A FOIA quid pro quo

Vice News' Jason Leopold, revealed during a House Oversight Committee hearing a stunning instance where a government agency agreed to release information on certain terms. Leopold said he had sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the Office of Net Assessment (ONA), the Pentagon’s in-house think tank, which puts together reports on anything from futuristic warfare to what the situation in the Middle East is going to look like with regards to oil. "I asked for those reports. I filed a FOIA request; they refused to comply with my FOIA request. They said it was too broad. I narrowed it, they still said it was too broad. I sued them. Recently they said that ‘We’ll give you some documents as long as you promise to never file a FOIA request again and don’t have anyone else file a FOIA request on your behalf,'" Leopold said.

"How is that legal?" asked Rep Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA). "I don’t know but they put this in writing and I’m really looking forward to the day when I write this story up," Leopold said, adding that he did not agree to the terms. Leopold said that the ONA reports he was seeking are not classified, but that regardless, the agency can't even find them. Earlier in the hearing Leopold slammed the Pentagon for its FOIA practices, saying they have purposely "delayed and politicized" the process.