Washington bureaucrats at the State Department just joined super PACs and well-connected lobbyists as benefactors of Senator Russ Feingold’s eighth campaign for political office.
As The Washington Free Beacon reports, the State Department will no longer fulfill its commitment to releasing Senator Feingold’s records before Election Day.
The decision to deprive Wisconsin voters of critical information is telling.
The Feingold records must be incredibly damaging if the public outrage resulting from 600+ days of stonewalling emerged as the preferable option.
Senator Feingold – who once praised the Freedom of Information Act as "an essential piece of legislation for our Democracy," can end this with one phone call to the number below. Why won’t he and what is he hiding from Wisconsinites?
202-647-4000
In case you missed it, read more from The Washington Free Beacon:
State Department Won’t Release Feingold Documents Before Election
The Washington Free Beacon
By Joe Schoffstall
November 3, 2016
The Washington Free Beacon will not receive documents before the election that would show whether Russ Feingold violated federal law while working at the State Department.
Feingold, who is challenging Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) to reclaim the Senate seat he held for 18 years before losing to Johnson in 2010, has been accused of discussing his intent to run while working as a special envoy at the State Department between 2013 to 2015, in violation of federal law.
The Free Beacon filed a Freedom of Information Act request on September 12 seeking any and all correspondence between Feingold and Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.), the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, as well as Sens. Harry Reid (D., Nev.), Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.), and their offices. Correspondence with Mary Irvine and Cole Leystra, two of the former senator’s long-time aides, was also requested.
The original request was granted. Expedition of the request was initially denied, but was ultimately granted following a Free Beacon appeal stressing the news value of the information in light of the November 8 election.
The State Department’s FOIA office acknowledged to the Free Beacon on Thursday that it had not begun processing the FOIA request despite allegedly being assigned to an analyst soon after the FOIA request was submitted.
The State Department announced in early September that it would not release documents pertaining to a separate, 21-month-old FOIA request on Feingold until one month after the election.
…
News reports contradict Feingold’s claim that he had waited until he left his position to discuss his political plans.
The Hill reported that Tester spoke with Feingold about challenging Johnson in January 2015, when Feingold was still a special envoy.
Additionally, the Huffington Post reported that Feingold spoke to Baldwin, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Rep. Mark Pacon (D., Wisc.), and other politicians about a potential run while at the department.
Feingold’s campaign did not return a request for comment.