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Exclusive Border Crisis Update

Judicial Watch Fights Biden Justice Department Request to Transfer
Ashli Babbitt $30 Million Wrongful Death Lawsuit from California to
Washington, DC

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Judicial Watch just asked
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a federal court to deny the U.S. Government’s request to transfer
the Ashli Babbitt $30 million wrongful death lawsuit from California
to Washington, DC. Among other legal points, we argue that it would
prejudice the case and be unjust for Ashli’s family if it were
transferred to the hostile forum of the District of Columbia.

We filed the
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on
January 5, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District
of California on behalf of the family of Ashli Babbitt, the 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 (_Estate of
Ashli Babbitt and Aaron Babbitt, et al. v. United States of America_
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(No. 3:24-cv-00033)).

Babbitt was a 35-year-old resident of San Diego, CA, where she owned
and operated a successful pool business with her husband Aaron. Ashli
traveled alone from San Diego to Washington, DC, to attend the Women
for America First (aka Save America) rally on January 6, 2021, at the
Ellipse.

As our complaint recounts:

> The shooting occurred at the east entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby.
> After demonstrators filled the hallway outside the lobby, two
> individuals in the crowded, tightly packed hallway struck and
> dislodged the glass panels in the lobby doors and the right door
> sidelight. Lt. Byrd, who is a United States Capitol Police commander
> and was the incident commander for the House on January 6, 2021,
> shot Ashli on sight as she raised herself up into the opening of the
> right door sidelight. Lt. Byrd later confessed that he shot Ashli
> before seeing her hands or assessing her intentions or even
> identifying her as female. Ashli was unarmed. Her hands were up in
> the air, empty, and in plain view of Lt. Byrd and other officers in
> the lobby.

***

> The facts speak truth. Ashli was ambushed when she was shot by Lt.
> Byrd. Multiple witnesses at the scene yelled, “you just murdered
> her.”
>
> Lt. Byrd was never charged or otherwise punished or disciplined for
> Ashli’s homicide.
On March 26, 2024, we filed our
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to the Biden Justice Department’s request to transfer venue of the
case to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Arguing
against the change of venue, we point out that under federal law a
“civil action against the United States may be brought in any
judicial district in which the plaintiff resides,” and “a civil
action on a tort claim against the United States may be prosecuted in
the judicial district where the plaintiff resides.”

We argue:

> Defendant’s position [to transfer venue] illustrates and
> underscores the prejudice and injustice that Plaintiffs would face
> if venue were transferred to the District of Columbia. Defendant
> mentions 80 Capitol Police officers and 60 Metropolitan Police
> officers that were injured and connects the deaths of three officers
> to the events on that day, thus connecting Ashli Babbitt to these
> deaths and other injuries, as if she caused them. The request for a
> change in venue is clearly influenced by Defendant’s strongest
> motivation for changing venue, which is to select the forum where it
> feels it would receive a favorable process and outcome based on
> adversity against January 6 participants. By its motion, Defendant
> hopes to unfairly and unjustly connect Ashli Babbitt to violence,
> injuries, and deaths for which she is blameless and connect her by
> association to thousands of individuals convicted of misdemeanors
> and felonies for which she was never charged and is unable to
> present a defense due to the lawless actions of one of Defendant’s
> employees in shooting and killing her.

***

> It’s no secret that the District of Columbia is a hostile forum
> for January 6 defendants. It’s also prejudicially biased against
> Ashli Babbitt. For example, during a recent sentencing hearing in
> the District of Columbia in _United States v. Daniel Goodwyn_ …
> District Judge Reggie B. Walton made the following statement to the
> defendant and his counsel regarding the shooting of Ashli Babbitt:

> THE COURT: You should not have been – you cannot convince me that
> somehow what she was doing was somehow justified and the police did
> not have a justification for taking the actions that they took. You
> can’t convince me of that.

