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Judicial Watch Sues Justice about Invoking
25th Amendment against Biden
For four years we’ve watched a diminished Joe Biden play the role of
commander in chief. We’d like to know what his top lieutenants have been
thinking about his mental capacity.
We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the
Department of Justice seeking access to the documents related to invoking
the 25th Amendment against President Joe Biden (Judicial Watch v. U.S.
Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-02764)).
On August 7, 2024, we submitted a FOIA request for:
Records and communications of the below listed Department of Justice
employees, including emails, email chains, email attachments, text
messages, calendar invites, calendar meetings, correspondence, briefings,
letters, memoranda, reports, notes, opinions, regarding invoking the 25th
Amendment against President Joseph Biden.
- Merrick Garland, Attorney
General
- Lisa
O. Monaco, Deputy Attorney General
- Benjamin C. Mizer, Associate Attorney
General
- Acting Associate Attorney
General
- Christopher Fonzone, Assistant
Attorney General
- Robert Hur, Special Counsel
On February 5, 2024, Special Counsel Robert 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.
On February 8, 2024, Congresswoman Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) sent a letter to Attorney
General Merrick Garland in which she stated:
After concluding that President Biden knowingly and willfully removed,
mishandled, and disclosed classified documents repeatedly over a period of
decades, Mr. Hur nevertheless recommended that charges not be brought
against him.
Special Counsel's reasoning was alarming. He
recited numerous instances in which President Biden exhibited dramatically
compromised mental faculties and concluded that a jury would be likely to
perceive President Biden as a sympathetic and forgetful old
man.
***
It is incumbent upon you to explore proceedings to remove the President
pursuant to the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution. President
Biden needs to be charged, or he needs to be removed. There is no middle
ground.
If President Biden is as mentally sound as
he and the people around him maintain, why did he decide not to seek
reelection? If he is an ‘elderly man with a poor memory,’ as Special
Counsel Hur (for AG Garland) found, why has he not been removed under the
25th Amendment? And why is
the Justice Department unlawfully hiding documents about this serious
national security issue?
Las Vegas Police Radio Recordings Show Reaction to Joe Biden Medical
Emergency
We received police radio records from
the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department that show it shutting down
roads and clearing a path to a local hospital on July 17, 2024, for a
“sick or injured” President Biden. These recordings raise significant
questions about whether the American people were told the full truth about
President Biden’s health status.
President Biden suddenly canceled an
appearance at an event in Las Vegas, Nevada, after testing positive for
Covid-19. Biden was set to speak at the UnidosUS Annual Conference.
Four days later, on July 21, 2024, Biden announced he would
not seek re-election.
We obtained the radio transmissions in a Nevada Public Records Act request
for:
All records, including emails, email chains, email attachments, text
messages, video or audio recordings of any type, radio transmissions,
photographs, correspondence, statements, letters, memoranda, logs,
blotters, reports, briefings, presentations, notes, summaries, or other
form of record regarding President Joseph (Joe) Biden having any form of
medical emergency, event, situation, or to expedite his movement while in
Las Vegas to deliver a speech at UnidosUS.
The Las Vegas Police produced three audio recordings. None of the
recordings has a date/time stamp.
In the 43-minute recording, in a transmission largely dealing with
rerouting traffic to accommodate Biden’s motorcade, the control center
asks if anyone knows if the Secret Service has drones flying over the
stratosphere and the response is “I don’t think so.” The drone is
reported “stratosphere flying 2500 feet.” Shortly afterwards, Biden is
declared Code 421, meaning
sick or injured. Officers are directed to respond, Code 3, meaning
lights and sirens, and are heard quickly maneuvering to block intersections
for a full road closure.
Some of the radio transmissions include:
[@ 19:47] Officer: Downtown is asking if we know if Secret Service has
drones flying over the stratosphere right now?”
Officer: I don’t think so.
Officer: Where is the drone at?
Officer: It’s stratosphere flying 2500
feet.
***
[@ 22:40] Officer: Alright, so right now we be on a hold with something
with the president, so if you can go ahead, you can go ahead and let some
of that north and south flow, but not east and west, just north and south
please….
