Twitter-Trump correspondence

This message is to confirm your request submission to the FOIAonline application: View Request. Request information is as follows: (https://www.foiaonline.gov/foiaonline/action/public/submissionDetails?trackingNumber=NARA-NGC-2022-000114&type=request)

* Tracking Number: NARA-NGC-2022-000114
* Requester Name: Jeff Elder
* Date Submitted: 10/28/2021
* Request Status: Submitted
* Description:
To Whom It May Concern:

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

All correspondence between any employees of Twitter and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from January 1, 2016 to January 1, 2021.

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,

Jeff Elder

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/

Dear Mr. Elder:

Thank you for submitting your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to
the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) via the
*FOIAOnline* website.
We received your request on October 28, 2021. Your request concerns
correspondence between Twitter employees and the White House Office of
Science and Technology Policy from January 1, 2016 to January 1, 2021.

Our office uses the *FOIAonline* portal for FOIA and Privacy Act requests
for the National Archives and Records Administration's operational records
(records created by this agency). Your *FOIAOnline *request is for records
that may be electronic archival records (records created by or originated
in a different agency but that may have been transferred to the legal
custody of NARA). Therefore, we have forwarded it to our *Office of
Research Services, Special Access and FOIA* (RF) staff that coordinate
requests for electronic records with our Electronic Records division.

Since *Research Services* does not process FOIA requests through
*FOIAOnline*, we removed your request from the *FOIAOnline* website. *Special
Access *staff will assign your request a new tracking number, and respond
directly to you. In the future, if you need to follow up with that office
directly, please contact them at the address below, or electronically via
email (email is preferred).

The National Archives and Records Administration
Special Access and FOIA Staff (RF)
8601 Adelphi Road, Room 5500
College Park, MD 20740

By phone: 301-837-3190
By fax: 301-837-1864
By email: specialaccess_foia@nara.gov

For your reference, a copy of your request is below.

Please visit our website at www.archives.gov/foia for further information
about submitting a FOIA request to NARA. On our main website,
www.archives.gov, you can learn more about the resources we offer to the
public, and you can access our online catalog.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and pursuant to guidance received from the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal
operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work
while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of
our staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may
experience a delay in receiving a substantive response to your FOIA
request. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your
understanding and patience.

Sincerely,
Susan Gillett
Government Information Specialist
Office of General Counsel
National Archives and Records Administration
College Park, MD 20740-6001
susan.gillett@nara.gov

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <admin@foiaonline.gov>
Date: Fri, Oct 29, 2021 at 2:27 PM
Subject: FOIA Request Deletion: NARA-NGC-2022-000114
To: <susan.gillett@nara.gov>

Below is an export of the submitted request information for the FOIA
request NARA-NGC-2022-000114.

- *Name and Address*
- First Name: Jeff
- Middle Initial:
- Last Name: Elder
- Organization:
- Mailing Address Location: United States/U.S. Territories
- Address Line 1: MuckRock News DEPT MR 120694
- Address Line 2: 411A Highland Ave
- City: Somerville
- State/Province: MA
- Zip/Postal Code: 02144-2516
- *Contact Information*
- E-mail Address: requests@muckrock.com
- Phone Number:
- Fax Number:
- *Agency and Fee Information*
- Assigned Agency: NGC - Office of General Counsel
- Will Pay Up To: $0.00
- *Description*
- To Whom It May Concern:

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

All correspondence between any employees of Twitter and the White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy from January 1, 2016 to
January 1, 2021.

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,

Jeff Elder

Upload documents directly:
https://www.muckrock.com/
- *Fee Waiver*
- Fee Waiver Requested: No
- Fee Waiver Reason:
- *Expedited Processing*
- Expedited Processing Requested: No
- Expedited Processing Reason:

Dear Jeff Elder:

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Act request for records in the
custody of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Due to
the COVID-19 pandemic, we are not able to process FOIA requests according
to our normal procedures. We have assigned your request the temporary
tracking number *RF-1130*. When we resume normal operations, we will log
requests into our system in the order they were received. At that time, we
will provide you with a new FOIA tracking number and a more substantive
response. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your
understanding and patience.

You requested all correspondence between any employees of Twitter and the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from January 1, 2016 to
January 1, 2021. For the dates you requested, NARA only has custody of
Office of Science and Technology Policy emails from the Obama
administration, so we will conduct a search for responsive records from
January 1, 2016 through January 17, 2017 (the latest date we have in our
custody).

For records dated after January 17, 2017, you will need to submit a Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) request directly to OSTP (
whitehouse.gov/ostp/legal).

