July 2017

Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) criticized the Federal Communications Commission for failing to turn over its internal analysis of the DDoS attacks that hit the FCC's public comment system.

The FCC declined to provide its analysis of the attacks to Gizmodo, which had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request for a copy of all records related to the FCC analysis "that concluded a DDoS attack had taken place." The FCC declined the request, saying that its initial analysis on the day of the attack "did not result in written documentation." “If the FCC did suffer a DDoS attack and yet created no written materials about it, that would be deeply irresponsible and cast doubt on how the FCC could possibly prevent future attacks," said Sen Wyden. "On the other hand, if FCC is playing word games to avoid responding to FoIA requests, it would clearly violate Chairman Ajit Pai’s pledge to increase transparency at the FCC.” Sen Wyden also said that the FCC's response to the FoIA request raised "legitimate questions about whether the agency is being truthful when it claims a DDoS attack knocked its commenting system offline.”

FCC Chairman Pai’s response: “The FCC has provided a written response to Congress detailing the attack, and we have never said that we have no written materials about it. Rather, the documents that were not produced in response to the FOIA request cannot be provided, among other reasons, because of security and privacy concerns.”

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, resigned after denouncing chaos in the West Wing and telling President Donald Trump he vehemently disagreed with the appointment of the New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as communications director.

After offering Scaramucci the communications job, President Trump asked Spicer to stay on as press secretary. But Spicer told President Trump that he believed the appointment of Scaramucci was a major mistake and said he was resigning, according to a person with direct knowledge of the exchange. In one of his first official acts, Mr. Scaracmucci, who founded the global investment firm SkyBridge Capital and is a Fox News contributor, joined Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Spicer’s chief deputy, in the White House briefing room and announced that she would succeed Spicer as press secretary. The resignation is a serious blow to the embattled White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, the former Republican Party chairman who brought Spicer into the West Wing despite skepticism from President Trump, who initially questioned his loyalty. Scaramucci described his relationship with Priebus as brotherly where they “rough each other up.” He called Priebus a “good friend.” Senior officials, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Spicer’s top deputy, were said to be stunned by the sudden shuffle.