Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton Receives Presidential Reappointment

President Trump Reappoints Tom Fitton to DC Judicial Commission
Judicial Watch Sues HHS for Human Fetal Tissue Research Records
Justice Dept. Sued for Planned Parenthood, Human Fetal Tissue Records
Trump Administration Blasted for Ending $10 Million Toilet Project in Madagascar

President Trump Reappoints Tom Fitton to DC Judicial Commission

I am pleased to announce that President Trump has reappointed me to the District of Columbia Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure for a five-year term. He initially appointed me to the commission in 2020. I issued this statement about the reappointment:

Thank you, President Trump, for reappointing me to the District of Columbia Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure. I am honored and humbled by your confidence. This important responsibility is of course in addition to my duties as Judicial Watch president. I look forward to my continued work with my fellow commissioners to ‘maintain public confidence in an independent, impartial, fair, and qualified judiciary, and to enforce the high standards of conduct judges must adhere to both on and off the bench.’ Our nation’s capital needs the best possible courts, especially in light of the public safety concerns that have gained national attention.

The District of Columbia Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure was established by Congress to review complaints of misconduct against judges of the District of Columbia courts. The commission’s authority includes reappointment evaluations (sent to the president) of associate judges and performance and fitness reviews of senior judges.

The commission has “the authority to remove a judge for willful misconduct in office, for willful and persistent failure to perform judicial duties, and for conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, or which brings the judicial office into disrepute. The Commission also has the authority to retire a judge involuntarily if the Commission determines that the judge suffers from a mental or physical disability which is or is likely to become permanent and which prevents, or seriously interferes with, the proper performance of duties. In addition, the Commission may, under appropriate circumstances, censure or reprimand a judge publicly.”

Judicial Watch Sues HHS for Human Fetal Tissue Research Records

Americans have a right to know basic information about the taxpayer-funded abortion industrial complex. As long as the government continues to fund these gruesome projects, we will work to expose them.

We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for records from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) related to a federally funded human fetal tissue research program at the University of Pittsburgh (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:25-cv-04498)).

We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the National Institutes of Health, a component of Health and Human Services, failed to comply with a May 30, 2025, FOIA request for:

All documents and communications of officials in the Office of Extramural Research concerning the Final Research Performance Progress Report (FRPPR) for the GUDMAP program at the University of Pittsburgh (Project Number U24-DK110791-01).

The National Institutes of Health’s Office of Extramural Research provides guidance to institutes in research and training programs conducted through extramural (grant, contract, cooperative agreement) programs.

The GenitoUrinary (reproductive and urinary) Development Molecular Anatomy Project (GUDMAP) is a research consortium that receives funding from the National Institutes of Health. The abstract for project number1U24DK110791-01 is titled “University of Pittsburgh as the GUDMAP Tissue Hub and Collection Site.” The fiscal year 2016 grant for $600,000 supported the procurement, processing, and distribution of human fetal tissues. The abstract states in part:

The Health Sciences Tissue Bank (HSTB) at the University of Pittsburgh has been involved in human tissue procurement for over 18 years … HSTB has an established program accruing fetal tissues. The fetal tissue IRB has been in place since 2005. HSTB has the infrastructure for dissecting specimens and collecting different tissue types. In this calendar year, we have disbursed over 300 fresh samples collected from 77 cases. The collections can be significantly ramped up as material could have been accrued from as many as 725 cases last year. We have preliminary data showing that we can isolate the human urogenital system (kidneys, ureters and bladders) from various developmental ages (6-24 weeks). We have produced publication quality images of these genitourinary organs (including kidneys and bladder) and have also been able to isolate and expand cells from various genitourinary organs.

In August 2021, we and the Center for Medical Progress uncovered Health and Human Services records that revealed nearly $3 million in federal funds were spent on the University of Pittsburgh’s quest to become a “tissue hub” for human fetal tissue ranging from six to 42 weeks gestation.

In July 2023, we filed two amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs to the Supreme Court of the United States in support of The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) and its founder Daleiden, asking for review of the Ninth Circuit Court’s affirmation of a monetary award against CMP (Center for Medical Progress et al. v Planned Parent Hood et al. (22-1168)), the other asks for review of an injunction granted to the National Abortion Federation that prevents CMP from publishing more abortion-related videos (Center for Medical Progress et al. v National Abortion Federation (22-1135)).

In April 2022, we obtained records revealing that the Associate Senior Vice Chancellor for Science Strategy and Planning in the Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Jeremy Berg, contacted then-Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Francis Collins requesting help to combat, “efforts to undermine important science using fetal tissue.” Additionally, the records included a scientific report containing information about grafting human scalp and other tissues onto mice.

In September 2021, we uncovered records from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) involving “humanized mice” research with human fetal heads, organs and tissue, including communications and contracts with human fetal tissue provider Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR). Most of the records are communications and related attachments between Perrin Larton, a procurement manager for ABR, and research veterinary medical officer Dr. Kristina Howard of the Food and Drug Administration.

In April 2021, we obtained records from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) showing the agency spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to buy human fetal tissue from California-based Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR). The tissue was used in creating “humanized mice” to test “biologic drug products.”

In March 2021, we sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on behalf of the Center for Medical Progress for grant applications related to the use of human fetal tissue (Center for Medical Progress v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:21-cv-00642)).

In June 2020, we uncovered records showing the FDA between 2012 and 2018 entered into eight contracts worth $96,370 with Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR) to acquire “fresh and never frozen” tissue from 1st and 2nd trimester aborted fetuses for use in creating “humanized mice” for ongoing research.

