This is a request for records under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA") 5 U.S.C. § 552 and the Privacy Act 5 U.S.C. § 552a. This request should be considered under both statutes to maximize the release of records.
REQUESTER INFORMATION
Name
Address:
Phone:
Email:
RECORDS SOUGHT
I request disclosure of the following records from November 1, 2000 up to and including the date of the search:
SILK ROAD - DARKNET - EXPLOSIVES
a) Any and all emails and other records related to the “Silk Road” founded by Ross William Ulbright, and any other Dark Net Market selling any weapon, explosive, missile or anything else potentially dangerous to public safety which has not already been made public by the FBI; and
b) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and any person within the U.S. Department of State regarding, relating to, or referencing the Silk Road; and,
c) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and Hillary Clinton or any person representing Hillary Clinton, including, but not limited to, her attorneys regarding, relating to, or referencing Silk Road, and
SYRIA – LIBYA ARM SALES
d) Any and all records related to arming Islamic jihadists, including the Islamic State of Syria, including but not limited to, weapons from the United States, Libya, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia (“Syrian Overthrow”) from Jan 21-2009 to present.
e) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and any person within the U.S. Department of State regarding, relating to, or referencing the Syrian Overthrow from Jan 21-2009 to present, and
7th FLOOR GROUP
f) Any and all records related to the “7th Floor Group” at the Department of State that would or does meet every Wednesday afternoon or similar time discussing the FOIA process, Congressional Records, and anything Clinton related which has not already been made public by the FBI; and
g) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and any person within the U.S. Department of State regarding, relating to, or referencing the 7th Floor Group; and,
h) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and Hillary Clinton or any person representing Hillary Clinton, including, but not limited to, her attorneys regarding, relating to, or referencing 7th Floor Group, and
Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (“CARD”)
i) Any and all documents, including emails and records concerning the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (“CARD”) or in relation to CARD in regards to Secretary Hillary Clinton, President William J. Clinton, Anthony Weiner, which has not already been made public by the FBI; and
j) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and any person within the U.S. Department of State regarding, relating to, or referencing the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment or any of its activities in regards to Secretary Hillary Clinton, President William J. Clinton, Anthony Weiner; and,
k) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and Secretary Hillary Clinton or any person representing Hillary Clinton, including, but not limited to, her attorneys regarding, relating to, or referencing Child Abduction Rapid Deployment of any of its activities, and
l) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and President William J. Clinton or any person representing President William J. Clinton, including, but not limited to, her attorneys regarding, relating to, or referencing Child Abduction Rapid Deployment or any of its activities, and
CLINTON FOUNDATION
m) Any and all emails and other records related to the Clinton Foundation which has not already been made public by the FBI; and
n) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and any person within the U.S. Department of State regarding, relating to, or referencing the Clinton Foundation; and,
o) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and Hillary Clinton or any person representing Hillary Clinton, including, but not limited to, her attorneys regarding, relating to, or referencing the Clinton Foundation, and
p) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and Hillary Clinton or any person representing William Clinton, including, but not limited to, her attorneys regarding, relating to, or referencing the Clinton Foundation, and
CLINTON SERVER
q) Any and all emails and other records retrieved from Anthony Weiner, Huma Abedin, the server(s), thumb drive, and any other electronic equipment obtained either directly or indirectly from Hillary Clinton, Anthony Weiner, Huma Abedin (collectively and individually the “Clinton Network”) which has not already been made public by the FBI; and
r) Any and all correspondence and other records regarding, relating to, or referencing authorization for anyone within the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) to disclose to the media or any other person or entity outside the FBI the seizure, confiscation, or taking possession of the Clinton Network; and
s) Any and all correspondence and other records regarding, relating to, or referencing authorization for anyone within the FBI to disclose to the media or any other person or entity outside the FBI whether and what information has been obtained from the Clinton Network; and,
t) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and any person within the U.S. Department of State regarding, relating to, or referencing the Clinton Network; and,
u) Any and all correspondence between any person within the FBI and Hillary Clinton or any person representing Hillary Clinton, including, but not limited to, her attorneys regarding, relating to, or referencing the Clinton Network.
Requester requests a fee waiver and expedited processing.
DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATION
The following information is provided in order to enable the FBI to locate the requested records. It is not intended to limit the scope of the request.
The request is intended to include all emails calendar entries and all other Microsoft Outlook materials such as notes or otherwise including all such records that have been archived or deleted by the user and retrievable only by FBI IT personnel. It is further intended to include all typed and handwritten notes files saved locally on employee hard drives files saved on any and all shared drives and files saved to Sharepoint.
