FBI

As part of a settlement agreement between the FBI and a Tennessee newspaper, the bureau must release documents and photos that are expected to confirm that famed civil rights photographer Ernest Withers was a confidential informant during the civil rights era. Withers died in 2007.

A federal court awarded a California-based journalist and author nearly half a million dollars in fees, concluding two FOIA litigation battles with the FBI that lasted for more than 25 years.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco ruled Thursday that the FBI must pay Seth Rosenfeld $479,459 in attorneys’ fees because the journalist “substantially prevailed” in the two lawsuits he filed against the FBI.

The FBI cannot cite an exclusion provision related to confidential informants under the federal Freedom of Information Act regarding a request for records about civil rights era photographer Ernest Withers after the bureau was found to have officially confirmed Withers was an informant through a records release, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. ruled Tuesday.

A U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the federal Freedom of Information Act requires the FBI to disclose to an attorney representing a Texas death row inmate whether it has records that could corroborate his client’s claims of innocence.

The Obama Justice Department has decided to continue the Bush administration's quest to compel a New York Times reporter to testify about confidential sources in a book he published about the CIA, The New York Times reported.

The FBI will consult with Edward M. Kennedy's family before releasing its file on the deceased lawmaker to the public — a rarely invoked FBI accommodation, The Boston Globe reported.

Because deceased persons cannot claim privacy rights, media organizations began requesting to gain access to Kennedy’s 3000-page FBI file under the Freedom of Information Act after the Massachusetts senator passed away in August.

The telephone records of journalists at The Washington Post and The New York Times were among those illegally obtained by the FBI between 2002 and 2006 by creating false terrorism emergencies and using other under-the-radar methods, The Washington Post reported.

The Broward Bulldog reported last week that two of the three finalists for a U.S. attorney post in southern Florida have been involved in controversies regarding court records -- one for altering a docket in apparent violation of state law and another who helped prosecute a secret case in the wake of Sept. 11.

Faxing a FOIA appeal to the wrong number proved costly to The Pearl Project, which is seeking information about the 2002 killing of journalist Daniel Pearl, and received a court setback on Thursday.

The federal government's chief FOIA administrator spoke with members of the requester community Wednesday at its "FOIA Requester Roundtable," outlining strides the office is making to improve the Freedom of Information Act and asking where it falls short.