Gebert v. U.S. Dep’t of State, No. 22-2939, 2024 WL 1328439 (D.D.C. Mar. 27, 2024) (Friedrich, J.)

Gebert v. U.S. Dep’t of State, No. 22-2939, 2024 WL 1328439 (D.D.C. Mar. 27, 2024) (Friedrich, J.)

Re:  Request for records concerning plaintiff

Disposition:  Dismissing plaintiff’s FOIA claim

• Procedural Requirements, Proper FOIA Requests:  “[T]he Court will dismiss [plaintiff’s] FOIA . . . claim[].”  “[Plaintiff] requested ‘all records pertaining to’ him ‘that [were] held by the U.S. Department of State.’”  “‘Pertaining to,’ however, is language that ‘leaves the [Department] to guess’ at the records that might fall within a particular request’s sweep.”  “Accordingly, because [plaintiff] did not submit a request that complied with FOIA[’s] . . . threshold requirement[], he fails to state a claim under [the FOIA].”  “Although [plaintiff] emphasizes that the Department ‘provided part of the investigation’ in response to his FOIA request, its willingness to accommodate part of a deficient request did not oblige it to respond to that request in full.”  “For similar reasons, it does not matter whether the Department in fact ‘understood the request’ at least in part.”  “And although [plaintiff] ‘submitted a subsequent request’ in December, he does not provide the text of that request or otherwise contend that the request was clearer than his first attempt – indeed, he describes it as once again using unacceptably broad ‘pertaining to’ language, suggesting that it too was deficient.”