Jesse C.

Trentadue (#4961)
8 East Broadway, Suite 200
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Telephone: (801) 532-7300
Facsimile: (801) 532-7355
jesse32@sautah.com
Pro Se Plaintiff

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF UTAH, CENTRAL DIVISION
:
JESSE C. TRENTADUE, :
:
Plaintiff, : PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR A
: SCHEDULING CONFERENCE
vs. :
: Case No.: 2:24-cv-00105-AMA-DAO
FEDERAL BUREAU OF : Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen
INVESTIGATION, : Magistrate Judge Daphne A. Oberg
:
Defendant. : Oral Argument Requested
:
:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”),1 Plaintiff seeks to obtain

69,375 pages of documents/records and two DVD’s related to the FBI’s involvement in

the Oklahoma City Bombing as a result of the agents/informants that it had embedded

with the perpetrators of that terrorist attack. Plaintiff filed two FOIA Requests for these

documents/records in 2016, but has not received a single document. Now that Plaintiff

has commenced this lawsuit to obtain those documents/records, the FBI proposes to

1
5 U.S.C. §§ 552 et. seq.
process them for release to him at the rate of 500 pages per month over a period of 11.5

years.

Pursuant to the Court’s Order,2 Plaintiff prepared a proposed Attorney Planning

Meeting Report and presented it to Defendant’s counsel, Ms. Melina Shiraldi. The parties

met and conferred in good faith, but were unable to agree upon how or when the FBI

would produce the documents/records to Plaintiff, and/or Plaintiff’s need for discovery in

this case.

Wherefore, pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 16 and 26, and DUCiv.

16-1(a)(b) Plaintiff hereby moves the Court to hold a hearing and set a schedule for the

FBI to process Plaintiff’s FOIA requests, and to enter a Scheduling Order for the

discovery that is necessary to challenge/contest the FBI’s plan to process the responsive

documents/records for release to Plaintiff at the rate of 500 pages monthly. Oral

argument is requested.

FOIA

Almost two hundred years ago, James Madison observed the obvious: “A popular

Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue

to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; And

a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power

2
ECF 12.

2
which knowledge gives.”3 One hundred years later, Supreme Court Justice Brandeis

echoed Madison’s words when he wrote:

Decency, security and liberty alike demand that

government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of
conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of
laws, existence of the government will be in peril if it fails to
observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the
omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole
people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government
becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; and
invites every man to become a law unto himself. . . .4

Building on the foundation laid by Madison and Brandeis Congress enacted FOIA”, which is

specifically intended to disclose/reveal the “malfeasance” of the government, 5 and “to ensure

an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against

corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.” 6

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

1. During the late 1980's and early 1990's, the FBI implemented an undercover

sting operation call “Punchout” that was designed to identify and apprehend surplus

dealers who bought and sold property stolen from Department of Defense facilities in

3
James Madison, Letter to W.T. Barry (Aug. 4, 1822).
4
Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 485 (1928).
5
See Trentadue v. FBI, 572 F.3d 795 (10th Cir. 2009).
6
NLRB v. Robbins Tire & Rubber Co., 437 U.S. 214, 242 (1978).

3
Utah. Roger Edwin Moore (“Moore”) was an FBI undercover operative in that sting

operation.7

2. For months preceding the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in

Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, Moore was traveling with Timothy McVeigh who was

one of the perpetrators of that terrorist attack.8 According to Terry Nichols, one of

McVeigh’s accomplices, Moore provided with the Kinestik explosives used to detonate

the bomb that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building. 9

2. On September 26, 2015, Plaintiff served a FOIA Request upon the FBI for

the following records concerning Moore:

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the FBI had an
undercover operation in Utah by the name of “Operation Punchout.”
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 552 et seq., I
am requesting documents/records on Roger Edwin Moore.
Specifically, I am requesting the following documents/records:

All documents/records that, directly or indirectly, show,

report, record, memorialize, discuss, evidence or concern
Roger Edwin Moore’s involvement with and/or
participation in Operation Punchout.
All documents/records that, directly or indirectly, show,
report, record, memorialize, discuss, evidence or concern
Roger Edwin Moore having been a confidential informant,
confidential human source or undercover operative for the

7
See Complaint, ECF 1 at ¶7.
8
Id. Exhibit A, ¶¶ 11-24, ECF 1-2; Exhibit B, ECF 1-3
9
See id.

4
 FBI or any other law enforcement agency with respect to
Operation Punchout.

All documents/records that, directly or indirectly, show,

report, record, memorialize, discuss, evidence or concern
Roger Edwin Moore having been granted immunity from
prosecution with respect to his involvement with and/or
participation in Operation Punchout.

