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Extracted Text (OCR)
Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 247 _ Filed 04/23/21 Page12of17
The Honorable Alison J. Nathan
April 5, 2021
Page 12 of 17
the relevant pages do not mention her, she needs no more than the relevant pages that she already
has.
It is thus clear that the Defendant’s purported need for the entire, original journal is not
based on the allegedly exculpatory information that it contains (because she already has that
information). Rather, the Defendant seeks the entire journal so that she can fish for other passages
that she can use to attempt to impeach Ms. Farmer’s credibility. Such a fishing expedition for
potential impeachment material goes beyond the permissible bounds of a Rule 17 subpoena. See
Nixon, 418 U.S. at 701 (“Generally, the need for evidence to impeach witnesses is insufficient to
require its production in advance of trial.”). And if the Defendant does not seek the remainder of
the journal passages for impeachment, she does not explain how they would otherwise be relevant
and admissible at trial. The Court should not require production of the entire journal—which
contains personal, private information about Ms. Farmer when she was a minor—if Defendant is
unable to demonstrate that the overbroad Request meets the relevance and admissibility
requirements and if it will yield no material evidence.®
6 Even in civil cases, where much broader discovery is permitted under the Federal Rules of
Civil Procedure than under Rule 17(c), courts have refused to order disclosure of an entire diary
or journal when the journal contains personal or sensitive entries and the party seeking disclosure
cannot demonstrate that anything relevant has been withheld. See, e.g., Dubay v. King, No. 3:17-
CV-348-J-20MCR, 2018 WL 3619636, at *1 (M.D. Fla. July 13, 2018) (“Plaintiff failed to show
how the production of Mr. King’s private journal entries—containing information about Mr. King’s
private life and daily musings—relate to the subject matter of the claims in this lawsuit.”); Combe
v. Cinemark USA, Inc., No. 1:08-CV-00142-TS-DN, 2009 WL 2578853, at *2 (D. Utah Aug. 19,
2009) (“Without any limit on relevancy, the entire journal is not discoverable. A plaintiff does not
expose her entire private life to adverse scrutiny by filing suit.”); Quiroz v. Hartgrove Hosp., No.
97 C 6515, 1998 WL 341812, at *1-2 (N.D. Ill. June 12, 1998) (plaintiff in a sexual harassment
suit was only required to turn over portions of her diary that pertained to her claim); Ayala v. Tapia,
CIV. A. 90-1345(RCL), 1991 WL 241873, at *2 (D.D.C. Nov. 1, 1991) (denying motion to
compel all personal diary entries because “most of the material demanded will be irrelevant to this
case, but of intimate importance to the plaintiff’); Carolan v. New York Telephone Co., No. 83
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Extracted Information
Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00004012.jpg |
| File Size | 870.3 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.2% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,792 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 16:43:18.478992 |