Case docket

Jason Leopold and BuzzFeed Inc. v. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention et al. — D.D.C., No. 1:20-cv-00722-CKK

Leopold v. Centers for Disease Control — 5 court filings in the archive, mostly from U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, filed between March 13, 2020 and April 6, 2023. Among them: 2 complaints.

Case facts

Court	U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (4 filings); UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT (1 filing)
Filings	5 public filings
Filed	2020-03-13 – 2023-04-06
Document types	complaints (2)
Original PDFs	5 of 5

Case summary

Jason Leopold and BuzzFeed Inc. filed this Freedom of Information Act suit on March 13, 2020 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 1:20-cv-00722-CKK, and amended the complaint on April 14, 2020. The amended complaint seeks to compel the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health to produce records regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the government's response to it. It pleads seven counts of FOIA violation, one or more against each agency, and asks the court to declare that the defendants violated FOIA and to order a reasonable search and production. Joint status reports on this page run to April 2023.

Case at a glance

Parties	Plaintiffs: Jason Leopold and BuzzFeed Inc. Defendants: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Federal Emergency Management Agency; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Food and Drug Administration; National Institutes of Health. The original complaint names the first defendant as "Center for Disease Control"
Court and docket	U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 1:20-cv-00722-CKK, written on the parties' filings as Civil Docket No. 1:20-cv-722-CKK; the original complaint carries No. 1:20-cv-00722
Program	Not named in the filings on this page. The records sought concern the COVID-19 pandemic and the federal government's response to it
Claims	Seven counts under the Freedom of Information Act: Count I, CDC's first FOIA violation; Count II, CDC's second FOIA violation; Count III, FEMA's FOIA violation; Count IV, FDA's FOIA violation; Count V, NIH's FOIA violation; Count VI, HHS's FOIA violation (COVID-19); Count VII, HHS's FOIA violation (cyberattack). Each pleads that the agency is subject to FOIA, that the requested records are not exempt, and that the agency refused to produce them in a timely manner. The plaintiffs ask the court to declare that the defendants violated FOIA, to order a reasonable search and production of the requested records, to enjoin withholding of non-exempt records, and to award attorneys' fees and costs
Disposition or status	Not resolved on this page. The court held a telephonic hearing on May 8, 2020 and ordered a joint status report, filed May 19, 2020, and by order of January 15, 2021 directed the parties to file a joint status report every 60 days. The joint status report of April 6, 2023 records that FDA produced its final batch of non-exempt records on August 5, 2022, that HHS produced its final batch responsive to the March 16, 2020 request on March 15, 2023, that CDC and DHS had finished processing except for up to 30 email attachments the plaintiffs may identify, and that NIH was still processing attachments and preparing a search for text messages. The parties intended to file a further joint status report on or before June 5, 2023. No order on the merits and no judgment is on this page
Status checked	2026-09-23 · against DOJ press releases through 2026-09-22; court docket not yet read

What does the amended complaint allege?

That the plaintiffs made Freedom of Information Act requests to six federal agencies for records regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the government's response to it, that they requested expedited processing and fee waivers, and that the agencies failed to produce the records in a timely manner. It sets out the request history agency by agency, including a CDC request assigned reference number 20-00610-FOIA that CDC called "overly broad" before the parties narrowed the timeframe and the custodians, a second CDC request assigned 20-00910-FOIA and placed on the complex track, and a FEMA request assigned 2020-FEFO-00371 for contingency plans for a coronavirus outbreak.

What relief do the plaintiffs seek?

The amended complaint asks the court to declare that the defendants have violated FOIA; to order them to conduct a reasonable search for records and to produce the requested records; to enjoin them from withholding non-exempt public records under FOIA; to award the plaintiffs attorneys' fees and costs; and to award such other relief as the court considers appropriate.

What do the joint status reports show?

The joint status report of May 19, 2020 was filed in response to the court's order of May 11, 2020 directing the parties to report on the defendants' progress, after a telephonic hearing on May 8, 2020. The joint status report of April 6, 2023, filed under the court's order of January 15, 2021 requiring reports every 60 days, records that the plaintiffs asked NIH to prioritise parts of an eight-part request, that NIH had completed processing records about one official's emails apart from attachments and full chains and was preparing to search for text messages, that the CDC requests had been narrowed to the Director's sent items excluding attachments except up to 30 the plaintiffs may identify, and that FDA, HHS and DHS had completed their productions.

Summary written from the documents on this page; every sentence is sourced.

Filings

5 public filings from this case, in filing-date order.

2020-03-13ComplaintComplaint · PDF
2020-03-13FOIA request (Exhibit A to complaint)PDF
2020-04-14Amended complaintComplaint · PDF
2020-05-19Joint status report (May 2020)PDF
2023-04-06Joint status report (April 2023)PDF