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Records Show CIA Deployed Bomb Techs, Dog Teams
to DC on January 6
January 6 continues to get even more interesting. It turns out that the CIA
was involved in the response to the disturbance.
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 that the CIA deployed
personnel to Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021.
We forced the release of the records through a June 5, 2023, lawsuit after the
Justice Department failed to respond to an August 10, 2023, FOIA request
for records and communications regarding shots being fired inside the U.S.
Capitol, as well as requests for ATF Special Response Team assistance on
January 6, 2021 (Judicial Watch Inc. v U.S.
Department of Justice (No. 1:23-cv-01608)).
The ATF 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 references “several CIA dog teams on
standby.”
Group texts contain a 4 p.m. hour message by persons whose names are
redacted regarding two explosive
devices found at the Democratic National Committee (DNC)
building and one at the Republican National Committee (RNC): “Train
traffic is stopped.” “It appears the powerplant is unfounded….”
“Upper west Terrance of the capital breached by protesters.” “USCP is
sending out a Mutual Aid request.” “Capital Police may be moving
resources inside.” “Protesters are cutting tarp at bottom of
scaffolding and moving up through that.” “FYSA-FC1, WASH1, SAC, ASAC
responded to Capitol….” “2 explosive devices at DNC.” “One at rnc
one at dnc.”
The “Intel Chain” also reports on the shooting of Ashli Babbitt:
“Shots fired house floor. 1 civilian down with a gun shot [sic] wound to
the chest on the 2nd floor. Gunshot victim has been extracted. Shooting was
officer involved.”
A separate series of text messages is
included in the records. In the 2 p.m. hour on January 6, 2021, the texts
read: “West Terrace has been breached [redacted] … Explosion reported
on the rotunda steps [redacted]. Shots fired at rotunda.”
Shortly thereafter, another set of texts report: Party 1: “VP stuck
inside last I heard.” Patry 2: Copy.” Party 1: “Capitol PD shot
someone dead on house floor. Dead.” Party 2: “Christ. What was the
final in the devices real or not [redacted].” Party 1: “Clearing
Capitol now with bomb techs. Lots of damage.” Party 2: “Damn that’s
scary. So sad. Thx for keeping me in the loop brother. I was able to get I
[sic] go to my team and the Director before they heard it from outside
sources.”
The “Intel Chain” also reports that members of Congress are being
evacuated to Fort McNair, which
is located about two miles south of the Capitol: “Capitol has been
transferred to Fort McNair.” “It's an alternate location so they can
continue their work.”
A heavily redacted series of text messages from
redacted sources state, “Command post is at JERSEY and D St SE.” Three
additional recipients are added to the text group at 1:21 p.m., one of whom
reports: “Just made contact with [redacted] FBI is reporting an
additional 3 possible devices for a total of 5 now.” A response follows:
“Do you have the locations of the other devices?” The reply is: “Not
yet, the FBI is going to pass it on. I believe one was located at the gates
to the Power Plant.” The following text states: “LEO’s [Law
Enforcement Officers] being attacked on the west side of Capitol with
pieces of the restraining fence. Some officers injured.”
We are extensively investigating the events of January 6.
In February 2024, we filed a lawsuit on behalf
of Aaron Babbitt, the late Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt’s husband, and Ashli
Babbitt’s estate against the U.S. Department of Justice for all FBI files
on Ashli Babbitt, an 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.
In October 2023, we announced that we
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.
In September, we received records from the
Executive Office for United States Attorneys, a component of the Department
of Justice, in a FOIA lawsuit that detailed 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 Babbitt.
In November 2021, we released
multiple audio, visual and photo records from
the DC Metropolitan Police Department about the shooting death of Babbitt.
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 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.”
Judicial Watch Sues Fani Willis for Communications with Jack Smith,
Pelosi Committee
District Attorney Fani Willis and Fulton County, Georgia, seem to have
provided false information about having no records of communications with
Jack Smith and the Pelosi January 6 committee.
