(a) In deciding whether to comply with a demand or request, Corporation officials and attorneys are encouraged to consider:

(1) Whether such compliance would be unduly burdensome or otherwise inappropriate under the applicable rules of discovery or the rules of procedure governing the case or matter in which the demand arose;

(2) Whether compliance is appropriate under the relevant substantive law concerning privilege or disclosure of information;

(3) The public interest;

(4) The need to conserve the time of Corporation Employees for the conduct of official business;

(5) The need to avoid spending the time and money of the United States for private purposes;

(6) The need to maintain impartiality between private litigants in cases where a government interest is not implicated;

(7) Whether compliance would have an adverse effect on performance by the Corporation of its mission and duties; and

(8) The need to avoid involving the Corporation in controversial issues not related to its mission.

(b) Among those demands and requests in response to which compliance may not ordinarily be authorized are those when compliance would:

(1) Violate a statute, a rule of procedure, a specific regulation, or an executive order;

(2) Reveal information properly classified in the interest of national security;

(3) Reveal confidential commercial or financial information or trade secrets without the owner's consent;

(4) Reveal the internal deliberative processes of the Executive Branch; or

(5) Potentially impede or prejudice an ongoing law enforcement investigation.


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