Biden Pardon Scandal
‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

[Header]

Biden Pardon Scandal

FANI WILLIS HIDES COMMUNICATIONS WITH JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE AND JACK
SMITH

[[link removed]]

Notorious Fulton County District Attorney Fanni Willis refused to
release
[[link removed]]
any non-public documents in response to a court order
[[link removed]]
finding her in
default for failing to respond to our lawsuit seeking her
communications with Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6
Committee.

Willis’ “Open Records Department” denied any records about Jack
Smith existed and cited a series of legal exemptions to justify the
withholding of communications with the January 6 Committee. The Willis
office did release one, already public, letter to January 6 Committee
Chairman Benny Thompson.

We filed our March 2024 lawsuit
[[link removed]]
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 communications with the Special Counsel’s
office and/or the January 6 Committee (_Judicial Watch Inc. v. Fani
Willis et al._
[[link removed]
_(No. 24-CV-002805)).

In our lawsuit
[[link removed]]
we stated
that Willis’ “representation about not having records responsive
to the request is likely false.” We referred to a December 5, 2023,
letter
[[link removed]]
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
(D-MS). In that letter Willis requested assistance from the committee
and offered to travel to DC.

In May 2024, we asked
[[link removed]]
the
court to declare a default judgment, noting that Willis was served
with the lawsuit in March 2024 and had “not filed an answer,”
which “was due 30 days after service.”
The court’s default judgment
[[link removed]]
states: “The Court finds Defendant [Willis, in her official
capacity] is in default and has been since 11 April 2024.” Further,
Willis “never moved to open default on any basis (not even during
the period when she could have opened default as a matter of right),
she never paid costs, and she never offered up a meritorious
defense.”

The court ordered Willis “to conduct a diligent search of her
records for responsive materials WITHIN FIVE BUSINESS DAYS of the
entry of this Order. Within that same five day period, Defendant is
ORDERED to provide Plaintiff with copies of all responsive records
that are not legally exempted or excepted from disclosure.”
[Emphasis in original] Willis’ office responded with zero non-public
documents:

> Members of the District Attorney's staff having conducted a search
> as directed by the Court, the Office provides the following response
> to Plaintiffs requests:
>
> Regarding “[a]ll documents and communication sent to, received
> from, or relating to Special Counsel Jack Smith or any employees in
> his office,” a diligent search indicates that no such documents or
> communications exist.
>
> Regarding "[a]ll documents and communication sent to or received
> from the United States House January 6th Committee or any of its
> employees," a diligent search indicates that any such documents and
> communications are "legally exempted or excepted from disclosure"
> under O.C.G.A. §§ 50-18-72(a)(4), 50-18-72(a)(41) and
> 50-18-72(a)(42). Per the direction of the Superior Court's Order,
> the Office informs the Plaintiff that the records are
> exempted/excepted from disclosure because they arose from the
> investigation, subsequent indictment, and prosecution in case number
> 23SC188947; are subject to attorney-client privilege; and are
> confidential work product. As a result, they are records in a
> pending, ongoing criminal investigation and prosecution.

Judicial Watch and a state court forced Fani Willis to confirm
additional documents exist about her collusion with the partisan
Pelosi January 6 Committee to get Trump. But Willis, citing legal
exemptions for a prosecution that’s essentially dead in the water,
now wants to hide these records from the American public. We plan to
push back in court against this disingenuous secrecy.

We have several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits related to
the prosecutorial abuse targeting Trump:

In February 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice asked
[[link removed]]
a
federal court to allow the agency to keep secret the names of top
staffers working in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office that is
targeting former President Donald Trump and other Americans.

(Before his appointment to investigate and prosecute Trump, Special
Counsel Jack Smith ] was at the center of several controversial
issues, the IRS scandal
[[link removed]]
among them. In 2014, a Judicial Watch investigation
[[link removed]]
revealed that top IRS officials had been in communication with Jack
Smith’s then-Public Integrity Section about a plan to launch
criminal investigations into conservative tax-exempt groups. Read more
here
[[link removed]].)

In January 2024, we filed a lawsuit
[[link removed]]
against Fulton County,
Georgia, for records regarding the hiring of Nathan Wade as a special
prosecutor by District Attorney Fani 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
[[link removed]]
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
[[link removed]]
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.

