Three ways to help

Suggest records to request

Anyone can suggest records for a FOIA request without giving a name. That includes federal employees, who should read the notes below first.

What this is, and what it is not. I file Freedom of Information Act requests, which anyone may do. I ask only for a description of records worth requesting, and I weigh each suggestion on public interest alone. Any request that results goes through FOIA, and the agency decides what to release. This site is not a news organization and cannot offer the legal protections that may apply to reporters.

• Describe only what you could say in public: the general kind of record, the office likely to hold it, and a rough time period.
• Do not send documents, screenshots, data, names of individuals, case-specific information, or anything marked or treated as nonpublic. If you are unsure whether you may share a detail, leave it out. Anything other than a description will not be kept, used, shared or made the basis of a request.
• This is not a protected disclosure. Sending a suggestion here is not the same as making a disclosure through the official channels below, and may not carry the same protections.

How to send it. Message bartleby.198 on Signal from a personal phone. In Signal's privacy settings, set "Who can see my number" and "Who can find me by number" to Nobody, and turn on disappearing messages. Do not use a government device, network or account.

What happens next. Anonymity cannot be guaranteed. Suggestions are not published, and I do not share them voluntarily, but I cannot promise they would be protected from a subpoena or court order, so send nothing that identifies you. I write each request in my own words and file it myself, never in the name of the person who suggested it. Where needed, I widen the dates or offices so that neither the request nor the text published here points to any one person as its source. The agency will see the request, so do not suggest wording that only you could know.

Reporting wrongdoing is a different path. To report waste, fraud, abuse or a prohibited personnel practice, use the channels the law sets up for federal employees, and consider speaking with a whistleblower attorney first. This site cannot advise you and is not one of those channels.

• U.S. Office of Special Counsel: disclosure of wrongdoing, a process "intended to protect the confidentiality of the whistleblower"
• U.S. Office of Special Counsel: prohibited personnel practices
• DHS Office of Inspector General hotline, which accepts complaints from people who wish to "remain anonymous"
• DHS Office of Inspector General: whistleblower protection, including its Whistleblower Protection Coordinator