Happy Independence Day!

[INSIDE JW]

YouTube Censored Our Election Security Video at the Request of
California Officials

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Making a mockery of the First Amendment has reached a new height in
– where else? – California, where employees of the state conspired
with employees of Google to strangle the free flow of information. And
they targeted us.

The office of the Secretary of State of California directly emailed
Google employees to remove a Judicial Watch video on election
integrity. The video titled, “**ELECTION INTEGRITY CRISIS** Dirty
Voter Rolls, Ballot Harvesting & Mail-in-Voting Risks!” was removed
within three days.

The censored Judicial Watch video
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featured me discussing vote-by-mail and our lawsuit settlement
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that resulted in Los Angeles County agreeing to remove up to 1.6
million inactive voters from its voting rolls.

We learned of this state/big tech conspiracy in 165 pages
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of new documents disgorged from the office of the Secretary of State.

The documents also reveal an email exchange wherein Sam Mahood, Press
Secretary of the Secretary of State’s office, reaches out to Kevin
Kane, of the Public Policy Department at Twitter, to have a tweet
removed after Twitter had found it to have not been in violation of
their terms of service, and a Google form filled out by the consulting
firm that was advising both California and the Biden Campaign which
flagged two tweets that criticized the California election.

In an email exchange beginning on September 24, 2020, Social Media
Coordinator Akilah Jones of the California Secretary of State’s
office contacts [email protected] and copies four Google
employees with the subject line, “REPORT VIDEO: **ELECTION INTEGRITY
CRISIS** Dirty Voter Rolls, Ballot Harvesting & Mail-in-Voting
Risks!”

Jones’ email falsely characterizes
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Judicial Watch video in her email:

Hi YouTube Reporting Team,

I am reporting the following video because it misleads community
members about elections or other civic processes and misrepresents the
safety and security of mail-in ballots.

Thank you for your time and attention on this matter.

All the best, Akilah.
The next day, on September 25, 2020, Andrea Holtermann, a Google
employee, replies
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to Jones:

Hi Akilah,

Thanks for reaching out. We will look into this and get back to you
as soon as we can.

Best,
On September 27, 2020, Google/YouTube confirms
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it censored the video:

Hi Akilah,

Circling back on this. Thank you for raising this content to our
attention, this has been removed from the platform for violating our
policies. Please do not hesitate to reach out if there are any other
questions or concerns you may have.

Best,
In an email exchange
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beginning on January 15, 2020, Sam Mahood, press secretary for the
California Secretary of State’s office, forwards an email to Twitter
Public Policy Department’s Kevin Kane asking that he review a tweet
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that
Twitter support had determined to not be in violation of their terms
of service. Mahood copies Deputy Secretary of State Paula Valle and
Chief Counsel Steve Reyes on the email.

Kane agrees to a January 31 meeting with Reyes and Valle.

In an email
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dated November 13, 2020, Zeke Sandoval of SKDK
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(the consulting firm that advised both the California Secretary of
State’s office and the Biden campaign) emails the Secretary of
State’s office and their colleagues, flagging two popular tweets
that criticized the California election process. The first from
@DC_Draino states:

Audit every California ballot Election fraud is rampant nationwide and
we all know California is one of the culprits Do it to protect the
integrity of that state’s elections
The second from @WatchTheBreaks states:

Just did some research on California voting and unless I'm missing
something, there isn't a place I can see HOW my ballot was counted. I
think that inability for me to check my Votes in the system (not just
IF it was counted) is a big flaw, regardless of which side you are on.

Both accounts were later removed from Twitter

These new documents show the California Secretary of State directly
conspired with Google to censor me and Judicial Watch in violation of
our First Amendment rights. This government censorship, also in
conspiracy with the Biden campaign, is smoking gun evidence of
election interference.

In April, this Judicial Watch
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FOIA request first uncovered documents showing the Office of the
Secretary of State of California pressured social media companies
(Twitter, Facebook, Google (YouTube)) to censor us and other posts
about the 2020 election. “@DC Draino,” Rogan O’Handley, recently
filed a lawsuit
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against Twitter based on these Judicial Watch disclosures.

In May, we separately uncovered
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records that show Office of the Secretary of State of Iowa pressured
social media companies (Twitter and Facebook) to censor posts about
the 2020 election. Included in these records were emails from Iowa
state officials to representatives of Big Tech pressuring these
companies to remove our posts. The emails show how the state agency
successfully pressured Facebook to censor our post about Iowa’s
management of its voter rolls.

