Judicial Watch Sues Over Jack Smith Team’s Security Incidents
Judicial Watch Sues for FBI’s ‘Rosetta Stone’ Report on Trump-Russia Probe
U.S. Takes ‘Few Enforcement Actions’ on High Risk Visa Overstays
Judicial Watch Sues Over Jack Smith Team’s Security Incidents
Did the Biden Justice Department hold Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team to the same security standards it applied to President Trump? We’re suing for records exposing how classified materials were handled, alleged security breaches, and potential violations involving Smith and his investigative team.
We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for records of security incidents, classified-material handling, and potential security violations involving Smith and members of his investigative team (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (Case 1:26-cv-03923)).
We sued after the Office of Information Policy failed to respond to our July 10, 2026, FOIA request for communications between senior Justice Department officials and Smith’s office concerning alleged classified-information security incidents, including Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) access, security violations, classified-material handling, security assessments, and any related investigations or disciplinary actions.
The request specifically identifies six members of Smith’s team: Carli Rodriguez-Feo, Julie Edelstein, William O’Neil, Stephanie Van Buskirk, Molly Gaston, and Thomas Windom.
On July 8, 2026, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to then-Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about text messages among personnel in Smith’s office that raised concerns about multiple potential security failures involving classified materials during the time the Biden Justice Department was prosecuting President Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
Messages from July 2023 indicate that investigators may have provided individuals access to classified materials without first confirming they had the required “need to know.” Other communications from October 2023 concerned a classified letter that had been left out. In an April 2024 exchange, personnel discussed a SCIF accessible to Smith’s team that had been left open overnight, resulting in what one Justice Department employee described as a security “violation and incident.”
In 2023, Smith brought two federal prosecutions against then-former President Donald Trump: one over his alleged handling of classified documents and another over his challenge to the 2020 election results. Both cases were dismissed before Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
Jack Smith’s prosecution team appears to have had serious security failures involving classified evidence. The Justice Department must answer whether it applied the same standards to its own personnel that it sought to impose on President Trump.
Before his appointment to investigate and prosecute Trump, Smith previously was at the center of several other controversial issues, the IRS scandal among them.
We are a national leader in exposing the lawfare and abuse targeting Trump and other American citizens.
In June 2026, we sued the Justice Department for records concerning meetings between Smith and members of his team and two Obama-appointed federal judges who presided over matters involving Trump.
In May 2026, we obtained records that revealed the FBI’s concerns about the legal basis for the 2022 raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. The records exposed explicit objections from field agents who warned the Justice Department that the unprecedented raid on Trump’s home lacked probable cause.
In April 2026, we sued the Justice Department for records on the Biden FBI’s search warrants used in the April 2021 raid on former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s residence and office (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:26-cv-01158)). Giuliani served as a personal attorney and informal adviser to President Donald Trump.
In March 2026, the Justice Department reported that the FBI found about 1.9 million pages of records that are responsive to our FOIA lawsuit. These documents were reportedly stored in a “hidden room” at FBI headquarters and were first revealed by former Deputy Director Dan Bongino (Judicial Watch v U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-04047)).
In March 2026, we sued the Justice Department for records from the FBI’s Biden-era “Arctic Frost” probe, specifically involving the Criminal Division, the Office of Information Policy, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:26-cv-00746)).
In March 2026, we asked a Georgia state court to reject Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ efforts to continue hiding records about her office’s communications with Jack Smith’s office and the January 6 Committee (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Fani Willis et al. (No. 24-CV-002805)).
In February 2026, we secured the release of rosters identifying the names of top deputies who worked for former Smith (Judicial Watch Inc. v U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:23-cv-01485)).
In January 2026, we sued the Justice Department for communications of FBI agents regarding the prosecution of former Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice(No.1:26-cv-00079)).
In January 2025, a federal court ordered the Justice Department to provide us with information on communications between Jack Smith and Fani Willis regarding the prosecution of Trump. In May 2025, the Justice Department was directed to search text messages from the Special Counsel’s Office for responsive records (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 23-cv-03110).
Judicial Watch Seeks Details of Search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s DC Home
Judicial Watch Seeks Details of Search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s DC Home
We continue seeking the details of the October 12, 2026, federal search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) Washington, DC, home. Our latest move is a reply brief urging the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to unseal search warrant records related to the search.
The October 30 filing argues that the government has failed to justify keeping the entire warrant docket secret. We seek disclosure of the warrant, application, supporting affidavits, inventory of seized property, and related court records, with any continued withholding limited to specifically justified information.
We emphasize that Omar has publicly challenged the search and used it to raise campaign money but has not objected in court to releasing the records:
Yet nothing has been filed on her behalf in any of the three cases now consolidated before this Court. She has not intervened, has not submitted a letter, and has not asked the Court to keep anything sealed.
