Tag: Americas

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced the release of “Censored and Controlled,” a four-part documentary that details the coordinated effort by the government and Big Tech to censor and suppress information on topics such as Hunter Biden’s laptop, COVID-19, and election debates. The first episode will premier Monday, October 16, 2023, at 7 p.m. ET on the Judicial Watch website, X/Twitter, Rumble, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. A new episode will be available each day through Thursday, October 19, 2023. A trailer for the documentary is available here: https://youtu.be/prrHmQSoc6A 

The series features interviews with people who have taken leading roles in exposing the collusion between government and social media to control what Americans see and hear. Included in the lineup of experts is: 

• Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) who as attorney general of Missouri filed a lawsuit in 2020 against President Biden and other administration officials, alleging they were working with social media platforms to censor information related to COVID-19 and other topics.
• Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Jordan’s committee is leading the House investigation into government-led censorship on social media.
• Journalist Matt Taibbi, one of the journalists who covered the release of the “Twitter Files,” which exposed government involvement in Twitter and other Big Tech censorship of Americans. Taibbi testified before Congress about what the “Twitter Files” revealed about the partnership between government and social media to censor information and opinions.
• Chris Nelson, senior investigator at Judicial Watch, formerly a career counterintelligence officer with the U.S. Government.
• And, Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, which has filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits and other litigation concerning government and Big Tech censorship.

The premiere episode, The Hearing, looks at Taibbi’s experience exposing the “Twitter Files:”

Today, American taxpayers are unwittingly financing the growth and power of a censorship-industrial complex run by America’s scientific and technological elite, which endangers our liberties and democracy.

What we found in the [Twitter] Files was a sweeping effort to reverse that promise and use machine learning and other tools to turn the internet into an instrument of censorship and social control. Unfortunately, our own government appears to be playing a lead role.

The Twitter Files, state attorneys general lawsuits, and investigative reporters have revealed a large and growing network of government agencies, academic institutions, and nongovernmental organizations that are actively censoring American citizens, often without their knowledge, on a range of issues.

Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter, now X, in October 2023. On December 2, 2023, the New York Post reported Taibbi posted the first Twitter thread containing what became known at the “Twitter Files.” This first installment contained documents related to Twitter’s internal discussions related to moderating content on the Hunter Biden laptop story which the Post broke shortly before the 2020 presidential election.  

Nineteen installments of the “Twitter Files” would be released through March 2023. These included internal communications related to the suspension of former President Donald Trump from the platform, exchanges between the FBI and Twitter’s Trust and Safety Team regarding suppressing election misinformation, and moderation of COVID-19 content.

The second episode, The Hunter Biden Problem, addresses the pre-election censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story. From the suppression of the initial and subsequent reporting on the laptop to the promotion of the letter signed by 51intelligence officials calling the laptop “Russian disinformation,” the episode details the coordinated effort to suppress Americans’ access to stories exposing the contents of the laptop while promoting stories denying the authenticity of the laptop. Congressman Jordan responded to this coordination saying:

The guy who put the whole letter together, Mike Morrell, former acting director of the CIA, said “we” did it because we wanted Joe Biden to have something to use against President Trump in the final debate on October 22^nd, 2020. And we wanted that because we want Joe Biden to win.

In The Censorship Industrial Complex, the third episode, Jordan, Taibbi, and Fitton warn of the partnership among government, traditional and social media to control Americans’ access to information. Taibbi states:

Civil society organizations are supposed to watch the government. The news media is supposed. to watch both. The tech platforms are supposed to have different interests from the government. But what we see in the center in the censorship industrial complex is they’re all working together in what you know and what they call the shared endeavor. And, so it’s a consolidation of power.

Fitton adds:

I think we just have to come to terms with the fact that the Big Tech companies or social media companies are partisan leftist ideologues, and they’ve been lying about the reasons they’ve been quote, “moderating content.” They’ve been censoring content, not following a set of rules, but following government dictates and their own ideological predilections and political biases.

