UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LOUISE TRAUMA CENTER, LLC : : Plaintiff, : Civil Action No.: 20-3517 (RC) : v. : Re Document Nos.: 14, 17 : DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, : : Defendant. : MEMORANDUM OPINION DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT; GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANT’S CROSS-MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND The Louise Trauma Center, LLC (“the Center”) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping immigrant women who have experienced gender-based violence apply for asylum, as well as educating the public and raising awareness about the issues their clients face. Compl. ¶ 4, ECF No. 1. In furtherance of that work, the Center made a series of FOIA requests to the Department of Justice in 2019 and 2020 that formed the basis of this six-count action. See id. ¶¶ 8, 15, 20, 25, 34, 42. Following the filing of this FOIA action in December 2020, see generally id., the government processed all six requests and the parties conferred regarding their outstanding disagreements. See Joint Status Reports, ECF Nos. 10, 11, 12, 13, 15. As a result, only two of the counts in the Complaint now require resolution by the Court: Counts 2 and 4. See Pl.’s Mot. Summ. J. at 4 (“Pl.’s Mot.”), ECF No. 14. The FOIA request in Count 2 was submitted in September 2019 and requested “all records . . . concerning Office of Immigration Litigation training materials for lawyers in the appellate section[.]” Ex. 2 of Compl., ECF No. 1-2; see also Pl.’s Statement Facts ¶¶ 2–3 (“Pl.’s St. Facts”), ECF No. 14-1; Def.’s Statement Facts ¶ 1b (“Def.’s St. Facts”), ECF No. 17-1. DOJ had not yet responded to the request when this action was filed over a year later. Pl.’s St. Facts ¶ 6; Def.’s Resp. to Pl.’s Statement Facts ¶ 6, ECF No. 16-1. The Office of Immigration Litigation Appellate Section (OIL-App) began searching for responsive documents in January 2021 and located 4,363 responsive pages. Decl. of Hirsh Kravitz ¶ 7 (“Kravitz Decl.”), ECF No. 17-2; Suppl. Decl. of Hirsh Kravitz ¶ 7 (“Supp. Kravitz Decl.”), ECF No. 21-1. Of those, DOJ released 172 pages in full, released 24 pages with redactions, and withheld 4,168 pages and 12 videos in full pursuant to FOIA Exemptions 5 and 6. Def.’s St. Facts ¶ 8. The Center believes that the government improperly asserted Exemption 5 to withhold documents responsive to that request. Pl.’s Mot. at 6. The request at issue in Count 4 was submitted in May 2020. Def.’s St. Facts ¶ 13. It first referenced the foreseeable harm standard incorporated into statute by the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, which required agencies to only withhold information if “the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption.” Ex. 4 of Compl., ECF No. 1-4; see also FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, Pub. L. No. 114-185 (codified at 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(8)(A)(i)(I)). The request then posed the questions: “How …
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