FBI Says That It Can’t Release Documents That It Had Already Released ⇥ techdirt.com

Here’s a weird one. Jason Leopold of Buzzfeed made a FOIA request for any talking points that the FBI had on encryption, Apple, ISIS, and similar topics. They got back to him at the end of December and stated that they couldn’t provide any of the 487 pages they said were relevant. That’s weird for at least three reasons:

1. Leopold is asking for talking points which, by their very nature, are wont to be publicized;

2. the FBI included a CD of blank pages in their response; and,

3. the FBI had already released those documents to Mike Masnick of Techdirt.

Mike Masnick:

I didn’t add up all the pages sent to me, but I can tell it’s probably closer to about 100 pages than 487, so clearly the FBI is likely lying to me as well in terms of how many “responsive” documents there really were, but I’m confused as to why the FBI couldn’t release these kinds of documents to Leopold.

Masnick, naturally, did the right thing and posted everything that he received from the FBI online for all to see.