All documents/records that, directly or indirectly, show,

report, record, memorialize, discuss, evidence or concern
communications between Roger Edwin Moore and the FBI
or one of its agents with respect to Operation Punchout.10

3. On April 22, 2016, the FBI notified Plaintiff that it had located 32,580

pages of documents and 1 DVD that were responsive to his FOIA Request, and asked that

Plaintiff agree to pay the $985.00 for the production of these materials on CDs. 11 On

April 29, 2016, Plaintiff advised the FBI that he was willing to pay the almost $1,000.00

in production costs. In the intervening years since the filing of that FOIA Request,

Plaintiff repeatedly contacted the FBI asking when he would receive these records but

never received a response to those inquiries.

4. The FBI has a website on which FOIA requesters can check the status of

their FOIA Request.12 On February 7, 2024, Plaintiff checked the status of his FOIA

Request directed to Operation Punchout and Roger Moore and learned that it still had not

10
Id. Exhibit E , ECF 1-5.(emphasis in original).
11
Id., Exhibit F, ECF 1-6.
12
https://vault.fbi.gov/fdps-1/@@search-fdps

5
been assigned to an analyst for processing. It has now been 8-1/2 years since Plaintiff

submitted his FOIA Request to the FBI and he has not received a single document or the

DVD.

5. During 1993, 1994 and 1995, a gang known as the Aryan Republican Army

or “ARA” robbed banks and armored cars in the mid-west. Timothy McVeigh

participated in some of those robberies and is reported to have used money obtained from

these crimes to help fund the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City

on April 19, 1995. According to Peter Langan, several members of the ARA assisted

McVeigh in carrying out the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. 13

6. The FBI titled its investigation of the ARA as “BOMBROB” because

McVeigh and the other robbers used or threatened to use explosives in their robberies.

The FBI also referred to the ARA as the “Mid-West Bank Robbers” or “Mid-West Bank

Bandits,” and the FBI designated its investigation of that gang as “Major Case No. 124.”

7. On July 29, 2016, Plaintiff served a FOIA Request upon the FBI for

documents/records on Timothy James McVeigh and ARA member Richard Lee Guthrie,

Jr. for the years 1993, 1994, and 1995. Specifically, Plaintiff requested the following

documents/records on Guthrie and McVeigh from BOMBROB and/or FBI Major Case

No. 124:

13
Id. Exhibit L, ECF 1-12. Langan was the leader of the ARA.

6
 All documents/records that, directly or indirectly, show,
report, record, memorialize, discuss, evidence or concern
Timothy James McVeigh.

All documents/records that, directly or indirectly, show,

report, record, memorialize, discuss, evidence or concern
contacts Timothy James McVeigh had with Richard Lee
Guthrie, Jr., the Aryan Republican Army, the ARA, Mid-
West Bank Bandits and/or the Mid-West Bank Robbers.14

8. On August 31, 2016, by letter the FBI notified Plaintiff that it had located

36,795 pages of responsive documents, and that the cost of producing them would be

$1,135.00.15 In that same letter, the FBI asked Plaintiff to agree to pay the production

cost.16 By letter dated September 6, 2016, Plaintiff did agree to pay those costs.

9. On April 5, 2017, Plaintiff was contacted by the FBI and asked to pay in

advance ½ of the $1,135.00. On April 12, 2017, Plaintiff sent the FBI a check for

$567.50, which was ½ of the estimated production costs. On May 10, 2017, the FBI

emailed Plaintiff to inform him that the cost check had been received, and his request

would be assigned to a “disclosure analyst for processing.”17 Thereafter, Plaintiff

repeatedly asked the FBI when he would receive the documents/records that he had

14
Id. Exhibit M, ECF 1-13.(emphasis in original).
15
Id. Exhibit O, ECF 1-15 .
16
Id.
17
Id. Exhibit S, ECF 1-19(emphasis added).

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requested, but did not receive a response from the FBI.

11. On February 7, 2024, Plaintiff visited the FBI website to check on the status

of this FOIA Request and discovered that it still had not been assigned to an analyst for

processing. It has now been 8-years since Plaintiff submitted his FOIA Request to the FBI

for documents/records concerning Timothy McVeigh, Richard Lee Guthrie Jr.,

BOMBROB, the ARA and Major Case No. 124, and he has not received a single

document.

