UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DONOVAN DAVIS, JR., Plaintiff, v. FEDERAL BUREAU OF Case No. 18-cv-0086 (CRC) INVESTIGATION, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION Donovan Davis, Jr. is a federal inmate who wants records relating to his investigation and prosecution. He submitted Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) and Privacy Act requests to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), the United States Secret Service (“Secret Service” or “Service”), and the Executive Office of United States Attorneys (“EOUSA”). Dissatisfied with the agencies’ responses, he filed this suit, challenging the adequacy of their searches and the legitimacy of their withholdings. All three agencies moved for summary judgment in November 2018. But after a long delay in the briefing—owing in part to the lapse in federal appropriations—EOUSA moved to withdraw its motion. The Court granted that motion, leaving only the FBI’s and Secret Service’s motions for resolution. For the reasons that follow, the Court will grant each of them. I. Background In May 2015, Mr. Davis was found guilty of various federal fraud offenses stemming from his participation in a Ponzi scheme and is currently serving a 204-month prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, Florida. See United States v. Davis, 767 F. App’x 714, 722 (11th Cir. 2019); Complaint, ECF No. 1, ¶ 4. On October 14, 2016, Davis filed separate FOIA and Privacy Act requests with the FBI and Secret Service seeking “any and all records under [his] name and/or identifier assigned to [his] name,” including anything related to his arrest, investigation, and prosecution. See Declaration of David M. Hardy (“First Hardy Decl.”), Ex. A, ECF No. 11-4 at 51 (FBI request); Declaration of Kim E. Campbell (“First Campbell Decl.”), Ex. A, ECF No. 11-7 at 19 (Secret Service request). The FBI responded to Davis’s request in August 2017. Compl. ¶ 22; First Hardy Decl. ¶ 10. It informed Davis that it had reviewed 149 potentially responsive pages and provided 72 of those pages. First Hardy Decl. ¶ 10. The FBI also explained that, although many of the documents were exempt from disclosure in their entirety under the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(j)(2), it processed Davis’s request under FOIA because it “afforded the greatest degree of access authorized by both laws.” Id. The FBI did not, however, provide Davis with a Vaughn index detailing its withholdings. Compl. ¶ 22. Davis appealed the FBI’s response to the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy (“OIP”) on August 29, 2017; OIP affirmed the FBI’s response in November 2017. See First Hardy Decl. ¶¶ 13, 15. The Secret Service, for its part, responded to Davis in May 2017, noting that it had conducted a search and was reviewing documents for withholding determinations. First Campbell Decl. ¶ 9. Before any production occurred, in September 2017, the Secret Service told Davis that he could retrieve an external hard drive it had taken from Davis pursuant to a grand jury subpoena issued in 2009. Compl. ¶ 31. But when Davis’s wife arranged ...
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