Victory: Court Orders CIA to Begin Producing January 6 Records
Judicial Watch Sues for FBI’s ‘Rosetta Stone’ Report on Trump-Russia Probe
U.S. Takes ‘Few Enforcement Actions’ on High Risk Visa Overstays
Victory: Court Orders CIA to Begin Producing January 6 Records
We’ve moved a step closer in our pursuit of the truth about January 6.
A federal court ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to begin producing records by November 16, 2026, in response to our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking information about CIA personnel and support at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
We filed the July 2024 lawsuit after the CIA failed to respond to a March 2024 FOIA request asking the agency to produce records concerning the January 6, 2021, events, including shots fired and a person shot inside the U.S. Capitol, requests for CIA assistance, bomb technicians and bomb-detection dogs deployed or placed on standby, and after-action reports documenting the events (Judicial Watch v. Central Intelligence Agency (No. 1:24-cv-02172)).
In March 2024, we received 88 pages of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) records from the Department of Justice in a FOIA lawsuit that show the CIA deployed personnel to Washington, DC on January 6, 2021.
The records include a series of text messages under the heading “January 7 Intel Chain” in which two separate references to participation by the CIA are made. One states that “two CIA bomb techs” are assisting with “a pipe bomb scene on New Jersey and D ST SE.” Another record references “several CIA dog teams on standby.”
In the October 15, 2026, minute order, U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb directed the CIA to begin rolling interim productions of responsive records by November 16, rejecting the agency’s refusal to provide records next year:
MINUTE ORDER re [24] Notice: Defendant received Plaintiff’s request in March 2024, ECF 1 ¶ 8, and, at one point, represented that it “anticipated beginning rolling productions no later than April 2025,” ECF 23 at 2. Defendant did not meet that anticipated deadline after identifying additional necessary searches. ECF 23 at 2. The Court’s September 24, 2026 minute order directed Defendant to identify a date certain on which it would begin rolling interim productions of responsive records. Defendant’s [24] notice indicated that it will not process rolling productions and will instead produce non-exempt responsive material by May 24, 2027. Because Defendant did not provide a date certain to begin rolling productions as the Court ordered, and has offered no explanation for its position, the Court will set a date that it finds reasonable based on the record. Accordingly, the Court ORDERS Defendant to begin rolling interim productions of responsive records by November 16, 2026. Signed by Judge Jia M. Cobb on October 15, 2026. (lcjmc1)
We are obviously pleased that the court clapped back against the CIA’s utter contempt for the American people’s right to know what it was up to at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. We look forward to finally getting documents next month – after years of cover-up.
We have pursued details of January 6 on several fronts.
In July 2026, we forced the release of over 1,000 hours of Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department body-worn camera footage from the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol event.
In April 2026, we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to obtain records related to possible improper targeting of January 6, 2021, Capitol protesters, their supporters, and related nonprofits.
In July 2025, we sued the U.S. Department of Justice for records on accelerated January 6 prosecutions after Donald Trump was elected president in November 2024.
In June 2025, we obtained a $4.975 million settlement in the wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. Government filed on behalf of the family of Ashli Babbitt, the U.S. Air Force veteran who was shot and killed inside the U.S. Capitol by then-Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd on January 6, 2021. Ashli Babbitt was the only January 6 homicide victim.
In October 2023, we received the declaration of James W. Joyce, senior counsel in the Office of the General Counsel for the Capitol Police, in which he describes emails among senior officials of the United States Capitol Police (USCP) in January 2021 that show warnings of possible January 6 protests that could lead to serious disruptions at the U.S. Capitol.
Judicial Watch Sues for FBI’s ‘Rosetta Stone’ Report on Trump-Russia Probe
We are suing the U.S. Department of Justice for a 2021 FBI report on Operation Crossfire Hurricane, the controversial investigation into alleged 2016 Trump campaign ties to Russia.
We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Justice Department for a 2021 investigative report by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) concerning Operation Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s investigation into alleged links between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russia (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (1:26-cv-03603)).
