Wray FBI Cover-up!

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[INSIDE JW]

JUDICIAL WATCH SUES FOR MCCABE/STRZOK/PAGE FBI TEXT MESSAGES

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Under Director Christopher Wray your FBI is still covering up the
unprecedented effort by its top executives to sabotage the campaign
and then the presidency of Donald Trump. As you should expect, we are
not deterred.

We just filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for text
messages between McCabe and former FBI officials Lisa Page, Peter
Strzok, Jennifer Leonard, and/or former Obama White House Deputy
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
Lisa Monaco (_Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice_
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(No. 1:20-cv-02995)).

We submitted this FOIA request on February 16, 2018, to the FBI. We
asked for text messages sent from January 1, 2015, to December 31,
2015, between FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and Lisa Page,
Jennifer Leonard, Peter Strzok, and/or Lisa Monaco. The FBI denied the
request, asserting that text messages are not subject to FOIA.

We challenged the FBI’s determination, filing an administrative
appeal with the Department of Justice arguing that “text messages
involving government-related business sent between government
officials, whom all of the persons identified in the scope of the
request are, do in fact constitute government records that fall within
the purview of FOIA.” In response, the Justice Department’s Office
of Information Policy remanded our request for “further review,”
but the FBI ignored the directive and continues to withhold any text
messages. We sued on October 19 after the FBI failed to respond to the
remanded request.

In July, a federal court rejected
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the
FBI’s request to dismiss a separate Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit
filed on behalf of Jeffrey A. Danik, a retired FBI supervisory special
agent, for emails and text messages of former-FBI Deputy Director
Andrew McCabe. On October 15, the FBI turned over several pages
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of almost completely redacted McCabe text messages while denying the
texts are subject to FOIA.

Here’s the bottom line: The Wray FBI asserts, contrary to DOJ
policy, that it can delete and keep secret all text messages –
including those by the corrupt cadre responsible for the illicit
spying on President Trump. The court should quickly order the FBI to
preserve and produce text messages as FOIA requires.

Last month, we uncovered
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that senior members of Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office
(SCO) repeatedly and “accidentally” wiped over 20 phones assigned
to them.

We previously uncovered
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Justice Department records concerning ethics issues related to
McCabe’s involvement with his wife’s political campaign. The
documents include an email showing Mrs. McCabe was recruited for a
Virginia state senate race in February 2015
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by then-Virginia Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam’s office.

The news that former Secretary of State Clinton used a private email
server broke five days later
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on March 2, 2015. Five days after that, former Clinton Foundation
board member
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and
Democrat party fundraiser, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, met with
the McCabes. She announced her candidacy on March 12. Soon afterward,
Clinton/McAuliffe-aligned political groups donated nearly
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$700,000 (40%
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of
the campaign’s total funds) to McCabe’s wife for her campaign.

In July 2015, the FBI opened the investigation known as “Midyear
Exam
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into “the storage and transmission of classified information on
Clinton’s unclassified private servers.”

We also discovered Justice Department records
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showing that McCabe secretly had recused himself from the
investigation into Clinton’s non-government email server on November
1, 2016
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one week prior to the presidential election.

While working as Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington Field
Office, McCabe controlled resources supporting the Midyear Exam
investigation into Clinton’s email scandal. An October 2016 internal
FBI memorandum
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labeled “Overview of Deputy Director McCabe’s Recusal Related To
Dr. McCabe’s Campaign for Political Office,” details talking
points about McCabe’s various potential conflicts of interest,
including the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s illicit server.

Remember: McCabe was fired from the FBI in March 2018 for leaking to
the media and lacking “candor
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That’s putting it mildly. And Director Wray is still protecting him.

FAUCI EMAILS SHOW HIS APPROVAL OF CHINA’S INITIAL RESPONSE TO
CORONAVIRUS

In breaking news, we just received 300 pages
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of Fauci emails, including his approval of a press release supportive
of China’s response to the 2019 novel coronavirus. He is Director of
the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The emails
were released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

On January 27, 2020, the World Health Organization/World Bank convened
the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board
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(GPMB). The following day, the
GPMB Secretariat wrote an email
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with the subject line “TIME SENSITIVE Message from GPMB Co-Chairs:
review of draft GPMB Statement on 2019-novel coronavirus:”

There was consensus for the GPMB to issue a statement supportive of
countries’ (especially China) and WHO response efforts, and to call
for urgent actions to further strengthen global preparedness and
response to this outbreak.

