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Judicial Watch and CatholicVote Sue FBI and
Justice Department for Records of Targeting Catholics
The Biden administration is shredding the First Amendment – censoring our
freedom of expression by colluding with Big Tech in a massive effort to
suppress speech on social media under the pretext of removing
“misinformation” and “disinformation” and “protecting national
security.” And now, the Biden FBI is going after our freedom of religion
– targeting Catholics who adhere to traditional beliefs on abortion and
other cultural issues.
That’s why we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit along
with CatholicVote Civic Action against the FBI and the Department of
Justice for records containing keywords and records about an FBI
intelligence memo targeting ‘radical traditionalist’ Catholics (CatholicVote Civic Action and Judicial Watch, Inc. v.
Federal Bureau of Investigations and Department of
Justice (No. 1:23-cv-01166)).
In February 2023, an FBI intelligence document was
leaked that revealed FBI targeting ” of Catholics who adhere to
traditional beliefs on abortion and other cultural issues.
The Catholic News Agency reported: “The leaked document has been condemned by
several federal and state officials, as well as clergy, including Bishop
Barry Knestout of the Diocese of Richmond, who recently called the
memo a ‘threat to religious liberty.’”
On March 8, 2023, we teamed up with CatholicVote and sent four FOIA
requests to the FBI, which is a division of the Department of Justice)
for:
(a) All emails, Lync messages, and text messages sent to and from the
following FBI Headquarters officials: Director Christopher Wray, Deputy
Director Paul Abbate, Asst. Director George P. Beach, II, General Counsel
Jason Jones, Chief of Staff Jonathan Lenzner, Executive Asst. Dir. Larissa
Knapp, and Asst. Dir. Timothy Langan for the period March 1, 2022, to the
present referencing:
- “Catholics”
- “Latin Mass”
- “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics”
- “RTC”
- “Church Militant”
- “Catholic League”
- “Southern Poverty Law Center”
- “SPLC”
- “Pope Francis”
- “Vatican II”
(b) All emails, Lync messages, and text messages sent to and from the
following FBI Richmond Field Office (RFO) officials: SAIC Stanley Meador,
ASAIC David Lewis, ASAIC Stephen Farina, and the FBI Richmond Chief
Division Counsel for the period March 1, 2022 to the present
referencing:
- “Catholics”
- “Latin Mass”
- “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics”
- “RTC”
- “Church Militant”
- “Catholic League”
- “Southern Poverty Law Center”
- “SPLC”
- “Pope Francis”
- “Vatican II”
- “Second Vatican Council”
- “Rosary”
- “FSSP”
(c) All emails, Lync messages, and text messages sent to and from the
following FBI Headquarters officials: Director Christopher Wray, Deputy
Director Paul Abbate, Asst. Director George P. Beach, II, General Counsel
Jason Jones, Chief of Staff Jonathan Lenzner, Executive Asst. Dir. Larissa
Knapp, and Asst. Dir. Timothy Langan for the period March 1, 2022, to the
present referencing:
- actions taken to remove the Intelligence Note from FBI systems;
- the FBI review of (1) the basis for the Intelligence Note and (2) any
official FBI actions taken pursuant to the Intelligence Note
(d) All emails, Lync messages, and text messages sent to and from the
following FBI Richmond Field Office (RFO) officials: SAIC Stanley Meador,
ASAIC David Lewis, ASAIC Stephen Farina, and the FBI Richmond Chief
Division Counsel for the period March 1, 2022, to the present
referencing:
- actions taken to remove the Intelligence Note from FBI systems;
- the FBI review of (1) the basis for the Intelligence Note; (2) any
official FBI actions taken pursuant to the Intelligence Note
Also, on March 8, 2023, we and CatholicVote sent similar FOIA requests to
the U.S. Department of Justice; Office of the Attorney General and Office
of the Deputy Attorney General.
“Our weaponized and corrupt government agencies have demonstrated a
pattern of contempt for justice and the rule of law by prioritizing
partisan ideology and agendas over the protection of the American people
– in particular those with whom they disagree politically,” said
CatholicVote President Brian Burch. “We are demanding transparency from
our government and are determined to uncover just how high up the
anti-Catholic bigotry goes.”
In a brazen attack on the First Amendment and Christians, the Biden FBI
planned to treat Catholics as potential terrorists and spy on them in their
churches, and now, as our new FOIA lawsuit shows, the FBI and Justice
Departments are trying to cover their tracks by hiding documents about this
growing scandal.
(CatholicVote.org is a community of patriotic
Americans who believe that the timeless truths of the Catholic faith are
good for America. It makes its mission “to inspire every Catholic in
America to live out the truths of our faith in public life.”)
Biden National Archives Hides Over 85% of Trump Raid
Records
The Biden administration’s National Archives is hiding almost every
record it has about its manufactured records dispute with President
Trump.
As of March 31, the agency has released only 1,276 pages of over
8,000 records about the unprecedented document dispute and raid on the
home of former President Trump. Click here or
here to review the
records.
The records were released as the result of our August 2022 FOIA lawsuit filed after
the National Archives and Records Administration unlawfully failed to
respond to a February 2022 FOIA request (Judicial Watch v
National Archives and Records Administration (No. 1:22-cv-02535))
for:
- All records regarding the referral from NARA to the Department of
Justice regarding the records management procedures of former President
Donald Trump (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/national-archives-asks-doj-investigate-trumps-handling-white/story?id=82781128
). This request includes all related records of communication between any
official or employee of NARA and any official or employee of the Department
of Justice and/or any other branch, department, agency, or office of the
federal government.
