Emmanuel N. LAZARIDIS, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Defendant.
Civil Action No. 10-1280(RMC).
United States District Court, District of Columbia.
March 27, 2013.
21
ROSEMARY M. COLLYER, District Judge.
Benton Gregory Peterson, United States Attorney‘s Office, Washington, DC, for Defendant.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
ROSEMARY M. COLLYER, District Judge.
In this action brought pro se under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA“),
I. BACKGROUND
1. The 2006 Request
By letter of April 4, 2006, Mr. Lazaridis requested from the State Department “written, audio, video or electronic records” pertaining to him and his minor child, V.L. 2nd Decl. of Margaret P. Grafeld (“Grafeld Decl.“) [Dkt. 25-1], Ex. 1. In addition to DOS‘s “central location,” plaintiff identified DOS‘s Office of Children‘s Issues, DOS‘s Passport Services Office of Research and Liaison, the United States Consulate in Lyon, France, and the United States Embassies in Paris, France, and Athens, Greece, as locations that may have responsive records. Id. By letter of July 19, 2006, the Office of Passport Services (“OPS“) released to Mr. Lazaridis in their entirety three documents concerning V.L. Id., Ex. 6.
In addition to OPS files, DOS searched the files of the Central Foreign Policy Records (“CFPR“), the Office of the Legal Adviser (“OLA“), the Office of Overseas Citizens Services (“OCS“), the American Embassies in Athens and Paris, the Amer-
By letter of December 14, 2006, DOS informed Mr. Lazaridis that it had located at OPS 11 documents in his name. It released one document in its entirety and two documents with redactions. DOS withheld seven documents, and referred one document to the office from which it originated for review. It withheld information under FOIA exemptions 2, 5, and 6. Id., Ex. 8. By letter of February 8, 2007, DOS released a document in full that OPS had referred to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Id., Ex. 10.
By letter of January 12, 2007, DOS released 10 of 12 documents located at the American Embassy in Athens, nine of which contained redactions. DOS withheld two documents in full. DOS withheld information under FOIA exemptions 6 and 7(A). Id., Ex. 9.
By letter of March 9, 2007, DOS released all 34 documents located at the American Embassy in Paris and the American Consulate in Lyon, nine with redactions. Id., Ex. 13. By letter of October 16, 2007, DOS informed Mr. Lazaridis that an additional search of the embassies in Athens and Paris located 25 more documents. It released one document in full and six documents with redactions. DOS referred one document to another agency and held 17 for “intra-agency coordination.” Id., Ex. 16. DOS withheld information from both releases under FOIA exemption 6 as pertaining to “other persons.”
Mr. Lazaridis lodged separate appeals of the foregoing determinations with the Appeals Review Panel. See id., Ex. 11 (referencing Dec. 14, 2006, and Jan. 12, 2007 decisions); Ex. 14 (referencing Mar. 9, 2007, decision); Ex. 17 (referencing Oct. 16, 2007, decision). As a result of Mr. Lazaridis‘s first appeal “for the release of two documents withheld in full and nine documents withheld in part,” the Appeals Panel released “additional portions of three documents previously withheld in part,” and upheld the redaction of information from six documents and the withholding of two documents. Id., Ex. 19. As a result of Mr. Lazaridis‘s second appeal, challenging the release of nine redacted documents, the Appeals Panel released “the previously withheld portions of one document,” and upheld the withholding of third-party information from “the other eight documents.” Id., Ex. 20.
2. The 2007 Request
By letter of November 30, 2007, Mr. Lazaridis requested the same records from DOS that he had requested on April 4, 2006. 2d Grafeld Decl. ¶ 24. Following searches of the same filing systems, DOS made the following releases.
By letter of April 25, 2008, DOS released two passport records “in the name of your daughter VL” with redactions made pursuant to FOIA exemption 6. Id., Ex. 26.
By letter of May 30, 2008, DOS released all four documents pertaining to Mr. Lazaridis located in the CFPR. Id., Ex. 31.