Please find attached a draft GPMB Statement.

On January 29, Fauci responds:

Looks fine. Please see my comments in attached document.
Thanks,
Tony

The emails were produced in response to our Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) lawsuit
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filed May 4, 2020, on behalf of the Daily Caller News Foundation
(_Daily Caller News Foundation v. U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services_
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(No.
1:20-cv-01149)). We sued here in DC after HHS failed to respond to an
April 1, 2020, FOIA request from the DCNF asking for:

* Communications between Dr. Fauci and Deputy Director Lane and
World Health Organization officials concerning the novel coronavirus.
* Communications of Dr. Fauci and Deputy Director Lane concerning
WHO, WHO official Bruce Aylward, WHO Director General Tedros Anhanom,
and China.

The time period for the request is January 1, 2020 to April 1, 2020.

Many of the emails consist of missives to large groups of recipients,
including Fauci, from Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, which
describes itself as “an independent monitoring and accountability
body to ensure preparedness for global health crises” convened by
the World Health Organization and the World Bank.

* On January 28, 2020, in an effort to organize a joint statement
among international organizations on “sharing research data and
findings relevant to the novel coronavirus (nCoV),” GPMB’s Jeremy
Farrar emails
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upwards
of three dozen, mostly redacted recipients, including the director of
the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Francis Collins, and cc’ing
Fauci, sending them all a proposed joint statement, which is
completely redacted in the documents provided by HHS, for their review
and approval. Shortly thereafter, Collins responds: “NIH is happy to
endorse the joint statement.” That same day, Professor Stewart Cole,
President of the Institut Pasteur emails Farrar: “Thanks for the
initiative. Pasteur is on board and fully supportive.” A subsequent
statement
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which was published two days later on January 30, says:

The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) convened on 27 January
2020 to discuss the current outbreak of 2019-nCoV, which was first
detected in Wuhan, China, and is now quickly spreading
internationally. The Board commends the speed of the response so far
by countries and the World Health Organization (WHO), the transparency
of China in sharing information and the genome sequence of the virus,
and the strong collaboration between China and affected countries and
with WHO.

* On February 1, 2020, the chief scientist at the WHO emailed
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Fauci
to let him know the WHO was organizing a global research partners
forum on February 11 and to ask him to attend, also suggesting he
might think about funding and/or undertaking research on this “new
viral outbreak:”

As the head of an agency that would play an important role in
addressing this new viral outbreak, either by undertaking or funding
research, or both, I take great pleasure in inviting you to this
meeting.

* On February 4, Hilary Marston from NIH replied
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to the WHO’s invitation to a coronavirus forum, begging off on
behalf of Fauci: “First, as to your kind invitation to have him join
the meeting, unfortunately his time is entirely consumed as central
member of the US government response team and he will be unable to
travel.” She went on to recommend several individuals Fauci wanted
to attend the meeting in his stead.
* On February 13, 2020, it appears that National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Deputy Director for Clinical
Research and Special Projects Dr. Cliff Lane was _en route_ to Japan
to “assist with rapid implementation of a study of the drug
remdesivir as a therapeutic intervention for COVID-19, within the
context of the current cases in that country.” It appears that WHO
Director-General Dr. Tedros invited him instead to come to China to
participate in the WHO Mission there. Fauci’s Associate Director for
International Research Affairs, Gray Handley, replied
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to
a redacted recipient at WHO that Lane was unable to accept the WHO’s
invitation to come to China: “Due to the importance of this study,
Dr. Lane may not be available to participate in the WHO mission to be
undertaken in China next week.”

It appears that when Fauci discovered what Handley had done, he
countermanded
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his decision by having HHS Director of the Office of Global Affairs
Garrett Grigbsy send an email informing two individuals, apparently at
WHO, that Lane would be coming to China:

I just talked to Dr. Fauci and there must have been some communication
mix up about Cliff.

CLIFF LANE IS ABSOLUTELY GOING TO CHINA AS PART OF THE WHO TEAM (IF
INVITED).[Emphasis in original]

In one fundraising campaign, Ilona Kickbusch of GPMB sent an email
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to Victor Dzau on March 3, 2020 and cc’ed Anthony Fauci along with
more than two dozen other, mostly redacted recipients under the
Subject Line: “Re: GPMG: COVID-19 FUNDING NOTE,” Kickbusch says:

Ahead of the GPMB Board call on Wednesday, I’m pleased to attach a
note (on behalf of Jeremy Farrar, Victor Dzau and a small working
group) setting out the urgent need for new funding for the global
COVID-19 response.

