Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Dep't of State, No. 15-687, 2017 WL 680371 (D.D.C. Feb. 21, 2017) (Boasberg, J.)

Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Dep't of State, No. 15-687, 2017 WL 680371 (D.D.C. Feb. 21, 2017) (Boasberg, J.)

Re: Request for records concerning former Secretary of State's use of private e-mail server during her time as Secretary of State

Disposition: Granting defendant's motion for summary judgment; denying plaintiff's motion for summary judgment

• Exemption 5, Deliberative Process Privilege: "The Court . . . concludes that [plaintiff] has not provided a sufficient basis to believe that the information withheld by the State Department would shed light on any government misconduct." The court relates that "[w]hile [plaintiff] concedes that this privilege appears to exempt the material it seeks, it nevertheless invokes the narrow government-misconduct exception in an attempt to overcome that privilege for these records." "After reviewing the 30 records in camera, the Court finds no support for Plaintiff's position." "Even assuming that the conduct hypothesized by [plaintiff] would rise to the level required for the narrow government-misconduct exception, the records show no such acts." "More specifically, the material withheld does not provide insight into [the former Secretary of State's] misuse of the private server, nor does it reveal any purported Department complicity in that act or effort to downplay her conduct after the fact."