On January 7, one day after the breach of the U.S. Capitol building, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died. On April 19, the medical examiner released the autopsy results – he died of natural causes.

However, between those two dates, Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans and allied media continually pushed the false narrative that Officer Sicknick was killed by rioters.

We now have an additional 2,440 pages of records related to his death that show major media representatives pressuring the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) of the District of Columbia over its conclusion. The emails in these documents read as if the leftist media had an interest in pressing the false narrative that Officer Sicknick was killed by protestors.

On April 20, one day after Officer Sicknick’s autopsy results were released, CNN reporter Jen Christensen emailed the medical examiner’s office, asking “how someone could die of natural causes after a traumatic event.”

And, in an April 20 email to the medical examiner’s office, reporter Sarah Mimms of BuzzFeed News presses for “clarity” on the death determination: “I’m really pressing on clarity here not only because of the importance of this case but also because USCP and the Justice Department initially said that Officer Sicknick died due to injuries he sustained at the Capitol. [Emphasis in original] We want to be accurate, which may mean updating those original stories about how he died, if the ME [medical examiner] can clarify this key point.”

We obtained the documents in a FOIA lawsuit after the medical examiner’s office denied our February 16, 2021, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. District of Columbia (No. 2021 CA 000875 B)). We asked for:

All records, including but not limited to autopsy reports, toxicology reports, notes, photographs, and OCME [medical examiner] officials’ electronic communications, related to the death on January 6, 2021 of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and its related investigation.

Pressure from this lawsuit helped lead to the April disclosure that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died of natural causes.

On February 7, Dr. Brent Harris, Director of Neuropathology at Georgetown University Hospital, emailed D.C. Medical Examiner Dr. Sasha Breland, saying, “Sasha, here’s the draft for your rush case and a paper I found on the topic. Take a look and let me know your thoughts.” The attached paper was titled, “Basilar artery thrombosis after cervical injury 2010.”

On January 8, medical examiner investigator Leigh Fields Broadbent emailed medical examiner colleagues regarding the Sicknick case, saying, “Accepted: 21-00132> Please contact Special Agent Riley, FBI [redacted] regarding the start time of the autopsy. He will be waiting in his car outside the building by 0730-0800 hrs regardless. DONE – he and the US Attorney will be coming down btwn 0900-0930 hrs. MPD will present btwn 0800-0830hrs.”

Dr. Samantha Tolliver, the Chief Toxicologist for the medical examiner’s office, indicated that a “draft report” had been completed in the Sicknick death investigation on February 17.

A “preliminary toxicology report” on Sicknick was completed by March 2, 2021.

Of the 10 outlets that filed FOIA requests seeking Officer Sicknick’s autopsy report, as of March 25, according to the medical examiner’s office’s talking points, all 10 were denied, but only Judicial Watch appealed the denial.

Following the submission of our appeal, DC General Counsel Rodney Adams emailed Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Francisco Diaz, and copying the medical examiner’s special assistant Cheryle Adams and Chief of Staff Beverly Fields, saying: “And the celebration was short lived … A Judicial Watch reporter has immediately appealed my denial of his request for the case file of Off. Brian Sicknick who died during the Jan. 6th riot at the Capitol. We have several other reporters requesting it as well.” [Note: Officer Sicknick died at the hospital on January 7, not “during the January 6 riot at the Capitol.”]

On March 31, Medical Examiner Francisco Diaz emailed medical examiner official Anna Francis, saying, “Can you please restrict access to E-file in this case,” referring to the Sicknick investigation. Francis replied, “What groups should be eliminated? These are the only groups that have access to the entire decedent file. Files are not in a completed state until released. Investigations, Medical Examiners, Terencia Davenport, QC-n-RecMgmt. Let me know. Mike restricts the images.” Diaz replied, “Please restrict access to you, me and Dr. Breland.”

