The Bader Family Foundation sued the State Department for various documents about the Global Disinformation Index on April 20. The Global Disinformation Index is a London-based organization funded by the State Department that compiled a blacklist of conservative and non-liberal publications for advertisers to avoid.[¹]

On July 7, U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb ordered the State Department to release the records in monthly installments, and to review at least 500 pages per month for material than is subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act (as opposed to being covered by one of FOIA’s 9 exemptions).

The State Department released its first monthly installment today. The 73 pages released contain internal State Department discussions of how to respond to Congressman Darrell Issa, and reporters like Gabe Kaminsky of the Washington Examiner, Valerie Richardson of the Washington Times, Michael Gordon of the Wall Street Journal, Ailan Evans of the Daily Caller, and Benen O’Brien of Fox News. The discussions are heavily redacted, and the redacted material won’t be released unless I successfully challenge the redactions as not covered by Exemption 5’s deliberative-process privilege later in the lawsuit.

[This is more of a progress report than an a-ha moment. Hans shares the trove with readers through links at the website, so click over if you want to peruse it and perhaps help with crowdsourcing the data. The GDI was State’s contribution to the Big Brother Industrial Censorship Complex, which attempted to drive advertisers away from publications that criticized the progressive establishment — including several Townhall Media sites. — Ed]