U.S. Navy Approves MLAA’s FOIA Fee Waiver Request. Decision Allows MLAA Investigation into Sexual Misconduct Within the Military Sealift Command (MSC) to Move Forward.
New York, NY
By: MLAA
On July 14, 2022 Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy (MLAA) announced an investigation into sexual misconduct within the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) that would begin by seeking records related to 20 years of MSC sexual misconduct investigations via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
In announcing the investigation, MLAA wrote that over the previous 2 years the organization had been contacted by numerous mariners who were subjected to horrifying sexual harassment and sexual assaults aboard vessels owned and operated by MSC. The prevalence of these stories led MLAA to the conclusion that MSC is not uniquely insulated from the scourge of sexual misconduct affecting the global maritime shipping industry.
In requesting the records, MLAA also sought a fee waiver under the Freedom of Information Act. The fee waiver is important to the success of the investigation, because MLAA is seeking a potentially large volume of records from MSC, and the records are likely to be decentralized, requiring search efforts.
Under the FOIA requesters can be forced to pay search or review fees of more than $40 per hour, as well as duplication fees and additional fees proscribed by statute. For a large volume of disorganized records, these fees can total thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars–thereby making it impossible for a small organization like MLAA to afford the costs of obtaining the requested records.
The fast response and acknowledgement of the July 14, 2022 FOIA request as well as the Navy’s granting of MLAA’s fee waiver suggests the Navy plans to cooperate with MLAA in its efforts to obtain the records and its efforts to shed light on the issue of sexual misconduct with the Military Sealift Command.
If the Navy continues to cooperate with MLAA, it would be a dramatic departure from the approach the U.S. Coast Guard has taken with MLAA’s investigations into the Coast Guard’s tragic history of enabling sexual abuse within the U.S. maritime industry.
Over the course of two years, MLAA has reported on the willingness of the Coast Guard’s lawyers and FOIA personnel to engage in shocking illegality in opposing MLAA’s investigations, including telling outright lies, stonewalling, refusing to respond to dozens of attempts to communicate with agency, giving preferential and “concierge” treatment to Maersk Line, Limited’s FOIA requests seeking information on MLAA and its founder, obstructing justice, and generally demonstrating that the Coast Guard is a predator-protecting agency eaten up with corruption at the highest levels.
Time will tell if the U.S. Navy proves to be a more honorable and law-abiding agency than the U.S. Coast Guard, but things are off to a good start.