Pajamas Media Sues Pentagon for Details on Travel to Copenhagen “Climate Change Conference”

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit on behalf of OSM Media LLC (d/b/a Pajamas Media (PJM)), against the Department of Defense (DOD) seeking records related to the transportation of all United States government officials, congressional elected officials, staff, families and guests to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2009. (OSM Media, LLC, d/b/a/ Pajamas Media and PJTV v. U.S. Department of Defense (Case No. 1-11-cv-01151(CKK)).

On December 23, 2009, Pajamas Media sent a FOIA request to the Air Force. On June 28, 2010, the Air Force notified Pajamas Media that part of their FOIA request had been forwarded to the Office of the Secretary. Nearly one year later, on May 17, 2011, the Office of the Secretary produced four pages of almost entirely redacted material and informed Pajamas Media that it referred the withheld material to the U.S. Secret Service.

To date, the Air Force has failed to produce any records responsive to PJM’s FOIA request or demonstrate that the withheld material is legally exempt from production. The Air Force has not indicated whether or when it will produce or identify the requested records.

“What happened to the transparency that candidate Obama promised? It has taken almost a year for this administration to turn over a flight manifest and then that document was heavily redacted. The Obama administration has proven itself to be one of the most secretive administrations in history,” stated Pajamas Media CEO Roger L. Simon.

On behalf of its client, Judicial Watch is asking the court to: order the Air Force to conduct a search for “any and all responsive records;” set a specific date that Pajamas Media is to receive the requested documents; and provide OSM Media with a Vaughn index describing the records that are being withheld under claims of exemption.

“The December 2009 United Nations ‘climate change’ conference in Copenhagen must have been embarrassing for global warming activists and their associates in Washington. The Conference not only failed to enact worldwide ‘climate’ action, but the airlift of President Obama and other government officials must have resulted in huge, wasteful costs for the American people. No wonder PJM can’t get anything out of the administration about that disastrous conference,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.