Jabar v. U.S. Department of Justice ( 2023 )

22-226
Jabar v. U.S. Department of Justice
In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Second Circuit
August Term, 2022
No. 22-226
STEVE SATAR JABAR,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
Defendant-Appellee.
On Appeal from a Judgment of the United States District Court for
the Western District of New York.
SUBMITTED: JANUARY 23, 2023
DECIDED: FEBRUARY 23, 2023
Before: CABRANES and NARDINI, Circuit Judges, and RAKOFF, District
Judge. *
* Judge Jed S. Rakoff, of the United States District Court for the Southern
District of New York, sitting by designation.
Plaintiff-Appellant Steve Satar Jabar appeals from a decision by
the United States District Court for the Western District of New York
(John Sinatra, Jr., J.) granting summary judgment to the United States
Department of Justice. Jabar sued the Department of Justice under
the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, seeking
documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation related to
himself, speculating that they might include exculpatory information
that the government had not disclosed in his recent criminal trial. The
government produced 21 sets of responsive documents and an index
detailing FOIA exemptions under which it withheld other responsive
documents, and the district court granted summary judgment for the
government. On appeal, Jabar argues (1) that summary judgment
was improperly granted because his FOIA action is an effort to
vindicate his rights under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), and
(2) that, in the alternative, the district court erred in not conducting
an in camera inspection of withheld documents. We hold otherwise.
As we explained in Brown v. Federal Bureau of Investigation, 658 F.2d
71, 76 (2d Cir. 1981), FOIA and the criminal discovery process provide
distinct tracks for seeking disclosure from the government. That a
FOIA action might lead to the discovery of documents useful to a
particular criminal defendant changes neither the government’s
statutorily defined obligations under FOIA, nor the government’s
burden at summary judgment. We therefore AFFIRM the district
court.
Michael Kuzma, Law Office of Michael
Kuzma, Buffalo, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Daniel Tenny and David L. Peters, for Brian
M. Boynton, Principal Deputy Assistant
Attorney General, Washington, D.C., and
2
for Trini E. Ross, United States Attorney for
the Western District of New York, Buffalo,
NY, for Defendant-Appellee.
PER CURIAM:
In 2016, a federal jury found Steve Satar Jabar guilty of wire
fraud and related charges stemming from his misuse of thousands of
dollars from a United Nations grant. One month after the guilty
verdict, Jabar asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to turn over
all documents related to him under the Freedom of Information Act
(“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, speculating that they might include
exculpatory information that the government had not disclosed in his
criminal trial. While awaiting a response, Jabar filed this FOIA action
against the United States Department of Justice, of which the FBI is a
part. The government eventually produced 21 sets of responsive
documents and an index detailing FOIA exemptions under which it
withheld other responsive documents. The government then moved
for summary judgment, including with its motion an affidavit
3
detailing its search methodologies, the FOIA exemptions under
which it withheld documents, and its efforts to redact and produce
segregable portions of exempt documents. The district court declined
to review the withheld documents in camera and granted the
government’s motion for summary judgment. Jabar now appeals,
arguing (1) that summary judgment was improperly granted because
his FOIA action is an effort to vindicate his rights under Brady v.
Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), and (2) that, in the alternative, the district
court erred in not conducting an in camera inspection of withheld
documents.
We hold otherwise. As we explained in Brown v. Federal Bureau
of Investigation, 658 F.2d 71, 75 (2d Cir. 1981), FOIA and the criminal
discovery process provide distinct tracks for seeking disclosure from
the government. That a FOIA action might help a particular criminal
defendant discover documents useful to his defense changes neither
the government’s statutory obligations under FOIA, nor the
4
government’s burden at summary judgment. Accordingly, the
district court properly granted summary judgment to the
government. Further, the district court acted well within its
discretion in declining to conduct in camera review of the withheld
documents, as the government’s affidavit described its efforts to
search, review, and redact documents with sufficient particularity for
the court to decline in camera review, and Jabar failed to challenge the
veracity of the government’s declaration. We therefore AFFIRM the
judgment of the district court.
I. Background
Plaintiff-Appellant Steve Satar Jabar moved to the United
States from Iraq in 1989 and became a United States citizen in 1996.
