The Mueller Letter

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

A letter sent to Attorney General William Barr by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III concerning the Attorney General's public descriptions of the Special Counsel's report ("Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election"). This letter is described in a Washington Post story dated April 30, 2019, available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mueller-complained-that-barrs-letter-did-not-capture-context-of-trump-probe/2019/04/30/d3c8fdb6-6b7b-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html?utm_term=.ef050e8b4516.

The requester is a freelance journalist. The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes. The information I obtain through this request will be used in the preparation of a news article relating to a topic of public concern. Accordingly, I request that all fees for locating and copying the records be waived.

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. If portions of the requested records are closed, please segregate the closed portions and provide me with the rest of the records.

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,

Luppe Luppen

On April 30, 2019, I submitted a request to the Office of the Attorney General for a letter sent from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to Attorney General William Barr. (The letter had received widespread coverage in the news, and I included in my request a hyperlink to the Washington Post article describing the letter.)

On May 1, the Office of the Attorney General issued an electronic acknowledgment of my request.

On May 3, without explaining why it had taken over handling of my request, the Executive Office of United States Attorneys issued a form response letter.

The response letter mischaracterized the nature of my request, calling it a "request for records from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys," when in fact it is a request for a letter sent by the Special Counsel to the Attorney General--a request that was filed with the Office of the Attorney General. No records of United States Attorneys are implicated by the request.

The response letter also identified the following purported deficiency: "The files and records of United States Attorneys are maintained in over one hundred separate offices throughout the United States. Please identify the specific United States Attorney's office(s) where you believe records may be located. This would be primarily the district(s) in which a prosecution or litigation occurred." The purported deficiency, again, has no relevance to a request for a letter reportedly sent by Special Counsel Mueller to Attorney General Barr. No United States Attorneys nor any of their offices are implicated by such a request. Instead, the request is for records kept by Attorney General, the Special Counsel, and/or the respective custodians of their records.

Accordingly, I hereby appeal the determination to refer my request to the Executive Office of United States Attorneys and its determination that my request must specify irrelevant United States Attorneys offices in order to be processed. I further respectfully demand that my request be referred back to the Office of the Attorney General, where it was originally and properly filed, and that his office produce copies of any letter he received from Special Counsel Mueller that is responsive to my request.

Sincerely,
Luppe B. Luppen

Why was no action taken on my May 13, 2019 appeal?

Luppe B. Luppen
luppen@gmail.com