In a 1978 memo urging the curbing of the newly-empowered Freedom of Information Act, the CIA compiled a list of six FOIA request topics considered to be the most potentially dangerous to the Agency’s reputation.

MuckRock users come from different walks of life and all parts of the country, united in the idea that government by the people must be a government that is open to the people. Thanks to that belief - and a helpful community of committed FOIA filers - MuckRock users have now collectively filed 10,000 successful FOIA and public records requests.

Congresswoman Bella Abzug infamously had issues with trusting CIA when it came to their handling evidence of illegal and improper Agency activities. Internal memos shows those fears were well-founded - while the Congresswoman fought to prevent the destruction of records of CIA wrongdoing, the Agency rushed to begin destroying everything they could.

Declassified records recently unearthed in CREST show the CIA waffled on a promise to obey the law in not destroying records of Agency’s illegal activities and wrongdoing

Back in January of last year, MuckRock’s Michael Morisy filed for an updated copy of the FBI’s “vexsome filer list,” the adorably archaic name for the requesters who bother the Bureau by making the most of FOIA. That list came in yesterday, and it’s a veritable who’s who of open government crusaders.