FOIA News: Report: State Department gave ‘inaccurate’ answer on Clinton email use

Report: State Department gave ‘inaccurate’ answer on Clinton email use

By Carol D. Leonnig and Rosalind S. Helderman, Washington Post, Jan. 6, 2016

Two years before the public learned of Hillary Clinton’s private server, the State Department gave an “inaccurate and incomplete” response about her email use when it told an outside group that it had no documents about Clinton’s email accounts beyond her government address, according to a report from the State Department’s inspector general to be released Thursday.

The State Department made its statement in response to a 2012 records request from the independent watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). The response came even though Clinton’s chief of staff, who knew about the secretary’s private account, was aware of the inquiry, the report says. In addition, the IG review found that agency staffers had not searched Clinton’s office for emails.

The incident was one of four cases that the report highlights as examples of flawed responses to public-records requests made while Clinton was in office. The report found it was part of a long-standing problem stretching back through previous administrations.

Read more here.

FOIA News: Pentagon to pursue new exemption from Congress

DoD Seeks FOIA Exemption for Military Doctrine

Steven Aftergood, Federation of American Scientists, Secrecy News, Jan. 6, 2016

The Department of Defense proposed a new exemption from the Freedom of Information Act last year for information on unclassified “military tactics, techniques and procedures.” The measure was not adopted by Congress in the FY 2016 defense authorization act, but DoD is preparing to pursue it again this year.

The proposal that was submitted to Congress last year would have exempted from disclosure military doctrine that “could reasonably be expected to risk impairment of the effective operation of the armed forces” and that had not already been publicly disclosed.

“The effectiveness of any United States military operation is dependent upon the enemy not having knowledge of how U.S. military forces will be used,” DoD stated in its justification for the exemption. “Commanders need to have all advantages at their disposal to be successful on the battlefield; if the enemy has knowledge of the tactics, techniques, or procedures that will be used, a crucial advantage is lost and success of the operation and the lives of U.S. military forces are seriously jeopardized.”

DoD claimed that it would have been able to exercise this withholding authority until 2011, when a Supreme Court ruling in the case Milner v. Department of the Navy“significantly narrowed” the scope of FOIA Exemption 2. “This proposal would reinstate that protection to ensure effective operation of U.S. military forces and to save lives.”

Read more here.

FOIA News: Journo Says Feds Haven't Given Him Emails

Journo Says Feds Haven't Given Him Emails

By Kevin Lessmiller, Courthouse News Service, Jan. 5, 2016

A reporter claims that the government hasn't fulfilled his requests for emails to U.S. Supreme Court justices and those sent and received by the drafters of a controversial drone memo.

Jason Leopold, formerly with Al-Jazeera America and now with Vice News, claims the U.S. Department of Justice has stonewalled his various requests for emails involving the Supreme Court and the Office of Legal Counsel, or OLC.

One New Year's Day lawsuit filed by the reporter challenges the government's lack of response to his Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request for emails between the current or any former U.S. Solicitor General and any Supreme Court justices.

Read more here.

Court opinion issued Jan. 4, 2016

Pinson v. U.S. Dep't of Justice (D.D.C.) -- finding that plaintiff, a pro se prisoner, failed to establish that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) received 19 of his 70 requests. Of the remaining 28 requests in dispute, the court granted in part and denied in part BOP's argument that plaintiff failed to appeal or to pay required fees with respect to several requests.  The court further found that BOP conducted an adequate search in response to certain requests, but not others.  Lastly, the court held that BOP properly withheld records pursuant to Exemptions 5, 6, 7(C), 7(E), and 7(F).   

Summaries of all opinions issued since April 2015 available here. 

FOIA News: Top Clinton aide at State Dep't vetted FOIA requests

Clinton’s Staff Vetted Public Records Requests, Emails Show

Alana Goodman, Wash. Free Beacon, Jan. 5, 2016

Hillary Clinton’s top aide was closely involved in vetting a politically sensitive document requested under public information laws, according to emails from the Department of State released on Thursday.

Public records officials at the State Department sought clearance from Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, in 2012 before releasing a memo related to the Bush administration’s enhanced interrogation program.

The email corroborates a Wall Street Journal article last May that reported that Mills had been involved in vetting documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act, a process that is typically expected to be independent of political influence.

Sheryl Walter, the director of the State Department’s public information office, wrote to Patrick Kennedy, the State Department’s undersecretary for management, and other officials on April 2, 2012 to inform of them of a “pending FOIA release likely to get press attention.”

The document being released was a 2006 paper known as the “Zelikow memo,” which had been written by a Bush administration official concerning the government’s enhanced interrogation program.

Walter told Kennedy in an email that “Cheryl Mills is aware and has cleared” the memo for release.

Read more here.

