A judge has ruled that a paper prepared during free trade negotiations can’t be kept secret, a rare court order to reveal a classified document and one of three significant losses the Justice Department has suffered recently over open records.
In the other two Freedom of Information Act opinions issued at the federal court in Washington, judges ruled that protecting the privacy of congressmen is not enough reason to withhold records about corruption investigations into the lawmakers.
The U.S. Trade Representative has been ordered to turn over a position paper prepared during negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, conducted in the 1990s and 2000s, which never resulted in a deal. U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts ruled Wednesday there were no plausible or logical explanations to justify its secrecy.
Read more at Official Wire. By Nedra Pickler, AP.
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