By Bob Unruh
The Deep State in Washington has been caught in a blatant double standard that accommodates leftists but discriminates against conservatives.
The egregious situation has been uncovered – with evidence – by the American Center for Law and Justice.
The scenario that developed is that leftists and the ACLJ both made similar requests – for emails of the director of national intelligence. The Deep State almost immediately supplied the emails of Ric Grenell, who now is on staff at the ACLJ as senior adviser for national security and foreign policy. But Deep Staters have delayed for two years the ACLJ's own request for a limited number of emails from Joe Biden's DNI.
"We've been warning you about Deep State corruption and how Washington puts its thumb on the scale against conservatives," the ACLJ reported. "Now we have proof."
"When our own ACLJ senior advisor for national security and foreign policy, Ric Grenell, left [the] office as acting director of national intelligence, BuzzFeed News, an openly leftist mainstream media outlet, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for ALL of his emails. In a surprisingly fast response that did not require a lawsuit, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) handed over every single document with minimal redactions," the ACLJ confirmed.
"No fuss, no radio silence, no delay, and no lawsuit, just a determination within 20 days (which is what FOIA requires) and then, voilà, the documents – for the Left," it reported.
"So your ACLJ submitted a FOIA request for all of Biden’s DNI Avril Haines’ emails, and the ODNI has completely ignored us. It was essentially the same request, but our request received a very different response," the report said.
The ACLJ request was for Haines' unclassified emails as well as information regarding the DNI decision to release Grenell's emails.
But it got no response.
"That’s why today we filed a major lawsuit against the ODNI – a case that could help us leverage the Biden administration to come clean in all our other FOIA requests or cases. It’s that big. The ACLJ has filed a complaint under the FOIA that asks the court to order the ODNI to disclose and release the requested records."
The organization also confirmed that it will be arguing a new point – that it should be granted relief under the First Amendment "for the ODNI’s selective disclosure and delay of records based on the requestor. Left-wing media got the records; conservative ACLJ got ignored – a different response based on the requester’s viewpoint."
The ACLJ noted, "This is a new area of First Amendment law. We are not aware of any case alleging a First Amendment violation against a federal agency for ignoring or failing to respond to FOIA requests. However, recent federal court precedent supports our claim. A recent case in federal district court in Washington, D.C., did entertain this type of claim against the D.C. government (a unique federal entity). We are taking that approach and applying it, for the first time, against a federal agency."
The legal team charged, "In this case, while the ODNI has been ignoring the requests of the ACLJ for over two years, it responded to a Leftist BuzzFeed News reporter and, relatively quickly, released agency records. When we asked for similar records, it ignored us. This mistreatment by the agency violates the First Amendment based on our viewpoint and the content of our request and protected speech."
The lawyers warned leftists and Democrats have "created two systems of justice – one for dealing with conservatives they don’t agree with and one for protecting themselves."
Author: Bob Unruh
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