REQUEST FOR EXPEDITED PROCESSING
Under 22 C.F.R. 171.12(b) a request is to be given expedited processing when “the requester has demonstrated that a compelling need exists." A compelling need is deemed to exist when the “information is urgently needed by an individual primarily engaged in disseminating information in order to inform the public concerning actual or alleged Federal Government activity." 22 C.F.R. 171.12(c)(2). The term “urgently needed" means the “information has a particular value that will be lost if not disseminated quickly. Ordinarily this means a breaking news story of general public interest." 22 C.F.R. 171.12(c)(2)(i). The term “actual or alleged Federal Government activity" means that the “information concerns some actions taken contemplated or alleged by or about the government of the United States or one of its components or agencies including the Congress." 22 C.F.R. 171.12(c)(2)(ii).
I am seeking expedited treatment for this request.
1. The requested information is relevant to a subject of public urgency concerning an actual or alleged Federal government activity.
The requested information involves an actual or alleged Federal government activity. The documents I expect to receive relate to the role played by the Secretary of State and the Office of the Secretary in foreign policy positions taken by the United States in regards to numerous high-profile events that unfolded during Secretary Clinton's time as Secretary of State including the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi the role the United States played in Israel/Palestine peace negotiations the civil unrest and political uprisings that occurred in Libya Egypt and other Middle East countries and other aspects of the functioning of the office of the Secretary and the role the Secretary's office playing in creating and carrying out U.S. foreign policy objections. In the name of the public interest because the election for the President of the United States is only one week away. This information is of utmost importance and of national interests for the entire nation in deciding who to vote for the Presidency.
2. I am a person primarily engaged in disseminating information
I am a regular poster on reddit.com fir /r/The_Donald covering a wide-range of issues including Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official business while serving as Secretary of State. Additionally my reporting, use of current events has been published on /r/all and has reached an audience of millions of Americans. In fact it has been so influential that the Democratic Candidate for President Hillary Clinton has labeled us as being in a basket of deplorables and has alluded that we represent nearly half the entire country. Accordingly my activity is primarily engaged in disseminating information to over a hundred million fellow countrymen and women.
3. Certification pursuant to 22 C.F.R. 171.12(d)
I certify the foregoing to be true and correct to the best of my knowledge.
Name:
INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING SEARCH
1. Instructions Regarding “Leads”:
As required by the relevant case law the FBI should follow any leads it discovers during the conduct of its searches and perform additional searches when said leads indicate that records may be located in another system. Failure to follow clear leads is a violation of FOIA.
2. Request for Public Records:
Please search for any records even if they are already publicly available.
3. Request for Electronic and Paper/Manual Searches:
I request that searches of all electronic and paper/manual indices filing systems and locations for any and all records relating or referring to the subject of my request be conducted. Your search should include but not be limited to files stored: (1) locally on individual computers (all drives); (2) on remote-access drives assigned to individual users (such as Z: drives); (3) shared drives (such as H: drives); (4) removable media and storage drives; and (5) mobile computing equipment such as temporarily assigned and duty laptop and smart devices.
4. Request regarding Photographs and other Visual Materials:
I request that any photographs or other visual materials responsive to my request be released to me in their original or comparable forms quality and resolution. For example if a photograph was taken digitally or if the Department of State maintains a photograph digitally I request disclosure of the original digital image file not a reduced resolution version of that image file nor a printout and scan of that image file. Likewise if a photograph was originally taken as a color photograph I request disclosure of that photograph as a color image not a black and white image. Please ensure that photographs and other visual materials are produced in their original form and not printed and rescanned pursuant to your standard search procedures. Please contact me for any clarification on this point.
5. Request for Duplicate Pages:
I request disclosure of any and all supposedly “duplicate" pages. Scholars analyze records not only for the information available on any given page but also for the relationships between that information and information on pages surrounding it. As such though certain pages may have been previously released to me the existence of those pages within new context renders them functionally new pages. As such the only way to properly analyze released information is to analyze that information within its proper context. Therefore I request disclosure of all “duplicate" pages. Please to ensure that “duplicate” pages are produced.
6. Request to Search Emails:
Please search for emails relating to the subject matter of my request. Your search should include the personal email accounts of all employees and former employees who may have sent or received emails regarding the subject matter of this request as well as all institutional shared group duty task force and all other joint and/or multi-user email accounts which may have been utilized by each such employee or former employee.
Additionally for each relevant email account identified all storage areas must be searched including the inbox “folder" (and all subfolders therein) sent folder deleted folder and all relevant archive (.pst) files.
7. Request for Search of Records Transferred to Other Agencies:
I request that in conducting its search the FBI disclose releasable records even if they are available publicly through other sources outside the FBI such as NARA.
