I wrote on Monday about the lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch on behalf of Legal Insurrection seeking documents withheld by the District of Columbia Office of Attorney General (OAG) and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) regarding David Gregory’s clear violation of the D.C. gun laws, Legal Insurrection and Judicial Watch file suit to obtain David Gregory gun law violation documents.
My post and the announcement did not garner the attention it deserved, perhaps because the whole world was falling apart in D.C. that day, see Benghazi, IRS-Tea Party Scandal, and AP Phone Records. Oh, and Gosnell. (It’s never too late to tweet and Facebook share that original post or this one, hint, hint.)
But yesterday something else developed. I received a call from Emily Miller at The Washington Times, who does great work on 2nd Amendment issues, to let me know that one of the key documents the OAG would not give me because it supposedly was protected by a Freedom of Information Act exemption already had been given to her by … wait for it … the OAG.
Miller calls it part of a pattern of “dirty tricks” by OAG and MPD she has experienced, and she writes about it today, MILLER: D.C. dirty tricks in Part II of unfolding David Gregory mystery-drama:
Officials in Washington, D.C. are using dirty tactics to hide the investigation and decision not to prosecute David Gregory of NBC News for illegally possessing a “high-capacity” magazine in the District of Columbia.
As I wrote in February, my requests to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the Office of Attorney General (OAG) to turn over the documents in Mr. Gregory’s case were ignored. I finally had to use a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, but the attorney general and police only turned over public documents.
So I wrote separate extensively-detailed FOIA request to the attorney general, MPD and Mayor Vincent Gray. The police and prosecutor responded with a large amount of documents — 75 percent of them were useless to me (every public email and news story) and seemed to be an effort to bury me in paper. The rest was heavily redacted with big black marks.
On Monday, I got a press release from Judicial Watch announced it has filed a FOIA lawsuit against MPD and OAG on behalf of the Legal Insurrection blog. In reading through the documents that were not turned over, I noticed that one that I had gotten — the Jan. 9 letter from the NBC’s lawyer Lee Levine to D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan.
I called William A. Jacobson, the lead author of the legal blog, to tell him I had that letter. “I am shocked that the D.C. attorney general would withhold from us the letter from David Gregory’s attorney using a claim of FOIA exemption, and force us to go to court, when they already gave the letter to another person,” Mr. Jacobson, a clinical professor at Cornell Law School, told me.
Miller has more details in her post.
What are they hiding? Why the games?
None of this surprised me. So much about how the David Gregory case was handled has been cloaked in secrecy.
While an inadvertent violation of the D.C. gun laws will get you written up on charges and prosecuted vigorously if you are a regular citizen, Gregory and others at NBC News were let off the hook even though they explicitly and specifically were told by MPD via email not to use the ammunition magazine on the show because it was illegal.
This never has been about a desire to see David Gregory prosecuted, it’s about OAG’s failure to apply the law equally depending on the social status of the person.
I’m fortunate to have Judicial Watch on my side, whose President is quoted by Miller in her story:
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton is determined to use the lawsuit to shine a light into this black hole, saying, “We want the complete record of this controversial decision not to prosecute Gregory or NBC News, and one of the key documents is the affidavit [prepared by police to support a Warrant for Gregory].”
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Comments
Hypocrisy in government? Say it ain’t so!
Seriously, though, isn’t claiming an exemption that doesn’t exist on an FOIA request a crime?
http://www.hhs.gov/foia/45cfr5.html
Here’s direct from FOIA.gov (DOJ rules on 9 exemptions):
“There are nine categories of exempt information and each is described below.
Exemption 1: Information that is classified to protect national security. The material must be properly classified under an Executive Order.
Exemption 2: Information related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency.
Exemption 3: Information that is prohibited from disclosure by another federal law. Additional resources on the use of Exemption 3 can be found on the Department of Justice FOIA Resources page.
Exemption 4: Information that concerns business trade secrets or other confidential commercial or financial information.
Exemption 5: Information that concerns communications within or between agencies which are protected by legal privileges, that include but are not limited to:
1.Attorney-Work Product Privilege
2.Attorney-Client Privilege
3.Deliberative Process Privilege
4.Presidential Communications Privilege
Exemption 6: Information that, if disclosed, would invade another individual’s personal privacy.
Exemption 7: Information compiled for law enforcement purposes if one of the following harms would occur. Law enforcement information is exempt if it:
7(A). Could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings
7(B). Would deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication
7(C). Could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy
7(D). Could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source
7(E). Would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions
7(F). Could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual
Exemption 8: Information that concerns the supervision of financial institutions.
Exemption 9: Geological information on wells.”
Keep in mind this is District of Columbia, not federal issue (the AG at issue is Irvin Nathan not Eric Holder)
Professor, are the FOIA rules different for D.C.? It seems to me that as a federal territory, D.C. should have to abide by the same rules (I posted H.H.S. FOIA rules above before I realized I could get more detailed information from FOIA.gov itself)
Do as I say, not as I do.
-Liberal Credo
If only the standard Democrat realized the route they take will result in bread lines for us, and special stores for the privledged.
But I fight back, and I fight hard. My Tea Party Strategy group has had successes in South Carolina, Ohio, Arizona and other States. Not small crumbs tossed our way to placate us… We are taking the Party over 1 State at a time and the Republican Party will be Conservative!
I am the Conservative Republican Einstein and I can show you how you can kick the establishment out.
I just love Emily Miller to pieces! She’s a fine example of the definition of journalist. Kudos to her.
Holder has been exposed by his practice of hiring only radical leftists.
He is the typical play dirty political leftist.
Fast and Furious made me furious fast.
He and Obama are peas in a pod.
Again. This is a culture of “men, not laws” which is the inverse of our Founding aspirations.
This has to be changed. It isn’t unprecedented in our history, and our people did not stand for it.
I’m kinda fond of the notion of “equal protection under the laws.” So are most Liberals.
Professor
Aren’t you a bit surprised that they actually thought you wouldn’t find out?
It seems a really stupid move by them
One of the hallmarks of the progressive left is their belief that they are the smartest people in the room. Of course, they are anything but….which makes it doubly insulting.
Emily is great. Worthwhile to Bing her name and read all her stories, from the inane process to buying a gun to the laws D.C. flaunted in the Gregory case that were so rigidly against others.
Prof Jacobson has hit another home run with his FOIA.
For me, it is about a desire to see David Gregory prosecuted.
And to see his mug shot and to see him frog-marched and to see him in an orange jumpsuit.
[…] Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has a bit more. […]