Dear Ms. Semo and OGIS Staff:
Thank you for your email dated today, July 14, 2021.
I understand your statement that OGIS has no investigatory or enforcement power over federal agencies, and that your Office cannot compel an agency to release documents. Certainly, in a case of unlawful actions by FBI agents, such as this, your lack of enforcement power represents a serious flaw in what I presume to be your Office's role in protecting the civil rights of law-abiding American citizens.
I appealed to your Office because of the fact that my life and my family's lives are under threat, related in part to my May 16, 2021 FOIA request #1496758-000, sent via FedEx and confirmed as received by four federal agencies: the FBI, the OIG-DHS, the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and the U.S. Coast Guard. It is significant that all four agencies claim to have simultaneously "misplaced" my request, despite signature confirmation that all four requests were received.
I provided you with evidence of specific threats I have received. Because of the great likelihood that the FBI has violated multiple laws in this case, and because there is the potential that individual FBI agents have involvement in the current threat to my family's safety and my own, I have asked for the active participation of OGIS as FOIA Ombudsman. I believe this request is both appropriate and urgent, and calls for your Office's active and ongoing involvement in this matter.
The FBI/DOJ cannot be reasonably expected to transcend the myriad conflicts of interest present in this case. In point of fact, I have been made aware of further recent efforts on the part of individual FBI agents to slander me and discredit the veracity of my account. Because I am given to understand that the FBI is making further unfounded and untruthful accusations that I am involved in espionage and other crimes, I remain extremely concerned for the risks to my family's safety and my own.
Your role as FOIA Ombudsman is specifically intended to facilitate intervention in extreme circumstances such as this one.
To that end, may I ask whether you have discussed with any FBI office the specific threats pertaining to my family's safety and my own? If you have done so, may I know which office, please? May I ask whether you forwarded to the FBI my communications, in any form, delineating the specific threats to my family's safety and my own?
This information can materially contribute to our safety, and I believe it is your clear obligation, under your mandate as FOIA Ombudsman, to provide it.
I ask for your prompt response to my questions, and, in recognition of the ongoing risks to our safety due to FBI malfeasance and prevarication, I ask for active and ongoing dialogue with you in resolving this matter.
I have attached this letter in PDF format, as per your request.
Most sincerely,
Lane MacWilliams
