Judicial Watch Sues for Key SpyGate Document

Our powerful and secretive spy agencies were unleashed, and the Justice Department and the FBI is making it difficult for us and even Congress to get to the bottom of it.

We sued for one key record which led to the initiation of the counterintelligence investigation of President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:19-cv-02743)).

We had to sue because, as per usual, the DOJ and FBI both failed to respond to identical July 11, 2019, FOIA requests seeking access to a single record: “The Electronic Communication that initiated the counterintelligence investigation of President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.”

Included with each FOIA request was an April 2018 letter from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Intelligence Committee) to the Justice Department concerning a congressional subpoena for the same record.

The Justice Department initially provided the Intelligence Committee a heavily redacted copy of the electronic communication it sought. Only after the Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena did the DOJ, on April 10, 2018, provide a less redacted version, which has not been released publicly.

In March 2018, based upon the information contained in the DOJ communication and other information, the Intelligence Committee produced a 150-page report, the summary of which states: “We have found no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.”

In an interview after reviewing the Electronic Communication, U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said, “We now know there was no official intelligence used to start this investigation.”

So it took us a long time to actually get this … electronic communication … What [were] the original reasons that the counterintelligence investigation was started? Now this is really important to us because the counterintelligence investigation uses the tools of our intelligence services that are not supposed to be used on American citizens, so we’ve long wanted to know … what intelligence … actually led to this investigation. So what we found now after the investigators have reviewed it is that in fact there was no intelligence.

The FBI and DOJ are still covering up the corruption behind the Obama administration’s illicit spying on President Trump. The original document behind the ‘counterintelligence’ spy operation against President Trump is key to exposing the corruption of Spygate. It is beyond belief the FBI and DOJ are still hiding it.

 

Judicial Watch Sues Over the International Conspiracy Against Trump
 

You probably aren’t familiar with FBI Special Agent Michael Gaeta, but he played a critical role in getting the spurious Steele dossier to his superiors in the FBI in Washington, where it would be used as a pretext to spy on and try to destroy President Trump.

We’re now investigating his involvement in this abuse. We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit against the Department of Justice for records about Mr. Gaeta, who had been legal attaché in Rome (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:19-cv-02722)).

We were forced to sue after the Justice Department and FBI failed to respond to our August 10, 2018, FOIA requests seeking:

• All records of communications, including emails (using [his or her] own name or aliases), text messages, instant chats and encrypted messages, sent to and from former FBI Legal Attaché in Rome, Special Agent Michael Gaeta, mentioning the terms “Trump”, “Clinton”, “Republican”, “Democrat”, and/or “conservatives.”
• All SF50s and SF52s of SA Michael Gaeta.
• All expense reports and travel vouchers submitted for SA Michael Gaeta.

Here is the background. On August 28, 2018, Bruce Ohr testified before a joint task force of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees that Christopher Steele, author of the Clinton-funded dossier, gave two reports from the dossier to Gaeta.
 

In the July 30 meeting, Chris Steele also mentioned something about the doping — you know, one of the doping scandals. And he also mentioned, I believe — and, again, this is based on my review of my notes — that he had provided Mr. Gaeta with two reports…”

The only thing I recall him mentioning is that he had provided two of his reports to Special Agent Gaeta.
 

Gaeta reportedly was authorized by then Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland to meet with Steele at his office in London to receive reports from the dossier.

The purpose of the London visit was clear. Steele was personally handing the first memo in his dossier to Gaeta for ultimate transmission back to the FBI and the State Department.

For this visit, the FBI sought permission from the office of Nuland, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Nuland, who had been the recipient of many of Steele’s reports, gave permission for the more formal meeting. On July 5, 2016, Gaeta traveled to London and met with Steele at the offices of Steele’s firm, Orbis.

The FBI is covering up its role in the Russiagate hoax. We have had to fight ‘tooth and nail’ for every scrap of information about the illicit targeting of President Trump.

The Obama administration authorized a meeting abroad with a foreign spy working for Hillary Clinton to target Donald J. Trump. We will push hard in court to uncover the truth about this historic scandal.


Judicial Watch Demands Expanded Ethics Investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar
 

In a July ethics complaint to the House of Representatives, Judicial Watch demanded an investigation of alleged marriage, immigration, tax, and other fraud related to the allegation that Rep. Omar had married her brother.

