NEW: DOJ Responded to Our Epstein Training Materials Motion, Arguing There's No Public Interest

They also argue that the existence of the training videos doesn't raise any questions about government integrity!

When I learned from multiple anonymous sources at the FBI that there were training videos disseminated to the Information Records management division on how to find, flag, and redact Trump’s name in the Epstein files, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request followed by a lawsuit, and a motion for expedited review.

Recently, Jason Leopold received dozens of pages of FBI emails that confirm the existence of the training materials that my sources told me about.

Our case was assigned to Judge Beryl Howell, who granted our unopposed motion for expedited briefing on summary judgment. We filed our motion for partial summary judgment and expedited processing of my FOIA request, and today, the government filed their opposition.

Their argument? They contend that we failed to prove widespread public interest in the Epstein training materials.

Yes. You heard that right.

In support of its request for expedited processing, MSW cites two standards. First, it cites a portion of the compelling need standard, which requires that MSW establish, on the record before the agency, that it is a “person primarily engaged in disseminating information” with an “urgency to inform the public concerning actual or alleged Federal Government activity.” Alternatively, MSW must establish, on the record before the agency, that its request seeks records for a “matter of widespread and exceptional media interest in which there exist possible questions about the government’s integrity that affect public confidence.” MSW has failed to establish eligibility for expedition under either standard. The Court should accordingly deny its motion for summary judgment.

They also implied my request for the Epstein training materials is “paltry.”

Congress concluded that requests for expedition must meet not only a high substantive standard, but a key procedural hurdle as well. A requestor may rely only “on the record before the agency” when seeking judicial review of an agency’s failure to expedite processing of a request. This prevents a requestor from submitting a paltry request to the agency and then attempting to supplement that facially deficient request with additional, non-record submissions as part of a motion in federal court.

Though they did concede that I’m a real media outlet!

Defendant accepts for purposes of this motion that MSW is a person primarily engaged in disseminating information.

Our lawyer, Kel McClanahan will be filing a reply to this response from the government. He’s working on this for us pro bono, but you can make a tax-deductible donation to support his work here.

Thank you for supporting our work!

~ The MSW Media Team