Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 1 of 24

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

THE PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT,

INC.

Plaintiff,

v. Civil Action No. 17-CI-1000-CKK

U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY,

Defendant.

PLAINTIFF’S MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES

IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Michael P. Abate
(DDC Bar No. MD28077)
(DC Bar No. 1023343)
Kaplan Johnson Abate & Bird LLP
710 W. Main St., 4th Floor
Louisville, KY 40202

Benjamin L. Berwick (MA Bar No. 679207)

Counsel
The Protect Democracy Project, Inc.
2020 Pennsylvania Ave., NW #163
Washington, DC 20006
Phone: 202-599-0466
Fax: 929-777-8428

Counsel for Plaintiff

 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 2 of 24

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 1
BACKGROUND .............................................................................................................................................. 2
I. Factual Background ............................................................................................................................. 2
A. The Russia Investigation .............................................................................................................. 2
B. The President Fires Director Comey.......................................................................................... 4
C. The President Asks the NSA Director and Director of National Intelligence to
Dispute Any Suggestion of Collusion Between His Campaign and Russia. ......................... 6
II. Procedural Background ....................................................................................................................... 8
LEGAL STANDARD ...................................................................................................................................... 9
I. The Glomar Doctrine............................................................................................................................ 9
II. Summary Judgment in FOIA Cases ................................................................................................ 10
ARGUMENT................................................................................................................................................... 11
I. The Glomar Doctrine Does Not Permit the NSA to Refuse to Confirm the Mere
Existence of a Memorandum Documenting the President’s Inappropriate Attempt to
Use the NSA for His Own Personal Benefit. ................................................................................ 12
II. Even if Exemption 3 Justifies Withholding Some Information, It Does Not Justify
the Agency’s Decision to Withhold the Requested Documents In Full. ................................... 18
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................... 20
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 3 of 24

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES

Cases
* ACLU v. CIA, 710 F.3d 422 (D.C. Cir. 2013) ................................................................................. 13, 18

All Party Parliamentary Grp. On Extraordinary Rendition v. Dep’t of Defense,

134 F. Supp. 3d 201 (D.D.C. 2015) ........................................................................................................ 16

Am. Jewish Cong. v. Kreps, 574 F.2d 624 (D.C. Cir. 1978) ............................................................................ 15

Assassination Archives & Res. Ctr. v. CIA, 334 F.3d 55 (D.C. Cir. 2003) ................................................... 10

Carter v. NSA, 962 F. Supp. 2d 130 (D.D.C. 2013) .................................................................................... 16

Dep’t of Air Force v. Rose, 425 U.S. 352 (1976) ............................................................................................... 10

Elec. Privacy Info. Ctr. v. National Security Agency, 678 F.3d 926 (D.C. Cir. 2012) ......................... 10, 12, 16

FBI v. Abramson, 456 U.S. 615 (1982)............................................................................................................ 10

* Founding Church of Scientology v. NSA, 610 F.2d 824 (D.C. C.ir. 1979) ....................................... 14, 15, 20

Greenberg v. U.S. Dep’t of Treasury, 10 F. Supp. 2d. 3 (D.D.C. 1998) .......................................................... 10

Hayden v. NSA, 608 F.2d 1381 (D.C. Cir. 1979) ......................................................................................... 16

Larson v. Dep’t of State, 565 F.3d 857 (D.C. Cir. 2009) ................................................................................. 16

Linder v. NSA, 94 F.3d 693 (D.C. Cir. 2006) ............................................................................................... 16

* Lindsey v. Fed. Bureau of Investigation, 271 F. Supp. 3d 1 (D.D.C. 2017) ....................................... 9, 10, 13

Milner v. Dep’t of the Navy, 562 U.S. 562 (2011) ............................................................................................ 10

Moore v. Bush, 601 F. Supp. 2d 6 (D.D.C. 2009)........................................................................................... 16

Morley v. CIA, 508 F.3d 1108 (D.C. Cir. 2007) ............................................................................................ 13

Multi Ag Media LLC v. Dep’t of Agric., 515 F.3d 1224 (D.C. Cir. 2008) .................................................... 10

National Archives & Records Administration v. Favish, 541 U.S. 157 (2004) ................................................. 17

National Ass’n of Gov’t Employees v. Campbell, 593 F.2d 1023 (D.C. Cir. 1978).......................................... 10

People for the Amer. Way Found. v. NSA/Cent. Sec. Serv., 462 F. Supp. 2d 21 (D.D.C. 2006)................... 16

* Cases upon which we chiefly rely are marked with asterisks

ii
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 4 of 24

* Phillipi v. CIA, 546 F.2d 1009 (D.C. Cir. 1976)......................................................................................... 13

Pub. Citizen Health Research Grp. v. Food & Drug Admin., 185 F.3d 898 (D.C. Cir. 1999) ....................... 11

Roth v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 642 F.3d 1161 (D.C. Cir. 2011)................................................................. 12, 13

Stolt-Nielsen Transp. Grp. Ltd. v. United States, 534 F.3d 728 (D.C. Cir. 2008)........................................... 19

Terkel v. AT&T Corp., 441 F.Supp.2d 899 (N.D. Ill. 2006) ....................................................................... 16

Wheeler v. Exec. Office of United States Attys., 2008 WL 178451 (D.D.C. Jan. 17, 2008) ........................... 13

Wilner v. NSA, 592 F.3d 60 (2d Cir. 2009) ................................................................................................... 16

Wolf v. CIA, 473 F.3d 370 (D.C. Cir. 2007) .......................................................................................... 10, 12

Statutes
5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(B) .................................................................................................................................... 10

