Politico better put their legal team on call because their story about Jennifer Ruth-Green, the Republican candidate in Indiana’s first congressional district, contained information not based on formal FOIA requests. The profile piece isn’t malicious on its face but buried in the story are a couple of paragraphs about Ms. Green’s military record in the United States Air Force, where they include information about her admonishments over sub-par performance. It gets ugly when they have her sexual assault report in the piece.
It drew immediate condemnation from Republicans and Ms. Green, who saw this as an overt attempt to smear the candidate as a disgraced former officer. This congressional race is highly competitive, with Ms. Green hauling in healthy amounts of campaign cash. She will be the first Republican to represent this district in nearly 100 years if elected. To make matters worse, Politico defended the article by saying their information was publicly available and obtained through proper FOIA protocol. That line from the publication’s communications office is facially untrue as sexual assault/rape reports are not publicly available.
Ms. Green suspects this information was obtained illegally—and the Air Force backed up that claim. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) sent a letter to the Air Force demanding what happened here regarding the release of such sensitive information. As you can see, someone is lying here. The Air Force says they have no record of any information on Ms. Green being released through a FOIA request (via Fox News):
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is raising questions about whether the Air Force broke the law by releasing personnel records for a GOP congressional candidate, which outed her as a survivor of sexual assault.
Politico reported last week that Jennifer-Ruth Green, a GOP candidate for Congress in Indiana, was sexually assaulted during her time in the military. The outlet reported the information as part of a lengthy profile on Green that looked at her performance records while in the Air Force and Indiana National Guard, in which she is a lieutenant colonel.
According to Politico, a person outside the campaign of Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Ind., who obtained them via public records request, gave the documents to the outlet. But Cotton says it is illegal for the Air Force to release private personnel records like the ones cited by the Politico story, and he is demanding the Air Force explain how the documents became public.
[…]
The Air Force told Fox News Digital that it does not have records indicating that the documents on Green were released as part of a public records request.
"We cannot confirm any documents on this individual were released by the Department of the Air Force under the Freedom of Information Act," an Air Force spokesperson said. "In general, any release of information that, if disclosed, would invade another individual's personal privacy would be reviewed under Exemption FOIA 5U.S.C. §552 (b)(6) with redactions made to ensure compliance with the law. Each document would be reviewed on a case by case basis."
NEW: @TomCottonAR demands info from Air Force after Jennifer-Ruth Green sexual assault leak
— Nathan Brand (@NathanBrandWA) October 13, 2022
https://t.co/DLKwB1hdIt
Wow! Someone is not telling the truth here...
— Nathan Brand (@NathanBrandWA) October 13, 2022
U.S. Air Force: "...it does not have records indicating that the documents on Green were released as part of a public records request."
Politico: "[documents] were obtained by a public records request and provided to POLITICO" https://t.co/WbGuTbDkbI
On the left - a Politico spokesman stating that the records they reported on can be obtained by a standard FOIA request.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) October 13, 2022
On the right - the Air Force making clear you CANNOT obtain those records through a standard FOIA request, and they have no record of a request like that. pic.twitter.com/53V6UCceNK
@BDayspring care to comment? pic.twitter.com/JuQBwwTRyq
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) October 13, 2022
These actions aren’t anything new from Democrats, who are rotten at their core. They’re an execrable group of left-wing zealots who will set everything ablaze when nothing goes their way. President Biden’s approval ratings aren’t going their way, the national mood isn’t, the economy isn’t, inflation isn’t going away, and now crime is an issue.
Regarding the House races, there’s no way they’re keeping their majority—they had a four-seat majority heading into this current session. It’s over—so if they’re going down, they might as well weaponize a rape report to smear the congressional candidate of the opposing party.
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