In 1995, Jabar and Deborah Bowers founded a non-profit organization
called Opportunities for Kids International (“OKI”) to assist refugees
in New York. See United States v. Jabar, 19 F.4th 66, 72 (2d Cir. 2021),
cert. denied sub nom. Bowers v. United States, 142 S. Ct. 1396 (2022)(mem.).
5
In June 2004, Jabar and Bowers applied on behalf of OKI to the
United Nations Development Fund for Women for a $500,474 grant
to establish a radio station in Iraq called Voice of Women, intended to
broadcast educational programming to women. Id. at 72–73. On
December 15, 2004, OKI received the first $350,000 disbursement of
that grant. Id. at 73. Jabar and Bowers, however, did not comply with
the grant’s financial reporting requirements, and converted more
than $65,000 of those funds to personal use. Id. at 73–74. In 2005, the
Internal Revenue Service began investigating OKI based on multiple
suspicious activity reports from financial institutions, and on May 21,
2009, a grand jury in the Western District of New York indicted Jabar
and Bowers on fraud, money laundering, and false statement charges.
Id. at 74–75.
On September 2, 2016, at a trial before Judge Lawrence J.
Vilardo, a jury convicted Jabar and Bowers of conspiring to commit
wire fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements. Id. at 75. Jabar
6
moved for a judgment of acquittal under Rule 29 and, in the
alternative, for a new trial under Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of
Criminal Procedure. Id. On September 27, 2017, the district court,
citing insufficient evidence, granted his post-verdict motion for
acquittal as to the conspiracy and wire fraud charges. Id. The
government appealed and, on November 19, 2021, our Court reversed
the acquittal and remanded the case to the district court for
consideration of Jabar’s new trial motion. Id. at 72. Jabar’s motion for
a new trial remains pending before Judge Vilardo.
By letter dated October 10, 2016, Jabar submitted a request to
the FBI under FOIA and the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C § 552a, seeking all
documents pertaining to him held by the Bureau. 1 On April 10, 2017,
while awaiting a response to his FOIA request, Jabar filed his
1 Although Jabar’s FOIA request was submitted under both FOIA and the
Privacy Act, on appeal Jabar contends only that summary judgment was
improperly granted because “FOIA may be used to remedy [Brady] violations and
the District Court erred by not conducting an in camera inspection of the records
withheld in full to determine if there were any segregable portions.” Appellant
Br. at 2. We therefore confine our analysis to FOIA.
7
complaint in this case in the United States District Court for the
Western District of New York.
The FBI has since processed 5,368 pages of documents
responsive to Jabar’s FOIA request. Across 21 interim releases of
records, the government released 154 pages in full, released 632 pages
in part, and withheld 4,582 pages in full. On March 13, 2020,
following its search and productions, the Department of Justice filed
an index containing documents withheld in whole or part, alongside
justifications for the asserted disclosure exemptions, fulfilling its
obligation under Vaughn v. Rosen, 484 F.2d 820, 826–27 (D.C. Cir.
1973). Upon the agreement of the parties, the government’s Vaughn
index covered only a 503-document sample of the responsive
documents.
On November 30, 2020, the government moved for summary
judgment. In support of that motion, the government filed an
affidavit from Michael G. Seidel, Section Chief of the
8
Record/Information Dissemination Section of the Information
Management Division at the FBI (the “Seidel Declaration”). Seidel
described the FBI’s filing system, its search methodology, and its
justifications for refusing to release the withheld documents.
On November 24, 2021, United States Magistrate Judge Leslie
G. Foschio issued a Report and Recommendation recommending that
the government’s summary judgment motion be granted and that in
camera review of the withheld documents be denied. On January 12,
2022, United States District Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr., adopted the
Report and Recommendation in full and entered judgment for the
Department of Justice. Jabar now appeals.
II. Discussion
We review the grant of summary judgment de novo, see Long v.
Off. of Pers. Mgmt., 692 F.3d 185, 191 (2d Cir. 2012), and a district
court’s decision about whether to conduct in camera review of
documents withheld under FOIA for abuse of discretion, see
Associated Press v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 549 F.3d 62, 67 (2d Cir. 2008).
