NEW/THREAD: A forthcoming analysis from @TRACReports says @BuzzFeedNews has filed more #FOIA lawsuits--58-- than any other media organization in the US during Trump's presidency.

Here's a look back at the secrets my colleagues & I pried loose in 2020

1/

We started off 2020 publishing some of the most important and highly sought-after documents from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation: summaries of FBI interviews with key White House officials.
https://t.co/dfQI0LOa1I

2/
In February 2020, @BuzzFeedNews secured more than 1K pages of emails from NOAA related to Trump’s "doctored" map of Hurricane Dorian — dubbed #SharpieGate — and the panic, outrage, and internal revolt it triggered among top officials at those agencies.
https://t.co/G7tTRV9aqR

3/
That month, we also filed a #FOIA lawsuit against DOJ for docs related to Barr's intervention in the Flynn & Stone cases. Emails we obtained brought to light the behind-the-scenes drama between the lead prosecutor in the Stone case & his supervisor
 https://t.co/BdNFGpQiBf
4/
The federal response to #FOIA requests, which was already shitty, got worse during last year’s coronavirus outbreak. Some agencies used the pandemic to justify cutting off responses altogether and to abruptly halt the processing of FOIA requests.

But we fought back. We sued.

5/
In June 2020, we obtained documents that show the FDA authorized two malaria drugs boosted by Trump to treat COVID-19 was based on threadbare evidence.
https://t.co/q30B3ZZdDi
6/
We continued to chip away at the secrecy behind the government's response to #COVID19, and in May we received docs that reveal how deeply involved FEMA was in the govt's bungled response to the pandemic, despite the agency's denials.
https://t.co/ArgDyQcjYa
7/
When the country erupted in protest after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, the federal govt scrambled to respond, dispatching federal agents in a sweeping effort to police the demonstrations. @BuzzFeedNews swiftly filed FOIA requests and then sued the govt

8/
Last August, DHS turned over hundreds of pages of documents to @BuzzFeedNews that show how federal agents monitored #BlackLivesMatter protesters’ social media for intelligence and then braced for battle.
https://t.co/kuJtNxfh5t

9/
One of the Trump administration's most enduring controversies has been its immigration policies, which have resulted in dozens of deaths in detention facilities. To better understand what happened, BuzzFeed News sued DHS & ICE

10/
In Oct we published our findings, which included that a woman w/AIDS died after she was not given life-saving antiretroviral drugs & 3 detainees killed themselves even though they were supposed to have been under observation for mental health concerns
https://t.co/jg0UPvka9y
11/
Also last year, we used documents obtained through #FOIA lawsuits against the Treasury and Justice Departments to inform our groundbreaking #FinCENFiles investigation, published in September.
https://t.co/ETKey5nPDr

12/
Our #FOIA litigation rankled HSBC. A secret report we sought about failures in HSBC’s anti–money laundering efforts led the bank to take the unusual step of intervening in our lawsuit. It asked DOJ not to release it to us
https://t.co/usOchKPbx7

13/
The Mueller report, Russia’s election interference, and Ukrainian dealings that led to impeachment dominated much of Trump’s term in office; they also were targets of @BuzzFeedNews legal efforts

14/
Our #FOIA work generated headlines in March when Judge Reggie Walton, who was handling our/@EPICprivacy's lawsuit to unredact Mueller's report, issued a scathing opinion that questioned whether Barr intended to “create a one-sided narrative” about it
https://t.co/bVbWcQUnVW

15/
In June, DOJ was forced to remove vast swaths of black ink from the Mueller report in response to #FOIA lawsuits by @BuzzFeedNews and @EPICprivacy

The new details were revelatory

https://t.co/cwb10hOljS

16/
September brought another historic victory in Judge Walton’s court. He ordered the government to release, on the day before Election Day, even more redacted passages from the Mueller report, ruling that DOJ violated federal law 

17/
When those sections of the Mueller report were disclosed, it showed Mueller investigated Assange, WikiLeaks, and Stone related to the hacking of Democratic National Committee servers as well as for possible campaign finance violations.

https://t.co/x2e3tiJJTl

18/
The last set of docs we obtained in 2020 arrived in Dec. We had been fighting for its release for a year. It included 1 of the key historical docs of Trump’s presidency: the criminal referral sent to FBI & DOJ accusing Trump himself of breaking the law
https://t.co/6zSqSVrdx4
19/
Our battle against recalcitrant public officials required not only the work of our own lawyer, Chris Hickman (co author of our 2020 #FOIA wrap up) but also enlisting outside counsel, including attys @_LightLaw @mvtopic & @jloevy and @katie_rcfp & @Jen_A_Nelson

THANK YOU!

20/
And thank you to @ackocher and his team at @TRACReports for the data analysis!

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प्राचीन काल में गाधि नामक एक राजा थे।उनकी सत्यवती नाम की एक पुत्री थी।राजा गाधि ने अपनी पुत्री का विवाह महर्षि भृगु के पुत्र से करवा दिया।महर्षि भृगु इस विवाह से बहुत प्रसन्न हुए और उन्होने अपनी पुत्रवधु को आशीर्वाद देकर उसे कोई भी वर मांगने को कहा।


सत्यवती ने महर्षि भृगु से अपने तथा अपनी माता के लिए पुत्र का वरदान मांगा।ये जानकर महर्षि भृगु ने यज्ञ किया और तत्पश्चात सत्यवती और उसकी माता को अलग-अलग प्रकार के दो चरू (यज्ञ के लिए पकाया हुआ अन्न) दिए और कहा कि ऋतु स्नान के बाद तुम्हारी माता पुत्र की इच्छा लेकर पीपल का आलिंगन...

...करें और तुम भी पुत्र की इच्छा लेकर गूलर वृक्ष का आलिंगन करना। आलिंगन करने के बाद चरू का सेवन करना, इससे तुम दोनो को पुत्र प्राप्ति होगी।परंतु मां बेटी के चरू आपस में बदल जाते हैं और ये महर्षि भृगु अपनी दिव्य दृष्टि से देख लेते हैं।

भृगु ऋषि सत्यवती से कहते हैं,"पुत्री तुम्हारा और तुम्हारी माता ने एक दुसरे के चरू खा लिए हैं।इस कारण तुम्हारा पुत्र ब्राह्मण होते हुए भी क्षत्रिय सा आचरण करेगा और तुम्हारी माता का पुत्र क्षत्रिय होकर भी ब्राह्मण सा आचरण करेगा।"
इस पर सत्यवती ने भृगु ऋषि से बड़ी विनती की।


सत्यवती ने कहा,"मुझे आशीर्वाद दें कि मेरा पुत्र ब्राह्मण सा ही आचरण करे।"तब महर्षि ने उसे ये आशीर्वाद दे दिया कि उसका पुत्र ब्राह्मण सा ही आचरण करेगा किन्तु उसका पौत्र क्षत्रियों सा व्यवहार करेगा। सत्यवती का एक पुत्र हुआ जिसका नाम जम्दाग्नि था जो सप्त ऋषियों में से एक हैं।