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Tuesday, April 10, 2007
New Head Of FOIA Office Appointed
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tapped a career Justice Department lawyer today to run the Office of Information and Privacy — the office in charge of deciding who gets public information requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
Melanie Ann Pustay replaces Daniel J. Metcalfe, who directed the office for 24 years with Richard Huff before he retired in January. Huff retired the year before.
Pustay arrived in the department in 1983 as an attorney adviser. However, she recently came under fire for failing to publish the FOIA Guide on time.
That criticism did not deter Gonzales.
“Melanie brings more than two decades of highly relevant experience and a record of both accomplishment and leadership to this position,” said Gonzales in a statement. “OIP and the Department of Justice will continue to benefit from her insight, expertise and dedication to public service. I’m pleased she has agreed to serve in this critical role.”
The FOIA Guide, long considered the bible of how to use the law, was completed last fall, right down to 4,119 footnotes. It was sent to the Government Printing Office on Nov. 28 marked “ready for publication.”
The plan was to begin distributing the guide in mid-December, but an official from the department’s civil division placed a “hold” on publishing the report for mysterious reasons.
Justice Department employees suspected it had to do with politics.
But Pustay denied that and told Cox Newspapers earlier this year that the guide was “not ready to go.”
However, Metcalfe disputed Pustay’s explanation, calling her remarks “grossly disappointing, given the actual facts of the matter.”
“Melanie (Pustay) ought to find some better way to spin the position she’s now in with the guide, not to mention the Department’s shocking executive order deficiencies and timing problems within the bounds of truthfulness,” said Metcalfe in an earlier interview with Cox.
A Justice Department press release noted that Pustay has extensive FOIA litigation experience and has argued cases before the District Court for the District of Columbia and the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, including handling a case in 1998 involving access to former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s official and confidential files.
In 1992, she was responsible for the Department’s senior leadership compliance with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, which required the federal government to make records of Kennedy’s assassination publicly available.
Pustay has received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for her role in providing legal advice, guidance and assistance on records disclosure issues. Pustay worked briefly at a Washington-area law firm before coming to the Department in 1983. She graduated from American University’s Washington College of Law in 1982, where she served on Law Review. Pustay received her B.A. from George Mason University in 1979, graduating summa cum laude.
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