If you are not satisfied with my action on this request, you have the right
to file an administrative appeal within ninety (90) calendar days from the
date of this letter. Appeals must be in writing and may be delivered by
regular U.S. mail or by email. By filing an appeal, you preserve your
rights under the Freedom of Information Act and present the deciding agency
with an opportunity to review your request and reconsider its decision. If
you submit your appeal by regular mail, it should be addressed to the
Deputy Archivist of the United States (ND), National Archives and Records
Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, Room 4200, College Park, Maryland
20740-6001. Both the letter and envelope should be clearly marked “FOIA
Appeal.” If you submit your appeal by email, please send it to
foia@nara.gov, addressed to the Deputy Archivist, with the words “FOIA
Appeal” in the subject line. If you exercise your right to appeal, please
explain why you believe this response does not meet the requirements of the
Freedom of Information Act. All communications concerning this request
should reference your FOIA tracking number.

If you would like the opportunity to discuss my response and attempt to
resolve your dispute without initiating the appeals process, you may
contact our FOIA Public Liaison for assistance:
Accessioned Executive Branch Records – Washington, DC Area
FOIA Requester Service Center: 301-837-3190
FOIA Public Liaison: Rebecca Calcagno
8601 Adelphi Road, Room 5500
College Park, MD 20740-6001
dc.foia.liaison@nara.gov
301-837-3190

You may also contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS)
is the federal FOIA ombudsman. OGIS offers mediation services to help
resolve disputes between FOIA requesters and federal agencies. You may
contact OGIS at the following mailing address:

Office of Government Information Services (OGIS)
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road, Room 2510
College Park, MD 20740-6001
ogis@nara.gov
202-741-5770
1-877-684-6448 (toll-free)

Sincerely,

Megan Dwyre
Special Access and FOIA Program
National Archives at College Park, MD

Dear Jeff Elder <requests@muckrock.com>,
Your password has been updated per your request. You can change your password in the future from your
profile page.
If you believe you received this email in error or need additional assistance, please contact the FOIAonline Help Desk. (mailto:foia.help@epa.gov)
Thank you!
FOIAonline Team (mailto:foia.help@epa.gov)

This is an automated reply to inform you that the National Archives and Records Administration received your email.

We have received your request and will respond within 20 working days. Please note that submitting duplicate requests will increase wait times.

If you have any questions, you can call our office at 301-837-3190. You can also visit our web page at www.archives.gov/research/foia.

Notice to NARA Researchers and FOIA Requesters

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of our staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference or FOIA request or appeal. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

Thank you.

This is an automated reply to inform you that the National Archives and Records Administration received your email.

We have received your request and will respond within 20 working days. Please note that submitting duplicate requests will increase wait times.

If you have any questions, you can call our office at 301-837-3190. You can also visit our web page at www.archives.gov/research/foia.

Notice to NARA Researchers and FOIA Requesters

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of our staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference or FOIA request or appeal. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

Thank you.

Dear Jeff Elder:

This email is in response to your request for a status update for your
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request under interim tracking number
*RF-1130*, which was received in our office on November 1, 2021.

Since our last correspondence with you on November 2, 2021, your request
has been logged into our system and assigned the permanent FOIA Tracking
Number *RD 66285*. Please reference this FOIA Tracking Number for all
communications concerning this request going forward.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has created many unprecedented
challenges in our work. The majority of the records that our customers
request require our staff to be on-site to search for and review microfilm,
microfiche, or original textual records. Even as we expand our reopening,
operations may be temporarily curtailed due to limited staffing and/or
deteriorating local health conditions.

Due to limitations on staff in our facility over the course of the
pandemic, the backlog of FOIA requests in our office has significantly
expanded, and we are continuing to work on logging in and providing initial
responses to the FOIA requests we received over the past 23 months.

I want to assure you that we are aware of your request and that it is in
our queue waiting for the next available staff member to conduct a search.
Within that queue, your case sits third in line. As soon as the search is
completed, a staff member will contact you directly stating the results of
the search and the estimated completion date for the review of the
record(s) as required under FOIA.

*Please note, we will not respond to requests for status updates more than
once every six months.*

We thank you for your continued patience and understanding.

Sincerely,

Ashney Randle
Government Information Specialist
Special Access & FOIA Program (RF)
National Archives at College Park

This is an automated reply to inform you that the National Archives and Records Administration received your email.

We have received your request and will respond within 20 working days. Please note that submitting duplicate requests will increase wait times.

If you have any questions, you can call our office at 301-837-3190. You can also visit our web page at www.archives.gov/research/foia.

Notice to NARA Researchers and FOIA Requesters

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of our staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference or FOIA request or appeal. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

Thank you.

This is an automated reply to inform you that the National Archives and Records Administration received your email.

We have received your request and will respond within 20 working days. Please note that submitting duplicate requests will increase wait times.

If you have any questions, you can call our office at 301-837-3190. You can also visit our web page at www.archives.gov/research/foia.

Notice to NARA Researchers and FOIA Requesters

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of our staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference or FOIA request or appeal. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and patience.

Thank you.

Dear Jeff Elder:

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request
dated October 29, 2021 for records in the custody of the National Archives
and Records Administration (NARA). Your request was received in this office
on November 3, 2021 and assigned reference number RD 66285, interim
tracking number RF-1130. You requested access to emails between personnel
of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and Twitter staff
with a date range of January 1, 2016 through January 20, 2017.

