Prop. of the People, Inc. v. DOJ, No. 17-1193, 2021 WL 3052033 (D.D.C. July 20, 2021) (Boasberg, J.)
Date
Prop. of the People, Inc. v. DOJ, No. 17-1193, 2021 WL 3052033 (D.D.C. July 20, 2021) (Boasberg, J.)
Re: Request for records concerning pre-presidential activities of Donald Trump
Disposition: Denying defendant's cross-motion for summary judgment
- Exemption 7(D); Exemption 7(E) & Litigation Considerations, Vaughn Index/Declaration: The court relates that "the Government seeks to withhold all of the documents at the file level . . . arguing that they were all provided by or pertain to informants, and that any more specific information about them could compromise the FBI's confidential-informant program." "As there is little precedent regarding the Government's novel approach of categorically invoking Exemptions 7(D) and 7(E) at the file level, the Court will seek guidance from discussions of similar arguments offered for the related Exemption 7(A)." The court notes that "[t]he legislative history of Exemption 7 speaks volumes here." "Congress was partially motivated to amend this exemption to avoid courts' 'erroneously' permitting file-level withholdings and to have courts instead 'consider the nature of the particular document as to which the exemption was claimed.'" "In other words, a 'category-of-document by category-of-document' approach is permitted, but a 'file-by-file' approach is not." The court finds that "[t]he Government does itself no favors, directly stating that it is withholding the documents solely because they are within an informant file." "Plaintiffs correctly point out that this is a blanket exemption 'claimed for all records in the file simply because they are in the file.'" "Although most, if not all, of the documents may ultimately be withheld, defendant must now either provide a Vaughn Index or define the relevant categories, determine which category each document belongs in, and state how disclosure would harm law-enforcement proceedings for each category." Additionally, "it follows that the Government should revisit its decisions on segregability during its category review and release any reasonably segregable portions."
Court Decision Topic(s)
District Court opinions
Exemption 7(D)
Exemption 7(E)
Litigation Considerations, Vaughn Index/Declarations
Updated August 12, 2021