If the government says a document doesn’t exist, can you trust feds are telling the truth? Perhaps not if non-profit investigative organization ProPublica hadn’t unearthed that the Justice Department was considering a proposal to allow government agencies to lie to reporters about the existence of sensitive documents. In the face of bipartisan criticism the Justice Department has backed down on the proposed rule, MSNBC reports. Investigative reporters can expect the status quo in response to their Freedom of Information Act requests on the existence of documents: “neither confirm nor deny.”
