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Judicial Watch Sues for Secret Service
Protection Requests by Trump
The Biden-Harris administration is in full cover-up mode over its failure
to protect President Trump at his Butler, PA, rally.
Following up on reports that the Secret Service denied President Trump’s
requests for additional protection, we filed a Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) lawsuit
against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for all Secret Service and
other records regarding potential increased protective services to former
President Trump’s security detail prior to the attempt on his life at his
July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania (Judicial
Watch v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No.
1:24-cv-02495)).
We sued after the agency failed to respond to a July 16 FOIA request for:
All records including emails, email chains, email attachments, text
messages, video or audio recordings, photographs, outlook calendars,
meeting minutes, correspondence, statements, letters, memoranda, reports,
briefings, presentations, notes, summaries, requests for assistance,
between or among the Office of the Secretary and / or Office of the Deputy
Secretary, Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service,
referring or relating to any potential increase or addition of protective
resources to President Trump’s protective security detail.
One day after Trump was wounded at the Butler rally, Secret Service
spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said
claims that increased protective services requests from Trump’s Secret
Service detail had been denied were “absolutely false.”
On July 15, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees
the Secret Service, called claims that he had personally denied such
requests “baseless and irresponsible” and “unequivocally false” in
a CNN
interview.
The Washington Post reported
on July 20 that the Secret Service had repeatedly denied requests for
additional security at Trump events for two years prior to the July 13
assassination attempt by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.
According to the Post’s report, Secret Service agents on Trump’s
detail had requested magnetometers and additional agents to assist with
security screenings at large public gatherings Trump attended, as well as
additional snipers and specialty teams at other outdoor events.
Guglielmi admitted to the Post that the Secret Service had denied
Trump’s request for additional security but claimed it had only learned
about the new information after the July 13 shooting.
Kimberly Cheatle, who was appointed Secret Service Director by President
Biden in August 2022, resigned on July 23, one day after she testified
before a congressional committee and was highly criticized by both
Democrats and Republicans for the security failures on July 13. She called
the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant
operational failure” in decades but failed to answer lawmakers’
specific questions about the investigation into the assassination
attempt.
The Biden-Harris Secret Service lied about denying President Trump
increased protection requests and is now trying to cover up that deadly
scandal. The Biden-Harris administration has yet to release one record
about the Trump assassination attempt under FOIA – which is why we are
now in federal court.
In August, we received Secret Service records
that showed the Secret Service has made it a top priority that “diversity
and inclusion is not just ‘talked about’ – but demonstrated by all
employees through ‘Every Action, Every Day.’” [Emphasis in
original]
We also uncovered records
from the district attorney’s office in Butler County, PA, detailing the
extensive preparation of local police for the rally at which former
President Trump was shot, including sniper teams, counter-assault teams and
a quick response force.
In response to a separate open records request, we obtained
bodycam footage of the July 13 assassination events from the Butler
Township Police Department.
We reported
that the FBI withheld information on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request for information about its coordination with the U.S. Secret Service
regarding the July 13 Butler, PA, rally.
On July 31, we reported
that the United States Secret Service completely denied multiple Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) requests for documents about the assassination
attempt on former President Trump.
We have more than 25 FOIA and open records currently pending on the
shooting of Trump with the Biden administration and local and state
officials and agencies in Pennsylvania.
Pentagon Official Earned $2.5 Million Salary While Operating
Dog-Fighting Ring
The Biden-Harris Pentagon has a peculiar HR approach – fire good men and
women who object to forced Covid vaccines but allow indicted individuals to
‘voluntarily retire’ with full benefits.
We received 81
pages of federal employee payment records from the U.S.
Department of Defense revealing that Frederick Douglass Moorefield, Jr.,
Deputy Chief Information Officer for Command, Control, and Communications,
for Office of the Secretary of Defense earned federal salary and bonuses of
$2,471,478 million over 10 years while operating a dog-fighting ring on the
side and was allowed to “voluntarily retire” after his indictment.
On October 2, 2023, the Justice Department issued a press
release, stating:
A federal criminal complaint has been filed charging Frederick Douglass
Moorefield, Jr., age 62, of Arnold, Maryland, and Mario Damon Flythe, age
49, of Glen Burnie, Maryland with promoting and furthering animal fighting
venture. The criminal complaint was filed on September 21, 2023, and was
unsealed at the defendants’ initial appearances on September 28,
2023.
