FBI Tries To Limit Freedom of Information Requests

 The FBI is fighting in court to limit how hard it has to search for government documents requested by the public under the Freedom of Information Act, one of the main laws for ensuring openness in government.  If the bureau prevails, people could have a diminished chance of getting documents from the nation's most famous law enforcement agency, open records experts said. In court, the FBI is defending a recent automated search that missed some documents that had been released years ago in a separate FOIA case.  Representing the FBI, the Justice Department asked a federal judge this month to dismiss this lawsuit and said its request should not be undermined "by an unsuccessful search for a document as long as the search was adequate." FBI officials declined to further address the ongoing litigation.  Justice Department guidelines say the law requires a search "reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents."  Legal and academic critics say the search in this case didn't meet that standard. They said they suspect the transfer of records from paper to electronic files has become an excuse for doing cursory searches that the government knows won't retrieve all relevant documents. "We all thought that digitization of government documents and electronic FOIA would mean greater public access, but time and again we've seen government agencies use it as an excuse for obfuscation," said Jane Kirtley, a University of Minnesota journalism professor who has waged many FOIA battles. "They say, 'We don't have the software set up to find what you're looking for.'"  The lawsuit in question was filed by Salt Lake City lawyer Jesse Trentadue, who is pursuing a theory his brother Kenneth was murdered in a federal prison isolation cell in Oklahoma City on Aug. 21, 1995. Kenneth's bloody and bruised corpse raised questions of foul play among many officials, but local and federal investigations ruled his death a suicide. [more]