This past Tuesday, congressional candidate and former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger announced that her political opponents appeared to have acquired a copy of her SF-86, a form used by the federal government to collect sensitive personal information from job applicants for background checks and security clearances.

Pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the Justice Department has—in a highly unusual move—released a redacted copy of the FISA application seeking a warrant against former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. The application became the subject of political controversy when the Republican majority on the House intelligence committee, on the basis of little evidence, accused the FISA Court and Justice Department of enabling the surveillance of Page for political rather than national security reasons.

A few months ago, I began working with Scott Anderson and Sabrina McCubbin on an interesting project: trying to discern whether the State Department was, quite literally, paying President Trump money. Today, having gotten no response from the department on the subject, I filed a lawsuit on the subject.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing Tuesday morning at 10:15 a.m. on "The Freedom of Information Act: Examining the Administration's Progress on Reforms and Looking Ahead." The committee will hear testimony from the following witnesses:

Melanie Ann Pustay, director of the Office of Information Policy at the Justice Department (Prepared Testimony)