The series finale, COVID, Censorship and Consequences, examines the organized censorship of debate about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, mask mandates, and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s efforts to control the narrative surrounding the pandemic. Senator Eric Schmitt notes:

[I]n the lead up to the 2020 election, we saw this massive effort by the federal government to work with big tech to suppress dissenting views. And that’s an un-American thing to do. And so, we filed the lawsuit, which was a landmark lawsuit. And what we uncovered in that lawsuit was a vast censorship enterprise, broader and bigger than anybody could have ever imagined. 

“This new Judicial Watch documentary series exposes how the censorship partnership between government and Big Tech is a dire threat to our First Amendment and other freedoms,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Judicial Watch will seek to hold the ‘censors’ accountable – working with elected officials, journalists, and other leaders to protect free speech.” 

This documentary series was directed by Joe Weasel of Full Story Films LLC., and produced by Tom Fitton, Paul Orfanedes and Chris Farrell.

Judicial Watch is deeply involved in the investigation of censorship by government entities and Big Tech.

 In April 2023, Judicial Watch filed two FOIA lawsuits against the DOJ and other federal agencies for communications between the agencies and Facebook and Twitter regarding the government’s involvement in content moderation and censorship on the social media platforms.

 In June 2023, Judicial Watch sued DHS for all records of communications tied to the Election Integrity Partnership. Based on representations from the EIP (see here and here), the federal government, social media companies, the EIP, the Center for Internet Security (a non-profit organization funded partly by DHS and the Defense Department) and numerous other leftist groups communicated privately via the Jirasoftware platform developed by Atlassian.

In February 2023, Judicial Watch sued the U.S. Department Homeland Security (DHS) for records showing cooperation between the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (CISA) and social media platforms to censor and suppress free speech.

Judicial Watch in January 2023 sued the DOJ for records of communications between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and social media sites regarding foreign influence in elections, as well as the Hunter Biden laptop story.

In September 2022, Judicial Watch sued the Secretary of State of the State of California for having YouTube censor a Judicial Watch election integrity video.

In May 2022, YouTube censored a Judicial Watch video about Biden corruption and election integrity issues in the 2020 election. The video, titled “Impeach? Biden Corruption Threatens National Security,” was falsely determined to be “election misinformation” and removed by YouTube, and Judicial Watch’s YouTube account was suspended for a week. The video featured an interview of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. Judicial Watch continues to post its video content on its Rumble channel (https://rumble.com/vz7aof-fitton-impeach-biden-corruption-threatens-national-security.html).

In July 2021, Judicial Watch uncovered records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which revealed that Facebook coordinated closely with the CDC to control the COVID narrative and “misinformation” and that over $3.5 million in free advertising given to the CDC by social media companies.

In May 2021, Judicial Watch revealed documents showing that Iowa state officials pressured social media companies Twitter and Facebook to censor posts about the 2020 election.

In April 2021, Judicial Watch published documents revealing how California state officials pressured social media companies (Twitter, Facebook, Google (YouTube)) to censor posts about the 2020 election.

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U.S. Capitol Police Federal Court Filing Reveals Officials Were Aware of the Potential for a Significant Disturbance on January 6
UPDATE on Federal Court Hearing FBI’s Records on Hunter Biden Gun Scandal As FBI Refuses to Divulge Number of Records Due to ‘Ongoing Criminal Investigation’
Biden DHS Fails to Deport 99.7% of the 2.1 Million Illegal Immigrants it Freed Inside U.S.

 

U.S. Capitol Police Federal Court Filing Reveals Officials Were Aware of the Potential for a Significant Disturbance on January 6

“Things are not always what they seem,” the ancient Greek aristocrat Phaedrus said. “The first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.” So, it goes with the events of January 6, 2021.

Judicial Watch just received the court-ordered 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.

The declaration comes in a lawsuit we brought under the common law right of access to public records (Judicial Watch v. United States Capitol Police (No. 1:21-cv-00401)). The suit requests:

Email communications between the U.S. Capitol Police Executive Team and the Capitol Police Board concerning the security of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The timeframe of this request is from January 1, 2021 through January 10, 2021.

Email communications of the Capitol Police Board with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concerning the security of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The timeframe of this request is from January 1, 2021 through January 10, 2021.

All video footage from within the Capitol between 12 pm and 9 pm on January 6, 2021.

