Treasury Dept. Hires Firm To Keep Records Secret

While the U.S. government doles out trillions of taxpayer dollars for bank bailouts and economic stimulus, the administration that promised unprecedented transparency has hired a private company to keep information about the exorbitant handouts secret.

The U.S. Treasury Department has enlisted a consulting firm to screen public records requested through the federal law known as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), according to a San Francisco newspaper that names the Obama-connected New Jersey business. Analysts who will handle Treasury FOIA requests will have experience in the use of “exemptions to withhold information from release to the public.”

To keep crucial Treasury records secret, the Obama Administration picked a firm (Phacil) that has given tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and not a dime to Republicans. Earlier this year Phacil won a small-business award that was celebrated in a Rose Garden event with the president.

This marks the latest of many efforts by the administration to keep critical information about its monstrous bailouts and stimulus programs from Americans. For more than a year, the Treasury Department has blown off a news agency’s request to identify $301 billion of Citigroup securities that the government agreed to guarantee. The media group requested the information on the grounds that taxpayers should know how their money is being used.

Since 2008, Judicial Watch has pursued documents regarding the unprecedented explosion in government’s size and reach through its $24 trillion bank rescues, bailouts and fraud-infested economic stimulus plan. Judicial Watch has dozens of FOIA requests and lawsuits pending against the Treasury Department for failing to produce documents in several cases, including the scandalous $200 billion taxpayer bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and meetings between top Treasury officials and CEOs of major banks.

Last month Judicial Watch uncovered Treasury Department documents that revealed President Obama’s “Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation” received a $120,830 annual salary to establish executive pay at companies bailed out by the federal government, even though the administration had assured the pay czar wouldn’t be compensated for his work. It’s a perfect example supporting the need to obtain records rather than take the word of government bureaucrats.