Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – National Freedom of Information Coalition

MuckRock: The FBI’s FOIA portal restricts rights of requesters

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Yesterday, when Mike Best broke the news that the FBI would be shutting down its FOIA email address and directing all online submissions through its online portal, a few people sensibly asked just how bad that portal could be. We’re here to tell you how bad.

Full disclosure: Some of MuckRock’s best friends have worked on building FOIA portals (hey, 18F!). We think that there’s room for well-designed government software to make life easier for requesters AND agencies. But the FBI’s eFOIA system appears to be designed explicitly not to be used.

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MuckRock: FBI quietly decides all FOIA requests over 50 pages are “complex”

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Just six months ago, [MuckRock] reported that the FBI had quietly changed their FOIA processing queues without alerting anyone or updating their website. And now, once again, the Bureau has changed their standards for FOIA processing – before a request had to be 2,500 pages or more to be classified as large or complex. Now, without any announcement or update to the Bureau’s website, the number’s down to 51 pages.

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Justice department ‘uses aged computer system to frustrate Foia requests’

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A new lawsuit alleges that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) intentionally conducts inadequate searches of its records using a decades-old computer system when queried by citizens looking for records that should be available to the public.

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FBI: Give Us the Names of Those Who Question Orlando

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In a letter dated June 20, 2016, the FBI ‘asked’ local law enforcement and government leaders to report the identities of anyone requesting information on events during the infamous Orlando Massacre of June 12th.

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Editorial: When can the FBI use National Security Letters to spy on journalists? That’s classified.

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Remember one year ago when then-Attorney General Eric Holder supposedly tightened restrictions on the Justice Department so it could not easily conduct surveillance on journalists’ emails and phone calls? Well it turns out the Justice Department inserted a large loophole in its internal rules that allows the FBI to completely circumvent those restrictions and spy on journalists in secrecy—and with absolutely no court oversight—using National Security Letters.

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