How to make a Freedom of Information Act request in Leader v. Facebook

Here's my April 15 interview with Michael McKibben, Chairman & Founder of Leader Technologies, Inc. of Columbus, Ohio (below). Facebook stole his invention and was found guilty in federal court on 11 of 11 counts. Ever since the trial Facebook's attorneys have been corrupting the Judiciary and Executive branches to prevent accountability. For background on this case, go to http://americans4innovation.blogspot.com/

Mainstream Press' Conflict of Interest re. Advertising

This injustice has been largely WITHHELD from the mainstream media because it appears the Facebook "cabal" in Silicon Valley, Boston, New York and Washington have been buying people's silence for more than a decade (advertising revenues and eyeballs is a powerful Facebook aphrodisiac apparently.) We just learned a few days ago why even Fox News has been bitten by the Facebook corruption bug and refused to cover this Leader v. Facebook scandal. They have been sucking up to Facebook's largest shareholder, James W. Breyer, who was recently named a director of News Corp, the owner of the Fox Network. So much for an independent press.

This same James "Pump & Dump" Breyer cashed in over $6 billion of his Facebook shares on the third day of the IPO—all based on the Leader Technologies patent innovations that Breyer and Zuckerberg have stolen while two of the three Federal Circuit appeals Judges Alan D. Lourie and Kimberly A. Moore held STOCK in Facebook! This is an offense to everything that is decent folks.



Citizen's FOIA Secret Weapon

We encourage our listeners to start using a citizen's secret weapon in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Any citizen can file a FOIA request for information. The government agency is obliged by law to respond, as if they were in court being asked for discovery. This is because our government is ultimately accountable to the people and should not be keeping secrets from its citizens. The law does provide for some exemptions, but if that agency uses them in your request (guaranteed they will in this case), they are duty-bound to provide you with a detailed explanation of the nature of the information withheld and why they are withholding it. That detailed explanation is called a "Vaughn index."

There is no special FOIA form. Here's an overview of how to make your FOIA request. You send the request to the particular agency from which you want the records. Here are links to the FOIA instructions at the various agencies. Note that requests to the White House go through the GAO.

In the Leader v. Facebook case the requests should be focused on the Judiciary, Securities & Exchange Commission, and Executive (that includes the Commerce Department and U.S. Patent Office). Here are examples of recently filed Leader v. Facebook FOIAs: (1) SEC, (2) Patent Office. You don't have to be this detailed unless you want to be. We suggest you focus on who in these agencies held stock in Facebook between November 2008 to the present. This knowledge will smoke out all sorts of conflicts of interest. Be sure to ask for a "Vaughn index" on any information withheld.

Bureaucrats Work For The Citizens, Not For Themselves

American citizens cannot permit their paid bureaucrats to use their positions of public trust for personal gain. Such actions are against every ethical rule that these people swore public oaths to uphold.

Example #1: Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers should have declined to take the appointment as Obama's bailout director since two of his proteges Yuri Milner and Sheryl Sandberg were clients of two beneficiaries of the bailout to the tune of $32 BILLION, namely Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and State Street Corporation. Such conflicts of interest are appalling. See Obama Administration Cover-up.

Example #2: The three-judge Federal Circuit panel in Leader v. Facebook. Judges are prohibited by their Code of Conduct from holding "even a single share" of stock in one of the litigants before them in a proceeding. The Leader v. Facebook judges ignored this rule. Two of the three judges held well-publicized stock in Facebook. Then, when the court was asked to disclose the Facebook holdings of their family members (part of the Code of Conduct), they refused. Read The Real Facebook - A Portrait of Corruption.

Example #3: When Fenwick & West LLP applied to the SEC for a Facebook exemption from the 500-shareholder rule on August 13, 2008, the SEC chief counsel Thomas J. Lee should have recused himself because he was formerly employed by the law firm of Latham & Watkins LLP that was Facebook director James W. Breyer's chief lobbyist in 2003-2004. Instead, he approved the exemption . . . in one day. This is not to mention his intimate Harvard ties to Breyer, Summers and all things Harvard where he was a former Harvard Law Review editor several years after Barack Obama. Such undisclosed conflicts are inexcusable.
See Obama Cover-up above.

If you need to reference the Leader v. Facebook case, here's a reference that you can use the encompasses everything, I am told: Petition for Writ of Certiorari Leader Technologies, Inc., v Facebook, Inc., No 12-617 (US Nov., 16, 2012).

Please send me, Leader Technologies and the House Oversight Committee on Government Reform the responses from the agencies that you receive. The House Oversight Committee has promised to follow up on any citizen's request, especially where the responses are inadequate. Remember, these requests have the force of law, so these agencies are breaking the law and can be found in contempt if they refuse or fail to respond to you, in detail.