You will have seen the strong announcement today from the World Bank
of up to $12 bn to support country response, which we warmly welcome.
We are asking for your feedback on the call and consideration for the
GPMB to launch an “ask” this week regarding needs not likely to be
covered by the World Bank announcement – this would target the
leaders and policy makers of other financing institutions and G7/G20
nations…The aim of the note is to encourage an immediate and full
response to the needs of the world, recognizing that many countries
are not well prepared and could be left behind.

* On March 4, the GPMB group held a conference call with its board
in preparation for making another $8 billion request to a group of
international financial institutions. On March 5, Alex Harris, head of
global policy and advocacy at Wellcome
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– a global charitable foundation,
funded by a £26.8 billion investment portfolio that does grant
funding, advocacy campaigns and partnerships to raise money for select
clients (founded by the pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Sir Henry
Wellcome) – emailed
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GPMB
board members, including Dr. Fauci and included a lengthy list of
“G7 leaders and Sherpas” and “International financial
institutions:”

Thank you for your input on the call yesterday regarding the COVID-19
funding request that the GPMB will be making to multilateral financing
institutions and G7/G20 nations.

In this regard I attach:

An updated background note revising the ask to $8bn as a result of
removing the [redacted] we had previously included for strengthening
country preparedness, given the World Bank announcement

“The government is now ever so slowly complying with the law and
letting the American people know how they did business with the WHO
and China at the outset of this pandemic,” said Daily Caller News
Foundation President Neil Patel. “We are grateful to Judicial Watch
for helping us force the government to do its job.”

Let me add that these Fauci emails show how praising China was the odd
priority of the WHO in the face of a novel and dangerous coronavirus.
That the NIH tried to slow-roll the release of these emails and is
still sitting on thousands more is a scandal.

Here’s where we stand: On September 22, U.S. District Court Judge
Dabney L. Friedrich ordered
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HHS to begin processing 300 pages of emails per month beginning on
October 21. In a September 21 court filing, HHS said the agency could
begin producing 300 pages of responsive records to the Daily Caller
News Foundation beginning on November 30, eight months after receiving
the Daily Caller’s request under FOIA. The total number of
responsive records is approximately 4,200, which would have pushed off
the full release of the records until at least 2022. HHS also alleged
that Fauci must personally review each one of his emails before they
are released.

JUDICIAL WATCH SEEKS BODYCAM FOOTAGE IN FATAL POLICE SHOOTING

In the early morning hours of March 12, 2020, 21-year-old Duncan
Socrates Lemp, a student and software developer, was shot and killed
by police in his Potomac, Maryland, home during the execution of a
“no-knock” search warrant.

Pretty much everything about the raid is in dispute, so we have asked
the Montgomery County, Maryland, Circuit Court to order the release of
all body camera footage from the shooting.

We made the request in a motion for summary judgment
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in our Public Information Act (PIA) lawsuit against the Montgomery
County, MD, Police Department (MCPD) (_Judicial Watch v. Montgomery
County Police Department_
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(No. V482964)). The MCPD has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, a request
we have opposed. A hearing on both motions has been scheduled for
10:00 a.m. on December 2, 2020, in Rockville, MD.

We filed the lawsuit
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after
the Montgomery County Police Department failed to respond to a June 18
PIA request seeking:

All body-worn camera videos relating to the raid on, and resulting
death of, Duncan Socrates Lemp by a Montgomery County Police SWAT team
on March 12, 2020 at Mr. Lemp’s home in Potomac, Maryland.

We argue in its motion/opposition that MCPD is unlawfully withholding
the body camera footage because, in part, they are ignoring the public
interest in the disclosure of the footage:

Release of objective and factual video recordings of Mr. Lemp’s
shooting is critical to addressing and resolving conflicting reports
about the killing. It also would, in Defendant’s own words,
“eliminate speculation and address unsubstantiated allegations of
misconduct which frequently occur.”

We also argue that MCPD’s release of other footage of
police-involved shootings supports the release of footage of the Lemp
shooting.

