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[link removed] [[link removed]] John,

The Trump administration repeatedly claims to be “the most transparent” in history, but nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, the public’s right to know has never been under greater threat.

We should know. For decades, CREW has litigated on the frontlines of government transparency, bringing and winning major cases against administrations of both parties to ensure Americans know what their government is up to. And we just got another win.

In July, a federal judge sided with CREW and our co-counsel, Public Citizen, ordering the White House budget office to bring back a website it had suddenly taken down in March that disclosed how the office directs executive branch agencies to spend taxpayer funds appropriated by Congress.

This is an important win for the public’s right to know and Congress’s exclusive power of the purse. But it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this administration’s assault on transparency.

We’ll tell you more about what the Trump administration is hiding and what we’re doing to fight for the public’s right to know. But, if you want to help keep up our work for transparency, please donate today to support CREW → [[link removed]]

DONATE → [[link removed]]

Numerous federal websites and databases have also been taken down over the last six months, some pursuant to Donald Trump’s executive orders and some with little to no explanation at all.

We fought back because we believed we needed to restore access to crucial government data—and we weren’t the only ones.

Like one case brought by Doctors for America, where a federal judge ordered the restoration of hundreds of health care websites and datasets that were pulled down to comply with an executive order directing the removal of media promoting “gender ideology.”

The Trump administration has also launched a war on disclosure, both by fighting Freedom of Information Act requests and by decimating agency FOIA offices.

In one case, the Office of Personnel Management told CNN that its entire privacy team had been dismissed. Weeks later, the Department of Health and Human Services fired FOIA staff at the CDC, leaving the agency unable to respond to records requests during public health crises including a recent measles outbreak. CREW is challenging this closure in court, but while this plays out, urgent requests are going unanswered.

Nowhere has this administration fought disclosure harder than at DOGE. While DOGE skirts transparency laws, it has gained access to millions of Americans’ sensitive data, gutted the federal workforce and slashed programs Americans depend on.

That’s why CREW sued to force DOGE to open up its books, and in March, a federal judge ruled that DOGE was operating as a de facto “agency” subject to FOIA and later ordered expedited discovery on that question.

The Trump administration fought that discovery all the way to the Supreme Court, which narrowed but did not block requests for documents and the deposition of DOGE’s acting administrator.

All this, to shield DOGE from providing basic facts that other government agencies routinely disclose. Which raises an obvious question: What are they hiding?

The Trump administration has also worked to keep critical aspects of its immigration and foreign policy secret—including details of its agreement with El Salvador to deport immigrants, regardless of their nationality, to El Salvador prisons.

In May, Democracy Forward sued several agencies to obtain the agreement after FOIA requests went unanswered. While this case is still ongoing, the State Department recently uploaded a portion of the documents to its website, a sign that legal pressure is working.

But secrecy still pervades much of the administration’s policies. Suing for access in every case is an uphill battle–and one Americans shouldn’t have to wage.

A fully “informed citizenry,” the Supreme Court has explained, is “vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.”

The Trump administration’s all-out assault on transparency has imperiled that promise. That’s why CREW is on the frontlines of government transparency, taking legal action to ensure Americans aren’t left in the dark.

Our work takes time and resources, and we’re relying on support from you to ensure we can keep up our critical fight. Please, donate now and join CREW’s fight for transparency and accountability in government → [[link removed]]If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your tax deductible donation will go through immediately to ActBlue Charities Inc. and be disbursed to CREW within 30 days:

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Thank you,

CREW HQ
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