the documents may have been joined now by had there been no stop attorney with the partnership for civil justice fund thank you so much for coming on how there are things so you know if you guys allege organization alleges that it's actually illegal for the state department to withhold these documents what basis is that set on of course well there is a freedom of information act that applies to the federal government and this was a long statute that was passed in one nine hundred sixty six because of demands for government transparency and that that statute requires that the government turn over documents unless there's some other exception that's provided in the law that would allow it nothing that the state department has alleged here to withhold the documents basically these documents are agency records they're subject to the foyer and they're very importantly requested expedited treatment of our request and still two and a half years later the state state department's keeping its mouth closed and so what about the documents you've already have obtained what what it exposed what operation was goin

rest of the documents may have i'm joined now by heather benno staff attorney with the partnership for civil justice fund thank you so much for coming on heather thing so you know if you guys allege organization alleges that it's actually illegal for the state department to withhold these documents what basis is that set on of course while there is a freedom of information act that applies to the federal government and this was a long statute that was passed in one nine hundred sixty six because of demands for government transparency and that that statute requires that the government turn over documents unless there is some other exception as provided in the law that would allow it nothing that the state department has alleged here to withhold the documents basically these documents are agency records they're subject to the foyer and they're very importantly requested expedited treatment of our request and still two and a half years later the state state department's keeping its mouth closed and so what about the documents you've already have obtained what what it exposed what operation was going on so w