Are the negative responses of the FBI to Freedom of Information Act requests reliable?

Josiah M. Daniel, III Discussion

For a biography I'm working on, I submitted to the FBI a FOIA search request about a congressman of the first half of the 29th century, about whom I thought J. Edgar Hoover might have maintained a file. I explicitly added that my request included Hoover's files as well as all of the agency's records.

The response back was "no records."

Can I rely on that response? Does the FBI make THOROUGH searches?

Are Hoover's famous files on various politicians and others DEFINITELY INCLUDED in such a search by the FBI?

Is there anything else I could do?

Any insights appreciated.

-Josiah Daniel 

Visiting Scholar, History  Dept., UT Austin                                       

Retired Partner in Residence, Vinson & Elkins LLP, Dallas, TX

E  jmd3.historian@gmail.com              

B  blog-josiahmdaniel3.blogspot.com/

 

 

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I do not know if responses from the FBI are reliable, but maybe reply with a request to reconsider and/or clarify that the FBI's position is that records do not exist (as opposed to records not being provided and your request being denied, which is an appealable decision).

Perhaps another FOIA request to a different agency? Maybe the Department of Justice, or even possibly the National Archives?

I'm not sure whether it would produce any different or better results, but maybe a request somewhere else will help you find what you are looking for.