In February 2020, we received records from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) showing that the agency paid thousands of dollars to a California-based firm to purchase organs from aborted human fetuses to create “humanized mice” for HIV research.

Justice Dept. Sued for Planned Parenthood, Human Fetal Tissue Records

The sale of human fetal tissue is a grisly business at odds with the values of most Americans, and transparency is the minimum requirement.

We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for records of communications between senior officials and key members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee concerning Planned Parenthood, abortion, and the transfer of human fetal tissue (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No.1:25-cv-04497)).

We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Justice Department failed to respond to May 30, 2025, FOIA requests to both the Office of Legislative Affairs and the Office of the Attorney General for all communications from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2020:

• Between officials in the Office of Legislative Affairs and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and/or the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning Planned Parenthood, abortion, and/or the transfer of human fetal tissue.
• Between then-Attorney General Bill Barr and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and/or any official on the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning Planned Parenthood, abortion, and/or the transfer of human fetal tissue.

In June 2019, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary issued a letter to Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray, following up on Grassley’s 2016 referral of eight organizations for investigation and potential prosecution for the alleged sale of human fetal tissue and inquiring as to whether the FBI had taken any action on the criminal referrals. The FBI has never confirmed publicly whether it investigated Planned Parenthood, or if it did, what it found.

During a September 2019 hearing at the San Francisco Superior Court, David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress provided testimony regarding his release in 2015 of 11 undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing — and in some instances displaying — the harvesting and sale of aborted fetal organs and tissue. A non-physician who performed surgical abortions for Planned Parenthood testified that she regularly provided fetal tissue from abortions and was aware of financial exchanges with StemExpress.

In April 2020, invoices confirmed Planned Parenthood charged StemExpress $55 per “usable” organ — not simply for transport fees, as Planned Parenthood had previously claimed.

Trump Administration Blasted for Ending $10 Million Toilet Project in Madagascar

When you close the spigot of money flowing from U.S. taxpayers, people will complain to the press, as is the case with a toilet project in Madagascar. Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the story.

Among the many wasteful foreign aid programs the Trump administration eliminated from the U.S. government’s generously funded global health strategy is a $10 million venture to provide an African nation with toilets after a smaller American-funded effort to help villagers in the country build toilets with local materials failed. The multi-million-dollar remedy, part of Obama’s mission to end extreme poverty, focused on sanitation by installing special toilets, known as MVP1, in the east African island of Madagascar. Over the weekend a mainstream newspaper published a lengthy hit piece chastising the Trump administration for eliminating the costly African toilet endeavor funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the bloated State Department offshoot that annually disbursed tens of billions of dollars with little oversight or accountability before the president dismantled it. Now, “only the rich can afford a toilet,” in Madagascar the recently published newspaper story declares as if that should be a concern for American taxpayers.

It marks the latest of extensive mainstream media coverage criticizing Trump’s razing of USAID—and questionable programs like the African toilets it bankrolled—while conveniently failing to report the pervasive fraud, waste and corruption that long gripped the foreign aid agency. Judicial Watch has exposed the crisis for years, reporting on a multitude of reckless USAID projects, including Kamala Harris’ failed multi-billion-dollar effort to curb “irregular migration” from three targeted countries known as the northern triangle—El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—and millions of dollars to promote leftwing billionaire George Soros’ radical globalist agenda in Latin America as well as a fruitless Clinton-backed port and power plant in Haiti. Judicial Watch has also taken legal action to uncover details about some of the agency’s problematic secret operations. In 2024 we sued USAID for records involving $27 million in Gaza grants that went to “Miscellaneous Foreign Awardees.” The Biden administration claimed the recipients could not be disclosed because the agency’s workers could be put at risk by Israel. Earlier this year Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against USAID for failing to provide records about fraud and abuse tied to American aid money sent to Ukraine.

The multi-million-dollar African toilet project is just a shred of the broader problem, but worth noting because it provides the famously leftist establishment media with material to continue trashing the administration for redirecting its priorities involving global health strategies. Rather than dubious costly projects like toilets, the new focus is on preventing infectious disease outbreaks from reaching American shores, saving lives and preventing babies from being born with HIV/AIDS rather than sanitation in third-world countries. “Our global health programs have become inefficient and wasteful,” the State Department’s latest America First Global Health Strategy reveals. The 40-page document outlines a comprehensive vision that requires co-investment from recipient governments and a path to decreased dependency on assistance from Uncle Sam though other donor nations, such as Germany, Britain, Sweden and France, have followed the U.S. lead in drastically reducing foreign aid.

The recent newspaper article criticizes the Trump administration for failing to mention sanitation from its new global health strategy because it excludes projects like the African toilet venture. “Madagascar’s government, recently toppled in a military coupe, has a punishingly long list of problems to deal with and spends just a tiny fraction of its budget on sanitation,” the news story states, adding that “studies have shown widespread contamination of Madagascar’s drinking water, the result of feces buried in pits seeping into the ground.” The article does acknowledge that USAID paid $100,000 to clean up waste in Madagascar before cutting the MVP1 program, though part of the money was used to offer residents a free upgrade to an MVP2 toilet. The U.S. will continue helping impoverished African nations, the State Department assures, but the focus of the multi-billion-dollar funding will be on combatting malaria and maternal-child health as well as global health security. The administration will give Madagascar more than $134 million in assistance under a bilateral global health agreement announced last week. The deal also includes over a billion dollars for Ethiopia, $106 million for Botswana and $30 million for Sierra Leone.

Until next week,