Loaded Gun at Trump Golf Club While President Was on Site
U.S. Fails to Vet 40% of Afghans Admitted Under Biden
Clinics Raked in Millions as Government Pushed ‘Sex-Rejecting’ Procedures
Loaded Gun at Trump Golf Club While President Was on Site
The Secret Service is a dangerous mess.
We forced the release of 14 pages of heavily redacted records from the U.S. Secret Service in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit showing that, on August 31, 2025, a club member carried a loaded semi-automatic handgun past a Secret Service screening checkpoint at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, VA, while President Donald Trump was present at the club.
The records include an agent’s summary of the incident that states the member took it upon himself to alert authorities on site that he had the weapon and did so because he “cares about POTUS.”
We filed the April 2026 lawsuit after the Secret Service failed to respond to a November 18, 2025, FOIA request for records related to the internal investigation of the August 2025 incident (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:26-cv-01447)).
On August 31, 2025, an assistant special agent in charge in the Washington Field Office (WFO) sends an email to another WFO official summarizing the incident:
At approximately 1553 hours, a member of Trump National Golf [Club] (TNGC), [redacted] Kennelly, approached a [redacted]-stander and advised that he had inadvertently brought a pistol through a screening location and the pistol was not detected.
[Redacted] advised that, at approximately 1200 hours, he arrived at TNGC [Trump National Golf Club] to eat lunch and go to the pool. Upon arrival at TNGC, [redacted] entered the clubhouse through the [redacted] entrance and was screened at that location. [Redacted] advised that he was searched via a [redacted] metal detector and his bag was searched visually. [Redacted] then went on to eat lunch on the patio and then go to the pool. Upon changing his clothes after using the pool, [redacted] realized that he had inadvertently left his Glock 43 pistol in the gym bag and that the bag was searched without the pistol being found. It was at this time the member approached a [redacted]-stander at the employee entrance and advised of the situation because he ‘cares about POTUS.’ WFO PI [Protective Intelligence] was notified and SAs [special agents] [redacted], [redacted] and [redacted] responded.
WFO PI interviewed [redacted] and viewed his pistol in his bag. TNGC camera footage was reviewed. [Redacted] was seen on camera entering the club and having his bag searched as he described. [Redacted] was also on camera on the patio eating lunch, going to the pro-shop, the men’s locker room, moving through the pool house, and at the pool. [Redacted] is seen on camera with his bag at each location.
WFO PI’s investigation is ongoing.
The records include a photograph of handwritten notes that retrace some of the member’s actions while he was carrying the handgun in his gym bag:
11:59:50 AM (enters)
12:02 At lunch
1:20:13 Moves back upstairs
1:20:25 Goes to pro shop
1:24:00 Goes to locker room
1:30:09 Changed & goes back to pro shop
1:32:00 Leaves pro shop
1:32:13 Walks out front door
Photographs of a Virginia driver’s license and the license plate of a Mercedes-Benz are included in the production of records. The plate number and relevant data on the license are redacted.
A Secret Service Protective Intelligence and Assessment Division report of the incident states, “No protective movements were affected by this incident” and “There is no reported media coverage of this incident.”
On the day after the incident, September 1, a WFO employee emails another WFO employee, “In case we’re out on the course and this guy shows up again they want a full interview with him.”
(The agent in charge of searching the guest’s bag at the Sterling, VA, golf facility was reportedly placed on administrative leave amid an ongoing review by the Secret Service.)
Given the previous attempts on the president’s life, it is highly disturbing that this type of security lapse could occur—and that it takes a federal lawsuit to get a fuller picture into how a person was able to get a gun through a Secret Service checkpoint.
Recently, we received Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records concerning Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who attempted to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The records include photos taken of the Pittsburgh area by Crooks using a drone, cell phone evidence that shows that Crooks received fundraising appeals for Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and an unusual chat thread between Crooks and an unidentified person (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-02216)).
In April 2026, our FOIA lawsuit forced the release of records from the FBI that show that Crooks was reportedly involved in an altercation with a group of people and making “hateful comments” directed at President Trump at the Butler, PA, rally site before the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt.
In February 2026, our lawsuit forced the release of the first FBI records about the Butler assassination attempt.
