Another section of the U.S. Embassy in Rome. This place is so large that it is like its own little town. pic.twitter.com/clpWkhBsFi
— Mario Lorentz (@MarioLorentzArt) January 14, 2018
The U.S. State Department has given ITN an estimated date of completion for its Freedom of Information Act request on alleged ItalyGate election hacker of September 16, 2022 – more than 19 months after it was initiated.
ITN filed a FOIA request for employment records for an employee by the name of Stefano Serafini. An employee with that name is accused of playing an integral role in the hacking of the election in the U.S. on Nov. 3.
Maria Zack and her organization Nations in Action are spearheading the efforts to bring evidence of that hack to light.
A State Department employee named Stefano Serafini was entered into the U.S. Congressional record as having begun with the U.S. Foreign Service in 1997. That start date would make the employee eligible for a pension if they retired in 2020. Zack says information given to her by whistleblowers indicates Serafini retired from the State Department shortly before the election in order to protect his pension.
The FOIA request made by ITN requested only the most basic of information: Serafini’s start date with the Department, his end date (if retired) and whether he is in fact drawing a pension for his work.
ITN originally requested the inquiry be expedited. That request was denied earlier this week.
FOIA requests are to be completed within 20 days of their being made by law. The State Department has said they are unable to fulfill this particular request within that time frame because of “unusual circumstances.”
State is the public face of the CIA, so they are unlikely to comply with a FOIA. However, you might learn something about Serafini’s arrest by filing a FOIA with the U.S. Army. I frankly doubt he’s alive at this point, but another avenue might be to make a separate request for his confession, and another request for his physical location or the location of his remains.