After an August 15, 2023, hearing, in which U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes ordered the Capitol Police to provide us more detailed descriptions of certain emails that had been withheld, the U.S. Capitol Police filed a seven-page “second declaration,” which describes email discussions of evacuations and relocations of people from certain buildings, arrests, and other security matters.

The U.S. Capitol Police describe “situational security update” emails at issue as follows:

a. A January 3, 2021 email, with attachment, from the USCP Deputy Chief to a Board member and others at USCP and in Congress providing a detailed “special event assessment” of anticipated protest activity in advance of the January 6, 2021 Joint Session of Congress. The attached document is marked on each page “For Official Use Only/Law Enforcement Sensitive.”

b. A January 5, 2021 email, with map attachment, from the USCP Chief to two Board members detailing a proposed “bike rack” security perimeter for January 6, 2021, and proposing further discussion.

c. A January 5, 2021 email, with map attachment, from the USCP Chief to two Board members detailing a proposed security perimeter for January 6, 2021.

d. A January 5, 2021 email, with social media post and map attachments, from the USCP Deputy Chief to a Board member and others at USCP and in Congress reporting “a significant uptick in new visitors” to a “historical website” containing information on Capitol system tunnels. The Deputy Chief describes proposed attempts by unauthorized individuals to block members of Congress from entering the Capitol building, through tunnels or otherwise.

e. A January 5, 2021 email from the USCP Deputy Chief to a Board member and others at USCP and in Congress alerting them to an online website soliciting information on high-level government officials and their expected whereabouts on January 6, 2021, and linking to the website’s article entitled Why the Second American Revolution Starts Jan 6.

f. A January 6, 2021 email from the USCP Chief to Board members and others at USCP and in Congress relaying that the President had completed a speech at the Ellipse and that a large group was preparing to approach the Capitol.

g. A January 6, 2021 email thread between the USCP Chief, two Board members, and congressional staffers responding to questions on the status of evacuations and relocations of certain buildings on the Capitol Grounds on January 6, 2021, and relaying information on crowds gathering near the Washington Monument and on Capitol Grounds on January 6, 2021.

h. A series of four January 6, 2021 emails from the USCP Deputy Chief to a Board member and others at the USCP and in Congress providing four updates throughout the course of January 6, 2021. These updates contain intelligence assessments, information on arrests, coordination with other law enforcement agencies, crowd estimates, scheduling of high-level government officials, threat and incident reports, medical responses, and officer deployment status.

i. A January 7, 2021 email, with photo attachment, from the USCP Deputy Chief to Board members and others in Congress providing an update on the arrest and subsequent charging of an armed individual found in a “suspicious vehicle” on January 6, 2021.

The U.S. Capitol Police describe “updates on police personnel issues” emails at issue as follows:

a. A January 7, 2021 email from the USCP Chief to all Board members and others at the USCP and in Congress providing an update on the medical condition of a USCP officer following the events of January 6, 2021.

b. A January 7, 2021 email from the USCP Chief to all Board members and others at USCP and in Congress providing an update on the medical condition of a USCP officer following the events of January 6, 2021.

c. A January 7, 2021 email from the USCP Chief to all Board members and others at USCP and in Congress providing an update on the death of a USCP officer following the events of January 6, 2021.

d. A January 8, 2021 email from the USCP Chief to a Board member and others at USCP and in Congress concerning the lowering of flags to half-staff in recognition of a USCP officer who died in the line of duty on January 6, 2021.

e. A January 9, 2021 email from the USCP Acting Chief to all Board members providing an update on when autopsy results could be expected for a deceased USCP officer following the events of January 6, 2021.

Another email is described under the category of “updates about news media reports:”

A January 7, 2021 email, with attachment, from the USCP Chief to all Board members and others at USCP and in Congress providing an anticipated statement by the USCP on the events that transpired at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

On September 29, 2023, the Capitol Police filed a motion to dismiss our common law right of access lawsuit that asks for over 14,000 hours of video footage, arguing that the USCP has a sovereign immunity exemption from lawsuits asserting a common law right of access to public information. The latest filing goes further than prior Pelosi Congress secrecy arguments in this litigation by newly asserting that even if a lawsuit were allowed to go forward, all January 6 videos and emails would be exempt from disclosure as “security information.”

