Oct 1, 2026 · 53 min · 12 segments
How did Ghislaine Maxwell get transferred to a minimum-security prison—and why is the government withholding the explanation? Liz Oyer talks with Bloomberg investigative reporter Jason Leopold about…
Jason LeopoldGuest
Liz OyerHost
By the way, everything I said about what you can request does not mean that an agency is just going to, whether it's on the state or federal level, that they're just going to turn everything over to you.
So you can request whatever you want, but that doesn't mean the government is legally obligated to give you every single thing you're seeking.
So they are allowed to withhold records that may pose a national security threat or concern, records that may reveal sources and methods, right? Intelligence agencies use that very often.
They can withhold records if you're asking for any kind of records on a third party.
Unless you get a waiver from that person, you know, your request will be rejected.
So even if you're requesting records on a public figure, the requester have to make a case that what you're requesting is in the public interest and that the agency should conduct what's known as a public interest balancing test where they, you know, waive the right, you know, the person's privacy rights in favor of disclosure.
They can, you know, agencies withhold information if it will reveal trade secrets, commercial or financial information, bank information.
There's one that's kind of rarely used about wells and maps that's way down below on the exemption list.
So there's a lot of different exemptions, and it sounds like a lot of things they can withhold, but the presumption is that they're supposed to disclose the information, right?
And that was in 2016, amendments were passed when President Obama, in his last year in office, that he signed that essentially, you know, dictated that agencies should err on the side of disclosure.
There was also a memo from Merrick Garland later on when he became Attorney General that also kind of reiterated that presumption of openness.
Agencies cannot hide records if it proves to be embarrassing to individuals or the agency.
So one of the first things that you're told when you go into federal government service is don't put anything in an email that you don't want to end up on the front page of the New York Times.
And that's because of FOIA, right? Like any emails that you're exchanging with your colleagues, if you're a federal employee, even if they're snarky or making fun of your boss or saying negative things, those could, those sorts of embarrassing things could end up in a newspaper because of FOIA.
And, you know, there is the, you know, the law that kind of goes along with that is the Federal Records Act, right? So if you're working for a government agency, you know, your records have to be preserved.
You know, there are retention schedules, which state or dictate when records will be destroyed.
But generally, yes, you know, what you're writing down goes into, you know, the agency's record keeping system.
By the way, everything I said about what you can request does not mean that an agency is just going to, whether it's on the state or federal level, that they're just going to turn everything over to you.
So you can request whatever you want, but that doesn't mean the government is legally obligated to give you every single thing you're seeking.
So they are allowed to withhold records that may pose a national security threat or concern, records that may reveal sources and methods, right? Intelligence agencies use that very often.
They can withhold records if you're asking for any kind of records on a third party.
Unless you get a waiver from that person, you know, your request will be rejected.
So even if you're requesting records on a public figure, the requester have to make a case that what you're requesting is in the public interest and that the agency should conduct what's known as a public interest balancing test where they, you know, waive the right, you know, the person's privacy rights in favor of disclosure.
They can, you know, agencies withhold information if it will reveal trade secrets, commercial or financial information, bank information.
There's one that's kind of rarely used about wells and maps that's way down below on the exemption list.
So there's a lot of different exemptions, and it sounds like a lot of things they can withhold, but the presumption is that they're supposed to disclose the information, right?
And that was in 2016, amendments were passed when President Obama, in his last year in office, that he signed that essentially, you know, dictated that agencies should err on the side of disclosure.
There was also a memo from Merrick Garland later on when he became Attorney General that also kind of reiterated that presumption of openness.
Agencies cannot hide records if it proves to be embarrassing to individuals or the agency.
So one of the first things that you're told when you go into federal government service is don't put anything in an email that you don't want to end up on the front page of the New York Times.
And that's because of FOIA, right? Like any emails that you're exchanging with your colleagues, if you're a federal employee, even if they're snarky or making fun of your boss or saying negative things, those could, those sorts of embarrassing things could end up in a newspaper because of FOIA.
And, you know, there is the, you know, the law that kind of goes along with that is the Federal Records Act, right? So if you're working for a government agency, you know, your records have to be preserved.
You know, there are retention schedules, which state or dictate when records will be destroyed.
But generally, yes, you know, what you're writing down goes into, you know, the agency's record keeping system.
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