Document: Government Need Not Disclose Syria Airstrike Justification, Judge Rules

Mikhaila Fogel
Tuesday, August 21, 2018, 11:55 AM

On Tuesday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled to deny the nonprofit group Protect Democracy access to certain documents related to the Trump administration’s legal justification for airstrikes in Syria in April 2017.

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

On Tuesday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled to deny the nonprofit group Protect Democracy access to certain documents related to the Trump administration’s legal justification for airstrikes in Syria in April 2017. Protect Democracy had sued under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (Lawfare’s detailed background on the case can be found here). The full ruling is below.

Full disclosure: Protect Democracy is also representing Lawfare staff members Benjamin Wittes, Susan Hennessey, and Scott Anderson in several matters, including matters under the Freedom of Information Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the Data Quality Act.


Mikhaila Fogel was an associate editor at Lawfare and a research analyst at the Brookings Institution. She previously worked as a legislative correspondent for national security and foreign affairs issues in the Office of Sen. Susan Collins. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, where she majored in history and literature and minored in government and Arabic.

Subscribe to Lawfare