FOIA News: FOIA buzz at the SEC

A Grassroots FOIA Campaign Swarms the SEC

FOIAengine: How Obscure MMTLP Became a Cause Célèbre 

By John A. Jenkins, Law St. Media, Oct. 1, 2025

At the Securities and Exchange Commission, the inbox has been filling up with hundreds of near-identical Freedom of Information Act requests about a little-known company called Meta Materials, Inc., whose stock once traded under the ticker symbol MMTLP.  

Most of those FOIA requests aren’t signed by big law firms or Wall Street players, but rather by aggrieved retail investors and citizen activists who buy into a conspiracy theory:  that actions taken by the SEC and its self-regulatory arm, FINRA, in the interest of protecting investors actually constituted regulatory missteps that wiped out their investments.  

There have been lawsuits, bankruptcies, death threats, and calls for Congress or the Trump Administration to take action.  In one anonymous message to a market veteran reported by the Wall Street Journal, the sender alluded to mass shootings and vowed to come “piss on your casket.”

Big financial players – notably Citadel, and the online market maker Virtu – have been targeted and are fighting subpoenas.  FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that writes and enforces rules for registered brokers and broker-dealer firms in the U.S., also has been pulled into litigation.   The hashtag #FinraFraud went viral.     

Read more here.

FOIA News: OGIS publishes compliance assessment of VA FOIA office

On September 26th, the Office of Government Information Services (“OGIS”) published its Compliance Assessment Report for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs FOIA Office. The full report can be found here, although OGIS has also published a summary with its top-line findings and recommendations here.

OGIS’s fifteen findings were as follows:

1. VA acknowledged requests in an average of two weeks after receipt in fiscal year (FY) 2024, but veterans seeking their own records from the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) waited an average of five months to receive records. (Recommendation 1)​

2. VA’s handling of first-party requests, particularly with regard to the intersection between FOIA and the Privacy Act, is complex and confusing. (Recommendation 2)

3. VA’s confusing communication to veterans seeking their own benefits records prevents them from knowing whether they can expect administrative rights under FOIA. (Recommendations 3-5)

4. VA is not consistently complying with the FOIA statutory requirement to provide requesters with estimated dates of completion (EDCs) upon request. (Recommendation 6)

5. Letters from VA’s FOIA program to requesters are not written in plain language. (Recommendation 7)

6. VA’s reporting on the administration of FOIA appears to be inconsistent, complicating review of the FOIA program’s performance. (Recommendations 8-10)

7. VA’s decentralized system for obtaining records relies on collateral duty staff to locate records and process requests for records which slows the process. (Recommendation 11)

8. The technology and systems that VA uses to maintain records and process FOIA requests are siloed and not always efficient. Multiple programs are used to process FOIA requests and the platforms are unable to communicate with each other. (Recommendation 12)

9. Communication about VA’s FOIA program on the agency’s website is not always clear and consistent, and there is no FOIA handbook as required by the FOIA statute. (Recommendations 13 and 14)

10. VA’s FOIA program contact information and FOIA Public Liaison information on FOIA.gov, the government’s central website for FOIA, is often not correct. (Recommendation 15)

FOIA News: An oldie but a goodie on gov't shutdowns

Calculating FOIA Response Times after the Government Shutdown

DOJ/OIP, FOIA Post, Oct. 29, 2013

As federal employees returned to work after the recent government shutdown, OIP has been asked by many FOIA professionals how these recent events will impact their agency’s FOIA reporting.  Specifically, agencies have asked whether the recent government shutdown affected how agencies should count the number of days used to respond to FOIA requests and administrative appeals. When considering how to calculate the number of days used to respond to FOIA requests and administrative appeals for agency Annual FOIA Reports, the following guidance should apply:

Agencies and requesters alike generally refer to the FOIA’s time limits as “working days.”  Logically, then, they could easily conclude that during a time when FOIA Offices had no choice but to be closed because of the lapse in funding, those days when employees were furloughed were not “working” days and so should not be counted as part of the FOIA’s response times.  As a matter of policy, however, and consistent with the spirit of openness in administering the FOIA, agencies should count as part of their response times for FOIA requests and appeals the eleven days when the government was closed, which excludes the Saturdays, Sundays, and the one legal public holiday that occurred during the shutdown.

