In an important victory for Volkswagen, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a federal district court’s order requiring disclosure in response to a Freedom of Information Act request for six million internal company documents that Volkswagen had produced to the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with the government’s investigation into a diesel emissions matter.
In its January 30 ruling, the Ninth Circuit held that the documents qualified as “a matter occurring before the grand jury” and therefore are subject to grand jury secrecy rules under the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure and exempt from FOIA disclosure. The ruling confirms that a company’s internal records in the possession of the federal government solely because of a grand jury investigation are not subject to public disclosure under FOIA.
The S&C team representing Volkswagen includes Robert Giuffra Jr., Suhana Han, Andrew Finn, Mark Bennett and Sabrina Solow.