More questions remain. More answers are coming.

Wednesday’s Senate vote to acquit President Donald Trump of impeachment charges appears to have been interpreted by the White House as a signal that it need not fear consequences for its corruption and criminal activity.

That this vote came less than 24 hours after American Oversight received another set of Ukraine-related documents ([link removed]) that had not been seen by the public is yet another reminder of the Senate’s failure to conduct a fair trial. And whether those 52 senators who signaled to Trump that he could use the powers of his office to pressure a foreign country to interfere in our elections — and in the process reject constitutional checks and balances — voted out of indifference, self-interest, or fear, the result will likely be a president whose abuses of power and acts of self-enrichment are more brazen and disdainful for the rule of law.

His allies in Congress and the administration have already been acting with such a sense of impunity ([link removed]) . On Thursday, Yahoo News reported ([link removed]) that the Treasury Department has complied with the requests of Sens. Lindsey Graham, Charles Grassley and Ron Johnson for financial records about Hunter Biden, a marked contrast to the administration’s years-long stonewalling of other congressional requests. Meanwhile, as Trump delivered a rambling and at times threatening ([link removed]) press conference the day after the acquittal, Bloomberg reported ([link removed]) that the White House is weighing a plan to dismiss
Alexander Vindman, who testified in the impeachment inquiry, from the National Security Council. By Friday afternoon, it was reported he had been escorted out of the White House ([link removed]) .

But while the vote signaled that the Senate would not be a check on the president’s corruption, the past four months of the impeachment investigation have sent a powerful message to everyone else: Aggressive oversight works. The House’s investigation stopped Trump’s Ukraine pressure campaign in its tracks. And documents obtained by American Oversight through Freedom of Information Act litigation have, and will continue to do so, brought to light new records and information about the efforts of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others.

Additional document productions in our lawsuits against the Departments of Energy, State and Defense are scheduled to be released over the next two weeks. On Thursday, we filed another lawsuit against the State Department ([link removed]) for records related to Vice President Mike Pence’s involvement in the Ukraine campaign. We also filed a FOIA request ([link removed]) for any reports or records that Giuliani sent to the Justice Department after his December trip to Kyiv and Budapest ([link removed]) in search of “more information” about the Bidens. “I can’t tell you if I did or didn’t do something with the Justice
Department,” Giuliani told NPR ([link removed]) this week.

And of course, Ukraine isn’t the sum of this administration’s misconduct and corruption. We’re still investigating Trump’s extreme anti-immigrant agenda, voter suppression in the states, and attempts to undermine health-care access, not to mention the Trump family’s continuing habit of profiting off the presidency and other foreign-policy dealings like the investigation of the Turkish state-owned Halkbank.

More questions remain. More answers are coming. Read on:

Detention Center Conditions: NPR obtained hundreds of complaints ([link removed]) filed by migrants at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Adelanto processing center, including reports of harassment and use of force against detainees. Surveillance footage obtained by NPR ([link removed]) shows detention officers pepper-spraying and pushing a group of men who were insisting on speaking with officials about poor treatment. American Oversight has been investigating the conditions in often-overcrowded migrant detention centers ([link removed]) , including those run by private contractors, such as the for-profit GEO Group–operated Adelanto center.

McCabe Grand Jury Mystery: Do you know what happened during former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s grand jury meeting? We don’t either. In 2018, a Justice Department inspector general report ([link removed]) said McCabe had inappropriately disclosed unauthorized information ([link removed]) to the press, spurring a series of legal proceedings and online ([link removed]) attacks ([link removed]) from the president. Many
([link removed]) expected ([link removed]) an indictment ([link removed]) to follow after a federal grand jury meeting in September, but it never came, and reporters ([link removed]) and observers aren’t sure why ([link removed]) . We’re asking for the Justice Department for records ([link removed]) that can shed light on the grand jury investigation, including department officials’ communications.

Trump’s Non-Disclosure Agreements: While non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) protecting classified information aren’t uncommon, Trump has made his staff sign strict agreements that threaten employees’ ability to speak out on a wider range of issues, even years after finishing federal service ([link removed]) . Concerns first surfaced during the 2016 presidential election when then-candidate Trump revealed in a Washington Post interview that federal employees would have to sign his NDAs despite Trump acknowledging conflicts with free-speech ([link removed]) rights. More recently, the Justice Department ([link removed]) used Trump’s
NDAs to warn an anonymous former official against the release of a book. We’re asking the department ([link removed]) for copies of NDAs unrelated to classified information, as well as NDAs signed ([link removed]) by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.

U.S. Ambassador Silences Speech at NATO Conference: Stanley Sloan, a college professor and former CIA analyst, was expected to deliver a keynote speech at a December conference in Copenhagen celebrating NATO’s 70th anniversary when the event was suddenly canceled ([link removed]) after pressure from the U.S. ambassador to Denmark. A representative of the Danish think tank co-hosting the conference said they canceled ([link removed]) after the U.S. embassy, another co-host, “vetoed ([link removed]) ” Sloan’s speech because of social media posts criticizing Trump
([link removed]) . The U.S. embassy claims ([link removed]) Sloan’s participation didn’t follow normal planning procedures. We filed requests for U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands’s emails ([link removed]) about the conference, as well as emails ([link removed]) between any U.S. embassy staff and the think tank hosting the event.

Immigration Judge Turnover: The Justice Department’s backlog of immigration cases now exceeds 1 million ([link removed]) , but U.S. immigration judges keep leaving their posts ([link removed]) . Despite the record number of judges ([link removed]) , the agency is experiencing an unusually high turnover rate and news reports suggest that the administration’s extreme anti-immigration policies ([link removed]) — what one former immigration judge called a “toxic environment ([link removed]) ” — and the agency’s labor practices
([link removed]) are contributing to attrition. Meanwhile, the migration crisis ([link removed]) continues at the U.S.-Mexico border. We’re seeking records about how the Justice Department is handling staffing concerns, including the job applications of recently appointed judges ([link removed]) and emails sent by specific judges ([link removed]) who have since resigned.

State Accountability Project: We’re still investigating how Georgia’s officials are preparing for election season, from voting machine security ([link removed]) to polling place locations ([link removed]) . This week, we filed requests ([link removed]) to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office for details about the recent cancellation ([link removed]) of approximately 300,000 voter registrations, and for communications
([link removed]) about restoration of around 22,000 ([link removed]) of those registrations. We’re also seeking complaints submitted ([link removed]) to the Secretary of State Elections Division as well as emails sent by Georgia election officials ([link removed]) about voter language assistance. And in Florida, we filed a request ([link removed]) for the state’s 2020 voter registration system maintenance schedule.

The Grift Continues: On Friday, the Washington Post reported ([link removed]) that the Secret Service has paid as much as $650 for rooms at Trump properties while on duty to protect the president — a contradiction of administration claims that taxpayers only foot minimal charges. And according to the article, “the Secret Service was charged $17,000 a month to use a three-bedroom cottage” at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in 2017, “an unusually high rent for homes in that area.” Back in November, Politico reported the agency had spent more than $250,000 at Trump properties ([link removed]) during a 5-month time period in 2017. We have a number of outstanding FOIA requests
([link removed]) across the federal government for records related to taxpayer dollars being spent boosting the president’s business.

To find out more about our work, you can follow us on Twitter at @WeAreOversight ([link removed]) or on Facebook ([link removed]) , and please consider supporting our work with a contribution here ([link removed]) .

Thank you again for your support and for helping us hold the administration accountable.

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