By letter of June 3, 2008, DOS released three CFPR documents pertaining to V.L., two with redactions pursuant to exemption 6. Id., Ex. 27.
By letter of June 17, 2008, DOS released six passport documents pertaining to Mr. Lazaridis, five with redactions. Id. ¶ 32.3
By letter of June 29, 2011, DOS released 17 of 21 documents “regarding your daughter, V” located at the American Embassy in Athens, eight with redactions, and withheld four documents. It withheld information pursuant to exemptions 5, 6, 7(C), and 7(E). Id., Ex. 29.
By letter of June 29, 2011, DOS informed plaintiff that 13 responsive documents located at the American Embassy in Paris were duplicates of previously released documents; DOS released 22 documents located at the U.S. Consulate in Lyon, two with redactions. Id. ¶ 33.
By letter of June 29, 2011, DOS released eight of 12 documents “maintained on [Mr. Lazaridis]” located at the American Embassy in Athens, three with redactions, and withheld four documents. DOS withheld information under exemption 6. Id., Ex. 34.
By letter of July 11, 2011, DOS released 43 of 56 documents pertaining to V.L. located at the Bureau of Consular Affairs, 21 with redactions, and withheld 13 documents. DOS withheld information under exemptions 5, 6, 7(C), and 7(E). Id., Ex. 30.
By letter of July 11, 2011, DOS released 102 of 156 documents “maintained on [Mr. Lazaridis]” located at the Bureau of Consular Affairs, 31 with redactions, and withheld 53 documents. It withheld information under exemptions 5, 6, 7(C) and 7(E). Id., Ex. 35.
II. LEGAL STANDARD
Summary judgment is appropriate “if the movant shows [through facts supported in the record] that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”
The FOIA confers jurisdiction on the district court to enjoin an agency from improperly withholding records maintained or controlled by the agency. See
An inadequate search for records also constitutes an improper withholding under the FOIA. See Maydak v. U.S. Dep‘t of Justice, 254 F.Supp.2d 23, 44 (D.D.C.2003) (citations omitted). Thus, when an agency‘s search is questioned, the Court must determine the adequacy of the agency‘s search, guided by principles of reasonableness. See Campbell v. U.S. Dep‘t of Justice, 164 F.3d 20, 28 (D.C.Cir.1998). The agency is required “to make a good faith effort to conduct a search for the requested records, using methods which can reasonably be expected to produce the information requested.” Oglesby, 920 F.2d at 68. Such methods include following through “on obvious leads.” Valencia-Lucena v. U.S. Coast Guard, 180 F.3d 321, 325 (D.C.Cir.1999) (citation omitted). Although an agency need not search every record system, it “cannot limit its search to only one record system if there are others that are likely to turn up the information requested.” Oglesby, 920 F.2d at 68. Because the agency is the possessor of the records and is responsible for conducting the search, the Court may rely on “[a] reasonably detailed affidavit, setting forth the search terms and the type of search performed, and averring that all files likely to contain responsive materials (if such records exist) were searched.” Valencia-Lucena, 180 F.3d at 326 (quoting Oglesby, 920 F.2d at 68). Summary judgment is inappropriate “if a review of the record raises substantial doubt” about the adequacy of the search, id., but “the [mere] fact that a particular document was not found does not demonstrate the inadequacy of a search.” Boyd v. Criminal Div. of U.S. Dep‘t of Justice, 475 F.3d 381, 390-91 (D.C.Cir.2007) (citations omitted); see Iturralde v. Comptroller of Currency, 315 F.3d 311, 315 (D.C.Cir.2003) (“[T]he adequacy of a FOIA search is generally determined not by the fruits of the search, but by the appropriateness of the methods used to carry out the search.“) (citation omitted).