Officer: For everybody on the radio, right
now POTUS [Biden] is 421[sick or injured]. He’s being seen, so we are
kind of waiting to see how this is shaping out, so for everybody’s
knowledge he’s 421 right now. We’re just trying to figure out what’s
going on and we’re going to go from there.
***
[@ 25:40] Officer: Can you have all the units that are assigned to the
motorcade come down to Desert Inn and Eastern, DI and Eastern? And, I need
them here ASAP….
Officer: When you say ASAP, do you want us
Code
3 [lights and sirens]
there?
Officer: Yes, please.
Officer: I want everybody with the exception
of units at DI and Eastern….
***
[@ 29:10] Officer: All units on this channel, 302. What we are going to
do is, the tail car is going to be in a black explorer. They are going to
get out in front. We are going to go south on Eastern and they are going to
deploy you. So the first car behind the EP Explorer, just listen to what
they are telling you and deploy you. And then each car after that will be
deployed….
Officer: Alright, everybody keep in mind,
for this one we are trying to go for a full closure. We need a full
closure. So it needs to be north and south bound on Eastern as well as East
and West on Russell….
Officer: We are going to shut down
everything….
Officer: 302, Secret Service is requesting a
Code
3 [lights and sirens]
response.
Police units are heard announcing the Biden
motorcade’s arrival at Air Force One. A informs the officers of their
“great work” on an “ad hoc” mission:
[@ 40:24] Officer: All my units at the
airport, be advised that the motorcade is at Air Force One, so just hold
your road closures until I tell you otherwise.
Officer: Control, 302, just want to let
everybody know great work out there. We put that together ad hoc.
Appreciate all the resources coming over. You did a fantastic job. Looked
like we had planned it for weeks. So, great job everybody. If I could ask
everybody to please standby until we get the plane off the
ground.
In the 4:03 minute recording, officers are heard over the radio rushing to
secure the perimeter of University Medical Center Hospital and rendezvous
outside Valley Hospital emergency room entrance in anticipation of
Biden’s arrival. A “Max Tac Alert, meaning maximum tactical alert, is
declared over the radio “he is in the box squad.” Plain clothes
officers are directed to “tac up” before heading to the Valley
Hospital. As transcribed by Judicial Watch, some of those radio
transmissions include:
[@ :10] Officer: Assign yourself to a 461 [non-criminal
detail] at UMC [University Medical Center], break. Everyone who is able
straight to Valley Hospital ER.
Officer: You kind of cut up 678, did you say
462 [directed patrol activity] at UMC and what was
the other part?
Officer: Go ahead straight to the UMC, meet
at the Valley Hospital ER parking lot.
Officer: 678 acknowledged….
Officer: So for officers coming to Valley we
are going to meet, behind the ER entrance where the ambulance is going,
there is a little cul-de-sac back there. You will see me.
A beeping alert tone is transmitted.
Officer: Max Tac Alert. Area command, break. He’s in the box squad.
It’s going to Max TAC alert for the preliminary command in the box
squad.
Officer: 678 I copy that. Again, any
available units come down here to Valley Hospital right now.
Officer: 678 copy. There is about four units
coming to you right now.
Officer: I need more.
Officer: 678 -759. Most of my guys are plain
clothes, can you use us or no.
Officer: As long as they are decked out in
readily identifiable police gear.
Officer: Alright, copy that. We will be
enroute to you bro.
Officer: 759 – unintelligible
Officer: Go ahead.
Officer: I caught the tail end of that,
where we meeting you at?
Officer: Just rally up outside the station,
we will tac up, then we will push out.
In the 4:20 minute recording, officers are heard over the radio being
directed to respond, Code 3, lights and
sirens, to start blocking intersections and closing roads to traffic.
Officers are on two different radio channels with some units moving with
the “package,” referring to Biden, while other units are scrambling to
close roads for the president’s motorcade movement. As transcribed by
Judicial Watch, some of the transmissions are:
[@ :05] Officer: Can I have my Lincoln squad switch over to event eight
please, event eight?
Officer: Okay 697 squad, Lincoln squad
switch over to event eight.
Officer: And if they’re not already, have
them Code
3 [lights and sirens] over to the
rally point please….
