Wayne County Should Release El-Sayed's Post-Oct. 7 Emails Before the Election
Source: Anita Kinney. "Wayne County Is Hiding What El-Sayed Said After Oct. 7." November 2, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author says Wayne County is dragging its feet on a records request for emails Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed wrote right after Oct. 7, 2023. Since the county already found the emails and the narrowed request would be easy to fulfill, she argues it should release them now so voters can see them before Election Day.
Conclusion
Wayne County should immediately release Abdul El-Sayed's October 2023 government emails so Michigan voters can see them before casting their ballots.
Premises
- Michigan's FOIA exists to give the public access to information about government operations and the conduct of government officials.
- El-Sayed was Wayne County's health director on Oct. 7, 2023, and is now a U.S. Senate candidate asking voters to elevate him, so his words as a government official are highly relevant to voters.
- The emails are of particular interest to Jewish voters, many of whom hesitate to support El-Sayed because of his anti-Israel rhetoric and his remarks minimizing attacks on Jews (e.g., 'hurt people hurt people' after the synagogue preschool attack).
- Wayne County has responded to the records request with delays and obstacles: extensions, a 75-day and $757.20 estimate, automatic closure of the request, a demand for a new request after it was narrowed, and a response deadline of Nov. 6, three days after the election.
- The county already located the records weeks ago, so filtering them to a nine-day window would take only minutes, and the county refused to explain why it could not do so.
- Therefore voters are unlikely to see the emails before the election unless the county changes course.
Assumptions
- The county's delays are deliberate or at least unjustified, rather than ordinary bureaucratic handling of FOIA requests.
- Filtering already-retrieved search results is as quick and simple as the author claims.
- The emails likely contain information relevant to El-Sayed's views on Oct. 7 and thus to voters' decisions.
- The public interest in pre-election disclosure outweighs the county's legal right to use the statutory response time.
- El-Sayed's government emails are public records subject to FOIA disclosure, and no exemptions apply.
- Voters' access to a candidate's past official communications before an election is a legitimate expectation under FOIA's purpose.