We also received the January 7, 2021, resignation letter of Steven A. Sund, chief of the Capitol Police on January 6, who left the position at the request of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

It is urgent that the January 6 videos and related U.S. Capitol Police emails be released to the American public. I would hope the next House speaker takes a different approach than Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy and affirms the public’s lawful ‘right to know’ – and stops working with the Biden Justice Department to hide this January 6 evidence.

Your Judicial Watch is extensively investigating the events of January 6.

Last month we received records from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, a component of the Department of Justice, in a FOIA lawsuit that detail the extensive apparatus the Biden Justice Department set up to investigate and prosecute January 6 protestors.

A previous review of records from that lawsuit highlighted the prosecution declination memorandum justifying the decision not to prosecute U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd for the shooting death of Babbitt.

In January 2023, documents from the Department of the Air Force, Joint Base Andrews, MD, showed U.S. Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd was housed at taxpayer expense at Joint Base Andrews after he shot and killed U.S. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In November 2021, we released multiple audio, visual and photo records from the DC Metropolitan Police Department about the shooting death of Babbitt on January 6, 2021, in the U.S. Capitol Building. The records included a cell phone video of the shooting and an audio of a brief police interview of the shooter, Byrd.

In October 2021, United States Park Police records related to the January 6, 2021, demonstrations at the U.S. Capitol showed that on the day before the January 6 rally featuring President Trump, U.S. Park Police expected a “large portion” of the attendees to march to the U.S. Capitol and that the FBI was monitoring the January 6 demonstrations, including travel to the events by “subjects of interest.”

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on this developing story…

 

 

UPDATE on Federal Court Hearing about FBI’s Records on Hunter Biden Gun Scandal, FBI Refuses to Divulge Number of Records Due to ‘Ongoing Criminal Investigation’

We were in federal court today for a hearing in our FOIA lawsuit for records regarding the gun owned by Hunter Biden that reportedly was thrown in a trash can behind a Delaware grocery store. The FBI is refusing to disclose basic information about the records because it alleges doing so would interfere with the criminal prosecution of Hunter Biden.

The court hearing was before Judge Jia M. Cobb of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

In an August 2023 joint status report to the court, the FBI claims it has completed a search for records responsive to our FOIA request and is “currently processing” the records but added that its “position is that the number of potentially responsive records is exempt from disclosure … as this case relates to an ongoing criminal investigation.”

We filed the lawsuit after the FBI withheld records in response to a January 30, 2023, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:23-cv-00920)). We are asking for:

All records, including investigative reports, telephone logs, witness statements, memoranda, and firearms purchase documentation, related to the reported purchase, possession, and disposal of a firearm owned by Hunter Biden discarded in a Delaware trash receptacle circa October 2018.

All records of communications of FBI officials regarding the reported purchase, possession, and disposal of the firearm.

We argue that the Hunter Biden gun case “is indisputably of significant public interest:”

It is also time sensitive. [Judicial Watch] has asked and Defendant has refused to provide the number of potentially responsive records that need to be processed in this case. Without this number, Plaintiff cannot evaluate – let alone agree to – a processing time of 120 days. In addition, because it appears as though Defendant will be providing [Judicial Watch] with a “no number, no list” response at the end of the 120 days, it could be more efficient and economical for the parties to simply commence summary judgment briefing and for Defendant to file its opening brief in 60 days.

The FBI unlawfully hid records about its Hunter Biden cover-up and now is using the compromised prosecution of Hunter Biden as an after-the-fact justification for its cover-up. It is simply remarkable that the Biden administration is invoking privileges – that are usually used to protect national security information – to hide details of the FBI’s clean-up operation about Hunter’s mishandling of his gun.

In February 2023, from a separate lawsuit, we released records from the United States Secret Service that implicate the FBI in the unusual action of helping Hunter Biden.

In response to a February 24, 2021, email inquiry from Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger regarding the Secret Service’s involvement in the investigation of the Hunter Biden gun incident, the Communications Department asked for “more information or documentation.” Schreckinger responded: “Sure thing. Agents visited StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply and asked to take possession of the paperwork Hunter had filled out to purchase a gun there. The FBI also had some involvement in the investigation.”

