FBI DD 4.29.24
| Tracking # |
A-2025-00228 1633111-000 1195846-0 1633111-000 |
| Submitted | April 29, 2024 |
| Due | July 2, 2024 |
| Est. Completion | None |
MuckRock users can file, duplicate, track, and share public records requests like this one. Learn more.
Communications
From: Robert Skvarla, Jr.
Dear FOIA Officer:
You are receiving this correspondence as a request under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. subsection 552. I am requesting the following:
Records relating to, mentioning, or generated as a result of investigation or inquiry for Donald David DeFreeze, aka Cinque Mtume, aka General Field Marshal Cinque (November 16, 1943 – May 17, 1974).
This information has already been released previously. Page 11 of the FBI's 2003 FOIA log, attached, indicates journalist Tom O'Neill filed FOIPA request 961930-001 the year prior. The bureau reopened the request on May 15, 2003, and closed it again on May 3, 2005. The log discloses that 1,812 pages were released as part of that request, thus I am requesting all information previously released in that request and any additional information released since then.
There is no expectation of a violation of Mr. DeFreeze's privacy, as he passed away in 1974. I have attached a reproduction of an obituary, published in The New York Times on May 24, 1974.
I am asking you waive any fees associated with this request. I am a member of the news media. My bylines, which include Unicorn Riot, Covert Action Magazine, and the Geopolitical Economy Report, can be found in both print and electronic publications, and I am sending this request in coordination with Muckrock, an award-winning and nationally-recognized news organization. Please take note of the Office of Management and Budget guidelines published March 27, 1987 (52 FR 10012) that include electronic publications and other nontraditional publishers as representatives of the news media.
This request is not being made for commercial purposes.
All documents will be provided to the general public without charge.
In the event that there are fees, I am willing to pay up to $100. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
I look forward to your response within 20 working days, as the statute requires. If access to the records I am requesting will take longer, please contact me with information about when I might expect copies or the ability to inspect the requested records.
If you deny any or all of this request, please cite each specific exemption you feel justifies the refusal to release the information and notify me of the appeal procedures available to me under the law.
Sincerely,
Robert Skvarla, Jr.
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation
There are eFOIA files available for you to download.
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation
There are eFOIA files available for you to download.
From: Robert Skvarla, Jr.
To Whom It May Concern:
I recently received an acknowledgment letter stating the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was releasing 62 pages of records in response to FOIPA request 1633111-000, and asking if I would like any additional records should they exist. Please consider this communication confirmation that I would like all additional records. My original request identified 1,812 pages of records on the subject of this request, Donald David DeFreeze, that the FBI released to another journalist in 2005.
If it helps expedite the process, the FBI may break future releases up into smaller sub-tracks, using the medium sub-track (251-500 pages) for dissemination of materials.
I would also like to take this opportunity to renew my request for a fee waiver. My bylines include Unicorn Riot, Covert Action Magazine, and the Geopolitical Economy Report and I am sending this request in coordination with Muckrock, an award-winning and nationally-recognized news organization. Please take note of the Office of Management and Budget guidelines published March 27, 1987 (52 FR 10012) that include electronic publications and other nontraditional publishers as representatives of the news media.
Thank you for your guidance through the FOIPA process.
Best,
Robert Skvarla, Jr.
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The FBI has received your additional correspondence regarding your Freedom of Information/Privacy Act (FOIPA) request and it has been forwarded to the assigned analyst for review and determination.
Respectfully,
Public Information Officer
FBI - Information Management Division
200 Constitution Drive
Winchester, VA 22602
O: (540) 868-4593
E: foipaquestions@fbi.gov<mailto:foipaquestions@fbi.gov>
Do you have further questions about the FOI/PA process? Visit us at http://www.fbi.gov/foia
Please check the status of your request online at https://vault.fbi.gov/fdps-1/@@search-fdps Status updates are performed on a weekly basis.
Note: This is a non-emergency email address. If this is an emergency, please call 911 directly. If you need to report a tip for immediate action, please contact FBI Tips at http://tips.fbi.gov/ or reach out to your local field office.
-
~WRD1595
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on April 29, 2024. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #1633111-000.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation
Thank you for contacting foipaquestions@fbi.gov.