> Judge Walton’s statement evidences he has already predetermined a
> crucial issue in this case – whether Ashli Babbitt’s killing was
> justified. Judge Walton made other biased comments on the record,
> including, “Well, she shouldn’t have been coming through the
> window,” and “this man who was protecting the Capitol ends up
> being called a thug … that is just mind boggling.” …
> Unfortunately, Judge Walton is speaking what many others are at
> least thinking behind the bench in the District of Columbia. This
> Court is the only venue which offers Plaintiffs a chance of
> receiving a fair trial.
Let’s be blunt, the Biden DOJ wants to move the Ashli Babbitt
wrongful death lawsuit to DC because it knows the courts here are
notoriously hostile to anyone tied to the January 6 protests.

As you know, we are extensively investigating the events of January 6.

In January 2024, we filed a FOIA
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on
behalf of Aaron Babbitt and the Ashli Babbitt Estate against the U.S.
Department of Justice for all FBI files on Ashli Babbitt.

In October 2023, we
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the court-ordered
declaration
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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 in January 2021 that
show warnings of possible January 6 protests that could lead to
serious disruptions at the U.S. Capitol.

In September 2023, we received
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from
the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, a component of the
Department of Justice, in a FOIA lawsuit that details the extensive
apparatus the Biden Justice Department set up to investigate and
prosecute January 6 protestors.

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

In January 2023,
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from the Department of the Air Force, Joint Base Andrews, MD, showed
that 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
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multiple audio
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visual
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and photo records
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from the DC Metropolitan Police Department about Babbitt’s death.
The records included a cell phone video
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of the shooting and an audio of a brief police interview of the
shooter, Byrd.

In October 2021, United States Park Police
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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.”

Check back here often for updates on all these lawsuits…

JUDICIAL WATCH SUES BIDEN STATE DEPARTMENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS
REGARDING TUCKER CARLSON

Judicial Watch last week filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
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against the State Department for all emails and diplomatic notes from
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Deputy Secretary of State Victoria
Nuland and other top department officials that reference former Fox
News host Tucker Carlson (_Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State_
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(No. 1:24-cv-00840)).

On February 8, 2024, the Tucker Carlson Network and X (Twitter) ran
Carlson’s
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in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was the first
interview with Putin to be granted to a Western journalist since
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

We sued in the United States District Court for the District of
Columbia after the State Department failed to comply with a February
7, 2024, FOIA request for:

> All (2024) emails and diplomatic notes sent to and from the
> following officials referencing “Tucker Carlson”: Secretary of
> State Antony Blinken, Deputy Secretary Victoria Nuland, Assistant
> Secretary James O'Brien, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Yuri
> Kim, Deputy Assistant Secretary Sonata Coulter, Deputy Assistant
> Secretary Gabriel Escobar, Deputy Assistant Secretary Joshua Huck,
> Deputy Assistant Secretary Douglas Jones, Deputy Assistant Secretary
> Jacqueline Ramos, and/or Deputy Assistant Secretary Christopher W.
> Smith.
The State Department told us that “unusual circumstances” had
delayed the processing of the request, but it has yet to provide any
substantive response.

Why is the Biden State Department violating FOIA law to hide records
on Tucker Carlson?

APPEALS COURT HEARS JUDICIAL WATCH ARGUMENT FOR TEACHER FIRED FOR
CONSERVATIVE SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

Judicial Watch battles corruption and protects rights not just here in
DC but across America.

We were in court this week for oral
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argument
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in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in the case we
filed on behalf of Kari MacRae, a Massachusetts high school teacher
who was fired in retaliation for posts on social media that predated
her employment at Hanover High School (_MacRae v. Matthew Mattos and
Matthew A. Ferron_
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(No. 21-cv-11917, 23-1817)). (You can listen to the argument here
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We filed the
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in November
2021, asserting a claim for First Amendment retaliation.

MacRae, who was hired as a Hanover High School teacher on August 31,
2021, was fired over several TikTok posts that were made months prior
to her hiring at the school. MacRae, who in May of 2021 was elected to
the Bourne School Committee, made the posts in her personal capacity
as a citizen and candidate for public office.

