WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Protect the People’s Trust (PPT) sued the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that the federal agency is non-compliant with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) involving the documentary “Mayor Pete.”
“This movie was a private project,” said Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public's Trust. “It's not the business of the government to be using official public resources to support it.”
The documentary profiles current Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s life prior to his joining the DOT in February 2021.
“Primarily most of the filming took place in 2020 but then it wasn't released until October of 2021 so most likely there were activities that happened by the producers of the film and we're not saying that we know that anybody participated in any of those activities around the film but that's why we're requesting the documents to see if any public resources were used in either the production or promotion of any activities affiliated with this movie,” Chamberlain told Legal Newsline.
PPT submitted a FOIA request to the DOT on Dec. 8, 2021, and on Feb. 8, 2022, a DOT representative replied, “We are still conducting the search, but expect to have the records within the next two weeks. I estimate we will respond by the end of the month.”
However, no responsive records have been produced.
“The worst case scenario is the DOT continues to avoid compliance with their legal obligations and also that the American public doesn't have access to these records that they deserve to have access to in order to determine if everybody was complying with their legal and ethical obligations around this project,” Chamberlain said.
On March 15, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum to the heads of agencies and departments within the federal government reminding them of the need for transparency.
"The trust of the American public in their government is already at an all-time low and part of that is due to mistrust about how officials are handling their official duties and not complying with their ethical obligations," Chamberlain added.
"The American public's knowledge about whether official public servants who they've entrusted with these duties are complying with their legal and ethical obligations goes a long way to ensuring the public's trust in their government."