On Thursday, POLITICO reported that conspiracy theorists are flooding the Obama Presidential Library with frivolous Freedom of Information Act requests.
"Starting on January 20, 2022 — five years since Barack Obama left office — inquisitive journalists, opposition researchers, and amateur conspiracy theorists began filing a barrage of Freedom of Information Act requests (also known as 'FOIAs') to the Obama library," reported Alex Thompson, Josh Gerstein, and Max Tani. "In fact, from January 20 through February 13, there were over 800 such FOIA requests filed under the Presidential Records Act ... Many of those FOIAs appear to have the intent of damaging or illuminating the Biden presidency rather than just looking backward."
And the conspiracy theorists aren't just looking for dirt on Biden -- they're looking for information on a broad swathe of right-wing conspiracy theories.
"The library has been flooded with requests related to Pizzagate, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Obama’s birth certificate, former DNC staffer Seth Rich (whose 2016 murder sparked endless conspiracies and a since-settled lawsuit against those who spread them), and numerous others," continued the report. "There was even a request for documents on 'Obama's Hot Dog Party,' a conspiracy theory that the "hot dogs" Obama was supposedly serving at a private event were code for sex trafficked children."
According to the report, it could ultimately take years to sort out and untangle this avalanche of requests.
"At many presidential libraries, the queues for processing FOIAs stretch for years," said the report. "Broad requests and those involving classified information can take more than a decade and there is a provision in the law that gives extended protection to information on presidential advice and appointments."
You can read more here.