This case is related to the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse's coverage of the Carter Page Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants. For more information on litigation to disclose the warrants that inspired this case, please see
this link. For a summary of the warrants and information on ongoing efforts by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to protect the confidential information in them, see
this link.
The FISA requires the government to obtain a warrant from the FISC before it may conduct any domestic electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information. The warrant applications are made ex parte and must include a sworn statement by a federal officer of the facts and circumstances relied upon to justify the government's belief that the target of surveillance is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. Once a FISC judge receives a warrant application, the judge can order approval of the surveillance only if the judge finds that there is probable cause to believe that the target of the electronic surveillance is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. Because the orders only authorize surveillance up to 90 days, the government must file an application for an extension that meets the same requirements as the initial warrant application and obtain a renewal order from the FISC for continued surveillance. For the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse collection of FISA matters, see our
special collection.
On August 7, 2018, Judicial Watch, a conservative-leaning nonprofit specializing in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation to expose government mismanagement, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia under FOIA (5 U.S.C. § 552) against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking records surrounding surveillance of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. In a separate case, the FISC released an opinion (available in this Clearinghouse as
NS-DC-0127) flagging this case as one that could lead to lawful release of information in the Carter Page FISA warrants. The case was assigned to Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
The complaint stated that the plaintiff initially submitted its FOIA request with the DOJ on May 29, 2018, and that as of the date of the complaint, the DOJ had not provided any responsive information to the request. The plaintiff sought information from three offices within the DOJ: the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the office of a particular former Associate Deputy Attorney General, and the Office of the Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. It was looking for any information these offices had pertaining to communications and background information on Fusion GPS, a commercial research and intelligence firm, and various sources publicly disclosed as the basis for the "Steele Dossier," the primary document the DOJ used to pursue FISA surveillance of Trump 2016 campaign advisor Carter Page.
After the complaint was filed, representatives from the plaintiff organization and the DOJ met to discuss a schedule for releasing relevant, non-exempt records under FOIA. In an October 19, 2018 status report, the parties agreed to produce documents on a six-month timeframe, with more updates to come as needed. As investigation commenced, more responsive documents were found that necessitated other searches, and this, combined with the government shutdown in late 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic, delayed completion of this document request. As of the most recent status report, filed on December 11, 2020, the parties anticipate that the DOJ will be able to estimate a date for final document production in early 2021.
The case and document production is still ongoing; Judicial Watch has not yet contested any of the DOJ's withholdings.
Ellen Aldin - 12/21/2020
compress summary
