Trump Pardons and Commutations
| Tracking # |
DOJ-AP-2017-003357; FOIA 2017-267345 |
| Submitted | Feb. 22, 2017 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Dave Maass
To Whom It May Concern:
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:
- All communications between the Office of the Pardon Attorney and the Trump Transition team.
- All communications between the Office of the Pardon Attorney and the White House since January 20, 2017.
- Agency records related to pardon or commutation requests transmitted by the Office of the Pardon attorney to the White House since January 20, 2017.
- All records received from the White House regarding commutation and pardons since January 20, 2017.
- A list of all commutations or pardons granted by President Donald J. Trump.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Dave Maass
From: Office of the Pardon Attorney
February 27, 2017
Dave Maass
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 33862
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
Re: Freedom of Information Act Request: FOIA 2017-267345 (No Record)
Dear Mr. Maass:
This correspondence is in response to your Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request dated and received in the Office of the
Pardon Attorney (OPA) on 02/22/2017. Pursuant to the Freedom of
Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 et seq., you requested (1) all
communications between the Office of the Pardon Attorney and the Trump
Transition team; (2) all communications between the Office of the
Pardon Attorney and the White House since January 20, 2017; (3) agency
records related to pardon or commutation requests transmitted by the
Office of the Pardon attorney to the White House since January 20,
2017; (4) all records received from the White House regarding
commutation and pardons since January 20, 2017; (5) a list of all
commutations or pardons granted by President Donald J. Trump.
In response to your request, I have determined that we do
not have any records pursuant to your request.
For your information, Congress excluded three discrete categories of
law enforcement and national security records from the requirements of
the FOIA. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(c). This response is limited to those
records that are subject to the requirements of the FOIA. This is a
standard notification that is given to all our requesters and should
not be taken as an indication that excluded records do, or do not,
exist.
You may email this office at PardonAttorneyFOIA@usdoj.gov
<mailto:PardonAttorneyFOIA@usdoj.gov> for any further assistance with
your FOIA request. Additionally, you may contact the Office of
Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and
Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA mediation services
they offer. The contact information for OGIS is as follows: Office of
Government Information Services, National Archives and Records
Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, Maryland
20740-6001, e-mail at ogis@nara.gov <mailto:ogis@nara.gov> ; telephone
at 202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at
202-741-5769.
If you are not satisfied with my response to this request, you may
administratively appeal by writing to the Director, Office of
Information Policy (OIP), United States Department of Justice, Suite
11050, 1425 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20530-0001, or you may
submit an appeal through OIP's FOIAonline portal by creating an account
on the following web site:
https://foiaonline.regulations.gov/foia/action/public/home
<https://foiaonline.regulations.gov/foia/action/public/home> . Your
appeal must be postmarked or electronically transmitted within 90 days
of the date of my response to your request. If you submit your appeal
by mail, both the letter and the envelope should be clearly marked
"Freedom of Information Act Appeal."
Sincerely,
William N. Taylor II
Executive Officer
Office of the Pardon Attorney
-
IQFormatFile
From: Dave Maass
I would like to appeal the finding that there were no responsive records. Please conduct another search and reach out to the White House liaison in the Office of the Pardon to confirm that no communications have been made.
From: OIP-NoReply@usdoj.gov
04/05/2017 09:37 AM FOIA Request: DOJ-AP-2017-003357
From: OIP-NoReply@usdoj.gov
DOJ-AP-2017-003357 has been processed with the following final disposition: Completely reversed/remanded.
From: MuckRock
To Whom It May Concern:
This Freedom of Information Act request, upon appeal, was remanded to your office for processing. Confirmation that processing has continued and provision of an estimated date of completion would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
From:
June 9, 2017
Mr. Dave Maass
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 35041
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
Re: Freedom of Information Act Request: FOIA 2017-267345 (Status Update)
Dear Mr. Maass:
This correspondence is in response to your email dated
June 9, 2017, regarding the remand of your Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request originally dated and received in the Office of the
Pardon Attorney (OPA) on February 22, 2017.
As I indicated in a previous email, I am awaiting the
results of a search across our emails that is being conducted by the
Department's Office of the Chief Information Officer. That search
covers the time period of both of your remanded matters.
Unfortunately, I cannot predict when the search will be completed
because that is not within my control. However, I can assure you that
I will review the contents of the search for any responsive documents
immediately upon receipt and provide a final response shortly
thereafter.