We sued after the FBI failed to respond to an August 7, 2026, FOIA request for the following records:
A copy of the investigative report produced by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility in 2021 relating to Operation Crossfire Hurricane, reportedly consisting of approximately 400 pages, plus approximately 7,000 pages of attachments, as more fully described at https://r.zry.net/2026/08/is-fbi-hiding-the-400-page-rosetta-stone-that-could-seal-john-brennans-fate/
In August 2026 investigative journalist Paul Sperry reported that sources told him the FBI was withholding from declassification a 2021 Office of Professional Responsibility report examining Crossfire Hurricane. According to Sperry, the report contains approximately 400 pages and roughly 7,000 pages of supporting documents. It was described as a “Rosetta Stone” that could shed further light on the roles of then-CIA Director John Brennan and Five Eyes intelligence partners in the operation.
In July 2016, during the presidential election campaign between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. In August 2016, then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed President Obama and other senior officials on intelligence reportedly showing a Hillary Clinton campaign plan to link Trump to Russia.
In December 2019 the Justice Department inspector general issued a report documenting significant errors and omissions in applications to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
In May 2023 Special Counsel John Durham released his final report, concluding that the FBI opened a full investigation based on “raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence” and displayed “confirmation bias” in pursuing the investigation. The report noted problems with the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) surveillance practices, reporting that unverified information from the Steele dossier was used to help justify FISA applications targeting Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The report also stated that an FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty to altering an email used in a FISA application.
In July 2025 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) made public the formerly classified Appendix (“Durham annex”) to Durham’s 2023 Special Counsel report, which “contains previously classified information exposing a reported Clinton campaign plan to falsely tie President Donald Trump to Russia.”
We are suing for the complete report and attachments so the public can examine the FBI’s internal review of Crossfire Hurricane. The American people deserve to know what the FBI’s investigators uncovered. We will fight to shed critical light on the FBI’s actions and for accountability for one of the most consequential investigations in our nation’s history.
We have been instrumental in uncovering much of what the public knows about Crossfire Hurricane/Russiagate, which involved a long list of Democratic political figures, lawyers, and staffers who shaped the narrative around the Trump-Russia hoax.
In January 2026 we filed a FOIA lawsuit for fully unredacted records and previously withheld or missing portions of former Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Crossfire Hurricane/Russiagate investigation (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:26-cv-00138)).
In November 2025 we provided an in-depth recap of the Crossfire Hurricane/Russiagate debacle.
In May 2025 we sued the Justice Department for all records regarding the FBI, under then-Director James Comey, initiating an investigation of then-2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump.
In October 2020 we uncovered heavily redacted email communications among top-level State Department officials and a U.S. ambassador expressing skepticism about reports by Christopher Steele’s London-based private intelligence firm Orbis Business Intelligence. (Steele was the author of the Clinton-funded, anti-Trump dossier.) The emails show one assistant secretary of state saying some of Steele’s reports sound “extreme” and others “do not ring true,” while the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine called some of the Steele reports “flaky.”
In May 2020 we forced the declassification and release of the “electronic communication” used to launch Crossfire Hurricane, written by former FBI official Peter Strzok.
In April 2020 we obtained emails between former FBI official Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page, including an email dated January 10, 2017, in which Strzok said that the version of the Steele dossier published by BuzzFeed was “identical” to the version given to the FBI by McCain and had “differences” from the dossier provided to the FBI by Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson and Mother Jones reporter David Corn. January 10, 2017, is the same day BuzzFeed published the anti-Trump dossier by former British spy Christopher Steele. The emails also show Strzok and other FBI agents mocking President Trump a few weeks before he was inaugurated. In addition, the emails revealed that Strzok communicated with then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe about the “leak investigation” tied to the Clinton Foundation (the very leak in which McCabe was later implicated).
In September 2019 we released State Department records revealing that Steele had an extensive and close working relationship dating back to May of 2014 with high-ranking Obama State Department officials including Jonathan Winer and Victoria Nuland.
In August 2019 we obtained “302” report material from 2016 FBI interviews of Associate Deputy U.S. Attorney Bruce Ohr, who was removed from his position in December 2017. (A Form 302 is used by FBI agents to memorialize interviews they undertake during an investigation.) In a November 22, 2016, interview, Ohr said that “reporting on Trump’s ties to Russia were going to the Clinton Campaign, Jon Winer at the U.S. State Department and the FBI.” In a late September 2016 interview, Ohr described a person (likely Christopher Steele) as “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being the U.S. President.” A report states that “Ohr knew that [Fusion GPS’s] Glen Simpson and others were talking to Victoria Nuland at the U.S. State Department.”
