'My ears perked up': Reporter flags Trump's 'highly unusual' and under-the-radar practice
Numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests pertaining to Donald Trump were made by journalists during his first presidency as well as during former President Joe Biden's four years in the White House. According to Bloomberg News reporter Jason Leopold, Trump has a history of making FOIA requests himself.
Leopold, in an FOIA Files column published on April 4, explains, "It's highly unusual for a former president to utilize the Freedom of Information Act. That's why my ears perked up when, in March 2023, Trump's then-attorney James Trusty told Fox News that the then-former president submitted a FOIA request to the National Archives and Records Administration. To refresh your memory, NARA is the agency that preserves and maintains America's historical documents."
Leopold adds, "It's also the agency that sparked the criminal investigation into Trump's alleged unlawful retention of top-secret documents."
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The Bloomberg News reporter stresses that 2023 wasn't the only time Trump made an FOIA request.
"I tried to get a copy of the (2023) request," Leopold reports, "but Trump's team declined to turn it over. So, I FOIAed Trump's FOIA. I also asked NARA for a copy of every document Trump demanded, even though I had no clue what he was after…. Turns out, this wasn't the first time Trump wielded the public records tool routinely used by journalists and historians to find out what their government is up to."
Leopold continues, "In 2023, I obtained copies of FOIA requests Trump filed with the Internal Revenue Service during his first term as president"
Trump, according to Leopold, "peppered the agency with document requests just as the IRS was preparing to release his tax returns to a congressional committee."
"Trump's FOIA requests were an attempt to get a behind-the-scenes look at the IRS' deliberations," Leopold notes. "But it appears he had an ulterior motive. I found out about the IRS FOIAs after the House Ways and Means Committee released six years of Trump's tax returns, along with a report that said Trump paid little to no federal income taxes from 2015 to 2020. Buried in the report was a sentence that said Trump had taken 'certain actions,' including filing FOIA requests, to delay the IRS from turning over his tax filings to the committee."
Read Jason Leopold's full Bloomberg News column at this link (subscription request).