Skip to content

Judicial Watch, Inc. is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, which promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.

Judicial Watch, Inc. is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, which promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.

Because no one
is above the law!

Donate

Tom Fitton's Judicial Watch Weekly Update

Fauci Email Stonewall?

Prayers for President Trump and the First Lady
PA Counties Admit They Gave Incorrect Voter Roll Information to the Feds
Judge Rejects Stonewall — Orders Initial Production of Fauci Emails this Month
President Trump’s Splendid Pick for the High Court
Soros Funds Prosecutor Candidate Who Is Soft On Criminals
Surge in Illegal Immigrants Smuggled in Tractor-Trailers

Prayers for President Trump and the First Lady

Like me and my family, I’m sure you’re praying for the speedy and full recovery of President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump from the coronavirus. As I write, the President is being transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he reportedly will be able to work as he receives world-class treatment. Please also pray for the entire Trump family and affected White House staff. And, of course, pray for our country, which faces yet another trial as our President faces this health challenge.

PA Counties Admit They Gave Incorrect Voter Roll Information to the Feds

Very often the real story lies behind the curtain. While the country watched the presidential debate, we were busy fighting for clean voter rolls in Pennsylvania and other states. Clean voter rolls are a foundation of honest elections.

We’ve now learned that the State of Pennsylvania and three Pennsylvania counties admitted they reported incorrect information to a federal agency concerning the removal of ineligible voters from their voter rolls. In April, we filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania and three of its counties for failing to make reasonable efforts to remove ineligible voters from their rolls, as required by the federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) (Judicial Watch v. Pennsylvania, et al (No. 1:02-at-06000)).

Federal regulations require Pennsylvania to certify to the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) the number of voter registrations removed from the rolls under the NVRA because the voter has moved out of state. According to data the State certified to the EAC in the most recent two-year reporting period:

  • Bucks County, with about 457,000 registrations, removed a total of eight names under the relevant NVRA procedures;
  • Chester County, with about 357,000 registrations, removed five names under those procedures; and
  • Delaware County, with about 403,000 registrations, removed four names under those procedures.

In recent court filings, Pennsylvania admitted it had certified incorrect data to the EAC. The State alleged unverified, revised figures for Bucks, Chester, and Delaware counties. Those three counties also alleged their own unverified, revised figures, which differed, however, from those provided by the State. The new numbers alleged by the State and its counties are still a small fraction of the voter names likely inactive, according to our analysis provided to the court. We contend that, “even if these numbers are accurate, which we do not concede, they would still be removing too few old registrations.”

In its revised filings, the State also conceded that eighteen other Pennsylvania counties—which together contain about one quarter of Pennsylvania’s registered voters—had removed a combined total of fifteen names under the relevant NVRA procedures in the most recent two-year reporting period.

In its continuing efforts to force states and counties across the nation to comply with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), Judicial Watch filed its opposition to Pennsylvania’s move to dismiss our lawsuit, which contends that Bucks, Chester, and Delaware counties failed to conduct a reasonable program to remove ineligible registrants from their federal voter rolls as required under the NVRA.

The lawsuit pointed to the abnormally low number of removals under NVRA procedures designed to identify voters who have changed residence. The lawsuit also pointed out that the Commonwealth had over 800,000 “inactive” registrations on its voter rolls.

We compared registration data in the EAC’s report (which was supplied to the EAC by the counties) to publicly available data from the Census Bureau to conclude that Bucks, Chester, and Delaware Counties had total registration rates, respectively, of 96%, 97%, and 97%. Judicial Watch noted that these numbers are high, both within Pennsylvania and compared to the rest of the country, suggesting a failure to remove outdated registrations.

Other Pennsylvania counties have acted to avoid being sued by us. On January 14, 2020, CBS Pittsburgh reported that because of the threat of a Judicial Watch lawsuit, Allegheny County removed 69,000 inactive voters. David Voye, Elections Manager for the county told CBS, “I would concede that we are behind on culling our rolls,” and that this had “been put on the backburner.”

Pennsylvania’s voting rolls are such as mess that even Pennsylvania can’t tell a court the details of how dirty or clean they are. The simple solution is to follow federal law and take the necessary and simple steps to clean up their voter rolls.

