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On Wednesday, Judge Woods endorsed a joint letter from the New York Times and the Department of Justice to stay proceedings in a FOIA case, pending the outcome of an administrative appeal.

The case concerns the NYT’s January 10, 2025 expedited FOIA request for the second volume of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report. This volume addresses his decisionmaking in the criminal case against Trump regarding the alleged mishandling of classified documents. On January 21, 2025, alleging that the DOJ had not addressed their expedited processing request within the required timeframe, Plaintiffs brought this lawsuit.

Subsequently, the DOJ expedited the NYT’s request, and then denied it on February 5, 2025. Because a decision has been issued, an administrative appeal is now available.

In requesting a stay, the parties recognized, but did not ask the Court to address, an “unusual” issue:Continue Reading Judge Woods Stays FOIA Case Over Volume II of Jack Smith Report, Allowing For Administrative Process to Be Completed

A complaint filed this week seeks to compel the CIA to release records related to its interrogation practices, including “enhanced interrogation techniques” used on a prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  According to the complaint, the prisoner has been held at the Guantanamo Bay facility for fifteen years without being charged.  A Politico article cited…

In a FOIA complaint filed Friday, the New York Times alleges that the FBI has wrongfully refused to comply with its request for “[a]ll memos, e-mails, or other documents by James Comey discussing or memorializing conversations with Donald Trump.”

A judge has not been assigned yet.

As we wrote about early last year, Judge McMahon reluctantly dismissed two FOIA suits seeking disclosure of a secret government memo addressing the legality of drone strikes on U.S. citizens.  Now, the Second Circuit has reversed that decision and ordered that the government produce the memo (known as the OLC-DOD Memorandum) in response to FOIA requests made by New York Times reporters and the ACLU. The Second Circuit ruled that public disclosure of the contents of the memo had waived any claim to secrecy.  Notably, just weeks after Judge McMahon’s decision, a 16-page DOJ “white paper” was leaked to the press, which itself analyzed the lawfulness of targeted drone killings.  Though not part of the underlying record on appeal, the appellate court chose to consider this subsequent disclosure in rendering its opinion.
Continue Reading Second Circuit Orders Release of Memo Discussing Legality of Drone Strikes