UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LAURA POITRAS, Plaintiff, Civil Action No. 15-1091 (BAH) v. Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION Pending before the Court is the plaintiff Laura Poitras’s motion for attorneys’ fees and costs, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(E), against the defendants Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”), the Department of Justice, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (“ODNI”). See Pl.’s Mot. Att’ys Fees (“Pl.’s Mot.”), ECF No. 45. The underlying FOIA requests sought records related to the “plaintiff and her repeated border stops and detentions at airports while traveling in pursuit of her journalistic endeavors.” Id. at 1. Shortly after the plaintiff initiated this lawsuit, several of the defendants’ components released previously withheld records responsive to the plaintiff’s FOIA requests, prompting the plaintiff to contend that she is both eligible for, and entitled to, attorneys’ fees. See generally id. The defendants concede the plaintiff’s eligibility but contest her entitlement to attorneys’ fees. See generally Defs.’ Opp’n to Pl.’s Mot. (“Defs.’ Opp’n”), ECF No. 48. For the following reasons, the plaintiff’s motion is denied. I. BACKGROUND Set out below is the procedural and factual background relevant to the plaintiff’s pending motion, with a fuller account provided in the Court’s previous opinions resolving the parties’ 1 cross-motions for summary judgment. See Poitras v. U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Sec. (“Poitras II”), 303 F. Supp. 3d 136, 143–49 (D.D.C. 2018); Poitras v. U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Sec. (“Poitras I”), No. 15-CV-1091 (KBJ), 2017 WL 7053929 (D.D.C. Mar. 31, 2017). A. The Plaintiff’s FOIA requests The plaintiff is a U.S. citizen, a journalist, and an Oscar-winning filmmaker who, between July 2006 and April 2012, was subjected to “Secondary Security Screening Selection” at the United States border for every international flight she took into the country. Compl. ¶¶ 2– 3. The plaintiff was subjected to the same screening prior to several international flights out of the United States and some domestic flights. Id. ¶ 3. In total, the plaintiff was detained for secondary screening more than 50 times over the six-year period. Id. ¶ 3. “[O]ut of [her] desire to understand why she was stopped, detained, and questioned at the U.S. border by her own government for every international flight she took entering her own country for six years,” see Pl.’s Mem. Opp’n to Defs.’ Second Mot. Summ. J. & Mem. Supp. Pl.’s Second Cross-Mot. Summ. J. (“Pl.’s Second Mem.”) at 1, ECF No. 26 (emphasis in original), the plaintiff, on January 24, 2014, sent FOIA requests to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), to ODNI, to DHS, and to several DHS components, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), the Transportation Security Administration (“TSA”), for “all agency records concerning, naming, or relating to Ms. Poitras.” Compl. ¶¶ 27–29. B. The Defendants’ Responses to the Plaintiff’s FOIA Requests Initial responses to ...
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