In July 2019 we obtained records revealing a September 2016 email exchange between then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Special Coordinator for Libya Jonathan Winer, a close associate of dossier author Christopher Steele, discussing a “face-to-face” meeting on a “Russian matter.”
In August 2018 the Justice Department admitted in a Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit court filing that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held no hearings on the FISA spy warrant applications targeting Carter Page, a former Trump campaign part-time advisor who was the subject of four controversial FISA warrants.
In July 2018 we released records about FISA warrants targeting Page, which appeared to confirm that the FBI and DOJ misled the FISA court by withholding material information showing that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC were behind the “intelligence” used to persuade the court to approve the FISA warrants targeting the Trump team.
U.S. Takes ‘Few Enforcement Actions’ on High Risk Visa Overstays
We know our southern border was wide open under the Biden administration, but it turns out that our visa program is also seriously flawed. Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the details.
As if it weren’t bad enough that the U.S. government has long compromised national security by losing track of foreigners—like several of the 9/11 terrorists—who overstay their visa, in many cases it fails to take enforcement actions on solid leads of those who may pose a threat to the country. This is a huge problem because every year tens of millions of foreign nationals receive nonimmigrant visas to enter the U.S. for tourism, business or study and hundreds of thousands stay beyond their authorized period of admission annually, violating the terms of the visa which the feds categorize as overstays. The State Department issues the visas, and a new federal probe reveals that from fiscal year 2021 to 2024, the agency distributed more than 31 million. Incredibly, under the Biden administration’s lax rules over 12 million were granted without required vetting of in-person interviews or fingerprint collection, putting the country at risk by approving certain visa holders who represent national security or safety threats.
Adding insult to injury, federal authorities took few enforcement actions even when they had “targeted leads” concerning foreigners who overstayed their visa, according to the recently published investigation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General. “As a result, foreign nationals who potentially posed threats to the United States remained at large despite their illegal status,” the watchdog confirms. The lapse is like a punch in the gut for the American public two and a half decades after Islamic terrorists exploited this inefficient system for tracking foreigners who overstay visas to remain in the country. It allowed the 9/11 hijackers to live in the U.S., plan, and conduct the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, killing nearly 3,000 people. After the attacks Congress created a system to track the entry and exit of foreign nationals by using electronically scanned fingerprints and photographs. It was called the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology (US VISIT), and it was seriously flawed even though the government invested around a billion dollars over several years to get it going. It never worked properly, however.
Now we find out that even when visa overstays are credibly identified as a possible threat to the nation, federal authorities do not act. As unbelievable as this may seem, the recently published audit reveals that in the four fiscal years examined Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) received over 3 million overstay leads of which it categorized 104,049 as potential national security and public safety concerns. From there, the Homeland Security agency responsible for preventing terrorism, immigration enforcement and combating transnational crime deemed only 21,885 worth investigating, resulting in just 496 probes and the arrest of a meager eight foreign nationals who remained in the country after their permission to stay expired. Even the highest priority visa overstay led investigations representing only the maximum risk led to few arrests, DHS investigators found. During the four years analyzed Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) identified 1,769 so-called “Priority 1” leads and conducted 84 probes that resulted in just two arrests. One is a Honduran with an expired B-2 tourism visa charged with rape, assault, and sexual offense in Maryland and the other a Chilean charged with credit card fraud, burglary, theft, and criminal mischief in Florida.
The number of foreigners who overstay their visa and remain unmonitored inside the country has grown significantly in the quarter century since Al Qaeda operatives executed the deadliest terrorist attack in American history. Years ago, the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that nearly half of the nation’s illegal aliens entered the U.S. legally and overstayed their visa undetected. Other federal investigations have revealed that the U.S. has failed to remove millions with expired visas, including DHS losing track of hundreds of dangerous foreigners that “could pose a national security or public safety concerns.” Every year the government fails to catch hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals who overstay their visa. In fiscal year 2015 it was more than half a million, including thousands from terrorist nations like Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. A few years later the number of overstays increased to 702,000. Among them was a Portuguese man charged in the gruesome kidnap and murder of a young woman whose body was found bound in a suitcase on a Connecticut street. In fiscal year 2022 DHS confirmed a record-breaking 853,955 visa overstays.
Until next week,
