Hand v. DOJ, No. 23-5080, 2023 WL 9008705 (D.C. Cir. Dec. 28, 2023) (per curiam)

Hand v. DOJ, No. 23-5080, 2023 WL 9008705 (D.C. Cir. Dec. 28, 2023) (per curiam)

Re:  Request for records concerning retired agent’s contacts with certain employees

Disposition:  Granting government’s motion for summary affirmance of district court’s grant of government’s renewed motion for summary judgment and denial of requester’s cross-motion for summary judgment

• Exemption 7, Threshold; Exemption 7(C), The “Glomar” Response:  The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit holds that, “[s]tarting with the ‘threshold requirement’ for that exemption, [the government] has demonstrated that, to the extent any responsive records exist, it would have compiled them for law-enforcement purposes.”  “Turning to the next part of the inquiry, merely acknowledging the existence of such responsive records would invade a third party’s[, the retired agent’s,] privacy interests by associating that individual with a criminal investigation.”  “On the other side of the ledger, [the requester] cannot overcome those privacy interests because he produced no ‘evidence that would warrant a belief by a reasonable person that the alleged Government impropriety might have occurred.’”
   
• Litigation Considerations, Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies:  The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit holds that “[the requester] failed to exhaust his administrative remedies with respect to his argument that [the government] should have addressed whether it had any responsive records in components other than the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”  The district court previously held that the requester had never challenged the adequacy of the government’s search.