Officer: Yeah, I know you’ve got some
southeast units coming over plus you are in the box squad. I need to get
all the major intersections with lights shut down from Desert Inn all the
way to Russell. So, if units could just start calling out what intersection
they are going to I think that is going to be useful. Start with the big
ones….
Officer: The first three priorities are
going to be Flamingo, Tropicana, and then Russell because those are the
three biggest….
Officer: Units on the event channel are
going to be moving with the package, but, yeah, why don’t you guys just
focus on those three major intersections for now.
***
[@ 3:21] Officer: We’re going to go ahead and lock down the
intersections, I am going back to event eight to get further
instructions….
Officer: 697, yeah, for those units that are
coming, just start going up and down Eastern, look for an intersection that
needs to be shut down, and then just shut it down.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later released a statement
regarding the incident:
Following his first event in Las Vegas, President Biden tested positive
for COVID-19. He is vaccinated and boosted and he is experiencing mild
symptoms. He will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and
will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.
Video posted to X shows
Biden slowly boarding Air Force One in Las Vegas on July 17.
Another video posted to X shows Biden arriving in
Delaware on July 17 and slowly descending Air Force One’s
short stairs for “self-isolation” due to the alleged COVID-19
diagnosis, but again he is seen not wearing a mask.
The American people have a right to answers about this evident Biden
medical emergency!
Judicial Watch Sues FDA for Records on Abortion Pill Mifepristone
From the get-go, the Mifepristone abortion pill has been promoted by a
corrupted and politicized FDA, contrary to the health of both pregnant
mothers and their unborn children. That the Biden-Harris FDA is covering up
key facts about the approval of the abortion pill while simultaneously
promoting its wide usage is a scandal.
We’re not sitting by. Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) lawsuit on behalf of
Advancing American Freedom Foundation against the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) for FDA records concerning approval of the
abortion drug Mifeprex (Mifepristone,
formerly known as RU-486) and meetings
between senior FDA officials, White House counsel, and foreign actors (Advancing American Freedom
Foundation v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(No. 1:24-cv-02803)).
Advancing American Freedom
Foundation develops innovative policy solutions, strategies,
coalitions, and messaging that expand freedom for all Americans.
We sued after HHS and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), which is a
component of HHS, failed to respond to identical May 31, 2024, FOIA
requests. Among the requested records are:
- Communications between the FDA and the
House Committee on Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
(“Subcommittee”) concerning letters from the Subcommittee dated June
27, 1996; July 1, 1996; and September 17, 1996.
- All
records requested in the September 17, 1996, letter from Subcommittee
Chairman Joe Barton to FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler.
- All
records of communications: between any FDA personnel and the Office of
White House Counsel between November 1, 1992, and January 31, 2001,
regarding the approval of “mifepristone” (which includes, but is not
limited to, such terms as Mifeprex, Mifegyne, Korlym, abortion pill,
RU-486, RU-38486, ZK-98296, and/or the mifepristone … including
communications with Associate White House Counsel Elena Kagan.
- All
records of communications between any FDA personnel and any person or
entity between November 1, 1992, and January 31, 2001, regarding FDA
Commissioner David Kessler’s overseas trip or trips to meet with
individuals from Roussel Uclaf on an unknown date, but on information or
belief took place in April or May 1994…. including communications
mentioning the Population Council (“PC”).
- Any
other records which, though not specifically requested, would have a
reasonable relationship to the subject matter of this request, including
any record or document.
In response to pressure from pro-abortion activists, the Clinton Food and
Drug Administration accelerated approval of the abortion pill in September
2000. (Similarly, the Obama and Biden administrations took steps to make
the controversial abortion pill more widely available in a way that
undermined its “safe” use.)
“The FDA has repeatedly refused to acknowledge its role in approving the
dangerous abortion drug, mifepristone and has refused to disclose
communications regarding its approval,” said AAF General Counsel J. Marc
Wheat. “Advancing American Freedom Foundation has worked tirelessly to
disclose the truth behind the FDA’s negligence and to bring justice for
the women hurt or killed by this drug. The American people deserve to know
the facts of how the FDA shirked protocols in order to expand abortions,
even at the cost of the health of the women using the drug. We are grateful
to Judicial Watch for picking up AAF’s case.”
