U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Information Policy
Sixth Floor
441 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Telephone: (202) 514-3642

September 11, 2019
Austin R. Evers
American Oversight
Suite B255, 1030 15th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
foia@americanoversight.org

Re:

DOJ-2019-000826
DRH:ERH

Dear Austin Evers:
This responds to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request dated and received
in this Office on November 13, 2018, in which you requested communications between
Matthew Whitaker and the White House pertaining to Robert Mueller or the Special Counsel,
dating since October 4, 2017.
Please be advised that a search has been conducted in the Office of the Attorney
General, as well as of the electronic database of the Departmental Executive Secretariat, which
is the official records repository for the Office of the Attorney General, and no records
responsive to your request were located.
For your information, Congress excluded three discrete categories of law enforcement
and national security records from the requirements of the FOIA. See 5 U.S.C. § 552 (2012 &
Supp. V 2017). This response is limited to those records that are subject to the requirements of
the FOIA. This is a standard notification that is given to all our requesters and should not be
taken as an indication that excluded records do, or do not, exist.
You may contact our FOIA Public Liaison, Valeree Villanueva, for any further
assistance and to discuss any aspect of your request at: Office of Information Policy, United
States Department of Justice, Sixth Floor, 441 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20530-0001;
telephone at 202-514-3642.
Additionally, you may contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS)
at the National Archives and Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA mediation
services they offer. The contact information for OGIS is as follows: Office of Government
Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, Room 2510, 8601
Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001; e-mail at ogis@nara.gov; telephone at
202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at 202-741-5769.
If you are not satisfied with my response to this request, you may administratively
appeal by writing to the Director, Office of Information Policy, United States Department of
Justice, Sixth Floor, 441 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20530-0001, or you may submit an
appeal through OIP’s FOIAonline portal at
https://foiaonline.gov/foiaonline/action/public/home. Your appeal must be postmarked or

 -2electronically submitted within ninety days of the date of my response to your request. If you
submit your appeal by mail, both the letter and the envelope should be clearly marked
“Freedom of Information Act Appeal.”
Sincerely,

Douglas R. Hibbard
Chief, Initial Request Staff