Petrelis Files

FBI: No Files on Tim Russert
(Despite CIA Agent Outing?)

In response to my Freedom of Information Act request filed last month for any and all files on the late NBC newsman Tim Russert, the FBI snail mailed me the standard "we have no records responsive to your request" letter, which arrived yesterday. Click on the image above to read the letter.

Seems mighty odd to me that the FBI, despite Russert's role in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, says there are no files on him in the agency's archive. An article in the LA Times after Russert passed away neatly sums up the newsman cooperation with the FBI:

As it emerged under examination, however, Russert already had sung like a choirboy to the FBI concerning his conversation with Libby -- and had so voluntarily from the first moment the Feds contacted him.

What I expected back from the FBI were pages of a file on Russert, heavily redacted, of course, about their conversations with him over the Plame scandal. I simply can't believe or accept that Russert was under the scrutiny of the FBI, he has numerous contacts with them, spoke with their investigators, and there is no paper trail at the agency on him and the breach of national security at the heart of the outing of a CIA agent?

Maybe the FBI searchers didn't look deep enough for records on Russert, or perhaps it takes a high-powered advocacy nonprofit based in DC, not just a lowly blogger's FOIA request, to pry loose some internal documents on Russert, which I think must exist.

How is it possible that the agency investigates and interviews Russert, but there's no paper trail? The rejection letter from the FBI doesn't pass the smell test.