to produce the information you want, they only have to respond (“Thank you for your request.”) The agency will have to determine if the records are available, what it will cost to retrieve and produce them, and how much to charge you for receiving them.
In making your request be as specific as you can. If you say "I want all of the court records associated with Mr. X (and he’s an attorney), you’ll get reams and reams and reams of stuff (he’s probably filed lots of paperwork over the years). You’ll also get charged for the research time and the copying costs. In the alternative, you may be told “Or, you can come down to the court house and look through all the files you want on your own time.”
FOIS isn’t the magic key to information everyone seems to think it is.
Even if you think something is exempt, there’s no harm in asking. For smaller documents there’s no charge. And even if something is exempt, there’s always a chance it’ll be released anyway. I’ve done a fair amount of FOIA requests in my day and some of what came back included material probably classified and a few pages here and there that said more than they should because the clerk lazily blacked out text.
It’d be nice to have an attorney explain what you can do with material released that shouldn’t have been. I’m familiar with cases of publishing of classified material relating to military intelligence gathering obtained through leaks or badly-edited FOIA documents. The publishers were never prosecuted, leading me to understand that once something is released to the public it’s fair game (though as regards Privacy Act-sensitive info I don’t know).
UnuMondo
Depending on what state you live in (I’m in Illinois), elected officials have to disclose any potential conflicts of interest, any dealings they have with any business entity that does business with the governmental unit, and any professional services they provide outside their official duties.
In Illinois, there’s a form for all this that has to be filed regularly with the county clerk’s office (and possibly in Springfield for state officials), and the elected official has to disclose for both themselves and their spouse. It gets down to the level of having to disclose where your checking account is, if the bank you use does business with the government. These are available to the public, and falsifing them or failing to file is a criminal offense. You might see if your state has a similar law, see if this guy may have broken it, and hand the whole thing over to the state attorney general or the federal prosecutor and have them do all the work for you. At the very least, send a copy to the local media.