As the run-up to Election Day enters the final two-week stretch, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is dragging its feet responding to a federal court order mandating that the agency disclose how it is enforcing President Joe Biden's March 2021 executive order directing federal agencies to develop plans to "get out the vote."
Called "Promoting Access to Voting," Biden's order states that "executive departments and agencies (agencies) should partner with State, local, Tribal, and territorial election officials to protect and promote the exercise of the right to vote, eliminate discrimination and other barriers to voting, and expand access to voter registration and accurate election information."
The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) sued the DOJ in April after several federal agencies failed to respond to the foundation's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests about implementing the order.
"President Biden is deeply unpopular," Tarren Bragdon, FGA president and CEO, said in a statement. "It's clear his administration has weaponized DOJ to hide records and is using the legal process to run out the clock before the midterm elections. DOJ offered flimsy excuses to justify concealing key information regarding their participation in government-funded 'get out the vote' efforts."
Siding with FGA, a federal district court judge set a Sept. 8 deadline for DOJ to produce the documents FGA is seeking. So far the agency has only produced 135 heavily redacted pages.
"Among the missing documents was the DOJ's 15-page strategic plan that detailed how the agency will help increase voter registration and participation," FGA said. "This document is a finished product, completed as part of Biden's executive order. In July, a federal district court ruled the DOJ must turn over the documents to the FGA, and this post-decisional document clearly is required to be disclosed."
Late last week, the DOJ filed a motion asking the court to forgo a trial in the case, claiming that the withheld or redacted documents are protected by the presidential-communications privilege or the deliberative-process privilege.
DOJ argued in the Oct. 21 legal filing that the release of the information FGA is seeking would create "public confusion" because its implementation plan "contains many proposed actions that the public might construe as 'future commitments, past actions, or provisions already in place.'"
Stewart Whitson, legal director for FGA, told Fox News Digital the group is "preparing a cross motion to counter DOJ's stonewalling."
"We'll ask the judge to compel DOJ to finally reveal documents they've been hiding, including their strategic plan to carry out President Biden's federal election scheme," he said.
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