(a) General. Unless the Director of FHFA or his or her designee for FHFA records, the FHFA Inspector General or his or her designee for FHFA-OIG records, or any regulation or statute specifically authorizes disclosure, neither FHFA nor FHFA-OIG will release records that are--
(1) Specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive Order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy, and in fact is properly classified pursuant to such Executive Order;
(2) Related solely to FHFA's or FHFA-OIG's internal personnel rules and practices;
(3) Specifically exempted from disclosure by statute (other than 5 U.S.C. 552a), provided that such statute--
(i) Requires that the matters be withheld from the public in such a manner as to leave no discretion on the issue, or
(ii) Establishes particular criteria for withholding or refers to particular types of matters to be withheld;
(4) Trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential;
(5) Contained in inter-agency or intra-agency memoranda or letters that would not be available by law to a private party in litigation with FHFA or FHFA-OIG;
(6) Contained in personnel, medical or similar files (including financial files) the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy;
(7) Compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information--
(i) Could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings;
(ii) Would deprive a person of a right to fair trial or an impartial adjudication;
(iii) Could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy;
(iv) Could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source, including a state, local, or foreign agency or authority or any private institution or an entity that is regulated and examined by FHFA that furnished information on a confidential basis, and, in the case of a record compiled by FHFA-OIG or a criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation or by an agency conducting a lawful national security intelligence investigation, information furnished by a confidential source;
(v) Would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law; or
(vi) Could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.
(8) Contained in or related to examination, operating, or condition reports that are prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of an agency responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions; or
(9) Geological and geophysical information and data, including maps, concerning wells.
(b) Discretion to apply exemptions. Although records or parts of them may be exempt from disclosure, FHFA or FHFA-OIG may elect under the circumstances of any particular request not to apply an exemption. This election does not generally waive the exemption and it does not have precedential effect. FHFA or FHFA-OIG may still apply an exemption to any other records or portions of records, regardless of when the request is received.
(c) Redacted portion. If a requested record contains exempt information and information that can be disclosed and the portions can reasonably be segregated from each other, the disclosable portion of the record will be released to the requester after FHFA or FHFA-OIG deletes the exempt portions. If it is technically feasible, FHFA or FHFA-OIG will indicate the amount of the information deleted at the place in the record where the deletion is made and include a notation identifying the exemption that was applied, unless including that indication would harm an interest protected by an exemption.
(d) Exempt and redacted material. FHFA and FHFA-OIG are not required to provide an itemized index correlating each withheld document (or redacted portion) with a specific exemption justification.
(e) Disclosure to Congress. This section does not allow FHFA or FHFA-OIG to withhold any information from, or to prohibit the disclosure of any information to, Congress or any Congressional committee or subcommittee.