Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability, Inc. v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice et al., 20-CR-3657 BAH, (D.D.C. Sept. 19, 2022)

PPSA filed FOIA suit against DOJ, ODNI, NSA, CIA, and the Department of State challenging agencies’ response to request for records related to “unmasking or upstreaming” of current/former members of SSCI and HPSCI. Relying on information leaked to the media, PPSA argued that the “frequency of such undisclosed surveillance indicates that unmaskings may have been requested for illegitimate reasons—for example, to gain information to embarrass or compromise members of the congressional committees responsible for overseeing the intelligence community.” Four agencies issued Glomar responses; ODNI provided Glomar under FOIA Exemptions 1 and 3. [Note: neither the CIA nor State replied to the initial FOIA request until after litigation initiated, at which point they also issued Glomar under FOIA Exemptions 1 and 3]. Court granted gov’t agencies motion for summary judgment