Trump’s Winning Coronavirus Treatment Bet

[WEEKLY UPDATE]

DOES GOOGLE HAVE HILLARY CLINTON’S EMAILS? COURT AUTHORIZES SUBPOENA
TO FIND OUT

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If you use Gmail, you know that Google holds your messages seemingly
forever. Could it be doing the same with Hillary Clinton’s elusive
emails?

We’ll find out. We have served a subpoena
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authorized by a DC federal court, on Google to produce all Clinton
emails from a Google account believed to contain former Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton's emails.

Platte River Networks’ IT specialist Paul Combetta reportedly
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used the Google account to transfer Clinton’s emails from a laptop
to a Platte River server, then used BleachBit
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to remove any traces of the emails from the laptop.

Our subpoena seeks all Clinton emails from her time at State, January
21, 2009, to February 1, 2013. Google is requested to produce the
emails by May 13.

This subpoena comes in our lawsuit
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that seeks records concerning “talking points or updates on the
Benghazi attack” (_Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State_
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(No.
1:14-cv-01242)). We famously uncovered in 2014 that the “talking
points” that provided the basis for Susan Rice’s false statements
were created by
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the Obama White House. This Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
lawsuit led directly
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to
the disclosure of the Clinton email system in 2015.

During an August 2019 federal court hearing
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U.S District Court Judge Royce Lamberth raised concerns
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about Clinton’s Gmail cache
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and ordered us to “shake this tree” on the issue. Judge Lamberth
noted that Senator Grassley released:

> a report in which he had some very troubling information about a guy
> named Combetta who had been one of the contract employees on the
> Clinton emails, and he and the Senator who Chairs the Homeland
> Security Committee released in the Senate this report Friday, and
> the gist of it was that Combetta had said, I guess, that he had
> created a dummy email account with all of the Hillary Clinton emails
> in it in a different name, and the FBI had investigated that to see
> whether or not the Chinese had ever hacked into it. They have
> determined that the Chinese hadn't, but that the FBI never told the
> State Department about that account and that the emails that were
> not given over to State could have been obtained from that account,
> but the FBI never told State about it. So it leaves out in the open
> whether there are these other emails that State could have obtained
> but nobody ever bothered to tell State about them. I don't know the
> status of that and I'm sure you don't either, but that did occur to
> me that would be a problem for me as to whether an adequate
> examination of that circumstance occurred and, assuming that
> Combetta deleted them, as he said he did before he took the Fifth, I
> guess, whether or not the server that they were on or the -- or
> whoever maintained the server, whether they can be reconstructed
> from -- by that …

***

> [J]ust last week, the Senate’s – Senate Finance and Homeland
> Security Committees released documents revealing that Clinton IT
> aide Paul Combetta copied all but four of the missing emails to a
> Gmail account that does not appear to have ever been reconstructed
> and searched. The court thinks Judicial Watch ought to shake this
> tree.

On March 2, 2020, Judge Lamberth granted
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our request to subpoena Google
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for relevant documents and records associated with Clinton’s emails
during her tenure at the State Department.

> Judicial Watch seeks to subpoena Google for relevant documents and
> records associated with Secretary Clinton's emails during her tenure
> at State.… The subpoena seeks to discover new emails, so it
> certainly relates to whether State conducted an adequate search.

***

> The Court is not confident that State currently possesses every
> Clinton email recovered by the FBI; even years after the FBI
> investigation, the slow trickle of new emails has yet to be
> explained. For this reason, the Court believes the subpoena would be
> worthwhile and may even uncover additional previously undisclosed
> emails. Accordingly, the Court GRANTS this request.

Our subpoena requests all Clinton emails and metadata, “sent or
forwarded to or from or saved, stored, archive, or contained in the
Gmail account associated with the following address:

> a. [email protected]; or
> b. [email protected].”

Here’s what’s really going on. A federal court, tired of the State
and Justice Departments’ gamesmanship, authorized our subpoena to
Google to follow a lead on the Clinton emails. DOJ and State are AWOL
and covering up for Hillary Clinton, so it is again up to us to do the
basic investigative heavy lifting to get at the truth.

Here’s some more background.

In December 2018, Judge Lamberth first ordered discovery
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into whether Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server was
intended to stymie FOIA; whether the State Department’s intent to
settle this case in late 2014 and early 2015 amounted to bad faith;
and whether the State Department has adequately searched for records
responsive to our request. The court also authorized discovery into
whether the Benghazi controversy motivated the cover-up of Clinton’s
email. The court ruled
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that
the Clinton email system was “one of the gravest modern offenses to
government transparency.”