5 U.S.C. § 552(b) .............................................................................................................................................. 18

50 U.S.C. § 3605 ............................................................................................................................................... 18

Other
Adam Entous & Ellen Nakashima, Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe
after Comey revealed its existence, WASHINGTON POST (May 22, 2017) ..................................................... 6

Rachel Maddow, Exclusive: Handwritten notes appear to back Comey claims on Trump,
MSNBC (Mar. 30, 2018) ............................................................................................................................ 5

Miles Parks, Russian Threat To Elections To Persist Through 2018, Spy Bosses Warn Congress,
NPR (Feb. 13, 2018) ................................................................................................................................... 2

Matthew Rosenberg, Emmarie Huetteman & Michael S. Schmidt, Comey Confirms F.B.I. Inquiry on
Russia; Sees No Evidence of Wiretapping, N.Y. TIMES (Mar. 20, 2017) ..................................................... 3

Del Quentin Wilber, Shane Harris and Paul Sonne, Mueller Probe Examining Whether Donald Trump
Obstructed Justice, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (June 15, 2017)............................................................ 7

* Cases upon which we chiefly rely are marked with asterisks

iii
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 5 of 24

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff The Protect Democracy Project, Inc. (hereinafter “Protect Democracy”) moves this

Court to grant it summary judgment against Defendant National Security Agency (“NSA”). As

described in more detail below, the parties negotiated to narrow the scope of the initial FOIA

request to a small universe: a memorandum reportedly created by senior NSA personnel after

President Trump called Admiral Michael Rogers, who was at the time the Director of the NSA, and

asked him to publicly dispute any suggestion of coordination between the Trump campaign and

Russia. According to various news reports, NSA personnel created this memo to document the

unusual, unsolicited, and entirely inappropriate attempt by the President of the United States to use

the NSA to undermine an ongoing FBI investigation for his own personal benefit.

Although the NSA agreed to narrow the scope of its production obligation to this memo (as

well as any other documents transmitting or referencing it), the agency now asserts a “Glomar”

response—that is, it contends that it can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the memo

without revealing the functions or activities of the NSA. That assertion is implausible and cannot be

accepted by this Court.

A Glomar response is appropriate only where confirmation or denial of the existence of

records would, itself, reveal information that is exempted from disclosure by statute. Here, NSA

would reveal nothing about its own functions or activities by disclosing whether the requested

memorandum exists. It simply would reveal whether the President of the United States attempted to

use the NSA to undermine the FBI’s ongoing investigation for his own personal benefit—a request

so inappropriate and outside the Agency’s mission that the NSA Director rebuffed the President

and, along with senior agency officials, immediately documented the inappropriate conduct (as other

senior officials have done in analogous contexts).

The NSA’s contrary assertion is far too conclusory to justify a Glomar response. The NSA

1
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 6 of 24

does not even attempt to explain how the mere existence of the requested memorandum would

reveal the kind of information courts have found to be protected by Section 6 of the National

Security Act, such as information related to signals intelligence, vulnerability assessments,

surveillance targets, or intelligence sources and methods.

Moreover, Glomar should not be used to cover up credible allegations of wrongdoing by

government officials—even by the President of the United States. Yet, that is precisely what the

NSA appears to be doing here.

The NSA must acknowledge (or deny) the existence of the requested documents and release

all reasonably segregable portions that do not disclose the actual intelligence activities of the NSA. It

cannot hide behind FOIA to avoid admitting that the documents exist, or to withhold any

discussion of inappropriate conduct by the President of the United States. At a minimum, this Court

should review the requested document(s) in camera to determine whether any portions may be

publicly released.

BACKGROUND

I. Factual Background

A. The Russia Investigation

It is the unanimous view of the U.S. Intelligence Community that Russia took measures to

interfere in the 2016 U.S. elections on behalf of then-candidate Trump. See Plaintiff’s Statement of

Undisputed Material Facts (“SUMF”) ¶ 1 & Exh. 1 (Intelligence Community Assessment, Assessing

Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections (Jan. 6, 2017)); see also, e.g., Miles Parks,

Russian Threat To Elections To Persist Through 2018, Spy Bosses Warn Congress, NPR (Feb. 13, 2018).1

Specifically, the Intelligence Community Assessment concluded that “[Russian President Vladimir]

Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election”; that “Russia’s

1
Available at https://n.pr/2EE0sMC (last visited June 21, 2018).

2
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 7 of 24

goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and

harm her electability and potential presidency”; and that “Putin and the Russian Government

developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.” The Intelligence Community expressed

“high confidence in these judgments.” SUMF ¶ 2.

On March 20, 2017, James Comey, who at the time was the Director of the Federal Bureau

of Investigation (“FBI”), and Admiral Michael Rogers, who was the Director of the National

Security Agency (“NSA”), testified in a public hearing before the House Permanent Select

Committee on Intelligence. See SUMF, Exh. 2 (Hearing Transcript). At that hearing, Director Comey

revealed publicly, for the first time, that the FBI began investigating Russian interference in the

election in July 2016, and that the investigation included possible collusion with the Trump

campaign. See SUMF ¶¶ 4-5 & Exh. 2; see also, e.g., Matthew Rosenberg, Emmarie Huetteman &

Michael S. Schmidt, Comey Confirms F.B.I. Inquiry on Russia; Sees No Evidence of Wiretapping, N.Y. TIMES

(Mar. 20, 2017).2 At the hearing, Director Comey stated:

I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part
of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts
to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature
of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian
government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and
Russia's efforts. As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an
assessment of whether any crimes were committed.