- All records regarding the retrieval of records from President Trump or
any individual or entity acting on his behalf by the National Archives and
Records Administration. This request includes related records of
communication between any official or employee of NARA and President Trump
and/or any individual or entity acting on his behalf.
The records uncovered by our lawsuit include information further confirming
how the Biden White House was directly involved in
the dispute by initiating “special access request” that spurred an FBI
investigation of Trump’s records. Gary Stern, general counsel for the
National Archives wrote to his colleagues on August 23, 2022:
And, this evening the Post just published a
new story detailing an April 12, email that I sent to the Trump reps
concerning the DOJ special access request for the 15 Trump boxes, along
with many other details concerning the DOJ request and the overall issue.
[Redacted]
“On April 12, an Archives official emailed
Philbin [former White House deputy counsel Pat Philbin] and John Eisenberg,
another former deputy White House counsel, to tell them the Justice
Department, via the Biden White House, had made the request. The email
offered the lawyers the opportunity to view the documents as well, but said
the documents were too sensitive to be removed from the agency’s secure
facility.”
We are in the forefront in the court battle for transparency regarding the
abusive and unprecedented Biden administration raid on Trump’s home.
In August 2022, we forced the release
of the raid affidavit through its court request to
unseal the warrant materials used in the unprecedented raid on the home of
former President Trump.
In September 2022, we filed lawsuits against
the DOJ for its records and the FBI’s records about the Mar-a-Lago raid
search warrant application and approval, as well as communications about
the warrant between the FBI, Executive Office of the President and the
Secret Service.
In October 2022, we sued the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) for all communications of the U.S. Secret Service
internally and with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the
raid on Trump’s home and for any video or audio recordings made during
the raid.
In November 2022, we sued the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) for all communications between the Secret Service
and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the search warrant that
precipitated the raid on former Trump’s Florida residence at
Mar-a-Lago.
The Biden administration’s abuse of Trump (and the rule of law) will only
expand and you can be sure Judicial Watch will stand fast for the rule of
law at every turn.
Biden Greatly Expands Program to offer Illegals
“Temporary” Reprieve
Regular followers of our reporting will not be at all surprised by anything
the Biden administration destruction of our sovereignty and open borders.
Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the latest insult to U.S.
citizens and the rule of law:
Besides condoning record-breaking illegal immigration (2.4 million
migrants in fiscal year 2022), the Biden administration is quietly
protecting hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals who for years have
lived in the U.S. illegally by multiplying a program designed to offer
temporary reprieve. The provisional amnesty is known as Temporary Protected
Status (TPS), a humanitarian measure designed to shield undocumented aliens
from deportation during emergencies. It is supposed to be a short-term
solution for foreigners that do not quality as refugees but cannot
immediately return home because of difficulties caused by factors such as
violence, natural disasters, or political and economic instability. TPS,
which is typically granted in 18-month increments, not only protects
foreign nationals from deportation it also allows them to work in the
U.S.
The Obama administration went crazy with TPS, renewing it for tens of thousands of Hondurans
and Nicaraguans more than a decade and a half after a hurricane hit the
Central American nations, prolonging it for Africans two years after
originally issuing it due to Ebola, and repeatedly restoring it for tens of
thousands of Haitians years after an earthquake struck the impoverished
island. During its two terms the Obama administration never missed an
opportunity to offer illegal immigrants reprieve, using inclement weather in the U.S., a virus, natural
disasters and tainted water in an American city to extend the perk.
Nationals of Yemen have been protected by both Democrats and Republicans,
receiving TPS over “ongoing armed conflict” under Obama and two
extensions under Trump. It is worth noting that Yemen is a hotbed of
terrorism that serves as the headquarters of Al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP).
In an apparent effort to keep its promise of
rebuilding a safe, orderly and humane immigration system that Biden asserts
“was gutted by the previous
Administration,” the president has
greatly expanded the number of immigrants who qualify for TPS, a new
report reveals. Using
figures obtained from the government, the report, published by a well-known
nonpartisan think tank, estimates that 670,000 individuals from 16
countries are either registered for TPS or newly eligible for it. Illegal
aliens from the following countries currently benefit from the temporary
reprieve: Afghanistan, Cameroon, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras,
Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Ukraine,
Venezuela and Yemen. El Salvador leads with more than 190,000 TPS
beneficiaries in the U.S. followed by Venezuela (171,550) and Haiti
(105,000), the figures show.
The moment he got elected president, Biden
worked to broaden the TPS program adding several countries including
Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, Ukraine and Venezuela. The administration
has also extended the terms of eligibility for those that were already
covered by the amnesty, according to the report. The commander-in-chief has
also fought to get Congress to pass a law allowing TPS recipients to
receive legal residency (also known as a green card) that would eventually
allow them to become American citizens. “The Biden administration’s
expansions stand in contrast to the Trump administration’s efforts to end
TPS for nearly all beneficiaries, which were blocked by a series of
lawsuits,” the report states. “Those lawsuits are ongoing and continue
to threaten the future of the TPS program and create uncertainty for its
participants.”
Most illegal immigrants protected under TPS
have lived in the U.S. for decades and have settled in every state with
California, Florida, New York and Texas seeing the largest numbers. The
humanitarian relief was approved by Congress as part of the Immigration Act
of 1990 and gives the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary the
authority to designate a country for TPS to offer safe haven to foreign
nationals who do not qualify for asylum but claim to be fleeing a
potentially dangerous situation back home. The government is required to
announce 60 days before any TPS designation expires whether it will be
extended. If it does not the TPS automatically extends for six
months.
Until next week,
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