The brief further states:
Representative Omar has chosen what to say about the search and has asked the public to fund her account of it. She is entitled to do so. But the public is entitled to the official record against which to measure that account, and the Government’s account as well.
Ilhan Omar is using this search to raise campaign cash, yet she hasn’t asked the court to keep the records secret. Why is the government fighting to hide information about her alleged crimes? Americans deserve to see the facts about the alleged disturbing allegations about Ilhan Omar.
We initially moved to unseal the records on October 15. Our reply supports that request in proceedings now consolidated as In re Application of Fourteen Press Organizations for Access to Sealed Search Warrant Records (No. 1:26-mc-144-JEB).
As detailed in our earlier release, federal agents reportedly seized Omar’s cellphone, notebooks, computers, and passport. The Justice Department confirmed that Homeland Security Investigations carried out a court-authorized search in an ongoing criminal investigation. News reports connected the investigation to potential false statements and immigration fraud.
Our investigation of allegations concerning Omar dates to July 2019, when we submitted an ethics complaint seeking an investigation into allegations involving perjury, immigration and marriage fraud, tax fraud, and student loan fraud.
We previously obtained the release of a heavily redacted affidavit supporting the August 2022 search of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. It also helped secure the unsealing of records concerning the FBI’s September 2022 seizure of Mike Lindell’s cellphone.
We have also moved to unseal warrant materials targeting Rudy Giuliani, Victoria Toensing, and Michael Caputo.
Judicial Watch for Defense Dept. Records on Covid-19 Origins Investigation
Judicial Watch for Defense Dept. Records on Covid-19 Origins Investigation
What did the Pentagon’s watchdog uncover about the handling of intelligence on Covid-19’s origins? We’re suing for records of any Inspector General investigation into the National Center for Medical Intelligence’s study, including reports, interviews and communications.
We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense for Office of Inspector General records concerning an investigation into the handling of intelligence about the origins of Covid-19 (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense (Case 1:26-cv-03925).
The suit was filed after the Defense Intelligence Agency failed to respond to a January 13, 2025, FOIA request for records of any Office of Inspector General investigation, inspection or evaluation concerning the National Center for Medical Intelligence’s (NCMI) study into the origins of Covid-19. The request included reports, summaries, interview transcripts and related communications.
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) records showed that the agency was examining a possible laboratory origin of Covid-19 as early as March 2020, just 16 days after the World Health Organization declared the pandemic. A March 27, 2020, Defense Intelligence Agency assessment examined the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s coronavirus research and outlined a hypothetical scenario in which a laboratory-engineered virus escaped inadequate containment in 2019.
An unclassified May 2020 working paper by National Center for Medical Intelligence experts Robert Greg Cutlip and Navy Cmdr. Jean-Paul Chretien, titled “Critical Analysis of Anderson et al.; the proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2,” directly challenged the natural-origin claims. The paper concluded there was insufficient evidence to rule out a laboratory origin.
Chretien later reaffirmed that position in June 2023 testimony before the House Oversight Committee.
In December 2024, Senator Kennedy (R-LA) wrote a letter to Defense Intelligence Agency Inspector General Jeremy Kirkland:
I am writing to inquire about the results of an investigation opened by the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) concerning the National Center for Medical Intelligence’s (NCMI) study into the origins of Covid-19. Specifically, I am interested in the findings of the OIG’s inquiry as to whether the NCMI’s findings were appropriately included in briefings to President Biden and senior policy makers.
The Pentagon’s medical intelligence unit identified early evidence that Covid-19 could have been engineered in a lab, yet the investigation’s findings are being withheld. The American people have a right to every record about any Inspector General review.
Our FOIA lawsuits and investigations have uncovered much of what the public knows about many Covid-19 controversies.
In October 2026, we sued the CIA for records concerning Dr. Anthony Fauci’s communications with the Intelligence Community about the origins of Covid-19, gain-of-function research, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the selection of scientific experts consulted during the government’s Covid-19 origin’s investigations.
In August 2026, we sued the U.S. Department of Justice for the contents of Fauci’s government-issued cell phones. The phones were provided to former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Fauci and later reportedly recovered by the FBI
In May 2026, we filed a post-hearing brief in a FOIA lawsuit on behalf of Open the Books, urging a federal court to compel the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to release unredacted records showing royalty-related payments to government scientists, including Fauci.
In April 2026, we sued the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) for records and communications of its employees with other government officials regarding coronaviruses, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), and related Covid-19 research.
In March 2026, we sued the U.S. Department of Defense (War Department) for records on funding proposals submitted to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. The Biological Technologies Office was launched in 2014.
