FBI To Begin Producing Documents in Trentadue FOIA Lawsuit at 2,000 Pages Per Month in July
Latest Suit Seeks OKC Bombing Related Docs Requested A Decade Ago
Jesse Trentadue’s most well-known FOIA lawsuit against the FBI pertains to his ongoing efforts to compel the FBI to comply with FOIA and to release the surveillance tapes obtained during the OKC bombing investigation. That lawsuit has been active for over a decade and had a trial in 2014—find links to transcripts and other records relating to that suit on Jesse’s website kennethtrentadue.com here.
Perhaps less well-known is Jesse Trentadue’s recent 2024 lawsuit, which involves two separate FOIA requests submitted nearly a decade ago.
The FBI responded to Trentadue on those requests in 2016, stating that they had identified a combined total of over 68,000 pages of responsive documents between the two requests, but then failed to produce them. By the time he was forced to file a lawsuit in 2024 to obtain the responsive records, Trentadue had been waiting almost eight years.
The Two FOIA Requests: PUNCHOUT and BOMBROB
On September 26, 2015, Jesse Trentadue filed a FOIA request for documents related to former CIA asset, arms dealer, and OKC bombing co-conspirator Roger Moore. Trentadue was seeking documents concerning an FBI sting operation that Moore was involved in, called “OPERATION PUNCHOUT.” (referred to hereafter as ‘the PUNCHOUT request’)
The exact language of the PUNCHOUT request was as follows:
Requesting “(1) All documents/records that, directly or indirectly, show, report, record, memorialize, discuss, evidence or concern Roger Edwin Moore’s involvement with and/or participation in Operation Punchout; (2) All documents/records that, directly or indirectly, show, report, record, memorialize, discuss, evidence or concern Roger Edwin Moore having been a confidential informant, confidential human source or undercover operative for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency with respect to Operation Punchout; (3) All documents/records that, directly or indirectly, show, report, record, memorialize, discuss, evidence or concern Roger Edwin Moore having been granted immunity from prosecution with respect to his involvement with and/or participation in Operation Punchout; and (4) All documents/records that, directly or indirectly, show, report, record, memorialize, discuss, evidence or concern communications between Roger Edwin Moore and the FBI or one of its agents with respect to Operation Punchout."
Trentadue subsequently submitted a separate FOIA request on July 29, 2016, (referred to hereafter as ‘the BOMBROB request’) for documents related to the neo-Nazi bank robbery gang called the Aryan Republican Army, specifically seeking all documents concerning Timothy McVeigh’s involvement with the gang.
The language of that request was as follows:
Requesting all “documents/records on Richard Lee Guthrie and Timothy James McVeigh from BOMBROB and/or FBI Major Case No. 124 for the years 1993, 1994 and 1995: (1) All documents/records that, directly or indirectly, show, report, record, memorialize, discuss, evidence or concern Timothy James McVeigh; and (2) All documents/records that, directly or indirectly, show, report, record, memorialize, discuss, evidence or concern contacts Timothy James McVeigh had with Richard Lee Guthrie, Jr., the Aryan Republican Army, the ARA, Mid-West Bank Bandits and/or the Mid-West Bank Robbers.”
Many Thousands of Pages Identified as Responsive Records
On April 22, 2016, the FBI responded to Trentadue’s PUNCHOUT request and notified him that they had identified 32,580 pages of responsive documents and 1 DVD, and asked Trentadue to agree to pay for the production of the materials. One week later, on April 29, 2016, Trentadue agreed to cover the almost $1,000 in production costs.
Shortly thereafter, the FBI also responded to Trentadue’s BOMBROB request. On August 31, 2016, the FBI advised Trentadue that they had identified 36,795 pages of responsive documents and requested payment of $1,135 for production costs associated with the materials. Trentadue once again agreed to cover the production costs for the records and sent the FBI a check.
In both the PUNCHOUT and BOMBROB requests, after acknowledging production costs and making apportioned payments for the records, Trentadue never received any response from the FBI regarding either request.
Throughout 2016, Trentadue sent several written inquiries to the FBI, inquiring about the status of each request. Trentadue’s inquiries regarding the responsive records for both requests went unanswered.
Eight Years Later
On January 27, 2023, Trentadue emailed the FBI’s legal counsel regarding the FBI’s lack of response to the PUNCHOUT and BOMBROB FOIA requests, which, like the previous inquiries to the FBI, also went unanswered.
Eight years after the FBI advised that they’d located responsive documents in both requests, in 2024, Trentadue still had not received any documents or further communications regarding the status of his request(s).
Trentadue was also able to determine, through the FBI’s FOIA website, that the FBI had not even taken the initial step of assigning his request(s) to an analyst for processing.
At that point, it became clear to Trentadue that to obtain the 32,580 pages of PUNCHOUT records and 36,795 pages of BOMBROB/McVeigh records, he had no alternative but to file a lawsuit to secure the responsive documents he had previously requested and, in some cases, paid for.
Shortly after filing the lawsuit in February 2024, the FBI was compelled to start producing the responsive documents at a rate of approximately 500 pages per month.
Strangely, the FBI combined the two FOIA requests into one before they began releasing the pages. This was puzzling, given that the subjects of each request are uniquely specific and only related tangentially. It was this writer’s opinion that the FBI combined the two requests so they could claim “the request” was too large and burdensome. Additionally, in the event the FBI was required to produce documents, they could then provide only BOMBROB-specific materials while concealing anything concerning Roger Moore and Operation PUNCHOUT. In this way, the FBI would be able to assert they had responded to “the request” but doing so only by delivering BOMBROB material, and keeping their Moore/PUNCHOUT documents concealed. This is precisely what happened.
FBI Dumps Garbage and Filler
Perhaps not surprisingly, after eight months and eight releases, the FBI had primarily produced to Trentadue nearly 99% filler material, with expert analysis identifying only fifteen responsive documents among the thousands of pages sent.
Notably, no responsive documents were produced concerning the PUNCHOUT request, with not a single responsive page generated concerning the Roger Moore-related undercover operation.
Due to the FBI’s failure to produce the necessary documents, Trentadue filed motions, declarations, and exhibits in the lawsuit, demanding that the FBI increase its production rate and, most importantly, begin producing the responsive records the FBI had previously indicated it possessed.
Consequently, in April 2025, the judge in the case, Daphne Oberg, issued an order mandating that the FBI increase its production rate to 2,000 pages per month, starting in July 2025. Read more about that here.
These productions will soon begin, and, as with previous FBI releases, each will be OCR’d and analyzed by subject experts to determine whether any of the released material is responsive.
In the meantime, interested readers can find links to all eight of the FBI’s releases of supposedly responsive documents here. Each release has it’s own folder, and each PDF has been OCR’d to make it searchable. In some cases, OKC bombing researcher Richard Booth’s notes on the monthly release are included. In the few instances where responsive documents were produced in a monthly production, those documents have been isolated, extracted, and made available as their own PDF file, separate from the garbage dump the FBI produced for each month.
Links to the various court records related to the lawsuit are also available here.
As the FBI begins producing documents, you can find analysis of the material and follow developments here at
.The MSM has largely ignored this FOIA lawsuit, but Ken Silva and J. Arthur Bloom have covered developments. Find their stories here:
The FBI is Stonewalling Jesse Trentadue as He Tries to Find Out Who Killed His Brother
by J. Arthur Bloom | Arthuriana
August 28, 2024
Judge Blasts FBI for Not Disclosing OKC Bombing Records
'The FBI’s proposed processing rate is woefully inadequate...'
by Ken Silva | HeadlineUSA
March 27, 2025Judge Orders FBI to Produce 2,000 Pages of OKC Bomb Records Per Month
by Ken Silva | HeadlineUSA
April 29, 2025
Follow this lawsuit, on The FOIA Project, here.
Learn more about the murder of Kenneth Trentadue here: kennethtrentadue.com