Washington,D.C. 20505 1 November 2019 Ms. Melanie Sloan Senior Advisor American Oversight l 030 15th Street NW Suite B255 Washington, DC 20005 Reference: F-2019-02129 Dear Ms. Sloan: This acknowledges receipt of your 3 October 2019 letter, received in the office of the Information and Privacy Coordinator on 3 October 2019, in response to our letter dated 19 September 2019 regarding your 17 July 2019 Freedom oflnformation Act (FOIA) request, submitted on behalf of American Oversight, for records sufficient to identify any and all contracts between the following agencies and (a) the below-listed individuals who were nominated but not confirmed to serve in the listed agencies or (b) any legal entities operated by or on behalf of the listed individuals: U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Christopher R. Sharpley including all responsive records reflecting contracts entered into from January 20, 2017 through the date of the search. Regarding Item (b ), we requested that you provide specific company name(s) in which you have a particular interest which would be helpful in facilitating our searches. You asked that [we] include the company Next Phase Solutions, LLC in [our[ search. This is also a final response to your request. After conducting a search reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents, we did not locate any records that would reveal a publicly acknowledged CIA affiliation with the subject of your request. To the extent that your request also seeks records, if any exist, that would reveal an unacknowledged or classified affiliation with the subject of your request , we can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of such records. The admission of existence or nonexistence of such records is a fact that is exempt under FOIA. You may consider this finding a denial of this portion of your request pursuant to FOIA exemption (b)(3), or FOIA exemptions (b)(l) and (b)(3), as appropriate. Exemption (b)(3) pertains to information exempt from disclosure by statute. In this case, the relevant statutes are Section 6 of the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949, 50 U.S.C. Section 3507, as amended, and Section 102A(i)(l) of the National Security Act of 1947, 50 U.S.C. 3024(i)(l), as amended. As the CIA Information and Privacy Coordinator, I am the CIA official responsible for this determination. You have the right to appeal this response to the Agency Release Panel, in my care, within 90 days from the date of this letter. Please include the basis of your appeal. Please be advised that you may seek dispute resolution services from the CIA's FOIA Public Liaison or from the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) of the National Archives and Records Administration. OGIS offers mediation services to help resolve disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies. Please note, contacting CIA's FOIA Public Liaison or OGIS does not affect your right to pursue an administrative appeal. To contact CIA directly or to appeal the CIA's response to the Agency Release Panel: Central Intelligence Agency Washington, DC 20505 Information and Privacy Coordinator (703) 613-3007 (Fax) (703) 613-1287 (CIA FOIA Public Liaison I FOIA Hotline) To contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) for mediation or with questions: Office of Government Information Services National Archives and Records Administration 8601 Adelphi Road - OGIS College Park, MD 20740-6001 (202) 741-5770 (877) 864-6448 (202) 741-5769 (Fax) ogis@nara.gov With respect to your request regarding other agencies identified in your 19 September 2019 letter, we believe those portions of your request would more likely fall under the auspices of the agencies identified. You can find their addresses at www.foia.gov. There is no central office in the government that processes requests for all federal agencies. Each agency responds to requests for its own records. Therefore, we believe you should submit those portions of your request to the respective agencies listed. If you have any questions regarding our response, you may contact the CIA's FOIA Hotline at (703) 613-1287. Sincerely, 4-ul{:{p Mark Lilly Information and Privacy Coordinator