Williams v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys

CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedMarch 25, 2019
DocketCivil Action No. 2018-0019
StatusPublished

This text of Williams v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (Williams v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, (D.D.C. 2019).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

DAVID WILLIAMS,

Plaintiff,

v. No. 18-cv-0019 (DLF) EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR U.S. ATTORNEYS,

Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Plaintiff David Williams, proceeding pro se, challenges the response of the Executive

Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) to his request for records under the Freedom of

Information Act (FOIA). Williams moved for summary judgment, arguing that EOUSA “never”

responded to his request or justified any withholdings. See Pl.’s Mot. for Summ. J. ¶ 4, Dkt. 9;

see also id. ⁋⁋ 5–7. EOUSA has since processed Williams’s FOIA request, released records, and

moved for summary judgment. See Def.’s Mot. for Summ. J., Dkt. 18; see also Pl.’s Opp’n at 1,

Dkt. 21. Williams opposed the motion, see Pl.’s Opp’n, and EOUSA failed to file a reply.

Williams then filed a Motion for Order to Show Cause, arguing that it was “unclear” whether

EOUSA filed a reply and that, if it did not file a reply, it should be ordered to show cause why

Williams should not be granted relief, Pl.’s Mot. for Order to Show Cause at 1, Dkt. 22; see also

id. at 2. For the reasons that follow, the Court will deny Williams’s initial motion as moot, grant

in part and deny in part without prejudice EOUSA’s motion, and deny Williams’s show cause

motion. I. BACKGROUND

On May 23, 2007, a grand jury in the Middle District of Florida indicted Williams and

his mother for mail fraud and other crimes. United States v. Williams, No. 06-cr-0075, 2007 WL

2021963, at *1 & n.1 (M.D. Fla. July 11, 2007). In a FOIA request dated March 10, 2016,

Williams sought the following five categories of records related to his criminal case: (1) all

“Brady material”; (2) all “Jencks [Act] material”; (3) all “Giglio material”; 1 (4) “[a]ny and all

other reports, files, and documents that are permitted to be released by law”; and (5) “Grand Jury

minutes (transcript(s)).” Decl. of Tricia Francis Attach. A at 1, Dkt. 18-1 (italics added). On

May 16, 2016, EOUSA forwarded Williams’s request to its FOIA contact in the United States

Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida. Id. ¶ 7. Two days later, on May 18,

EOUSA sent a letter to Williams acknowledging the request. Id. Attach. B. It completed

processing the request in December of 2017, see id. ¶¶ 13, 15, but because of “an administrative

oversight,” it did not mail the prepared release packet to Williams until September of 2018, id.

¶ 15.

Williams filed this lawsuit on January 4, 2018, Pl.’s Compl., Dkt. 1, and moved for

summary judgment on July 3, Pl.’s Mot. for Summ. J. EOUSA then mailed the release packet to

Williams in September and informed him that 528 pages were released in full, 30 pages were

released in part, and 249 pages were withheld in full. Francis Decl. Attach. C. at 1. It also

explained that several of the requested documents were sealed or related to grand jury

proceedings, and it cited FOIA exemptions 3, 5, 6, 7(C) and 7(D), 2 codified in 5 U.S.C. § 552(b),

1 See 18 U.S.C. § 3500 (Jencks Act); Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972); Brady v. Maryland, 273 U.S. 83 (1963). 2 Despite this initial citation, EOUSA has not mentioned, much less invoked, exemption 7(D) in its briefing before this Court.

2 as the bases for the remaining withholdings. Id. Attach. C at 1–2. In November, EOUSA moved

for summary judgment. See Def.’s Mot. for Summ. J.

II. LEGAL STANDARDS

Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure mandates that “[t]he court shall grant

summary judgment if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact

and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). At this stage,

all facts and inferences must be viewed in the light most favorable to the requester, and the

agency bears the burden of showing that it complied with FOIA. Chambers v. U.S. Dep’t of

Interior, 568 F.3d 998, 1003 (D.C. Cir. 2009).

To prevail under Rule 56, a federal agency “must prove that each document that falls

within the class requested either has been produced, is unidentifiable, or is wholly exempt from

[FOIA’s] inspection requirements.” Perry v. Block, 684 F.2d 121, 126 (D.C. Cir. 1982) (per

curiam) (internal quotation marks omitted). The agency “must show beyond material doubt . . .

that it has conducted a search reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents,”

Weisberg v. DOJ, 705 F.2d 1344, 1351 (D.C. Cir. 1983) (internal quotation marks omitted), and

must also explain why any of the nine enumerated exemptions listed in 5 U.S.C. § 552(b) applies

to withheld information, Judicial Watch v. FDA, 449 F.3d 141, 147 (D.C. Cir. 2006); see also

DOJ v. Julian, 486 U.S. 1, 8 (1988) (“A federal agency must disclose agency records unless they

may be withheld pursuant to one of the nine enumerated exemptions listed in § 552(b).”).

“The peculiarities inherent in FOIA litigation, with the responding agencies often in sole

possession of requested records and with information searches conducted only by agency

personnel, have led federal courts to rely on government affidavits to determine whether the

statutory obligations of the FOIA have been met.” Perry, 684 F.2d at 126. Thus, “[i]n FOIA

3 cases, summary judgment may be granted on the basis of agency affidavits if they contain

reasonable specificity of detail rather than merely conclusory statements, and if they are not

called into question by contradictory evidence in the record or by evidence of agency bad faith.”

Judicial Watch v. U.S. Secret Serv., 726 F.3d 208, 215 (D.C. Cir. 2013) (alteration adopted and

internal quotation marks omitted). “Agency affidavits are accorded a presumption of good faith,

which cannot be rebutted by purely speculative claims about the existence and discoverability of

other documents.” SafeCard Servs. v. SEC, 926 F.2d 1197, 1200 (D.C. Cir. 1991) (internal

quotation marks omitted).

III. ANALYSIS

As a threshold matter, the Court denies as moot Williams’s initial motion for summary

judgment. EOUSA had not responded to Williams’s FOIA request when he filed the motion,

and the motion took issue with the agency’s failure to disclose any documents at all, see Pl.’s

Mot. for Summ. J. at 3.

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