Last Letter to Homeland Security Before Filing Suit Next Week

The following letter has been sent today by Federal Express as a final desperate attempt to limit the attorneys fees and expense of a suit which is scheduled to be filed next week.

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Malia Litman

(my address)

 

Department of Homeland Security

Freedom of Information Act & Privacy Branch

Communications Center

245 Murray Lane, S.W., Building T-5

Washington D.C. 20223

 

June 25, 2012

Re: File Number 20121153-20121174

To Homeland Security:

On June 7th I sent you a letter making one last plea to avoid the unnecessary time, expense,and attorneys fees that both you and I will be forced to spend if a suit is necessary. I have received no response to that letter. I did receive a phone call from a Mr. Gibson in your legal department and he indicated that there might be an interest in producing a redacted statement of Mr. Chaney, and in spite of my indication that I would be willing to work with him in that regard, he never called back. That was over one week ago.

I have retained an attorney to pursue this matter in court and her fees will be $400.00 per hour. As you are well aware, that is an average fee per hour for an attorney. Considering simply the time necessary to prepare the Original Petition it is clear that this suit will result in thousands of dollars in fees and expenses that could be avoided.

You have asserted Exemption7 of the FOIA as the basis for your refusal to provide records requested that pertain both to the statement of David Chaney and to the retirement benefits of Mark Sullivan and David Chaney. You have failed to establish or even assert any one of the five justifications for withholding documents that pertain to an “investigation.” To the contrary, I have established that the confirmation by David Chaney of information already in the public domain as asserted by Shailey Tripp regarding Todd Palin, would not reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings as the information is already available to the public. There is no suggestion that providing this information would deprive a person of a fair trial or an impartial adjudication as any confirmation of Todd Palin’s activities as a pimp would be duplicitous of information already available to the public, both as a result of Shailey Tripp’s statement and her book Boys Will Be Boys. Production of these documents would not constitute an “unwarranted” invasion of privacy as it is “warranted” if the conduct of David Chaney and Todd Palin constituted breaking the law. There is no “confidential source” of this information as Shailey Tripp has already disclosed the identity of Todd Palin as her pimp, and David Chaney as her customer. There is no suggestion that the production of Chaney’s statement would circumvent the law. To the contrary, if his statement is not produced it is clear that there will be no prosecution of Todd Palin, as the Anchorage Police Department has issued a false and misleading “press release” to the National Enquirer attempting to vindicate Todd Palin. https://malialitman.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/the-anchorage-police-admit-misstatements/ Moreover, Shailey Tripp has identified, by name, Office Padgett of the APD as one of her clients,( Boys Will Be Boys at 260) so it is predictable that no charges will be filed in the absence of verification of the veracity of Ms. Tripp’s statement that Todd Palin was her pimp. Thus the only law that would be “circumvented” would be the law that prohibits Todd Palin or any other person from offering prostitution services of Shailey Tripp.

Finally, and most importantly, there is no suggestion that the production of David Chaney’s statement could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual. To the contrary, I advised you by letter of May 1st that Shailey Tripp and myself have received death threats, and that Ms. Tripp’s apartment building was the target of an unexplained fire. https://malialitman.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/letter-to-homeland-security-regarding-death-threats-to-shailey-tripp/ Thus the production of these documents, affirming the statement of Shailey Tripp, would be a confirmation of Ms. Tripp’s story, and thus would have the effect of making violence against her, or me, less likely. Once the information has been confirmed publically it would accomplish nothing to eliminate Ms. Tripp or myself as the information would be readily available through another source.

Finally with regard to retirement benefits paid to Mr. Chaney and/or Mr. Sullivan, the payment of the benefits are not the subject of any investigation. Because I have requested documents reflecting the payment of benefits to a person with their years of experience and status, I have requested not only documents personal to them, but also generic documents that would show the amount tax payers are paying for a person of their status and years of experience in retirement benefits. Obviously there is no investigation underway regarding those types of documents.

Let me reiterate. If you will produce even a redacted statement of David Chaney that only confirms that he was introduced by Todd Palin to Shailey Tripp for the purposes of making her services available to him, and that Mr. Chaney did in fact go to and did receive sexual services from Mrs. Tripp, I am willing to refrain from filing a suit at this time. However in the absence of that confirmation, you leave me no alternative. It is my understanding there is a five year statute of limitations in Alaska for providing prostitution services. http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-law-basics/time-limits-for-charges-state-criminal-statutes-of-limitations.html If that is the applicable statute of limitations, it would run in October of this year. Thus there is an urgency that does not allow me to wait or postpone the filing of suit to obtain these documents.

Since the office of Homeland Security already indicated in February of 2013 that the documents would be produced, and then retracted that position several days later, I can’t refrain from filing suit based on the indication you will produce the documents at some time in the future. If you are willing to produce all or part of the statement of David Chaney, you can Federal Express the documents to the address above. In that way I can be assured that there won’t be some other unexpected circumstance.

Please do the right thing and produce all or part of the documents requested now to avoid further time, expense, and attorneys fees.

Sincerely,

 

 

Malia Litman

 

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