Trump DOJ Promised Transparency. Conservative Orgs Think It’s Falling Short

Transparency groups are growing frustrated that the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) is maintaining positions in some cases previously held by the Biden administration.

Organizations like the Oversight Project, Empower Oversight and Judicial Watch are waiting for movement on dozens of pending Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) cases, expressing disappointment that the DOJ is not giving greater attention to disclosing documents related to what they believe are past examples of government weaponization or misconduct.

The Oversight Project is “not thrilled that the Trump Department of Justice is taking the same position in many of our FOIA cases as the Biden administration,” President Mike Howell told the Daily Caller News Foundation. (RELATED: ‘Be Unhappy’: Shut Out Of One Job, Ed Martin Urges Americans To Keep Pushing Trump Admin To Release Docs)

“One recent example is after months of good faith and negotiations with the Trump Department of Justice about the release of the Biden/Hur audio tape, they decided to make a discretionary release to Axios to help Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson monetize their role in the cover up via their book tape,” Howell said, noting the Oversight Project was “owed that tape in litigation.”

The Oversight Project sued in 2024 to obtain the audio.

“We hope that is not a pattern of how the administration will work with transparency groups who have been pushing hard for years on many of the issues that they’re now dealing with,” he told the DCNF.

“Deweaponizing the DOJ and FBI will take time, but no more harm should be done in the interim,” Howell said. “I understand that reform, which includes firing and reducing mission scope is a longer endeavor, but there is no reason to continue bad things.”

A DOJ spokesperson told the DCNF that the “days of weaponized justice are over.”

“[T]his Department of Justice is committed to restoring trust with the American people through increased transparency,” the spokesperson said.

Virtually ZERO Changes on transparency from @AGBondi DOJ (or any other agency) on @JudicialWatch FOIAS, especially on the lawfare targeting @RealDonaldTrump… pic.twitter.com/bY713O4zai

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) April 3, 2025

Judicial Watch, a conservative government transparency group that frequently files public records requests, indicated to the DNCF that it has “dozens” of cases where that Biden administration’s position has been maintained.

“I’m a bit frustrated by the Justice Department thus far,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said on X in April. “As best I can tell, there have been no efforts to change the approach on government transparency by the Trump Justice Department under Attorney General Bondi.”

Fitton noted Judicial Watch sued in March for information about complaints of misconduct surrounding former special counsel Jack Smith.

Yet the group has not been without support: the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division filed a statement of interest June 6 in one Judicial Watch lawsuit seeking to make records related to maintaining Oregon’s eligible voters list available to the public.

A modest procedural victory to expose deep state spying on Congress.

I think I know why Judge Boasberg refused to unseal the documents.

Buy why is the current @TheJusticeDept trying to help delay and oppose transparency on this issue? https://t.co/fbdDnI6WFb pic.twitter.com/hdz3UavqXx

— Jason Foster (@JsnFostr) May 13, 2025

Empower Oversight Founder Jason Foster questioned on X in May why the DOJ was “trying to help delay and oppose transparency” on one of its pending efforts. Empower Oversight asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in April to unseal the reasons non-disclosure orders (NDOs) were approved in 2017 when the DOJ subpoenaed phone and email records of Senate Judiciary Committee staff members.

A December 2024 DOJ Office of Inspector General (OIG) report found the department’s applications relied for years “on general assertions about the need for non-disclosure” rather than providing details about the cases. Keeping the DOJ’s reasoning for the NDOs hidden has prevented the public from “from scrutinizing the claims made by DOJ,” Empower Oversight argued in a brief.

“Those applications would provide important information to Mr. Foster, Congress, and the public about the extent to which DOJ complied with its own policies, the statute governing NDOs, and the separation of powers,” Empower Oversight wrote.

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit denied in May the government’s request to put the case on hold. The case is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C.

“Moving forward, this administration should stop opposing the unsealing of the records, stop wasting our resources, as well as taxpayer resources, with litigation delay tactics, and stop hiding behind the court,” Foster said in a statement to the DCNF.

As for its FOIA lawsuits, Foster said “time will tell whether their lack of FOIA responses is an administration policy or if it’s simply ingrained in the culture of the agencies.”

“For instance, the FBI in particular appears to take an approach to FOIA that is designed to make requesters go away,” Foster said. “However, FOIA requires them to conduct a reasonable search for records, including searching databases and systems other than its central records system, e.g. email system, which appears to rarely, if ever, be the case.”

Empower Oversight has three of its own pending FOIA lawsuits that were filed during the Biden administration, along with five other ongoing cases where Empower Oversight is representing another plaintiff seeking records who sued before Trump took office, according to a list the group shared with the DCNF. The cases are at various stages, and agencies have began processing some records.

“So, the real question with all of these lawsuits is more about why they are necessary, because these go away with better decisions by the government on the front end,” Foster said.

Continued Prosecutions

In some cases, the DOJ has opted to continue prosecutions initiated by the Biden DOJ.

The DOJ is moving forward with some of the Biden administration’s antitrust litigation, like the lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

Over objections from the crypto industry, the DOJ is also continuing to prosecute Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm, whose case is set to proceed to trial in July. Tornado Cash allegedly facilitated over $1 billion in money laundering transactions, including for a cybercrime organization in North Korea, according to the indictment.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton indicated in May that the DOJ would drop one count in the indictment but proceed on the other charges. Though Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche promised in an April memo to end crypto “regulation by prosecution,” Clayton wrote that continuing Storm’s case was “consistent with the letter and spirit” of his instructions.

While the DOJ has dismissed charges against Jan. 6 defendants, it is continuing to prosecute Edward Kelley, a Jan. 6 protestor who faces charges for planning to murder the federal officials investigating him.

In another case continued by the Trump DOJ, a jury convicted on June 9 the leaders of OneTaste, a wellness company that promotes a practice called “orgasmic mediation,” for a forced labor conspiracy. OneTaste executives Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz promised women “sexual empowerment and wellness” but instead used “abusive and manipulative tactics” to coerce them into providing sexual services for the company, the government alleged.

Some conservatives, including Howell, have raised concerns about how the government’s theory of coercion in the case could apply in other contexts.

“The criminal case against Cherwitz and Daedone, replete with allegations of recruitment, trauma, and shunning, can be readily repackaged and deployed against churches, religious institutions, or other designated enemies of the moment,” James R. Lawrence, Deputy General Counsel in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during the first Trump administration, wrote for The American Conservative.

The DOJ also has not moved, for now, from the Biden administration’s position in litigation over the abortion pill, urging a judge in May to dismiss a renewed challenge by three Republican states because it was filed in the wrong venue. Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to reconsider the position.

Yet there have been major shake-ups in key policy areas. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division dropped Biden-era lawsuits against two police departments in May.

The DOJ dropped the prosecution of New York Mayor Eric Adams in February, prompting a wave of resignations.

The DOJ changed positions in a pending case before the Supreme Court, United States v. Skrmetti, where the Biden administration argued Tennessee’s ban on child sex changes violated the Equal Protection Clause.

It has also dropped Biden DOJ prosecutions of pro-life activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. It dropped the Biden administration’s lawsuit claiming Idaho’s abortion ban violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) in March.

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