UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE, Plaintiff, v. Civil Action No. 16-2188 (TJK) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Defendant. MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Plaintiff American Center for Law and Justice (“ACLJ”) has requested records from Defendant Department of Justice (“DOJ”) under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552. The records relate to a June 2016 meeting between then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton that occurred on board an airplane in Arizona. The parties have cross-moved for summary judgment. After initially agreeing to limit the scope of the instant motions to the issue of DOJ’s withholdings of certain material under FOIA’s exemptions, ACLJ now also argues that DOJ failed to conduct an adequate search. DOJ argues that both its search and its withholdings were proper. For the reasons explained below, DOJ’s motion for summary judgment will be granted in part and denied in part, and ACLJ’s cross-motion will be denied. DOJ shall make a supplemental submission and renewed motion as set forth below by October 9, 2018. ACLJ shall file any response and cross-motion by October 23, 2018. Factual and Procedural Background According to the complaint, on June 27, 2016, then-Attorney General Lynch and former President Clinton met aboard a parked airplane at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona (the “airplane meeting”). See ECF No. 1 (“Compl.”) ¶ 7. President Clinton’s wife Hillary Clinton, then a candidate for President, was connected to an ongoing DOJ investigation at the time. See ECF No. 23 (“Pl.’s Br.”) at 2. Given that context, the airplane meeting quickly became the subject of significant press attention. See id. at 10-11. On July 15, 2016, ACLJ filed a FOIA request with DOJ that sought various categories of documents relating to the airplane meeting. See ECF No. 22-1 (“Brinkmann Decl.”) ¶ 3 & Ex. A. On November 2, 2016, having not yet received any response from DOJ, ACLJ filed the instant action. Compl. On November 18, 2016, DOJ acknowledged receipt of the FOIA request. Brinkmann Decl. ¶ 5 & Ex. B. In July and August 2017, DOJ made two productions totaling 413 pages to ACLJ. See id. ¶¶ 6-7 & Exs. C-D. The productions included redactions that DOJ made pursuant to FOIA Exemptions 5, 6, and 7(C). See id. DOJ informed ACLJ that, in its view, these productions satisfied its obligations under FOIA. Id. ¶ 7 & Ex. D. The parties met and conferred to discuss the productions. ECF No. 20 (“9/27/17 Status Report”) ¶ 4. During the meet-and-confer process, ACLJ identified several concerns about DOJ’s withholdings. See id. ¶ 5. In response, DOJ revised the redactions it had made to two documents. Id. ¶ 6. ACLJ informed DOJ that it continued to dispute DOJ’s invocation of the deliberative-process privilege under Exemption 5 for certain documents, and that, more generally, it continued to challenge DOJ’s compliance with FOIA’s segregability requirement for the withholdings under Exemption 5. See ECF No. 23-1 (“Southerland Decl.”) ...
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