Lemp’s family reportedly said
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that Lemp and his family were asleep “when police besieged the
residence from the front of the house” and the family was
“awakened by shots fired through Duncan’s bedroom window followed
by the sound of flash bangs.” According to the family’s attorney,
an eyewitness
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said Lemp was asleep in his bedroom when police opened fire from
outside the house.

Police disputed that account. The MCPD said in a statement
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that SWAT team officers were acting on an anonymous tip that Lemp was
in possession of firearms that he was prohibited from having “due to
his criminal history as a juvenile.”

The MCPD maintains that, upon making contact with Lemp, officers
identified themselves as the police and gave Lemp multiple orders to
show his hands and comply with the officer’s commands to get on the
ground. It also reportedly maintains that Lemp refused to comply with
the officer’s commands and proceeded towards an interior bedroom
door where other officers were located.

According to the Lemp family attorneys, SWAT officers shot Lemp
multiple times. They also reported that an eyewitness “told
investigators that police never made verbal commands upon either her
or Duncan until after Duncan was shot and lay bleeding on the floor.
Multiple eyewitnesses told investigators that the police only forced
entry into the home after Duncan was shot. According to those
eyewitnesses, the police had no contract with any family members until
after Duncan was shot.”

The MCPD statement said Lemp was out of bed and standing “directly
in front of the interior bedroom door” holding a rifle “he slept
with” each night as officers “made entry into the bedroom.”

It is surprising, given recent controversies, that Montgomery County
would withhold body camera footage from a police-involved shooting.
The unusual secrecy around the Lemp shooting, which doesn’t fit the
Left’s narrative on police shootings, suggests that politics is at
play.

VA TARGETED 78-YEAR-OLD VETERAN TRYING TO HOLD IT ACCOUNTABLE

Judicial Watch issued the following statement in response to the
disappointing Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision
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granting qualified immunity to VA police officers who twice arrested
Robert L. Rosebrock, a 78-year-old Vietnam era veteran, who for more
than a decade has been a tireless advocate for homeless veterans and a
powerful voice against the misuse of a 388-acre parcel of West Los
Angeles real estate set aside to serve veterans:

It is a miscarriage of justice that the Ninth Circuit would allow the
VA police officers who arrested Rosebrock to escape accountability for
their actions. The court does not appear to have even considered the
compelling arguments Judicial Watch made on Rosebrock’s behalf or
the trial court’s reasoning in rejecting the officers’ qualified
immunity claims.

The VA clearly holds a grudge against Rosebrock. Although a setback,
the Ninth Circuit ruling is just one small skirmish in Rosebrock’s
years-long struggle against veteran homelessness and demands for VA
accountability. President Trump should demand answers about who at
the VA and DOJ are responsible for perpetuating this grudge against a
true American patriot, as well as answers about the VA’s failed
policies on veteran homelessness and continued misuse of land at the
West LA VA.

Qualified immunity may be appropriate in some circumstances. It
clearly wasn’t in Rosebrock’s case. The Ninth Circuit clearly got
it wrong.

Rosebrock was initially cited for allegedly taking unauthorized
photographs of American Flags on Memorial Day 2016, at the entrance to
a public park on West LA VA campus. The following Sundays, June 12 and
19, 2016, VA police officers at the West LA VA cited and arrested
Rosebrock and seized his cameras for allegedly taking unauthorized
photographs of the officers at the same park entrance. During the June
12 arrest, Rosebrock was handcuffed, mistreated, and forced into the
back of a police vehicle.

Rosebrock was subsequently acquitted of any wrongdoing in a criminal
case in which he was represented by Judicial Watch. In a cynical
appeal of that ruling, the court found
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that the law under which Rosebrock had been charged – which
expressly authorized photography for “news purposes” at
“entrances” – did not prohibit anything.

In June 2017, Judicial Watch filed suit
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on Rosebrock’s behalf in federal court in Los Angeles, alleging that
the officers violated his Fourth Amendment rights (_Robert L.
Rosebrock v. Michael Perez, et al._
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(Case No. 2:17-cv-04354) (C.D. Cal.)). The officers appealed when the
trial court rejected their claims of “qualified immunity,” a
controversial, court-made doctrine that often allows police officers
to avoid accountability for their actions.