We filed a Georgia Open Records Act lawsuit against
Willis and the county for records of any communication they had with
Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee (Judicial Watch Inc. v.
Fani Willis et al. (No. 24-CV-002805)).
We sued in the Superior Court of Fulton County, GA, after Willis and the
county denied having any records responsive to an August 2023 Georgia Open
Records Act request for:
All documents and communications sent to, received from, or relating to
Special Counsel Jack Smith or any employees in his office.
All documents and communications sent to or
received from the United States House January 6th Committee or any of its
employees.
We state in the lawsuit that Willis’ and the county’s “representation
about not having records responsive to the request is likely false.” We
refer to a December 5, 2023, letter from House
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan to Willis that cites a December
2021, letter from Willis to then-House January 6 Committee Chairman Bennie
Thompson. In that letter Willis requested assistance from the committee and
offered to travel to DC. Jordan writes:
Specifically, you asked Rep. Thompson for access to “record [sic]
includ[ing] but . . . not limited to recordings and transcripts of witness
interviews and depositions, electronic and print records of communications,
and records of travel.” You even offered that you and your staff were
eager to travel to Washington, D.C, to “meet with investigators in
person” and to receive these records “any time” between January 31,
2022, and February 25, 2022.
We argue: “Willis’s letter to [former] Chairman Thompson is plainly
responsive to the request, yet it was neither produced to Plaintiff in
response to the request nor claimed to be subject to exemption from
production under the Open Records Act.”
We also cite recent news reports and other records which “indicate that
representatives of Willis’s office traveled to Washington, DC, and met
with January 6 Select Committee staffers in April, May, and November 2022,
as Willis proposed in her December 17, 2021 letter …”
We state that a January 2024, Politico report titled
“Jan. 6 committee helped guide days of Georgia Trump probe” and a
January 2024, letter from the
House Judiciary Committee to Fulton County Special Prosecutor Nathan J.
Wade are examples that “Such meetings plainly had to be coordinated and
likely generated communications if not other records about or memorializing
these meetings.”
Any such records would be responsive to our request, the lawsuit states.
On January 30, 2024, we announced that we filed a lawsuit against
Fulton County for records regarding the hiring of Wade as a special
prosecutor by Willis. Wade was hired to pursue unprecedented criminal
investigations and prosecutions against former President Trump and others
over the 2020 election disputes.
In October 2023, we sued the DOJ for
records and communications between the Office of U.S. Special Counsel Jack
Smith and the Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney’s office
regarding requests/receipt of federal funding/assistance in the
investigation of former President Trump and his 18 codefendants in the Fulton County
indictment of August 14, 2023. To date, the DOJ is refusing to
confirm or deny the existence of records, claiming that to do so would
interfere with enforcement proceedings. Judicial Watch’s litigation
challenging this is continuing.
Judicial Watch Sues for Transcripts of Biden Special Counsel
Interviews
We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against
the U.S. Department of Justice for records of all Special Counsel
interviews of President Biden (Judicial Watch, Inc. v.
U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-00700)).
We filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia after the Department of Justice failed to respond to a February 8,
2024, FOIA request for “all transcripts, audio recordings, and video
recordings of all interviews of President Biden conducted during the course
of the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Hur.”
On February 5, 2024, 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.
Prior to the finalization of the report, the White House issued a letter to the
Special Counsel’s office attacking the report’s “treatment of
President Biden’s memory,” and added “there is ample evidence from
your interview that the President did well in answering your questions
…”
The Biden Justice Department needs to stop protecting Joe Biden, follow the
law, and release the transcript and any recordings of his interviews.
The written transcript
was released almost immediately after Judicial Watch filed its lawsuit, but
we still are interested in any audio or videos of Biden’s interviews with
the special counsel – so stay tuned for more.
Haiti Gets Millions More from U.S. after Gangs Take Over, Billions in
Aid Perish
Does anyone seriously believe that throwing more taxpayer money at Haiti
will do any good? The country is in gang-infested ruin, and yet more of
your tax dollars are on the way. Our Corruption Chronicles blog
explains.