12. After this lawsuit was filed, the FBI acknowledged to Plaintiff that there

were 69,375 pages of documents/records and two audio recordings responsive to his FOIA

Requests. But, despite repeated demands from Plaintiff for the release of these materials, the FBI

has refused and still refuses to do so. The FBI proposes to process these records/documents for

release to Plaintiff in monthly increments of 500 pages over a period of 11.5 years! 18

18
Multiple courts have rejected an agency’s proposal to respond to a politically sensitive
FOIA Request or one that has been ignored by the agency for years by processing only 500 pages
a month for release to the requester. See, e.g., American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of
Southern California v. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 2023 WL 8539484,
at *1 (C.D.Cal., 2023)(ordering request for information about ICE's treatment of hospitalized
detainees to be processed at rate of 3,000 pages per month); Seavey v. Dep't of Justice, 266
F.Supp.3d 241, 247–48 (D.D.C. 2017) (ordering FBI to process 2,850 pages per month for
documentary film makers request for FBI records related to anti-war movement); Open Society
Justice Initiative v. Central Intelligence Agency, 399 F. Supp. 3d 161, 162 (S.D.N.Y.
2019)(ordering Department of Defense to process 5,000 pages per month); Clemente v. Federal
Bureau of Investigation, 71 F. Supp. 3d 262, 264-65 (D.D.C. 2014)(ordering FBI to process
5,000 pages per month where requests involved serious allegations of widespread corruption in
law enforcement, plaintiff “face[d] a very limited lifespan” and had waited two years before the
FBI produced any responsive material); Natural Resource Defense Council v. Department of
Energy, 191 F. Supp. 2d 41, 42 (D.D.C. 2002)(defendant had “been woefully tardy in its

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 RFLIEF RFQUESTED

Plaintiff has a statutory right to the documents and/or records requested in

his FOIA Requests to FBI. The FBI has not claimed that these documents/records are

exempt from disclosure. Nor could it make any such claim of exemption because Moore,

Gutherie and McVeigh are deceased, and have no right to privacy exemptions under

FOIA. There are also no on-going criminal proceedings involving Moore, Guthrie,

McVeigh or members of the ARA whereby the FBI could claim that these materials are

somehow subject to a law enforcement exemption. Neither do these documents/records

involve “national security” matters so as to be exempt from disclosure.

The purpose of FOIA is to find out what our “government is up to,” 19 and that is

precisely the purpose of Plaintiff's FOIA Requests. The FBI’s role in the Oklahoma City

Bombing is “[a] matter of widespread and exceptional media [and public]interest in which there

exist possible questions about the government's integrity which affect public confidence.” 20

Furthermore, with the April 19, 2025, 30th anniversary of that terrorist attach fast

approaching, the media and public interest in the FBI’s possible secret role in that event is

mounting daily, which should not be ignored or discounted by the Court.

processing of [p]laintiff's FOIA request”).

19
See United States Dep't of Justice v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the
Press, 489 U.S. 749, 773 (1989).
20
See 2 6 C.F.R. 5.5(e)(1).

9
 If the Court accept’s the FBI’s proposed snail-pace processing of these materials,

Plaintiff will be close to 90-years of age when he finally receives all of them. He has

already waited almost a decade for these documents/records, with the FBI having made

no effort during the interim to produce them, and should not have to wait another 11.5

years to receive them. Plaintiff, therefore, requests the Court to hold a hearing and set a

schedule for the FBI to process his FOIA Requests at a rate of at least 5,500 pages per

month with interim month-end releases of documents processed during each month.

Discovery is appropriate in a FOIA case when, as in the instant case, there is

reason to believe that the agency is not acting in good faith. 21 Plaintiff, therefore, further

requests that the Court enter a Scheduling Order allowing him to conduct discovery on

the following, among other, issues related to the FBI’s response to his FOIA Requests,

including its proposal to process only 500 pages of documents/records per month for

release:

a. The number of documents/records that the FBI has processed for release under

FOIA since Plaintiff’s FOIA Requests were file in 2016;

21
See 37A Am.Jur.2d Freedom of Information Acts, § 503)(emphasis added) See
also Info. Acquisitions Corp. v. Dept. of Justice, 444 F.Supp. 458 (D.C. 1978); Murphy v.
Fed. Bureau of Investigation, 490 F.Supp. 1134 (D.C. 1980); Giza v. Sec’y of Health,
Educ. & Welfare, 628 F.2d 748, 751 (1st Cir. 1980); Niren v. INS, 103 F.R.D. 10 (Or.
1984); Weisberg v. Dept. of Justice, 543 F.2d 308 (D.C. Cir. 1976); Van Strum v. U.S.
E.P.A., 680 F.Supp. 349 (D. Or. 1987).

10
b. Why the FBI waited/delayed 8-years to even begin processing Plaintiff’s FOIA

Requests;

c. The reasons, if any, why the FBI has not produced these records/documents;

d. The statutory exemptions, if any, that would allow the FBI to withhold these

records/documents or any part thereof from Plaintiff;

e. Whether the FBI responded reasonably and in good faith to Plaintiff’s FOIA

Requests or whether it has “slow-walked” providing these records/documents to

Plaintiff because of their explosive and potentially embarrassing content; and

f. Whether anyone within the Department of Justice or FBI has ordered or directed

the FBI to delay or avoid responding to Plaintiff’s FOIA Requests and, if so, who

and for what reason.

DATED this 18th day of June, 2024.

/s/ jesse c. trentadue

Jesse C. Trentadue
Pro Se Plaintiff

11