III. ANALYSIS
Mr. Lazaridis challenges DOS‘s search for responsive records and its claimed exemptions. See Mem. of Law in Opp‘n to Def. U.S. Dep‘t of State‘s Mot. for Summ. J. and in Support of Pl.‘s Renewed Cross-Mot. for Summ. J. (“Pl.‘s Mem.“) [Dkt. 30, ECF pp. 4-34] at 2. In support of his cross-motion for summary judgment, Mr. Lazaridis has contested the facts set forth in DOS‘s statement of material facts and
The Search for Responsive Records
Mr. Lazaridis contends first that “DOS has not released any responsive records dating from September 2002 through April 2006 that are held by its OCS division.... Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that DOS has not searched for or released at least 500 responsive documents.” Pl.‘s Mem. at 9. In his counterstatement of material facts, Mr. Lazaridis refers to a “Case Summary” that he contends “clearly indicates that such records must exist ...,” Pl.‘s Facts at 6, but the exhibit he cites, “Lazaridis Decl., Ex. A. Doc. 01 [ECF p. 51],” is a string of e-mail messages that do not support the foregoing assertion. See
Mr. Lazaridis contends next that “the DOS search unreasonably excluded from its ambit government records that are held by NCMEC.” Pl.‘s Mem. at 10. This argument has no reasonable basis in fact since, as Mr. Lazaridis admits, id., and this Court has found, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private entity that is not subject to the FOIA‘s disclosure requirements, see Lazaridis v. U.S. Dep‘t of Justice, 713 F.Supp.2d 64, 67-69 (D.D.C.2010), and DOS‘s disclosure obligations extend only to those records in its custody and control at the time of the FOIA request.
Mr. Lazaridis has not made any other specific challenges to DOS‘s searches. The Court has carefully reviewed Ms. Grafeld‘s comprehensive description of the searches that were conducted of files maintained by various DOS offices, including the Central Foreign Policy Records, the Office of Passport Services, the Office of Overseas Citizens Services, the American Embassies in Athens and Paris, and the American Consulates in Marseille and Lyon, 2d Grafeld Decl. ¶¶ 13, 36-64, and finds that DOS‘s searches were reasonably calculated to (and did) locate responsive records. In the absence of any contradicting evidence, the Court concludes that DOS is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the adequacy of the search for responsive records.
The Claimed Exemptions
DOS invokes FOIA exemptions 5, 6, 7(A), 7(C), and 7(E) and Privacy Act exemptions (d)(5), (j)(2), and (k)(2) for its withholdings, in full or in part. 2d Grafeld Decl. ¶¶ 67-87; Vaughn Index [Dkt. 25-2]. Since an agency cannot withhold records under the Privacy Act that must be disclosed under the FOIA,
As an initial matter, Mr. Lazaridis contends that DOS‘s Vaughn index is not “sufficiently detailed,” Pl.‘s Mem. at 11, but his argument goes more to the merits of DOS‘s exemption 6 claim than to the adequacy of the index. See id. Regardless, DOS‘s Vaughn index is more than adequate inasmuch as it correlates the particular exemptions relied upon with the withheld information and, thus, “convey[s] enough information for [Mr. Lazaridis] and the court to identify the records referenced and understand the basic reasoning behind the claimed exemptions.” Morley v. CIA, 508 F.3d 1108, 1123 (D.C.Cir.2007). Indeed, Mr. Lazaridis has himself relied on the index in challenging certain withholdings and conceding others. See Pl.‘s Mem at 12-14.
Exemption 5
Exemption 5 protects from disclosure “inter-agency or intra-agency memorand[a] or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency.”
