These Federal Officers Wield the Power of Transparency | Disclosure

Ask the US government for public records, and your request will go to a federal employee who holds the keys to what gets released and what doesn’t. Jason and Matt get a rare look inside a government Freedom of Information Act operation from Michael Sarich, who worked his way up from a FOIA post at the Bureau of Land Management to FOIA director at the Department of Veterans Affairs. In this episode, they discuss weird requests, big backlogs and the latest challenges to government transparency.

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How did Russian pranksters trick a top government official? What happens to documents flushed down White House toilets? The answers exist. The trick is getting the government to disclose them.

By law, nearly every move federal agencies make—every email, every memo, every receipt—belongs to the public. The key to gaining access is the Freedom of Information Act. It’s the tool that forces the government to open its files…though rarely without a fight.

From Bloomberg & No Smiling, Disclosure is a podcast about cracking open those secrets. Join FOIA reporter Jason Leopold and First Amendment attorney Matt Topic for a guided tour of explosive details, bureaucratic foibles and details that powerful people never wanted you to know. Disclosure premieres Oct. 28 on all podcast platforms.

Bloomberg investigative reporter Jason Leopold and First Amendment attorney Matt Topic trade tales from the FOIA trenches, revealing how the US government really works.

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