Judicial Watch Sues Justice about Invoking 25th Amendment against Biden
Las Vegas Police Radio Recordings Show Reaction to Joe Biden Medical Emergency
Judicial Watch Sues FDA for Records on Abortion Pill Mifepristone
Minnesota Supreme Court Hears Judicial Watch Lawsuit over Woke Racist Teachers’ Contract
Massive Numbers of Criminal Illegal Aliens Uncovered
Judicial Watch Sues Justice about Invoking 25th Amendment against Biden
For four years we’ve watched a diminished Joe Biden play the role of commander in chief. We’d like to know what his top lieutenants have been thinking about his mental capacity.
We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice seeking access to the documents related to invoking the 25th Amendment against President Joe Biden (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-02764)).
On August 7, 2024, we submitted a FOIA request for:
Records and communications of the below listed Department of Justice employees, including emails, email chains, email attachments, text messages, calendar invites, calendar meetings, correspondence, briefings, letters, memoranda, reports, notes, opinions, regarding invoking the 25th Amendment against President Joseph Biden.
- Merrick Garland, Attorney General
- Lisa O. Monaco, Deputy Attorney General
- Benjamin C. Mizer, Associate Attorney General
- Acting Associate Attorney General
- Christopher Fonzone, Assistant Attorney General
- Robert Hur, Special Counsel
On February 5, 2024, Special Counsel Robert Hur issued the “Report of the Special Counsel on the Investigation into Unauthorized Removal, Retention, and Disclosure of Classified Documents Discovered at Locations Including the Penn Biden Center and the Delaware Private Residence of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.”
In the report, Hur called Biden a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and declined to charge Biden with a “serious felony:”
We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.
On February 8, 2024, Congresswoman Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland in which she stated:
After concluding that President Biden knowingly and willfully removed, mishandled, and disclosed classified documents repeatedly over a period of decades, Mr. Hur nevertheless recommended that charges not be brought against him.
Special Counsel’s reasoning was alarming. He recited numerous instances in which President Biden exhibited dramatically compromised mental faculties and concluded that a jury would be likely to perceive President Biden as a sympathetic and forgetful old man.
***
It is incumbent upon you to explore proceedings to remove the President pursuant to the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution. President Biden needs to be charged, or he needs to be removed. There is no middle ground.
If President Biden is as mentally sound as he and the people around him maintain, why did he decide not to seek reelection? If he is an ‘elderly man with a poor memory,’ as Special Counsel Hur (for AG Garland) found, why has he not been removed under the 25th Amendment? And why is the Justice Department unlawfully hiding documents about this serious national security issue?
Las Vegas Police Radio Recordings Show Reaction to Joe Biden Medical Emergency
We received police radio records from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department that show it shutting down roads and clearing a path to a local hospital on July 17, 2024, for a “sick or injured” President Biden. These recordings raise significant questions about whether the American people were told the full truth about President Biden’s health status.
President Biden suddenly canceled an appearance at an event in Las Vegas, Nevada, after testing positive for Covid-19. Biden was set to speak at the UnidosUS Annual Conference.
Four days later, on July 21, 2024, Biden announced he would not seek re-election.
We obtained the radio transmissions in a Nevada Public Records Act request for:
All records, including emails, email chains, email attachments, text messages, video or audio recordings of any type, radio transmissions, photographs, correspondence, statements, letters, memoranda, logs, blotters, reports, briefings, presentations, notes, summaries, or other form of record regarding President Joseph (Joe) Biden having any form of medical emergency, event, situation, or to expedite his movement while in Las Vegas to deliver a speech at UnidosUS.
The Las Vegas Police produced three audio recordings. None of the recordings has a date/time stamp.
In the 43-minute recording, in a transmission largely dealing with rerouting traffic to accommodate Biden’s motorcade, the control center asks if anyone knows if the Secret Service has drones flying over the stratosphere and the response is “I don’t think so.” The drone is reported “stratosphere flying 2500 feet.” Shortly afterwards, Biden is declared Code 421, meaning sick or injured. Officers are directed to respond, Code 3, meaning lights and sirens, and are heard quickly maneuvering to block intersections for a full road closure.
