Weekly Update: Soros Investigation

Judicial Watch at CPAC: Scandal Matters to the American People
Federal Court Hearing Set for Next Week on Clinton Email Scandal
U.S. Gives Soros Groups Millions to Destabilize Macedonia’s Government
JW Goes to Court After Army Stonewalls on Opiate Use by Americans in Afghanistan

Judicial Watch at CPAC: Scandal Matters to the American People

It was my special privilege to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week. I was interviewed on the main stage by Kelly Riddell of The Washington Times. We covered a number of issues of pressing interest to the American people.

You can see the full interview beginning at the 2:43:50 mark. Here is some of what I said:

Fighting corruption matters to the American people. Washington doesn’t want what the American people want.

Obviously, Judicial Watch changed history with the Clinton email scandal. We uncovered it. We’re still in the middle of the email scandal. We’re still trying to get all of the emails. And frankly, President Trump’s administration should consider reopening or pursuing the ongoing criminal investigation related to Hillary Clinton.

There’s this alt-government in place, a government staffed by recent appointees or hires of Obama. There are lots of Democrats in the bureaucracy, but on the other hand there are also lots of Republicans who think they know better than President Trump and are willing to thwart the rule of law. They are organizing actively against him and subverting the rule of law. And we see elements of this with the targeting of General Flynn. 

For two days, February 23 and 24, we hosted groundbreaking live coverage of CPAC from Broadcast Row hosted by Emily Miller on Facebook live. Special guests included: Dr. Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president; David Clarke, sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin; David Keene, opinion editor of The Washington Times and former president of the NRA; comedian Tim Young; intelligence expert, retired U.S. Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer; artist James McNaughton famous for his painting “The Forgotten Man;” and Shane Bouvet, who was awarded $10,000 by President Trump for his father’s cancer treatments.

The feedback we received from the thousands of CPAC attendees was heartening.  I can tell you, especially if you’re a financial supporter, that Americans value and depend on Judicial Watch and believe that our work is saving the country!

Federal Court Hearing Set for Next Week on Clinton Email Scandal

As I told the audience at CPAC, the Hillary Clinton email scandal is far from over.

We announced this week that a hearing will be held Tuesday, March 7, 2017, regarding our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking Clinton’s emails that were sent or received during her tenure from February 2009 to January 31, 2013. We also seek all emails by other State Department employees to Clinton regarding her non-‘state.gov’ email address (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00687)). The case is before Judge James E. Boasberg.

Items of discussion at the hearing will be the emails of Clinton aide Huma Abedin that were found on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, Abedin’s estranged husband. We also will be seeking answers as to the timing of the release of Clinton’s emails that were recovered by the FBI in its investigation of the server used by Clinton and others.

The State Department has previously been ordered to produce documents to Judicial Watch and is currently processing 500 pages per month from disk one of seven available disks. At the upcoming hearing, the State Department must address the number of documents subject to FOIA on the remaining disks.

The lawsuit was originally filed in May 2015. This matter should not just disappear because we have changed administrations. We must hold our highest office holders accountable for their actions, even if they have departed office.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the Clinton email lawsuits, the Trump administration hasn’t yet deviated from the Obama gang’s approach of obstruction, stonewall, and obfuscation.  I’m hoping that that changes as more appointees of President Trump finally make it into office.  President Trump has an opportunity to begin a transparency revolution – especially with the Clinton email scandal.  Either way, we’ll still be in court holding his administration and the prior corrupt Obama administration to account.

U.S. Gives Soros Groups Millions to Destabilize Macedonia’s Government

Even as we pursue the truth about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails from a recalcitrant State Department, we are learning of another of the department’s nefarious activities. Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the story.

The U.S. government has quietly spent millions of taxpayer dollars to destabilize the democratically elected, center-right government in Macedonia by colluding with leftwing billionaire philanthropist George Soros, records obtained by Judicial Watch show. Barack Obama’s U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia, Jess L. Baily, has worked behind the scenes with Soros’ Open Society Foundation to funnel large sums of American dollars for the cause, constituting an interference of the U.S. Ambassador in domestic political affairs in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations

The cash flows through the State Department and the famously corrupt U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID), which is charged with providing global economic, development and humanitarian assistance. USAID has allocated about $5 million to leftwing Soros groups in Macedonia since 2012, documents show, and at least $9.5 million has been earmarked by the agency to intervene in the Balkan nation’s governmental affairs for 2016-2021. State Department figures have been tougher to come by and Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the numbers. Judicial Watch also fired off a public records request to USAID because the preliminary figures, obtained through various sources in both the U.S. and Macedonia, appear to be incomplete.

