Judicial Watch Asks Court for Special Master in Fani Willis Lawsuit 


 

Here’s the latest in our court battle against Fani Willis.

Judicial Watch filed a motion asking the Superior Court in Fulton County to appoint a special master to oversee District Attorney Fani Willis’ search for records in our lawsuit for communications Willis had with Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee. We are also asking the court to conduct an in-camera (private) inspection of any records found.

This comes in our March 2024 lawsuit 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 (ORA) request for communications with Special Counsel Jack Smiths office and/or the January 6 Committee (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Fani Willis et al. (No. 24-CV-002805)).

Last week, Willis finally admitted to having records showing communications with the January 6 Committee but refused to release all but one document in response to the court order that found her in default. She cited a series of legal exemptions to justify the withholding of communications with the January 6 Committee. The only document she did release is one already public letter to January 6 Committee Chairman Benny Thompson (D-MS). With respect to communications with, and records related to, Jack Smith’s office, Willis continued to deny her office had any records related to the Special Counsel’s office.

In our new motion, we state that Willis’ response to the order “makes no showing that the search was diligent. Based on her previous searches in this matter, it probably was not diligent. Likewise, she provided no list or even a general description regarding any responsive records she has elected to withhold. Without a list or description, it is impossible to evaluate what, if any, exemptions or exceptions are applicable, as she now contends.”

Willis “has now had three opportunities to search for the records requested,” we state. “A recent Fulton County Superior Court deposition of Willis’ official custodian, Dexter Bond, which covered her first two searches show Willis’ first two searches were woefully inadequate.”

Regarding the appointment of a special master, we assert:

Willis by her own admission conducted at least three searches before finding any responsive records not already supplied by [Judicial Watch]. She did not even bother to conduct a search until the Complaint was filed. Her records custodian says he does not know the Cellebrite [digital investigations] equipment he apparently had a hand in ordering can be used to search cell phone texts and other data…. Moreover, the custodian had no standard practice for conducting searches and keeps no records of the methods used in a given search.

The foregoing gives rise to grave suspicion that all responsive records have not been found. The Court should appoint a special master to supervise and monitor the record searches. The special master should have authority to audit searches and conduct searches herself. She also should have authority to hire such consultants and experts as may be needed to execute her commission. The special master should make a recommendation to the Court as to how her fees and expenses should be allocated among the parties, taking into consideration whether she finds responsive records that Willis should have found but did not.

The court held a hearing on our attorneys’ fees award today (you can view the hearing here).

Fani Willis can’t be trusted, which is why we are asking the court to review her secret anti-Trump collusion records and for a special master to handle the search for more records. The court should put an end to Willis’ shell games to hide her conspiracy with Pelosi’s January 6 committee and who knows who else to ‘get Trump.

This week  Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis from prosecuting the case against President-elect Donald Trump, citing a “significant appearance of impropriety.”

I’ll be sure to report back to you as events warrant!

Feds Downplay Base Breach by Migrant on Terror Watchlist as ‘Amazon Delivery’

The Biden administration has consistently refused to take national security seriously, and we have yet another example. Our Corruption Chronicles blog explains:

Adding to the mainstream media’s huge credibility problems, a major newspaper has omitted critical facts in astory accusing a Republican governor of inflaming fears over illegal immigration for bringing attention to a serious breach at a U.S. military base earlier this year. It happens to involve a case Judicial Watch investigated, and we obtained important government records that contradict the skeptical tone of the lengthy article, which portrays Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin as somewhat of a fear-mongering embellisher who fabricated the seriousness of the matter. “Virginia’s governor has used the arrest of two undocumented men who misunderstood directions to stop at a check-in station to inflame fears over illegal immigration,” according to the piece, published by the Washington Post a few days ago. The article quotes federal prosecutors dismissing the breach as an “Amazon delivery.”

The incident involves two Jordanian illegal immigrants—32-year-old Hasan Yousef Hamdan and 28-year-old Mohammad Khair Dabous—who tried to infiltrate Marine Corps Base Quantico on May 3. Both were released from federal custody after being charged for trying to breach the compound even though one of the men appears on a terror watch list, according to records obtained by Judicial Watch. The men posted bail in early June and were released by the Washington D.C. Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the records show. A Department of Justice (DOJ) immigration judge in Annandale, Virginia, set Dabous’ bail at $10,000 and Hamdan’s at $15,000 and they were freed after posting bond and agreeing to stay away from military facilities and to appear in court for immigration hearings.