Rife with fraud and corruption, the U.S. government’s
multi-billion-dollar Haiti aid program has failed miserably to help
citizens of the impoverished island, yet the Biden administration is
sending more money as violence and lawlessness grip the country. Armed
gangs have overrun most of the capital of Port-au-Prince and political
instability has plateaued, but the American taxpayer dollars keep flowing
with no oversight though billions in assistance have vanished since an
earthquake struck Haiti nearly a decade and a half ago.
This week Secretary of State Antony Blinken
announced that the U.S. is sending another $33
million in humanitarian assistance to
the Caribbean nation to provide in-kind food assistance, nutrition support,
essential health services, improved access to clean water, and prevention
and response to gender-based violence, among other critical humanitarian
activities. “Since February 29, organized criminal groups have escalated
violence, exacerbating the humanitarian situation for Haitians,” says the
government press release announcing the recent allocation. “Displaced
people are struggling to access food, health care, water, hygiene
facilities, and psychological support, further compounding their already
dire needs.” The document reveals that the U.S. remains the single
largest donor of humanitarian assistance to Haiti, providing tens of
millions of dollars in assistance in the last year alone. “The United
States will continue to stand with Haitians during this challenging time,
working to save lives and alleviate suffering caused by the humanitarian
crisis,” the government writes.
Since the 2010 earthquake Uncle Sam alone
has provided Haiti with over $5.6
billion to help the nation bounce back
but 14 years later the situation is more dire for the island’s 12 million
residents and no one really knows what happened to the money. The funds
were supposed to provide Haiti with “life-saving post-disaster relief as
well as longer-term recovery, reconstruction, and development programs,”
according to the State Department, which confirms that after another
earthquake in 2021 the U.S. “again mobilized a whole-of-government effort
to provide immediate assistance at the Haitian government’s request.”
Haiti’s reconstruction and development will continue for many years, the
State Department predicts, adding that in the last few years alone it has
doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian and health
assistance for Haiti.
Even before the natural disasters the
U.S.—under both Democratic and Republican administrations—has dedicated
enormous amounts of money to help Haiti despite systemic lapses in the
programs it funds. For instance, a costly initiative to build housing
failed miserably after the U.S. spent $90
million and tens of thousands of
Haitians remain homeless a decade later. The Clinton Foundation and Clinton
Bush Haiti Fund also came up with some $88 million for earthquake recovery
but Haiti remains a disaster, the poorest country in the western
hemisphere. Even before the tremor a federal audit revealed that
hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars were wasted on reckless
Haitian projects with the single largest chunk—$170.3 million—going to
a failed port and power plant adventure heavily promoted by Bill and
Hillary Clinton. The Clinton-backed power and port venture is the biggest
and most expensive failure mentioned in the probe, which was ordered by a
Florida congresswoman who at the time confirmed a “troubling lack of
progress and accountability” in Haiti reconstruction projects. All these
years later many Haitians still live in deplorable, shanty town tent cities
and a never-ending epidemic of cholera keeps claiming lives. Nearly half of
the Haitian population does not
have enough food, according to the
United Nations.
At the beginning of last year the Biden
administration awarded Haiti another $56.5 million in
humanitarian aid, explaining that it was “for the people of Haiti in
response to the country’s humanitarian crisis and cholera epidemic.” A
few months later the administration sent another $54
million under the auspice of Caribbean
climate funding. The government claimed the money would counter the
island’s ongoing “humanitarian crisis,” including gang violence on
civilians that has prevented Haitians from accessing critical food, safe
drinking water and other basic supplies. The recent turmoil should make it
even tougher for aid to reach the Haitian people, though the U.S. is not
addressing that in its latest allocation. It is unknown where exactly the
money will go and how it will be spent since the administration only
mentions that the funds “will support the World Food Program (WFP),
UNICEF, and NGO partners.”
