Charlottesville Anti-Racist Groups Issue Statement in Response to Over-Policing on Anniversary of Deadly White Supremacist Attacks

Charlottesville, VA — This weekend as Charlottesville community members prepared to mourn communal losses including Heather Heyer’s murder, reflect on the tragic events of last year’s deadly ‘Unite the Right’ white supremacist rally, and organize collectively against perennial systems of oppression, they faced the fifth largest deployment of law enforcement in Virginia history. This included hundreds […]

Charlottesville Activists Respond to Looming Threat of Violence at Nationalist ‘March for Freedom’ in Portland, Oregon

On Saturday August 4th, far-right Republican US Senate candidate Joey Gibson’s “Patriot Prayer” organization, members of the “Proud Boys” fraternal organization, and a rogues gallery of white nationalists, fascists and Nazis, plan to march through the city of Portland, Oregon stoking conflict wherever and whenever they can. Ahead of these events, Black Lives Matter Charlottesville, […]

2017 Was the Deadliest Year on Record for Land and Environmental Defenders

Global Witness today reveals that at least 207 land and environmental defenders were killed last year – indigenous leaders, community activists and environmentalists murdered trying to protect their homes and communities from mining, agribusiness and other destructive industries. Global Witness annual figures show at least 207 land and environmental activists were killed in 2017 across […]

Charlottesville Mayor Leads Pilgrimage to Montgomery Lynching Memorial

Charlottesville, VA – 100 Charlottesville community leaders and resident delegates will culminate a six-day Civil Rights Pilgrimage with a soil delivery ceremony for 1898 Charlottesville lynching victim John Henry James at the new Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) Legacy Museum, 122 Commerce Street, Montgomery, AL, at 2:30 pm on Thursday July 12th. The delegates have been […]

FOIA Litigation Reveals $344,008.28 in Taxpayer Money Spent at Trump Properties

Washington, DC — Over the past year, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and litigation filed by the transparency organization Property of The People (PoTP) has produced receipts and other documents revealing an excess of $344,008.28 in emoluments from US government agencies at Trump properties.  Property of the People is publishing these documents in their entirety […]

The Islamic State and Taliban are Fighting Over Afghan Talc Riches

London, UK – The Islamic State in Afghanistan (ISKP) controls major mining sites in eastern Afghanistan and has a strategic interest in the country’s rich mineral resources, new Global Witness research shows – a powerful example of the wider threat posed by armed groups and corrupt actors in Afghan mining. The Islamic State in Afghanistan […]

FOIA Litigation Reveals Department of Defense Spent $138,093 at Mar-a-Lago and Trump Businesses

Washington, DC — A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit from the transparency organization Property of The People has produced receipts and other documents revealing Department of Defense (DoD) expenditures at Mar-a-Lago and twelve Trump properties during the President’s first six months in office.  The expenses, each made with DoD charge cards, raise serious questions […]

Litigation Reveals GSA Expenditures at Trump International Hotel in DC

Washington, DC — As court arguments in the District of Columbia and Maryland litigate whether patronage by state governments and foreign countries at The Trump International Hotel in DC violates the US Constitution, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit from the transparency organization Property of The People has now produced receipts revealing expenditures at the […]

Group Sues FBI for Documents on Previously Unknown Cyber-Enabled Surveillance Platform Named ‘Gravestone’

Washington, DC — On Thursday, December 21, 2017, Property of the People filed a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation over the Bureau’s failure to comply with the group’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for records on the FBI’s cyber-enabled surveillance platform named “Gravestone”. Very little is publicly known about Gravestone. In late 2016, Property of […]

A Personal Appeal from The Sparrow Project

Dear Friend, By now you’ve probably received a dozen or more emails about #GivingTuesday.  I would be remiss to say that this note is something uniquely different, but I’d like to take a second to describe how the scope of work being serviced through The Sparrow Project has changed and can benefit from sustaining donations […]

Property of the People Forensically Reconstructs Trump’s Undisclosed White House Visitor Logs

— Partnership with ProPublica Makes 8,807 Meeting Records from the Executive Office of the President Searchable Online — Access the Searchable Records HERE Download the Raw Data HERE — Washington, DC — Property of the People, in partnership with ProPublica, published a searchable online database of 8,807 records today comprising meeting logs and calendar entries […]

Paradise Papers: Global Witness Statement on Wilbur Ross’ Offshore Secrecy

Washington, DC — Leaked documents published today by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists expose how offshore tax havens, white-collar professionals, and anonymous company owners hide their finances behind a veil of secrecy.  The documents from Bermuda-based law firm Appleby include evidence of dubious deals and holdings involving the Queen of England, Canadian Prime Minister […]

Trump’s Afghanistan Strategy will Fail if it Does not Take on Corruption

Tonight at 9pm EST President Trump announced his new Afghanistan strategy, Global Witness’ Stephen Carter highlights what is needed for a real change in direction: “The United States is Afghanistan’s key partner and has real potential to help break the cycle of violence there. But its continued presence will change nothing unless the US and […]

FOIA Litigation Produces Letter from Senators Feinstein and Cardin Urging President Obama to Directly Respond to Russian Cyberattacks

Washington, DC —  Today, as a result of ongoing FOIA litigation, the US Department of State and Department of Homeland Security released four (4) documents to the newly formed transparency project Operation 45.  Among the documents released Friday afternoon were records responsive to a November 1, 2016 letter from Senators Dianne Feinstein and Benjamin Cardin wherein the Senators call […]

Activists and Journalists Have Sued the FBI for Withholding Donald Trump’s File

Washington, DC — The nonprofit transparency organization Property of the People has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seeking the release of Donald J. Trump’s FBI file.  The records requested, which cover a period from June 14, 1946 through June 15, 2015, will shed new light on already known investigations linking […]