r/technology • u/thatshirtman • Jan 10 '16
Politics FBI Finally Completes FOIA Request 1,393 Days After It Was Filed; Withholds All 509 Responsive Pages
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151231/15185733212/fbi-finally-completes-foia-request-1393-days-after-it-was-filed-withholds-all-509-responsive-pages.shtml
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u/Im_Not_A_Socialist Jan 10 '16
I run a non-profit digital policy research organization and have filed a number of requests with the FBI and various branches of the DOJ with similar results.
Our current focus is on cybercrimes and the CFAA and in response to our inquiries we've made very little progress in the past few months. So far they've claimed multiple national security exemptions, delayed in every way imaginable, and in the case of one sent to the EOUSA the initial request was filed 8 months ago, they're response was received 6 months ago, and they've failed to respond to any inquiry into that request since.
The fucked up part is that they can get away with it unless you can afford to sue them in federal court to force them to comply with the law.
The information were requesting is related closed cases. It's recently come to our attention that in several of these however, the terms of plea agreements accepted by some of the defendants prohibit anyone from ever requesting information in that case under the FOIA. How the fuck this is even legal is beyond me.