Through the New York Freedom of Information Law, in July 2023 we
received the engagement letter
[[link removed]]
showing New York County District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg paid $900 per
hour for partners and $500 per hour for associates to the Gibson, Dunn
& Crutcher law firm for the purpose of suing Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) in
an effort to shut down the House Judiciary Committee’s oversight
investigation into Bragg’s unprecedented indictment of former
President Donald Trump.

WRAY’S RESIGNATION IS A GOOD FIRST STEP

FBI Director Christopher Wray’s announced resignation is a good
first step to cleaning house at the FBI. Under Wray’s leadership,
the FBI has become an enemy of transparency, the rule of law,
constitutional government, and the civil rights of tens of millions of
Americans. (Judicial Watch and I witnessed firsthand the corruption of
Wray’s operation when FBI agents came to my home in what was obvious
retaliation for our criticism and lawsuits exposing their abuses.)

The FBI is irredeemably corrupt. From sitting on Hunter Biden’s
laptop in order to influence the 2020 election, the raid of President
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, and the censorship of Americans, to the
targeting of traditional Catholics, this FBI has been turned into the
political police for partisan leftists. Accordingly, Wray should be
subject to criminal investigation.

And, as sunlight is the best disinfectant, President Trump and his FBI
Director nominee Kash Patel should open wide the FBI files on its
abuses of power targeting Trump and countless other American citizens.

In the meantime, Judicial Watch will continue to investigate and sue
the FBI for the truth in its role in the worst government corruption
in American history.

In my new book _Rights and Freedoms in Peril_
[[link removed]]
I detail a long chain of abuses
officials and politicians have made against the American people and
call readers to battle for “the soul and survival of America.”

We are perhaps the nation’s leading Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) litigant against the FBI on its corruption issues. For example:

* In October 2024,we
[[link removed]
[[link removed]]
the Justice
Department for messages among top leaders of the FBI referencing
social media posts of Special Agent Jeffrey Veltri
[[link removed]],
head of the Miami Field Office, which is investigating the September
15 assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

* In May 2024, we uncovered
[[link removed]]
a recording of a
phone message
[[link removed]]
left by an FBI special agent for someone at the Secret Service in the
context of the raid on President Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago,
Florida.

* In April 2024, Justice Department records
[[link removed]]
showed that the FBI opened a criminal investigation of Air Force
veteran Ashli Babbitt after her killing and listed four “potential
violations of federal law,” including felony rioting and civil
disorder.

* In January 2023 we sued
[[link removed]]
the DOJ for
records of communications between the FBI and social media sites
regarding foreign influence in elections, as well as the Hunter Biden
laptop story.

* In November 2023, along with CatholicVote Civic Action, we
received FBI records
[[link removed]]
showing
top officials rushing to craft a public response to the leaked
[[link removed]]
FBI intelligence memo that revealed its targeting of Catholics who
adhere to traditional beliefs on church issues. In December 2023,
heavily redacted records
[[link removed]]
from the FBI
showed that the agency’s Office of General Counsel reviewed the
controversial targeting
[[link removed]]
of the Catholics by the Richmond field office of the FBI.

* In August 2022, the Department of Justice released a highly
redacted affidavit
[[link removed]]
in response to our court request
[[link removed]]
to unseal the warrant materials used in the unprecedented raid on the
home of President Trump.

JUDICIAL WATCH SUES BIDEN ADMIN FOR INFO ABOUT TULSI GABBARD BEING
PLACED ON TERRORIST WATCH LIST

On August 4, 2024, it was reported
[[link removed]]
that “several Federal Air Marshal whistleblowers have come forward
with information showing that former U.S. Representative and
Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is currently enrolled in the
Quiet Skies program.”

On August 23, 2024, the House Oversight Committee wrote to
[[link removed]]
David P. Pekoske, the administrator for the Transportation Security
Administration, that Gabbard was added “to the Quiet Skies program
on July 23, 2024 – one day after she criticized the Biden
administration in an interview.”

