Author: Charlie Savage

It bothers me to read, in your standard Bob Woodward style insider book or personal memoirs by retired officials, dialogue from private conversations that has quotation marks around it. To me, quotation marks are for verbatim comments. In reporting out behind-the-scenes stuff, we journalists can reconstruct approximate dialogue drawn from people’s memories (ideally, cross-referencing multiple […]

“Power Wars” publishes three weeks from today. Unlike with my first book, “Takeover,” Hachette/Little Brown is keeping it under wraps and has printed up no galleys to distribute in advance. So that means those who pre-order “Power Wars” will be among its earliest readers. Here is a preview of what you’ll find in it:  

My bureau chief asked me to compile an overview of the many Freedom of Information Act lawsuits I am waging with the New York Times, which was a useful exercise for me, too, to keep track of it all. It’s a lot! I decided to put it up here too, and will update it as […]

“Under FOIA, courts are not rendered mere bystanders whenever the executive branch declares something classified.” — NYT motion Today, the New York Times filed a memorandum of law in support of its motion for summary judgment in another one of my Freedom of Information Act lawsuits. This case involves a series of inspector general reports about government […]

Today, Federal District Court Judge J. Paul Oetkin issued an important ruling in one of the Freedom of Information Act lawsuits I am fighting with the New York Times. It was a partial victory and a partial defeat. I have posted his memorandum opinion and order below. The lawsuit concerns my FOIA request for documents related […]