Anyone can file an open records request. It was a request from the liberal nonprofit American Oversight, for example, that gave Ms. Friedman and her colleagues a detailed accounting of Mr. Pruitt’s calendar — which showed that he spent much of his time with major members of the industries that he was in charge of regulating and almost no time meeting with environmental and public health groups, among other things.

(Documents released to the Sierra Club under FOIA provided details about Mr. Pruitt’s having tasked an aide with getting a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel in Washington, and led to the discovery that he had another aide arrange a conversation with the CEO of Chick-fil-A to discuss the possibility of his wife opening a franchise of the restaurant.)

But to journalists, they are essential tools. Times journalists file requests every day in search of documents ranging from emails sent by top bureaucrats to records about Taser use in a particular police department. Submitting a request is often as simple as writing an email to an entity’s designated open records coordinator.

Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for the Times who is currently focused on environmental regulations under the Trump administration, is a seasoned and regular FOIA-wielder. Recently, he has used the law to get correspondence between government agency officials and players in the industries they regulate, as he did for a story that came out in March about the rollback of offshore drilling safety and environmental regulations under the Trump administration.

And when a public agency denies a FOIA request, or under certain other circumstances, the law allows journalists and newsrooms to appeal. If that appeal is also denied or delayed, they can sue — and The Times is not afraid to do so. In fact, a 2017 report from the FOIA Project found that from 2001 to 2016, The Times filed at least 36 FOIA lawsuits, more than any other media organization.