Joint status report (April 2023) — Leopold v. CDC (D.D.C.)

Record facts

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia · No. 1:20-cv-00722-CKK · Doc. 45 · 2023-04-06 · Docket on CourtListener

Full text

1 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 
 
 
JASON LEOPOLD,  
 
and  
 
BUZZFEED INC., 
 
Plaintiffs, 
v. 
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,  
 
and  
 
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, 
 
 
Defendants. 
 
 
      
 
 
Civil Docket No. 1:20-cv-722-CKK 
 
 
 
JOINT STATUS REPORT 
 
 
 
The parties to this Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) case respectfully submit this joint 
status report pursuant to this Court’s Order of January 15, 2021, which directed the parties to 
jointly file a status report every 60 days. The parties provide the following regarding Plaintiffs’ 
FOIA requests: 
 
 
Case 1:20-cv-00722-CKK   Document 45   Filed 04/06/23   Page 1 of 4

2 
 
 
National Institutes of Health (“NIH”). As previously reported, Plaintiffs have asked NIH 
to prioritize the first and third parts of their eight-part FOIA request. See ECF No. 15 at 2. NIH 
has informed Plaintiffs that it has no records responsive to the third part of their request. For those 
records collected in response to the first part of Plaintiffs’ request regarding Dr. Fauci’s emails, 
NIH has completed processing except for the email attachments or the complete email chains that 
Plaintiffs may request for processing.1 See ECF No. 15 at 2; ECF No. 30 at 2. NIH is currently 
processing a batch of email attachments that Plaintiff requested for processing. Furthermore, NIH 
is currently preparing to conduct a search for records responsive to the first part of Plaintiffs’ 
request regarding Dr. Fauci’s text messages, and the parties expect to confer about the processing 
of the remaining six parts of Plaintiffs’ FOIA request.  
 
Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”). As previously reported, HHS has 
finished processing all records collected in response to Plaintiffs’ March 15, 2020 FOIA request, 
except for the 30 email attachments that Plaintiffs may request for processing.2 See ECF No. 27 at 
2. The parties have been conferring about these email attachments, and Plaintiffs expect to identify 
which HHS attachments they want the agency to process after NIH has completed processing the 
email attachments that Plaintiffs requested for processing. Furthermore, on March 15, 2023, HHS 
 
1 As explained in the parties’ June 5, 2020 Joint Status Report, the parties agreed to limit 
the first part of Plaintiffs’ FOIA request to NIH, but “Plaintiffs may specifically identify up to 150 
emails from any NIH production in response to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request and request that NIH 
process the entirety of the thread to which such an email belongs, to the extent that thread has not 
already been entirely processed. Plaintiffs may also specifically identify up to 30 email 
attachments and request that NIH process such attachments.” ECF No. 16 at 2-3.   
 
2 As explained in the parties’ June 5, 2020 Joint Status Report, “Plaintiffs agreed to narrow 
their March 15, 2020 FOIA request by limiting it to the identified custodians’ sent items and 
excluding any attachments to those items, except for up to 30 email attachments that Plaintiffs may 
later specifically identify and request that HHS process.” ECF No. 16 at 3.  
Case 1:20-cv-00722-CKK   Document 45   Filed 04/06/23   Page 2 of 4

3 
 
produced its final batch of non-exempt records responsive to Plaintiffs’ March 16, 2020 FOIA 
request.  
Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”). As previously reported, FDA produced its final 
batch of non-exempt records responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request on August 5, 2022. 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”). As previously reported, CDC has 
finished processing all records collected in response to Plaintiffs’ FOIA requests, except for the 
30 email attachments that Plaintiffs may request for processing.3 See ECF No. 27 at 2. The parties 
have been conferring about these email attachments, and Plaintiffs expect to identify which CDC 
attachments they want the agency to process after NIH has completed processing the email 
attachments that Plaintiffs requested for processing. 
Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”). As previously reported, DHS has finished 
processing all records collected in response to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request (submitted to the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency), except for records that the agency has referred for consultations 
and for which processing is not complete. The agency continues to engage in consultations with 
other agencies regarding records responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request. 
* * * 
Pursuant to this Court’s Order of January 15, 2021, the parties intend to file a further joint 
status report on or before June 5, 2023. 
Dated: April 6, 2023  
 
Respectfully submitted, 
BRIAN M. BOYNTON 
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General 
 
 
3 As explained in the parties’ June 5, 2020 Joint Status Report, Plaintiffs agreed to narrow 
the scope of the FOIA requests submitted to CDC “by limiting them to Director Redfield’s sent 
items and excluding any attachments to those items, except for up to 30 email attachments that 
Plaintiffs may later specifically identify and request that CDC process.” ECF No. 16 at 2. 
Case 1:20-cv-00722-CKK   Document 45   Filed 04/06/23   Page 3 of 4

4 
 
ELIZABETH J. SHAPIRO 
Deputy Director, Federal Programs Branch 
 
/s/ Jody D. Lowenstein       
JODY D. LOWENSTEIN 
Mont. Bar No. 55816869 
Trial Attorney 
United States Department of Justice 
Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch 
1100 L Street NW 
Washington, DC 20005 
Phone: (202) 598-9280 
Email: jody.d.lowenstein@usdoj.gov 
 
  
Attorneys for Defendants 
 
 
/s/ Merrick Wayne 
 
 
Matt Topic, D.C. Bar No. IL0037 
Merrick Wayne, D.C. Bar No. IL0058 
(E-Mail:  foia@loevy.com) 
LOEVY & LOEVY 
311 N. Aberdeen, 3rd Fl 
Chicago, Illinois 60607 
Tel.: (312) 243-5900  
Fax: (312) 243-5902 
 
Attorney for Plaintiffs 
 
 
 
 
 
Case 1:20-cv-00722-CKK   Document 45   Filed 04/06/23   Page 4 of 4

File and source

File

gov.uscourts.dcd.216164.45.0.pdf

Size

141,915 bytes

SHA-256

fc1c40c2c1eeab32c0323751e74952c7cf6143ad11591492b8deca616551c66e

Our copy

gov.uscourts.dcd.216164.45.0.pdf

Original

archive.org