Pomares v. U.S. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs (9th Cir.) -- affirming in part and reversing in part district court’s decision regarding the agency’s search for and processing of records concerning possible misconduct investigated by agency’s Inspector General; finding that: (1) the VA performed a reasonable search for responsive records, rejecting plaintiff’s argument that FOIA prohibits manual review of records for responsiveness; (2) the VA properly relied on Exemption 4 to withhold records obtained from consulting company pursuant to IG’s subpoena, rejecting plaintiff’s objections to the form of company’s objection letter and its incorporation by reference in agency’s Vaughn Index; (3) agency properly redacted names and contact information of employees and third parties under Exemption 6, except for names of third parties who lobbied Congress or the VA; and (4) agency failed to sufficiently explain how Exemption 7(E) applied to withheld interview transcripts generated by agency’s IG investigation.
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