telephone fax web 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 202.797.6000 202.797.6004 brookings.edu June 22, 2017 Federal Bureau of Investigation Attn: FOI/PA Request Record/Information Dissemination Section 170 Marcel Drive Winchester, VA 22602-4843 Fax: (540) 868-4391/4997 Re: Freedom of Information Act Request Dear FOIA Officer: Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, I hereby request that your office produce, within 20 business days, the following records (see below for clarity on the types of records sought): 1. All records of unclassified communications from Andrew McCabe to the FBI workforce1 addressing the firing of Director James Comey, including, but not limited to, emails, official statements, announcements, and memoranda. The timeframe for this request is from May 9, 2017, until the date that a search is conducted for records responsive to this FOIA request. 2. All records of unclassified communications from the Associate Deputy Director to the FBI workforce addressing the firing of Director James Comey, including, but not limited to, emails, official statements, announcements, and memoranda. The timeframe for this request is from May 9, 2017, until the date that a search is conducted for records responsive to this FOIA request. 3. All records of unclassified communications from the Chief of Staff to the FBI workforce addressing the firing of Director James Comey, including, but not limited to, emails, official statements, announcements, and memoranda. The timeframe for this request is from May 9, 2017, until the date that a search is conducted for records responsive to this FOIA request. 4. All records of unclassified communications from the Deputy Chief of Staff to the FBI workforce addressing the firing of Director James Comey, including, but not limited to, emails, official statements, announcements, and memoranda. The timeframe for this request is from May 9, 2017, until the date that a search is conducted for records responsive to this FOIA request. 1 For purposes of this request, the term “FBI workforce” refers to all FBI employees, in any component or office of the organization, who would ordinarily receive agency-wide communications. telephone fax web 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 202.797.6000 202.797.6004 brookings.edu 5. All records of unclassified communications from any other member of the Senior Executive Service within the Office of the Director to the FBI workforce addressing the firing of Director James Comey, including, but not limited to, emails, official statements, announcements, and memoranda. The timeframe for this request is from May 9, 2017, until the date that a search is conducted for records responsive to this FOIA request. 6. In addition to the records requested above, I also request records describing the processing of this request, including records sufficient to identify search terms used and locations and custodians searched and any tracking sheets used to track the processing of this request. If your agency uses FOIA questionnaires or certifications completed by individual custodians or components to determine whether they possess responsive materials or to describe how they conducted searches, I also request any such records prepared in connection with the processing of this request. FEE WAIVER FOIA provides that any fees associated with a request are waived if “disclosure of the information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(A)(iii). I am the Editor-in-Chief of Lawfare, an online publication dedicated to informing public understanding on operations and activities of the government. Lawfare is published by The Lawfare Institute, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational organization, and in cooperation with The Brookings Institution, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public policy organization. This request is submitted in connection with Lawfare’s mission to publish information that is likely to contribute significantly to the public understanding of executive branch activities related to law and national security. Lawfare does not have commercial interests. In addition to satisfying the requirements for a waiver of fees associated with the search and processing of records, I am entitled to a waiver of all fees except “reasonable standard charges for document duplication.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(A)(ii)(II). Federal law mandates that fees be limited to document duplication costs for any requester that qualifies as a representative of the news media. Id. Lawfare is a “news media organizations.” Its purpose is to “gather information of potential interest to a segment of the public, use its editorial skills to turn the raw materials into distinct work, and distribute that work to an audience.” Nat’s Sec. Archive v. Dep’t of Defense, 880 F.2d 1381, 1387 (D.C. Cir. 1989). We intend to give the public access to documents transmitted via FOIA on our website, https://www.lawfareblog.com, and to provide information about and analysis of those documents as appropriate. RESPONSIVE RECORDS We ask that all types of records and all record systems be searched to discover records responsive to our request. We seek records in all medium and format. This includes, but is not limited to: agendas, manifests, calendars, schedules, notes, and any prepared documentation for meetings, calls, teleconferences, or other discussions responsive to our request; voicemails; emails; e-mail attachments; talking points; faxes; training documents and guides; tables of contents and contents of binders; documents pertaining to instruction and coordination of couriers; and any other materials. We ask that you search all systems of record, including telephone fax web 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 202.797.6000 202.797.6004 brookings.edu electronic and paper, in use at your agency. We also ask that you search files or emails in the personal custody of your employees, such as personal email accounts, as required by FOIA and to the extent that they are reasonably likely to contain responsive records. We would prefer records in electronic format, saved as PDF documents, and transmitted via email or CD-ROM. If you make a determination that any responsive record, or any segment within a record, is exempt from disclosure, we ask that you provide an index of those records at the time you transmit all other responsive records. In the index, please include a description of the record and the reason for exclusion with respect to each individual exempt record or exempt portion of a record, as provided by Vaughn v. Rosen, 484 F.2d 820 (D.C. Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 977 (1974). When you deem a portion of a record exempt, we ask that the remainder of the record to be provided, as required by 5 U.S.C. § 552(b). Given the 20-day statutory deadline, we hope to be as helpful as possible in clarifying or answering questions about our request. Please contact me by phone or email if you require any additional information. I appreciate your cooperation, and look forward to hearing from you very soon. Sincerely, /s/ Benjamin Wittes Benjamin Wittes Senior Fellow in Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution Editor in Chief, Lawfare 1775 Massachusetts Ave NW Washington D.C. 20036 Phone: (202) 797- 4368 benjamin.wittes@gmail.com