YIKES

Top NYC Official Promised to Give Amazon a Heads Up on Records Requests

Explicitly stating that it would help the company then block the release of those records in court.

As part of New York City’s bid to be the site of Amazon’s new headquarters, a top New York City official promised to warn the online retail giant of public records requests so that the company could potentially obstruct them in court before they were filed, according to a Tuesday report from Politico. The agreement would require the city to “give Amazon prior written notice sufficient to allow Amazon to seek a protective order or other remedy” any time a reporter or citizen requested documents associated with the city’s 81-page headquarter bid. Politico notes that Virginia, the other new headquarter site, offered to give the company a similar two-day grace period. A spokesperson for Amazon did not deny the existence of the agreements. They instead argued that these agreements are relatively commonplace—which, Politico notes, is true, but they’re rarely so explicit about their purpose.