Anna Diakun is a staff attorney at the Knight Institute. Her litigation focuses on government transparency and government surveillance of speech.

Diakun is leading the Knight Institute’s effort to secure the release of records related to the Trump administration’s restrictions on speech of CDC scientists. She is also on the Knight Institute’s litigation team in Doc Society v. Blinken, challenging the government’s mass collection and indefinite retention of visa applicants’ social media identifiers. She previously led litigation on behalf of Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Knight Institute to secure the release of records concerning government surveillance of journalists, as well as litigation seeking the disclosure of secret Office of Legal Counsel opinions issued at least 25 years ago.

Prior to joining the Institute, Diakun was a fellow with the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she worked on issues related to the government’s use of lethal force abroad, military detention, surveillance, and discrimination against racial and religious minorities. Her work included a challenge to the unlawful detention of an American by the U.S. military abroad in Doe v. Mattis, which resulted in his release from custody.

She has been quoted or published in The Washington Post, the Columbia Journalism Review, Just Security, Politico, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Intercept, Defense One, and USA Today.

Diakun holds a B.A. in Political Science from Yale College, an M.A. in International Relations and European Studies from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. During law school, she served as a student director of the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic and as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Following law school, she served as a law clerk for the Hon. Allyson K. Duncan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.