Judicial Watch: FBI Capitulates on Andrew McCabe Text Messages After Adverse Federal Court Ruling

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Judicial Watch

(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch announced today the FBI will finally begin processing Andrew McCabe text message for release after a federal court rejected the FBI’s request to dismiss a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed on behalf of Jeffrey A. Danik, a retired FBI supervisory special agent, for emails and text messages of former-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (Jeffrey A. Danik v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:17-cv-01792).  Mr. Danik filed his first request for the records in 2016. 

After years of suggesting that text messages are not subject to FOIA, the FBI told the court in a recent filingthat it has located 150 text messages and 5,696 emails but will not have a schedule to release the records until August 28, 2020. 

Judicial Watch filed the suit in 2017 in support of Danik’s October 25, 2016, and February 28, 2017, FOIA requests for records about McCabe’s “conflicts of interest” regarding his wife’s (Dr. Jill McCabe’s) political campaign and Hillary Clinton. Specifically, the two FOIA requests are for: 

Text messages and emails of McCabe containing “Dr. Jill McCabe,” “Jill,” “Common Good VA,” “Terry McAuliffe,” “Clinton,” “Virginia Democratic Party,” “Democrat,” “Conflict,” “Senate,” “Virginia Senate,” “Until I return,” “Paris,” “France,” “Campaign,” “Run,” “Political,” “Wife,” “Donation,” “OGC,” Email,” or “New York Times.” 

United States District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, denied the DOJ’s motion to dismiss the case, concluding that DOJ had not provided sufficient evidence to support its attempt to end the lawsuit without providing all emails and text messages responsive to the FOIA requests.