Judicial Watch Sues DOJ and CIA for Documents on Eric Ciaramella

As the impeachment/coup against President Trump marches on, Judicial Watch is taking the lead on exposing the full truth about the various Deep State officials at the center of some the controversies at issue.

We just filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits against both the DOJ and CIA for CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella’s communications. He reportedly worked on Ukraine issues while on detail to both the Obama and Trump White Houses.

We sued the DOJ after it failed to respond to November 2019 FOIA requests seeking communications between Ciaramella and former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI Attorney Lisa Page, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and/or the Special Counsel’s Office (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:19-cv-03809)).

We sued the CIA after it failed to respond to November 2019 FOIA requests seeking all of Ciaramella’s emails from June 1, 2016, to November 12, 2019 (Judicial Watch v. Central Intelligence Agency (No. 1:19-cv-03807)).

Ciaramella’s name appears in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the 2016 presidential election, in reference to two emails Ciaramella sent to then-Chief of Staff John Kelly and other officials, describing a meeting between President Trump, Russian foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Foreign Minister Sergey Kislyak:
 

In the morning on May 10, 2017, President Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office.⁴⁶⁸

^***

⁴⁶⁸… (5/9/17 White House Document, “Working Visit with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia”) … (5/10/17 Email, Ciaramella to Kelly et al.). The meeting had been planned on May 2, 2017, during a telephone call between the President and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the meeting date was confirmed on May 5, 2017, the same day the President dictated ideas for the Comey termination letter to Stephen Miller…. (5/10/17 Email, Ciaramella to Kelly et al.).

Information about this phone call was subsequently leaked to The New York Times.

Ciaramella is widely reported as the person who filed the whistleblower complaint that triggered the impeachment proceedings. His name reportedly was “raised privately in impeachment depositions, according to officials with direct knowledge of the proceedings, as well as in at least one open hearing held by a House committee not involved in the impeachment inquiry.”

Judicial Watch recently compiled an extensive list of persons Ciaramella met while in the Obama-era White House. That list includes, but is not limited to, Daria Kaleniuk, co-founder and executive director of the Soros-funded Anticorruption Action Center (AntAC) in Ukraine; Gina Lentine, formerly the Eurasia program coordinator at Soros funded Open Society Foundations; and former Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who had extensive involvement with Clinton-funded dossier. The logs also reveal that Alexandra Chalupa, a contractor hired by the DNC during the 2016 election who coordinated with Ukrainians to investigate President Trump and his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, visited the White House 27 times.

Thanks to the Obama Spygate scandal and the related abusive impeachment of President Trump, there is significant public interest in Ciaramella’s activities. We know he was involved in the Russia collusion investigation, and he was a key CIA operative on Ukraine in the both the Obama and Trump White Houses. Our lawsuits are designed to break through the unprecedented cover-up of his activities.

Happy New Year!

As we enter the New Year in the midst of a constitutional crisis you can be assured that Judicial Watch will remain ever vigilant in our defense of the Constitution and the rule of law.

We will not relent:

• in our pursuit of the full truth Obama-Clinton CIA/DOJ/FBI/DNC Spygate ring that abused President Trump;
• in ensuring accountability the coup cabal pursuing abusive impeachment;
• in revealing the truth about Hillary Clinton’s illegal email activities, and
• in ensuring election integrity.

These matters can seem overwhelming, and, indeed, together they form one of the gravest crises our nation has ever faced.

Let’s recall, however, that our country has faced threats before. Each time, strong leaders emerged and patriots followed them to victory.

On Christmas Day 1776, George Washington made the decision to lead his army across the icy Delaware River in the face of a severe snowstorm to attack a British encampment at Trenton, New Jersey. This was a critical decision. Things had not been going well for Washington. He had suffered several significant defeats without any major victories.

The brand new Republic was at stake.

But forward he went. And on December 27, 1776, exactly 243 years ago, he wrote to John Hancock reporting his victory at Trenton. The ice on the river, he wrote, “made me despair of surprizing the Town, as I well knew we could not reach it before the day was fairly broke, but as I was certain there was no making a Retreat without being discovered, and harassed on repassing the River, I determined to push on at all Events.”

Of his troops he said: “In justice to the Officers and Men, I must add, that their Behaviour upon this Occasion, reflects the highest honor upon them. The difficulty of passing the River in a very severe Night, and their March thro’ a violent Storm of Snow and Hail, did not in the least abate their Ardour."

Just a week before Washington had ordered that a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine be read to all of his soldiers to inspire them. Paine wrote:

These are the times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

In this New Year we covenant with you that we are determined to push on and that we will not shrink from service to this country. You can support our essential work here.

Happy New Year!

Until next week …