In response to the 2006 request, DOS withheld in their entirety seven inter-agency e-mails containing “candid exchanges between Department officials and Embassy personnel about the enforcement of passport rules and regulations.” Vaughn Index, ECF p. 8. In response to the 2007 request, DOS redacted information reflecting “internal deliberations” concerning both Mr. Lazaridis and V.L.‘s mother relating to the overarching issues surrounding their daughter‘s custody. See, e.g., Vaughn index, ECF pp. 9, 11, 13, 19, 21; see also Lazaridis v. U.S. Dep‘t of Justice, 766 F.Supp.2d 134, 147 (D.D.C.2011) (describing FBI records compiled “as a result of a criminal investigation into an alleged illegal relocation of Lazaridis‘s minor child outside the United States, based on authority provided in the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act of 1993,
Ms. Grafeld states that the withheld information is “pre-decisional” and that its disclosure “would inhibit candid
Ms. Grafeld states that the responsive documents “contain[] selected factual material intertwined with opinion regarding current problems and preferred course of action,” and that “[t]he withheld material ... has been carefully reviewed and there are no reasonably segregable facts that may be released.” 2d Grafeld Decl. ¶ 68. Indeed, most of the documents are described in the Vaughn index as one or two-page e-mail messages and memoranda of brief telephone conversations, lending credence to the reasonableness of DOS‘s segregability assessment. See, e.g., Mays v. DEA, 234 F.3d 1324, 1327 (D.C.Cir.2000) (approving the withholding of entire documents when the “exempt and nonexempt information are inextricably intertwined, such that the excision of exempt information would ... produce an edited document with little informational value“) (citation and other internal quotation marks omitted).
Mr. Lazaridis counters that DOS improperly applied exemption 5 “to records that did not consist of deliberations within DOS, or between DOS and its legal counsel.” Pl.‘s Facts at 8. This argument mistakenly conflates the attorney-client and attorney work-product privileges with the deliberative process privilege. While the two former privileges obviously depend on the existence of an attorney-client relationship, the deliberative process privilege applies broadly to any material “reflecting advisory opinions, recommendations and deliberations comprising part of a process which governmental decisions and polices are formulated.” Nat‘l Ass‘n of Home Builders v. Norton, 309 F.3d 26, 39 (D.C.Cir.2002). Exemption 5 protects “the give-and-take of the decisional process.” FBI v. Abramson, 456 U.S. 615, 630, 102 S.Ct. 2054, 72 L.Ed.2d 376 (1982). Mr. Lazaridis also argues that “[w]hile some of the ... records might be characterized as pre-decisional with respect to ... Interpol or the FBI, they are not deliberative with respect to DOS,” since “DOS is not a law enforcement authority.” Pl.‘s Mem. 13. This argument simply ignores exemption 5‘s language that protects records reflecting both “intra-agency” and “inter-agency” deliberations.
Mr. Lazaridis questions DOS‘s application of exemption 5 to several documents, see Pl.‘s Mem. at 12-13, only one of which merits discussion. Doc. 044 is described as a memorandum of “a [telephone] conversation [between DOS and a Michigan Detective] discussing the prospects of action by Michigan law enforcement authorities against Mr. Lazaridis.” Vaughn Index, ECF p. 33. Since that document reflects neither inter-agency nor intra-agency discussions, the Court does not find exemption 5 applicable. DOS has applied exemptions 7(C) and 7(E) to the same document, thereby raising the possi-
Exemption 6
Exemption 6 permits an agency to withhold from disclosure “personnel and medical files and similar files” if their disclosure would “constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
The proper application of “privacy exemptions [6 and 7(C)] turns on a balance of ‘the individual‘s right of privacy against the basic policy of opening agency action to the light of public scrutiny.‘” CEI Wash. Bureau, Inc., 469 F.3d at 128 (quoting U.S. Dep‘t of State v. Ray, 502 U.S. 164, 175, 112 S.Ct. 541, 116 L.Ed.2d 526 (1991)). Hence, when a requester seeks such information, an agency must conduct a balancing test to determine if releasing the information would constitute a “clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” by weighing the privacy interest in non-disclosure against any qualifying public interest in disclosure. Dep‘t of State v. Wash. Post Co., 456 U.S. 595, 596 n. 1, 601-02, 102 S.Ct. 1957, 72 L.Ed.2d 358 (1982). It is this balancing test “not the nature of the files in which the information was contained [that] limit[s] the scope of the exemption.” Norton, 309 F.3d at 33; see id. at 33 (“assuming without deciding that the requested ... records are ‘similar files’ under Exemption 6“). As the D.C. Circuit instructs:
To establish that the release of information contained in government files would result in a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy, the court first asks whether disclosure would compromise a substantial, as opposed to a de minimis, privacy interest. If a significant privacy interest is at stake, the court then must weigh that interest against the public interest in the release of the records in order to determine whether, on balance, disclosure would work a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. The public interest to be weighed against the privacy interest in this balancing test is the extent to which disclosure would serve the core purposes of the FOIA by contribut[ing] significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government. Thus, unless a FOIA request advances the citizens’ right to be informed about what their government is up to, no relevant public interest is at issue.
