Availability of the Barack Obama Presidential Records

Obama presidential records will become subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests on January 20, 2022 and NARA will make presidential records available under the same standards and practices under which NARA has always administered records in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA).

NARA will process and digitize unclassified textual Presidential records under supervision of NARA archival staff on a timeline determined by FOIA requests beginning on January 20, 2022. For more information, visit NARA’s Barack Obama Presidential Library website.

https://www.obama.org/updates/obama-presidential-archives-fact-sheet/

The PRA allows the public to make FOIA requests beginning five years after a president leaves office; however, it allows the former president to claim six FOIA restrictions for up to 12 years.

Significantly, the PRA did not provide a procedure allowing former presidents to request continued restricted access. This flaw in the statute left it up to each president to interpret the law and to impose restrictions as he saw fit through the issuance of executive orders.

This situation led to abuses. For example, Bush attempted to broaden the authority of those able to make a privilege claim and potentially restrict public access indefinitely beyond the 12-year period in the law. In the past, requests by former presidents for additional time in which to review records had been routinely granted by the incumbent. The new law ended that practice. For the first time, former presidents and the incumbent president, after receiving notice from the National Archives of its intent to release a record, were subjected to specific time limitations in reviewing records for constitutionally based privilege against disclosure. The current president and former presidents now have an initial 60 days to review the records and are allowed one 30-day extension.

https://www.historians.org/research-and-publications/perspectives-on-history/february-2017/how-transparent-was-the-obama-administration

12 YEARS! or MOAR!

They were going to bury Obama's crimes forever.