On April 8, medical examiner General Counsel Rodney Adams sent a ‘’high importance email to medical examiner colleagues Francis, Diaz, Cheryle Adams and Beverly Fields advising them of a “litigation hold” notice and that “FYI … Judicial Watch has filed suit to obtain the Off. Sicknick case file. [Redacted].”

On April 19, Breland, who handled Officer Sicknick’s autopsy, advised Det. Joshua Branson that the information regarding stroke as the cause of death of Officer Sicknick was conveyed to the officer’s mother and girlfriend on the afternoon of April 19, after Branson emailed Breland, asking, “Have y’all ruled on the Sicknick case yet? The FBI just called me saying the family received a call from the [medical examiner’s office] stating that his death was ruled a natural.”

Initial reports from The New York Times and other media outlets about the cause of Officer Sicknick’s death have subsequently been corrected and revised.

We are conducting an extensive investigation into the January 6 events in Washington D.C.

Earlier this month, we uncovered documents from Washington, DC’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) related to Air Force veteran and San Diego native Ashli Babbitt. These documents reveal that OCME submitted a request for permission to cremate Babbitt only two days after taking custody of her body and that due to the “high profile nature” of Babbitt’s case, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Francisco Diaz requested that a secure electronic file with limited access be created for Babbitt’s records. Additionally, Babbitt’s fingerprints were emailed to a person supposedly working for the DC government, which resulted in Microsoft “undeliverable” messages written in Chinese characters being returned.

In July, we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the DOJ for records of communication between the FBI and several financial institutions about the reported transfer of financial transactions made by people in DC, Maryland and Virginia on January 5 and January 6, 2021. The FBI refused to confirm or deny any such records exist. Also in July, we filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for information relating to the tracking and collecting of Americans’ social media posts through its Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP).

In May, we sued both the Department of the Interior and the Department of Defense for records regarding the deployment of armed forces around the Capitol complex in Washington, DC, in January and February of 2021.

In March, we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense for records about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s January 8, 2021, telephone call with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.

You can see that Judicial Watch is not afraid to ask the tough questions and go to court for the truth about January 6 and its aftermath


Judicial Watch Sues for Records on Biden Pentagon Plan to Monitor the Social Media Accounts of Troops

In too many ways, the Biden administration is an enemy of the First Amendment. The hostility to free speech is readily apparent in Biden’s Pentagon, which is one reason why we sued the Department of Defense for all records about whether it was monitoring or planning to monitor the social media accounts of military members (Judicial Watch v U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:21-cv-02146)).
 
We sued after the Defense Department failed to respond to a May 18, 2021, FOIA request for:

Any and all records regarding, concerning, or related to any actual or proposed program to monitor the social media accounts of service members or other Department of Defense employees for extremist content or activity. This request includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Any and all related records of communication between any official, employee, or representative of the Department of Defense and any other individual or entity.

 

Any and all records related to any actual or proposed grants or contracts related to the program.

 

Any and all related records mentioning or referring to the private contractor Babel Street.

Any and all related legal analyses, decisions, or determinations drafted or issued by the Office of General Counsel.

When asked about a social media monitoring program during a May 2021 press conference, Department of Defense Press Secretary John Kirby said:

[P]art of that insider threat program is to take a look at social media activity out there so that we're – that we can be as informed as possible

If there is – again, the insider threat, right, is, you know, when there’s a concern about the potential of a threat coming from inside, you know, one of the things you want to do is take a look at the social media footprint and see what’s out there in the public space.

When asked for an underlying Pentagon document for the program, Kirby replied that he had not seen it. When asked if the document would be made public, Kirby said: “If it exists, we'll look at it and see if it’s – if it's something that's potentially worth public release or that we could. But I'm not going to make any promises at this point.”

In April 2021, the Pentagon issued a press release regarding Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III’s memorandum announcing “Immediate Actions to Counter Extremism in the Department” that included information about its social media monitoring program:

Screening Capability. This [line of effort] will discuss the Department’s pursuit of scalable a cost-effective capabilities to screen publicly available electronic information in accessions and continuous vetting for national security positions. The [line of effort] will make recommendations on further development of such capabilities and incorporating machine learning and natural language processing into social media screening platforms.