Some of the radio transmissions include:
[@ 19:47] Officer: Downtown is asking if we know if Secret Service has drones flying over the stratosphere right now?”
Officer: I don’t think so.
Officer: Where is the drone at?
Officer: It’s stratosphere flying 2500 feet.
***
[@ 22:40] Officer: Alright, so right now we be on a hold with something with the president, so if you can go ahead, you can go ahead and let some of that north and south flow, but not east and west, just north and south please….
Officer: For everybody on the radio, right now POTUS [Biden] is 421[sick or injured]. He’s being seen, so we are kind of waiting to see how this is shaping out, so for everybody’s knowledge he’s 421 right now. We’re just trying to figure out what’s going on and we’re going to go from there.
***
[@ 25:40] Officer: Can you have all the units that are assigned to the motorcade come down to Desert Inn and Eastern, DI and Eastern? And, I need them here ASAP….
Officer: When you say ASAP, do you want us Code 3 [lights and sirens] there?
Officer: Yes, please.
Officer: I want everybody with the exception of units at DI and Eastern….
***
[@ 29:10] Officer: All units on this channel, 302. What we are going to do is, the tail car is going to be in a black explorer. They are going to get out in front. We are going to go south on Eastern and they are going to deploy you. So the first car behind the EP Explorer, just listen to what they are telling you and deploy you. And then each car after that will be deployed….
Officer: Alright, everybody keep in mind, for this one we are trying to go for a full closure. We need a full closure. So it needs to be north and south bound on Eastern as well as East and West on Russell….
Officer: We are going to shut down everything….
Officer: 302, Secret Service is requesting a Code 3 [lights and sirens] response.
Police units are heard announcing the Biden motorcade’s arrival at Air Force One. A informs the officers of their “great work” on an “ad hoc” mission:
[@ 40:24] Officer: All my units at the airport, be advised that the motorcade is at Air Force One, so just hold your road closures until I tell you otherwise.
Officer: Control, 302, just want to let everybody know great work out there. We put that together ad hoc. Appreciate all the resources coming over. You did a fantastic job. Looked like we had planned it for weeks. So, great job everybody. If I could ask everybody to please standby until we get the plane off the ground.
In the 4:03 minute recording, officers are heard over the radio rushing to secure the perimeter of University Medical Center Hospital and rendezvous outside Valley Hospital emergency room entrance in anticipation of Biden’s arrival. A “Max Tac Alert, meaning maximum tactical alert, is declared over the radio “he is in the box squad.” Plain clothes officers are directed to “tac up” before heading to the Valley Hospital. As transcribed by Judicial Watch, some of those radio transmissions include:
[@ :10] Officer: Assign yourself to a 461 [non-criminal detail] at UMC [University Medical Center], break. Everyone who is able straight to Valley Hospital ER.
Officer: You kind of cut up 678, did you say 462 [directed patrol activity] at UMC and what was the other part?
Officer: Go ahead straight to the UMC, meet at the Valley Hospital ER parking lot.
Officer: 678 acknowledged….
Officer: So for officers coming to Valley we are going to meet, behind the ER entrance where the ambulance is going, there is a little cul-de-sac back there. You will see me.
A beeping alert tone is transmitted.
Officer: Max Tac Alert. Area command, break. He’s in the box squad. It’s going to Max TAC alert for the preliminary command in the box squad.
Officer: 678 I copy that. Again, any available units come down here to Valley Hospital right now.
Officer: 678 copy. There is about four units coming to you right now.
Officer: I need more.
Officer: 678 -759. Most of my guys are plain clothes, can you use us or no.
Officer: As long as they are decked out in readily identifiable police gear.
Officer: Alright, copy that. We will be enroute to you bro.
Officer: 759 – unintelligible
Officer: Go ahead.
Officer: I caught the tail end of that, where we meeting you at?
Officer: Just rally up outside the station, we will tac up, then we will push out.