Our hope and expectation is that requesters will fully understand that even though agencies will be including these shutdown days in their calculations of response times, that because FOIA personnel were not able to work during that period, there will necessarily be an impact on processing times. OIP’s FOIA Counselor Service and Annual FOIA Report Team are available to answer any questions on this guidance or any other topic regarding FOIA administration, and can be reached at (202) 514-FOIA (3642).

See original post here.

FOIA News: OIP posts reporting deadlines, summary of 2025 Chief FOIA Officer Reports, and 2026 CFO report guidelines

Announcing Upcoming FOIA Reporting Deadlines

DOJ/OIP, FOIA Blog, Sept. 30, 2025

With the start of a new fiscal year, the Office of Information Policy (OIP) looks to the beginning of the FOIA reporting season.  Today, OIP announces the deadlines for the submission of agencies' Fiscal Year 2025 Annual FOIA Reports, Fiscal Year 2026 Quarterly FOIA Reports, and 2026 Chief FOIA Officer Reports, along with updated resources.

These three reports serve a vital role in illustrating the steps taken and the progress made by agencies in administering the FOIA, and provide valuable information about how agencies promote efficiency, make more information available proactively, and use technology to improve FOIA administration.

Read more here.

Summary and Assessment of Agency 2025 Chief FOIA Officer Reports and New Guidelines for 2026 CFO Reports Issued

DOJ/OIP, FOIA Blog, Sept. 30, 2025

Today the Office of Information Policy (OIP) is pleased to announce its summary and assessment of agencies’ 2025 Chief FOIA Officer (CFO) Reports is available for viewing.  OIP’s 2025 summary and assessment focuses on steps agencies have taken to improve FOIA administration in five key areas highlighted in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) 2022 FOIA Guidelines:

• FOIA Leadership and Applying a Presumption of Openness;

• Ensuring Fair and Effective FOIA Administration;

• Proactive Disclosures;

• Utilizing Technology to Improve Efficiency; and

• Steps Taken to Remove Barriers to Access, Improve Timelines, and Reduce Backlogs.

Read more here.

FOIA News: OGIS publishes annual records management report

OGIS Publishes Annual RMSA Report

NARA/OGIS, FOIA Ombuds, Sept. 29, 2025

Almost one fifth of federal agencies report using artificial intelligence (AI) and/or machine learning in FOIA processing and nearly half report finding records responsive to a FOIA request that were beyond their retention period. Those are among the findings in our latest report, Assessing Freedom of Information Act Compliance through the 2024 National Archives and Records Administration’s Records Management Self-Assessment. 

Data collected in the annual Records Management Self-Assessment (RMSA) helps OGIS fulfill its statutory mandate to review agency compliance with FOIA, 5 U.S.C. § 552(h)(2), and complements the observations OGIS makes as the FOIA Ombuds, working to improve the FOIA process for all. The RMSA for 2024 —administered to agency records officers between January 2025 and March 2025 by the National Archives and Records Administration’s Office of the Chief Records Officer (CRO)—included seven questions regarding FOIA administration.

Read more here.

FOIA News: DOJ asks for Rule 65 Bond in FOIA Case

DOJ asks district court to require transparency group to post $50k bond for expedited processing order

[FOIA Advisor: As some helpful background context, the asserted legal basis for DOJ’s bond demand is Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c), which specifies a court “may issue a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order only if the movant gives security in an amount that the court considers proper to pay the costs and damages sustained by any party found to have been wrongfully enjoined or restrained.”]

From the September 26, 2025 issue of Politco’s “West Wing Playbook”:

DOJ WANTS $50K: DOJ is urging that a nonprofit transparency group be forced to come up with $50,000 if a court decides to accelerate the group’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the classified documents stored at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, Josh writes in.

DOJ lawyers’ request for the $50,000 bond came in a Washington federal court filing in the lawsuit filed by the James Madison Project and journalist BRIAN KAREM. The bond would be forfeited if a higher court decides the group’s FOIA requests should not have been allowed to jump the line.

The highly unusual request appears to stem from an executive memorandum Trump issued in March, directing DOJ to ask judges to require financial bonds from those who sue the government and seek relief at the early stages of a case.