On May 18, 2021, as part of her campaign for school committee member,
MacRae
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a TikTok video which stated, in part:

> So pretty much the reason I ran for school board and the reason
> I’m taking on this responsibility is to ensure that students, at
> least in our town, are not being taught critical race theory. That
> they’re not being taught that the country was built on racism. So
> they’re not being taught that they can choose whether or not they
> want to be a girl or a boy. It’s one thing to include and it’s
> one thing to be inclusive. And it’s one thing to educate everybody
> about everything. It’s completely another thing to push your
> agenda. And, with me on the school board, that won’t happen in our
> town.
We point out in our
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> Hanover Public Schools fired MacRae because of political speech she
> posted online months before she even became employed at Hanover High
> School. In addition, the speech did not concern Hanover Public
> Schools as she did not live in Hanover and was campaigning for a
> school committee position in a district 45 minutes away. Nor did any
> student, parent, or teacher at Hanover Public Schools raise issues
> about MacRae continuing to teach at Hanover High School. Hanover
> Public Schools’ sole excuse for firing MacRae was that the school
> administrators believed that if she continued teaching at the high
> school, her unrelated, preemployment speech would cause a
> disruption.
The District Court found in favor of the school district. It
concluded that Hanover Public Schools’ prediction of disruption was
reasonable.

Our brief argues:

> MacRae challenges the ruling on four grounds. First, the First
> Amendment employment retaliation standard does not apply to
> unrelated, preemployment speech. Second, a mere prediction of
> disruption is insufficient to outweigh an employee’s interest in
> engaging in political speech. Third, the reasonableness of that
> prediction is a question for a jury and is not appropriate for
> summary judgment. Fourth, the District Court incorrectly found that
> Hanover Public Schools’ prediction of disruption was reasonable.
> The District Court’s ruling should be reversed, and the case
> should be remanded.
In a similar case, in July 2022, we successfully
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a
civil right lawsuit on behalf of its client David Flynn, who was
removed from his position as head football coach after exercising his
right as a parent-citizen to raise concerns about critical race theory
and Black Lives Matter propaganda in his daughter’s seventh-grade
history class.

AMERICAN SMUGGLERS RECRUITED BY CARTELS WREAK HAVOC ON BORDER REGION

Our Southwest is a war zone, and it’s only getting worse as
Americans are drawn into crime. Our _Corruption Chronicles_ blog
reports
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the
following exclusive story:

> Illegal immigration and serious crimes such as human and drug
> smuggling that typically accompany it are devastating a once
> tranquil border region in southeastern Arizona where longtime
> residents and local officials say federal authorities have
> negligently handed off some immigration duties to overwhelmed local
> police. Judicial Watch visited the area, Cochise County, nearly six
> years ago and reported
>
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> a dire situation back then that multiple sources confirm has
> dramatically worsened. At the time human and drug traffickers
> regularly evaded a meager force of Border Patrol agents in the
> mountainous region about 75 miles southeast of Tucson in the
> picturesque Sonoran Desert surrounded by the scenic Huachuca
> Mountains. The situation has deteriorated significantly under the
> Biden administration, residents and law enforcement sources tell
> Judicial Watch, especially with the addition of the new “American
> smuggler,” U.S. citizens, predominantly young adults from Phoenix
> and Tucson, recruited by Mexican cartels through social media.
>
> “Smuggling networks have now incorporated American citizens to
> smuggle persons from the border to cities throughout the U.S.,”
> said a Cochise County law enforcement source, who added that the new
> trend has created deadly consequences in the border communities
> where the American recruits often travel at dangerously high speeds
> through local roads and highways. “Most are inexperienced young
> drivers,” according to a community leader who has lived in the
> area for decades. In one recent incident an elderly woman was struck
> and killed by a speeding vehicle on her way to dinner with family.
> “The youth behind the wheel was from the greater Phoenix area and
> was participating in a smuggling effort while evading law
> enforcement,” according to an area official, who also said police
> and residents are hyper vigilant of the deadly pursuits, which are
> becoming quite common and often exceed speeds of 100 miles per hour
> in residential neighborhoods.
>
> Migrant and drug smugglers even use a beloved chapel, Our Lady of
> the Sierras, in the town of Hereford for their illicit operations.
> Situated on a hill with a 75-foot Celtic cross that remains lit at
> night, the chapel serves as a navigational tool for smugglers and
> the grounds are regularly used to transfer drugs. In 2011 migrant
> smugglers burned down the chapel after starting a fire along the
> border to escape the Border Patrol during a pursuit. Besides the
> chapel, which was eventually rebuilt, the fire destroyed nearly
> 30,000 acres and dozens of homes. Emboldened by the lack of law
> enforcement in the chapel’s remote area, smugglers openly disclose
> to residents that they are participating in illicit activities. On a
> recent evening when a local official informed a smuggling guide in
> Spanish that the grounds were being closed for the night, the man
> said he was waiting for a group to cross over the mountain then the
> group would get picked up. “He spoke as if his efforts were
> legitimate, as he continued to monitor his phone and he knew exactly
> where law enforcement were and their response times to the
> shrine,” a Hereford source with direct knowledge of the incident
> told Judicial Watch. “No vehicle was present, indicating he was
> the guide and would call for transportation once he linked up with
> the group.” A resident called the Border Patrol but was told there
> were “no responding agents” available at the time and suggested
> calling the Cochise County Sheriff, which also had limited officers
> that arrived too late to catch the illegal aliens.
>
> Another related threat to this charming community has been created
> by the increasing number of packages containing deadly drugs
> littered throughout the area by mules, often in residential
> neighborhoods. Federal officials say China supplies Mexican drug
> cartels with precursor chemicals to produce methamphetamine, a
> highly addictive stimulant that speeds up the body’s system, and
> fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, and residents along the border
> are extremely apprehensive about handling the backpacks and other
> items left behind by illegal immigrants because they fear coming
> into contact with the deadly drugs. One longtime Cochise County
> resident told Judicial Watch that he found a leather pouch in his
> driveway recently and reported it to the local sheriff, who sent an
> officer to secure the pouch. “The deputy informed me that this
> area was extremely active at night and additional coverage by local,
> county and state law enforcement were patrolling the state highways
> to interdict,” said the resident who does not want to be
> identified to protect himself and his family.\
>
> Authorities are also incredibly concerned that they cannot
> communicate with a growing number of migrants encountered in their
> jurisdiction because the illegal crossers do not speak Spanish or,
> of course, English. “The assumption, speaking Spanish when these
> encounters occur is now obsolete,” a local official said. “The
> fear is that encounters will occur, especially at night, with
> someone that residents and law enforcement cannot communicate
> with.” Another area source said that the mass migration into the
> U.S. has made residents along the border hyper vigilant of terrorist
> attacks, especially after the October Hamas attacks in Israel.
> “The threat of foreign terrorists with the intent of causing harm
> to U.S. citizens is real,” according to a veteran federal
> intelligence agent who is familiar with the situation in Cochise
> County.
>
> The Biden administration’s disastrous open border policies are
> also contributing greatly to the spread of communicable diseases,
> Arizona health officials confirm. A former Arizona Department of
> Health veteran based in Tucson offered safehouses in the town of
> Altar, Sonora Mexico as an example. The small compounds resemble
> military barracks where transients are packed in to await shuttles
> north to the U.S.-Mexico border. Makeshift bunks are lined up to
> sleep and minimal bathroom facilities with dismal sanitation,
> enabling the rapid spread of diseases between one infected
> individual and the next migrant that occupies the same space the
> following day. “Tuberculosis is a prime example,” the retired
> Arizona health officials said. “Several strains exist and when
> hosts, in this case migrants, for diseases such as TB are immersed
> in crowded living conditions, the spread of these strains is
> accelerated.”
>
> These are just some of the serious issues created by the illegal
> immigration crisis in this small, once peaceful corner of the border
> region where residents and multi generations of ranchers used to
> enjoy an idyllic life. A few miles north in the town of Sierra
> Vista, residents are too scared to enjoy a simple
> pastime—horseback riding on their own land. One rancher told
> Judicial Watch years ago that he found more than a dozen bodies on
> his sprawling cattle ranch which has been in his family for well
> over a century. The property shares a 10 ½-mile border with Mexico,
> making it a popular route for human and drug smugglers. “If the
> current administration remains in office, the past three years of
> illicit activity is bound to become more the norm, an
> institutionalized lack of law and order,” a longtime Cochise
> County community activist and former military veteran said this
> week. “Criminal organizations continue to enjoy support from our
> federal and state leadership.”

Until next week,





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