As you know, we are the national leader in enforcing federal law which requires states to take reasonable steps to clean their voting rolls.

In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld a massive voter roll clean up that resulted from our settlement of a federal lawsuit with Ohio.

California also settled a similar lawsuit with us and last year began the process of removing up to 1.5 million “inactive” names from Los Angeles County voting rolls. Kentucky also began a cleanup of up to 250,00 names last year after it entered into a consent decree to end another Judicial Watch lawsuit.

More election integrity litigation is coming next week, so stay tuned!

Judge Rejects Stonewall — Orders Initial Production of Fauci Emails this Month

The Deep State has been circling the wagons around Dr. Fauci, but that’s coming to an end – after an unnecessary delay.

A federal judge has ordered the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to begin producing communications and other records of National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and Deputy Director H. Clifford Lane about the World Health Organization (WHO), China, and the coronavirus.

U.S. District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich on September 22 ordered HHS to begin producing 300 pages of potentially responsive records per month beginning on October 21. In a September 21 court filing, HHS said the agency could begin producing 300 pages of responsive records to the Daily Caller News Foundation beginning on November 30, eight months after receiving the Daily Caller’s request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The total number of responsive records is approximately 4200, which would push off the full release of the records until at least 2022.  HHS also alleged that Fauci must personally review each one of his emails before they are released.

The judge’s order came in response to a FOIA suit we filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of the Daily Caller News Foundation (Daily Caller News Foundation v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:20-cv-01149)).

We sued after HHS failed to respond to an April 1, 2020, FOIA request seeking:

  • Communications between Dr. Fauci and Deputy Director Lane and World Health Organization officials concerning the novel coronavirus.
  • Communications of Dr. Fauci and Deputy Director Lane concerning WHO, WHO official Bruce Aylward, WHO Director General Tedros Anhanom, and China.

The time period for the request is January 1, 2020 to April 1, 2020.

“People have every right under the law to see the communications between our government agencies (including Dr. Fauci), China and the WHO at the outset of this pandemic that has killed so many Americans and destroyed our economy,” said Daily Caller News Foundation President Neil Patel. “We are happy that Judge Friedrich agreed with our position that the government should not be able to keep this information secret. However, the fact that the document production doesn’t have to start until over six months after our lawful request — and that the production will not finish until 2022, is a sad joke. It’s amazing people still wonder why the American people have lost trust in our national institutions.”

The NIH seems to be playing politics with the Fauci emails. The FOIA request at issue here concerns records that are likely to shed light on the China and WHO disinformation campaign on coronavirus – the stonewall seems calculated to undermine President Trump and protect WHO and China.

President Trump’s Splendid Pick for the High Court

What a brave, wonderful Supreme Court pick by President Trump! President Trump has once again stood up for the U.S. Constitution with his nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Judge Barrett has a demonstrated record of applying the rule of law rather than legislating from the bench. Her record shows that she will not only respect but apply the U.S. Constitution as written and intended by our Founding Fathers. And it would be a wonderful milestone that Judge Barrett would be the first conservative woman member on the Supreme Court. She seems to be a full spectrum conservative who is likely to be a force on the Supreme Court for years to come.

This nomination is another great victory for constitutional government and a blow to politicized decision-making on the Supreme Court. Most Americans agree with Judge Barrett that the Supreme Court should apply the law as it is written and leave the legislating to the people’s elected representatives.

The U.S. Senate should move quickly to work with President Trump to consider and approve Judge Barrett before Election Day. There is not much radical liberals can do to stop this excellent Supreme Court pick. Leftist threats of violence and court-packing should not slow the Senate one bit. And all Americans should reject the growing un-American campaign by the radical left to attack her family and oppose Justice Barrett because of her religious faith.  I had the honor of attending the White House Rose Garden introduction of Judge Coney Barrett.

Seeing her temperament, family, and learning more about her record in only further highlighted for me that Judge Barrett cannot be confirmed soon enough.

You should let your Senators know how you feel about the Barrett nomination by calling 202-225-3121.

