Secret Service Repeatedly Changes Its Story on Hunter Biden Gun Records

The United States Secret Service has repeatedly changed its position on whether it is in possession of records related to the investigation of Hunter Biden’s gun, which was reportedly disposed of in a dumpster in Delaware.

The agency now says it has located more than 100 records, totaling over 400 pages, but won’t complete its initial processing of them until January 9, 2023.

We are investigating whether and how the Secret Service intervened for Hunter Biden in an incident involving a gun he allegedly owned. In September, we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for records or communications about the reported purchase, possession, and disposal of a firearm owned by Hunter Biden found in a Delaware dumpster in October 2018 (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:22-cv-02841)).

The Secret Service initially responded to our request on April 2, 2021, stating that it had located potentially responsive records and would process them in accordance with FOIA. Then, on October 13, 2022, the agency said the April 2021 response was sent in error and that it did not have any records responsive to the FOIA request.

Then, on November 10, 2022, the agency informed the District Court that it has run supplemental searches and has located over 100 records, totaling over 400 pages, potentially responsive to our request.

Is it simply coincidence that the second message from the Secret Service came after the November 8 midterm election?
The Secret Service also told the court that it would complete its initial processing of all potentially responsive records by January 9, 2023, and send records out for any necessary consultations with other Executive Branch entities by that date. All other non-exempt, responsive records are to be produced to us by January 9.

The Secret Service’s changing story on records raises additional questions about its role in the Hunter Biden gun incident. One thing is clear: Our persistence means the public may get records that the Secret Service suggested didn’t exist.

In October 2020, The Blaze reported that in October 2018, Hunter Biden’s handgun was taken by Hallie Biden, the widow of then-presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son Beau. In 2021, Politico reported:

Hallie took Hunter’s gun and threw it in a trash can behind a grocery store, only to return later to find it gone.

Delaware police began investigating, concerned that the trash can was across from a high school and that the missing gun could be used in a crime, according to law enforcement officials and a copy of the police report obtained by POLITICO.

But a curious thing happened at the time: Secret Service agents approached the owner of the store where Hunter bought the gun and asked to take the paperwork involving the sale, according to two people, one of whom has firsthand knowledge of the episode and the other was briefed by a Secret Service agent after the fact.

Our investigation of Hunter Biden includes:

In October 2022, we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Justice for all records in the possession of FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten regarding an August 6, 2020, briefing provided to members of the U.S. Senate. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) raised concerns that the briefing was intended to undermine the senators’ investigation of Hunter Biden.

In December 2020, we received records from the State Department tying Hunter Biden’s Burisma Holdings’ lobbying operation to an influence-peddling operation involving the Clinton campaign during the 2016 election. Also uncovered were State Department records showing that former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch had specifically warned in 2017 about corruption allegations against Burisma Holdings.

In October 2020, we revealed State Department records that included a briefing checklist of a February 22, 2019, meeting in Kyiv between then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and Sally Painter, co-founder and chief operating officer of Blue Star Strategies, a Democratic lobbying firm which was hired by Burisma Holdings to combat corruption allegations. The briefing checklist notes that Painter also planned to meet with Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) Officer Martin Claessens “regarding the Burisma Group energy company.” (Painter was implicated in the Clinton-era fundraising scandal we exposed. It involved the alleged sale of seats on Commerce Department trade missions to Democratic National Committee donors.)

In September 2020, State Department records revealed a January 17, 2017, email from George Kent, the Obama administration’s deputy assistant secretary of state in charge of Ukraine policy, which was copied to then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, highlighting Russia-linked media “trolling” Joe Biden over “his son’s business.” An email was sent four days prior to the inauguration of President Donald Trump to a redacted recipient and CCd to Yovanovitch with the subject line “medvedchuk-linked vesti trolls Biden.” Kent writes: “Burisma – gift that keeps on giving. (With medvedchuk affiliated Vesti pushing the troll like storyline on visit day)”

In June 2020, U.S. Secret Service records showed that, for the first five and a half years of the Obama administration, Hunter Biden traveled extensively while receiving a Secret Service protective detail. During the time period of the records provided, Hunter Biden took 411 separate domestic and international flights, including to 29 different foreign countries. He visited China five times.

