Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Wash. v. GSA, No. 18-2071, 2019 WL 3414365 (D.D.C. July 29, 2019) (Kollar-Kotelly, J.)

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Wash. v. GSA, No. 18-2071, 2019 WL 3414365 (D.D.C. July 29, 2019) (Kollar-Kotelly, J.)

Re:  Request for all communications from January 20, 2017 to July 30, 2018 between GSA and White House concerning renovation of FBI headquarters

Disposition:  Denying defendant's motion for summary judgment; granting in part and denying in part plaintiff's motion for summary judgment

• Procedural Requirements, Searching for Responsive Records:  "[T]he Court finds that Plaintiff's mere proposal of search terms and parameters was insufficient to narrow the scope of Plaintiff's formally-made FOIA request."  The court explains that, "following the failure of Defendant's initial search, Plaintiff merely sent an email suggesting search terms and parameters to Defendant based on the emails which had been released by the House Oversight Committee."  "However, even if the Court were to conclude that Plaintiff's FOIA request was implicitly narrowed by its search proposal, Defendant has still failed to explain why its narrowed search did not discover at least two of the emails which the House Oversight Committee had released."
   
• Litigation Considerations, Adequacy of Search:  "[T]he Court concludes that Plaintiff has presented evidence that Defendant failed to find at least two emails which were responsive to Plaintiff's FOIA request, both as originally construed and as allegedly narrowed."  "These emails were publicly released and presented to Defendant by Plaintiff prior to Defendant's supplemental search."  "Despite Defendant's knowledge of these emails, Defendant failed to conduct a search sufficient to find these emails or to follow leads which would have led to these emails."  "And, [defendant's] Declaration provides no explanation as to why these records were not located by the search."