9
On appeal, Jabar argues that summary judgment was
improperly granted because FOIA may be used to remedy violations
of the government’s obligations to disclose exculpatory evidence as
articulated in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), and its progeny.
In the alternative, Jabar contends that the district court erred in
declining to conduct an in camera inspection of the withheld records
to determine if any portions were segregable.
A. Background legal frameworks
Congress enacted FOIA to “facilitate public access to
Government documents.” U.S. Dep’t of State v. Ray, 502 U.S. 164, 173
(1991). The statute requires that agencies search for and promptly
make available records in response to requests that reasonably
describe the records sought. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(3). FOIA is
premised on “a policy strongly favoring public disclosure of
information in the possession of federal agencies.” Halpern v. Fed.
Bureau of Investigation, 181 F.3d 279, 286 (2d Cir. 1999). Accordingly,
“[a]gencies are required to disclose requested documents unless they
10
fall within an enumerated exemption.” Knight First Amend. Inst. at
Columbia Univ. v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigr. Servs., 30 F.4th 318, 327
(2d Cir. 2022). FOIA authorizes courts “to enjoin the agency from
withholding agency records and to order the production of any
agency records improperly withheld from the complainant.” 5 U.S.C.
§ 552(a)(4)(B); see also N.Y. Legal Assistance Grp. v. Bd. of Immigr.
Appeals, 987 F.3d 207, 215–25 (2d Cir. 2021) (construing FOIA’s
remedial provision).
In a criminal prosecution, such as Jabar’s, the government has
independent disclosure obligations, including under Rule 16 of the
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S.
at 87. Brady and its progeny have identified “an affirmative duty” on
the part of the government “under the Due Process Clause ‘to disclose
favorable evidence known to it, even if no specific disclosure request
is made by the defense.’” United States v. Hunter, 32 F.4th 22, 30 (2d
Cir. 2022) (quoting United States v. Payne, 63 F.3d 1200, 1208 (2d Cir.
11
1995)). A Brady violation occurs where the evidence at issue was
favorable to the defendant, the evidence was suppressed by the
government, and the defendant was prejudiced by the suppression of
that evidence. See Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 281–82 (1999).
“[T]he remedy for a Brady violation is vacatur of the judgment of
conviction and a new trial in which the defendant now has the Brady
material available to her.” Poventud v. City of New York, 750 F.3d 121,
133 (2d Cir. 2014).
B. Summary judgment
With these principles in mind, we turn to Jabar’s argument that
the district court improperly granted summary judgment to the
Department of Justice. He argues that the government’s disclosure
obligations under FOIA are expanded, or in some manner altered, by
12
his rights under Brady, and thus the district court erred in granting
summary judgment. 2 We disagree.
We begin with the principle that FOIA and Brady give rise to
distinct government disclosure obligations. FOIA involves a
statutorily created process that requires a government agency to
disclose properly requested agency records to anyone making the
request, unless one of the enumerated exemptions within the statute
applies. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)–(b); Carney v. U.S. Dep’t of Just., 19 F.3d
807, 812 (2d Cir. 1994). In contrast, Brady and its progeny articulate
an affirmative duty of disclosure, implicit in the Due Process Clause
2 Jabar describes his argument as a claim that “Brady violations may be
remedied by FOIA.” Appellant Br. at 2 (cleaned up). This phrasing, however,
turns the substance of his argument around, because Jabar has no evidence of a
Brady violation for which he seeks a remedy. If he had such evidence, the proper
remedy would be to file a Rule 33 motion for a new trial in his criminal case. See
Poventud, 750 F.3d at 133. Jabar instead filed his FOIA action seeking records that
he contends might assist him either in his criminal trial if the district court grants
his pending motion for a new one, or in prevailing on that pending motion. His
argument, in other words, is that he suspects a Brady violation might have occurred
and wants to use FOIA to see if there is evidence of such a violation. Thus, this
case presents the question of whether Brady expands or alters the government’s
FOIA obligations when the requester is seeking documents in the hope of
demonstrating a Brady violation. As we explain here, it does not.