We have been instrumental in bringing the controversies surrounding the
abortion drug to the public’s attention.
In March of this year, we filed an amicus curiae
(friend of the court) brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in which it
argued “the FDA violated its own unambiguous regulation and relied on
pretext…. The FDA’s actions in 2016 and 2021 were arbitrary and
capricious and violated the Administrative Procedures Act (“APA”).”
And, in 2021, using the Covid-19 pandemic as a tool, abortion proponents
“sued the FDA to dispense with the REMS [risk evaluation and mitigation
strategy] in-person medical visits as a prerequisite for obtaining Mifeprex
and permit the drug to be mailed.”
Through a FOIA lawsuit in 2023 we uncovered at least six
Mifeprex-related deaths between 2000 to 2002 that were detailed in Health
and Human Services records.
Records produced to us in September 2023 included an “Annual Report for
Mifepristone,” covering the period September 28, 2000, to September
27, 2001, produced by the Population Council/Danco Laboratories, LLC. The
summary indicated that during the testing period 32 “adverse events were
reported to Danco and reported by Danco to FDA in periodic reports.” (The
existence of adverse event reports does not necessarily establish
causation.)
Of the 32 reported adverse events, two were 15-day reports (the others were
not serious and/or not unexpected). One of the 15-day reports was reported
as “hemorrhage due to a ruptured ectopic pregnancy and death.”
[Emphasis added] The other was reported as “post-abortal
parametritis/endometritis, adult respiratory distress syndrome and
bilateral pneumonia.” This latter 15-day report and one case where fever
was reported represent the total reports on the marketed drug suggesting
infection. In addition, one infection was reported in the Population
Council’s 200 mifepristone study and one death [Emphasis added]
due to clostridium sordellii infection was reported in the Canadian
study.
This abortion pill is inextricably tied to government corruption and
Judicial Watch will persist in uncovering the truth about this dangerous
scandal.
Minnesota Supreme Court Hears Judicial Watch Lawsuit over Woke Racist
Teachers’ Contract
The Minnesota Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in our lawsuit
over a racially discriminatory Minneapolis teachers’ contract (Clapp v. Cox, et
al. (No. A23-0360). The contract provides
discriminatory job protections to certain racial minorities. You can view
the oral arguments here. Judicial Watch
senior attorney Michael Bekesha did an excellent job on behalf our taxpayer
client.
We obtained a victory in the Minnesota Court of Appeals, which allowed the
lawsuit to proceed. Minneapolis Public Schools appealed to the Minnesota
Supreme Court.
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in
August 2022 against Minneapolis Public Schools for violating the Equal
Protection Guarantee of the Minnesota Constitution. The school district,
supported by the teachers and other public employee unions, asserts that
Minnesota taxpayers do not have the right to challenge the illegal spending
of taxpayer money by government officials.
In its brief to the Supreme
Court, Judicial Watch states:
Minneapolis Public Schools and its Amici spill a lot of ink
complaining that a “complete stranger” has sued to prevent MPS from
carrying out an unconstitutional provision of a contract between it and its
teachers. [The Taxpayer], however, is not a stranger. She is a Minneapolis
taxpayer, and this Court, since at least 1877, has recognized taxpayers as
proper parties to bring such actions in Minnesota courts. This Court should
not accept MPS’s and its Amici’s invitation to undermine this
important check on government power.
***
[The Taxpayer] could not have brought a more straightforward case. She
alleges that she lives in Minneapolis and pays property tax on the home she
has owned since 2017…She also alleges that Minneapolis Public Schools is
funded in part by her tax dollars…In addition, she alleges that MPS
spends those tax dollars to carry out the various provisions of its
contract with the teachers’ union….Finally, she alleges that one of
those provisions violates the Minnesota Constitution….Therefore, she
alleges that her tax dollars are being used in an unlawful manner.
The controversial contract was agreed to in March 2022 to end a 14-day
teacher strike. The contract was recently renewed with the racial
discrimination provisions intact. As the lawsuit states:
Among other things, the contract provides preferences, protections, and
privileges for MPS teachers of certain races and ethnicities under a
section entitled “ARTICLE 15. PROTECTIONS FOR EDUCATORS OF COLOR.”