In December 2025, we sued the Secret Service for communications records related to Code Pink protesters who disrupted a dinner held by President Trump at a restaurant in Washington, DC, on September 9, 2025 (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:25-cv-04408)).
In September 2025, we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for messages among top leaders of the Federal Bureau of Investigation referencing social media posts of Special Agent Jeffrey Veltri, head of the Miami Field Office, which is investigating the September 15 assassination attempt against Donald Trump (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-02740)).
In March 2025, we sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for records related to security provided for the July 13, 2024, rally in Butler, PA (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:25-cv-00704)).
In August 2024, we uncovered documents from the district attorney’s office in Butler County, PA, detailing the extensive preparation of local police for the rally at which former President Trump was shot. The preparation included sniper teams, counter assault teams and a quick response force.
In August 2024, in response to a separate open records request, we obtained bodycam footage of the July 13 assassination events from the Butler Township Police Department.
In August 2024, following up on reports that the Biden Secret Service denied Trump’s requests for additional Secret Service protection, we filed a FOIA lawsuit for Secret Service and other records regarding potential increased protective services to Trump’s security detail prior to the attempt on his life at his July 13 campaign rally in Butler, PA (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:24-cv-02495)).
U.S. Fails to Vet 40% of Afghans Admitted Under Biden
The murder of a National Guardsman in Washington, DC, in November 2025 was committed by an Afghan gunman allowed into our country without proper vetting by the Biden administration. Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the details.
Less than a year after a terrorist who entered the U.S. under a Biden administration program to help “vulnerable Afghans” shot two National Guard soldiers in Washington DC, a federal investigation reveals the government failed to properly screen an alarming 40% of the asylum candidates admitted under the risky initiative. Known as Operation Allies Welcome (OAW), the controversial program was launched to help Afghans resettle in the U.S. after the chaotic 2021 withdrawal of American troops in the war-torn Islamic nation and thousands were not properly vetted. Among them was Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the 30-year-old Afghan national who ambushed and shot National Guardsmen near the White House in late November, killing a 20-year-old specialist, seriously injuring a 24-year-old sergeant and wounding two others in the attack.
On the day of the shooting, November 26, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed the “terrorist is one of thousands of unvetted Afghan nationals let into the country under the Biden Administration’s Operation Allies Welcome program.” Many on the left, including the establishment media, downplayed the information, insisting that the initiative helped susceptible Afghans, especially those targeted by the Taliban for having worked with allied forces. Under OAW around 97,000 refugees were evacuated from Afghanistan and granted a two-year parole that allowed them to apply for asylum. The DC shooter was among them. “The Biden Administration let this terrorist into the country as part of their Operation Allies Welcome program on September 8, 2021,” according to the DHS statement issued immediately after the attack. “This program let in thousands of unvetted Afghan nationals including terrorists into our country.” Lakanwal has been charged with first-degree murder while armed, assault with intent to kill while armed, and two counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, in violation of the DC code.
It is unlikely that Lakanwal is the only terrorist welcomed into the country under Biden’s program, according to information disclosed in a distressing new report issued by the DHS Inspector General (IG). Big chunks of the document are redacted, presumably for national security reasons, but the message is clear; the government failed miserably to scrutinize unknown numbers of Afghans before admitting them into the U.S., creating a huge national security risk as the Lakanwal case proves. Investigators found a 40% failure rate in the vetting of asylum claims for Afghan nationals received under OAW, including candidates with known ties to terrorism. The DHS agency in charge of performing the vetting, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), oversees lawful immigration and asylum officers (AO) were supposed to use special tools such as FBI fingerprint checks, biometric matching and a case management system known as Global to screen Afghans. Incredibly, they missed a lot of red flags and although pertinent information is redacted in the report, enough is available to illustrate the serious failures.