In June 2025, we sued the Defense Department for all records regarding U.S. military personnel possibly contracting Covid-19 in October 2019 during the World Military Games in Wuhan, China. The lawsuit cited a December 2022 report issued by the Pentagon titled “Report to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives: 2019 World Military Games” which states that seven “service members who attended the games exhibited Covid-19-like signs and/or symptoms” during the time surrounding their attendance at the games.
In May 2025, we received records from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that revealed its plans to mandate Covid-19 vaccinations for 17 million health care employees and that only one of 4,682 claims for injuries and deaths due to Covid-19 “countermeasures” at the time was compensated.
In June 2021, we filed two new FOIA lawsuits targeting the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) for State Department records on the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of SARS-CoV-2 dating back to 2017.
In March 2022, we obtained records from Anthony Fauci’s agency, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), showing China failed to provide key Covid-19 information and withheld essential Covid-19 data in early 2020, hindering U.S. risk assessment, along with details of NIAID funding to the Wuhan lab.
Records uncovered in 2024 from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) through a FOIA request showed an April 2020 email exchange with several officials in the bureau’s Newark Field Office referring to a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China as including “gain-of-function research” which “would leave no signature of purposeful human manipulation.”
Records from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) showed that a Pfizer study surveyed 23 people in 2021 to gauge reactions to its Covid vaccine booster before asking the FDA to approve it.
Records from the Health and Human Services included the initial grant application and annual reports to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from EcoHealth Alliance, describing the aim of its work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to create mutant viruses “to better predict the capacity of our CoVs [coronaviruses] to infect people.”
Health and Human Services records included emails of then-Director of the National Institutes of Health Francis Collins showing a British physicians’ group recommended the use of Ivermectin to prevent and treat Covid-19.
Records from Health and Human Services regarding data Moderna submitted to the Food and Drug Administration on its mRNA Covid-19 vaccine indicated a “statistically significant” number of rats were born with skeletal deformations after their mothers were injected with the vaccine. The documents also revealed Moderna elected not to conduct a number of standard pharmacological studies on the laboratory test animals.
Food and Drug Administration records detailed pressure for Covid-19 vaccine booster approval and use.
National Institutes of Health records revealed an FBI “inquiry” into the NIH’s controversial bat coronavirus grant tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The records also show National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) officials were concerned about “gain-of-function” research in China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2016. The Fauci agency was also concerned about EcoHealth Alliance’s lack of compliance with reporting rules and use of gain-of-function research in the NIH-funded research involving bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China.
Health and Human Services records revealed that from 2014 to 2019, $826,277 was given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research by the NIAID.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases records showed that it gave nine China-related grants to EcoHealth Alliance to research coronavirus emergence in bats and was the National Institutes of Health’s top issuer of grants to the Wuhan lab itself. The records also included an email from the vice director of the Wuhan Lab asking an NIH official for help finding disinfectants for decontamination of airtight suits and indoor surfaces.
Health and Human Services records included an “urgent for Dr. Fauci” email chain, citing ties between the Wuhan lab and the taxpayer-funded EcoHealth Alliance. The government emails also reported that the foundation of U.S. billionaire Bill Gates worked closely with the Chinese government to pave the way for Chinese-produced medications to be sold outside China and help “raise China’s voice of governance by placing representatives from China on important international councils as high level commitment from China.”
Health and Human Services records included a grant application for research involving the coronavirus that appeared to describe “gain-of-function” research involving RNA extractions from bats, experiments on viruses, attempts to develop a chimeric virus and efforts to genetically manipulate the full-length bat SARS-CoV WIV1 strain molecular clone.
Health and Human Services records showed the State Department and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases knew immediately in January 2020 that China was withholding Covid-19 data, which was hindering risk assessment and response by public health officials.
University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) records showed the former director of the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Dr. James W. Le Duc warned Chinese researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology of potential investigations into the Covid issue by Congress.
Health and Human Services records regarding biodistribution studies and related data for the Covid-19 vaccines showed a key component of the vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), were found outside the injection site, mainly the liver, adrenal glands, spleen and ovaries of test animals, eight to 48 hours after injection.
Records from the Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP) revealed safety lapses and violations at U.S. biosafety laboratories that conduct research on dangerous agents and toxins.
Health and Human Services records included emails between National Institutes of Health (NIH) then-Director Francis Collins and Fauci, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, about hydroxychloroquine and Covid-19.
Health and Human Services records showed that National Institutes of Health officials tailored confidentiality forms to China’s terms and that the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted an unreleased, “strictly confidential” Covid-19 epidemiological analysis in January 2020.
Fauci emails included his approval of a press release supportive of China’s response to the 2019 novel coronavirus.
Until next week,
