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Question: Investigate Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Search court records for "PACER search for FBI as defendant in FOIA cases regarding technology procurement". Would reveal what procurement records FBI claims are classified or exempt from disclosure. Report any findings as factual claims with dates and evidence.
Date: 2026-04-12
Research reveals extensive FBI use of FOIA exemptions to withhold technology procurement records, particularly surveillance systems. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed multiple lawsuits since 2006 against the FBI, starting with cases seeking records on DCS-3000 and Red Hook surveillance tools that the FBI spent millions developing, with DCS-3000 being an evolution of the controversial Carnivore system used to monitor online traffic. The FBI's Investigative Data Warehouse contained over 560 million items of personal information by 2006, accessible to nearly 12,000 law enforcement agents, but the FBI failed to respond to FOIA requests for records about inclusion criteria and privacy policies.
In significant technology procurement cases, the DOJ released 73 out of 79 responsive documents but claimed the remaining 6 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinions were classified and exempt from disclosure under national security exemptions. The FBI routinely invokes Exemption 1 (national security) and the special (c)(3) exclusion which allows the Bureau to treat records as not subject to FOIA requirements when involving foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, or international terrorism where the existence of such records is classified information. This pattern shows systematic use of classification claims to shield technology procurement and deployment from public scrutiny, with courts generally deferring to FBI claims about national security harm.