“The prevalence and type of errors suggest U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services may have missed opportunities to potentially link names provided by applicants to derogatory information,” the DHS watchdog writes, adding that the lapse compromises the integrity of the alien registration file contents for future immigration administration and enforcement activities. During a random audit, investigators examined a sample of 678 applicants from a batch of 13,682 adjudicated Afghan evacuees who resettled in the U.S. The DHS IG identified 303 missed aliases, 23 missing security checks, 45 unresolved records and 115 other documentation issues. The missing security checks mean USCIS failed to run names against FBI and national security databases. The unresolved records show a failure to resolve potential matches to derogatory information such as national security concerns, criminal convictions and other misconduct that could impede asylum. “Most errors resulted from missed aliases or incomplete documentation, including two cases related to potential inadmissibility on terrorism-related grounds,” the report states. Some files had multiple missed aliases. Other errors involved an asylum officer failing to identify a spelling variation of a name or not reprinting and adding a document to a file.
Clinics Raked in Millions as Government Pushed ‘Sex-Rejecting’ Procedures
We’re now learning the magnitude of the Biden administration’s promotion of gender “care” for children. Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the astonishing details.
The federal government’s ardent promotion of “sex-rejecting” medical procedures for minors during the Biden administration inspired hundreds of hospitals and health care systems, many of them publicly funded, to establish pediatric gender programs that made tens of millions of dollars using illegal billing practices to get the questionable treatments approved. More than 225 health care centers established “pediatric gender programs,” billing nearly $120 million since 2019, according to an investigation conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In a lengthy report made public recently the agency documents its findings and they are downright outrageous. “This report exposes, for the first time, the involvement of hospitals in promoting life-altering drugs and surgeries for children who express discomfort with their sex,” HHS writes. “The stories of young boys and girls who sought to course-correct from the medical journeys designed to stunt and maim their natural bodies and functions all tell the same tale: there was no course-correction available.”
Over 5,500 surgical procedures and 8,500 courses of hormones or blockers were administered to kids, with individual flagship programs reporting multimillion-dollar billings. Certain large children’s hospitals have seen gender-clinic revenue streams balloon in recent years, the HHS probe confirms. Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York and Boston Children’s Hospital are among the top grossing providers, with over $8.2 million and $6.5 million respectively in total billed charges for transgender-related services to minors between 2019 and 2023. That amounts to more than $1 million a year during each of those five years, a rarity in pediatric medicine. “In an era of razor-thin pediatric margins and pressure on hospital reimbursements, this new patient cohort—young, insured or Medicaid-eligible, and requiring perpetual follow-ups—represented a strategic area of growth,” the HHS report states. “Endocrinology and surgery departments gained volume and prestige, while hospital administrators gained a reliable revenue line that helps subsidize lower-margin services.”
Around $50 million was billed for puberty blockers that were illegally coded using a fake endocrine disorder diagnostic, the probe found. Nearly $11 million in claims were filed for patients 13 to 17 using a precocious puberty diagnosis that is highly uncommon. “Healthcare providers were able to turn a tidy profit from these procedures: children who transitioned were placed on a course that would require expensive drugs, surgeries, and lifelong medical interventions,” the HHS report reads. The document cites a multitude of examples of clinics in multiple states situated within major academic medical centers, large private hospital systems, and community-based centers. The institutions and providers participate in federal programs including Medicaid and Medicare that treat children, adolescents and adults and they profit immensely from providing the services for what the left calls “gender dysphoria.” HHS determined that many providers of sex-rejecting procedures systemically diagnose minors with physical conditions they do not have to secure insurance coverage for controversial regimens like “breast removal or hormonal treatment” that might not otherwise be covered by private insurance or taxpayer-funded programs like Medicaid. The pediatric gender clinics are revenue boosters, which helps explain their rapid proliferation and resistance to concerning evidence showing poor safety and efficacy of the procedures.
Kids were not the only victims of this lucrative gender medicine push. The report also reveals that the Biden administration promoted and expanded access to gender affirming procedures through executive orders, HHS civil rights guidance, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) mandates and federal employee health benefits, pressuring hospitals and insurers to cover them for adults as well as minors. The former president issued an executive order directing government agencies to provide federal employees with healthcare coverage for comprehensive gender affirming care. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ordered carriers of federal employee health benefits programs to cover gender affirming care such as hormone therapy, genital, and breast surgeries as well as facial “gender affirming surgeries.” Even the Department of Defense (DOD) provided taxpayer-funded coverage of sex-rejecting procedures, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent millions of taxpayer dollars on research related to sex-rejecting procedures such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for youth.
Until next week,