HOME RUN FOR CLEANER ELECTIONS AT THE SUPREME COURT

This week the Supreme Court upheld Arizona provisions restricting
ballot harvesting and “out of precinct” voting _Mark Brnovich,
Attorney General of Arizona, et al. v. Democratic National Committee,
et al _
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19-1257 & 1258).

This decision is a home run for cleaner elections. It reaffirms that
states may take action to prevent election fraud without waiting for
it to occur within their own borders. This new decision rightly
rejects the race baiting of the leftist partisans who pretend that
neutral provisions to combat voter fraud (such as voter ID and bans on
ballot harvesting) are presumptively racist.

The decision also destroys the foundation of the Biden
administration’s recent attack on Georgia’s election reform laws.
States can be confident that they can go full speed ahead to
strengthen elections and protect voting rights with security measures
such as voter ID and other sensible steps to make it harder to steal
elections.

In the decision, Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority,
squarely addressed the issues facing Arizona and other states:

A State indisputably has a compelling interest in preserving the
integrity of its election process.” _Purcell v. Gonzalez_, 549 U.
S. 1, 4 (2006) (_per curiam_). Limiting the classes of persons who may
handle early ballots to those less likely to have ulterior motives
deters potential fraud and improves voter confidence. That was the
view of the bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform chaired
by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James
Baker. The Carter-Baker Commission noted that “[a]bsentee balloting
is vulnerable to abuse in several ways: . . . Citizens who vote at
home, at nursing homes, at the workplace, or in church are more
susceptible to pressure, overt and subtle, or to intimidation.

The Commission warned that “[v]ote buying schemes are far more
difficult to detect when citizens vote by mail,” and it recommended
that “States therefore should reduce the risks of fraud and abuse in
absentee voting by prohibiting ‘third-party’ organizations,
candidates, and political party activists from handling absentee
ballots.” _Ibid_. The Commission ultimately recommended that
States limit the classes of persons who may handle absentee
ballots to “the voter, an acknowledged family member, the U. S.
Postal Service or other legitimate shipper, or election
officials.” _Id._, at 47. HB 2023 is even more permissive in that
it also authorizes ballot-handling by a voter’s household member and
caregiver. Restrictions on ballot collection are also common in
other States.

And it should go without saying that a State may take action to
prevent election fraud without waiting for it to occur and be detected
within its own borders. Section 2’s command that the political
processes remain equally open surely does not demand that “a
State’s political system sustain some level of damage before the
legislature [can] take corrective action.” _Munro v. So-socialist
Workers Party_, 479 U. S. 189, 195 (1986). Fraud is a real risk that
accompanies mail-in voting even if Arizona had the good fortune to
avoid it. Election fraud has had serious consequences in other
States. For example, the North Carolina Board of Elections invalidated
the results of a 2018 race for a seat in the House of Representatives
for evidence of fraudulent mail-in ballots. The Arizona Legislature
was not obligated to wait for something similar to happen closer to
home.
This had to go all the way to the Supreme Court, but it really is just
common sense.

Recall that in January we joined with Allied Educational Foundation
(AEF) to file an _amici curiae_ (friends of the court) brief
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in
this case.

As we pointed out in our filing, those challenging Arizona’s clean
election laws “utterly failed” to show that the challenged voting
procedure caused minorities to have less opportunity to participate in
the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.

The Left is furious and despairing over this turn of events as the
ruling is a significant impediment to their Critical Race
Theory/partisan attacks on election security. In the meantime, your
Judicial Watch will continue to battle in the courts and the public
square to preserve and protect our elections.

SUPREME COURT RULING PROTECTS DONOR IRS INFORMATION PRIVACY

The Supreme Court this week brushed back the latest attempt by leftist
politicians, this time in California, to abuse IRS information to
collect information on and intimidate donors to charitable
organizations. The Supreme Court agreed with us and other non-profits
from both the left and right that California’s donor disclosure
mandate chills the First Amendment activities of groups and their
donors.

The ruling came in _Americans for Prosperity Foundation v.
Bonta_ (No. 19-251)), in which we filed a brief arguing against the
state’s move.

Confidential IRS taxpayer information has been notoriously abused for
political purposes over the years. The Obama administration was caught
misusing donor information
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by
Judicial Watch and just earlier this month a leftist news organization
somehow gained access to the confidential IRS information of untold
thousands of American taxpayers. This Supreme Court victory for the
First Amendment could not come at a better time.