Here’s how the clandestine operation functions, according to high-level sources in Macedonia and the U.S. that have provided Judicial Watch with records as part of an ongoing investigation. The Open Society Foundation has established and funded dozens of leftwing, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Macedonia to overthrow the conservative government. One Macedonian government official interviewed by Judicial Watch in Washington D.C. recently calls it the “Soros infantry.” The groups organize youth movements, create influential media outlets and organize violent protests to undermine the institutions and policies implemented by the government.

One of the Soros’ groups funded the translation and publication of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” into Macedonian. The book is a tactical manual of subversion, provides direct advice for radical street protests and proclaims Lucifer to be the first radical. Thanks to Obama’s ambassador, who has not been replaced by President Trump, Uncle Sam keeps the money flowing so the groups can continue operating and recruiting, sources in Macedonia and the U.S. confirm.

With a population of about 2 million, Macedonia has one of the more conservative governments in Europe. This includes the lowest flat tax in Europe, close ties with Israel and pro-life policies. The country recently built a border fence to crackdown on an illegal immigration crisis that overwhelmed law enforcement agencies. Between 10,000 and 12,000 illegal aliens were crossing the Greek-Macedonian border daily at the peak of the European migration crisis, a Macedonian official told Judicial Watch, and the impact was devastating. This is likely of big interest to Soros, a renowned open borders advocate who pushes international governance, diminished U.S. global power and an increase in Muslim immigration. Soros spent tens of millions of dollars to support Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Just this month Hungary’s prime minister lashed out against Soros for funding groups to secretly influence the country’s politics. “Large-bodied predators are swimming here in the waters,” said Viktor Orban in his annual state of the nation speech. “This is the trans-border empire of George Soros, with tons of money and international heavy artillery.”

This appears to be the case in Macedonia with the help of American financing. There have been a number of violent protests in recent months that have been coordinated by Soros’ Open Society Foundation through its U.S.-funded NGOs, sources tell Judicial Watch. Some U.S. members of Congress have expressed interest in the issue and have demanded answers from Ambassador Baily, USAID and the State Department. In typical fashion, the State Department has stonewalled the inquiries and USAID hasn’t been much more forthcoming. Last month Utah Senator Mike Lee sent Ambassador Baily a letter asking questions involving the U.S. Mission to Macedonia’s involvement in the political process and its connections to the Open Society Foundation. It’s unlikely that Americans will receive answers, especially since Baily is probably on his way out. The fact remains however, that millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars have already been spent on this illicit operation and the government agencies need to be held accountable.

It became increasingly clear toward the end of the Obama administration, as it gave up all pretense of being a traditional administration operating somewhere near the center of political thought, that Rules for Radicals was its guiding bible.  Our new secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has his work cut out for him.

JW Goes to Court After Army Stonewalls on Opiate Use by Americans in Afghanistan

We as a nation can’t help our veterans with the myriad challenges they face if we don’t know what’s really going on.

In that spirit, we have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense for information from the U.S. Army Crime Records Center regarding the use of opiates by American service members in Afghanistan from January 1, 2012, to the present (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:17-cv-00276)).

The Department of Defense failed to respond to a February 3, 2016, FOIA request seeking:

All records regarding the nonprescription use of opiates (including opium, heroin; and/or pharmaceutical opioid medications) by American service members in Afghanistan and by veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan (OEF-A) or Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.

We filed the FOIA lawsuit after the Army Crime Records Center failed to:

• Produce the requested records or demonstrate that the requested records are lawfully exempt from production;

• notify Plaintiff of the scope of any responsive records Defendant intends to produce or withhold and the reasons for any withholdings; or

• make a determination with respect to Plaintiff’s administrative appeal.

In a letter dated March 7, 2016, the Army Records Center denied Judicial Watch’s FOIA request, asserting that the request was “unfeasible to perform with the information provided” because records at the U.S. Army Crime Records Center “are indexed by personal identifiers such as names, social security numbers, dates and places of birth and other pertinent data to enable the positive identification of individuals.”

Judicial Watch appealed, referencing the Army Crime Records Center’s March 2012 production of records in response to an identical request:

In that case, the U.S. Army Crime Records Center “was able to identify, retrieve, review, apply appropriate redactions to, and release records responsive to the [2012] request in a matter of approximately 15 days.”

At the time of the Army’s 2012 records release, I said:

“Prescription [opiates] abuse can easily veer into heroin drug use. Afghanistan is the capital of this opiate production and the temptation is great there. Judicial Watch is concerned that there hasn’t been enough public discussion, and we would encourage the leadership to discuss or talk about this issue more openly.”

The Obama administration’s multi-billion-dollar effort to counter narcotics in Afghanistan was a humiliating failure. Poppy cultivation and opium production have increased. Last year, opium production reportedly rose 43 percent in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Army has gone into full-fledged cover-up mode, refusing to release data about illicit drug usage by our soldiers in that war zone.  This is yet another opportunity for the Trump administration to begin a new era of transparency and end this obvious cover-up.