On October 4, 2023, the Justice Department announced
the federal indictment of Moorefield and his associate Mario Flythe,
stating:
A federal grand jury returned a 10-count indictment late yesterday
charging [Moorefield and Flythe] with conspiracy to engage in an animal
fighting venture and other charges related to their alleged establishment
and promotion of a dog fighting ring.
We obtained the records through an October 2023 FOIA request to the Office
of the Secretary of Defense/Joint Staff for:
1. All [payment records] SF-50s and SF-52s of Frederick Douglass
Moorefield, Jr., deputy chief information officer for command, control and
communication for the Secretary of Defense’s Chief Information Officer,
for the period 2013 to 2023.
2. All disciplinary records of Mr.
Moorefield for the period 2002 through 2023.
3. All emails sent to and from Mr.
Moorefield referencing the terms “dog,” “dogs,” “DMV Board,”
and/or “Geehad Kennels” …
The salary records show that over the final 10 years of Moorefield’s
employment at the Defense Department he earned $2,174,565 in base
compensation.
In that same 10-year period, he also received nine “Senior Executive
Service Performance Awards” totaling $191,198, and two “Presidential
Rank Awards” totaling $105,715, for total bonuses over the 10-year period
of $296,913.
During 2022, Moorefield’s last complete year of employment, Moorefield
received total government compensation of $306,701:
- On
January 2, 2022, Moorefield’s salary was increased
from $198,162 to $203,700;
- On October 6, 2022, Moorefield
received a “Presidential
Rank Award” of $71,295 on top of his base salary of
$203,700;
- On December 31, 2022, Moorefield
received an “SES
Performance Award” of $28,111, on top of his $203,700 base
salary.
During 2023, Moorefield’s last partial year of employment:
- On
January 1, 2023, Moorefield’s base
salary was raised from $203,700 to
$212,100;
- On October 1, 2023, Moorefield’s
job
title was changed from Deputy Chief Information Officer for
Command, Control and Communications to Special Assistant to the Department
of Defense Chief Information Officer while his salary remained
unchanged;
- On October 6, Moorefield was permitted
“Retirement-Voluntary.”
In the “Remarks” section of the form, a note says: “Lump-sum payment
to be made for any unused annual leave. Reason for retirement: to obtain
retirement benefits.” The remarks further provide a forwarding address
for Moorefield at a
home that he
sold on January 30, 2024, for $454,500.
According to an October 3, 2023, news
report in Stars and Stripes:
An affidavit written by FBI Special Agent Ryan C. Daly indicated that
authorities have been investigating the dogfighting ring, which called
itself “the DMV Board,” for years. Nine fellow dog-fighters were
indicted in Virginia last year, and eight have pleaded guilty and
cooperated with investigators. Members communicated on the “Telegram”
messaging app about training fighting dogs, exchanging videos, arranging
fights and wagers, and comparing methods of killing dogs who lost fights,
the affidavit states.
The same article reports:
The FBI, the Department of Agriculture, and other local and federal
agencies raided [two] houses on Sept. 6, according to a federal affidavit,
finding weighted collars and heavy metal chains used to increase fighting
dogs’ strength. Authorities said they also found “an apparatus that is
used for involuntarily inseminating female dogs” and stains “consistent
with bloodstains from dogfights.”
Our previous FOIA requests
and lawsuits exposed initial White House falsehoods about the
severity and number of attacks by the Bidens’ previous dog, Major.
Judicial Watch then received a tip that Commander was also attacking
Secret Service personnel and uncovered documents last July showing 10
biting incidents.
According to a Judicial Watch source, President Biden mistreated his dogs.
The source disclosed Biden punched and kicked his dogs.
On May 14, 2024, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit
regarding Biden’s dogs after the Department of Homeland Security failed
to respond to a February 28, 2024, FOIA request (Judicial
Watch v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No.
