McGehee v. DOJ, No. 01-01872, 2019 WL 1024283 (D.D.C. Mar. 4, 2019) (McFadden, J.)

McGehee v. DOJ, No. 01-01872, 2019 WL 1024283 (D.D.C. Mar. 4, 2019) (McFadden, J.)

Re:  Request for records concerning victims and investigations of Jonestown Massacre

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

• Litigation Considerations, Adequacy of Search:  "[T]he Court holds, again, that the FBI's search was adequate."  The court explains that "Judge Kessler already held that the FBI's search was 'reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents.'"  "This Court agrees."  "The FBI has since conducted another search and released more material to the Plaintiffs."  "This does not undermine FBI's position here."  "Rather, this only highlights the FBI's good-faith efforts to locate all responsive records."  Also, "[t]he Court rejects the Plaintiffs' sole objection to the FBI's search."  "The FBI has submitted a detailed declaration explaining why the San Francisco documents would not have been at the FBI Headquarters when the Plaintiffs submitted their requests back in 1998."  "And given the Plaintiffs' requests, the FBI had no obligation to process material housed in San Francisco."
   
• Exemption 1:  "The Court . . . finds that the FBI has properly invoked Exemption 1."  "[T]he Court finds that it is both plausible and logical that the disclosure of the information withheld by the FBI 'reasonably could be expected to result in damage to the national security.'"  "After all, this FOIA request relates to the murder of a congressman abroad and the second largest single loss of American civilians by a deliberate act in history."  "And 'finding no evidence in the record to support the opposition conclusion, no further investigation is required.'"
   
• Exemptions 6 & 7(C):  The court holds that "Plaintiffs have made no allegations of illegal activity[,]" and, "[g]iven [defendant's] '[u]ncontradicted, plausible [declaration] showing reasonable specificity and a logical relation to the exemption,' the Court finds that the FBI has properly invoked Exemption 7(C)."
   
• Litigation Considerations, "Reasonably Segregable" Requirements:  "The Court is satisfied that the FBI disclosed all reasonably segregable, non-exempt information."  "[Defendant's] Declaration makes it clear that the FBI's redactions occurred only after a careful page by page, line by line review of the information and a determination whether any of the information was reasonably segregable and thus available for disclosure."