8. Regarding Destroyed Records
If any records responsive or potentially responsive to my request have been destroyed my request includes but is not limited to any and all records relating or referring to the destruction of those records. This includes but is not limited to any and all records relating or referring to the events leading to the destruction of those records.
INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING SCOPE AND BREADTH OF REQUESTS
Please interpret the scope of this request broadly. The FBI is instructed to interpret the scope of this request in the most liberal manner possible short of an interpretation that would lead to a conclusion that the request does not reasonably describe the records sought.
EXEMPTIONS AND SEGREGABILITY
I call your attention to President Obama's 21 January 2009 Memorandum concerning the Freedom of Information Act in which he states:
All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA [....] The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA.[1]
In the same Memorandum President Obama added that government information should not be kept confidential “merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure because errors and failures might be revealed or because of speculative or abstract fears."
Finally President Obama ordered that ”The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the case of doubt openness prevails.”
Nonetheless if any responsive record or portion thereof is claimed to be exempt from production FOIA/PA statutes provide that even if some of the requested material is properly exempt from mandatory disclosure all segregable portions must be released. If documents are denied in part or in whole please specify which exemption(s) is (are) claimed for each passage or whole document denied. Please provide a complete itemized inventory and a detailed factual justification of total or partial denial of documents. Specify the number of pages in each document and the total number of pages pertaining to this request. For “classified" material denied please include the following information: the classification (confidential secret or top secret); identity of the classifier; date or event for automatic declassification or classification review or downgrading; if applicable identity of official authorizing extension of automatic declassification or review past six years; and if applicable the reason for extended classification beyond six years.
In excising material please “black out" the material rather than “white out" or “cut out." I expect as provided by FOIA that the remaining non-exempt portions of documents will be released.
Please release all pages regardless of the extent of excising even if all that remains are the stationery headings or administrative markings.
In addition. I ask that your agency exercise its discretion to release records which may be technically exempt but where withholding serves no important public interest.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING REQUEST
Please produce all records with administrative markings and pagination included.
Please send a memo (copy to me) to the appropriate units in your office to assure that no records related to this request are destroyed. Please advise of any destruction of records and include the date of and authority for such destruction.
FORMAT
I request that any releases stemming from this request be provided to me in digital format (soft-copy) by email or on a compact disk or other like media.
FEE WAIVER IN PUBLIC INTEREST
I am willing to pay any reasonable expenses associated with this request as permitted by law or regulation however as the purpose of the requested disclosure is in full conformity with the statutory requirements for a waiver of fees I formally request such a waiver. I request a waiver of all costs pursuant to 5 U.S.C. §552(a)(4) (A)(iii) (“Documents shall be furnished without any charge ... if disclosure of the information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester."). Disclosure in this case meets the statutory criteria and a fee waiver would fulfill Congress's legislative intent in amending FOIA. See Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Rossotti 326 F.3d 1309 1312 (D.C. Cir. 2003) (“Congress amended FOIA to ensure that it be ‘liberally construed in favor of waivers for noncommercial requesters.'"). I incorporate by reference the explanation and attached materials in the above sections which demonstrate why the requested information is in the public interest.
As the legislative history of FOIA reveals “It is critical that the phrase ‘representative of the news media' be broadly interpreted if the act is to work as expected. . . . In fact any person or organization which regularly publishes or disseminates information to the public . . . should qualify for waivers as a ‘representative of the news media.'" 132 Cong. Rec. S14298 (daily ed. Sept. 30 1986) (emphasis in original quotation); and 2) “A request by a reporter or other person affiliated with a newspaper magazine television or radio station or other entity that is in the business of publishing or otherwise disseminating information to the public qualifies under this provision." 132 Cong. Rec. H9463 (Oct. 8 1986) (emphasis in original quotation)). Therefore in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act and relevant case law I should be considered a representative of the news media.
The FBI regulations provide “Records responsive to a request will be furnished without charge or at a charge reduced below that established under paragraph (c) of this section where a component determines based on all available information that the requester has demonstrated that: (i) Disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government and (ii) Disclosure of the information is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester." 28 C.F.R. 16.11(k)(1). In determining whether the disclosure of information is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of government FBI regulations require consideration of the following factors: the subject of the request; the informative value of the information to be disclosed; the contribution to an understanding of the subject by the public likely to result from disclosure; and the significance of the contribution to public understanding. 28 CFR 16.11(k)(2)(i)-(iv). To determine whether disclosure is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester the FBI regulations require consideration of the following factors: the existence and magnitude of a commercial interest; and the primary interest in disclosure. 28 CFR 16.11(k)(3)(i)-(ii). As explained below these factors weigh in support of a finding that this is the type of request and I am the type of requestor for which courts have held that waiver of fees is required under FOIA.