In addition to the Google subpoena, we were granted discovery that
includes testimony under oath by Clinton and her former Chief of Staff
Cheryl Mills regarding Clinton’s emails and Benghazi attack records.
Recently, we and the State Department, which is represented by Justice
Department lawyers, filed responses
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opposing Clinton’s and Mills’ _Writ of Mandamus_
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request to overturn the lower court order
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requiring their testimony. I expect we’ll hear from the appellate
court soon on Mrs. Clinton’s testimony and I will report back to you
when we do….

IT TOOK CORONAVIRUS FOR THE VETERANS AFFAIRS TO HOUSE HOMELESS VETS IN
_TENTS_

We have been in the thick of litigation about the plight of homeless
veterans in Los Angeles for some time. Now comes word of more
senselessness by Veterans Affairs. Our _Corruption Chronicles_ blog
reports
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> It took a global pandemic for the Los Angeles Veterans Affairs to
> offer a few vets temporary housing on a sprawling parcel deeded to
> the federal government over a century ago for the specific purpose
> of caring for disabled military veterans. Thousands of veterans have
> long lived on the streets surrounding the lush facility in West
> L.A., yet the VA has been derelict in its duty to help them. With
> the COVID-19 crisis deeply impacting the region’s vast homeless
> population, the VA finally erected several small tents in the
> parking lot of its healthcare system campus to accommodate a couple
> dozen vets who were sleeping on the sidewalk immediately adjacent to
> the grounds. It is a tiny gesture that will barely put a dent on the
> crisis, but it’s a start, say some local veterans.

> “Honestly, it’s like a Band-Aid considering that there are
> around 4,000 homeless veterans in the city of L.A.,” said Robert
> Rosebrock, a U.S. Army veteran and activist who leads a troop called
> the Old Veterans Guard. Since 2008 the group has assembled at the
> “Great Lawn Gate” that marks the entrance to the Los Angeles
> National Veterans Park to protest the VA’s failure to make full
> use of the property to benefit veterans, particularly those who are
> homeless. The elderly vets have been a thorn in the agency’s side
> and federal authorities have retaliated against them for denouncing
> the fraudulent use of the facility, including a scam
>
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> involving a VA official who took bribes from a vender that defrauded
> the agency out of millions. VA police harass and intimidate the
> senior vets at their weekly rallies and Rosebrock got criminally
> charged for posting a pair of four-by-six-inch American Flags on the
> outside fence on Memorial Day in 2016. Judicial Watch represented
> Rosebrock in the federal case and a judge eventually ruled that
> Rosebrock was not guilty
>
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> of violating federal law for displaying the flags above the VA
> fence. In the meantime, the VA illegally rents its grounds to
> institutions that don’t serve veterans and evicts
>
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> groups dedicated to helping them.

> That fuels Rosebrock’s passion to help needy vets. Tireless at 78,
> he has made it his mission to fight for those who served their
> country but continue to be neglected by the VA. It enrages him and
> his group that the 338-acre West L.A. property, dedicated to the
> federal government in 1888 to serve disabled vets, is used for many
> unrelated causes. Among them is a stadium for the University of
> California, Los Angeles (UCLA) baseball team, an athletic complex
> for a nearby private high school, laundry facilities for a local
> hotel, storage and maintenance of production sets for 20th Century
> Fox Television, the Brentwood Theatre, soccer practice and match
> fields for a private girls’ soccer club, a dog park and a
> farmer’s market.

> “There shouldn’t be one homeless vet in L.A.,” Rosebrock said.
> “That’s what this facility is for; to help them.” He reminds
> that back in 2014 L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti publicly guaranteed then
> First Lady Michelle Obama that he would end veteran homelessness in
> his city by the end of 2015. Judicial Watch reached out the to the
> mayor’s office but never heard back. “There are still thousands
> of vets sleeping on the sidewalk right outside the fence,”
> Rosebrock said, offering heart-breaking pictures.