No one is being fooled – the Biden Pentagon is abusing its authority to spy on the social media posts of troops who espouse conservative views. That the Pentagon is hiding documents about this Big Brother program in violation of law is doubly concerning.


Biden’s Homeland Security Agency Uses Small Texas Airport to Disperse Illegal Immigrants Released from Detention

When the border is broken, every town is a border town. And even more so when the Biden administration aids and abets human trafficking by flying illegal border crossers from the border directly to other areas of the country. Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the story.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly using a small regional airport in central Texas to disperse large groups of illegal immigrants throughout the U.S. after releasing them from detention facilities in other parts of the state, city and federal sources confirm. Local authorities in the city where this is occurring, Abilene, are being kept in the dark, and a federal lawmaker is demanding an end to the “reckless and irresponsible practice” as well as answers from DHS after a series of local news reports exposed the covert operation.

 

Abilene is located about 180 miles west of Dallas and has a population of around 120,000. The area’s airport is run by the city and its transportation director reveals in a news story that local officials are not aware of what exactly is going on with the illegal immigrant flights. The airport is only given 24 to 48 hours of notice before flights arrive, according to Abilene Director of Transportation Don Green, who verifies the planes are private charters from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS agency in charge. The Texas news conglomerate, which also publishes reports in Spanish, writes that it “shot video of strange activity at the airport” and includes the footage on its website. It shows immigrants exiting unmarked planes, getting frisked, then boarding buses. Some footage includes buses arriving at the airport where immigrants are seen getting off and boarding planes to different parts of the U.S.

Republican Jodey Arrington, who represents the area in the U.S. House, says the flights have been coming into Abilene Airport for some time and his office has contacted ICE for more information, but the agency has essentially blown him off. The congressman also reveals that he has called numerous local officials, and not one has been notified by the federal government of the covert ICE operations at Abilene Airport. That includes county commissioners, judges, city mayors and state legislators who are being kept in the dark by ICE and DHS about the activity. In response to the news organization’s inquiry, ICE issued a statement saying that Abilene Airport is used to facilitate detainee transfers in accordance with operational needs and assures the agency is “committed to ensuring that all those in our custody reside in safe, secure, and humane environments and under appropriate conditions of confinement.” The DHS agency also writes that detainees in transit will be transported in a safe and humane manner under the supervision of trained and experienced personnel.

ICE also stresses that detainees’ medical and other special needs are prioritized before any transfer and that accommodations are made during transfer for detainees with disabilities. For those concerned about where the relocated illegal immigrants will end up, the agency offers this reassuring information in its statement to the Texas media outlet: “ICE is coordinating with non-governmental organizations to ensure individuals have immediate needs such as temporary shelter upon their release, as well as food, water, clothing, and transportation services to help mitigate strains placed on resources in the local community.” Custody determinations are made daily by the agency, the ICE statement reads, on a case-by-case basis in accordance with U.S. law and DHS policy considering the “merits and factors of each case.”

Congressman Arrington is calling on the Biden administration to immediately end the reckless “catch and release” operations and blasts the administration for the unacceptable lack of communication and transparency surrounding the process. In a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Arrington trashes Biden’s disastrous policies for encouraging illegal immigration, emboldening drug cartels and jeopardizing the safety of the American people. “Under your leadership and as a result of the Biden Administration’s policies, the United States has ceded control of our southern border to narco-terrorist cartels, which in turn, has created an unprecedented humanitarian and security crisis,” the congressman writes to the DHS secretary. The legislator also asks Mayorkas several questions, including how many illegal immigrants have been released from local detention facilities and transported to Abilene, if DHS is conducting criminal background checks on them, and if the illegal immigrants are tested for COVID-19 before being released into the community.