In their appeal, the officers argued that, even if the law under which
they arrested Rosebrock did not prohibit the photography in question,
they still had reason to arrest Rosebrock because, among other
disingenuous claims, “protest” signs lying face down, under a
jacket, constituted an “unauthorized demonstration” on VA property
and that Rosebrock was “loitering” on VA property because he was
at the entrance to the VA park on a Sunday afternoon, without an
“official purpose,” when VA offices were closed.

Stay tuned for further developments….

SEVENTY PERCENT OF JAILED ILLEGAL ALIENS CONVICTED OF OTHER CRIMES

We have regularly reported on the illegal alien criminals granted free
reign in this country, putting innocents in harm’s way. Here’s
more
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numbers on the costly illegal alien-related threat to the public
safety from our Corruption Chronicles blog.

The U.S. government spent at least $162 million last year to
incarcerate tens of thousands of criminal illegal immigrants for
committing crimes that include rape, murder, kidnapping and terrorism.
The offenders were imprisoned by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
and the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), which confirm that 94% of aliens
jailed in 2019 were unlawfully present in the U.S. The alarming data
was recently disclosed in a new report
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issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), which disclose that nearly 70% of known or suspected
aliens in BOP custody last year had been convicted of a
non-immigration related offense and 39% of known or suspected aliens
in USMS custody committed a non-immigration related crime.

Under the Obama administration this type of pertinent information
relating to illegal immigration was essentially ignored, but President
Donald Trump issued an Executive Order
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in 2017 that, among other things, forces USMS and BOP to provide
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with data on a quarterly
basis regarding inmates and detainees identified as foreign-born
during their criminal case process. In turn, ICE checks USMS and BOP
data against its ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) case
management system, the ENFORCE Alien Removal Module (EARM), and the
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Central Index System
to identify aliens with immigration records and pending or completed
removal proceedings. The president’s order also directs the DHS
Secretary and Attorney General to collect data on the following: The
immigration status of all aliens incarcerated under the supervision of
the BOP; the immigration status of all aliens incarcerated as federal
pretrial detainees under the supervision of the USMS and the
immigration status of all convicted aliens incarcerated in state
prisons and local detention centers throughout the United States. The
essential data is meant to ensure the public safety of the American
people in communities across the country and to ensure the nation’s
immigration laws are faithfully executed, according to the
president’s order.

The new report states that 51,074 known or suspected aliens were in
DOJ custody in 2019, with the majority (27,494) in BOP facilities
throughout the country and 23,580 in USMS custody at various
institutions. The BOP operates 122 prisons nationwide while the USMS
houses detainees in federal, state, local and private jails. More than
half of the 51,074 were confirmed by ICE to have orders of removal.
More than 28,500 of the aliens in BOP custody committed fraud and
1,147 weapons offenses, according to stats provided by the DOJ and
DHS. Over 1,000 illegal immigrants jailed by the BOP carried out
racketeering and continuing criminal enterprise offenses such as
murder for hire and 535 committed sex crimes that include production
or distribution of child pornography. Around 1,028 aliens executed
serious felonies such as kidnapping, murder, terrorism, rape and
extortion, the report states. More than half of the USMS arrestees
committed drug offenses with the rest incarcerated for immigration
crimes, fraud, weapons violations, sex offenses and racketeering.
Nearly 1,000 of the illegal aliens jailed by USMS carried out serious
felonies such as murder, rape, terrorism, and kidnapping.

The DHS/DOJ report ends with specific cases of sentenced illegal
aliens in BOP custody around the country. The first is a Colombian
national sentenced to 180 months in prison in south Florida for
smuggling illegal immigrants from his country into the U.S., resulting
in a rape and two deaths. In South Carolina, a Mexican national was
sentenced to 262 months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute
five kilograms or more of cocaine. In Iowa, an illegal alien from
Guatemala was sentenced to six months in jail after being convicted of
three counts of unlawful use of an identification document and four
counts of misuse of a Social Security number to obtain welfare
benefits. In Louisiana, a Mexican national was sentenced to more than
two decades in prison for distributing the psychedelic drug lysergic
acid diethylamide (LSD) and possessing firearms. In Mississippi, a
Mexican citizen was sentenced to 330 months in federal prison for
conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. The
list goes on and on, including convictions for drug trafficking,
aggravated robbery, assault, theft, and illegal voting in 10
elections.

Until next week …



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