There is no similar provision covering educators who are not “of
color.”
Under the contract, teachers of color are
exempt from Defendant MPS’s seniority-based layoffs and reassignments,
which means, when layoffs or reassignments occur, the next senior teacher
who is not “of color” would be laid off or reassigned. In addition, the
contract mandates that Defendants reinstate teachers of color over more
senior teachers who are not “of color.”
This is a woke, racially discriminatory contract. Not one tax dollar should
be spent on it.
Massive Numbers of Criminal Illegal Aliens Uncovered
It’s hard to not conclude that the Biden-Harris administration is
deliberately wreaking destruction on our society. Our Corruption
Chronicles blog digs into what we’re
learning.
In the latest of countless scandals involving the Biden
administration’s failure to secure the border, over half a million
illegal aliens with criminal histories are roaming freely in the United
States, 435,719 with convictions and another 226,847 with pending charges.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created after 9/11 to protect
the country from another terrorist attack, has released the foreign
criminals in cities around the U.S., according to the Deputy Director of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS agency charged with
“enforcing immigration laws to
preserve national security and public safety.” In figures reluctantly
provided to Congress ICE’s second in command, Patrick Lechleitner,
reveals that as of July 21, 2024 662,566 noncitizens with criminal
histories are on the agency’s “non-detained docket” and therefore
roaming freely throughout the country. The data is “beyond disturbing,”
said the Texas congressman, Republican Tony Gonzales, who forced DHS to
provide the records.
Nearly 15,000 of the freed illegal aliens
have been convicted of or charged with murder, more than 20,000 with sexual
assault, 60,268 with burglary, larceny, or robbery, 105,146 with assault,
16,820 with weapon offenses, 3,971 with commercialized sex crimes and 3,372
with kidnapping. Over 126,000 have committed traffic offenses, more than
70,000 are in the system for drug crimes, 21,106 for fraudulent activities
and 12,000 for obstruction of justice. “Under President Biden and his
‘border czar,’ Vice President Harris, DHS law enforcement has been
directed to mass-release illegal aliens whom they know have criminal
convictions or are facing charges for serious crimes—and these dangerous,
destructive individuals are making their way into every city and state in
this country,” said Tennessee Congressman
Mark E. Green, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security that
recently exposed the alarming DHS stats. “How many more Americans need to
die or be victimized before this administration is forced to abide by the
laws they swore to uphold? This is madness. It is something no civilized,
well-functioning society should tolerate.”
Lechleitner explains to federal lawmakers
that his agency uses a few guidelines to determine detentions and notes
that “most noncitizens who are convicted of homicide are typically not
eligible for release from ICE custody” under a section of the Immigration
and Nationality Act. When that measure does not apply, ICE officers may use
their discretion in making custody determinations and release noncitizens
with conditions, the Deputy Director says, adding that custody
determinations are made on a case-by-case basis and take into account
individual circumstances, risk of flight, national security threat and
threat to public safety. “ICE takes other factors into consideration as
well, including when a noncitizen has a serious medical condition, is the
primary caregiver of minor children, or other humanitarian
considerations,” Lechleitner writes in the letter with the latest
criminal alien statistics. He also blasts local sanctuary districts that
refuse to honor ICE detainer requests, even for illegal aliens convicted of
serious felonies who pose an ongoing threat to public safety.
While detrimental to immigration
enforcement, local sanctuary measures alone cannot be blamed for the
release of hundreds of thousands of criminal aliens into unsuspecting
American communities. It is simply part of the Biden administration’s
expansive open border policies, which have welcomed a record-breaking
number—over 7 million and counting—of illegal immigrants into the
country. Just a few weeks ago, the House Homeland Security Committee
released an eye-popping report
documenting the Biden-Harris
administration’s unprecedented border crisis, which has allowed droves of
violent gang members, Islamic terrorists, tens of thousands of Chinese
nationals and a myriad of criminals into the country. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) is on pace to record more than 11.6 million illegal
immigrant encounters by the end of the Biden administration, an astounding
274% increase from the 3.1 million encounters recorded between fiscal years
2017 to 2020, according to figures in the congressional report. That does
not even include around 2 million known “gotaways” that have entered
the nation under this administration.
Until next week,
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