Fox Business Network filed a lawsuit against the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System over its failure to release information requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
It’s the second lawsuit that Fox Business has filed to receive information about the government’s bailout tied to the economic upheaval. A similar lawsuit was filed in December against the U.S. Treasury Department.
The initial request to the Fed, filed on Nov. 10, 2008, sought the identification of the financial institutions receiving funds and an accounting of the collateral provided by these financial institutions between August 2007 and November 2008.
In a second FOIA request, filed on Nov. 18, 2008, Fox Business sought expedited processing and requested a list of financial institutions that have received lending from the Fed’s programs, the amounts borrowed and collateral pledged by each institution for the months of September and October of 2008, as well as the amount of collateral held by the Fed by close of business on Nov. 14, 2008.
“As a news organization, we believe in the public’s right to know and will continue in our quest to hold the government accountable for their actions on the allocation of the bailout funds,” said Kevin Magee, executive vice president of Fox News, in a statement.