Russian hackingU.S. gov. agencies sued for slow response to Russian election hacking FOIA inquiries

Jason Leopold, an investigative reporter who frequently writes for Vice, and Ryan Shapiro, a Ph.D. candidate at MIT and research affiliate at Harvard, who has gained a name for himself as a FOIA activist, have sued several federal agencies for agencies’ foot-dragging in responding to requests for documents related to the Russian hacking of the 2016 election.

Hackers working for two Russian intelligence agencies – the FSB and the GRU – have hacked the computer systems of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Hillary Clinton campaign, and voter rolls in twenty-three states in a concerted effort to undermine Clinton and help Donald Trump win the election.

The first lawsuit by Leopold and Shapiro, filed a couple of weeks ago, concerns records pertaining to FBI director James Comey’s actions in the last few weeks before Election Day. Most of the documents sought relate to the FBI’s on-again, off-again investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. The pair also seeks a variety of communications between Comey and the rest of the FBI, as well as any internal FBI discussions about the number of leaks that accompanied Comey’s last-minute dive back into the email investigation.

Shapiro and Leopold are also seeking unredacted copies of Clinton email investigation documents previously released by the FBI. They also would like to see what the FBI has on hand that references a variety of right-wing news sites, including Breitbart News and alternativeright.com.

Recode reports that the first lawsuit charges the FBI has violated FOIA law by not responding to their expedited request in a timely fashion. At the date of the lawsuit’s filing, the FBI had yet to inform the requesters [Leopold and Shapiro] whether or not it would grant the request expedited status.

The second lawsuit, filed earlier this week, reiterates the same allegations. The requesters asked for expedited processing, but the federal agencies failed to rule on the expedited processing request in a timely manner.

The list of defendants in the second lawsuit is longer.

The agencies Shapiro and Leopold have requested election-related information from include the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, CIA, DOJ, and DHS. These agencies are yet to issue a ruling on expedited processing.

Recodenotes that Leopold and Shapiro are asking for documents related to the Russian interference in the U.S. electoral process. There papers filed at court include keywords such as Guccifer, Elite VPN, two IP addresses, and anything related to the alleged compromise of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s devices or e-mail accounts.

TechDirtnotes that pulling the trigger on lawsuits two weeks after FOIA requests are filed is the new way of forcing federal agencies to respond in a timely fashion. “Left to their own timetables, the agencies would likely release these documents sometime between ‘the distant future’ and ‘never’,” TechDirt writes. This new approach prompts the agencies listed to at least adhere to the letter of the law and make a prompt determination on expedited processing.