Protecting the Public's Right to Know the Activities of its Government
FBI FOIA Fiasco Shifts Into Fourth Year
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- Category: The FBI Files
The Four Year Old FOIA
So the FBI Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) fiasco shifts into its fourth year. Well apparently it takes the FBI four (4) years to produce the demanded FOIA documents. Well at least that is what they say.
For a little backdrop, this drama all started back in 2021 when the original FOIA request was tendered on the FBI. Right out of hand the FBI denied the request, which was immediately appealed administratively. The appeal was, also, denied via a summary disposition which could have easily been written by the average sixth grader.
Said administrative appeal prompted litigation in the federal court of the Eastern District Court of New York initially assigned to [now chief] judge Laura Taylor Swain (LTS) in the Southern District of New York. The venue was changed, sua sponte, via Judge Swain to its current federal docket being the eastern district of New York and assigned to LeShann DeArcy Hall (LDH). Incidentally, both are ‘sistas,’ and staunch supporters of the WOKE movement. Both of which particularly dissent, despise, and resent Legalhotwater for its non-compliant position and/or stance with respect to the WOKE movement. This does not imply alignment with any other political movement. To the contrary, Legalhotwater's position has always been that the court is not in the business of catering to and siding with politics; but, rather the court is in the business of settling legal issues, which often requires filtration and separation of the politics from the law and the relevant facts.
In any event, since arriving on the docket of LDH the case literally just sat on the docket for one (1) year. Literally just sat. The court later claimed it had no knowledge that the case was on its docket. As the story goes on – after going up ladder to the second circuit court of appeals (for the second time) due to the FBI’s stonewalling, we finally had a hearing. During said hearing several alarming matters were revealed. First, the FBI admitted, under oath and during the hearing, that no search of any kind was performed until thirty (30) days before the hearing date which was around March 2023. Yes, you read correctly. Second, the FBI failed to even bother making a search for the FOIA material until at least 2.5 years since first receiving the FOIA request. Even worse, this fact was apparent to the judge (LDH) when she denied the motion for preliminary injunction, which prompted the afore mentioned climb up to the second circuit court of appeals, which court, also, failed to order the FBI to produce the demanded FOIA material.
Following return to the lower court, the FBI apparently decides, on its on volition, to start producing what it dubbed as the originally requested FOIA material up to a face value of $50. The FBI then alleged that the FOIA request was unclear and based upon that lack of clarity, Legalhotwater would need to pay well over $170,000 to produce material which was unclear to produce. If that sounds like a conundrum, welcome to the club.
Now on to the fun part, all of the $50 dollars of producible material (according to the FBI’s monetary assessment) consisted of very heavily redacted material which, absent such redaction, has little to no value – as there is very little to no information which can be deciphered from the heavily redacted material. So here we are, today, against this backdrop whereas the FBI has the brazen audacity to seek a summary judgment under its warped view that it has complied with the FOIA request and that Legalhotwater has not paid it $50 for material that has very little to no value, 2.5 years late, and after knowingly and intentionally flinging its nose at the law which required it to produce the material within one (1) month of the requested date not 2.5 years later. And let us not forget that the FBI did not even attempt to make a search for the FOIA demanded material until March of 2023 – again, nearly 2.5 years later.
Clearly, the FBI has engaged in waste, fraud, and abuse – let alone its failure to comply with the law, which it obviously believes (and justifiably so – based on the support of its two (2) ‘sista’ judges) that the law does not apply to the FBI. Now if that does not excite you, we will just graze over the fact that the FBI has knowingly, intentionally, and systemically threatened the life of Legalhotwater’s journalism for grabbing a hold of the brazen FBI criminal cover up of government activity with which the public has a right to be informed. Worse even, the FBI has failed to pay any and all damages which currently are in the six figure neighborhood. Perhaps it should be of no surprise as to the national rampant lawlessness, after all the FBI does not abide by the law and threatens the life of Legalhotwater journalism for the audacity of exposing systemic corruption in the FBI. Did we mention there is a FBI public corruption inquiry opened up concerning LDH? Maybe that's why the FOIA action is four (4) years old, one hand washing the other?
And from the looks of it, LDH is not fond the slightest bit of Legalhotwater's journalism efforts and allegely sent one of her mouth black mouthpieces along with an Asian girl to stage a threat harrassment victim stunt in retaliation for our journalism. We would report that to the FBI but they are in the handwashing business, ante.
Stay tuned as the next chapter of the the four year old FOIA is set to take center stage soon. When it does, sit back and enjoy, it’s bound to be a good show.
And the Beat Goes On
As Legalhotwater has stated from the start there is a pattern of misconduct with 'Justice' as it pertains to compliance with the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA') law. The latest FOIA chapter underway is with the United States Marshal Service. Be sure to tune in there before moving on.