We joined with Allied Educational Foundation (AEF) to file an _amici
curiae_ (friends of the court) brief in this case, which originated
when Americans for Prosperity challenged the State of California’s
rule requiring non-profits, when renewing their registration with the
state annually, to include the tax Form 990 Schedule B, which
discloses certain major donors. This rule was initiated by the
state’s attorney general’s office in California and was vigorously
enforced for the first time by then-California State Attorney General
Kamala Harris.

The Judicial Watch/AEF brief asked the high court to reverse
the ruling
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of
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which upheld the
California law, and to affirm the lower court’s ruling, which held
that the law violates the First Amendment. Our brief argued that the
Ninth Circuit’s decision to uphold California’s donor disclosure
requirement could have adverse effects for all issue-oriented,
educational nonprofit organizations:

The decision is not only wrong … it would also chill the free
exercise of millions of Californians’ protected First Amendment
rights.… It clearly affects individuals’ willingness to donate.
Indeed, recent widely publicized reports show that threats,
harassment, or reprisals have occurred from either government
officials or private parties.
We also argued that Supreme Court precedent (_NAACP v.
Alabama_ (1958)) highlights how the “right of association” is
“almost as inalienable in its nature as the right of personal
liberty. No legislator can attack it without impairing the foundations
of society.”

Regarding the “chilling effect” the California law would impose on
free speech and free association, Judicial Watch and AEF point out the
“notorious” IRS scandal under the Obama administration, in which
the agency targeted conservative organizations’ applications for
tax-exempt status:

What followed was an extremely troubling episode in which public
officials used government resources to silence [political
opponents].… The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration (“TIGTA”) audited the unit responsible for
processing applications by organizations seeking tax-exempt status …
[and found] that there had been a deliberate, systematic targeting of
conservative groups.

***
These instances of targeting and harassing conservative donors and
non-profits are nationally famous. Donors are certainly aware of these
events …

Specifically, the brief noted, “in Judicial Watch’s experience,
any law or regulation that requires additional disclosure of donor
data—especially to a state government that has publicly demonstrated
animosity to conservative viewpoints—has the real potential to chill
speech …”

This is decision is a key victory for the First Amendment and,
importantly, you and other patriots who are facing harassment,
intimidation, and worse from state actors seeking to oppress their
political opposition.

PODUNK CHARGES BY CORRUPT POLITICIANS TARGET TRUMP

Manhattan DA Cy Vance, Jr., indicted
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President Trump’s organization and Allen Weiselberg on tax evasion
charges as local and state officials in New York continue their
years-long targeting of President Trump.

The petty charges against President Trump’s company and employee
arise from political animus against Trump by Democratic New York
politicians. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, James Comey,
Robert Mueller – and now Cy Vance and Letitia James – all abused
power to target, harass and violate the civil rights of President
Trump. These new charges are another affront to the rule of law and an
obvious attempt to hamper any potential challenge by Trump to Joe
Biden.

Judicial Watch has been second to none in exposing, and often
thwarting, the government abuses targeting President Trump and other
innocent Americans. You can see the job is not done – and will never
be done as long President Trump and other Americans are perceived at
threats to the designs of the corrupted establishment class currently
controlling much of our justice system.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

America is under attack by a rising communist revolutionary movement.
They are attacking our republican system of government, which included
defaming our nation by attacking its founding.

As I’ve previously noted, we must always educate ourselves about the
glorious revolution for liberty behind our nation’s founding. The
Left is the enemy of history and memory and hates our nation’s
founding principles. To that end, to celebrate Independence Day, below
is the Declaration of Independence in full. Please share it far and
wide:

In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires
that they should declare the causes which impel them to the
separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive
of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence,
indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience
hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are
sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which
they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them
under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to
throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies;
and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their
former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great
Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having
in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these
States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary
for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should
be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend
to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and
formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public
Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with
his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with
manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause
others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of
Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise;
the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that
purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners;
refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and
raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his
Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of
their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of
Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the
Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to
the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to
their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring
Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging
its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit
instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:


For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and
altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his
Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to
compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun
with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized
nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas
to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of
their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured
to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian
Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in
the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only
by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every
act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free
people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We
have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of
the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured
them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations,
which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our
Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in
War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in
General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by
Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and
declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free
and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to
the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and
that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War,
conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all
other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And
for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Have a safe and wonderful Independence Day and God Bless the United
States of America!

Until next week …






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