This is the first installment of Revealing Records, a periodic column by Nate Jones about his work obtaining public records for The Washington Post.
Few things make a journalist happier than receiving a manila envelope full of internal government records. These days, a large email attachment is pretty good, too.
I received my first envelope of documents as a college student in 2004. Using public records laws, I had requested information about a nuclear war scare from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. They sent them to me — and I was hooked. My first professional job was filing thousands more requests for historical records at the nonprofit National Security Archive.
Today, as The Post’s first Freedom of Information Act director, I work to ensure that our entire newsroom receives as many of those envelopes and email attachments as possible. Those documents have helped us publish stories that have exposed government waste and wrongdoing, and led to congressional hearings and new laws. Successful requests take strategy, creativity and a tenacity for overcoming bureaucratic resistance. Now, I’m writing a periodic column about how I do it.
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The federal Freedom of Information Act is one of a reporter’s most powerful tools. Commonly known as FOIA, this law requires federal agencies to release records to the public upon request — unless the records are exempt for privacy, national security or other reasons. Each state also has its own version of the federal law that applies to state and local governments. When agencies refuse to produce the records, the laws allow those making the requests to sue.
Unfortunately, The Post has had to turn to the courts to force state and federal agencies to follow FOIA laws. As a newly barred attorney, I research the chances of succeeding in a lawsuit, then work with The Post’s legal counsel and outside lawyers to file a suit.
Generally, The Post only sues when we believe we can make a strong case. When we do prevail, the agencies often have to pay our attorneys’ fees. That is a cherry on top of any records the agencies are ordered to produce. We’ve been pretty successful at that, which I’ll tell you about in a future column.
More often, we are able to use public records laws to obtain documents without going to court. After Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011, many people saw the famous photo of President Barack Obama and his aides tensely watching the raid on bin Laden’s compound, one of just nine photos taken by the White House photographer that day and released on the official Flickr page. But I wanted to see what else was photographed that day, including pictures that might counter the official White House narrative. As I watched coverage of bin Laden’s death, I was already drafting records requests in my head — even though I knew it would be a while before I could file them.
The Freedom of Information Act doesn’t apply to records of presidents still in office. It might never have been applied to presidents at all, if it weren’t for the 1970s Watergate scandal and President Richard M. Nixon. Nixon refused to surrender White House records to a special prosecutor and resigned from office in 1974. In response, Congress eventually passed the Presidential Records Act, which requires presidents to preserve official records and allows the public to request them five years after they leave office.
At the time of the bin Laden raid, Obama was running for reelection. If he won, I would have to wait until 2017 to start the five-year clock to request his presidential records. So I marked my calendar.
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On Jan. 20, 2022, five years to the day after Obama left office, I filed a slew of requests — including one for all official White House photographs taken the day bin Laden was killed.
After a year, the National Archives processed the request and provided a 161-page PDF of thumbnails and file names for all White House photographs taken between May 1 and 3, 2011. I then requested and received time-stamped, high-resolution copies of some of the photographs from the library, which The Post used to reconstruct the day.
The federal Freedom of Information Act is one of a reporter’s most powerful tools.
In all, my FOIA requests led to the release of over 900 White House photos. They revealed never-before-seen moments, including handshakes and hugs after the death of bin Laden — even quite a bit of laughter — as well as Obama’s calls to former U.S. presidents and other heads of state to share the news.
These photographs offered a window into the White House mood at the time. Some stood in contrast to Obama’s stoic speech the night of bin Laden’s death and the president’s admonition not to “spike the football” by publicizing photographs of the deceased terrorist. A photograph of Obama during the President’s Daily Brief the day after the raid captured him laughing at a printed meme of himself. It said: “Sorry it took so long to get you a copy of my birth certificate. I was too busy killing Osama bin Laden.”
These photographs — like all internal government records — are powerful because they help reveal what actually happened within our government, not just the view officials want to present.
There are still more records from this historic day that remain hidden. The Obama Presidential Library cited “national security classified information” to withhold 307 other photos from The Post and the public. I’ve appealed, of course.
These manila envelopes and email attachments do not always come easily. Post reporters are constantly thinking and inquiring about the government documents behind public statements and official actions. I’ve helped them file requests for records in the federal government and every U.S. state, district and territory. Without public records laws, they would not be able to tear open the envelopes, download the attachments and share the stories of the documents within.
Do you have a question, comment or FOIA idea? Leave a comment or email me at RevealingRecords@washpost.com.
correction
A photo caption in an earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Tom Donilon as Bill Daley. The article has been corrected.
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