UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

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Brennan Center for Justice et al.,

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Plaintiffs,
v.
U.S. Dep’t of Justice et al.,
Defendants.

Civil Action No. 1:17-cv-6335 (AKH)
THIRD SUPPLEMENTAL
DECLARATION OF
JAMES V.M.L. HOLZER

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1.

I, James V.M.L. Holzer, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, hereby declare as follows:

2.

I am the Deputy Chief Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) Officer for the

Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) Privacy Office (“DHS Privacy”).
3.

In this capacity, I am the DHS official responsible for implementing FOIA policy

across DHS and responding to requests for records under the FOIA, 5 U.S.C. § 552, the Privacy
Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552a, and other applicable records access provisions. I have been employed by
DHS Privacy in this capacity since May 2016. I previously served as the Director of the Office

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of Government Information Services within the National Archives and Records Administration,

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and prior to that I served as the Senior Director of FOIA Operations for DHS.

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4.

Through the exercise of my official duties, I have become familiar with the

background of Plaintiff’s FOIA requests, dated May 17, 2017, July 25, 2017, and January 8,
2018. I have also become familiar with the background of this litigation and have read a copy of
the Amended Complaint filed by Plaintiff on September 11, 2017 and the Supplemental
Complaint filed on May 7, 2018.
5.

In my Declaration of December 21, 2017, I described the FOIA process in DHS

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Privacy, and described the office’s staffing and workload. In my Declaration of November 8,

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2018, I described the current state of the DHS Privacy FOIA program and DHS Privacy’s

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progress on Plaintiffs’ FOIA requests, DHS Privacy’s search for records responsive to Plaintiff’s

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Holzer Declaration, Case No. 1:17-cv-6335 (AKH)

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first two FOIA requests, and an explanation that DHS is not continuing the work of the PACEI.

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This declaration will focus on DHS’s response to the Court’s Order on June 28, 2019, denying

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the Defendants’ motion for reconsideration of the Court’s Order on April 30, 2019--specifically,

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to that part of the Court’s Order directing the agencies to “ask relevant employees if they used

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private email accounts relating to the Commission’s business and, if so, to produce the
documents.” ECF No. 99 at 11.

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6.

In response to the Court’s Order on April 30, 2019, and in anticipation of the

Court’s Order on June 28, 2019, on May 21, 2019, DHS contacted the 234 relevant agency

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employees, requesting that they inform us if they used their personal email accounts to conduct

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U.S. government business that may have captured federal records subject to the FOIA request

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and the Amended Complaint of this case. These 234 individuals were the custodians identified

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when DHS conducted its original searches as DHS employees that might have records
responsive to the requests and Complaint. None of those individuals responded in the
affirmative to the request of whether they used their personal email accounts to conduct U.S.

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government business that may have captured federal records subject to the FOIA request and the

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Amended Complaint of this case.

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Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true
and correct.
Dated the 22nd day of July 2019, Washington, D.C.

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__________________________________________
James V.M.L. Holzer
Deputy Chief FOIA Officer
DHS Privacy Office
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

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Holzer Declaration, Case No. 1:17-cv-6335 (AKH)

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