Freedom of information: Judge wants CIA to release records in electronic form

A former CIA employee seeking CIA records with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request found support from a federal district judge. The judge said that the CIA may be violating the law by claiming they could only meet the request by producing 19,000 pages of hard copy. The ex-employee Jeffrey Scudder claims that from his experience the agency could produce unclassified electronic documents to meet the request. (Courthouse News Service, March 17, 2014, by Kevin Lessmiller)

The federal  judge, Beryl A. Howell, said the CIA was putting up unnecessary roadblocks to providing the information in electronic form, refused to grant summary judgment and ordered the case to trial. “A FOIA request for records in an existing format should not be frustrated due to the agency’s decision to adopt a production process that nonetheless renders release in that format highly burdensome,” wrote Howell. (Secrecy News, March 17, 2014, by Steven Aftergood)