DOJ Must Face Suit Seeking Matt Gaetz Investigation Documents

Government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington can continue to allege that the US Department of Justice is improperly withholding documents related to the investigation of former Rep. Matt Gaetz.

CREW sufficiently alleged that the DOJ is violating the Freedom of Information Act by implementing a policy of refusing to confirm or deny the existence of investigation-related records, Judge Loren L. AliKhan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said in a March 21 order partially denying the government’s motion to dismiss.

The DOJ in 2020 investigated then-Rep. Gaetz for potential violations of federal sex-trafficking laws and obstruction of justice, but informed him in 2023 that it wouldn’t press charges.

A US House of Representatives committee report said investigators found substantial evidence that he paid several women—including a 17-year-old girl—for sex and bought and used illegal drugs while in Congress. President Trump nominated the Florida Republican to be US attorney general, but Gaetz withdrew from consideration shortly thereafter.

CREW filed this suit in May 2024 alleging that the DOJ wrongfully withheld responsive records related to its Gaetz investigation. It also said that the DOJ and its various divisions improperly adopted a blanket policy of neither confirming nor denying the existence of such records, and that the FBI improperly adopted a policy of categorically denying document requests without reviewing requests on a case-by-case basis.

The government moved to dismiss the count alleging the non-denial of the existence of records, what is known as the “Glomar” response. The DOJ’s responses to CREW’s requests were too varied to suggest a policy or practice, the government argued.

But AliKhan said CREW could advance this claim because it adequately alleged that several DOJ components—such as the Office of Information Policy and the Criminal Division—are engaging in the same practice. The DOJ is the “overarching agency that holds its various components together, and it therefore can exercise control over its components’ FOIA policies,” AliKhan said.

DOJ’s components have denied CREW’s document requests related to several publicly disclosed investigations, including those related to former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and former US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, the opinion said.

Treating components separately for individual document requests makes sense when the components have different document collections, but not when a plaintiff alleges a general policy of violating FOIA that transcends multiple components, as CREW did here, the court said.

CREW has shown that several DOJ components replied to FOIA requests for records concerning publicly disclosed investigations in the same way, the court said. Therefore, CREW has alleged a policy or practice of failing to abide by FOIA, the opinion said.

AliKhan also dismissed CREW’s FBI claim because responses to those document requests weren’t “uniform,” and “appear far too varied to support a policy-or-practice claim.”

In-house attorneys represent CREW.

The case is Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Wash. v. US Dep’t of Justice, D.D.C., No. 24-cv-1497, 3/21/25.