Next week, I will be publishing more on the FGM-licensing investigation.
To recap: In previous articles, I discovered that the two doctors at the center of the first federal FGM-case still have their medical licenses, their clinic open, and were never even subjected to hearings.
My last article was three months ago. During that time, I have been filing freedom of information act requests and investigating. Though there were a dozen different articles I could write, publishing them early might have jeopardized other information I was seeking and would have raised questions I still didn’t have the answers to. I chose to delay publication of a partial story in the hopes that later I would be able to publish a more complete story.
To give you an idea what the process of getting this information has been like, here are the actual notices I received for one set of documents. I filed the request on January 11, 2026. On February 2, they told me it would cost $783.85 total for the documents. I paid one day later, on February 3, 2026. Then:
February 2, 2026 — “After receipt of the deposit or full payment, the Department will commence processing the request. The Department will complete the process within an estimated 21 business days.”
March 5, 2026 — “The Department requires up to 21 more business days, through April 3, 2026, to complete the processing of the request.”
April 3, 2026 — “The Department requires up to 15 more business days, through April 24, 2026, to complete the processing.”
April 24, 2026 — “The Department requires up to five more business days, through May 1, 2026, to complete the processing.”
So I paid in one day. They took three months. That was just one request.
Documents received are frequently and inconsistently redacted. I have been appealing most decisions. They have rejected all appeals, including the $12,792.93 fee they wanted to search “FGM” and other terms in across their emails.
That said, I have found ways to uncover the information required to piece together a picture of what happened and why the two doctors who were federally charged with FGM still have their medical licenses.
Because of the amount of information I have collected, it will take multiple articles to share it all. Rather than publish one unreadable book-long story, I’ll be sharing it headline by headline over the coming weeks.
Thank you for those who have supported my investigation. We raised enough to cover expenses. That said, if I want to file legal challenges or take further action, we will need more. You can support my work on GoFundMe here.
P.S. I am launching a new substack for fiction, essays, and video. The fantasy novel I have been working on nearly three years will be previewed there. Since the audience for my fiction work and journalism are different, I’m keeping them separate under separate accounts. However, if you’d like to read my fiction work, subscribe here. There will be no talk of social issues there, but a lot of entertaining stories.