In the 4:20 minute recording, officers are heard over the radio being directed to respond, Code 3, lights and sirens, to start blocking intersections and closing roads to traffic. Officers are on two different radio channels with some units moving with the “package,” referring to Biden, while other units are scrambling to close roads for the president’s motorcade movement. As transcribed by Judicial Watch, some of the transmissions are:
[@ :05] Officer: Can I have my Lincoln squad switch over to event eight please, event eight?
Officer: Okay 697 squad, Lincoln squad switch over to event eight.
Officer: And if they’re not already, have them Code 3 [lights and sirens] over to the rally point please….
Officer: Yeah, I know you’ve got some southeast units coming over plus you are in the box squad. I need to get all the major intersections with lights shut down from Desert Inn all the way to Russell. So, if units could just start calling out what intersection they are going to I think that is going to be useful. Start with the big ones….
Officer: The first three priorities are going to be Flamingo, Tropicana, and then Russell because those are the three biggest….
Officer: Units on the event channel are going to be moving with the package, but, yeah, why don’t you guys just focus on those three major intersections for now.
***
[@ 3:21] Officer: We’re going to go ahead and lock down the intersections, I am going back to event eight to get further instructions….
Officer: 697, yeah, for those units that are coming, just start going up and down Eastern, look for an intersection that needs to be shut down, and then just shut it down.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later released a statement regarding the incident:
Following his first event in Las Vegas, President Biden tested positive for COVID-19. He is vaccinated and boosted and he is experiencing mild symptoms. He will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.
Video posted to X shows Biden slowly boarding Air Force One in Las Vegas on July 17.
Another video posted to X shows Biden arriving in Delaware on July 17 and slowly descending Air Force One’s short stairs for “self-isolation” due to the alleged COVID-19 diagnosis, but again he is seen not wearing a mask.
The American people have a right to answers about this evident Biden medical emergency!
Judicial Watch Sues FDA for Records on Abortion Pill Mifepristone
From the get-go, the Mifepristone abortion pill has been promoted by a corrupted and politicized FDA, contrary to the health of both pregnant mothers and their unborn children. That the Biden-Harris FDA is covering up key facts about the approval of the abortion pill while simultaneously promoting its wide usage is a scandal.
We’re not sitting by. Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit on behalf of Advancing American Freedom Foundation against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for FDA records concerning approval of the abortion drug Mifeprex (Mifepristone, formerly known as RU-486) and meetings between senior FDA officials, White House counsel, and foreign actors (Advancing American Freedom Foundation v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:24-cv-02803)).
Advancing American Freedom Foundation develops innovative policy solutions, strategies, coalitions, and messaging that expand freedom for all Americans.
We sued after HHS and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), which is a component of HHS, failed to respond to identical May 31, 2024, FOIA requests. Among the requested records are:
- Communications between the FDA and the House Committee on Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations (“Subcommittee”) concerning letters from the Subcommittee dated June 27, 1996; July 1, 1996; and September 17, 1996.
- All records requested in the September 17, 1996, letter from Subcommittee Chairman Joe Barton to FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler.
- All records of communications: between any FDA personnel and the Office of White House Counsel between November 1, 1992, and January 31, 2001, regarding the approval of “mifepristone” (which includes, but is not limited to, such terms as Mifeprex, Mifegyne, Korlym, abortion pill, RU-486, RU-38486, ZK-98296, and/or the mifepristone … including communications with Associate White House Counsel Elena Kagan.
- All records of communications between any FDA personnel and any person or entity between November 1, 1992, and January 31, 2001, regarding FDA Commissioner David Kessler’s overseas trip or trips to meet with individuals from Roussel Uclaf on an unknown date, but on information or belief took place in April or May 1994…. including communications mentioning the Population Council (“PC”).
- Any other records which, though not specifically requested, would have a reasonable relationship to the subject matter of this request, including any record or document.
In response to pressure from pro-abortion activists, the Clinton Food and Drug Administration accelerated approval of the abortion pill in September 2000. (Similarly, the Obama and Biden administrations took steps to make the controversial abortion pill more widely available in a way that undermined its “safe” use.)