FOIA News: State Department Falls Behind Schedule With Latest Release of Hillary Clinton Emails

State Department Falls Behind Schedule With Latest Release of Hillary Clinton Emails

By Olivia Becker, Vice News, Jan. 1, 2016

The US Department of State released the latest batch of Hillary Clinton's emails from her tenure as Secretary of State last night, but still failed to meet the number of documents a federal judge required the government to make public by the end of 2015.

"We have worked diligently to come as close to the goal as possible, but with the large number of documents involved and the holiday schedule we have not met the goal this month," the State Department said in a statement Thursday morning.

Clinton's emails are being released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by VICE News senior investigative reporter Jason Leopold after it was revealed that Clinton had used a private email server when she was the top US diplomat. A federal judge ordered the government to release 15 percent of Clinton's 35,000 emails each month until the end of January 2016.

Read more here.

Q&A: juvenile detention records

Q.  When I was a minor I was sent by the Family Court of New York State to Spofford, a youth detention facility in the Bronx.  I want to obtain information contained in my family court records and any records kept by Spofford.  Is this allowed under the FOIA?

A.  Access to New York court records is governed by Section 255 of the Judiciary Law, not the state's Freedom of Information Law ("FOIL") or the federal Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA").  If you want to obtain court records, you can go to the courthouse where the case took place and request the records in writing from the clerk of the court.  As you may know, the Spofford Juvenile Center closed in 2011.  I do not know where the institution's records are located now, but you might want to try the New York State Office of Children and Family Services at info@ocfs.ny.gov.  

FOIA News: Nat'l Highway Traffic Safety Administration to amend FOIA regulation concerning confidential business information

The NHTSA is proposing to amend its FOIA regulation with respect to the submission and processing of requests for confidential treatment, according to a notice to be published in the Federal Register on January 4, 2016.  In sum, the proposed regulation would make the following changes:

1.  NHTSA will defer acting on requests for confidential treatment until the agency receives a FOIA request for the information at issue, unless it decides that making a determination is necessary or in the public interest. 
2. Submitters will be instructed to affirmatively specify whether the materials for which confidential treatment is sought were voluntarily submitted and provide an adequate basis for their claim of voluntariness.
3. Submitters will be provided the option of electronically submitting their requests for confidential treatment and the materials accompanying those requests.

The deadline for submitting comments to NHTSA's proposed regulation is March 4, 2016.  

FOIA News: Clinton emails to be released today

Questions and answers about the Hillary Clinton email release from State Department

By Ken Thomas, Associated Press, Dec. 31, 2015

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department will be delivering a New Year's Eve batch of more emails from Hillary Clinton's time as secretary of state, bringing 2015 to a close for the Democratic presidential front-runner.

Clinton has faced questions about whether her use of a private email server was sufficient to ensure the security of government information and retention of records. The State Department has released installments of her emails every month since May.

Thursday's emails will be the second-to-last set of messages released to the public with the final segment expected just before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1.

Here's some questions and answers about Clinton's email:

Q: What emails are these?

A: These are the work-related emails that Clinton sent and received on the private, unsecured server in her home in New York while she was President Barack Obama's secretary of state from 2009 through January 2013. She turned over 55,000 pages of emails to the State Department for the historical record and to be released to the public. Clinton contends that she never sent or received emails that were marked classified at the time but some emails on her server were later deemed top secret or included confidential or sensitive information.

Q: What have we learned so far?

A: The messages have shown how Obama's secretary of state dealt with a series of foreign policy hurdles, from the Arab Spring in the Middle East to the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, and efforts to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. It has also offered a more private window into Clinton's daily life, showing her asking an aide to help her find Showtime's CIA-focused drama "Homeland," getting political intelligence from longtime allies and managing a busy schedule and flights around the globe.

Q: Why on New Year's Eve?

A: By court order, the State Department is required to release as many of her emails as they can in a single installment on the last weekday of every month. The emails have been disseminated in increments that allow the department to review the emails and redact sensitive information. The blacked out material has ranged from actual secrets to the personal addresses and emails of people with whom Clinton has corresponded.

Q: How many emails are there?

A: It has varied from month to month, but the State Department estimates that this batch will include thousands of pages. While the documents tend to be voluminous, many have included terse replies from Clinton, such as, "Pls print," or "Ok. Thx."

Q: When and where will the emails be posted?

A: The State Department is expected to post them on its website Thursday. Past emails have been released here: https://www.foia.state.gov/Learn/New.aspx.

Q&A: bank account information

Q.  What is the process for using FOIA to obtain my complete personal bank account information and/or any other actions regarding said account from a banking institution of the Nation Association (NA)?

A.  You have a contractual right to your account information; you need not submit a FOIA request.  Indeed, "national" banks are not subject to FOIA requests.