Attorneys Redact Everything Except Articles & Prepositions... Judge Is Less Than Pleased

A redaction themed benchslap.

Censored message redacts everything except ironic remaining wordsNo one enjoys turning over damaging discovery, but that’s the way the litigation cookie crumbles. But in an ongoing FOIA matter, the FDIC just turned over some redacted documents.

Though that might be stretching the spirit of “redacted” a bit far. Prompting Judge Ana C. Reyes to issue a terse response.

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“History Associates Incorporated” makes this matter sound like the Ancient Alien guys are looking for some of their guaranteed deposits back from the FDIC. But it’s really an entity hired by the crypto industry to lodge FOIA requests against government regulators.

So… not nearly as credible as Ancient Aliens.

But redacting everything but an article or preposition is a bold move even for a government agency fighting a request. However, it would appear that when it came to FOIA, FDIC FAFO.


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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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