A federal judge delivered a sharp rebuke to the FBI on Thursday, ordering it to pay the legal fees of Muslim activist groups that sued for access to its files, the Associated Press reported.
Judge Cormac J. Carney of the Middle District of California emphasized that the financial sanction was not based on the merits of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California’s Freedom of Information Act case, but rather to punish a government that chose to lie to its own judicial system. “The Court must impose monetary sanctions to deter the Government from deceiving the Court again,” Carney wrote, giving the group 14 days to provide details of its costs.
The Islamic Shura Council is composed of six Muslim-American community organizations and five community leaders, the A.P. said. It had requested access to all records created since January 2001, “including surveillance, monitoring and other investigations of the council,” the A.P. said.
The judge has been angered by FBI assertions that it had to deceive for national security reasons, as Main Justice reported last April.
“Parties cannot choose when to tell the Court the truth,” Carney wrote on Thursday. “They must be truthful with the Court at all stages of the proceedings if judicial review is to have any real meaning.” The A.P. said that FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller declined to comment, noting that the agency does not comment on litigation.
