Opinion ID: 669641
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Boston U.S. Attorney's Office Search.

Text: 19 The Department concedes that the district court did not specifically address the search for records of the United States Attorney's Office in Boston. Appellee's Br. at 6. Nevertheless, it urges us to uphold the adequacy of the search based on the record before us. We decline and remand the issue to the district court. Although we do not decide the adequacy of the search, Ms. Steinberg raises two issues that warrant the district court's attention on remand. 20 First, the Wood Declaration, on which the Department based its motion for summary judgment as to the EOUSA, is so general as to raise a serious doubt whether the Boston USA's Office conducted a reasonably thorough search of its records. While the document describes in general how the EOUSA processed appellant's FOIA request, it fails to describe in any detail what records were searched, by whom, and through what process. See Weisberg v. Dep't. of Justice, 627 F.2d 365, 371 (D.C.Cir.1980) (agency affidavits that do not denote which files were searched, or by whom, do not reflect any systematic approach to document location, and do not provide information specific enough to enable [the requester] to challenge the procedures utilized are insufficient to support summary judgment). 21 Pressed at oral argument for a description of the mechanics of the search, counsel for the Department pointed primarily to the conclusory and unilluminating sentence, EOUSA contacted the [Boston] United States Attorney's Office and was informed that no records responsive to the request had been located. Wood Decl. at 2. In addition, counsel suggested that the Wood Declaration's description of an interview with AUSA John Markham provided further evidence of an adequate search. Markham, who had participated in a prior criminal investigation of LaRouche, informed EOUSA that the Boston USA's Office had provided copies of source material to Swedish authorities, and that it did not retain copies in its files. According to Markham, the originals were returned to the FBI, which later released them to the Commonwealth of Virginia for use in state prosecutions involving the LaRouche organization. While the Wood Declaration describes Markham's recollections with particularity, we leave it for the district court to decide whether they are an adequate substitute for a search. 22 Second, Steinberg presented affidavits to the district court that may raise issues of material fact regarding the existence of documents that are responsive to her request. For example, the affidavit of John Russell, a Senior Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, states that some, but not all, of the LaRouche case file materials were returned to Virginia by the Boston USA's Office. In addition, appellant submitted a response to an interrogatory in another civil case involving LaRouche in which a member of the Boston USA's Office indicated that no original records, only copies, were transferred to Virginia. None of this, of course, establishes the existence of any relevant documents, and mere speculation that as yet uncovered documents may exist does not undermine the finding that the agency conducted a reasonable search. SafeCard Services, Inc. v. SEC, 926 F.2d 1197, 1201 (D.C.Cir.1991). At the least, however, the evidence presented appears to contradict assertions in the Wood Declaration and, therefore, warrants an explicit finding on the part of the district court as to the adequacy of the search of the Boston USA's Office. 23