SUMF ¶ 4.3

NSA Director Rogers appeared alongside Director Comey at the hearing. Adm. Rogers

confirmed publicly that the NSA had first discovered Russian attempts to influence the election and

2
Available at https://nyti.ms/2mHIFLP (last visited June 21, 2018).
3
A copy of the full transcript of the hearing is reprinted at https://wapo.st/2v2AMKk (last visited
June 21, 2018). No official transcript of the hearing is available either on the House Intelligence
Committee’s or the Government Printing Office’s websites.

3
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 8 of 24

had passed that information along to their “FBI teammates,” because the NSA does not investigate

domestic political issues. SUMF ¶ 7 & Exh. 2, p. 114.

B. The President Fires Director Comey.

Less than two months later, the President fired Director Comey. SUMF ¶ 8. Two days later,

in an interview with NBC News’s Lester Holt, President Trump stated that he was thinking about

“this Russia thing with Trump,” which he called “a made up story,” when he decided to fire

Director Comey. SUMF ¶ 9. The President made that decision before receiving a recommendation

on the matter from his Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General. SUMF ¶ 10. After the

President fired Director Comey, the Deputy Attorney General appointed a Special Counsel Robert

Mueller to continue the investigation. SUMF ¶ 11 & Exh. 3 (Order No. 3915-2017, Appointment of

Special Counsel to Investigate Russian Interference with the 2016 Presidential Election & Related

Matters (May 17, 2017)).

Following his termination, Mr. Comey testified in open session before the Senate Select

Committee on Intelligence. SUMF ¶ 12 & Exh. 4 (Official Hearing Transcript). In his prepared

remarks for the Senate Committee (attached to the SUMF as Exh. 5), Mr. Comey revealed several

remarkable actions by the President that bear directly on the issues in this case.

First, Mr. Comey detailed several inappropriate requests from the President intended to

frustrate or curtail the ongoing Russia investigation. For example, the President invited Mr. Comey

to the White House for a one-on-one dinner exactly one week after being sworn into office, and

repeatedly asked Mr. Comey to pledge his loyalty to the President. See SUMF ¶ 15 & Exh. 5, at 3-4.

In another troubling episode on February 14, 2017, the President asked then-Director

Comey to remain behind alone in the Oval Office following a counter-terrorism briefing. SUMF

¶ 16. The President asked all others present in the room to leave, including Attorney General Jeff

Sessions, Comey’s boss. SUMF ¶ 17. Once alone, President Trump asked Director Comey to drop

4
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 9 of 24

his investigation into Michael Flynn, the former National Security Adviser who had just resigned

from his position. SUMF ¶ 18. Director Comey regarded this request as “very concerning, given the

FBI’s role as an independent investigative agency.” SUMF ¶ 20 & Exh. 5, at 5. He and his senior

staff agreed “that it was important not to infect the investigative team with the President’s request,

which we did not intend to abide.” SUMF ¶ 21

Shortly after the February 14, 2017 Oval Office meeting, then-Director Comey spoke to the

Attorney General Sessions about his one-on-one meeting with the President. SUMF ¶ 22. He

“implore[d] the Attorney General to prevent any future direct communication between the President

and me.” Id. & Exh. 5 at 6. Mr. Comey “told the AG that what had just happened – him being asked

to leave while the FBI Director, who reports to the AG, remained behind – was inappropriate and

should never happen.” SUMF ¶ 23. The Attorney General “did not reply.” SUMF ¶ 24.

Another troubling incident occurred on March 30, 2017, when the President called then-

Director Comey at the FBI headquarters. SUMF ¶ 25. During that call he asked Director Comey

what he could do to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation and repeatedly encouraged then-

Director Comey to publicly state that the FBI was not personally investigating the President. SUMF

¶ 26. “Immediately after that conversation” Director Comey “called Acting Deputy Attorney

General Dana Boente (AG Sessions had by then recused himself on all Russia-related matters), to

report the substance of the call from the President.” SUMF ¶ 27 & Exh. 5, at 7. Director Comey

told the Acting Deputy AG that he “would await [his] guidance.” Id.4

Before Director Comey heard back from the Acting Deputy Attorney General, the President

called him again on April 11, 2017 “and asked what I had done about his request that I ‘get out’ that

4
MSNBC has since published copies of handwritten notes apparently taken by the Acting Deputy
AG during that phone call with Dir. Comey on March 30, 2017. See Rachel Maddow, Exclusive:
Handwritten notes appear to back Comey claims on Trump, https://on.msnbc.com/2HbO2RH (last visited
June 21, 2018). Those notes corroborate Director Comey’s Senate testimony.

5
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 10 of 24

he is not personally under investigation.” SUMF ¶ 28. Director Comey “replied that I had passed his

request to the Acting Deputy Attorney General, but I had not heard back.” SUMF ¶ 29. The

President “replied that ‘the cloud’ was getting in the way of his ability to do his job. He said that

perhaps he would have his people reach out to the Acting Deputy Attorney General.” SUMF ¶ 30.

That was the last time Director Comey spoke to the President before the President fired him on

May 9, 2017. SUMF ¶ 31.

Second, Mr. Comey’s testimony illustrated that these requests were so unusual and

inappropriate he “felt compelled to document [his] first conversation with the President-Elect in a

memo.” SUMF ¶ 13 & Exh. 5, at 2. Indeed, “Creating written records immediately after one-on-one

conversations with Mr. Trump was my practice from that point forward.” Id.; see also SUMF ¶ 19

(after the February 14, 2017 Oval Office meeting, Director Comey “immediately prepared an

unclassified memo of the conversation about Flynn and discussed the matter with FBI senior

leadership” (citing SUMF, Exh. 5, at 5)).

