Protecting the Public's Right to Know
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.
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.
To say that the Department of Justice has a double standard, with respect to compliance of the law especially when it applies to them, is a tremendous understatement -- to say the least. The photographs of the transcribed hearing held on April 18, 2023 show that the Department of Justice via the Federal Bureau of Investigation, flat out lied on the record and under oath, as to the scope of the Freedom of Information Act Request, therein alleging that:
The Department of Justice, later into the hearing, goes on to say:
Even the court acknowledged that:
And against this backdrop, the district judge (Black Obama appointed judge) denied the preliminary injunction, along with every other request, via plaintiff, thereby effectively acting in cahoots with the Department of Justice, via the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with respect to a criminal charge i.e. Obstruction of Justice. Clearly, these transcript files show that the Law does not apply to the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which, now, both are run by President Trump appointees. How is that explained? What is the position of JudicialWatch of the Red Team leaders, now?
Take a look at the six (6) pages (photographs) of the transcript below, the remaining pages of which are available on the court docket. And the original Freedom of Information Act Request which the Department of Justice and/or the Federal Bureau of Investigation, lied about as being "vague" or "unclear," can be found alongside the video addressing the ongoing bad faith and criminal cover up of the FBI.
The hearing transcript tells the story of the double standard of justice in the Department of Justice.
And for those individuals, particularly, yearning for insight, the House Committee on the Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, has known about the very serious issues of the FBI and the Eastern District of New York for years; but, has done nothing. Why not?
For those of you who have been patrons of the public service Legalhotwater provides, you probably, already, know that this public service is provided free of charge. We encourage you to embark upon this opportunity to help, as your contributions: no matter how large or small go a long way in terms of recouping costs and ensuring the availability of resources to continue our work. Please consider supporting our work, today, via CashApp per the following QR link.
As mentioned in the video even JudicialWatch has serious concerns regarding the ability of the Trump Administration appointed FBI Director Kash Patel and his ability/willingness to dismantle the FBI or otherwise revamp the FBI from the ground up. The same applies, perhaps even more so, to the Trump appointed Department of Justice Attorney General Pam Bondi. As to the FBI, this is, now, the second FBI Director appointed by President Trump with very serious concerns surrounding effectiveness, both of which appointees are, again, Republican i.e. the predecessor Christopher Wray and incumbent Kash Patel.
As mentioned, in the video, the FBI alleged that the original FOIA request was "Too broad" and thus the FBI was unable to ascertain the scope of the request without, as they put it: "Thousands of dollars of work via research" given as stated in the hearing "more than half a million [producible] items." As the image below should illustrate, the FBI is a politically corrupt entity which has engaged in extensive abuse of power, outright political targeting, extortion, blackmail, and all sorts of other crimes: the aim of which has solely been rooted in unjust enrichment for the FBI i.e. backdoor payoff(s) for individuals [very loosely and outside of a court action] claiming an entitlement to government payment(s) for slavery. Thus, the FBI planned and executed its self serving fraud scheme using this underlying court action, initiated by Legalhotwater, as a vehicle for slavery reparations; pursuant thereto the FBI has harassed and targeted Legalhotwater, to no end, to disappear and perfect its embezzlement schemes -- even under the so-call Maga Trump Team which alleged to have an issue with the exact same extraordinary abuse of power, criminal RICO, weaponization against the public (targeting exposures of their activities), and a host of other crimes; but when such were carried out against Trump (and allegedly against Kash Patel by the same FBI over which he, now, presides) it was a problem, today, not so much.
For those of you who have been patrons of the public service Legalhotwater provides, you probably know that this public service is provided free of charge. And there have been quite a few hot button issues that Legalhotwater has exposed in pursuit of keeping the public informed as to the activities of its government. Legal actions are expensive and time-consuming. And the Department of Justice does not pay its debts. Thus, here is your opportunity to help as your contributions: no matter how large or small go a long way in terms of recouping costs and ensuring the availability of resources to continue our work. Please consider giving, today, via Cash App today per the following QR link.