Please check the status of your FOIPA Request at http://vault.fbi.gov by clicking on “Check Status of Your FOI/PA Request” on the right side of the page, and follow the instructions below.
Check the Status of Your FOIPA Request
If your FOIPA Number is [1195846-0] please enter [1195846-000] into the system. If your FOIPA Number is [1195846-1] please enter [1195846-001] into the system. If you have any questions about the status of your FOIPA request, please e-mail foipaquestions@fbi.gov.
FIND STATUS OF FOIPA- Request statuses are updated weekly
Please enter the whole FOIPA number-Example: [1234567-000]
FOIPA:
Results will show the Request Number, Case Type and Process Description shown below:
FOIPA:
1234567-000
Case Type:
FOIPA
Process Description (Will display the current progress of the request)
The FBI’s FOIPA Program is searching the FBI’s indices for potentially responsive documents.
You may be contacted via formal letter for all fees and/or negotiation issues that may apply.
NOTE: Recent requests are entered into the FOIPA database in the order that they are received. Before you can check the status, you must have received correspondence assigning a FOIPA request number and the information transferred to the online database. Status information is updated weekly. If a request has been closed within the last six months the online database will display the following: The FOIPA number entered has been closed, and appropriate correspondence has been sent to the address on file.
Estimated Dates of Completion
Requests are processed in the order in which they are received through our multi-track processing system, and the FBI receives a voluminous amount of requests on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis. Requests are divided into two primary tracks--simple (under 50 pages of potentially responsive documents) and complex (over 50 pages of potentially responsive documents). Our complex requests are further divided into small (51-250 pages), medium (251-500 pages), large (501-4,999), and extra-large (over 5,000 pages) sub-tracks. Simple track requests typically require the least amount of time to process. The more potentially responsive pages a request has, the more complex it becomes, greatly increasing the time required for processing. Generally, the larger the file, the longer it takes to process.
Currently, simple track cases average approximately 122 days from the date of receipt for processing. Complex requests in the small processing track are currently averaging 360 days from the date of receipt for processing, those in the medium processing track are currently averaging 1,230 days, those in the large processing track are currently averaging approximately 2,010 days, and those in the extra-large track are averaging 2,370 days.
Respectfully,
Public Information Officer
FBI - Information Management Division
200 Constitution Drive
Winchester, VA 22602
O: (540) 868-4593
E: foipaquestions@fbi.gov<mailto:foipaquestions@fbi.gov>
Do you have further questions about the FOI/PA process? Visit us at http://www.fbi.gov/foia
Please check the status of your request online at https://vault.fbi.gov/fdps-1/@@search-fdps Status updates are performed on a weekly basis.
Note: This is a non-emergency email address. If this is an emergency, please call 911 directly. If you need to report a tip for immediate action, please contact FBI Tips at http://tips.fbi.gov/ or reach out to your local field office.
-
~WRD0004
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation
There are eFOIA files available for you to download.
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation
There are eFOIA files available for you to download.
From: Robert Skvarla, Jr.
October 21, 2024
Director, Office of Information Policy
U.S. Department of Justice
441 G Street, NW, 6th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20530
RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT APPEAL FOIA 1633111-000
To the Director of the Office of Information Policy:
I write to appeal the decision of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) denying the fee waiver for a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that I, Robert Skvarla, Jr., submitted on April 22, 2024, for the FBI’s file on Donald David DeFreeze.
On August 20, 2024, I received a letter signed by Michael G. Seidel, Section Chief, Record/Information Dissemination Section, Information Management Division informing me that a fee waiver was being rejected for the following reason: “You failed to demonstrate that the requested information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations and activities of the government.”
I appeal the decision to deny my request for a waiver of fees. Disclosure of the documents I requested is in the public interest because the information is likely to contribute significantly to understanding of the operations or activities of government and is not primarily in my commercial interest.
First, as noted in my original request, these records have already been released at least once prior, to journalist Tom O’Neill in 2005 (FOIPA request 961930-001), when the FBI released 1,812 pages (please see page 11 of the FBI’s 2003 FOIA log, available via its online FOIA vault). That they were requested and released to a journalist already would indicate these records are a matter of public interest.