> One somber photo has plastic tarps, tents, umbrellas and an
> assortment of ragged items covering the swale adjacent to the VA
> fence on Veterans Parkway. It includes a large pile of the homeless
> veterans’ belongings stashed in white plastic trash bags,
> suitcases, lawn chairs, wheelchairs and bicycles. Surrounding areas
> around the VA fence perimeter are also captured in grim
> shots—snapped recently by Rosebrock—that depict impoverished
> shanty towns in the middle of some of the city’s most upscale
> communities. Battered tents, decaying tarps, buckets, grocery store
> carts and black plastic trash bags full of personal belongings line
> sidewalks and, in some areas, laundry hangs on the VA fence. Not far
> away are ritzy neighborhoods like Brentwood, Westwood and Century
> City.

> In a recent local newspaper article
>
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> the VA claims that the new parking lot tents are a “service
> center” instead of a campground. Bathrooms, showers, security as
> well as medical and psychiatric care are also provided to the lucky
> few. The story says the temporary shelter has a reduced capacity of
> 50 people to accommodate social distancing that reportedly helps
> prevent coronavirus from spreading, but Rosebrock, who visits the
> site regularly, said the real number is more like 25. The tents are
> too small, he says, and older vets have difficulty crawling around
> in them. Rosebrock bought a larger tent and tried donating it, but
> the VA rejected the offer. Judicial Watch has also offered to
> purchase tents for the homeless veterans. “There’s no rhyme or
> reason for offering such a limited number of veterans tents,”
> Rosebrock said. “It’s just an arbitrary number they came up
> with.”

MEXICAN DRUG TUNNEL LEADS TO U.S. WAREHOUSE RUN BY ILLEGAL ALIENS

The power of the demand for and supply of illicit drugs from Mexico is
evident in the audacious ways smugglers find to get them across the
border. Our _Corruption Chronicles_ blog has the story
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of one of the latest mind-boggling capers.

> Mexican drug smugglers are really getting bold. A cross-border
> tunnel recently discovered by U.S. authorities exits in a San Diego
> warehouse right next to a busy Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
> port of entry. It gets better. The southern California warehouse is
> manned by illegal immigrants even though it is situated just a few
> hundred yards from a hectic border crossing staffed with federal
> agents around the clock.

> A Mexican national with legal residency has been arrested and
> charged in connection to the operation, federal prosecutors
> announced this month. His name is Rogelio Flores Guzman and he
> helped construct the tunnel, which runs 2,000 feet from a Tijuana
> warehouse to the south San Diego depot. The U.S. has charged the
> 31-year-old with trafficking fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin,
> cocaine and marijuana via a subterranean tunnel stretching from
> Mexico to a warehouse in Otay Mesa. When authorities entered the
> tunnel, they found around 575 packages of drugs worth nearly $30
> million, according to a bulletin
>
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> issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ). This sets a record
> because it marks the first time that five different types of drugs
> are found in a tunnel, according to the feds.

> Agents from a special tunnel task force confiscated 394 packages
> containing 585 kilograms of cocaine; 133 packages containing 1,355
> kilograms of marijuana; 40 packages containing 39.12 kilograms of
> methamphetamine; Seven packages containing 7.74 kilograms of heroin
> and one package containing 1.1 kilograms of fentanyl.
> “Cross-border tunnels always spark fascination, but in reality
> they are a very dangerous means for major drug dealers to move large
> quantities of narcotics with impunity until we intervene,” said
> the federal prosecutor in charge of the case, U.S. Attorney Robert
> Brewer. “We have seized this tunnel, confiscated almost $30
> million in drugs and now we’ve charged one of the alleged crew
> members.”

> Guzman moved around quite a bit, prosecutors say. He lived in the
> southern California city of Victorville in San Bernardino County as
> well as Las Vegas and Otay Mesa. He was arrested at Los Angeles
> International Airport last week boarding a plane to Guadalajara,
> Mexico. At his arraignment via video due to the COVID-19 crisis the
> judge ordered Guzman held without bail after the government argued
> that he was a flight risk. His next court appearances are scheduled
> for April 23 and May 7. Guzman faces up to life in prison.
> “Despite the challenges we all face as we endure this pandemic,
> our federal agents and officers who make up the San Diego Tunnel
> Task Force, working alongside the U.S Attorney’s Office and local
> law enforcement, continue to investigate and serve justice to those
> involved with the construction and operation of this tunnel,” said
> Cardell T. Morant, acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland
> Security Investigations (HSI) San Diego.