Gabbard, who on November 13, 2024, was nominated by President-elect
Donald Trump to be the next director of national intelligence
[[link removed]],
subsequently confirmed the reports, asserting in a video
[[link removed]]
she posted on
X that she had learned that three air marshals were assigned to watch
her every time she “traveled in the airport and on the flight.”
Gabbard added, “TSA deployed explosive canine detection teams and a
TSA explosion specialist.”

We want to dig deeper and filed a Freedom of Information (FOIA)
lawsuit
[[link removed]]
against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for records on
Gabbard being targeted for surveillance under the Transportation
Security Administration (TSA) “Quiet Skies
[[link removed]
terrorist watch program (_Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of
Homeland Security_
[[link removed]]
[[link removed].
1:24-cv-03427)).

The Transportation Security Administration is a component of the
Department of Homeland Security. As noted in a December 11 court order
[[link removed]],
we seek to expedite
[[link removed]]
the lawsuit.

We sued after Homeland Security failed to respond to three August 5,
2024, FOIA requests for records of Homeland Security Department and
Transportation Security Administration officials regarding both
Gabbard and its “Quiet Skies” program.

According to the DHS website, “Quiet Skies” is a “tool that
allows the Federal Air Marshal Service to more efficiently deploy law
enforcement resources to focus on travelers who may present an
elevated risk to aviation security.”

The Biden administration’s decision to place Tulsi Gabbard on a
terrorist watchlist is abusive on its face. Given her pending
nomination to director of national intelligence, this issue should
quickly be cleared up, and those responsible be held accountable.

We recently reported
[[link removed]]
that
the Transportation Security Administration, a federal agency created
after 9/11 to protect the nation’s transportation system, has no
idea how aviation security was impacted when “it plucked Federal Air
Marshal Service agents from their critical duties to help with the
Mexican border crisis. Air Marshals operate under the Transportation
Security Administration, and in the last few years the agency has
forced the highly trained aviation security specialists to assist
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with the onslaught of illegal
immigrants entering the country under Biden’s disastrous open border
policies.”

Between the Biden administration misusing air marshals to help make
sandwiches for illegal aliens or to harass Tulsi Gabbard, one must
wonder what real dangers and mission critical issues are being missed!

FIRST AMENDMENT COURT BATTLE FOR TEACHER FIRED FOR CRITICIZING BLM!

Judicial Watch appeared in court this week for oral argument
[[link removed]]
in a lawsuit we filed on behalf of Palatine, Illinois, high school
teacher Jeanne Hedgepeth, who was fired after posting comments on
Facebook criticizing the riots, violence, and lootings in Chicago
after the May 25, 2020, killing of George Floyd.

The hearing was in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Judicial
Watch is being assisted by attorney Christine Svenson of Palatine,
Illinois.

Hedgepeth had worked for 20 years in the suburban Chicago school
district and was tenured.

She made the posts on her private Facebook page while vacationing
after the end of the school year, just as some of the most severe
violence was occurring. In her posts, Hedgepeth recommended studying
Thomas Sowell, whom she described as a “treasure” and a “truth
seeker,” and praised political commentator and activist Candice
Owens and talk show host Larry Elder.

She alleges that the firing violated her First Amendment rights. The
initial lawsuit
[[link removed]]
asks for
damages from the school district, Township High School District 211,
and district board members and officials who participated directly in
the firing (_Hedgepeth v. Britton et al_
[[link removed]
(No. 1:21-cv-03890)).

The lawsuit explains:

> In late May and early June 2020, Hedgepeth was vacationing in
> Florida after the end of the 2019-20 school year when violent street
> protests, rioting, looting, and shootings erupted in Chicago and
> many other U.S. cities in the aftermath of the killing of George
> Floyd on May 25, 2020 by Minneapolis police officers. In Chicago
> alone, 82 persons were shot, 19 fatally, over the May 30-31, 2020
> weekend. On May 31, 2020, which the _Chicago Sun Times _described as
> the most violent day Chicago had seen in 60 years, Mayor Lori
> Lightfoot asked Governor J.B. Pritzker to deploy the Illinois
> National Guard in the city.

> That same day, May 31, 2020, Hedgepeth posted the following photos
> of herself on the beach in Florida along with the comment, “I
> don’t want to go home tomorrow. Now that the civil war has begun I
> want to move.”

