Just two days before NPR reported that Attorney General Eric Holder will resign from his job, a U.S. District Judge denied a request by Holder’s Department of Justice to keep secret a listing of documents sought by plaintiffs in a lawsuit over the Operation Fast and Furious (OFF) scandal.
Judicial Watch, which is suing to obtain OFF-related documents the DOJ has refused to release in spite of a 2012 Freedom of Information Act request for the information, touted the ruling on its website, quoting U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, who appeared unconvinced by the DOJ’s argument that it needed more time to produce the OFF list:
Judicial Watch announced today that on September 23, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that by October 22, the Department of Justice (DOJ) must submit a “Vaughn index” listing Fast and Furious materials Judicial Watch sought in its June 2012 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and subsequent September 2012 FOIA lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. Department of Justice (No. 1:12-cv-01510)). A Vaughn index must: (1) identify each document withheld; (2) state the statutory exemption claimed; and (3) explain how disclosure would damage the interests protected by the claimed exemption.
Bates has given the DOJ until October 22 to cough up the list. Here are his reasons for ending the DOJ stonewall:
The Department first points to Judge [Amy Berman] Jackson’s November 3 deadline in House Committee [lawsuit for DOJ Fast and Furious documents] … But this misreads Judge Jackson’s opinion. As that court reasoned, ‘[s]ince the deadline in Judicial Watch was set first, it makes sense for defendant to complete that effort and then turn his attention to the list that is due in this case’ … This rationale counsels against dramatically shifting the goalposts in this case.
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