On Wednesday, Judge Woods endorsed a joint letter from the New York Times and the Department of Justice to stay proceedings in a FOIA case, pending the outcome of an administrative appeal.
The case concerns the NYT’s January 10, 2025 expedited FOIA request for the second volume of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report. This volume addresses his decisionmaking in the criminal case against Trump regarding the alleged mishandling of classified documents. On January 21, 2025, alleging that the DOJ had not addressed their expedited processing request within the required timeframe, Plaintiffs brought this lawsuit.
Subsequently, the DOJ expedited the NYT’s request, and then denied it on February 5, 2025. Because a decision has been issued, an administrative appeal is now available.
In requesting a stay, the parties recognized, but did not ask the Court to address, an “unusual” issue:
[T]he question is whether The Times can contest [the DOJ’s] determination [to deny the FOIA request] in this proceeding even though it has not exhausted its administrative remedies as to the Request. The Times believes that it can; the DOJ disagrees.
The parties do not ask the Court to resolve that question, however. Instead, they respectfully propose that the Court briefly stay the proceedings pending the resolution of an administrative appeal, which The Times will submit promptly, challenging the denial of the Request. Once that appeal is resolved, the Court may lift the stay on the proceedings and, if necessary, set a schedule for summary judgment briefing.