13-00000
30 NOV 1976
IPS/DGV/cr/29 Nov 76
Distribution:
Orig. - Addressee
1 - OGC (Strickland)
1 - DDO/PICG
1 - OS/IRG
1 - AI/DDA
① - IPS (Weisberg, F-76-382) SPR
1 - IPS (Weisberg Correspondence)
1 - IPS Chrono
James H. Lesar, Esquire
1231 Fourth Street, S.W.
Washington, DC 20024
Dear Mr. Lesar:
You will recall that our letter of 21 June 1976 acknowledged receipt of your letter on behalf of Mr. Harold Weisberg requesting, under provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, access to any CIA records dealing with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and to those dealing with James Earl Ray and any of his alleged or suspected accomplices in Dr. King’s assassination.
We find that we are unable to respond to your request as it now stands due to legal and regulatory restrictions on the release of personal information from official records. In that light, please be advised that we can proceed no further with your request unless and until we are in receipt of notarized statements of release from Mrs. Coretta King and James Earl Ray, respectively. These statements should be quite specific as to what areas of personal information are and are not authorized for release by this Agency to you and your client. If all information in our records is releasable, that should be so stated; if only such information as relates to specific incidents or to specific periods of time is releasable, those caveats should be clearly stated.
Finally, we must ask that you provide a statement of willingness to pay search and duplication fees as required by this request and in line with the fee schedule enclosed. It has been estimated that such charges could approach $1000. Along with the notarized statements above, and the statement of willingness to pay all search and copying charges (or those up to an established limit), we would require a down payment of half the anticipated charges. Payment should be made to this office in the form of a check or money order payable to Treasurer of the United States.
Sincerely,
Gene F. Wilson
Information and Privacy Coordinator
Enclosure