Details of a plot to kill Occupy Houston leaders won't be released after a federal court upheld the FBI's claim that the documents are legally exempted from the Freedom of Information Act.
The FBI argued information was withheld, including 12 of 17 relevant pages, to protect the identity of confidential sources who were "members of organized violent groups," according to Courthouse News Service.
A heavily-redacted FBI document first revealed a Houston plot "to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles."
However the plotter's identity is redacted.
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Ryan Shapiro, a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and historian, filed a request for documents pertaining to the Houston plot in 2013. In response, the FBI identified 17 pages of relevant records and released five partial pages. When Shapiro filed suit, a federal judge ordered the FBI to explain why information was withheld.
The Bureau claimed legal protection under exemption 7(C) in the Freedom of Information Act, which says "records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes" were exempt from release if they "could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." A judge upheld that claim last week, allowing the names of the plotters and any further information about the plot to remain unreleased in defense of the privacy of FBI sources.
The documents with mention of the Houston plot were obtained by reporter Jason Leopold, who filed a 2011 public information request to the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, seeking all records pertaining to Occupy Wall Street. That year, Houstonians joined demonstrators in dozens of American cities who occupied public places to decry collusion between financial and political powers in the United States.