13
of the Constitution, that requires prosecutors to turn over certain
materials to a defendant in a criminal case. See Hunter, 32 F.4th at 30.
In Brown v. Federal Bureau of Investigation, we affirmed summary
judgment in favor of the government on a FOIA claim despite the
plaintiff’s hope “to obtain evidence sufficient to mount a collateral
attack on his kidnapping conviction.” 658 F.2d at 75. In that case, the
government had withheld the requested documents pursuant to
FOIA Exemptions 6 and 7, id. at 74, both of which “require a balancing
of the individual’s right of privacy against the preservation of the
basic purpose of the Freedom of Information Act to open agency
action to the light of public scrutiny.” 3 Dep’t of the Air Force v. Rose,
3FOIA Exemption 6 covers “personnel and medical files and similar files
the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6). And FOIA Exemption 7 covers
records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but
only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement
records or information (A) could reasonably be expected to
interfere with enforcement proceedings, (B) would deprive a
person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication, (C) could
reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of
14
425 U.S. 352, 372 (1976) (internal quotation marks omitted). Brown
did not contend that the withheld documents fell outside those FOIA
exemptions; rather, he argued that he needed the documents to
overturn his criminal conviction. See Brown, 658 F.2d at 75. We
rejected that argument, holding that a plaintiff’s personal interest in
obtaining evidence “cannot . . . enter into the weighing or balancing
process[, because] FOIA is not intended to be an administrative
discovery statute for the benefit of private parties.” 4 Id. (internal
quotation marks omitted).
personal privacy, (D) could reasonably be expected to disclose the
identity of a confidential source, . . . , (E) would disclose techniques
and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions,
. . . , or (F) could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or
physical safety of any individual[.]
Id. at § 552(b)(7).
4 Brown also asserted that disclosure pursuant to his FOIA request would
serve the public interest in “the fair and even-handed administration of our
criminal justice system.” Id. at 75 (internal quotation marks omitted). We found,
however, that “[a]ny benefits accruing to the public by virtue of the possibility that
[Brown] may win a new trial are too uncertain, indirect, and remote” to warrant
disclosure of otherwise exempt documents under a public interest balancing. Id.
at 76. Indeed, “the only relevant public interest in the FOIA balancing analysis” is
“the extent to which disclosure of the information sought would ‘she[d] light on
15
Our holding in Brown defeats Jabar’s argument here. Jabar filed
his FOIA request seeking documents to attack his criminal conviction
(and, if his pending new trial motion is granted, to defend himself in
further proceedings in that criminal case). But as we held in Brown,
FOIA has no special rules or exceptions that apply when the
documents sought relate to a criminal case. It is certainly conceivable
that a FOIA request could elicit documents that would undermine a
requester’s criminal conviction, including by demonstrating a Brady
violation. But that possibility does not alter the government’s
obligations under FOIA. Jabar’s effort to conflate these two doctrines
defies both the statutory structure of FOIA and our case law, and the
district court properly rejected his argument. See Brown, 658 F.2d at
75; see also Williams & Connolly v. Sec. & Exch. Comm’n, 662 F.3d 1240,
an agency’s performance of its statutory duties’ or otherwise let citizens know
‘what their government is up to.’” U.S. Dep’t of Def. v. Fed. Lab. Rels. Auth., 510 U.S.
487, 497 (1994) (quoting U.S. Dep’t of Just. v. Reps. Comm. for Freedom of the Press,
489 U.S. 749, 773 (1989)). Jabar does not argue that an interest balancing analysis
was warranted here, much less does he articulate a properly defined public
interest in disclosure.
16
1245 (D.C. Cir. 2011) (explaining that “disclosure in criminal trials is
based on different legal standards than disclosure under FOIA” and
that “FOIA is neither a substitute for criminal discovery, nor an
appropriate means to vindicate discovery abuses”); Boyd v. U.S. Dep’t
of Justice, 475 F.3d 381, 390 (D.C. Cir. 2007) (“Amicus’s suggestion that
an agency’s compliance with FOIA is nonetheless deficient where the
agency may allegedly have failed to make the trial prosecutor aware
of Brady material conflates two separate procedures by which a
defendant may obtain information from the government.”).