> Agents involved in the operation estimate that the tunnel is several
> months old so there is no telling the number of drugs that made it
> through before it got shut down. The tunnel is sophisticated with
> reinforced walls, ventilation, lighting and an underground rail
> system to facilitate transporting goods. When federal agents
> conducted surveillance around the middle of March, they spotted
> Guzman leaving the Otay Mesa warehouse in a medium sized box truck
> with a separate cargo area accessible only from the back of the
> vehicle. In the truck were 10 people who the feds reveal “later
> self-identified as Mexican nationals who did not legally enter the
> United States.” The illegal immigrants evidently worked at the
> warehouse that received drug cargo from Tijuana.

> There was a significant increase in Mexican smuggling tunnels after
> President Donald Trump increased border security in 2017. One
> southern California news conglomerate reported
>
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> that criminal organizations in Mexico were improving the tunnels
> they use to smuggle people and drugs under Trump’s border fence,
> making them smaller and maintaining a high level of sophistication
> that includes railways and electricity. “In San Diego, tunnels are
> usually sophisticated partly because of the highly organized
> criminal organization operating in Baja California – the Sinaloa
> Cartel – as well as the characteristics of Otay Mesa, a
> neighborhood that exists on both sides of the border,” the article
> states. “In the U.S. and in Mexico, Otay Mesa is crowded with
> warehouses, providing numerous spaces to hide tunnel entry and exit
> points.” Operating one right next to a U.S. border crossing packed
> with federal agents is quite brazen.

TRUMP’S WINNING CORONAVIRUS BET

The anti-Trump media’s attacks on emerging and encouraging
treatments for the coronavirus contagion is one of the worst scandals
of the modern media age. President Trump hasn’t been cowed by the
“nattering naybobs of negativity” and his push for wider use of
hydroxychloroquine may be saving lives. Our Micah Morrison has the
story
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from our _Investigative Bulletin_:

> Donald Trump’s bold gamble on hydroxychloroquine (HC) appears to
> be paying off. Medical professionals in New York tell Judicial Watch
> that doctors battling the pandemic are increasingly reporting
> benefits from the drug. They’re prescribing it for themselves, for
> patients, and for frontline personnel.

> HC is a decades-old drug used in treating malaria, lupus, and
> rheumatoid arthritis. It’s largely untested against the
> coronavirus. President Trump has been enthusiastically promoting it
> for weeks, calling it possibly “one of the biggest game changers
> in the history of medicine” and “a very special thing.” The
> president’s embrace of the drug
>
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apparently
> began with a conversation in March with Oracle cofounder Larry
> Ellison and quickly escalated to exchanges with Dr. Mehmet Oz, Rudy
> Giuliani, Laura Ingraham, and friends in New York. A small study in
> France indicated the drug could be effective in fighting the virus,
> though French authorities later backpedaled
>
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> Critics of the president and much of the health-care community were
> aghast. A president with a medical opinion! HC had serious side
> effects
>
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> they noted, including possible heart attack. Critics complained that
> Trump sidelined the cautious approach
>
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to
> the drug recommended by Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top White House
> medical advisers.

> Trump insisted on pushing forward. He pounded the White House bully
> pulpit
>
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and
> lobbied the conservative media. He leaned on the Centers for Disease
> Control and the Food and Drug Administration. Result? The CDC issued
> new guidance on HC and the FDA eased restrictions on the drug,
> issuing an emergency authorization allowing doctors to broadly
> prescribe it and ramping up larger clinical reviews. He pressured
> India
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the
> largest producer of HC, to keep its markets open to the U.S. In
> March, India approved HC
>
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for
> its own frontline personnel: the order noted that HC was “found to
> be effective against coronavirus in laboratory studies and in-vivo
> studies.”

> In New York, the epicenter of the pandemic, HC is now in wide
> circulation and a big clinical trial is underway. New York Governor
> Andrew Cuomo is a fan, saying anecdotal evidence suggests the drug
> is “effective.” Others are less enthusiastic. The European
> Union, American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, American College of
> Medical Toxicology, and American Association of Poison Control
> Centers, among others, have issued warnings
>
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> Is Trump right? Is HC an effective drug in the fight against the
> coronavirus? In some ways, the HC episode perfectly encapsulates the
> Trump presidency—his preference for outside channels, distrust of
> experts, deregulatory impulses, use of social and conservative
> media. We’ll have answers soon enough about HC. But for now, it
> looks like the president has placed a winning bet.

Until next week …





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