‘Troubling’: Federal Judge Orders Obama Admin. to Disclose Document it’s Been Trying to Keep Hidden

A federal judge Tuesday ordered the disclosure of a government-wide foreign aid directive President Barack Obama signed in 2010 but wanted to keep hidden from the public, Politico reports. The judge called the scope of the government’s argument for “presidential communications privilege” rather “troubling.”

The Department of Justice has argued that the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development was covered by executive privilege, even though the information is “non-classified” and sends directives to agencies not to the president of the United States.

“Acting on a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the Center for Effective Government, U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle concluded that the presidential order is not properly within the bounds of the so-called ‘presidential communications privilege,’” Politico’s Josh Gerstein reports.

In her opinion, Huvelle wrote there is “no evidence that the [directive] was intended to be, or has been treated as, a confidential presidential communication.”

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