Judge rules in favor of The Times-Dispatch on Youngkin FOIA challenge

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Judge rules in favor of The Times-Dispatch on Youngkin FOIA challenge

Charlotte Rene Woods Oct 14, 2022

A General District Court judge in Richmond ruled on Friday in favor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, finding that the Youngkin administration had to describe the subject matter of withheld emails. ... In August, RTD reporter Charlotte Rene Woods submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the governor’s office for emails sent and received by March Bell during that month.

Bell is a senior adviser to Bob Mosier, the Virginia secretary of public safety and homeland security, with an annual salary of $125,000. ... The administration hired Bell over the summer but never publicly announced his appointment. The information was revealed in an offer letter from Youngkin’s chief of staff that activist Josh Stanfield obtained through a FOIA and shared with The Times-Dispatch.

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Though Bell is still a new addition to the Youngkin administration, this adviser role is not his first time working for the government. ... He was previously a deputy director at the Department of Environmental Quality before the head of the agency asked him to resign in 1997 following accusations of mishandling funds.

More recently, he served as staff director and chief counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives panel that investigated Planned Parenthood. The 15-month investigation in 2015 failed to find evidence that the organization was selling fetal tissue and stemmed from edited videos created by an anti-abortion activist. In 2019, Planned Parenthood won $2 million in a lawsuit over the videos. ... He is also listed as the president of the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics. The organization sells Christian home-school curriculums, Bible studies and Christian-based self-help books.

T. March Bell, President



March Bell is the president of the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics. March has extensive experience in executive management and public policy, as well as legal expertise. He has served as general counsel in a federal agency, deputy director of a Virginia state agency, vice president of International Justice Mission, and chief counsel and staff director of a congressional panel. Most recently, he has served in the Department of Health and Human Services where he worked on deregulatory initiatives designed to let “doctors be doctors.”

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March Bell, Equity Forward

CHIEF OF STAFF, OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

March Bell is a longtime anti-abortion advocate who has worked for a who’s who of Christian right-wing politicians. Before joining HHS, Bell led a controversial and politically motivated congressional panel that investigated Planned Parenthood created in the wake of unfounded accusations from a discredited anti-abortion activist.



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See Connections

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1. T. March Bell, a Youngkin hire, previously accused of mishandling state funds at DEQ

T. March Bell, a Youngkin hire, previously accused of mishandling state funds at DEQ

In May, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration offered a job to T. March Bell, an attorney and former congressional aide. Unlike many of the governor’s hires, Bell’s new role as senior advisor to Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Bob Mosier wasn’t formally announced by the administration.

But Bell is a well-known figure in politics at the state and federal levels. He was asked to resign as deputy director of Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in 1997 after a legislative audit found he couldn’t justify a nearly $8,000 payment to a former employee. More recently, Bell has attracted scrutiny for his role in a congressional investigation into Planned Parenthood centered on debunked claims the group was profiting from the sales of fetal tissue.

Bell, who lives in Northern Virginia, is currently listed as president of the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics, a nonprofit that links free-market capitalism and Christianity. His biography on the organization’s website says that he has “extensive experience in executive management and public policy, as well as legal expertise.” It also notes his time as “deputy director of a Virginia state agency” without noting the circumstances of his departure.

IFWE’s founder, Hugh Whelchel, has embraced hardline views on the group’s website, claiming that “Western civilization is the most prosperous, successful civilization ever because of Christianity — nothing else.”

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