Case Detail
| Case Title | RYAN v. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION et al | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| District | District of Columbia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Washington, DC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Case Number | 1:2014cv01422 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date Filed | 2014-08-20 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date Closed | 2016-03-31 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Judge | Judge Tanya S. Chutkan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plaintiff | CINA A. RYAN | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Case Description | Alireza Shishechi emigrated from Iran in 1976. He became a naturalized citizen and legally changed his name to Cina Ryan in 1986. Although he felt he was being watched, Ryan decided to visit his family in Iran in 2009 and bought a round-trip ticket from Miami to London to Tehran. When he arrived in London, he was detained and subsequently deported to the United States. Several years later, after failing to find an attorney willing to pursue his case, Ryan submitted a FOIA request to the FBI for his records. The agency said it could find no records and that it could neither confirm nor deny that he was on a government watch list. He appealed the denial to the Office of Information Policy, which upheld the FBI's decision. Ryan then filed suit. Complaint issues: Adequacy - Search | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Defendant | FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Defendant | DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Appeal | D.C. Circuit 16-5108 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Documents | Docket Complaint Complaint attachment 1 Opinion/Order [17] FOIA Project Annotation: Judge Tanya Chutkan declined to recuse herself from litigation between Cina Ryan and the FBI based on remarks she made at a hearing to determine why the FBI did not conduct a search using "Cina Ryan" as one keyword. Instead, the agency searched for Gina A. Ryan. Ryan had submitted a FOIA request for records pertaining to his alleged surveillance by the FBI. The FBI searched under the spellings "Sina Ryan" or "Cina A. Ryan," but not 'Cina Ryan." Chutkan held the hearing to have the FBI explain its decision and asked Ryan during the hearing whether "if the FBI had done a search of Cina Ryan, C-I-N-A Ryan, no middle initial A. and come up with no documents, you would be telling me that was also inadequate, right?" Ryan argued the comment was prejudicial and the Chutkan should recuse herself. Chutkan, explaining her actions, noted that "the court informed the parties during this hearing that it was 'perplexed' by the FBI's 'curious' decision not to conduct a search using the name 'Cina Ryan' and required the FBI to submit an additional declaration addressing several of Plaintiff's arguments. Indeed, the court convened the hearing in the first instance, and permitted the submission of additional evidence and declaration from the parties, at Plaintiff's request."
Opinion/Order [19]Issues: Adequacy - Search FOIA Project Annotation: Judge Tanya Chutkan has ruled that the FBI conducted an adequate search for records pertaining to Cina A. Ryan. Ryan believed he had been under government surveillance since 911. He requested records about himself from the FBI. The FBI's first response was that it found no arrest records. Ryan then sent another request, emphasizing that he wanted his complete file. This time the FBI said it found no responsive records and to the extent that Ryan was asking for confirmation as to whether he was on a watch list the agency would neither confirm nor deny the existence of such records. Ryan then filed suit challenging the agency's search. The FBI searched both its Central Records System and its Electronic Surveillance indices using a variety of spellings as well as a phonetic breakdown. After Ryan filed suit, the agency conducted a second search, which also came up empty. Pointing to a provision from the OPEN Government Act requiring agencies to search records maintained by records management contractors, Ryan claimed the agency's search was not inclusive enough. Chutkan pointed out that "this provision primarily addresses the availability of physical documents committed to the custody of a third-party for storage, and does not necessarily impose an affirmative obligation to search for and produce documents in the possession of third party contractors. Nothing in the record suggests that the FBI has transferred any of its records to a government contractor for records management, or that any documents so transferred would not have been found in the searches described above." Ryan claimed the FBI was required to search for records held by other agencies involved in any alleged surveillance of him. Chutkan noted that "FOIA, however, requires only that the agency search for and produce documents in its possession, not search for records across the entire federal government." Ryan attacked the agency's search by pointing to instances indicating the agency had various storage drives that it did not search regularly and another instance in which the agency had misled a district court judge about the existence of records. Chutkan rejected these claims, observing that there was no indication that these practices were ongoing or that the agency's search for records on Ryan was conducted in bad faith. Finally, Chutkan indicated that the FBI's explanation of its CRS search included the use of phonetic terms, but that its ELSUR search did not. She told the agency to supplement its affidavit to explain whether the ELSUR search had also included a phonetic search as well.
Opinion/Order [31]Issues: Adequacy - Search FOIA Project Annotation: Judge Tanya Chutkan has ruled that the FBI has finally shown that it conducted an adequate search for records concerning Cina Ryan, who believed he had been a subject of government surveillance since 9/11. The FBI had used a variety of phonetic searches and found no records, but had not searched using the name Cina A. Ryan because it decided that its phonetic combinations would have picked up any records similar to that spelling. Chutkan previously found that the FBI had not sufficiently explained why it did not search its ELSUR indices. This time, however, Chutkan was convinced by the agency's affidavit explaining that ELSUR searches would not be productive if no references were located in a search of its Central Records System. Finding that Ryan's challenges to the search were unpersuasive, Chutkan pointed out that "with regard to Plaintiff's otherwise unsupported allegation of bad faith, the court notes that agency declarations in FOIA disputes are presumed to be in good faith, and that presumption 'cannot be rebutted by "purely speculative claims about the existence and discoverability of other documents."' But that is all Plaintiff providesâ€"conclusory, unfounded allegations of wholesale government crimes and conspiracies, while submitting no fact based allegation that Defendant is attempting to mislead the court."
Issues: Adequacy - Search | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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