> An individual responded, “Follow your gut! Move!!!!!!!!!”
> Hedgepeth answered, “I need a gun and training.” The individual
> replied, “me too!”

> Another individual posted a meme that same day suggesting that the
> riots could be stopped with a septic tank truck and a pressure
> cannon. Hedgepeth reposted the meme, obviously in jest, adding,
> “You think this would work?”

> On or about June 1, 2020, Hedgepeth posted the following comment on
> Facebook in the course of an exchange of posts begun the previous
> day with a third individual:
>
> I am about facts, truth seeking and love. I will speak on any topic
> I choose because I live in a free country. I find the term “white
> privilege” as racist as the “N” word. You have not walked in
> my shoes either so do not make assumptions about me and my so called
> privilege. You think America is racist? Then you have been
> hoodwinked by the white liberal establishment and race baiters like
> Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Travel the world and go see that
> every nation has racism and some more than others but few make
> efforts such as we do to mitigate or eliminate it. I have lived and
> seen. The people I am informed by about the black experience in
> America are actually some of the smartest people in America. And
> it so happens they are black. I highly recommend studying Thomas
> Sowell, who is now retired and in his 80’s. A treasure. A truth
> seeker. [D]oes REAL research and analysis. Candice Owens is one of
> the smartest and most courageous women in America and Larry Elders
> speaks the truth with a great sense of humor and FACTS not feelings.
> They are who I listen to when it comes to facts about the black
> experience in America. Don’t you think there is a deeper problem
> than racism when 50% of murders in America are committed by 13% of
> the population? Do you think there might be a subtle genocide of
> black babies when most planned parenthoods are put in poor
> neighborhoods and that 30% of abortions are black babies. [B]lack
> women only make up 7% of the U.S. population. The greatest power you
> have is what you believe about yourself. [W]hat have Democrats,
> mainstream media and intellectuals in ivory towers been telling the
> black community to believe about themselves for forty years? Wake up
> and stop believing them, then things will change.
>
> All of Hedgepeth’s posts were on her personal Facebook page. None
> of Hedgepeth’s posts identified her as a teacher or a District 211
> employee, nor did Hedgepeth post them in her capacity as a teacher
> or a District 211 employee. None of the persons with whom Hedgepeth
> exchanged Facebook posts were current District 211 or Palatine High
> School teachers, staff, or students.

Upon returning from her vacation in early June 2020, Hedgepeth learned
that the school district was investigating her for her Facebook posts.
She was fired by the school board six weeks later, on July 16, 2020,
by a vote of 5-2. In her defense, Hedgepeth noted that the posts were
on her private Facebook page and were made “out of school.” She
also expressly invoked her First Amendment rights.

A lower court dismissed the lawsuit. Judicial Watch’s appeal
[[link removed]]
for Hedgepeth asserts the lower court allowed her First Amendment
rights to be subject to “heckler’s veto.”

Public school teachers don’t lose their First Amendment rights for
promoting conservative viewpoints. Jeanne Hedgepeth had every right to
express herself freely and openly on her private Facebook page,
outside of school, about matters of undeniable public concern. Firing
her for opposing lawlessness, criticizing Democrats, and questioning
the tenets of Critical Racial Theory violated the First Amendment.

Until next week,



[Contribute]
[[link removed]]


[image]
[[link removed]]


RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS IN PERIL

_"When it comes to fighting for the American people’s ‘right to
know,’ no one holds a candle to Tom Fitton and his team at Judicial
Watch"_ - SEAN HANNITY

Tom Fitton returns with an exhaustive investigation into the
progressive movement’s efforts to dismantle the venerable
institutions of American rights and freedoms.

Order Tom Fitton's Must-Read Today!
[[link removed]]

[32x32x1]
[[link removed]]

[32x32x2]
[[link removed]]

[32x32x3]
[[link removed]]

[32x32x3]
[[link removed]]

Judicial Watch, Inc.
425 3rd St Sw Ste 800
Washington, DC 20024

202.646.5172



© 2017 - 2024, All Rights Reserved
Manage Email Subscriptions
[[link removed]]
|
Privacy Policy
[[link removed]]
|
Unsubscribe
[[link removed]]

View in browser
[[link removed]]