Attkisson v. DOJ, No. 14-01944, 2016 WL 4687239 (D.D.C. Sept. 7, 2016) (Mehta, J.)

Attkisson v. DOJ, No. 14-01944, 2016 WL 4687239 (D.D.C. Sept. 7, 2016) (Mehta, J.)

Re: Request for certain records concerning plaintiff

Disposition: Granting defendant's motion for summary judgment; denying plaintiff's motion for summary judgment

• Litigation Considerations, Adequacy of Search: The court holds that "[d]efendant has met its evidentiary burden under FOIA by presenting the affidavits . . . which illustrate in 'relatively detailed and non-conclusory' terms that the FBI's search was both reasonable and adequate." Responding to plaintiff's arguments, the court first finds that, "[b]ecause a phonetic name search in this case only yielded a small number of records, the court finds that it was reasonable for the FBI not to rely on the requestor's date of birth and social security number to identify responsive material." The court also rejects "[p]laintiffs' contention that certain records should exist[]" because "'[t]he adequacy of a FOIA search is generally determined not by the fruits of the search, but by the appropriateness of the methods used to carry out the search.'"