Additionally please note that no fee may be charged relating to the cost of the search and review of any record which must be disclosed under the Privacy Act even if such record is also covered another provision of law such as FOIA pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552a(f)(5) and 22 CFR 171.30.
I. DISCLOSURE OF THE REQUESTED RECORDS IS IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST BECAUSE IT IS LIKELY TO CONTRIBUTE SIGNIFICANTLY TO THE PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE OPERATIONS AND ACTIVITIES OF THE GOVERNMENT.
A. The subject of the requested records concerns how a candidate for the presidency of the United States Hillary Clinton used a private email server and accounts to conduct the foreign policy of the United States and fulfil her duties as Secretary of State including but not limited to the handling of classified and other sensitive information. The subject of the requested records concerns identifiable operations and activities of the Department of State specifically how Secretary of State Clinton and her aides conducted official business on private email accounts and how they handled classified and other sensitive information.
B. The disclosure is likely to contribute to an understanding of government operations and activities because the disclosable portions of the requested records will be meaningfully informative about those operations and activities and are directly relevant to the 2016 presidential election. The vast majority of disclosable information is not already in the public domain in either a duplicative or a substantially identical form and therefore the disclosure would add substantial new information to the public's understanding of the government's efforts to formulate and carry out foreign policy objectives especially in response to numerous high-profile events that unfolded during Secretary Clinton's time as Secretary of State including the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi the role the United States played in Israel/Palestine peace negotiations the civil unrest and political uprisings that occurred in Libya Egypt and other Middle East countries and other aspects of foreign policy objectives from 2009 through 2013.
The overwhelming preponderance of records I need to conduct my study are in the possession of the FBI and not in the public domain.
C. The disclosure of the requested records will contribute to the increased understanding of a broad audience of persons interested in the subject rather than merely my own individual understanding. Further I will be collaborating with professionals who have great expertise in the subject area and I have the ability and intention to effectively convey information to the public. As explained herein in more detail the audience likely to be interested in the subject is broad and includes historians of modern American government, politics culture and national security; journalists reporting on American politics government national security and society; civil liberties attorneys; and the general public.
i) I firmly intend to analyze the requested records in order to facilitate significant expansion of public understanding of government operations. I am well qualified to perform this analysis. As should be clear from the above, I have the ability and firm intention to disseminate to the public significant expansions of understanding of government operations based on my analysis of the requested disclosures.
ii) Additional Note on Journalistic Research and the Public Interest:
The case law on this matter is emphatically clear that journalistic inquiry alone satisfies the FOIA public interest requirement. National Treasury Employees Union v. Griffin 811 F.2d 644 649 (D.C. Cir. 1987). Further as articulated in the amendments to FOIA established by the OPEN Government Act of 2007 I solidly meet the applicable definition of “a representative of the news media[.]" The OPEN Government Act of 2007 established that for FOIA purposes
‘a representative of the news media' means any person or entity that gathers information of potential interest to the public uses its editorial skills to turn the raw materials into a distinct work and distributes that work to an audience. 552(a)(4)(A)(ii)
Based on my completed and firmly intended research analysis and information dissemination activities detailed at length herein I clearly satisfy this description.
Further the OPEN Government Act of 2007's definition of “a representative of the news media" is taken nearly verbatim from language used by the United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit in the court's 1989 FOIA fee waiver-oriented ruling in National Security Archive v. Department of Defense.[2] As the court also relatedly found in National Security Archive v. Department of Defense a requester need not already have published numerous works in order to qualify as a representative of the news media. The court found that the express “intention" to publish or disseminate analysis of requested documents amply satisfies the above noted requirement for journalists to “publish or disseminat[e] information to the public." National Security Archive v. Department of Defense 880 F.2d 1386 (D.C. Cir 1989). I have expressed a firm intention to continue disseminating significant analysis of documents obtained through FOIA requests. And I have demonstrated my ability to continue disseminating significant analysis of documents obtained through FOIA requests by reaching and influencing millions online and in social networks.
Therefore in that I am “person or entity that gathers information of potential interest to the public uses its editorial skills to turn the raw materials into a distinct work and distributes that work to an audience " I solidly meet the applicable definition of “a representative of the news media." As such I have again more than satisfied the requirement for a fee waiver.[3]
D. The disclosure of the requested records is likely to contribute “significantly" to public understanding of government operations and activities because disclosure would enhance to a significant extent the public's understanding of the subject in question as compared to the level of public understanding existing prior to the disclosure
i) See above Section I.
ii) As noted above the overwhelming preponderance of records I need to conduct my study are in the possession of the Department of State and not in the public domain.