Turns out that this is just one aspect of Rep. Omar’s ethics problem.

Judicial Watch this week sent another complaint to the U.S. House of Representatives Office of Congressional Ethics calling for further investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar over new allegations that her alleged lover, Tim Mynett, received nearly $230,000 from her campaign since July 2018.

The new campaign finance allegations arise as a result of divorce filings alleging the affair between Mr. Mynett and Rep. Omar.

Rep. Omar obviously has significant ethics problems, and the House Ethics Committee must act to investigate the serious and substantial allegations against her. Frankly, there’s more than enough evidence for the Justice Department to initiate a criminal investigation of Rep. Omar.

Here is our supplemental complaint:

Re: Supplemental Ethics Complaint Against Rep. Ilhan Omar Concerning Possible Violations of Federal and State Law

Dear Chairman Skaggs,

Judicial Watch is a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation, promotingtransparency, accountability and integrity in government and fidelity to the rule of law. We regularly monitor congressional ethics issues as part of our anti-corruption mission.

This letter serves as a supplemental complaint to an official complaint that we filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on July 22, 2019 (attached as Exhibit A), relative to potential felonies committed by Rep. Ilhan Omar involving tax fraud, marriage fraud, immigration fraud and perjury, principally involving Rep. Omar’s possible marriage to her biological brother, presumably as part of an immigration fraud scheme.

In addition to those potential violations of law, new disclosures arising from civil litigation raise still more troubling allegations, suggesting more potential violations of law or regulations by Rep. Omar that require investigation.

Specifically, in a divorce action, Dr. Beth Mynett of Washington, D.C., has accused her husband, political consultant Tim Mynett, of having an affair with Rep. Omar during which Mr. Mynett’s firm, E Street Consulting LLC, and Mr. Mynett directly, received nearly $230,000 from Rep. Omar’s campaign since July 2018.

According to Dr. Mynett’s divorce filings, “[O]n reflection, Defendant’s [Tim Mynett’s] more recent travel and long work hours now appear to be more related to his affair with Rep. Omar than with his actual work commitments…”

The bulk of the proceeds paid to E Street ($175,371.40) were funneled to E Streetafterthe November 2018 congressional elections, thereby calling into question the true purpose of the payments.

Additionally, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, Ilhan for Congress campaign filings with the FEC indicate that eight disbursements were made to E Street Consulting totaling $21,546.94 for “travel expenses.” However, these expenses were not itemized, as required by FEC regulations.

House Rules are quite specific about the improper use of campaign funds for personal expenditures. The Code of Official Conduct of the House of Representatives states:

A Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner—

(a) shall keep the campaign funds of such individual separate from the personal funds of such individual,’

(b) may not convert campaign funds to personal use in excess of an amount representing reimbursement for legitimate and verifiable campaign expenditures; and

(c) except as provided in clause 1 (b) of rule XXIV, may not expend funds from a campaign account of such individual that are not attributable to bona fide campaign or political purposes.

The House Rules of Conduct are also quite explicit about the seriousness with which Congress takes such violations as have allegedly occurred with respect to Rep. Omar’s conduct. The very opening of Rule XXIII, the Code of Official Conduct, states:

There is hereby established by and for the House the following code of conduct, to be known as the “Code of Conduct”. 1. A Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, Officer, or employee of the House shall behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.

As suggested by Dr. Mynett’s court filings and the FEC complaint, these payments may represent campaign funds being used to allow Mr. Mynett to accompany Rep. Omar in her travels for Rep. Omar’s pleasure, and thereby constitute campaign funds being used for personal expenses, in addition to the expenses not being properly itemized — both serious violations of House rules and campaign finance regulations.

We call upon the Office of Congressional Ethics to launch an investigation into Rep. Omar’s conduct immediately for both these potential violations and those enumerated in our letter of July 22, 2019.

Respondent, Rep. Ilhan Omar, has been provided with an exact copy of the filed complaint and all attachments.

Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Submitted by,

Tom Fitton
President
Judicial Watch

• All records of DOJ officials’ communications, notes, call logs, calendar entries, transcripts, audio-visual recordings and other records relating to an “analytical exchange” between a delegation of German officials and DOJ officials which occurred circa April 26, 2016 in Washington, DC.
• All records reflecting the identities and titles of the German officials who attended the analytical exchange on April 26, 2016.