As explained below, the President made similarly inappropriate requests of the NSA

Director and Director of National Intelligence. And, as relevant here, NSA personnel, like Director

Comey, felt compelled to document that usual request in the document(s) at issue in this FOIA

request.

C. The President Asks the NSA Director and Director of National Intelligence to
Dispute Any Suggestion of Collusion Between His Campaign and Russia.

On May 22, 2017, the Washington Post ran a story by reporters Adam Entous & Ellen

Nakashima entitled Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed

its existence. SUMF ¶ 32 & Exh. 6. According to the Post’s reporting, President Trump contacted the

Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and NSA Director Admiral Michael S. Rogers shortly

after the House Intelligence Committee’s March 20, 2017 hearing and asked each official “to help

him push back against an FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the

6
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 11 of 24

Russian government.” SUMF ¶ 33. Those calls come only days before the March 30, 2017 call from

the President to Director Comey, noted above, in which the President asked him to publicly state he

was not a subject or target of the FBI’s investigation.

Citing conversations with two current and two former officials, the Post reported that

“Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the requests, which they both deemed to be

inappropriate.” SUMF ¶ 34. The Post also noted that “[i]n his call with Rogers, Trump urged the

NSA director to speak out publicly if there was no evidence of collusion, according to officials

briefed on the exchange.” SUMF ¶ 35. “Rogers was taken aback but tried to respectfully explain why

he could not do so, the officials said.” Id. “For one thing, he could not comment on an ongoing

investigation.” Id. “Rogers added that he would not talk about classified matters in public.” Id.

Crucially for this case, the Post also reported that “Trump’s conversation with Rogers was

documented contemporaneously in an internal memo written by a senior NSA official.” SUMF ¶ 36.

According to the Post, “Current and former senior intelligence officials viewed Trump’s requests as

an attempt by the president to tarnish the credibility of the agency leading the Russia investigation.”

SUMF ¶ 37.

Shortly thereafter, The Wall Street Journal reported that the author of the memo was Rick

Ledgett, the former Deputy Director of the NSA. SUMF ¶ 38 & Exh. 7 (Del Quentin Wilber, Shane

Harris and Paul Sonne, Mueller Probe Examining Whether Donald Trump Obstructed Justice, THE WALL

STREET JOURNAL (June 15, 2017)). The WSJ stated that “[w]hile Mr. Ledgett was still in office, he

wrote a memo documenting a phone call that Mr. Rogers had with Mr. Trump,” in which “the

president questioned the veracity of the intelligence community’s judgment that Russia had

interfered with the election and tried to persuade Mr. Rogers to say there was no evidence of

collusion between his campaign and Russian officials.” SUMF ¶ 40. The WSJ also noted that the

7
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 12 of 24

Special Counsel investigating possible connections between Russia and the Trump campaign

planned to interview Mr. Ledgett. SUMF ¶ 41.

The WSJ also noted that both DNI Coats and Adm. Rogers testified at a June 7, 2017 Senate

Intelligence Committee Hearing. SUMF ¶ 42 & Exh. 8 (Hearing Transcript). Neither official would

publicly confirm or deny the reports that the President had placed the phone call in question, but

each expressed a willingness to testify before the Special Prosecutor about the matter if requested.

Id.

II. Procedural Background

On April 21, 2017, Plaintiff sent a FOIA request to the NSA seeking several categories of

documents related to Russian interference in the 2016 election and contacts between the Trump

Campaign and Russian agents. SUMF ¶ 43 & Exh. 9. Among other things, that FOIA Request

sought:

All records, including but not limited to emails, notes, and memoranda, reflecting,
discussing, or otherwise relating to communications between the National Security
Agency and the Executive Office of the President regarding contacts between
individuals connected with the Russian government and individuals connected with
the Trump campaign or the Trump administration, and/or Russian involvement with,
or attempts to influence or interfere with, the national election of November 2016.

SUMF ¶ 44. When Plaintiff did not receive documents within the timeframe required by FOIA, it

initiated this litigation. SUMF ¶ 45; see also Compl., ECF No. 1. Plaintiff amended that complaint on

August 7, 2017 to add additional defendants. SUMF ¶ 46; see also Am. Compl., ECF No. 12.5

On October 25, 2017, the parties reached an agreement on the schedule for the production

of documents, whereby the NSA would produce all non-exempt responsive records over the course

of three productions—on December 13, 2017; March 13, 2018; and May 13, 2018. SUMF ¶ 47. On

5
To simplify this case and allow the parties to expedite briefing on this Motion, the parties jointly
moved the Court to dismiss the Department of Justice and Office of Director of National
Intelligence as Defendants. This Court granted that motion on June 20, 2018. See ECF No. 21.

8
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 13 of 24

December 20, 2017, NSA produced a single page of responsive documents to Plaintiffs in its initial

production, which was redacted in part. SUMF ¶ 48 & Exh. 10.

In order to expedite the processing and production of responsive records, Plaintiff proposed

to the NSA that it would be willing to narrow the request to “any memoranda (and . . . associated

documents) written by senior NSA officials documenting a conversation between White House

personnel, including the President, and NSA senior officials, including Adm. Rogers, in which the

White House asked the NSA to publicly dispute any suggestion of collusion between Russia and the

Trump campaign.” SUMF ¶ 49 & Exh. 11. Plaintiff went on to explain that the proposed narrowed

request would include:

any records documenting or referencing any such phone call between the President
(or senior advisers) and Adm. Rogers (or senior advisers). This includes, but is not
limited to, the above-referenced memoranda; any communications forwarding,
responding to, or discussing that memoranda; or any other document describing any
conversations in which White House officials asked NSA officials to publicly dispute
the suggestion of any collusion between Russia or Russian nationals and the Trump
campaign.