The out-of-circuit cases Jabar cites for support are inapposite.
He points to United States v. Murdock, 548 F.2d 599, 602 (5th Cir. 1977),
to suggest that information discovered through FOIA may be used at
a criminal trial. True enough, but as the Fifth Circuit wrote in
Murdock:
the discovery provisions of the Federal Rules of Criminal
Procedure and the FOIA provide two independent schemes
for obtaining information through the judicial process.
Although information obtained through the FOIA may
17
be useful in a criminal trial, we find that the FOIA was not
intended as a device to delay ongoing litigation or to enlarge
the scope of discovery beyond that already provided by the
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
548 F.2d at 602 (emphasis added). Likewise, in Price v. U.S. Dep’t of
Justice Attorney Office, the D.C. Circuit suggested that FOIA can
uncover undisclosed Brady material and other evidence relevant to a
criminal case. 865 F.3d 676, 682 (D.C. Cir. 2017). But the court made
this general observation only by way of background, in the course of
holding that a waiver of FOIA rights included in a defendant’s plea
agreement was, in that specific instance, contrary to public policy. Id.
at 683. Nowhere in Price did the D.C. Circuit suggest that Brady, or
other government disclosure obligations in criminal matters, such as
through Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, altered
FOIA’s explicit statutory scheme. See id. at 679–83. 5 And, of course,
5 Jabar also cites Ferri v. Bell, in which the Third Circuit overturned a grant
of summary judgment for the government in a FOIA action. See 645 F.2d 1213, 1218
(3d Cir. 1981), modified by 671 F.2d 769 (3d Cir. 1982). He is correct that Ferri found
the defendant’s interest in overturning his conviction might constitute a public
interest for the purposes of balancing public and private interests under FOIA
18
even if these other Circuits had intimated to the contrary, we would
still be bound by our decision in Brown.
With Jabar’s Brady argument squarely foreclosed, the merits of
the summary judgment motion are straightforward. The government
can “prevail on a motion for summary judgment in a FOIA case” by
“showing that its search was adequate,” “that any withheld
documents fall within an exemption to the FOIA,” Carney, 19 F.3d at
Exemption 6. See id. at 1218 (“[A] FOIA request for material implicating the Brady
rule simultaneously advances an ‘indirect public [interest] purpose’ satisfying the
second prong of the test for disclosure under one of the privacy-based
exemptions.” (quoting Wine Hobby USA, Inc. v. U.S. Internal Revenue Serv., 502 F.2d
133, 137 (3d Cir. 1974))). Ferri, however, does not advance Jabar’s argument. First,
since Ferri, the Supreme Court has clarified that “the only relevant ‘public interest
in disclosure’ to be weighed” against an individual’s privacy interest “is the extent
to which disclosure would serve the ‘core purpose of the FOIA,’ which is
‘contribut[ing] significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities
of the government.’” Fed. Lab. Rels. Auth., 510 U.S. at 497 (emphasis added)
(quoting Reps. Comm. for Freedom of the Press, 489 U.S. at 775). Second, most courts
to rule on the issue—and most pointedly ours in Brown—have “sensibly refused
to recognize, for purposes of FOIA, a public interest in nothing more than the
fairness of a criminal defendant’s own trial.” Neely v. FBI, 208 F.3d 461, 464 (4th
Cir. 2000); see also Brown, 658 F.2d at 76 (“Any benefits accruing to the public by
virtue of the possibility that [the defendant] may win a new trial are too uncertain,
indirect, and remote to mandate an abrogation of” an individual’s right to
privacy). Third, in any event, Jabar fails to argue that those documents withheld
under FOIA Exemption 7 ought to be released under a weighing of public and
government interests, and thus has waived any argument that Ferri, 645 F.2d at
1218, bears on—or ought to bear on—this case.