II. DISCLOSURE OF THE INFORMATION IS NOT PRIMARILY IN MY COMMERCIAL INTEREST.
Any commercial interest that I have which would be furthered by the requested disclosure is de minimis. I am requesting the release of records to analyze for use in the dissemination of news over social media. Any use for writing articles is minimal. Though journalists do get paid for writing news articles payment is not the primary purpose for which such work is conducted. As the D.C. Circuit explained in National Treasury Employees Union v. Griffin 811 F.2d 644 649 (D.C. Cir. 1987) “While private interests clearly drive journalists (and journals) in their search for news they advance those interests almost exclusively by dissemination of news so that the public benefit from news distribution necessarily rises with any private benefit. Thus it is reasonable to presume that furnishing journalists with information will primarily benefit the general public[.]"
The disclosure of records will significantly benefit the public interest and this benefit to the public is of vastly greater magnitude than my de minimis commercial interest.
The disclosure of records will significantly benefit the public interest, and this benefit to the public is of vastly greater magnitude than my minimal commercial interest.
Additionally the courts and the legislature have been deeply invested in ensuring that FOIA duplication and search fees are not used by government agencies to deliberately or otherwise thwart legitimate scholarly and journalistic research:
This was made clear in Better Government Ass'n v. Department of State, in which the court ruled that “The legislative history of the fee waiver provision reveals that it was added to FOIA ‘in an attempt to prevent government agencies from using high fees to discourage certain types of requesters and requests ' in particular those from journalists scholars and nonprofit public interest groups." Better Government Ass'n v. Department of State 780 F.2d 86 89 (D.C. Cir. 1986).
This point is further elaborated in Ettlinger v. FBI
The legislative history of the FOIA clearly indicates that Congress intended that the public interest standard for fee waivers embodied in 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(A) be liberally construed. In 1974 Congress added the fee waiver provision as an amendment to the FOIA in an attempt to prevent government agencies from using high fees to discourage certain types of requesters and requests. The 1974 Senate Report and the sources relied on in it make it clear that the public interest/benefit test was consistently associated with requests from journalists scholars and non-profit public interest groups. There was a clear message from Congress that ”this public-interest standard should be liberally construed by the agencies.” The 1974 Conference Report in which differences between the House and Senate amendments were ironed out retained the Senate-originated public-interest fee waiver standard and further stated ”the conferees intend that fees should not be used for the purpose of discouraging requests for information or as obstacles to disclosure of requested information.” Further evidence of congressional intent regarding the granting of fee waivers comes from a 1980 Senate Subcommittee report. The report stated that ”excessive fee charges . . . and refusal to waive fees in the public
interest remain . . . 'toll gates' on the public access road to information.” The report noted that ”most agencies have also been too restrictive with regard to granting fee waivers for the indigent news
media scholars . . .” and recommended that the Department of Justice develop guidelines to deal with these fee waiver problems. The report concluded: The guidelines should recommend that each
agency authorize as part of its FOIA regulations fee waivers for the indigent the news media researchers scholars and non-profit public interest groups. The guidelines should note that the presumption should be that requesters in these categories are entitled to fee waivers especially if the requesters will publish the information or otherwise make it available to the general public.
The court in its Ettlinger v. FBI decision continued that on 18 December 1980 a policy statement was sent to the heads of all federal departments and agencies accompanied by a cover memorandum from then United States Attorney General Civiletti which stated that he had ”concluded that the Federal Government often fails to grant fee waivers under the Freedom of Information Act when requesters have demonstrated that sufficient public interest exists to support such waivers.” The Attorney General went on to state: Examples of requesters who should ordinarily receive consideration of partial fee waivers at minimum would be representatives of the news media or public interest organizations and historical researchers. Such waivers should extend to both search and copying fees, and in appropriate cases, complete rather than partial waivers should be granted.
III. CONCLUSION.
As demonstrated above the disclosure of the requested records will significantly contribute to expanded public understanding of government operations. I have the intent and ability to disseminate this significant expansion of public understanding of government operations. The public interest in this significant expansion of public understanding of government operations far outweighs any commercial interest of my own in the requested release. Accordingly my fee waiver request amply satisfies the rules of 28 C.F.R. 16.11(k). Legislative history and judicial authority emphatically support this determination. For these reasons and based upon their extensive elaboration above I request a full waiver of fees be granted. I will appeal any denial of my request for a waiver administratively and to the courts if necessary.
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Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions concerning this request. Thank you. I appreciate your time and attention to this matter.