Records Destruction

The recent decision in Shapiro v. United States Department of Justice, 944 F.3d 940, 943 (D.C. Cir. 2019) precludes the FBI from employing its usual practice of claiming that documents were destroyed without any further explanation. The case makes clear that it was highly problematic that the FBI’s affidavit did nothing to explain why or how certain responsive files had been destroyed. (Often, when agencies like the FBI do not provide additional details about records destruction it is because the document destruction was illegal.)