In October 2020, The Blaze reported that in October 2018 Hunter Biden’s handgun was taken by Hallie Biden, the widow of then-presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son Beau. In 2021, Politico reported:

Hallie took Hunter’s gun and threw it in a trash can behind a grocery store, only to return later to find it gone.

Delaware police began investigating, concerned that the trash can was across from a high school and that the missing gun could be used in a crime, according to law enforcement officials and a copy of the police report obtained by POLITICO.

But a curious thing happened at the time: Secret Service agents approached the owner of the store where Hunter bought the gun and asked to take the paperwork involving the sale, according to two people, one of whom has firsthand knowledge of the episode and the other was briefed by a Secret Service agent after the fact.

(The court hearing this morning led to an agreement that Judicial Watch would consult with the DOJ/FBI over the next few weeks to try to come some agreement in which Judicial Watch could get key records about the FBI’s response to the “gun dumping” incident.).

 

Biden DHS Fails to Deport 99.7% of the 2.1 Million Illegal Immigrants it Freed Inside U.S. 

Border security, as the terror attack in Israel shows, is essential to the freedom and safety of Americans. Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the latest chilling evidence that there is zero border security as the result of the Biden invasion:

Besides shattering records for allowing enormous amounts of illegal immigrants into the U.S. through the Mexican border, the Biden administration has also failed to deport millions of migrants released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inside the country pending removal proceedings. Between January 20, 2021, and March 31, 2023, the agency created after 9/11 to safeguard the nation freed at least 2,148,738 illegal aliens into the United States, government figures obtained by members of Congress reveal. Only 5,993 were actually deported, according to a distressing report released this week by the House Judiciary Committee.

Titled “The Biden Border Crisis: New Data and Testimony Show How the Biden Administration Opened the Southwest Border and Abandoned Interior Immigration Enforcement” the lengthy document includes new data obtained by federal lawmakers from DHS that expose the alarming state of immigration enforcement. Besides failing to remove millions of illegal immigrants released inside the country, the records show that a mere 6% of migrants were screened for fear of persecution when seeking asylum. “The Biden Administration has removed from the United States only 5,993 illegal aliens who were encountered at the southwest border and who were placed in removal proceedings before an immigration judge during that time,” the report states. “In other words, of the at least 2.1 million aliens released into the United States since January 20, 2021, the Biden Administration has failed to remove, through immigration court removal proceedings, roughly 99.7 percent of those illegal aliens.”

The U.S. Border Patrol recorded a ghastly 5 million illegal immigrant encounters during the period examined by federal lawmakers and an eye-popping 6.2 million since Biden took office. “More than two and a half years into President Biden’s term, his Administration’s border crisis continues unabated,” the report states. “Publicly available information shows that encounters of illegal aliens on the southwest border surpassed 100,000 for the 31st straight month and total southwest border illegal alien encounters exceeded 2.2 million in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2023.” The bad news continues.

“In August 2023, encounters of illegal aliens at the southwest border skyrocketed to 232,972 and the unreleased encounter numbers for September 2023 will reportedly shatter previous records, exceeding 260,000 encounters in a single month,” the congressional report says. As if those figures were not bad enough, more than 1.7 million known “gotaways” have evaded Border Patrol and escaped into the U.S. since January 2021, the stats show, with “untold numbers of unknown gotaways avoiding detection during that period.”

As the illegal alien numbers keep rising and records get crushed, the Biden administration insists the border is under control with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas laughably proclaiming his agency has made it very clear the border is not open, that crossing irregularly is against the law and those who are not eligible for relief will be quickly returned. That clearly has not materialized, figures provided in the House Judiciary Committee report show. In fiscal year 2021, the Biden administration released 310,379 illegal aliens at the southwest border. The number more than doubled during the administration’s first full fiscal year (2022) to 777,283. In the first 10 months of fiscal year 2023, Biden’s DHS released 929,496 illegal aliens encountered at the Mexican border. It is important to note that as outrageous as the figures are, they do not even include Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), which immediately get transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The report reveals that between fiscal year 2021 through the end of July 2023 at least 341,802 UAC were transferred to HHS shelters where American taxpayers spend a fortune to house, medically treat, educate, counsel and entertain them.

 

Until next week,

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