1:24-cv-01397)). Judicial Watch is asking for:
All emails and text messages sent to and from the following officials
regarding the submission of CA-1 Forms (“Notice of Traumatic Injury and
Claim for Continuation of Pay or Compensation”) in connection with bites
by Biden family dogs: Director Kimberly Cheatle, Deputy Dir. Ronald Rowe,
Chief Operating Officer Cynthia Radway, Asst. Dir. Michael Plati, Asst.
Dir. Brian Lambert, Chief Human Capital Officer Denise Walker Hall, Asst.
Dir. David Smith, Asst. Dir. Miltom Wilson, Uniformed Division Chief
Michael Buck, Chief Counsel Thomas Huse, and Chief of Communications
Anthony Guglielmi.
Over Half a Billion to Build EV Chargers in Underserved
Communities
Nobody is asking if residents of poor communities can afford electric
vehicles, but the Biden-Harris administration is generously funding EV
charging stations for them. Our Corruption Chronicles blog reports.
Less than a year after the Biden administration dedicated $100
million to repair electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in
disadvantaged communities, it is giving local governments in dozens of
states $521
million to build EV charging ports in mostly underserved areas. It is
part of the president’s multi-billion-dollar program to create EV
charging infrastructure in urban and rural regions, “particularly in
underserved and disadvantaged communities.” The money flows through the
Department of Transportation (DOT), which proudly claims that the “number
of publicly available Electric Vehicle chargers has doubled since the start
of the Biden-Harris Administration.”
The cost to American taxpayers has been
exorbitant and it doesn’t even include the fact that the administration
is subsidizing the EV industry with a staggering $15.54 billion.
That is part of a Department of Energy (DOE) program focused on retooling
existing factories for the transition to EVs, which supports good jobs and
a just transition to electric cars, according to the agency. The charger
initiative is separate and is mainly funded by a $2.5 billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI)
Discretionary Grant Program that spits
money annually to “strategically deploy publicly accessible electric
vehicle charging and alternative fueling infrastructure in the places
people live and work—urban and rural areas alike.” Another pot of cash
is also available under the multi-million-dollar National Electric Vehicle
Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program that provides states with funds to
strategically deploy charging stations and establish an interconnected
network to facilitate data collection, access, and reliability.
Not surprisingly, Biden’s EV revolution
operates under his Justice40 Initiative which requires at least 40% of all federal government investments
to flow to “disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved,
and overburdened with pollution.” The president signed an executive order
within days of taking office to allocate unprecedented public funds to poor
minority communities in the name of environmental justice. Over half of the
latest $521 million allocation will go to sites located in disadvantaged
communities, the DOT confirms in its recent grant announcement.
“Investing in these communities creates jobs, reduces transportation
costs, and helps mitigate healthcare costs caused by air pollution, while
also ensuring all equitable access to EV charging infrastructure,” the
agency writes. In the press release Biden Climate Czar Ali Zaidi says
building the new charging infrastructure is already creating good-paying
union jobs.
Here is where some of the money is going,
according to a lengthy list provided by
the government. The city of Atlanta, Georgia will receive around $11.8
million to install 50 fast chargers at the Atlanta Airport “to improve
asthma related issues in predominantly Black and underserved
neighborhoods” and to “engage underserved communities to ensure
widespread adoption of EVs.” Chicago is getting $15 million to expand
charging access, engage community members and develop strategic plans to
support “more equitable transportation decarbonization in underserved
communities where the private sector is not currently investing in EV
infrastructure.” Arizona’s Maricopa County is also receiving $15
million to install publicly accessible charging stations in schools and
businesses in an effort “to close gaps and equalize access to EV charging
stations.” Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in northern California is
getting $14 million to install chargers at all its managed parking
facilities and the project will “prioritize deployment at stations in or
near disadvantaged communities.” A few hundred miles south, Los Angeles
is getting $15 million to develop a comprehensive network of publicly
accessible, community-based chargers “strategically located to directly
benefit underserved and Justice40 communities.”
The list goes on and on, with most grants
going to improve the quality of life in poor neighborhoods throughout the
country, though it is not clear what the EV ownership rate is in
marginalized or overburdened communities or the demand for chargers because
the government has failed to provide that information. Practically every
state is getting a chunk of change to promote EVs and create charging
infrastructure in the name of environmental justice.
Until next week,
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