The most transparent administration ever just got caught trying to order one of the most significant cover-ups we have seen in modern history.
Reports broke only hours ago that a FISA request has shown a massive scrubbing of online records by the Biden administration.
The order was pushed back by the Inspector General’s office, claiming many of the reports had been online for months and surely would have been archived by that point.
The Coverup
The scrubbing involved online reports regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Carole Clay, an official at the State Department’s Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, had sent a request to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) on August 16.
She wrote, “We request urgent assistance in identifying and temporarily removing (and potentially redacting on a longer term basis) all potentially sensitive and identifying information on U.S. government assistance programs/projects in Afghanistan.
“A great many of your historical publications contain extensive details about activities and partners that could put individuals at risk in the current environment.”
Clay had also asked the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) and Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) for help in scrubbing the documents.
She wrote, “Because SIGAR is probably the most extensive source for vendor and other information in Afghanistan through the information available for your website, it might be easiest to disable the website functionality for accessing reports and other publications and notifications. Obviously we request this as soon as possible.”
SIGAR’s John Sopko immediately pushed back, writing, “I want it from the secretary or deputy secretary or as the minimum her boss.
“She is a mere office director. What is the basis of her conclusion that reports that have been public for years are now causing a risk.
“I repeat do not pull anything down until we get a better and more authoritative request.”
Sopko continued to push back, writing on August 18, “Many of the records you are talking about have been up on our web for 10 or more years and my IT people tell me even if we delete them they are still out there in the internet since there are numerous programs readily available that regularly sweep and capture such material.
“I would prefer someone at State who is a political appointee explain in writing why you are making such a request as well as what is the basis of the threat and how this very labor intensive request will accomplish anything other than waste taxpayer dollars.”
State Department Comptroller Jeffrey Mounts responded, “We acknowledge that the information has already been made publicly available, but we have reason to believe that this week’s events represent extraordinary circumstances of heightened risk and that temporarily removing access to reports with identifying information could possibly shield some of these individuals from harm.”
Eventually, the request was granted, with 400 reports having been removed from the SIGAR website.
When asked for a comment regarding the removal, Sopko stated, “But despite repeated requests, State was never able to describe any specific threats to individuals that were supposedly contained in our reports, nor did State ever explain how removing our reports now could possibly protect anyone since many were years old and already extensively disseminated worldwide. Nevertheless, with great reservation, I acceded to State’s initial request because it was made at the height of the emergency evacuation from Afghanistan.”
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton stated, “These extraordinary emails document a cover-up and unprecedented government censorship to protect Joe Biden and his administration from further humiliation over its surrender in Afghanistan.”
This should be an absolutely devasting report for Joe Biden and his corrupt administration, but my guess is that because a conservative watchdog was the one to expose it, it will get little attention in the mainstream media.
Source: Fox News