“The FDA has repeatedly refused to acknowledge its role in approving the dangerous abortion drug, mifepristone and has refused to disclose communications regarding its approval,” said AAF General Counsel J. Marc Wheat. “Advancing American Freedom Foundation has worked tirelessly to disclose the truth behind the FDA’s negligence and to bring justice for the women hurt or killed by this drug. The American people deserve to know the facts of how the FDA shirked protocols in order to expand abortions, even at the cost of the health of the women using the drug. We are grateful to Judicial Watch for picking up AAF’s case.”
We have been instrumental in bringing the controversies surrounding the abortion drug to the public’s attention.
In March of this year, we filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in which it argued “the FDA violated its own unambiguous regulation and relied on pretext…. The FDA’s actions in 2016 and 2021 were arbitrary and capricious and violated the Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”).” And, in 2021, using the Covid-19 pandemic as a tool, abortion proponents “sued the FDA to dispense with the REMS [risk evaluation and mitigation strategy] in-person medical visits as a prerequisite for obtaining Mifeprex and permit the drug to be mailed.”
Through a FOIA lawsuit in 2023 we uncovered at least six Mifeprex-related deaths between 2000 to 2002 that were detailed in Health and Human Services records.
Records produced to us in September 2023 included an “Annual Report for Mifepristone,” covering the period September 28, 2000, to September 27, 2001, produced by the Population Council/Danco Laboratories, LLC. The summary indicated that during the testing period 32 “adverse events were reported to Danco and reported by Danco to FDA in periodic reports.” (The existence of adverse event reports does not necessarily establish causation.)
Of the 32 reported adverse events, two were 15-day reports (the others were not serious and/or not unexpected). One of the 15-day reports was reported as “hemorrhage due to a ruptured ectopic pregnancy and death.” [Emphasis added] The other was reported as “post-abortal parametritis/endometritis, adult respiratory distress syndrome and bilateral pneumonia.” This latter 15-day report and one case where fever was reported represent the total reports on the marketed drug suggesting infection. In addition, one infection was reported in the Population Council’s 200 mifepristone study and one death [Emphasis added] due to clostridium sordellii infection was reported in the Canadian study.
This abortion pill is inextricably tied to government corruption and Judicial Watch will persist in uncovering the truth about this dangerous scandal.
Minnesota Supreme Court Hears Judicial Watch Lawsuit over Woke Racist Teachers’ Contract
The Minnesota Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in our lawsuit over a racially discriminatory Minneapolis teachers’ contract (Clapp v. Cox, et al. (No. A23-0360). The contract provides discriminatory job protections to certain racial minorities. You can view the oral arguments here. Judicial Watch senior attorney Michael Bekesha did an excellent job on behalf our taxpayer client.
We obtained a victory in the Minnesota Court of Appeals, which allowed the lawsuit to proceed. Minneapolis Public Schools appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in August 2022 against Minneapolis Public Schools for violating the Equal Protection Guarantee of the Minnesota Constitution. The school district, supported by the teachers and other public employee unions, asserts that Minnesota taxpayers do not have the right to challenge the illegal spending of taxpayer money by government officials.
In its brief to the Supreme Court, Judicial Watch states:
Minneapolis Public Schools and its Amici spill a lot of ink complaining that a “complete stranger” has sued to prevent MPS from carrying out an unconstitutional provision of a contract between it and its teachers. [The Taxpayer], however, is not a stranger. She is a Minneapolis taxpayer, and this Court, since at least 1877, has recognized taxpayers as proper parties to bring such actions in Minnesota courts. This Court should not accept MPS’s and its Amici’s invitation to undermine this important check on government power.
***
[The Taxpayer] could not have brought a more straightforward case. She alleges that she lives in Minneapolis and pays property tax on the home she has owned since 2017…She also alleges that Minneapolis Public Schools is funded in part by her tax dollars…In addition, she alleges that MPS spends those tax dollars to carry out the various provisions of its contract with the teachers’ union….Finally, she alleges that one of those provisions violates the Minnesota Constitution….Therefore, she alleges that her tax dollars are being used in an unlawful manner.
