Trump Persevered and Triumphed against Lawfare

The Left tried through lawfare and every other trick in the book to derail President Trump’s electoral victory, but the voters essentially found President Donald Trump “innocent” of his political opponents’ fake charges. Trump persevered and triumphed in the courts, as well as in the court of public opinion. Let us hope that his success puts an end to the practice of lawfare for good.

Democrat-allied prosecutors and judges did their best to derail this presidency, but the people have spoken and now the reversal of the failed (and frequently unconstitutional) policies of the Biden administration are being reversed. America has reason to hope again for a country that is led by the rule of law.

President Trump’s first-day executive orders correctly address the border, rule of law, and constitutional crises created by the Biden regime. And his pardons and commutations related to the January 6 defendants are fair, just and brave.

Judicial Watch remains ready, willing and able to help (and sue) for government accountability as we continue our mission to ensure clean elections, secure borders, and transparency in government – and to thwart the Left’s attack on our constitutional republic through their censorship of free speech and abuse of power.

We are pushing for accountability and transparency in Fulton County, GA, where the court recently issued an ordergranting “attorney’s fees and costs” in an open records lawsuit for communications Willis had with Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee. Judicial Watch has also filed a motion asking the court to appoint a special master to oversee her search for records.

As you know, we are a national leader in voting integrity and voting rights. As part of our work, we assembled a team of highly experienced voting rights attorneys who stopped discriminatory elections in Hawaii, and cleaned up voter rolls in California, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, among other achievements.

For instance, in response to our inquiries, Washington, DC, officials admitted that they had not complied with the National Voter Registration Act, promptly removed 65,544 outdated names from the voting rolls, promised to remove 37,962 more, and designated another 73,522 registrations as “inactive.”

And in November, we filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court challenging the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in the case filed on behalf of Congressman Mike Bost and two presidential electors from Illinois to prevent state election officials from extending Election Day for 14 days beyond the date established by federal law.
 

Judicial Watch Sues Chicago Mayor for Resisting Trump’s Deportations

We will see much resistance to President Trump’s policies at every level of government, something we expected, and Judicial Watch taking steps to uncover the lawlessness, especially the massive resistance expected over President Trump’s mass deportations, which have already begun.

We sued Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for records regarding his vow to resist the Trump administration’s mass deportation and other immigration law enforcement activities (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Office of the Mayor (No. 2025-CH-00347)).

On November 11, 2024, the mayor held a press conference at which he stated that Chicago would remain a so-called “sanctuary city” and that city officials “will continue to shield all immigrants in Chicago from federal agents, regardless of whether they are citizens, permanent residents or asylum seekers, despite the election of President-elect Donald Trump.”

According to a WTTW News report, Mayor Johnson said he “was prepared to fight any effort to stop federal funds from flowing to Chicago because it will not cooperate with mass deportation efforts, and would work to stop the arrival of immigration agents.”

“We will not bend or break,” Johnson said. “Our values will remain strong and firm. We will face likely hurdles in our work over the next four years but we will not be stopped and we will not go back.”

The firm Chalmers, Adams, Backer & Kaufman filed the lawsuit on our behalf in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois County Department Chancery Division after the mayor’s office failed to adequately respond to a November 27, 2024, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records or communications of Mayor Johnson or his designated representative about plans or preparations to resist federal efforts to enforce immigration laws or not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations.

The new Trump Justice Department initiated a policy directing federal prosecutors to investigate and consider prosecuting “resistance, obstruction, and other non-compliance with lawful immigration-related commands and requests from federal authorities.” Fox News reported last month that since August 2022 Chicago has spent $574.5 million on sheltering migrants.

Johnson announced himself and his city government to be outlaws on illegal immigration as they plan to help illegal aliens resist the rule of law. Sure enough, this scandal is worsened by the evident cover-up of the full scope of Mayor Johnson’s lawlessness, which we aim to remedy with our open records lawsuit.
 

Driver’s License Security Law Passed after 9/11 Delayed Two More Year

As you might have suspected, your federal government doesn’t take your security seriously. It has yet to begin a secure driver’s license system enacted after 9/11, as our Corruption Chronicles blog reports. And it has just delayed the program once again.

In what has become a decades-long joke, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is once again postponing the deadline to fully enforce a law requiring driver’s license security standards designed to prevent another terrorist attack. Unbelievably, among the reasons for the latest delay is that the public expects it based on the government’s history of repeatedly extending enforcement deadlines. The measure, REAL ID Act, was passed by Congress after 9/11 to establish a more secure national system less prone to fraud after several of the hijackers exploited loopholes to obtain dozens of driver’s licenses from various states. The cards allowed the terrorists to take flight lessons and board planes to carry out the 2001 attacks. At the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission Congress passed the REAL ID Act in 2005 and states originally had until 2011 to comply.

Two decades later it has yet to be enforced. The Obama administration tried to drastically weaken the legislation with DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano granting a 20-month extension on the deadline as she worked behind the scenes to undermine the law, asserting that it violates civil liberties and privacy. During the first Trump administration DHS announced that full enforcement of REAL ID would take effect at all federally regulated airports, federal facilities, and nuclear power plants by the fall of 2021 since all 50 states were finally in full compliance with the law. It never materialized, however. Biden got elected and used COVID-19 as an excuse to postpone the security measure’s implementation, extending the deadline by two years to address the lingering impacts of the pandemic on the ability to obtain a compliant license. Less than a year later, the Biden DHS again delayed enforcing REAL ID, claiming that it could cause “undue burden and confusion” for those using licenses that fail to meet federal standards.

Somewhere along the way, May 2025 became DHS’s target date to finally enforce the measure but this month the agency issued yet another two-year extension, giving federal agencies the choice to begin full enforcement by May or implement a “phased enforcement plan” as they see fit. Created after the 2001 terrorist attacks to protect the nation from new and emerging threats, DHS justifies the delay in the Federal Register by explaining that the public may not feel an urgency to obtain a REAL ID-compliant card because there is a history of enforcement deadlines being extended and residents may continue to expect additional extensions. “DHS believes this lack of urgency is likely to delay increased adoption in many States despite best efforts to inform the public, potentially leading to last-minute surges in demand for REAL ID-compliant IDs leading up to the deadline,” DHS writes. The surge could overwhelm states and result in backlogs and delays in REAL ID issuance, according to the agency. “In light of this, DHS anticipates that a significant number of individuals seeking to use their DL/ID for a REAL ID official purpose on and after May 7, 2025, may not have a compliant DL/ID.”

Although the law was enacted two decades ago only around half of the U.S. population with a state-issued driver’s license or identification card is REAL ID-compliant, DHS reveals. As of January 2024, states, territories, and the District of Columbia have issued approximately 162 million REAL ID-compliant cards and data from states indicates that around 124 million noncompliant licenses and ID cards are still in circulation. “DHS recognizes that this could result in a situation where individuals are unable to present a compliant DL/ID to access a Federal facility, board a federally regulated commercial aircraft, or enter a nuclear power plant on a large scale,” the new rule states. “For some agencies, this scenario may raise serious concerns related to security, agency operations, and potential impact to the public.” The newly issued rule recognizes the concerns, DHS writes, and provides flexibility by giving federal agencies another two years to implement REAL ID card-based enforcement “using a phased approach tailored to their specific operations.”

DHS estimates the cost of the rule, over two years, is $1.73 million. The agency fails to offer details but says the expense is related to “facilitating phased enforcement” while offering federal agencies flexibility that may reduce operational disruptions. DHS assures it is working hard to “raise awareness” about the 20-year-old driver’s license security law by, among other things, engaging in a print, social and digital media campaign.

Until next week,