DHS-OIG Criminal Referral of CoreCivic Employee (MDGa)
Tracking # |
A-2024-00007 A-2022-02132 EOUSA-2022-002355 |
Submitted | March 31, 2022 |
Due | April 28, 2022 |
Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Andrew Free
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
1. All agency records pertaining to the decision by the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO) for the Middle District of Georgia (MDGa), to decline the recommended prosecution of former CoreCivic employee Freddy Wims for making false statements under oath in connection with the investigation of the death of Jeancarlo Alfonso Jimenez Joseph at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, GA, on May 15, 2017, including, but not limited to, the Declination Memo created by the USAO MDGa.
2. All agency records created or reviewed in connection with the following FOIA requests: "CRM-3006-97176"; EOUSA-2019-002865; A-2020-01304.
Please note the following history of the agency's failure to task an adequate search in response to similar previous requests:
A. First, on May 8, 2019, I requested records from the DOJ Criminal Division pertaining to the declination of prosecution by the USAO for the MDGa. (See: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/doj-records-of-the-dhs-oigs-criminal-investigation-of-jean-jimenezs-death-department-of-justice-criminal-division-72898/#comms). DOJ acknowledged receiving this request on May 22, 2019, and assigned it a tracking number of CRM-3006-97176. In its May 22, 2019, acknowledgement letter, DOJ FOIA requested clarification as to the records requested. I provided the requested clarification the same day, indicating that because prosecution was declined, no case number was publicly available. Consequently, on July 5, 2019, DOJ-CRIM concluded my original request was "misdirected" and transferred that request to the Executive Office of United States Attorneys (EOUSA) and informed me it was treating the response as final and the case closed. I did not administratively appeal that determination because it appeared that DOJ-CRIM did not have responsive records, EOUSA did, and that EOUSA would commence a search for these records after it received DOJ-CRIM's intra-agency referral. To the best of my knowledge, I have never received an acknowledgement or individualized tracking number from EOUSA following DOJ-CRIM's July 5, 2019, referral of my May 8, 2019, "misdirected" request to EOUSA.
2. Second, on May 8, 2019, I requested records from the EOUSA (independently from the referral by DOJ-CRIM). That request is available here: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/doj-records-of-the-dhs-oigs-criminal-investigation-of-jean-jimenezs-death-department-of-justice-executive-office-for-united-states-attorneys-72899/. On May 16, 2019, EOUSA acknowledged receipt of this request and assigned it tracking number EOUSA-2019-002865. On July 8, 2019, EOUSA informed me that it had conducted a search of the USAO for the Northern District of Georgia and located no responsive records. I replied on July 17, 2019, by pointing out that the USAO MDGa had not been searched. EOUSA provided no response. On June 3, 2020, I administratively appealed the constructive denial of my FOIA request, which EOUSA assigned tracking number A-2020-01304. On July 20, 2020, EOUSA denied the appeal, determining it was untimely, because it was not filed within the 90-day period after EOUSA's July 8, 2019 decision.
Based on the above, a currently-pending referral from DOJ-Crim to EOUSA of my "misdirected" request, which DOJ-CRIM initiated no later than July 5, 2019, remains unacknowledged and pending within EOUSA's FOIA files. I seek records responsive to that referral on an expedited basis, given that DOJ FOIA has failed to properly acknowledged the intra-agency transfer for nearly 3 years.
Please do not hesitate to contact me at Andrew@DetentionKills.org if I can provide any clarification or additional information regarding this time-sensitive request.
I make this request on behalf of the #DetentionKills Transparency Initiative, a project of Al Otro Lado. Its purpose is to inform the public of actual and alleged criminal wrongdoing by government contractors which DOJ officials have declined to prosecute.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this time-sensitive matter.
Best regards,
Andrew
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,
Andrew Free
From: Department of Justice, Executive Office for United States Attorneys
Dear Andrew Free,
Case Number EOUSA-2022-002355 has been assigned to the request you submitted. In all future correspondence regarding this request please reference case number EOUSA-2022-002355.
Regards,
Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys
From: Department of Justice, Executive Office for United States Attorneys
Please see the attached correspondence acknowledging your above-numbered FOIA request.
From: Andrew Free
Good morning:
I am willing to narrow this request to reduce fees. Please simply provide the Declination Memo.
I agree to pay up to $25 in fees relating to this request.
Thank you,
Andrew Free
#DetentionKills Transparency Initiative
Al Otro Lado
From: Andrew Free
We hereby appeal the agency's failure to comply with the timing provisions of the Act.
From: Department of Justice, Executive Office for United States Attorneys
The Office of Information Policy has received your FOIA Appeal. Please see the attached acknowledgment letter.
From: Department of Justice, Executive Office for United States Attorneys
The Office of Information Policy has made its final determination on your FOIA Appeal Number A-2022-02132 . A copy of this determination is enclosed for your review, along with any enclosures, if applicable. Thank you.
From: Andrew Free
Good morning,
We did not receive these records. I have checked with MuckRock to see if they can be located, but for the sake of time, can you please email them to Andrew@detentionkills.org?
Thanks very much,
Andrew
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 2, 2022. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #A-2022-02132.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Department of Justice, Executive Office for United States Attorneys
Please do not reply to this e-mail, as this account is not monitored. Thank you.
From: Department of Justice, Executive Office for United States Attorneys
Please see the attached partial release letter and 82 pages of documents responsive to your above-numbered FOIA request. These are in addition to 62 pages of documents belonging to the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, which we referred to that agency on October 5, 2022.
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EOUSA-2022-002355
From: Andrew Free
We appeal as to search adequacy and withholdings.
As to search adequacy, the production is missing the Declination Memo, which is not an OIG document, and which we know exists based on other OIG FOIA responses. Attachments to Emails are similarly missing. No voicemails, text messages, calendar entries, or database entries are included. Please retask an adequate search that proceeds iteratively and addresses these positive indicia of overlooked materials.
The redactions under Exemption 5 of factual information, such as the acronym “ROI”, and the redactions under Exemptions 6 and 7C are not supported by a legal and factual analysis of these records.
Finally no cognizable foreseeable harm applies to the release of this information.
Your office previously denied an administrative appeal on the basis that we had been given the 62-page release on October 5, 2022. We messaged you repeatedly because we never received these records. Instead of providing them, you asserted for the first time that they were not released to us, but rather, referred to DHS-OIG. Please reopen our prior appeal and reverse the affirmance.
Thank you,
Andrew Free
From: Department of Justice, Executive Office for United States Attorneys
The Office of Information Policy has received your FOIA Appeal. Please see the attached acknowledgment letter.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 2, 2022. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #A-2024-00007.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 2, 2022. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #A-2024-00007.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 2, 2022. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #A-2024-00007.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 2, 2022. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #A-2024-00007.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 2, 2022. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #A-2024-00007.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
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