The controversial contract was agreed to in March 2022 to end a 14-day teacher strike. The contract was recently renewed with the racial discrimination provisions intact. As the lawsuit states:
Among other things, the contract provides preferences, protections, and privileges for MPS teachers of certain races and ethnicities under a section entitled “ARTICLE 15. PROTECTIONS FOR EDUCATORS OF COLOR.” There is no similar provision covering educators who are not “of color.”
Under the contract, teachers of color are exempt from Defendant MPS’s seniority-based layoffs and reassignments, which means, when layoffs or reassignments occur, the next senior teacher who is not “of color” would be laid off or reassigned. In addition, the contract mandates that Defendants reinstate teachers of color over more senior teachers who are not “of color.”
This is a woke, racially discriminatory contract. Not one tax dollar should be spent on it.
Massive Numbers of Criminal Illegal Aliens Uncovered
It’s hard to not conclude that the Biden-Harris administration is deliberately wreaking destruction on our society. Our Corruption Chronicles blog digs into what we’re learning.
In the latest of countless scandals involving the Biden administration’s failure to secure the border, over half a million illegal aliens with criminal histories are roaming freely in the United States, 435,719 with convictions and another 226,847 with pending charges. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created after 9/11 to protect the country from another terrorist attack, has released the foreign criminals in cities around the U.S., according to the Deputy Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS agency charged with “enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety.” In figures reluctantly provided to Congress ICE’s second in command, Patrick Lechleitner, reveals that as of July 21, 2024 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories are on the agency’s “non-detained docket” and therefore roaming freely throughout the country. The data is “beyond disturbing,” said the Texas congressman, Republican Tony Gonzales, who forced DHS to provide the records.
Nearly 15,000 of the freed illegal aliens have been convicted of or charged with murder, more than 20,000 with sexual assault, 60,268 with burglary, larceny, or robbery, 105,146 with assault, 16,820 with weapon offenses, 3,971 with commercialized sex crimes and 3,372 with kidnapping. Over 126,000 have committed traffic offenses, more than 70,000 are in the system for drug crimes, 21,106 for fraudulent activities and 12,000 for obstruction of justice. “Under President Biden and his ‘border czar,’ Vice President Harris, DHS law enforcement has been directed to mass-release illegal aliens whom they know have criminal convictions or are facing charges for serious crimes—and these dangerous, destructive individuals are making their way into every city and state in this country,” said Tennessee Congressman Mark E. Green, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security that recently exposed the alarming DHS stats. “How many more Americans need to die or be victimized before this administration is forced to abide by the laws they swore to uphold? This is madness. It is something no civilized, well-functioning society should tolerate.”
Lechleitner explains to federal lawmakers that his agency uses a few guidelines to determine detentions and notes that “most noncitizens who are convicted of homicide are typically not eligible for release from ICE custody” under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act. When that measure does not apply, ICE officers may use their discretion in making custody determinations and release noncitizens with conditions, the Deputy Director says, adding that custody determinations are made on a case-by-case basis and take into account individual circumstances, risk of flight, national security threat and threat to public safety. “ICE takes other factors into consideration as well, including when a noncitizen has a serious medical condition, is the primary caregiver of minor children, or other humanitarian considerations,” Lechleitner writes in the letter with the latest criminal alien statistics. He also blasts local sanctuary districts that refuse to honor ICE detainer requests, even for illegal aliens convicted of serious felonies who pose an ongoing threat to public safety.
While detrimental to immigration enforcement, local sanctuary measures alone cannot be blamed for the release of hundreds of thousands of criminal aliens into unsuspecting American communities. It is simply part of the Biden administration’s expansive open border policies, which have welcomed a record-breaking number—over 7 million and counting—of illegal immigrants into the country. Just a few weeks ago, the House Homeland Security Committee released an eye-popping report documenting the Biden-Harris administration’s unprecedented border crisis, which has allowed droves of violent gang members, Islamic terrorists, tens of thousands of Chinese nationals and a myriad of criminals into the country. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is on pace to record more than 11.6 million illegal immigrant encounters by the end of the Biden administration, an astounding 274% increase from the 3.1 million encounters recorded between fiscal years 2017 to 2020, according to figures in the congressional report. That does not even include around 2 million known “gotaways” that have entered the nation under this administration.
Until next week,