SUMF ¶ 50.

By letter dated March 20, 2018, the NSA accepted the proposed narrowing. SUMF ¶ 51 &

Exh. 12. The agency issued a “Glomar” response—that is, it refused to confirm or deny the existence

of the requested documents. SUMF ¶ 52. NSA’s letter asserted that “the fact of the existence or

non-existence of the materials . . . is protected from disclosure by” 50 U.S.C. § 3605 because it

“would reveal information concerning NSA’s core mission, function, and activities.” SUMF ¶ 53.

LEGAL STANDARD

I. The Glomar Doctrine

“A Glomar response ‘is proper if the fact of the existence or nonexistence of agency records

falls within a FOIA exemption.’” Lindsey v. Fed. Bureau of Investigation, 271 F. Supp. 3d 1 (D.D.C.

9
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 14 of 24

2017) (quoting Wolf v. CIA, 473 F.3d 370, 374 (D.C. Cir. 2007)). To prevail on a Glomar assertion,

the NSA must prove by affidavit or testimony that the confirmation or denial of the existence of a

document would, itself, fall within one of the FOIA exemptions. See Elec. Privacy Info. Ctr. v. National

Security Agency, 678 F.3d 926, 931 (D.C. Cir. 2012) (hereinafter, “EPIC”). The Agency’s arguments

concerning its inability to confirm the mere existence of a record must be “logical” or “plausible.”

Lindsey, 271 F. Supp. 3d at 5 (quotation marks and citation omitted). The NSA must support its

Glomar assertion with “‘reasonable specificity of detail rather than merely conclusory statements.’”

Id. at 4 (quoting Multi Ag Media LLC v. Dep’t of Agric., 515 F.3d 1224, 1227 (D.C. Cir. 2008)).

Moreover, a Glomar response should not be credited where the Government’s basic claims are

“called into question by contradictory evidence in the record or by evidence of agency bad faith.” Id.

II. Summary Judgment in FOIA Cases

Summary judgment is appropriate when the record demonstrates that there is no genuine

issue as to any material fact, and the moving party demonstrates it is entitled to judgment as a matter

of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56. In a FOIA cases, summary judgment for the government is appropriate

only where “the agency proves that it has fully discharged its obligations under FOIA, after the

underlying facts and the inferences to be drawn from them are construed in the light most favorable

to the FOIA requester.” Greenberg v. U.S. Dep’t of Treasury, 10 F. Supp. 2d. 3, 11 (D.D.C. 1998).

Federal courts review de novo agencies’ withholding of materials that they claim are exempt

under FOIA. 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(B). FOIA exemptions must be narrowly construed. Milner v. Dep’t

of the Navy, 562 U.S. 562, 565 (2011) (quoting FBI v. Abramson, 456 U.S. 615, 630 (1982)). “[T]hese

limited exemptions do not obscure the basic policy that disclosure, not secrecy, is the dominant

objective of the Act.” Dep’t of Air Force v. Rose, 425 U.S. 352, 361 (1976). The agency “bears the

burden of establishing the applicability of the claimed exemption.” Assassination Archives & Res. Ctr.

v. CIA, 334 F.3d 55, 57 (D.C. Cir. 2003). This burden does not shift even when the requester files

10
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 15 of 24

for summary judgment because “the Government ‘ultimately [has] the onus of proving that the

[documents] are exempt from disclosure.’” Pub. Citizen Health Research Grp. v. Food & Drug Admin.,

185 F.3d 898, 904 (D.C. Cir. 1999) (quoting National Ass’n of Gov’t Employees v. Campbell, 593 F.2d

1023, 1027 (D.C. Cir. 1978)).6

ARGUMENT

NSA’s Glomar assertion should be rejected by this Court. Glomar may only be invoked where

confirming the mere existence or nonexistence of the records would reveal information that may

validly be withheld under FOIA. Here, the NSA claims that even producing a Vaughn Index would

disclose the organization, function, or activities of the NSA, which may be withheld under Section 6

of the National Security Act and Exemption 3 of FOIA. That claim is meritless; the records sought

do not pertain to activities of the NSA, but rather to the inappropriate activities of the President,

who attempted—unsuccessfully—to use the NSA to publicly undermine the FBI for his personal

benefit. NSA officials rejected that request, and documented it in the memo at issue here, precisely

because it was not part of the agency’s proper mission or function.

NSA’s attempt to invoke Glomar also fails for the additional reason that it is too conclusory.

NSA has not even attempted to explain how revealing (or denying) the existence of a memo

documenting an unsolicited call from the President of the United States asking the NSA to alleviate

domestic, political pressure on his Administration would disclose the kind of information courts

have found Section 6 to cover: signals intelligence capabilities, vulnerabilities assessments,

intelligence targets, or intelligence sources and methods. Nor could it, because there is no logical

connection between the President’s inappropriate request and the NSA’s mission.

6
Typically, the agency seeking to withhold the records would file for summary judgment first, and
submit a Vaughn Index explaining the exemption(s) it is invoking. Here, however, the NSA has made
clear it will not be producing a Vaughn Index in light of its Glomar claim. See SUMF, Exh. 12, p.2.
Thus, the validity of the Glomar claim is fully ripe for review at this time.