You may email this office at PardonAttorneyFOIA@usdoj.gov
<mailto:PardonAttorneyFOIA@usdoj.gov> for any further assistance with
your FOIA request. Additionally, you may contact the Office of
Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and
Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA mediation services
they offer. The contact information for OGIS is as follows: Office of
Government Information Services, National Archives and Records
Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, Maryland
20740-6001, e-mail at ogis@nara.gov <mailto:ogis@nara.gov> ; telephone
at 202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at
202-741-5769.
Thank you for your patience as we both await the results of the search.
Sincerely,
William N. Taylor II
Executive Officer
Office of the Pardon Attorney
U.S. Department of Justice
-
IQFormatFile
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Feb. 22, 2017. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #DOJ-AP-2017-003357; FOIA 2017-267345.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: OPA FOIA
Mr. Mass,
I produced (3) pages of redacted documents to you on July 7, 2017 as a final response to FOIA 2017-267345 referenced below. Do I understand that you didn’t receive them?
Will Taylor
Executive Officer
Office of the Pardon Attorney
http://www.justice.gov/pardon/
From: Dave Maass
Sorry, I believe that response got filed in the wrong folder.
However, am I wrong to believe you were planning to do more searches?
From: OPA FOIA
Mr. Mass,
Please be advised that the only FOIA request we have open for you at this time is FOIA 2017-268723, which we are still waiting for the results of the search from the Department’s Office of the Chief Information Officer. It sounds like it might be helpful to you, as well as OPA, as far as keeping your requests organized, if you would wait to make a subsequent request for email communications once you receive the results of the previous one because the dates are often overlapping. The manner and frequency that you submit requests causes unnecessary delay in getting you a response and creates unwarranted burden on an office of this size. We would of course like to get you responses as soon as humanly possible. FOIA 2017-267345 was closed on July 7, 2017 when I provided you with a 3-page redacted record.
In addition, because you make each request from a different email address, it can often get confusing due to our practice of responding to the most recent email address provided. In this instance, I am responding outside of our system of record to ensure you receive this response at the email address you sent it from, without respect to the most recently provided address.
I hope this is helpful.
Regards,
Will Taylor
Office of the Pardon Attorney
PardonAttorneyFOIA@usdoj.gov<mailto:PardonAttorneyFOIA@usdoj.gov>
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardon-attorney-foia
From: Dave Maass
Thanks for the message.
In order to capture whatever documents maybe created, I need to keep periodically filing FOIA requests every few weeks. If your office is willing to do a rolling request and provide records created subsequent to my original request, please let me know.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Feb. 22, 2017. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #DOJ-AP-2017-003357; FOIA 2017-267345.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Feb. 22, 2017. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #DOJ-AP-2017-003357; FOIA 2017-267345.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From:
October 6, 2017
Mr. Dave Maass
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 35041
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
Re: Freedom of Information Act Request: FOIA 2017-267345
Dear Mr. Maass:
We have responded to you with regard to the above
referenced FOIA request on multiple occasions. In your most recent
correspondence, you referenced the Office of Information Policy remand
number DOJ-AP-2017-003357 dated June 8, 2017. As I have indicated
multiple times now, we provided a final response with respect to that
remand, which included a redacted 3-page email dated Tuesday, February
7, 2017 from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to
various government agencies, regarding federal budget training. We
transmitted the document to you on July 7, 2017 with redactions. There
are no additional records to review or disclose with regard to the
above FOIA request, so please refrain from sending additional
correspondence on this matter. We have a few outstanding FOIA requests
from you and we intend to respond to each of them separately, so we
would appreciate if you would turn off whatever automatic notification
you have that sends these emails inquiring about matters that have
already been resolved.
If you are not satisfied with my response to this request, you may
administratively appeal by writing to the Director, Office of
Information Policy (OIP), United States Department of Justice, Suite
11050, 1425 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20530-0001, or you may
submit an appeal through OIP's FOIAonline portal by creating an account
on the following web site:
https://foiaonline.regulations.gov/foia/action/public/home
<https://foiaonline.regulations.gov/foia/action/public/home> . Your
appeal must be postmarked or electronically transmitted within 90 days
of the date of my response to your request. If you submit your appeal
by mail, both the letter and the envelope should be clearly marked
"Freedom of Information Act Appeal."
Sincerely,
William N. Taylor II
Executive Officer
Office of the Pardon Attorney
U.S. Department of Justice
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