The Virginia base is about 35 miles south of Washington D.C. and houses the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Academy and Laboratory as well as a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) facility and Marine Corps commands that include the unit that flies the president’s Marine One helicopter. Initial reports revealed that in the early morning hours of May 3, Hamdan and Dabous drove a truck to the military installation’s main gate and told guards they were making a delivery to Quantico Town’s post office. They ignored guards’ orders to stop when they could not provide credentials required to gain access to the facility. The illegal immigrants were arrested and charged with misdemeanor trespassing on military property. A Serious Incident Report (SIR) filed by Marine Base Quantico to Marine Headquarters confirms that a white box truck driven by Dabous tried to access the installation via a gate on Fuller Road. Guards asked for a license to conduct a visitor check and directed Dabous to move the truck into the inspection area.

While the guard transmitted the drivers’ license information for vetting, the truck moved forward from the holding area and final denial barriers were deployed, according to the SIR report obtained by Judicial Watch. The passenger, Hamdan, could only provide a Jordanian passport for identification and both men were taken into custody. “Hamdan illegally entered the United States 20 days ago from Mexico into California where Hamdan was arrested and sent to an immigration camp with a deportation court date in 2026,” the SIR report states. An ICE officer, whose name is redacted in the document, “telephonically confirmed” to the Marine Criminal Investigations Division (CID) that “Hamdan was on a terror watch list,” the report says, further revealing that ICE personnel assumed custody of Hamadan and Dabous for further processing. Despite the Marine SIR documenting that Hamdan appears on a terror watch list, the government—specifically ICE—has consistently denied it. A spokesperson for ICE ERO in Washington D.C. told Judicial Watch that neither man posed a threat to national security or the public without offering any further information that one appears on the terror watch list.

The Washington Post story completely omits this pertinent information, instead downplaying the incident by describing it as “confusion” during an “Amazon delivery.” The article cites a federal prosecutor’s court filing noting that “neither man had any known terrorist links” even though it is clearly stated in the government records obtained by Judicial Watch. The Biden DOJ dropped the charges on October 3, the article reveals, before taking another jab at Governor Youngkin: “Though court filings have since shown that the men have been cleared of wrongdoing beyond their illegal presence in the country, Youngkin seems unlikely to give up the talking point, relaying it as a cautionary tale about illegal immigration and potential terrorism.”
 

Merry Christmas!

I am reminded this time of year of one of my favorite stories from Christmas past. On Christmas Day, 1776, the American Revolution appeared to be dead.

George Washington’s Continental Army had been driven out of New Jersey.

The British and Hessian troops, who assumed the serious fighting was over, had entered winter quarters.

King George III and the British Parliament appeared set to continue an abusive set of policies that American colonists said deprived them of their rights as Englishmen. The battle cry of “No Taxation without Representation” went unsatisfied.

That all changed after Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River in the midst of a driving blizzard on December 24, 1776. The “Ten Crucial Days” that began with an audacious strike against the unsuspecting Hessian garrison in Trenton, culminating with the Battle of Princeton, reinvigorated the Revolution.

Every year on Christmas Day, thousands of visitors and local residents would gather along the Delaware River to witness the reenactment of Washington’s Crossing.

As much as we all rightly celebrate The Spirit of 1776, in too many respects our nation is harmed by the rising communism that fundamentally opposes the republican form of government established by our Founding Fathers.

That’s why our mission at Judicial Watch assumes a heightened importance going into 2025. If the ideals of our American Revolution seem like ghosts now in our “modern” government, it is worth recalling that the situation looked even more dire before the two Battles of Trenton and the Battle of Princeton.

Yes, there were two Battles of Trenton. And they serve as a dual lesson of the audacity and perseverance we will now need in order to continue overcoming the odds we face.

After crossing the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776, Washington’s Continental Army surprised the Hessians who were staying in what is now the Old Barracks Museum and in other homes throughout Trenton. He re-crossed again four days later to confront the full brunt of the British Army led by General Charles Cornwallis. And the American rag-tag forces’ twin victories in those battles spurred our nation on to victory, and ought to give each of us cause for encouragement in light of contemporary challenges arguably far less serious than those our Revolution faced in Southern New Jersey 244 years ago.

Washington himself saw the hand of Providence at work in his Christmas crossing. An abiding faith can go a long way, even in the darkest moments.

There is one Christmas message that should give us indomitable courage for these troubling times. It is from Isaiah 9:6, and it defines the hope that lies within us all: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given – and the government shall be upon his shoulders.”

Ultimately, man’s power is limited on this Earth, contrary to what today’s progressives and their antecedents might try to tell you. And we know that, in the words of one of my favorite Christmas carols, “the wrong shall fail, the right prevail.”

Merry Christmas to you and yours from all of us here at Judicial Watch, and a happy New Year.