Id. at 33-34 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted) (alteration in original).
DOS has applied exemption 6 to most of the withheld material, which, with regard to the 2006 request, is described as information pertaining to health and private contact information of the child‘s
DOS has shown that the withheld information falls within the personnel, medical and similar files exemption 6 protects. See U.S. Dep‘t of Defense v. Fed. Labor Relations Auth., 510 U.S. 487, 502, 114 S.Ct. 1006, 127 L.Ed.2d 325 (1994) (“Because the privacy interest of bargaining unit employees in nondisclosure of their home addresses substantially outweighs the negligible FOIA-related public interest in disclosure, we conclude that disclosure would constitute a ‘clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.’ “); Norton, 309 F.3d at 33 (“Congress intended the phrase ‘similar files’ to have ‘a broad, rather than a narrow, meaning’ ... Exemption 6 is designed to protect personal information in public records, even if it is not embarrassing or of an intimate nature[.]“) (citation omitted); see also Akin, Gump, 503 F.Supp.2d at 382 (“When the material in the government‘s control is a compilation of information about private citizens, rather than a record. of government actions, there is little legitimate public interest that would outweigh the invasion of privacy because the information reveals little or nothing about an agency‘s own conduct.“).
Mr. Lazaridis argues first that “many of the redacted records concern information that was widely and very publicly disseminated by the very persons whose ‘personal privacy’ the DOS now seeks to protect.” Pl.‘s Mem. at 14. Under the public domain theory, FOIA-exempt information loses its protection if it was previously “disclosed and preserved in a permanent public record.” Cottone v. Reno, 193 F.3d 550, 553-54 (D.C.Cir.1999) (citations omitted). This doctrine applies only to information that has been “officially acknowledg[ed],” i.e., made public through an official and documented disclosure. Wolf v. CIA, 473 F.3d 370, 378 (D.C.Cir.2007). Mr. Lazaridis has “the initial burden of pointing to specific information in the public domain [by official disclosure] that appears to duplicate that being withheld.” Id. (quoting Afshar v. Dep‘t of State, 702 F.2d 1125, 1130 (D.C.Cir.1983) (internal quotation marks omitted)); accord Valfells v. CIA, 717 F.Supp.2d 110 (D.D.C.2010).
Mr. Lazaridis‘s public domain argument fails because it is not predicated on an “official and documented disclosure,” Wolf, 473 F.3d at 378 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted), which is required to overcome the exemption, but rather on the disclosure of information by the child‘s mother, whom Mr. Lazaridis has not shown to have any authority to speak or act on behalf of the government. See ACLU v. U.S. Dep‘t of Defense, 628 F.3d 612, 621 (D.C.Cir.2011) (“[W]e are hard pressed to understand the ... contention that the release of a nongovernment document by a nonofficial source can constitute a disclosure affecting the applicability of the FOIA exemptions.“). In addition, the fact that Mr. Lazaridis may have obtained withheld information from an unofficial source or by some other means does not prevent DOS from invoking FOIA exemptions because unlike, for example, a “constitutionally compelled disclosure to a single party,” Cottone, 193 F.3d at 556, a FOIA disclosure is “to the public as a whole.” Stonehill v. IRS, 558 F.3d 534, 539 (D.C.Cir.2009). Thus, “the fact that information exists in some form in the
Mr. Lazaridis also argues that the release of third-party information redacted from Doc. 049 (the mother‘s Authorization for Release of Information to Certain Parties 1/26/07) and Doc. 050 (same but undated) “would [] shed light on how government works[,]” by “ascertain[ing] the degree to which DOS has improperly invoked Exemption (b)(6) in the present FOIA case, as well as help clarify the relationship between DOS and the NCMEC, which is presumed to have been invited by [the child‘s mother] ... to have access to DOS records about the plaintiff and his daughter.” Pl.‘s Mem. at 19-20. The argument triggers the question of whether an overriding public interest warrants release of the withheld material.
