Disclosure

When the Securities and Exchange Commission announced earlier this year that it had disciplined workers for golfing on the job, investigative reporter Jason Leopold shot off a FOIA request. Co-host Matt Topic, who is an accomplished golfer, and Jason, who isn’t, pore over records he received about the SEC’s internal investigation. They learn how a few words overheard on a golf course launched a Caddyshack-worthy investigation into allegations of government waste and abuse – or, in this instance, “known golf activity.”
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Investigative reporter Jason Leopold and attorney Matt Topic take viewers inside a yearslong effort to head off document destruction at the White House during President Trump’s first term. Drawing from government documents (and The Big Lebowski), they reveal how the US National Archives and Records Administration tried to alert the feds to potentially illegal record disposal. And they learn why FBI and Justice Department personnel clashed before searching Trump's Florida home, Mar-a-Lago. Voice acting by Mandy Hull.

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Disclosure, the podcast dedicated to revealing the government’s inner workings, is back for Season 2 in audio and video.

By law, nearly every move federal agencies make—every email, every memo, every receipt—belongs to the public. The key to gaining access is the Freedom of Information Act. In theory, FOIA obligates the government to open its files. But it also allows the government to hold back certain details, meaning that forcing transparency often requires a fight.
Join Bloomberg investigative reporter Jason Leopold and First Amendment attorney Matt Topic for a guided tour of explosive details, bureaucratic foibles and details that government officials never wanted you to know. Listen to new episodes of Disclosure, from Bloomberg & No Smiling, starting Oct. 15, wherever you get your podcasts.
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One Christmas, Matt dashed off a letter to the FBI’s FOIA office: Please search your old investigation files for the name Santa Claus, he requested, and send me the first few pages you find. What a simple holiday wish taught us about one agency’s spirit of giving.
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Ask the US government for public records, and your request will go to a federal employee who holds the keys to what gets released and what doesn’t. Jason and Matt get a rare look inside a government Freedom of Information Act operation from Michael Sarich, who worked his way up from a FOIA post at the Bureau of Land Management to FOIA director at the Department of Veterans Affairs. In this episode, they discuss weird requests, big backlogs and the latest challenges to government transparency.
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