As stated in the note from the Sunlight Foundation′s Board Chair, as of September 2020 the Sunlight Foundation is no longer active. This site is maintained as a static archive only.

Follow Us

Tag Archive: Investigations

Oversight Committee Seeks for More Blackwater Documents

by

Rep. Henry Waxman's oversight committee sent out letters today to the Department of Defense, the Department of State and to Blackwater CEO Erik Prince asking for various sets of documents regarding contracts going back to 2003.

Among other issues, the seven-page letter to Erik Prince raises questions about all the no-bid contracts Blackwater has been given and asks the company to hand in documents detailing the hourly billing information that Blackwater charges the State department.

In the letter to DoD the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government reform touched upon an earlier letter from Mar. 31 ...

Continue reading

Congressional Oversight of Blackwater Hampered by Lack of Documents

by

Nine months before Blackwater USA employees took part in a shootout in which eight Iraqi civilians were killed, a few members of Congress raised concerns about the performance of the private military company that provides security services for the Departments of State and Defense in Iraq. In 2007, five members of Congress sent at least six letters to the Pentagon and Foggy Bottom raising questions about the company, raising questions about the controversial firm.

One member who requested information to bring some oversight and accountability to the Blackwater found that neither the State Department nor the Defense Department complied with ...

Continue reading

(Federal) Help Wanted

by

Via the invaluable blog devoted to developments in federal government ethics, the IEC Journal, I came across this Web course for federal workers on the issues raised by working with government contractors:

Increasingly, private sector contractor employees are being used to accomplish the business of Government. This trend shows no signs of slowing down. These contractor employees can work either off-site or even in the same location as you. This may sometimes cause certain ethical issues to arise which you'll need to think about.

It is important for you to know about the ethics rules and principles that focus ...

Continue reading

Congressional subpoena update

by

Via National Journal's CongressDaily:

SUBPOENAS WITHDRAWN. Subpoenas of a dozen House members were withdrawn late Tuesday by an attorney for a defense contractor accused of bribing former Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham, R-Calif., after a federal judge indicated he was prepared to quash them, the Associated Press reported. U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said he might consider enforcing the subpoenas if contractor Brent Wilkes' attorneys could demonstrate the lawmakers had specific information related to the charges and that their testimony would be critical to his defense. Wilkes was scheduled to go on trial today in San Diego on charges ...

Continue reading

Getting information during a “war-time situation”

by

I've been calling various Army public affairs officials to get some information about Blackhawk helicopters and was passed from one official to another. I finally reached the right department and I was asked to send an e-mail listing my questions.

This morning I received a reply from the Army saying that my request had been forwarded to the FOIA office. My reaction: you don't need a FOIA request to talk to or e-mail another person."

So I called them back and talked to another person in the same office who said since we were not a print publication ...

Continue reading

Congressional Subpoena Watch

by

The Washington Post reports that 13 members of the House of Representatives have received subpoenas in connection with the trial of Brent Wilkes, one of the contractors alleged to be involved in the Randy "Duke" Cunningham bribery case:

The defense contractor charged with bribing convicted former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham has subpoenaed 13 House members, including former speaker J. Dennis Hastert, to testify in his federal trial.

But the 13 lawmakers are refusing the subpoena, and the House general counsel sent lawyers for the contractor, Brent R. Wilkes, a letter saying that it was overly broad and "did not elaborate ...

Continue reading

Department of Energy correspondence logs

by

This article in the Washington Post yesterday on the earmarking process cites letters sent to the Department of Energy written by members of Congress including Rep. Rahm Emanuel in support of projects at the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago and the Illinois Institute of technology.

We recently received the correspondence logs from DOE and there were at least 15 similar letters. Although none of these seem to have actually secured the funding, we have found that writing in support of a specific project is not unique to just one lawmaker or only to the DOE either. For instance EPA ...

Continue reading

Ted Stevens’ Financial Disclosures

by

After filing for extensions, Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-AK) personal financial disclosure forms for 2007 were available with the Senate Office of Public Records this week. Scanned PDF's are here. On the same day, July 17, there were also a few amendments that were filed that are here. (Most of them are about rifles presented to the Senator by the Kenai River Sporting Association.)

Continue reading

CFC (Combined Federal Campaign) Today 59063

Charity Navigator