Hernandez v. DOJ, No. 15-944, 2024 WL 217747 (D.D.C. Jan. 19, 2024) (Cobb, J.)

Hernandez v. DOJ, No. 15-944, 2024 WL 217747 (D.D.C. Jan. 19, 2024) (Cobb, J.)

Re:  Request for records concerning plaintiff’s prosecution

Disposition:  Granting defendants’ motion for summary judgment; denying plaintiff’s cross-motion for summary judgment

• Litigation Considerations, Mootness and Other Grounds for Dismissal:  The court relates that “[plaintiff] only asks this Court to determine whether Defendants have ‘surrend[ered] [18-pages initially deemed non-responsive, but later processed] or provide[d] a cogent sworn explanation of their failure to do so.’”  “The Court now concludes that they have.”  “The Court has reviewed the set of documents that the EOUSA initially obtained from the USAO/TXW, the set of documents that were later reprocessed, and the sworn declaration accompanying Defendants’ summary judgment motion that explains the USAO/TXW’s initial error.”  The court finds that the confusion regarding these documents was the result of “mistake.”  Additionally, the court finds that “[t]o the extent that, given the partial redactions, some information may have been withheld from these documents, [plaintiff] does not contest the scope of the EOUSA’s search during reprocessing or its bases for redaction.”  “Thus, with the ‘18 pages’ at issue now indisputably surrendered or cogently accounted for via sworn testimony, . . . the Court’s inquiry is at an end.”