Kissinger v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Henry Kissinger served as national security adviser and later, concurrently and then solely, as secretary of state, during which his secretaries prepared detailed notes and transcripts of his telephone conversations, covering both personal and official matters, stored at the State Department. Shortly before leaving office, Kissinger arranged to move these notes to Nelson Rockefeller's estate without consulting the offices responsible for federal records preservation, then deeded them (along with other private papers) to the Library of Congress, where they were transferred about two months later. Multiple FOIA requests for the notes followed: William Safire's request, made while the notes were still at the State Department but covering only the period Kissinger served as national security adviser; and later requests by the Military Audit Project and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), made after the notes had already moved to the Library of Congress and covering his time as secretary of state. The court of appeals ordered the State Department to retrieve and produce the notes for the later requests but denied Safire's request on the ground that national security adviser records are not "agency records" under FOIA, and Kissinger appealed.