Disclosure of otherwise exempt information is required when a requester shows that the information is necessary to “shed any light on the [unlawful] conduct of any Government agency or official.” U.S. Dept. of Justice v. Reporters Comm., 489 U.S. 749, 772-73, 109 S.Ct. 1468, 103 L.Ed.2d 774 (1989); accord Nation Magazine, 71 F.3d at 887-88; SafeCard Services, Inc. v. SEC, 926 F.2d 1197, 1206 (D.C.Cir.1991). “The relevant question ... is whether [Mr. Lazaridis] has shown government misconduct sufficient to overcome Exemption [6‘s] protection for personal privacy under the test outlined in National Archives & Records Admin. v. Favish, 541 U.S. 157, 124 S.Ct. 1570, 158 L.Ed.2d 319 (2004).” Blackwell v. FBI, 646 F.3d 37, 41 (D.C.Cir.2011). In Favish, the Court explained that a plaintiff “must show that the public interest sought to be advanced is a significant one, an interest more specific than having the information for its own sake” and that “the information is likely to advance that interest.” Favish, 541 U.S. at 172. Such a showing requires “more than a bare suspicion” of official misconduct; “the requester must produce evidence that would warrant a belief by a reasonable person that the alleged Government impropriety might have occurred.” Id. at 174. For it is “[o]nly when [such evidence is] produced [that] there [will] exist a counterweight on the FOIA scale for the court to balance against the cognizable privacy interests in the requested records.” Id. at 174-75. Otherwise, the balancing requirement does not come into play. Id. at 175.
Mr. Lazaridis‘s claim of impropriety based on DOS‘s invocation of this exemption begs the question, and he has not otherwise identified “government misconduct” that would be revealed from the release of the third-party information contained in the authorizations. Hence, the Court concludes that DOS is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on its application of exemption 6 to the third-party information withheld from most of the responsive records.
Exemption 7
FOIA Exemption 7 protects from disclosure “records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information ....” would cause certain enumer-
Since DOS is not a law enforcement agency, its claim that records were compiled for law enforcement purposes is entitled to less deference than that of a law enforcement agency. See id. at 77. Nevertheless, it cannot be seriously disputed that at least some of the requested records pertain to alleged international kidnapping charges against Mr. Lazaridis, who has contested such charges in these proceedings and in each of his cases over which the undersigned judge has presided. DOS has invoked exemption 7 sparingly.
Exemption 7(A)
Exemption 7(A) authorizes an agency to withhold law enforcement records “only to the extent that [their] production ... could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
DOS applied exemption 7(A) to two documents responsive to the 2006 request, consisting of two pages each, described as “requests for INTERPOL action” relative to “an ongoing enforcement action.” Vaughn Index, ECF p. 8. Ms. Grafeld states that the information “is contained in Interpol law enforcement documents,” and that “the withheld material has been carefully reviewed and no additional non-exempt information may be released.” 2d Grafeld Decl. ¶ 74.
