CHAINSAW TRUMPMUSKSAURUS
CNN Made FOIA Request About DOGE—Only to Learn FOIA Staff Was Fired
"Definitely never seen this type of response to a FOIA request," quipped one journalist.
"Definitely never seen this type of response to a FOIA request," quipped one journalist.
WHY NOT LAYOFFS INSTEAD OF FIRINGS?!
Eloise Goldsmith
Feb 18, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
When CNN put in a Freedom of Information Act request with the Office of Personnel Management for information related to security clearances for billionaire Elon Musk and other personnel at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency who have been allowed access to sensitive or classified government networks, the outlet got an unexpected response.
"Good luck with that, they just fired the whole privacy team," an OPM email address wrote back, according to Tuesday reporting from CNN. An OPM official told the outlet that the federal government's human resources agency did not layoff the entire privacy team, but did not comment further on the matter.
"Definitely never seen this type of response to a FOIA request," quipped CBS News journalist Jim LaPorta reacting to the news on X.
According to CNN, OPM's privacy team "is tasked with ensuring the agency's data privacy practices meet legal requirements and protect the trust of the public." Members of the agency's communications staff and employees who handle FOIA requests were also terminated, per CNN, which cited two unnamed sources.
Federal agencies are required to furnish information requested via FOIA unless the information falls within an exemption.
These firings at OPM, which is the chief human resources agency of the federal government, constitute "a move that limits outside access to government records related to the security clearances granted to Elon Musk and his associates," according to CNN, citing unnamed sources "familiar with the matter."
OPM was one of the first federal agencies to be infiltrated by Musk's associates at the Department of Government Efficiency and has been at the forefront of the Trump administration's purge of federal workers.
Last month, OPM sent out the now infamous "Fork in the Road" memo, which offered a widely decried deferred resignation program for nearly all federal employees. The message resembled—including the verbatim wording of the subject line—an email that Musk sent Twitter employees in 2022, when he took over the social media platform now known as X.
CNN's coverage also noted that the move to fire members of OPM's privacy and communication teams echoes Musk's decision to fire the media relations department at Twitter.
On X, Washington Post video journalist Jorge Ribas wrote the word "'transparency'" in response to CNN's reporting about the FOIA request, in an apparent nod to Musk's assertion that DOGE is attempting to be transparent in carrying out its operations.
‘Devastated’: Kennedy Library suddenly closes amid mass government firings
Erik De La Garza
February 18, 2025
BOSTON, USA - OCTOBER 28: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, MA, USA is the presidential library and museum of the 35th president of the USA photographed on October 28, 2013.
Erik De La Garza
February 18, 2025
BOSTON, USA - OCTOBER 28: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, MA, USA is the presidential library and museum of the 35th president of the USA photographed on October 28, 2013.
(Photo credit: Marcio Jose Bastos Silva / Shutterstock)
A flurry of mass firings at agencies across the federal government ushered in by President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency triggered the abrupt closure Tuesday of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
The Boston-based library began its first round of firings Thursday when leadership received an order from the National Archives informing them to terminate probationary employees, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III told Politico Tuesday.
Firings led to the closure on Tuesday afternoon.
“The library cannot function with that type of reduction,” a source with knowledge of the situation told Politico in a statement. A sign posted outside the institute and circulating throughout social media reads: “Due to the executive order, the JFK Library will be closed until further notice."
“The sudden dismissal of federal employees at the JFK Library forced the museum to close today,” the JFK Library Foundation said in a statement. “As the Foundation that supports the JFK Library, we are devastated by this news and will continue to support our colleagues and the Library."
The National Archives said the library “will be open tomorrow, and the National Archives staff looks forward to welcoming guests, visitors, and researchers,” according to Politico.
Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of JFK, quickly used the shuttering of the library’s doors to pounce on the Trump administration.
“DOGE and the White House shut down the JFK Library,” Schlossberg said in a social media post Tuesday. “Hey, it’s Jack – I’m okay but our country is not. It’s under attack from its own government. They are using propaganda to steal the past away from the American people.”
He went on to say the goal of the mass firings and axing of government funds is not about “government efficiency, the workers who were fired today actually bring in revenue for the government.”
Schlossberg then pointed to a picture above him that he says was given to him by an astronaut.
“JFK sent a man to the moon, but you’d never know it if the JFK library wasn’t open and nobody was allowed to talk…it’s time to speak out and resist what’s happening,” he said. “If you’re not doing that you’re not helping the darkest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.”
The news came after last week's unprecedented MAGA overhaul of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
A flurry of mass firings at agencies across the federal government ushered in by President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency triggered the abrupt closure Tuesday of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
The Boston-based library began its first round of firings Thursday when leadership received an order from the National Archives informing them to terminate probationary employees, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III told Politico Tuesday.
Firings led to the closure on Tuesday afternoon.
“The library cannot function with that type of reduction,” a source with knowledge of the situation told Politico in a statement. A sign posted outside the institute and circulating throughout social media reads: “Due to the executive order, the JFK Library will be closed until further notice."
“The sudden dismissal of federal employees at the JFK Library forced the museum to close today,” the JFK Library Foundation said in a statement. “As the Foundation that supports the JFK Library, we are devastated by this news and will continue to support our colleagues and the Library."
The National Archives said the library “will be open tomorrow, and the National Archives staff looks forward to welcoming guests, visitors, and researchers,” according to Politico.
Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of JFK, quickly used the shuttering of the library’s doors to pounce on the Trump administration.
“DOGE and the White House shut down the JFK Library,” Schlossberg said in a social media post Tuesday. “Hey, it’s Jack – I’m okay but our country is not. It’s under attack from its own government. They are using propaganda to steal the past away from the American people.”
He went on to say the goal of the mass firings and axing of government funds is not about “government efficiency, the workers who were fired today actually bring in revenue for the government.”
Schlossberg then pointed to a picture above him that he says was given to him by an astronaut.
“JFK sent a man to the moon, but you’d never know it if the JFK library wasn’t open and nobody was allowed to talk…it’s time to speak out and resist what’s happening,” he said. “If you’re not doing that you’re not helping the darkest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.”
The news came after last week's unprecedented MAGA overhaul of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
No comments:
Post a Comment