 


Soros Funds Prosecutor Candidate Who Is Soft On Criminals

George Soros is a major player in American politics – also intervening in campaigns for offices that are vitally important to Americans.  Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the latest transparency report on his political activism:

Leftwing billionaire George Soros just donated $1.5 million to help the nation’s most populous county elect a Black Lives Matter-endorsed prosecutor who promises to lock up fewer criminals. The sizable contribution to former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon’s campaign for Los Angeles District Attorney is part of a broader effort by Soros to place leftists in local prosecutors’ offices around the country. The philanthropist has donated generously to these types of candidates throughout California as well as in other states, including Florida, Virginia, Illinois, Texas and New Mexico. Earlier this year, a Soros-linked group called Missouri Justice Public Safety PAC gave St. Louis prosecutor Kimberly Gardner, who criminally charged a couple for defending their home against violent Black Lives Matter protestors, $78,000. Soros also helped fund Gardner’s 2016 campaign and his reelection support has not wavered even though she was investigated for abusing her power to pursue a bogus criminal case against a political nemesis and fined for campaign finance violations.

Now Soros, who has long funded international and domestic movements to advance the left’s radical agenda, is pouring money into the L.A. County race to remove its first black district attorney, Jackie Lacey, who is seeking a third term. Judicial Watch has launched an investigation and this week filed a California Public Records Act (CPRA) request for Gascon’s records, communications, and expenditures with various Political Action Committees behind his controversial move from San Francisco to Los Angeles. According to a conservative news report, social justice advocacy groups, including Black Lives Matter, recruited Gascon to come to L.A. and he met with the co-founder and key strategist of the Black Lives Matter global network, Patrisse Cullors, about the move south. The same media outlet reported the recent $1.5 million Soros donation to Gascon this week.

Besides promising to imprison fewer criminals than L.A. County’s current prosecutor, here is why leftists want him in charge; Gascon helped craft two state measures, Proposition 47 and Proposition 57, that benefit hardcore criminals under the auspice of “criminal justice reform.” Proposition 47 decriminalizes drug and theft offenses by reducing them from felonies to misdemeanors. Proposition 57 grants serious criminals such as rapists, human traffickers, child molesters and drive-by-shooters early release from prison. Gascon’s campaign is a perfect example of outside special interests controlling traditionally non-partisan races, according to the Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA), the professional group of deputy prosecutors in L.A. County. “Special interest groups, funded by George Soros, pumped millions of dollars into district attorney races across the county,” the group’s president writes on its website. “Their mission was to use Soros’s wealth to radically reshape the criminal justice system.”

Judicial Watch has reported extensively on the multi-million-dollar global crusade funded by Soros to further advance the left’s radical agenda. Incredibly, American taxpayers contribute to this outrageous cause. A few years ago Judicial Watch published an investigative report on the financial and staffing nexus between Soros’ deeply politicized Open Society Foundations (OSF) and the U.S. government. OSF works to destabilize legitimate governments, erase national borders, target conservative politicians, finance civil unrest, subvert institutions of higher education and orchestrate refugee crises for political gain. With the help of American taxpayer dollars, Soros bolsters a radical leftwing agenda that in the U.S. has included: promoting an open border with Mexico and fighting immigration enforcement efforts; fomenting racial disharmony by funding anti-capitalist racialist organizations; financing the Black Lives Matter movement and other organizations involved in the riots in Ferguson, Missouri; weakening the integrity of our electoral systems; promoting taxpayer funded abortion-on-demand; advocating a government-run health care system; opposing U.S. counterterrorism efforts; promoting dubious transnational climate change agreements that threaten American sovereignty and working to advance gun control and erode Second Amendment protections.


Surge in Illegal Immigrants Smuggled in Tractor-Trailers

The human flood across our southern border is a crisis, and it is resulting in traffickers treating human beings like cattle. Our Corruption Chronicles blog updates us on the sad scene.

