He Brings Sunlight to College Football

Is your alma mater inviting the government to monitor its football fans on game day? How much do Big Ten schools earn renting out their mascots? You can FOIA that – or visit FOIAball.com, where journalist David Covucci adds transparency to the big business of collegiate sports. Covucci tells Jason …

The SEC Roots Out Golf on the Taxpayer Dime

When the Securities and Exchange Commission announced earlier this year that it had disciplined workers for golfing on the job, investigative reporter Jason Leopold shot off a FOIA request. Co-host Matt Topic, who is an accomplished golfer, and Jason, who isn’t, pore over records he received about …

The Secret History of the Mar-a-Lago Document Seizure

Investigative reporter Jason Leopold and attorney Matt Topic take viewers inside a yearslong effort to head off document destruction at the White House during President Trump’s first term. Drawing from government documents (and The Big Lebowski), they reveal how the US National Archives and Records…

Introducing: Disclosure Season 2

Disclosure, the podcast dedicated to revealing the government’s inner workings, is back for Season 2 in audio and video. By law, nearly every move federal agencies make—every email, every memo, every receipt—belongs to the public. The key to gaining access is the Freedom of Information Act. In the…

Asking the FBI to Release the Santa Files

One Christmas, Matt dashed off a letter to the FBI’s FOIA office: Please search your old investigation files for the name Santa Claus, he requested, and send me the first few pages you find. What a simple holiday wish taught us about one agency’s spirit of giving. The Disclosure podcast is availab…

These Federal Officers Wield the Power of Transparency

Ask the US government for public records, and your request will go to a federal employee who holds the keys to what gets released and what doesn’t. Jason and Matt get a rare look inside a government Freedom of Information Act operation from Michael Sarich, who worked his way up from a FOIA post at …

What to Expect When You’re Expecting the Epstein Files

The new Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the government to release a trove of documents from its Jeffrey Epstein investigations – minus whatever documents the Justice Department determines need to be withheld from the public. Jason and Matt dig into the FBI’s massive review of the Epstein fi…

To Crack Wu-Tang Album's Secrets, FOIA FOIA Y'All (Feat. Open Mike Eagle)

Exclusivity was the point of Wu-Tang Clan's Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Only one copy was produced. A few minutes of it were played -- once -- in public. It sold at auction, with the condition it be heard only in private. And the album may have remained shrouded in mystery, were it not for a pharm…

Waiting for Doge

Earlier this year, newly minted young workers from the Department of Government Efficiency slashed USAID spending and hobbled the US Institute of Peace. Meanwhile, at the Peace Corps, staffers spent weeks preparing for their own mystery guest from Doge – ensuring that whoever arrived would have com…

Our Deep Dive for White House Records Starts in the Toilet

In August 2022, on the day the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago to recover files from Donald Trump's first term, another allegation was swirling around – that presidential papers may have been flushed down a White House toilet. This raised a lot of questions. How many documents could a person flush down a toi…