The American Spectator

POGO describes the sessions as: “A combination of hands-on training and exercises, mock hearings, case reviews, and lessons from some of the nation’s most well-regarded congressional oversight experts, government insiders (or whistleblowers), investigative journalists, current and former Inspectors General, Government Accountability Office staff, and current and former Congressional staff….Future topics include How to Prepare for an Oversight Hearing, Handling Classified Information, Working with Government Insiders and Whistleblowers, and Investigating the Internal Revenue Service.”

While POGO barred non-congressional staff from attending the sessions, it did encourage a number of reporters to attend as participants in the seminar, not as observers. They attended with the understanding that it was entirely off the record and as a “source development and networking tool” for them to use in covering future investigative hearings, according to one reporter who attended the session.

Reporters from the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and the Associated Press were encouraged to attend. Reporters from other news services and papers were denied access.

In fact, James Grimaldi, an investigative journalist for the Washington Post who covered the Abramoff scandal, participated as a “facilitator” for a prior POGO event.

Almost all of the participants and attendees to the programs are Democrat or aligned with Democrats. POGO staff point to participation by staffers from the Grassley, Snowe, and McCain offices, but those staffers were well-known cooperators with Democrats on oversight investigations.