We are also suing the DHS for Secret Service records on Hunter Biden’s travel and security costs, and suing the State Department for messages sent through the SMART (State Messaging and Archive Retrieval Toolkit) system that mention Hunter Biden.

As the Hunter Biden scandal issues are often directly about Joe Biden scandal issues, Judicial Watch will continue its leadership role in investigating and exposing this important aspect of government corruption.

What is the Secret Service Hiding about Biden Raid on Trump’s Home? Judicial Watch Sues to Find Out!

Judicial Watch just filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for all communications between the Secret Service and FBI regarding the search warrant that precipitated the raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022 (Judicial Watch Inc. v U.S. Department of Homeland Security (1:22-cv-03275)).

We sued to compel DHS to comply with an August 9, 2022, FOIA request for:

All records of communication between any official or employee of the U.S. Secret Service and any official or employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the execution of a search warrant at the residence of President Trump on August 8, 2022.

The Secret Service had indicated in an August 23, 2022, letter that it had completed its search for records responsive to the FOIA request. In a September letter, however, the Secret Service retracted that assertion.

Citing the BBC, as well as ABC News, we detail in our lawsuit that the FBI reportedly provided the Secret Service with advance notice of the pending execution of the search warrant:

Specifically, the reporting indicates that an employee or employees of the FBI Miami Field Office notified President Trump’s Secret Service protective detail approximately 45 minutes before their arrival at Mar-a-Lago. Records of any such communication would be responsive to the request and fall within the specified time frame.

The Secret Service’s changing story on whether it has documents on the Biden administration’s unprecedented raid on former President Trump’s home should be resolved by a federal court.

We have been active in this area.

In October, we filed a FOIA lawsuit against Homeland Security for all communications of the Secret Service internally and with the FBI regarding the raid on President Trump’s home and for any video or audio recordings made during the raid.

Also, we announced that the National Archives is withholding 99% of the requested records about the raid in response to our FOIA lawsuit.

In August, we forced the release of the raid affidavit through a court request to unseal the warrant materials used in the raid.
We also filed two lawsuits against the Justice Department for records of the raid search warrant application and approval, as well as communications about the warrant between the FBI, the Executive Office of the President, and the Secret Service.
The Biden raid on Trump’s home was government abuse and Judicial Watch will shy away from demanding answers about this scandal.

Judicial Watch Sues Biden Agency for Censorship Records

The Biden administration has assumed the right to censor ideas it doesn’t like – in collusion with Big Tech social media companies.

Judicial Watch  filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for all records of communications between the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (CISA), a division of DHS, and the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), which was created to flag online election content for censorship and suppression (Judicial Watch Inc. vs. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:22-cv-03560 )).

We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after DHS failed to respond to our October 5, 2022, FOIA request for:

1. All records of communication between the CISA and the EIP. This includes all "tickets" or notifications to the Partnership regarding election-related disinformation on any social media platform.
2. All records regarding the July 9, 2020, meeting between DHS officials and representatives of the EIP.
3. All records of communication between the CISA and the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public and/or Stanford University's Internet Observatory regarding any of the following:

• The Election Integrity Partnership
• The 2020 U.S. election
• Online misinformation and disinformation
• Any social media platform

The Election Integrity Partnership was created in July 2020, just before the presidential election. According to Just the News:

The consortium is comprised of four member organizations: Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public, the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, and social media analytics firm Graphika. It set up a concierge-like service in 2020 that allowed federal agencies like Homeland's Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and State's Global Engagement Center to file "tickets" requesting that online story links and social media posts be censored or flagged by Big Tech.   

Three liberal groups — the Democratic National Committee, Common Cause and the NAACP — were also empowered like the federal agencies to file tickets seeking censorship of content. A Homeland-funded collaboration, the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, also had access.

The Election Integrity Partnership also was reportedly active during the 2022 midterm elections.