Florida Sheriff: ‘Federal Policy Drives Illegal Immigrant
Crime’
Thank goodness for those who speak up against the Biden border invasion. A
Florida sheriff has seen the evil consequences up close, as our
Corruption Chronicles blog reports.
No American state, not even Republican-led Florida with its strict law
to mitigate the negative impact of record-breaking illegal immigration, can
escape the detrimental effects of the Biden administration’s catastrophic
open border policies. A major human trafficking operation recently busted
by a multi-agency task force in central Florida helps illustrate that
illegal aliens are not just victimizing communities that offer them
sanctuary. The problem is spreading nationwide, even to areas where local
governments do not welcome illegal aliens or shield them from federal
authorities.
In central Florida’s Polk County, which
has a population of around 780,000, authorities just dismantled a
large-scale human trafficking ring that resulted in the arrest of hundreds,
including 21 illegal immigrants, involved in acts related to soliciting
prostitutes, offering to commit prostitution, or aiding and abetting
prostitutes. Authorities coined it “Operation March Sadness 2024”
and recently confirmed that more
than a dozen of the 66 identified prostitutes were likely human trafficking
victims. Law enforcement officials issued 70 felony charges and 288
misdemeanors and the suspects’ criminal histories include a combined 879
felonies and 1,150 misdemeanors. At least 11 suspects told detectives they
receive government assistance. Illegal drugs such as fentanyl, heroin,
methamphetamine, and cocaine were also seized in the sting as well as 17
firearms. The eldest person was 73 and youngest 16, officials
say.
The illegal immigrants arrested in the
operation are recent arrivals from Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru,
and Venezuela. During a televised press conference Polk County
Sheriff Grady Judd blasts the federal government for failing to enforce
immigration laws. During the segment the sheriff, who oversees a force of
about 1,800, introduced a poster board from the podium with mug shots of
the illegal immigrant suspects and silhouettes of several victims also in
the U.S. illegally so they could not be identified. Above the mugshots, in
large black letters the poster read: “Federal Policy Drives Illegal
Immigrant Crime and Victimization.” Grady pointed to one of the suspects
on the board and provided a larger mug shot for the media, explaining that
he came from New York with three females who are controlled by a human
trafficker that sets up their appointments, posts ads online and tells them
where to go. The prostitutes then fly to major metro centers where they set
up their appointments for sex, said the sheriff, who was first elected in
2004 and has been reelected four times since. “We have a crisis at the
border,” Sheriff Judd said. “And because of the crisis at the border we
have people that are victimizing illegal folks, forcing them into the sex
trade because we allow these criminals in the country
illegally.”
Unlike a growing number of law enforcement
agencies nationwide that have adopted sanctuary policies, the Polk County
Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) fully cooperates with Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) when it encounters criminal illegal immigrants in its
jurisdiction or jails. Under a partnership known as 287(g), PCSO honors ICE
detainers and notifies the federal agency of inmates in the country
illegally so that they can be deported. A few years ago, PCSO enlisted in a
collaborative federal initiative, known as Warrant Service Officer
(WSO) program, that expands the
immigration enforcement powers of local police after training officers to
perform certain duties typically carried out by federal immigration agents.
“The WSO program will protect communities from criminal aliens who
threaten vulnerable populations with violence, drugs and gang activity by
allowing partner jurisdictions the flexibility to make immigration arrests
in their jail or correctional facility,” Acting ICE Director Matthew
Albence said when the program was launched in 2019.
To further deter illegal immigrants from
coming to the Sunshine State, Florida also passed a law
banning sanctuary cities in the
entire state. The measure also requires local police to fully comply with
federal immigration authorities and authorizes law enforcement agencies to
transport an alien unlawfully present in the U.S. under certain
circumstances. Public universities and colleges must also abide by the law.
Even with the strict measures, it appears Florida cannot escape the wrath
of the unprecedented illegal immigration crisis created by the Biden
administration.
Until next week,
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