19
812, and that “any reasonably segregable non-exempt portion of an
agency record [was] released,” Lead Indus. Ass’n v. Occupational Safety
& Health Admin., 610 F.2d 70, 88 (2d Cir. 1979). Agency declarations
are sufficient to carry the government’s burden where they “describe
the justifications for nondisclosure with reasonably specific detail,
demonstrate that the information withheld logically falls within the
claimed exemption, and are not controverted by either contrary
evidence in the record or by evidence of agency bad faith.” Knight, 30
F.4th at 327 (internal quotation marks omitted). Agency affidavits
“are accorded a presumption of good faith.” Carney, 19 F.3d at 812(internal quotation marks omitted). “[O]nce the agency has satisfied
its burden,” the requester “must make a showing of bad faith on the
part of the agency sufficient to impugn the agency’s affidavits or
declarations or provide some tangible evidence that an exemption
claimed by the agency should not apply or summary judgment is
otherwise inappropriate.” Id. (citation omitted); see also id. at 813
20
(concluding that “something more than . . . bare allegations is
needed” to rebut an agency’s affidavits in support of summary
judgment).
Summary judgment was properly granted here. As the district
court determined, the Seidel Declaration describes the nature of the
government’s search, the various justifications for the documents
withheld, and the government’s efforts to provide Jabar with all
reasonably segregable non-exempt information. Jabar has provided
no basis to call the Seidel Declaration into question, and that
declaration is therefore sufficient to carry the government’s burden.
See id. at 812. Accordingly, the district court properly granted
summary judgment to the government.
C. In camera review
Jabar also contends that the district court erred in declining to
conduct an in camera review of documents withheld in full to
determine if any portions of those documents were segregable. But
the decision whether to conduct an in camera review of documents
21
withheld in response to a FOIA request is one that falls within the
informed discretion of the district court, which we will not disturb
lightly. See Associated Press, 549 F.3d at 67. “Under 5 U.S.C.
§ 552(a)(4)(B), district courts are authorized to conduct in camera
review of disputed documents to determine whether the documents,
in whole or part, are properly withheld under a FOIA exemption.”
Id.; see also In re City of New York, 607 F.3d 923, 949 (2d Cir. 2010)
(observing that a “district court may, in the exercise of its informed
discretion and on the basis of the circumstances presented, require
that the party possessing the [potentially privileged] documents
appear ex parte in chambers to submit the documents for in camera
review by the judge”); In re Grand Jury Subpoenas Dated March 19, 2002
& August 2, 2002, 318 F.3d 379, 386 (2d Cir. 2003) (describing in camera
review as a “practice both long-standing and routine in cases
involving claims of privilege”). It is appropriate
where the government seeks to exempt entire documents
but provides only vague or sweeping claims as to why
22
those documents should be withheld. Only if the
government’s affidavits make it effectively impossible
for the court to conduct de novo review of the
applicability of FOIA exemptions is in camera review
necessary.
Associated Press, 549 F.3d at 67 (citation omitted).
Here, the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation,
adopted in full by the district court, considered the Seidel
Declaration’s detailed justifications for withholding documents in
full. It further noted that Jabar had not provided any basis to question
Seidel’s affirmation that documents withheld in full were either
entirely subject to a FOIA exemption or included only information “so
intertwined with exempt material” that “no information could be
reasonably segregated for release.” Seidel Declaration ¶ 163. Because
the Seidel Declaration was sufficiently detailed, and because Jabar has
failed to present any argument or justification for questioning that
declaration, the district court acted well within its discretion in
declining to conduct in camera review of those documents withheld in
23
full. See Halpern, 181 F.3d at 295 (“In camera review is considered the
exception, not the rule, and the propriety of such review is a matter
entrusted to the district court’s discretion.” (internal quotation marks
omitted)); Armstrong v. Exec. Off. of the President, 97 F.3d 575, 578 (D.C.
Cir. 1996) (finding no abuse of discretion in declining to conduct in
camera review where the government’s explanations were legally
adequate on their face).
III. Conclusion
In sum, we hold as follows:
1. The district court did not err in granting summary
judgment to the government in this FOIA action because
Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), does not alter the
government’s statutory obligations under FOIA, and
because Jabar has not challenged the government’s
otherwise sufficient declaration.
24
2. The district court acted within its discretion in declining to
conduct in camera review of documents the FBI withheld in
full pursuant to FOIA exemptions.
We therefore AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.
25