A watchdog group has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Navy for failing to turn over records on how it processes FOIA requests.
Judicial Watch announced Tuesday it has filed a lawsuit after the Navy failed to respond to its FOIA request for more than three months. Judicial Watch is seeking any policies or directives regarding how the Navy handles FOIA requests.
"It is a travesty for Judicial Watch to have to file a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of the Navy to get information about how it responds to FOIA requests," Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement Tuesday. "The Navy is now stonewalling us about its own stonewall—this is theatre of the absurd."
Judicial Watch filed the request in January after one of the Navy’s FOIA liaisons mistakenly sent a memo to NBC 4 reporter Scott MacFarlane detailing how the department planned on denying his public records request for information on last year’s Navy Yard shooting.
In the memo, the Navy FOIA office recommends several methods for FOIA staff to deny his request, such as telling him his request would be a "fishing expedition" and the search would be "costly."
Although McFarlane is a reporter who would normally be entitled to a fee waiver for FOIA requests, the memo notes that "just because they are media doesn't mean that the memos would shed light on specific government activities," the memo read.
The Navy apologized to McFarlane.
The Navy was not immediately available for comment on the lawsuit.