As COVID-19 ravages Latin America—especially Mexico—a record number of illegal immigrants are being smuggled into the United States through the southern border in commercial tractor-trailers. Human smugglers cram the migrants, mostly from Central America, in large trailers with no ventilation, water or food for days, according to the U.S. Border Patrol. “The tractor-trailer is the final trap of their 1,600 mile treacherous journey from Central America to the United States,” the agency writes in a statement issued this month. “Migrants are exposed to these dangers by smugglers who know the life-threatening journey will be in vain given increased border enforcement and partnerships with affected governments.”

The frontline Homeland Security agency says two Texas border crossings that are typically hot spots for tractor-trailers loaded with migrants have seen a 37% increase this fiscal year. The sectors, Rio Grande Valley and Laredo, have intercepted more than 226 tractor-trailer cases through August with 3,740 illegal immigrants packed in “dangerous and life threating conditions.” Federal authorities estimate that travel restrictions designed to stop the spread of COVID-19 have made commercial tractor-trailers the “conveyance of choice to smuggle large numbers of people into the United States.” Smugglers usually charge each person between $6,000 and $12,000 to make the life-threatening journey in a jam-packed trailer, according to the Border Patrol. “Smugglers are unscrupulous criminals and will stop at nothing to enrich their pockets, even if it involves locking human beings in trailers intended for animals,” said Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark A. Morgan. “They treat illegal aliens as a commodity, inhumanely holding them captive in overcrowded stash houses with limited access to food and water.”

Federal agents often find human remains or encounter lost migrants abandoned by smugglers when they become sick or injured. Smuggling operations are run by drug cartels and other criminal enterprises, federal authorities assure. They undoubtedly increase the risk of COVID-19 infection among illegal aliens and those charged with processing them, the Border Patrol points out. The agency provides a gripping video testimonial of a young Central American mother who describes the horrific conditions in tractor-trailer boxes where breathing is difficult and sexual abuse rampant. Though her identity is protected, Homeland Security officials say the woman is the voice of thousands of Central American migrants, including unaccompanied children that have endured a “myriad of atrocities,” including sexual abuse, assault and kidnapping by the criminals they pay to bring them to the U.S.

The Border Patrol also provides a grisly photo of a livestock trailer loaded with illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. The large pickup truck pulling the trailer was stopped at the Laredo crossing with 37 individuals locked inside “with no means of escape.” The dehumanizing picture shows some of the migrants’ arms hanging out of the top rails of a vehicle designed to transport animals. Others are captured trying to peek through the thin cracks. Two other photos capture a bust of 66 individuals jammed inside the trailer and cabin of a big rig and another with 35 illegal aliens. In a message to those considering a tractor-trailer odyssey north, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warns not to trust human smugglers. “Do not endanger your lives and the lives of your loved ones by embarking on the dangerous journey to the United States in vain.” Based on the evidence gathered by his agency, Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott assures that smugglers “have no regard for human life.”

The newly released stats are particularly alarming considering that Latin America leads the world in COVID-19 cases, according to an international news conglomerate that reports a surge of infections in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Argentina. The United Nations calls Latin America a hotspot of the COVID-19 pandemic, “exacerbated by weak social protection, fragmented health systems and profound inequalities.” Other reports describe Latin America as a COVID-19 nightmare and the world’s hardest hit region. The U.S. government considers COVID-19 risk in Mexico to be high and has issued a warning to American travelers of “increased risk for severe illness.”

Securing the border will save lives – not least of those of the illegal migrants trafficked in the most dangerous circumstances imaginable.

Until next week,


Related

VP’s Failed Initiative to Curb Irregular Migration Gets Another $170 Mil as Numbers Surge

Corruption Chronicles | March 28, 2024
As enormous amounts of U.S. taxpayer dollars pour into Central America under Vice President Kamala Harris’s ill-fated initiative to curb illegal immigration, the Biden administrati...

Judicial Watch: Federal Appeals Court Hearing in Lawsuit Challenging Illinois Counting Ballots up to…

Press Releases | March 27, 2024
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that an appellate oral argument is set for Thursday, March 28 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in the case fil...

Judicial Watch Sues to Get 911 Call, Arrest Report of Laken Riley’s Murder

In The News | March 27, 2024
From Breitbart: Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton announced a Georgia Open Records Act lawsuit against the University of Georgia (UGA) Police Department to get the 911 call made ...