US District Judge James Boasberg dismissed the claims brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which alleged the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to try to recover records on now-closed investigations that were destroyed, citing the Federal Records Act.
Freedom of information
The AmLaw Daily web site reports that the Federal Records Act only required the SEC to take action to recover records that were ‘removed’ from the agency, not records that were destroyed. The judge also found that even if the legislation applied to destroyed documents, the SEC had made enough of an effort to recover them.
The action kicked-off following CREW’s September 2011 Freedom of Information Act request relating to SEC decisions not to follow several investigations into financial institutions.
Close question
However, before the SEC responded to the request, CREW filed a suit against the commission alleging it was destroying records. Judge Boasberg said it was a ‘close question’, but ultimately sided with the SEC in relying on the ‘plain meaning’ of the law.
SEC spokesman John Nester said that the ‘decision speaks for itself’.
CREW chief counsel Anne Weismann reacted by saying: ‘The bottom line of this decision is very troubling, which is that agencies are under no obligation to do anything about destroyed records.’
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