A few months ago Judicial Watch reported on a similar Biden administration scheme in which planeloads of illegal immigrant minors were relocated around the country in the middle of the night to avoid public scrutiny. In that case the Department of Defense (DOD) contracted big tour buses to take the migrants to cities throughout the southeast. A Tennessee news outlet captured video of planes arriving at a Chattanooga private jet terminal and adolescents who appear to be in their early teens are seen deboarding the planes carrying matching bags then boarding large tour busses parked on the runway. Federal lawmakers representing the area as well as local officials were also kept in the dark.

Judicial Watch Fights West Point Stonewall on Racist Propaganda

The Biden Pentagon, in addition to spying on troops to root out conservatives, is also abusing our young men and women in their care with critical race theory indoctrination, as Micah Morrison, our chief investigative reporter, describes in his Investigative Bulletin.

“Critical race theory” is suddenly, weirdly, everywhere. Schools, Congress, the law, the media, big business are abruptly awash in the CRT gospel that U.S. institutions are inherently, irredeemably, “systemically” racist, and must be destroyed to be saved. One day in the not-too-distant future someone will write a fascinating study of how this insanity came upon us, and not for the first time. But for now, the deluge.

Now the storm has reached a citadel of American democracy, the United States Military Academy at West Point. For months, Judicial Watch has been investigating tips from West Point sources about shocking CRT teachings that divide, not unite, our future military leaders.

In April, we filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Defense Department for all West Point material related to CRT. The Defense Department ignored our request. So last month, we sued them.

“Critical race theory is racist, anti-American, and repackaged Marxism,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It has no place in our military, let alone the storied heights of West Point. The Pentagon needs to immediately follow the FOIA law so the American people can fully understand and stop the extremist indoctrination of the U.S. Army’s rising leadership at West Point.”

In June, in an extraordinary statement on Capitol Hill, the chairman on the Joint Chiefs of Staff—the highest-ranking military officer in the U.S.—defended CRT at West Point. “I want to understand white rage,” said General Mark Milley, “and I’m white.”

Milley called on members of the military to be “open-minded” and compared CRT to the classroom study of communism. “I’ve read Mao Zedong,” he said. “I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist. So what’s wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding, about the country for which we are here to defend?”

What’s wrong of course is that a radical dogma like CRT has goals far beyond the classroom. It seeks to exploit liberal good will, “open-mindedness,” to undermine, divide and ultimately destroy the country. It’s a tactic Mao and Lenin understood well.

Congressman Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret, also has been investigating CRT at West Point. In a letter to the superintendent of the military academy, Rep. Waltz noted that he received reports from cadets and families about CRT-inspired racist teachings.

One mandatory seminar for cadets, according to the Waltz, included a workshop on “Understanding Systemic Racism” and featured a presentation by Dr. Carol Anderson of Emory University on “Understanding Whiteness and White Rage.”

Rep. Waltz noted that Anderson “is a controversial, partisan academic, who has made no secret where she stands politically.” She has written that the “trigger for white rage, inevitably, is black advancement. It is not the mere presence of black people that is the problem: rather, it is blackness with ambition, drive, purpose, aspirations.”

According to reports received by Waltz, the entire cadet corps was required to attend a stadium assembly that included testimony from a fellow cadet about her “white privilege” and how she “felt guilty for the advantages of her race.”

It’s obvious why CRT at West Point is so alarming. “A fundamental pillar of military training has been it doesn’t matter what race, what religion, or whether one’s family was rich or poor before entering the military,” Waltz writes. “This is why every soldier’s head is shaved and every soldier wears the exact same uniform.”

Critical race theory takes aim at this pillar of American democracy, pitting “cadets against one another through divisive indoctrination,” writes Waltz. CRT at West Point teaches our future military leaders “that they should treat their fellow officers and soldiers differently based on race and socio-economic background. In a combat environment, where every soldier must equally share the burden of danger, I cannot think of a notion more destructive to unit cohesion and morale.”

Make that: more destructive to the American experiment writ large.

Until next week …