“This is nothing short of a $50,000 shakedown demand merely to expedite release of the 'definitely not classified' records that Mr. Trump concealed from the Government at Mar-a-Lago,” one of the project’s attorneys, BRAD MOSS, said in a statement. “This is not 1920s Chicago and Mr. Trump is not Al Capone. We will not accede to this demand and we will contest it vigorously in court.”

U.S. District Judge LOREN ALIKHAN, a Biden appointee, will consider whether to expedite disclosure of the Mar-a-Lago files and how much money, if any, the group will have to come up with to speed up their requests.

FOIA News: NARA fumbles congresswoman's military file

Archives released too much of Mikie Sherrill's military record to her opponent in governor's race

By James LaPorta, CBS News, Sept. 25, 2025

A branch of the National Archives released a mostly unredacted version of Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill's military records to Nicholas De Gregorio, an ally of Jack Ciattarelli, her GOP opponent in the New Jersey governor's race. The disclosure potentially violates the Privacy Act of 1974 and exemptions established under the Freedom of Information Act. 

The documents, which were also obtained by CBS News, appear to show that the National Personnel Records Center, a wing of the National Archives and Records Administration charged with maintaining personnel records for service members and civil servants of the U.S. government, released Sherrill's full military file — almost completely unredacted. CBS News discovered the egregious blunder while investigating whether Sherrill was involved in the 1994 Naval Academy scandal, in which more than 100 midshipmen were implicated in cheating on an exam. Sherrill was not accused of cheating and said her only involvement was not informing on her fellow classmates. 

The documents included Sherrill's Social Security number, which appears on almost every page, home addresses for her and her parents, life insurance information, Sherrill's performance evaluations and the nondisclosure agreement between her and the U.S. government to safeguard classified information. 

Read more here.

FOIA News: Monday Morning FOIA Commentary

ICE May Be Breaking the Law to Stonewall Reporters

By Dave Levinthal, Columbia Journalism Review, Sept. 22, 2025

Since late December, J. Dale Shoemaker, a reporter for the Investigative Post, a nonprofit newsroom based in Buffalo, has filed seventeen Freedom of Information Act requests with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Customs and Border Protection to guide his deep dives into federal law enforcement activity, deportation actions, and ICE detention centers in upstate New York. In return, he says, he has gotten only documents that were redacted beyond comprehension, or nothing at all. “I have not received a satisfactory response to a single one of them,” Shoemaker said.

Ryanne Mena, of the Los Angeles Daily News, sent ICE a FOIA request on January 24 for all grievance forms filed by detainees at facilities in Adelanto, California, between 2016 and early 2025. Nearly eight months later, she said, she’s received nothing: ICE “has failed to provide me with an estimated date of production despite repeated requests.”

Read more here.

FOIA follies: How the deep state avoids transparency

By Mike Chamberlain, Washington Examiner, Sept. 22, 2025

* * *

But to make FOIA requests with any frequency is to encounter a variety of glitches, delays, misunderstandings, frustrating redactions, and more. Sometimes, these incidents are simple mishaps. Other times, they look like intentional stalls and mistakes to slow the process in the hope that the requester gets discouraged and goes away.

And many do go away because when a federal agency is uncooperative with FOIA requests, the ultimate recourse is to sue. For organizations like mine, Protect the Public’s Trust, that’s part of what we do. We are built to pursue information into court. For most news organizations whose entire legal budget is reserved for libel, plagiarism, and copyright infringement (let alone for private citizens without legal budgets), the legal costs are prohibitive.

Read more here.

FOIA News: "We're going to need a focus group"

The FOIA Advisory Committee is seeking volunteers from the federal ranks to participate in focus groups in October “aimed at discussing the challenges and obstacles FOIA professional face when implementing new ideas.” See details here.

FOIA News: USAID plans global "still interested" notice

According to a notice slated for publication in the Federal Register, the U.S. Agency for International Development (“USAID”) will be opening a global “still interested” inquiry for all FOIA requests submitted prior to January 20, 2025. Further details can be found in the notice. The notice indicated that, due to reorganization efforts, “[m]ost subject matter experts and record custodians are no longer available, which will particularly limits USAID’s ability to locate, review, and release records for prior year requests in a timely manner.”

The Department of Energy came under considerable fire last month when it announced it was undertaking the same type of global inquiry (see here and here) with an eye to administratively closing requests in the agency’s FOIA backlog. The agency’s efforts are now the subject of litigation brought by American Oversight.