11
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 16 of 24

NSA’s Glomar assertion also fails because that doctrine cannot be used to try to cover up

wrongdoing by government officials when a reasonable person would conclude from the available

evidence that such wrongdoing might have occurred. Yet that is precisely what the NSA is trying to

do here, by asserting a Glomar claim over information that would confirm what seems obvious from

the public record: the President attempted to publicly pit the NSA (and ODNI) against the FBI for

his personal benefit.

Finally, even if there were some exempt material in the NSA memo, the agency has an

obligation to redact only that information and produce the rest. After rejecting the NSA’s Glomar

assertion, this Court should require the NSA to justify any specific redactions in the memo that

might be justified by Exemption 3 with a proper Vaughn Index, conducting in camera review of the

documents if necessary.

I. The Glomar Doctrine Does Not Permit the NSA to Refuse to Confirm the Mere
Existence of a Memorandum Documenting the President’s Inappropriate Attempt to
Use the NSA for His Own Personal Benefit.

The NSA’s Glomar response is inappropriate as a matter of law. Glomar may not be invoked

merely because an agency believes that a document might ultimately be exempt from disclosure

under FOIA. Rather, “[b]ecause Glomar responses are an exception to the general rule that agencies

must acknowledge the existence of information responsive to a FOIA request and provide specific,

non-conclusory justifications for withholding that information, they are permitted only when

confirming or denying the existence of records would itself ‘cause harm cognizable under an FOIA

exception.’” Roth v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 642 F.3d 1161, 1178 (D.C. Cir. 2011) (internal citation

omitted) (quoting Wolf, 473 F.3d at 374). The agency invoking Glomar bears the burden of making

that showing. EPIC, 678 F.3d at 931.

Courts have not hesitated to reject Glomar assertions where the agency’s contentions are

neither logical nor plausible, or where the agency makes only a cursory assertion of the need for

12
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 17 of 24

non-disclosure of the existence of the records. See, e.g., ACLU v. CIA, 710 F.3d 422, 428 (D.C. Cir.

2013) (rejecting Glomar assertion concerning existence of records related to drone strikes); Roth, 642

F.3d at 1181 (rejecting FBI’s Glomar assertion related to records of individuals allegedly involved in a

criminal investigation); Morley v. CIA, 508 F.3d 1108, 1126 (D.C. Cir. 2007) (rejecting CIA’s cursory

Glomar assertion); Phillipi v. CIA, 546 F.2d 1009, 1012 (D.C. Cir. 1976) (remanding to district court

to develop a public record on the need for a Glomar response). This Court, likewise, has rejected

Glomar assertions as insufficient. Just last year, this Court rejected a Glomar assertion by the FBI for

being too conclusory and failing to give adequate consideration to whether the third party who was

the subject of the request had made public statements that rendered the Glomar response

inappropriate. See Lindsey, 271 F. Supp. 3d at 1. Likewise, in Wheeler v. Exec. Office of United States

Attys., 2008 WL 178451 (D.D.C. Jan. 17, 2008), this Court ordered the Government to provide a

detailed justification for its otherwise unexplained Glomar response, at which point the Government

abandoned that claim.

The information provided by the NSA to date is similarly too conclusory to support a

Glomar assertion. In relevant part, the NSA’s letter simply states:

NSA has determined that the fact of the existence or non-existence of the materials
you request is protected from disclosure by statute. An affirmative or negative
response to the Second Amended Request would reveal information concerning
NSA’s core mission, function, and activities that is exempt from disclosure pursuant
to the third exemption of FOIA, which provides for the withholding of information
specifically protected from disclosure by statute. The Specific statute applicable in this
case is Section 6, Public Law 86-36 (50 U.S. Code 3605), a statutory privilege unique
to NSA, which protects from disclosure information concerning these very core
functions and activities. Thus, your Second Amended Request is denied because the
fact of the existence or non-existence of the information sought is exempted from
disclosure pursuant to the third exemption.

SUMF, Exh. 10, p. 2. Distilled to its essence, the NSA is really claiming that confirming whether an

NSA official wrote a memo to document an inappropriate phone call from the President would

somehow disclose “the organization or any function of the National Security Agency, or any

13
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 18 of 24

information with respect to the activities thereof,” in violation of Section 6 of the National Security

Act, 50 U.S.C. § 3605(a).7 That assertion is puzzling.

As in Founding Church of Scientology v. NSA, 610 F.2d 824, 831 (D.C. C.ir. 1979), this cursory

invocation of NSA’s Section 6 authority “fail[s] to indicate even in the slightest how agency

functions might be unveiled” if the document’s existence is confirmed. That silence is unsurprising,

because the record(s) sought by plaintiff reveals nothing about the organization, function, or activities

of the National Security Agency.

Instead, an acknowledgement of the existence of the requested documents would simply

reveal the inappropriate activities of the President of the United States. As reported by the Washington

Post and Wall Street Journal, the President called the NSA Director (and Director of National

Intelligence) to demand that his agency publicly dispute the suggestion that there was any collusion

between Russia and his campaign. SUMF ¶ 33. Adm. Rogers (and Director Coats) rejected that

request, which he deemed inappropriate. SUMF ¶ 34. And indeed it was; publicly “tarnish[ing] the

credibility of the agency leading the Russia investigation” (SUMF ¶ 37) is not one of the NSA’s

missions, functions, or activities. It is therefore unsurprising that senior NSA officials believed it

necessary to document this unorthodox and inappropriate request in a contemporaneous

memorandum. SUMF ¶ 36.

