Jeh Johnson Quotes

If something is being done on a secret basis in national security, that's a great reason for elected officials to not talk about it. And that's a great way to shirk accountability for it with the public.

All officers of the Intelligence Community, and especially its most senior officer, must conduct themselves in a manner that earns and retains the public trust. The American people are uncomfortable with government activities that do not take place in the open, subject to public scrutiny and review.

Secrecy in government, in the public mind, becomes synonymous with deception in government.

Can the public business be thus transacted and in secret?

In the name of national security, the Commission’s hearings were held in secret, thereby continuing the policy which has marked the entire course of the case. This prompts my second question: If, as we are told, Oswald was the lone assassin, where is the issue of national security? Indeed, precisely the same question must be put here as was posed in France during the Dreyfus case: If the Government is so certain of its case, why has it conducted all its inquiries in the strictest secrecy?

One of the reasons the American public holds unelected government officials in such low esteem is that they are never held accountable for their failures.

Excessive administration secrecy... feeds conspiracy theories and reduces the public's confidence in government.

Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix.

It's my father's legacy. My father's view was that the public is the employer of these government employees and has the right to know what they're up to.

The U.K. government has a responsibility to keep secrets in some circumstances. It also has a responsibility not to abuse that power for other purposes.

I was a guy who trusted the government. Now, I don't trust a damn thing they do.

To restore and keep the public's confidence in the integrity of their government, state government and its officials must be open, honest and transparent.

People are entitled to believe the government is constantly lying to them, but it isn't.

If governments did not mislead their citizens so often, there would be less need for secrecy, and if leaders knew they could not rely on keeping the public in the dark about what they are doing, they would have a powerful incentive to behave better.

You can't believe the government - on anything. And you especially can't believe them when they're talking about important stuff.

I don't think that any government has a right to subvert the truth or to cover up the truth, and all I see WikiLeaks doing is exposing the truth.

There is a veil of secrecy that is descending around the administration which I think is unseemly

The root of the problem [secrecy in government] is not so much that our people have lost confidence in government, but that government has demonstrated time and again its lack of confidence in the people.

It appears to the American people that the government is intent on prying into every nook and cranny of people’s private lives, while at the same time doing all that it can to block access to government information that would inform the American people what is being done in their name.

We don’t trust the U. S. government.

I have no disposition to withhold any information which the duty of my station will permit, or the public good shall require to be disclosed: and in fact, all the Papers affecting the negotiation with Great Britain were laid before the Senate, when the Treaty itself was communicated for their consideration and advice

The problem comes from the lack of transparency and accountability of government.

Secrecy is an instrument of conspiracy; it ought not, therefore, to be the system of a regular government

Too many Americans mistrust their government. And unnecessary government secrecy feeds this mistrust.

Americans can tolerate some secrecy, particularly when it is rooted in protection of the public's interests. But when the claims appear to hide wrongdoing, they begin to curdle.