UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY Plaintiff, v. No. 17-cv-2426 (EGS) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION In 2017, the President nominated Wilbur L. Ross, Jr., as the Secretary of Commerce and Todd M. Ricketts as the Deputy Secretary of Commerce. Seeking certain records concerning both nominees, Plaintiff Center for Public Integrity (“CPI”) submitted separate requests to the United States Department of Commerce (“DOC”) and the United States Office of Government Ethics (“OGE”)—an independent agency within the Executive Branch. CPI’s request to DOC sought communications between then- nominee Secretary Ross and DOC’s Ethics Law and Programs Division staff from November 2016 through the present. CPI filed two requests with OGE, seeking: (1) records regarding Secretary Ross’s financial and ethics disclosures as well as his potential conflicts of interest; and (2) records among OGE employees about Mr. Ricketts, or between OGE employees and Mr. Ricketts. Unsatisfied with the responses to its requests, CPI filed this action against DOC and OGE (collectively, the “Defendants”) under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552. CPI concedes that Defendants adequately searched for responsive documents and properly applied the claimed exemptions under FOIA. At issue here is whether Defendants released all reasonably segregable information in certain documents withheld in full. Pending before the Court are the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment. Upon careful consideration of the parties’ submissions, the applicable law, and the entire record herein, the Court concludes that Defendants have failed to meet their burden of demonstrating that all reasonably segregable information has been disclosed to CPI. Therefore, the Court GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART Defendants’ Renewed Motion for Summary Judgment and GRANTS IN PART, DENIES IN PART, and HOLDS IN ABEYANCE Plaintiff’s Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment. I. Background The following facts—drawn from the parties’ submissions—are undisputed, except where indicated. CPI is a non-profit organization devoted to “using the tools of investigative journalism” to “reveal[] abuses of power, corruption and 2 betrayal of public trust.” Compl., ECF No. 1 at 2 ¶ 4. 1 Between February 2017 and June 2017, CPI employed another tool—FOIA—in an attempt to unearth certain records concerning Secretary Ross and Mr. Ricketts. 2 On February 21, 2017, CPI submitted a FOIA request to DOC, seeking any communications between the Chief of DOC’s Ethics Law and Program Division, David Maggi, or his staff, and Commerce Secretary nominee Ross or any of his representatives. E.g., Decl. of David Maggi (“Maggi Decl.”), ECF No. 15-2 at 2 ¶ 5; Pl.’s Cross-Mot. for Summ. J. & Opp’n to Defs.’ Renewed Mot. for Summ. J. (“Pl.’s Mot.”), ECF No. 16 at 3 (“The likely date range of the records is Nov. 29, 2016 through the present.” (citations omitted)). On March 10, 2017, OGE received a separate request from CPI, seeking any records pertaining to Secretary Ross’s “financial and ethics disclosures 1 When citing electronic filings throughout this Opinion, the Court cites to the ECF page number, not the page ...
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