We have taken legal custody of the emails of the federal components of the
Executive Office of the President from the Obama administration and were
able to search them for records that could be responsive to your request.

We have attached a spreadsheet that details the different search parameters
we used, as well as the resulting number of potentially responsive emails
for each search.

Column A provides the basic search parameters that were used. We used “@
ostp.eop.gov” to search for emails sent to/from OSTP personnel. We used “@
twitter.com” to search for emails sent to/from Twitter staff. We searched
for the 6 following categories using the requested date range:
1.) emails sent from OSTP staff to Twitter,
2.) emails sent from OSTP staff that Twitter was CC’d on;
3.) emails sent from OSTP staff that Twitter was BCC’d on;
4.) emails sent from Twitter to OSTP staff;
5.) emails sent from Twitter that OSTP staff were CC’d on;
6.) emails sent from Twitter that OSTP staff were BCC’d on.

Column B provides the number of search results using the search parameters
from Column A.
For instance, box 2B indicates that OSTP staff sent 208 emails to Twitter
during the requested date range.

Column C provides an additional filter for Row 5. I noticed that the bulk
of results were sent from a few email addresses: "notify@twitter.com" "
info@twitter.com" "confirm@twitter.com" "password@twitter.com" "
verify@twitter.com" These email addresses aren’t associated with an
individual Twitter staff member. They seem to only provide information such
as: notifications of retweets/likes on Twitter, suggestions of Twitter
accounts to follow, marketing emails about how to "promote your business on
Twitter", notifications of user password changes and new log ins - "New
login to Twitter from Windows", etc. Thus, I re-did the search for that row
and filtered out emails sent from the above email addresses. Adding that
filter reduced the number of results for that row from 1,574 to only 170.

Column D provides an additional filter for Row 2. It simply filters out
emails that have the phrase “automatic reply” in them. Adding that filter
reduces the number of results for that row from 208 to 187.

Please let us know which set of searches you would like us to consider
responsive to your search. While making your decision, please keep in mind
the amount of time it will take to process requests of varying sizes. If
your total request is for less than 141 responsive emails, it can be added
to our first tier processing queue, which has an estimated processing time
of 39 months. Requests for 141 - 600 emails will be added to our second
tier processing queue. Reviewers are currently processing second tier
requests that were received in June 2014. Requests for more than 600 emails
will be added to our third tier processing queue and processed on an
incremental basis. Reviewers are currently processing second third requests
that were received in August 2013.

These records require screening for categories of information exempted from
disclosure under the terms of the FOIA prior to public release. In
particular, information may be redacted to protect the personal privacy of
living individuals.

Given the initial search results, your request has been assigned to our third
tier processing queue. This is a temporary assignment until we know your
preferred search parameters and the number of records we will need to
review. Please contact me directly to let me know how you would like us to
proceed.

You must notify this office of changes to your contact information. If
communication is returned as undeliverable and no return address is
provided, your case will be administratively closed. To change your contact
information or to track the status of your request, please email
specialaccess_foia@nara.gov or call 301-837-3190. Please include your FOIA
tracking number in all communications concerning this request.

If you are not satisfied with our action on this request and would like the
opportunity to discuss our response, you may contact our FOIA Public
Liaison for assistance:

Accessioned Executive Branch Records – Washington, DC Area

FOIA Requester Service Center: 301-837-3190

FOIA Public Liaison: Rebecca Calcagno

8601 Adelphi Road, Room 5500

College Park, MD 20740-6001

dc.foia.liaison@nara.gov

301-837-3190

If you have other questions regarding your request, please contact me
directly.

Sincerely,

Brigitte Flynn

Archives Specialist

Special Access and FOIA Program (RF)

National Archives at College Park, MD

https://www.archives.gov/research/foia

Dear Jeff Elder:

You requested a status update on *RD 66285 interim tracking number RF-1130*,
a request our office received on November 1, 2021. The request was assigned
to our Tier 3 processing queue for review. To give you an indication of our
existing backlog for cases in Tier 1, there are approximately 324 cases
ahead of yours.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has created many unprecedented
challenges in our work. The majority of the records that our customers
request require our staff to be on-site to search for and review microfilm,
microfiche, or original textual records. Staffing levels on-site have been
severely limited with long periods where our facility was closed. Even as
we expand our reopening, operations may be temporarily curtailed due to
limited staffing and/or deteriorating local health conditions. Our small
staff has and will continue to work diligently to process each request as
quickly as possible. We are not able to provide you with an estimated
timeline for when a staff member will reach your requests in the queue.

To notify this office of a change in your contact information or to track
the status of your request, please telephone 301-837-3190 or email
specialaccess_foia@nara.gov. All communications concerning these requests
should reference your case tracking numbers *RD **66285 interim tracking
number RF-1130*.

*Please note that we will not respond to status update requests more than
once every six months.*

Sincerely,

Jason Mincey
Archives Specialist
Special Access & FOIA Program (RF)

Your FOIAonline user account for requests@muckrock.com has been deactivated due to inactivity.