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.