Adm. Rogers was not the only official who concluded the President’s conduct and

inappropriate requests ran counter to his agency’s mission, of course. As detailed above, Director

Comey had grave misgivings about multiple, unusual requests from the President, including his

requests: for “loyalty” from the FBI Director (SUMF ¶ 15); for Comey to drop any investigation

into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn (SUMF ¶ 18); and for Comey to publicly state

7
Plaintiff does not dispute that Section 6 of the Act is a valid “withholding statute” for purposes
of FOIA exemption 3; it simply disputes that confirming the existence of the documents sought
would reveal anything protected by that statute.

14
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 19 of 24

the President was not a target of the investigation (SUMF ¶¶ 26, 28). Like Adm. Rogers, Dir. Comey

found these requests to be “very concerning, given the FBI’s role as an independent investigative

agency.” SUMF ¶ 20; see also id. ¶ 23 (Dir. Comey “told the AG that what had just happened – him

being asked to leave while the FBI Director, who reports to the AG, remained behind – was

inappropriate and should never happen”). And, like NSA officials, Dir. Comey “felt compelled to

document” and/or disclose the President’s inappropriate actions. SUMF ¶¶ 13, 19, 22, 27.

If there were any doubt about whether the existence of the requested memorandum would

reveal any previously undisclosed function or activity of the NSA, it is removed by the NSA

Director’s own testimony at public hearings about the Russia investigation. That testimony confirms

that NSA played no role in the domestic, political aspects of the investigation. At the March 20,

2017 House Intelligence Committee hearing, Adm. Rogers stated on the public record that the NSA

first discovered Russian attempts to target the Clinton campaign in the summer of 2015, and then

“shared [that information] with our FBI teammates.” SUMF, Exh. 2., p. 114. That handoff makes

perfect sense; as Adm. Rogers explained at another point in that hearing (when declining to answer a

question about whether Russian meddling altered the election results), “we are a foreign intelligence

organization, not a domestic intelligence organization.” Id., p. 11; see also id. at 120 (NSA never

sought access to the DNC’s hacked computer systems because “that’s not in our job” to handle

domestic investigations). Thus, NSA cannot credibly claim that intramural fighting about how to

handle an FBI Investigation bears in any way upon the NSA’s own mission, function, or activities.

For these same reasons, the information sought by Plaintiff here is nothing like the

information over which Courts have allowed the NSA to assert Section 6 and/or Glomar claims in

the past. To be sure, courts have described the scope of Section 6 as “broad,” but have nonetheless

cautioned that it must be “construed with sensitivity to the ‘hazard(s) that Congress foresaw.’”

Founding Church of Scientology, 610 F.2d at 829 (quoting Am. Jewish Cong. v. Kreps, 574 F.2d 624, 629

15
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 20 of 24

(D.C. Cir. 1978)); see also People for the Amer. Way Found. v. NSA/Cent. Sec. Serv., 462 F. Supp. 2d 21,

31 (D.D.C. 2006) (acknowledging that “Section 6 is not without limits); Terkel v. AT&T Corp., 441

F.Supp.2d 899, 905 (N.D. Ill. 2006) (“We are, however, concerned that if . . . section 6 is taken to its

logical conclusion, it would allow the federal government to conceal information regarding blatantly

illegal or unconstitutional activities simply by . . . claiming they implicated information about the

NSA’s functions.”).

Case law bears out that cautious approach. Courts have upheld Section 6 claims for the NSA

only where the information sought truly would reveal the agency’s intelligence activities, such as where

requesters sought documents whose disclosure would reveal: the NSA’s signals intelligence

collection activities, see Linder v. NSA, 94 F.3d 693 (D.C. Cir. 2006); Hayden v. NSA, 608 F.2d 1381

(D.C. Cir. 1979); Carter v. NSA, 962 F. Supp. 2d 130 (D.D.C. 2013) (Kollar-Kotelly, J.); the NSA’s

assessment about encryption and cybersecurity vulnerabilities, EPIC, 678 F.3d 926; undisclosed

targets of NSA surveillance, see Larson v. Dep’t of State, 565 F.3d 857, 869 (D.C. Cir. 2009); Wilner v.

NSA, 592 F.3d 60 (2d Cir. 2009); Moore v. Bush, 601 F. Supp. 2d 6 (D.D.C. 2009) (Kollar-Kotelly, J.);

People for the Amer. Way Found. v. NSA, 462 F. Supp. 2d 21 (D.D.C. 2006); and intelligence sources,

All Party Parliamentary Grp. On Extraordinary Rendition v. Dep’t of Defense, 134 F. Supp. 3d 201 (D.D.C.

2015). Here, by contrast, revealing that the President attempted to use the NSA to undermine the

work of the FBI—for his own personal benefit—would reveal nothing about the scope of the

NSA’s activities.

The agency’s Glomar response is inappropriate for another reason, too: Glomar is not a tool

to be used to cover up credible claims of wrongdoing by government officials. In Roth, for example,

the D.C. Circuit held that the FBI could not use Glomar to avoid confirming or denying whether it

had records concerning several drug dealers who were alleged to have committed a murder for

which the FOIA requester had been convicted. The court found that the public had a compelling

16
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 21 of 24

interest in knowing whether the government was withholding information about the potential

innocence of a death-row inmate, and that the requester had provided evidence “that would warrant

a belief by a reasonable person that the alleged Government impropriety might have occurred.’” Id.

at 1178 (quoting National Archives & Records Administration v. Favish, 541 U.S. 157, 174 (2004)). The

Court thus rejected the FBI’s Glomar claim premised on Exemption 7(C). The NSA’s Glomar claim is

similarly inappropriate here, where there is compelling evidence that the President, in an attempt to

hobble the Russia investigation, attempted to use the NSA to undermine the FBI. The NSA should

not be permitted to use Glomar as a shield against the disclosure of misconduct that attempted to

disrupt the important work of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Finally, the Agency’s Glomar response is inconsistent with the public statements of then-

Director Admiral Rogers concerning the existence and importance of the Russia investigation. At

the March 20, 2017 House Intelligence Committee hearing, Director Rogers stated in response to a

question from Rep. LoBiondo that the best way to prevent a recurrence of Russian interference is to

have a robust public discussion about what happened during the 2016 election:

I think a public discussion and acknowledgment of the activity is a good positive first
step because it shines us a flashlight on this, if you will. It illuminates a significant issue
that I think we all have to – have to deal with. There’s a variety [of] ongoing efforts
both within the government, as well, in the private sector.

