YouTube Censored Our Election Security
Video at the Request of California Officials
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 featured me discussing vote-by-mail and our
lawsuit settlement
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 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 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
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
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 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 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 dated November 13, 2020, Zeke Sandoval of SKDK
(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 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
against Twitter based on these Judicial Watch disclosures.
In May, we separately uncovered
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 (Nos. 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 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 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 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
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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