worthless, wasteless, FOIA

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Information Policy Suite 11050 1425 New York Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 Telephone: (202) 514-3642 June 14, 2017 Ms. Sheri Grutz 1450 Royal Oak Court DeWitt, IA 52742 Re: DOJ-2017-004585 (OIP) sgrutz33@gmail.com VRB:VAV:MWM Dear Ms. Grutz: This responds to your Freedom of Information Act request received in this Office on June 12, 2017 seeking to make an appeal. This response is made on behalf of the Office of Information Policy. Your request has been received by the Office of Information Policy of the United States Department of Justice, which processes Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act (PA) requests for records it maintains as well as records maintained by the Offices of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, Associate Attorney General, Public Affairs, Legislative Affairs, and Legal Policy. OIP also adjudicates administrative appeals of denials of FOIA/PA requests made to the Department. This Office maintains the case files for the initial requests and administrative appeals it processes. Please be advised that the FOIA provides a right of access to federal agency records that exist and can be located in federal agency files. The FOIA does not require agencies to conduct research for you, to analyze data, to answer questions, or to create new records in response to a FOIA request. Moreover, the FOIA does not apply to records that are maintained by states, counties, or cities, or by the legislative or judicial branches of the government. Should you want to contact the Department regarding an issue please review this webpage: https://www.justice.gov/contact-us. You may contact our FOIA Public Liaison at the telephone number listed above for any further assistance and to discuss any aspect of your request. Additionally, you may contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA mediation services they offer. The contact information for OGIS is as follows: Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, Room 2510, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001; email at ogis@nara.gov; telephone at 202-741-5770; toll-free at 1-877- 684-6448; or facsimile at 202-741-5769. -2- If you are not satisfied with my response to this request, you may administratively appeal by writing to the Director, Office of Information Policy, United States Department of Justice, Suite 11050, 1425 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20530-0001, or you may submit an appeal through OIP’s FOIAonline portal at https://foiaonline.regulations.gov/foia/ action/public/home. Your appeal must be postmarked or electronically transmitted within ninety days of the date of my response to your request. If you submit your appeal by mail, both the letter and the envelope should be clearly marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.” Sincerely, Vanessa R. Brinkmann Senior Counsel