Second, the subject in question, Donald David DeFreeze, is a central figure in one of the largest (and longest) investigations in the FBI’s history, that of the kidnapping of Patricia Campbell Hearst. Ms. Hearst was kidnapped by members of Mr. DeFreeze’s militant group, the Symbionese Liberation Army, on February 4, 1979, and was later arrested by FBI agents and San Francisco law enforcement on September 8, 1975. The FBI has since made public its records on this investigation, codenamed HEARNAP, in its online FOIA vault (https://vault.fbi.gov/HEARNAP/). As Mr. DeFreeze was the leader of the group that kidnapped Ms. Hearst, and the HEARNAP records cover the investigation into that kidnapping, Mr. DeFreeze’s name features prominently in all 42 of the files the FBI has posted as of October 2024. If there is a compelling public interest in the FBI posting the HEARNAP records on its website, then the same is true of Mr. DeFreeze’s records, as the HEARNAP records would not exist if not for the interjection of Mr. DeFreeze into Ms. Hearst’s life. As it stands, the HEARNAP records must be considered incomplete without the additional context Mr. DeFreeze’s records would provide.
Third, Donald David DeFreeze was identified by the media on a number of occasions as a former informant for law enforcement. “Cinque: A Dropout Who Has Been in Constant Trouble”, an article which ran in the May 17, 1974 edition of the New York Times, quotes an attorney who represented Mr. DeFreeze on the subject. One portion of the article, referring to Mr. DeFreeze’s relationship with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), states: “Morgan M. Morten, the attorney who represented Mr. DeFreeze in his probation hearing, said that at that time, it was ‘indicated that he had been cooperating with the police.’ It is not clear, however, exactly what Mr. DeFreeze might have done as an informer or how long he might have played the role.”
Another section elaborates on this: “But the records also show that he set up the arrest of a confederate in a stolen gun case. The Los Angeles Police Department detective who handled the case became a key intelligence officer who dealt with informants involving black militants.
"The records show that in the racially and politically intense period between 1967 and 1969, during which the Black Panthers and other armed militant groups emerged in Los Angeles, Mr. DeFreeze remained on probation despite a series of encounters with the police. These included arrests for possession of weapons, a kidnapping charge in New Jersey and an attempted bank robbery in Cleveland. Then he got into a gunfight with Los Angeles police and bank guards in late 1969.”
This article can be found at the following link: https://www.nytimes.com/1974/05/17/archives/cinque-a-dropout-who-has-been-in-constant-trouble-school-dropout-on.html
Separately, the FBI had at least one informant infiltrate organizations adjacent to the SLA while the HEARNAP investigation was underway. After the SLA kidnapped Ms. Hearst, her father, Randolph A. Hearst, conceded to an SLA demand and funded a public food initiative known as People in Need (PIN). Sara Jane Moore, a PIN employee and FBI informant, interacted with members of the New World Liberation Front (NWLF), a radical left-wing terrorist group formed on or around November 23, 1973. The SLA and NWLF were in contact via comminques between 1973 and 1975. Ms. Moore would later gain notoriety for her attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford in 1975.
The New York Times confirmed Ms. Moore’s status as an FBI informant in a December 21, 1975 article titled “For Sara Moore, Brilliant Roles Enriched a Drab Life”. The article states, in part: “For a year, Miss Moore was an F.B.I. informer, then a convert to the revolutionary groups she was supposed to be reporting on, and finally an assassin. As she had so many other times in her life, she encountered frustration there, too.”
This article can be found at the following link: https://www.nytimes.com/1975/12/21/archives/for-sara-moore-brilliant-roles-enriched-a-drab-life.html
Given that Donald David DeFreeze has been identified as a possible informant for law enforcement and parties connected to the SLA such as Sara Jane Moore were confirmed federal informants, Mr. DeFreeze’s file would cover the operations or activities of government. Any possible hindrance in the HEARNAP investigation, whether from state or federal officials, would be of public interest, particularly because of the time and resources devoted to carrying out the investigation. Moreover, any interactions the FBI may have had with Mr. DeFreeze would be of considerable interest, especially if Mr. DeFreeze was used as an informant or source of information by FBI officials at any point prior to the creation of the SLA. Part of his file, already released to me by the FBI, indicates the FBI was aware of and monitoring interactions between Mr. DeFreeze and the LAPD in the period when it has been suggested he was being used by that agency as an informant. Additional clarification is needed to explicate Mr. DeFreeze's relationship with state and federal agencies.