Mr. Lazaridis disputes the existence of a law enforcement proceeding, asserting that “Interpol is not today seeking the plaintiff or his child, since its yellow and blue notices were withdrawn by the originating law enforcement agency, the FBI.” Pl.‘s Facts at 9. (To support his assertion, Mr. Lazaridis refers to documents that he has not made a part of this record and, therefore, will not be considered.) On the other hand, Mr. Lazaridis contends that the “other law enforcement activities to which Interpol documents are alleged to relate” are inapplicable because he “justifiably rejects French child custody decisions...” on jurisdictional grounds, id. at 9-10, and
Exemption 7(C)
Exemption 7(C) exempts law enforcement material “to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
Mr. Lazaridis argues that a public interest outweighs the substantial privacy interests at stake because “[t]he law enforcement officers whose names are being redacted ... are among those who are aware that there is no probable cause for the plaintiff‘s arrest, yet they are complicit in permitting the [alleged illegal] proceeding [in Michigan] to continue.” Pl.‘s Mem. at 25-26. These subjective assertions fail to trigger the balancing requirement not only because they are unsubstantiated but also because they present interests that are clearly personal to Mr. Lazaridis. See Favish, 541 U.S. at 172 (“[T]he public interest sought to be advanced [must be] more specific than having the information for its own sake.“); Blackwell, 646 F.3d at 41 (“Privacy interests are particularly difficult to overcome when law enforcement information regarding third parties is implicated .... This is particularly true when the requester asserts a public interest—however it might be styled—in obtaining information that relates to a criminal prosecution.“); see also U.S. Dep‘t of Defense v. Fed. Labor Relations Auth., 510 U.S. 487, 496, 114 S.Ct. 1006, 127 L.Ed.2d 325 (1994) (explaining that “whether an invasion of privacy is warranted cannot turn on the purposes for which the request for information is made ..., except in certain cases involving claims of privilege, the identity of the requesting party has no bearing on the merits of his or her FOIA request“) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).
Exemption 7(E)
Exemption 7(E) protects from disclosure law enforcement records that “would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigation ... or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law.”
The District of Columbia Circuit has explained that “[e]xemption 7(E) sets a relatively low bar for the agency to justify withholding: Rather than requiring a highly specific burden of showing how the law will be circumvented, exemption 7(E) only requires that the [agency] demonstrate logically how the release of the requested information might create a risk of circumvention of the law.” Blackwell, 646 F.3d at 42 (alteration in original) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Ms. Grafeld concludes only that “[r]elease of [the withheld] information could hamper the use of these procedures in the future.” 2d Grafeld Decl. ¶ 78. This vague conclusion coupled with the opaque descriptions in the Vaughn index does not show “how the release of the requested information might create a risk of circumvention of the law.” Blackwell, 646 F.3d at 42. The Court cannot discern what disclosure could risk circumvention of the law. Hence, DOS‘s motion for summary judgment on this claimed exemption will be denied without prejudice.
Record Segregability
The Court is required to consider, sua sponte, whether all reasonably segregable portions of the responsive records were released, particularly where documents were withheld in their entireties. See Trans-Pacific Policing Agreement v. U.S. Customs Serv., 177 F.3d 1022, 1027-28 (D.C.Cir.1999); Valfells, 717 F.Supp.2d at 120. DOS has invoked multiple FOIA exemptions to justify withholding some documents in their entirety. The Court cannot tell from the current Vaughn index which exemption applies to which portion of the document. Therefore, the Court cannot assess, for example, whether any justification remains for withholding Doc. 044 after having found exemption 5 inapplicable and exemption 7(E) unsubstantiated, and when exemption 7(C) generally
IV. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the Court will grant in part and deny in part DOS‘s motion for summary judgment and will deny Mr. Lazaridis‘s cross-motion for summary judgment. DOS‘s motion will be granted on the adequacy of the search for records and all claimed FOIA exemptions except exemption 7(E) and the application of exemption 5 to Doc. 044. A memorializing Order accompanies this Memorandum Opinion.
ROSEMARY M. COLLYER
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE