OPINION & ORDER Plaintiff Lisa Ramaci filed this action against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (the “FBI”) under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. §552, seeking access to government records related to the August 2, 2005 kidnapping and murder of her husband, Steven Vincent, in Basra, Iraq. Through a series of rolling productions, the FBI produced documents responsive to Plaintiff’s request, and withheld and/or redacted others based on several FOIA exemptions. Now before the Court is the FBI’s motion for summary judgment and Plaintiff’s cross-motion for summary judgment. The parties’ dispute centers on the propriety of the FBI’s withholding of information pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(7)(D) — which exempts from disclosure certain law enforcement records containing information provided by “confidential source[s]” — and in particular on the FBI’s determination that the sources who provided information in connection with the Vincent murder investigation did so with an implicit expectation of confidentiality. Having reviewed the parties’ submissions, as well as the Government’s ex parte filing that provides greater detail about its sources, the Court agrees that the FBI properly withheld exempted records. Accordingly, for the reasons discussed below, the FBI’s motion for summary judgment is granted, and Plaintiff’s cross-motion for summary judgment is denied. BACKGROUND1 On August 2, 2005, Plaintiff’s husband, the journalist Steven Vincent, and his Iraqi interpreter, Nour al-Khal,2 were kidnapped from a public street in Basra, Iraq by a group of men in police uniforms. See Declaration of William A. Friedman (“Friedman Decl.”), Dkt. 35, Ex. 3 at 4-5; Friedman Decl. Ex. 12 at 2. Vincent and al-Khal were then driven “to the outskirts of town,” where they were “gagged,” “beaten,” and interrogated. See Friedman Decl. Ex. 3 at 4. After approximately six hours, at around midnight, they were driven to a different location in Basra, thrown out of the car, told to run, and shot at multiple times. See id.; Pl. Mot. at 1. Although Vincent died, al-Khal was shot three times but survived. Friedman Decl. Ex. 3 at 4; Friedman Decl. Ex. 8 at 2; Friedman Decl. Ex. 11 at 1. The FBI was subsequently notified of the death of an American citizen in Iraq, and the FBI’s field office in Baghdad was charged with investigating the kidnapping and murder. See Pl. Mot. at 1. In 2008, the FBI closed its investigation. See id.; Friedman Decl. Ex. 1. On September 9, 2016, Plaintiff, through her attorneys, submitted a FOIA request to the FBI, seeking “copies of all FBI holdings, including, without limitation, all documents, photographs and laboratory analyses related to the investigation into [Vincent's] abduction and murder.” Hardy Decl. 6; Compl. Ex. A. On September 23, 2016, the FBI advised Plaintiff that “unusual circumstances” applied to the processing of her request, and offered her the opportunity to reduce the scope of the request. Hardy Decl. 8; Compl. Ex. C. In a separate letter dated September 23, 2016, the FBI also informed Plaintiff that it had located approximately 3,362 pages of records potentially responsive to her request. Hardy Decl. 9; Compl. Ex. D. On February 7, 2017, in response to a request for a status update, the FBI informed Plaintiff that reducing the scope of her request “may accelerate the processing and allow for a more timely receipt of the information” she sought. Id. 12. On February 13, 2017, Plaintiff’s counsel and an FBI representative had a telephone conversation, during which Plaintiff agreed to align her FOIA request with that of another FOIA requester who submitted an earlier request for “the closing memorandum of the murder investigation of Steven Vincent” and “a specific serial describing the investigation.” Id. 13; Compl. Ex. H. As the FBI explained, this agreement reduced the volume of potentially responsive records from approximately 3,362 pages to approximately 116 pages, which would reduce the request’s processing time. Id. Between April and December 2017, however, the FBI’s estimates of how long it would take to process Plaintiff’s request continued to grow. See Hardy Decl.
