Left: In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/John Minchillo). Right: FBI Director Kash Patel, left, and Attorney General Pam Bondi arrive for a news conference at the Department of Justice, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
On the eve of the fifth anniversary of Jan. 6, a watchdog group known for filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits brought a new case against U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi”s DOJ and Director Kash Patel’s FBI in search of top officials’ communications records about President Donald Trump’s blanket pardons for his supporters and the “abuse of government power.”
American Oversight, a left-leaning nonprofit, filed the case on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking emails and texts that could “shed light” on “senior officials'” communications behind the scenes about Jan. 6, “efforts to undermine certification of the 2020 election,” and “attempts to erase consequences, including through pardons, for those involved.”
Those messages, the suit said, “are critical to understanding how the federal government has investigated — and attempted to revise and whitewash — one of the gravest assaults on American democracy in the nation’s history.”
“In furtherance of its mission to promote government transparency and accountability, American Oversight filed requests with FBI and DOJ under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking these officials’ text messages and emails regarding January 6, the Capitol attack, efforts to undermine certification of the 2020 election, clemency for the rioters, and abuse of government power to seek retribution against Trump’s perceived political enemies,” the complaint said. “Having received no records in response to its FOIA requests, American Oversight now brings this action against FBI and DOJ under FOIA, 5 U.S.C. § 552, and the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to compel compliance with the requirements of FOIA.”
To that end, the plaintiff is demanding “non-exempt records” of emails or texts involving Patel and former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino about their ties to “politically conservative podcasts,” and communications about the “Weaponization Working Group” created by Bondi and former Trump defense lawyer turned ex-top DOJ official Emil Bove, now a sitting judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Through Defendants’ failure to respond to American Oversight’s FOIA requests within the time period required by law, American Oversight has constructively exhausted its administrative remedies and seeks immediate judicial review,” the suit asserted.
American Oversight Executive Director Chioma Chukwu said in a statement that “secrecy” about “how the Trump administration has handled the aftermath of the president’s violent attack on our democracy” is “dangerous.”
“It may be hiding efforts to turn our justice system into a tool for personal and political payback — using pardons to protect allies who are committed to undermining future elections and settling scores,” Chukwu said. “Secrecy erodes accountability, and ignoring unlawful conduct weakens the very safeguards that protect free and fair elections. Ensuring access to these records is a necessary step toward restoring trust, confronting the truth, and preventing future abuses.”
The DOJ will likely oppose this attempt to pry loose internal communications.
The plaintiff group has brought a number of lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security, the DOJ, Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and more, with aims of compelling public disclosure.
Most recently, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed jurist who tossed out the then-candidate’s Mar-a-Lago prosecution, denied American Oversight’s attempt to intervene in the shuttered criminal case, as the group attempted to clear the way for the release of Volume II of ex-special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the willful retention of classified documents and obstruction probe.
American Oversight is now appealing that denial, along with the Knight First Amendment Institute, at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
