There’s a bit of news in the case of Jeffrey Epstein. He’s the convicted sex offender who somehow managed to commit suicide in a New York jail last month while he was supposed to be under close watch.
My public information request about his death— has been formally denied.
Shortly after Epstein died in August, I filed a Freedom of Information request for public documents about his injuries and medical care for both the day he died and earlier, in July, when he reportedly attempted suicide.
Member of the public and press are entitled to review documents and communications generated and collected by federal agencies and officials because– we own them. However, federal agencies often delay, obstruct and resist the release of such documents.
Guidance from FOI court cases and the executive branch indicates that federal agencies are supposed to make every effort to release as much information as possible– and at least partial information if exemptions are at play.
In the case of the Epstein documents I requested, the federal Bureau of Prisons responded by stating that it is withholding all of the documents entirely.
The Bureau cites six exemptions, including that releasing the information “could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of an(y) individual.”
withholding all information related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The Bureau of Prisons invited me to keep refiling in the future to see if the status changes.
The FBI is said to be investigating how jail authorities missed Epstein committing the act of suicide in their custody while awaiting trial on new sex trafficking charges.
The letter from the Bureau of Prisons is below:
Support Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI
It is easy to understand why We the People do not trust the government.
You rock!!
Forgive me, but I actually started laughing at, “After a thorough review….” . It sheds light on the limited traction of FOI and many laws enacted, for ‘citizen generated’ inquiries, regarding affairs beyond their homes. While we have the right speak, they have the right to overwhelmingly ignore and there’s obviously several laws and/or loopholes, allowing that.
I wish you luck on further inquiries into what actually happened and who we’ve considered to be honorable individuals, here and abroad. I get the sense any files, if they haven’t already been destroyed, will be stored in a cardboard box, right next to the Holy Grail, wherever that is.
Translation: the Clintons are involved in Epsteins death and have threatened the lives and families of anyone daring to release anything that could expose the Clintons.
Sigh. I think you’ll have to take them to court to see any documents, like Judicial Watch does. Who or what could they be protecting? Well never know.
Keep going after them, please. You are one of the few honest, objective reporters remaining in this country.
Someone is obviously holding out for a higher bidder. If it’s Clinton connected…”It’s all about the Benjamin’s”
“….categorically exempt from disclosure”
Nothing here peon, move along, pay your taxes and shut up
Re: schutshund saying, “pay your taxes”, you, like 90% of working folk, most likely don’t owe taxes. Only required if you are an “officer of corporation”, “a federal employee”, or “hold a public office”. Fully documented and proven, and all is per the agency’s codes 1401(a), 1402(a), 3401(a)(c), 7701(a), and 6041(a). Look them up, read how definitions are not what you think they are. An amazing con game perpetrated on all of us. LostHorizons a good place to start the enlightenment of this subject, and am surprised Sharyl hasn’t reported on this earlier, as in many years ago. Then again, with the shadow-banning of sites and tweaking of info by a.i., nothing is a surprise. (And I receive no monetary compensation from that website.)
Sharyl Attkisson is the best reporter in the USA today, a peer of Edward R. Murrow. In this report, we learn how our government works, warts and all. She gives the good and the bad side of each story, something totally lacking is such reports as CNN’s coverage of President Trump, or the NY Times coverage of Judge Kavanaugh. Even if I disagree with her story, I can identify the reasons. It is not simply a smear job.
She gives hope for a worthless, prostrate profession. This, and the internet, broke the news monopoly. It put Trump in the White House.
Criminal conspiracies only get more complicated inside jails.
They neglected to add (b)(7)(g), which states: –“could easily be expected to endanger the careers and freedom of prison officials.”
Information exempted because: “could endanger the life of some one”! Like the Clintons who would probably be indicted, prosecuted and jailed. (never going to happen)
We’ll learn the truth about what happened about as fast as we learned the truth about the Kennedy assasination. Way too many influential people involved with Epstein to let the truth out. Keep fighting Sharyl!
Exactly!
I agree with this assessment 100%. That is also going to be the case with Comey, etc.
Who killed Seth Rich?
They get away with these coverups every day. No surprise here except that the American people STILL allow it to continue. I guess we’re too concerned with more important things…like persecuting the un-Woke and generally enforcing Social Justice as outlined by the KOOKIEST wing of the Democrat party.