Among the news outlets “flagged” by EIP were websites for Just the News, New York Post, Fox News, Washington Examiner, The Washington Times, The Epoch Times and Breitbart.

Why is the Biden administration hiding records about federal demands of Big Tech to censor and suppress Americans participating in the debates about elections?

In September 2022, we sued the Secretary of State of the State of California for having YouTube censor a Judicial Watch election integrity video.

In May 2022, YouTube censored our video about Biden corruption and election integrity issues in the 2020 election. The video, titled “Impeach? Biden Corruption Threatens National Security,” was falsely determined to be “election misinformation” and removed by YouTube, and Judicial Watch’s YouTube account was suspended for a week. The video featured an interview with me. We continue to post its video content on its Rumble channel (https://rumble.com/vz7aof-fitton-impeach-biden-corruption-threatens-national-security.html).

In April 2021, we published documents revealing how California state officials pressured social media companies (Twitter, Facebook, Google (YouTube)) to censor posts about the 2020 election.

In May 2021, we revealed documents showing that Iowa state officials pressured social media companies Twitter and Facebook to censor posts about the 2020 election.

In July 2021, we uncovered records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which revealed that Facebook coordinated closely with the CDC to control the COVID narrative and “misinformation” and that over $3.5 million in free advertising given to the CDC by social media companies.

Free speech and the First Amendment are under assault by the Biden administration, its leftist allies, and compliant Big Tech companies,  And your Judicial Watch will do all it can to sue to stop and expose this dangerous assault on our civil rights.

Soros Nonprofit Gets $12 Mil from U.S. to ‘Empower’ Latin America Workers

It is not at all surprising that the Biden administration is in bed with a leftwing group associated with billionaire George Soros. Our Corruption Chronicles blog reveals the  flow of taxpayer money to this outfit:

The Biden administration is giving a nonprofit partially funded by leftwing billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) $12 million to strengthen labor rights and empower workers in three Latin American countries. The U.S. taxpayer dollars will go to the Solidarity Center, a Washington D.C.-based group closely allied with OSF as well as the country’s largest union conglomerate, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). The Solidarity Center’s mission is to help workers across the globe fight discrimination, exploitation and systems that entrench poverty. It claims to accomplish this by empowering workers to raise their voice for dignity on the job, justice in their communities and greater equality in the global economy.

The group will use the $12 million to “strengthen democratic, independent workers’ organizations in Brazil, Colombia and Peru,” according to the Department of Labor (DOL) announcement issued this week. The project will bolster unions and advocate for the full and free exercise of collective bargaining rights and freedom of association, the agency writes, adding that the focus will be on underserved communities and advancing gender and racial equity. Specifically, the American taxpayer dollars will support activities that improve respect for the rights of Brazil’s Afro-Brazilian, migrant, women and LGBTQI+ workers in the digital platform economy and the manufacturing sector. In Colombia, the focus will be on increasing the capacity of women, migrants, and indigenous people to organize and advocate for workers’ rights. In Peru, the goal is to improve access to mechanisms for labor rights compliance in the mining and agriculture sectors, particularly for indigenous and migrant workers.

The Solidarity Center, which claims to be the largest U.S.-based international worker rights organization, also operates in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Most of its funding comes from Uncle Sam, but private groups like OSF also contribute generously. In 2020, the Solidarity Center received nearly $39 million in federal awards, according to its latest annual report. In 2019, the center got over $36 million from the U.S. government. Additionally, the group gets millions annually in “other revenues” that are not broken down. However, records obtained by Judicial Watch show that the OSF has given a lot of money to the Solidarity Center in the last few years. In 2020, the latest available reporting period, OSF gave the Solidarity Center $980,000. In 2019 the center received $785,000 from OSF and in 2018 it got $400,000 from the Soros nonprofit that has dedicated billions of dollars to leftist causes around the world. Soros’s global foundation explains that the grants are for economic equity and justice, access to justice for migrant workers in the U.S., to improve labor rights in Mexico and Central America, and the empowerment of vulnerable workers in the domestic and agricultural sectors in the Middle East.