SUMF, Exh. 2, at 61. Later in that same hearing, Director Rogers elaborated on this point, noting:

The investigation we’re going through I think is a positive in the sense it will help
illuminate to all of us, regardless of party, what are the implications here and what does
it mean for us. Because I think our conclusion and that of the intelligence community
broadly here is, this absent some change, this behavior is not likely to stop. Absent
some change in the dynamic, this is not likely to be the last time we’ll be having these
discussions about that kind of activity. I don't think that’s in anybody’s best interest
for us as a nation.

Id. at 118. Thus, it makes little sense for the NSA to now claim that it can neither confirm nor deny

whether the requested memorandum exists without disclosing NSA activities or functions, when the

head of that very agency has publicly: (1) confirmed the existence of the Russia investigation;

17
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 22 of 24

(2) confirmed his agency’s role in discovering evidence of Russian interference and providing it to

the FBI in 2015; and (3) encouraged robust public disclosure and debate about Russian interference

to prevent it from happening again. Indeed, such disclosures themselves can render a Glomar claim

inappropriate. See, e.g., ACLU, 710 F.3d at 430 (“Given these official acknowledgments that the

United States has participated in drone strikes, it is neither logical nor plausible for the CIA to

maintain that it would reveal anything not already in the public domain to say that the Agency at

least has an intelligence interest in such strikes. . .. And it strains credulity to suggest that an agency

charged with gathering intelligence affecting the national security does not have an ‘intelligence

interest’ in drone strikes, even if that agency does not operate the drones itself.” (quotation marks

and citation omitted)).

Against that backdrop, the NSA’s Glomar assertion can only be seen for what it is: an attempt

at political damage control by a President who wants the Russia investigation to simply go away and

has attempted—thus far unsuccessfully—to use his considerable political power to achieve that

result. That is not a proper use of the Glomar doctrine, and should be rejected by this Court.

II. Even if Exemption 3 Justifies Withholding Some Information, It Does Not Justify
the Agency’s Decision to Withhold the Requested Documents In Full.

For reasons just explained, Section 6 of the NSA does not apply to documents that would

reveal nothing more—or less—than the President’s inappropriate attempt to use the NSA (and

ODNI) to undermine the FBI’s investigation for his own personal gain. Thus, the documents

should be ordered released in full.

Of course, it is conceivable that even in the absence of a valid Glomar assertion, the NSA will

claim some portion of its memorandum remains exempt under 50 U.S.C. § 3605 (and therefore may

be withheld under FOIA). But if that is the case, the proper course would be for the NSA to redact

only those portions of the document that are protected by statute and release the rest. See, e.g., 5

U.S.C. § 552(b) (“Any reasonably segregable portion of a record shall be provided to any person

18
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 23 of 24

requesting such record after deletion of the portions which are exempt under this subsection.”);

Stolt-Nielsen Transp. Grp. Ltd. v. United States, 534 F.3d 728, 734 (D.C. Cir. 2008) (“[A]n agency cannot

justify withholding an entire document simply by showing that it contains some exempt material.”

(internal quotation marks and citation omitted)). Indeed, that is precisely what the NSA did with

respect to the single page of records it has released to date in this case:

SUMF, Exh. 10.

Here, the NSA must, at a minimum, release any portions of the document(s) that relate or

refer to the President’s inappropriate request for to the NSA to publicly undermine the FBI’s

19
 Case 1:17-cv-01000-CKK Document 23-1 Filed 06/25/18 Page 24 of 24

investigation or dispute any suggestion of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Such

material does not relate to the proper functions of the NSA—which is, after all, the very reason the

memo exists in the first place.

If the NSA continues to assert that the entire memorandum remains exempt even without

Glomar, this Court should review the document(s) in camera. See Founding Church of Scientology, 610 F.2d

at 830 (where an agency’s assertions for withholding are not sufficiently detailed, “in camera

inspection may well be in order”). The record in this case contains clear evidence of bad faith

conduct by the President of the United States in his attempt to interfere with a pending law

enforcement investigation into his Administration. Under those circumstances, the Court does not

owe blind deference to an otherwise implausible claim of exemption—particularly one asserted by

an intelligence agency the President has attempted to use for his own benefit.

CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons, this Court should grant plaintiffs summary judgment and order

the NSA to produce any records responsive to plaintiff’s Second Amended Request.

Respectfully submitted,

Date: June 25, 2018 /s/ Michael P. Abate

Michael P. Abate
(DDC Bar No. MD28077)
(DC Bar No. 1023343)
Kaplan Johnson Abate & Bird LLP
710 W. Main St., 4th Floor
Louisville, KY 40202

Benjamin L. Berwick (MA Bar No. 679207)

Counsel
The Protect Democracy Project, Inc.
2020 Pennsylvania Ave., NW #163
Washington, DC 20006
Phone: 202-599-0466
Fax: 929-777-8428

Counsel for Plaintiff

20