Feds: We are the government. Trust us
Citizen: How does the government get off treating us like mushrooms?
Alexander Acosta crafted the document that Barry Krischer used to slap Epstein on the wrist and basically let him off to continue to traffick underage girls. Acosta put on the shelf a 52 page indictment. For the next decade the DOJ/FBI knowingly turned a blind eye to Epstein/Orgy Island and the trafficking of hundreds of underage girls. Why? No raids. No monitoring. No hassling. A blank check to traffick was given to him. A paved highway to rape/molest/traffick children. Why?
El Chapo with all his billions could not buy his way out of MCC. Impossible. Yet, Epstein was suicided inside MCC. By whom? Only the FBI/CIA had that kind of power inside MCC. And, they had been protecting Epstein and his operation for the past decade. Why? Orgy Island was a honeypot trap for the FBI/CIA. They were willing to allow children to be trafficked for the blackmailed johns money and votes. The money flowed through the Mega Group and mostly to the Clinton Foundation.
There is no We the People anymore in this nation. I’m 73 years of age, a Vietnam Veteran, and I’ve watched since I was 21 a nation close in on itself with self-serving bureaucrats not one president has been able to retrench. There miserly little hands are in every facet of our lives, from the womb to after death. Our government is no longer answerable except in a temporary quasi-reality during an election year when all the politicians lie and pander to us to get votes. I voted Trump because I thought this arrogance and dismissiveness would cease. It hasn’t. Trump can’t even reign in his own administration. It’s not really all his fault though, he has tried but the bureaucrats are protected by corrupt judges, civil service agencies, anti-discriminatory agencies, workplace rules, and politicians who protect them out of selfish aims for their own profit or source of leaks. Bureaucrats cover their own arses through slow walking, lying, hiding and destroying info they don’t want divulged. God help us, nothing short of another civil war will change our course..
KEEP IN MIND. YOU ONLY NEED DAMAGE CONTROL . (WHEN THERE IS SOMETHING TO COVER UP) ( LIKE MURDER )
Dear Ms. Attkisson,
You cited the exception (b)(7)(f). Is that what was contained within the USBP letter to you or was the list of exemptions above contained in the letter as inferred by your article?
Sincerely,
ok, so what was the request you sent and to who? if everyone questioning why the request was not answered asked, perhaps it would make it more apparent that something is being censored… for a reason??? what did you request? who did you request it from? maybe a form letter?
I’d like to see a FOI on the death of Salvatore Cincinelli as well. That report died before his head hit the dancefloor!
Out the Back Door? Questioning the Death of Jeffrey Epstein
https://www.winterwatch.net/2019/08/out-the-book-door-questioning-the-death-of-jeffrey-epstein/
Upper elite co conspirators not to be mentioned “CLINTON SHIT BAGS”. Among many other high paying individuals. The man had an eventual death sentence, they were going to get him one way or another before he could testify. They are above the law, and dont mind flaunting it.
Dear Ms. Attkissson,
Did someone on your staff actually read the entire statutory law applicable to 5 USC S 552? I think you should.
Refer to https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2017-title5/html/USCODE-2017-title5-partI-chap5-subchapII-sec552.htm
First of all, I believe the letter you received from the Bureau of Prisons that stated, “Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC S 552, records are withheld in full from disclosure to you under the following exemptions …” denied you in error the right to some portion of the information you requested.
The paragraph following the list of exemptions (b) 5 through (b) 7 states as follows:
“Any reasonably segregable portion of a record shall be provided to any person requesting such record after deletion of the portions which are exempt under this subsection. The amount of information deleted, and the exemption under which the deletion is made, shall be indicated on the released portion of the record, unless including that indication would harm an interest protected by the exemption in this subsection under which the deletion is made. If technically feasible, the amount of the information deleted, and the exemption under which the deletion is made, shall be indicated at the place in the record where such deletion is made.”
What the agency is required to do is provide all the relative information you requested in full and delete any portion for which the exemptions apply. In other words, they are required to give you some off the material, even if it isn’t much to go on, in my opinion.
You are correct and I made that argument to them. Unfortunately federal agencies do what they wish, often violating the law with impunity and no enforcement body doesn’t do anything about it.
Only person to be endangered is dead, or is he? Occam’s Razor would lead one to believe that the answer is right there. Epstein is still with us somewhere. Goes with the lack of evidence and unmarked grave. Tres simpatico