The U.S. government has long funded Soros groups as well as those with close ties to them like the Solidarity Center. Judicial Watch has reported on it for years and obtained records that show the disturbing reality of American taxpayers financing Soros’s leftwing plots abroad. This includes uncovering documents showing State Department funding of Soros nonprofits in Albania to attack traditional, pro-American groups and policies; U.S. government funding of Soros’s radical globalist agenda in Guatemala, Colombia, Romania and Macedonia. The cash usually flows through the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Details of the financial and staffing nexus between OSF and the U.S. government are available in a Judicial Watch investigative report. Domestically Soros groups have pushed a radical agenda that includes promoting an open border with Mexico, fomenting racial disharmony by funding anti-capitalist black separationist organizations, financing the Black Lives Matter movement and other groups involved in the Ferguson Missouri riots, weakening the integrity of the nation’s electoral systems, opposing U.S. counterterrorism efforts and eroding 2nd Amendment protections.

U.S. Funds Workshops in India to Promote Transgender Extremism

What can the Biden administration possible do next with your tax dollars? How about sending your money to “Pride/Rainbow groups” in India to support the rights of transgender people? Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the details:

Though years ago India passed a sweeping law giving transgender people rights—and prohibiting discrimination in education, employment, and healthcare—the Biden administration is spending American taxpayer dollars to counter stigma and prejudice against the transgender community in the south Asian nation with the world’s largest democracy. Uncle Sam will pay for workshops that will help employees and leadership at Indian companies create awareness about transgender persons and their rights. This includes setting up “Pride/Rainbow groups” within the corporations and inspiring them to cultivate a more inclusive work environment as well as develop active transgender employee recruitment plans.

“These workshops will aim to help corporations and businesses to better understand the needs of the TG community and encourage them to adopt policies and carry out activities that foster a work environment that is safe, nurturing, accepting, and inclusive for members of the TG community,” according to the U.S. government grant announcement. The document adds that “a longer-term outcome is that these corporations and businesses increase their hiring of members of the TG community and help their employees and the general public be more accepting.” The ultimate goal, according to the administration, is to “sensitize” the Indian corporations towards the rights of the LGTQI+ community and the transgender community specifically. This will cost U.S. taxpayers $50,000 and the money will flow through the State Department under public diplomacy programs.

The U.S. estimates that there are more than five million transgender persons in India and roughly 3,000 of them live in Hyderabad, a capital city in country’s southern region. Companies there and in Chennai, on the eastern side in the Bay of Bengal, are the initiative’s targets. “For centuries, TG persons have played important roles in the Indian society,” according to the grant document. “However, that did not translate into equal treatment as citizens in modern India.” The U.S. does acknowledge India’s effort to improve transgender rights, but says it is not enough. “While recent laws have, to a small extent, provided more rights to the community, they continue to face social exclusion and discrimination because of their gender identity and orientation,” the State Department writes. “Unlike other members of the LGBTQI+ community, TG persons can often be identified by their appearance, making them easy targets for social and economic discrimination and exclusion.” The agency cites a 2017 study that shows 92% of India’s transgender population is unable to participate in formal economic activity, mostly fueled by social stigma and prejudice.

The referenced study was completed two years before India passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, however. The law prohibits discrimination against transgender persons in all areas, including healthcare, education, employment, housing, and services. It also punishes those who abuse transgender people with jail terms of up to two years. Language in the measure makes it clear that the legislation specifically bans the type of treatment the U.S.-funded workshops plan to target. “No establishment shall discriminate against any transgender person in any matter relating to employment including, but not limited to, recruitment, promotion and other related issues,” the law, which was passed on July 11, 2019, states. Embedded in the bill is a “statement of objects and reasons” explaining that the transgender community is one of the most marginalized in the country because “they do not fit into the general categories of male or female.” As a result, the transgender rights bill explains, they face problems ranging from social exclusion to discrimination, lack of education facilities, unemployment, and lack of medical facilities. Transgender groups have also reported instances in which they were hired and “had to quit after some months due to the attitude of coworkers,” the 2019 law states.