The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

Independent research. Not affiliated with any government, agency, or company.

Agency

Office of the President of the United States

Findings that rest on exhibits naming this entity

  • DEF-2.1: The NSA historian Robert Hanyok concluded in a study published in 2001 that no attack on U.S. destroyers occurred in the Gulf of Tonkin on the night of 4 August 1964, and his study confirms the 2 August 1964 engagement with the Maddox. He wrote that the mishandling of the signals intelligence was "not done in a manner that can be construed as conspiratorial" and that NSA personnel believed the attack had happened.
  • DEF-2.6: The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's 2008 report, approved 10-5, found that most statements by senior officials on Iraq's weapons programs were substantiated by the intelligence available at the time, and that several of them did not convey the intelligence community's disagreement or the limits of its certainty. It found that statements suggesting an Iraq-al-Qa'ida partnership were not substantiated and that statements about Saddam Hussein giving weapons of mass destruction to terrorists were contradicted by the intelligence.
  • DEF-2.10: A Joint Chiefs of Staff memorandum of 13 March 1962, forwarded to the Secretary of Defense as "a preliminary submission suitable only for planning purposes," listed pretexts for U.S. military intervention in Cuba, including "We could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba." Lansdale's memorandum for the record says the President said on 16 March 1962 that "we were not discussing the use of U.S. military force", and the cited records show no approval and no execution of any item.
  • INF-2.6: National Security Action Memorandum 328 of 6 April 1965 approved two more Marine battalions and a change of mission for Marine battalions in Vietnam and stated that the President desired the movements "be understood as being gradual and wholly consistent with existing policy"; on 21 October 1964 President Johnson had said "we are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves."
  • POL-2.8: Bartels analyzed Senate roll calls from 1989 to 1994 and reported responsiveness to constituents in the middle and upper income thirds and no evidence of responsiveness to the bottom third. His abstract reports that the bottom fifth receives little or no weight, especially from Republican senators.
  • AGR-5.3: USDA rules defining unfair practices under the Packers and Stockyards Act were proposed in 2010, limited by a 2011 appropriations rider, issued in 2016, withdrawn in 2017, finalized in 2020, expanded in 2024 and, for broiler grower payments, delayed in 2026 to December 31, 2027. Administrations and Congresses of both parties acted at each step, and White Houses of both parties described meat processing as insufficiently competitive in January 2022 and September 2026.
  • AGR-5.8: According to Reuters, President Trump said on 7 November 2025 that he had asked DOJ to investigate beef packers, and Attorney General Pam Bondi replied that an investigation was underway. According to Capital Press, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced antitrust investigations of meatpacking on 4 May 2026.
  • DEF-6.3: The Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra concluded that the investigations and prosecutions had shown that high-ranking Administration officials violated laws and executive orders.
  • DEF-6.4: Fourteen people were charged in the Iran/Contra prosecutions and eleven were convicted. Two convictions were vacated on appeal, and on 24 December 1992 President Bush pardoned six people, two of them before trial.
  • POL-6.16: On 11 August 2025 a federal district court preliminarily enjoined the withholding of $95 million of NED's fiscal 2025 appropriation and found the stated reason for it not plausible. The State Department obligated NED's full $315 million fiscal 2026 appropriation in March 2026, and the government's motion to dismiss the suit as moot was pending on 9 October 2026. Executive Order 14169 paused new obligations of foreign development assistance for 90 days on 20 January 2025, and on 26 September 2025 the Supreme Court stayed an order to obligate about $10.5 billion of expiring aid without deciding the merits.
  • POL-7.15: A letter published on 19 October 2020 by former senior intelligence officials, counted at 51 in Executive Order 14152, said the Hunter Biden emails had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation" and said the signers "do not have evidence of Russian involvement." On 20 January 2025 the order directed revocation of the signers' security clearances and stated that they "willfully weaponized the gravitas of the Intelligence Community to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions."

Exhibits naming this entity

  • Exhibit 308 4 August 1993. Office of Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh: Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, Vol. I
  • Exhibit 310 4 August 1993. Office of Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh: Walsh Final Report, Chapter 28, George Bush
  • Exhibit 311 24 December 1992. President George Bush: Proclamation 6518, Grant of Executive Clemency
  • Exhibit 379 4 August 1964. Lyndon B. Johnson (President): Radio and Television Report to the American People Following Renewed Aggression in the Gulf of Tonkin
  • Exhibit 387 5 June 2008. U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: Report on Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq by U.S. Government Officials Were Substantiated by Intelligence Information, S. Rpt. 110-345
  • Exhibit 391 5 June 2008. The White House (Press Secretary Dana Perino): Press Briefing by Dana Perino
  • Exhibit 397 16 March 1962. Office of the Secretary of Defense (Brig. Gen. Edward Lansdale): Memorandum for the Record: Meeting with President, 16 March 1962
  • Exhibit 619 3 January 2022. The White House (Biden administration): FACT SHEET: The Biden-Harris Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain
  • Exhibit 620 4 September 2026 (published 10 September 2026). The White House (Trump administration): Executive Order 14424: Promoting Fair Competition in Livestock Markets and Expanding Market Access for American Meat Producers (91 FR 57761)
  • Exhibit 624 7 November 2025. Reuters: US Justice Department probes meatpackers, attorney general says (Reuters, via U.S. News)
  • Exhibit 704 January 2006. Larry M. Bartels, PS: Political Science & Politics, January 2006, pp. 39-42: Is the Water Rising? Reflections on Inequality and American Democracy
  • Exhibit 706 2005. Larry M. Bartels, Princeton University, for the Russell Sage Foundation: Partisan Politics and the U.S. Income Distribution (Russell Sage Foundation working paper abstract; basis of chapter 2 of Unequal Democracy)
  • Exhibit 707 April 2016. Alan S. Blinder and Mark W. Watson, American Economic Review 106(4), pp. 1015-1045: Presidents and the US Economy: An Econometric Exploration
  • Exhibit 844 20 January 2025 (published 30 January 2025). The White House: Executive Order 14169, Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid, 90 Fed. Reg. 8619
  • Exhibit 864 8 May 2016. The New York Times Magazine: The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama's Foreign-Policy Guru (David Samuels), New York Times Magazine
  • Exhibit 871 20 January 2025. Office of the President: Executive Order 14152, Holding Former Government Officials Accountable for Election Interference and Improper Disclosure of Sensitive Governmental Information
  • Exhibit 1005 21 October 1964. Lyndon B. Johnson: Remarks in Memorial Hall, Akron University
  • Exhibit 1008 17 June 1971. Richard Nixon: Remarks About an Intensified Program for Drug Abuse Prevention and Control