UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA H. RICHARD WINN, Plaintiff, v. Civil Action No. 17-833 (JDB) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Defendant. MEMORANDUM OPINION Plaintiff H. Richard Winn brought this action pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, and the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552a, against defendant Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking documents responsive to three FOIA requests he submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The government has since released responsive documents to Winn but has withheld some materials as exempted from disclosure. Both parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. For the reasons explained below, the DOJ’s motion for summary judgment will be granted and Winn’s cross-motion for summary judgment will be denied. BACKGROUND Winn is a physician and neurosurgeon who served as the chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine from 1983 until 2002. Decl. of David M. Hardy (“Hardy Decl.”) [ECF No. 15-2] ¶ 5. In 1999, FBI officials began investigating claims for medical services performed by the department’s faculty that were submitted to Medicare and Medicaid. Plea Agreement at 4, United States v. H. Richard Winn, No. 2:02-cr-00235-RSL-1 (W.D. Wash. July 16, 2002), ECF No. 3. Winn was charged with 1 obstructing this investigation, and he ultimately pled guilty to that charge in 2002. Id. at 1, 16. Thirteen years later, on March 30, 2015, Winn submitted a FOIA request to the FBI to obtain files to use in his memoirs. See Ex. A to Def.’s Mot. for Summ. J. (“2015 Request”) [ECF No. 15-3] at 2; 1 Pl.’s P. & A. in Supp. of His Cross-Mot. for Summ. J. & Opp’n to Def.’s Mot. for Summ. J. (“Pl.’s Mot. & Opp’n”) [ECF No. 16-1] at 2. He asked for “[his] own FBI files” and provided names under which the files might be found. 2015 Request at 2. He also included Form DOJ-361, which certified his identity so that the agency could release his own records to him. Id. at 4; see 28 C.F.R. § 16.3 (requiring requester seeking “records about himself” to verify his identity). Three days later, the FBI acknowledged receipt of the request and advised Winn that it had initiated a search for responsive records. Def.’s Stmt. of Undisputed Material Facts (“Def.’s Stmt.”) [ECF No. 15] ¶ 2; Ex. B to Def.’s Mot. for Summ. J. [ECF No. 15-3] at 6. In July 2015, the FBI informed Winn that it had “located approximately 4000 pages of records potentially responsive to the subject of [his] request,” which it identified as “Winn, Herbert Richard.” Ex. D to Def.’s Mot. for Summ. J. [ECF No. 15-3] at 10. It reminded Winn that 4000 pages was only an estimate, and that “some information may not be responsive to [his] subject” and “some of the information may be withheld in full pursuant to FOIA / Privacy Act exemption(s).” Id. In a separate letter, the FBI also advised him that processing of ...
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