I request that you reconsider the denial of the fee waiver. The public interest in the release of Donald David DeFreeze’s records outweighs the public interest in withholding them for the reasons stated above.
Donald David DeFreeze is deceased, and as such, there is no expectation of a violation of his privacy.
Thank you for your consideration of this appeal.
Sincerely,
Robert Skvarla, Jr.
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Office of Information Policy has received your FOIA Appeal. Please see the attached acknowledgment letter.
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation
Good morning,
We're contacting you in reference to the FOIPA request number included in the subject line of this email. The FBI located approximately 61,523 pages potentially responsive to your request.
Requests are processed in the order in which they are received through our multi-track processing system:
Extra-small track requests (0-50 pages) current average time is approximately 8 months to complete;
Small track requests (51-250 pages) current average time is approximately 36 months to complete;
Medium track requests (251-500 pages) current average time is approximately 44 months to complete;
Large track requests (501-4,999 pages) current average time is approximately 67 months to complete; and
Extra-large track requests (5,000+ pages) current average time is approximately 79 months to complete.
The current average time to complete your extra-large track request is at least 79 months. Reducing the scope of your request may accelerate the processing, allow for a timelier receipt of the information you seek, and reduce the duplication costs, if applicable. Would you be willing to consider reducing the scope of your request to place it in a smaller, potentially faster processing track?
Please let us know if this is something you would be interested in further discussing. If you chose to narrow the scope of your request, you will be able to request remaining material via a new FOIPA request submission at the completion of this request, subject to applicable fees.
Best regards,
Negotiation Team
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Fbi.foipa.negotiation@fbi.gov<mailto:Fbi.foipa.negotiation@fbi.gov>
Status Checks: https://vault.fbi.gov/fdps-1/@@search-fdps | foipaquestions@fbi.gov<mailto:foipaquestions@fbi.gov>
For additional information, please visit the www.fbi.gov/foia<http://www.fbi.gov/foia> website.
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation
Good morning,
We hadn’t heard back and wanted to follow up.
Best regards,
Negotiation Team
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Fbi.foipa.negotiation@fbi.gov<mailto:Fbi.foipa.negotiation@fbi.gov>
Status Checks: https://vault.fbi.gov/fdps-1/@@search-fdps | foipaquestions@fbi.gov<mailto:foipaquestions@fbi.gov>
For additional information, please visit the www.fbi.gov/foia<http://www.fbi.gov/foia> website.
From: Robert Skvarla, Jr.
Good morning,
As I recently filed an administrative appeal with the Office of Information Policy of the U.S. Department of Justice (appeal no. A-2025-00228) regarding your denial of my fee waiver, I am asking to postpone any modifications to the scope of this request until that office has made a decision. The outcome of this appeal will shape any choices I make, thus I am unable to provide an answer at this time.
Thank you for following up with me on this matter.
Sincerely,
Robert Skvarla, Jr.
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The FBI has received your additional correspondence regarding your Freedom of Information/Privacy Act (FOIPA) request and it has been forwarded to the assigned analyst for review and determination.
Respectfully,
Public Information Officer
FBI - Information Management Division
200 Constitution Drive
Winchester, VA 22602
O: (540) 868-4593
E: foipaquestions@fbi.gov<mailto:foipaquestions@fbi.gov>
Do you have further questions about the FOI/PA process? Visit us at http://www.fbi.gov/foia
Please check the status of your request online at https://vault.fbi.gov/fdps-1/@@search-fdps Status updates are performed on a weekly basis.
Note: This is a non-emergency email address. If this is an emergency, please call 911 directly. If you need to report a tip for immediate action, please contact FBI Tips at http://tips.fbi.gov/ or reach out to your local field office.
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation
Good morning,
No worries, we’ll keep the request as-is in the extra-large track for now. We can revisit the potential scope reduction once the fee waiver appeal has been determined.
Best regards,
Negotiation Team
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Fbi.foipa.negotiation@fbi.gov<mailto:Fbi.foipa.negotiation@fbi.gov>
Status Checks: https://vault.fbi.gov/fdps-1/@@search-fdps | foipaquestions@fbi.gov<mailto:foipaquestions@fbi.gov>
For additional information, please visit the www.fbi.gov/foia<http://www.fbi.gov/foia> website.
-
~WRD0000
