Judicial Watch Statement in Response to Federal Court Reopening Lawsuit Seeking Information on Top Clinton Aide Huma Abedin

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton made the following statement regarding today’s decision by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to reopen a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that sought records about Huma Abedin, the former Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-01363)).

Hillary Clinton’s massive email cover-up is unraveling. We welcome Judge Sullivan’s decision to reopen this lawsuit. Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration concealed records and lied to obstruct federal courts and Judicial Watch from finding out about the secret emails.

The court battle to get to the truth about Huma Abedin’s “special government employee” (SGE) privileges at State is underway. The reopening of this case brings Judicial Watch one step closer to forcing the State Department to ensure that the government records in Hillary Clinton’s “secret” email system are properly preserved, protected and recovered as federal law requires.  Ms. Abedin is part of the Clinton cash raising operation and was even involved in the Benghazi scandal, so this lawsuit could not be more timely.

This is the second Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit that has been reopened because of Hillary Clinton’s hidden email records.  Judicial Watch is aware of no prior instances of Freedom of Information lawsuits being reopened by federal courts.

Judge Sullivan ruled that the “changed circumstances” of the discovery that Hillary Clinton and members of her State Department staff used secret email accounts to conduct government business warranted “reopening” the lawsuit.

In asking Judge Sullivan to reopen the lawsuit, Judicial Watch cited a federal court rule (Rule 60(b)(3)) that allows a party to reopen a case due to “fraud (whether previously called intrinsic or extrinsic), misrepresentation, or misconduct by an opposing party:”

The State Department had an obligation under the Federal Records Act to properly preserve, maintain, and make available for retrieval records of its official functions. In fact, it is the obligation of the head of every federal agency to do so.  Secretary Clinton plainly violated her own legal obligations. Doing so was misconduct.

The State Department originally agreed with Judicial Watch’s request but later changed its mind and asked the Court to reopen the lawsuit because of “newly discovered evidence.”  In today’s ruling, Judge Sullivan simply reopened the case, rather than “spilling ink” on whether Hillary Clinton and the State Department committed fraud, misrepresentation or misconduct.

Huma Abedin left the State Department in February 2013, and in May 2013, Politico reported that, since June 2012, she had been double-dipping, working as a consultant to outside clients while continuing as a top adviser at State. Abedin’s outside clients included Teneo, a strategic consulting firm co-founded by former Bill Clinton counselor Doug Band. According to Fox News, Abedin earned $355,000 as a consultant to Teneo, in addition to her $135,000 SGE compensation.

Teneo describes its activities as providing “the leaders of the world’s most respected companies, nonprofit institutions and governments with a full suite of advisory solutions.” [Emphasis added]  Outside of the U.S., it maintains offices in Dubai, London, Dublin, Hong Kong, Brussels, Washington, and Beijing.  Teneo was also the subject of various investigative reports, including by the New York Times, which raise questions about its relationship with the Clinton Foundation.

In February 2014, the State Department assured Judicial Watch that it had searched the Office of the Executive Secretary, which would have included the offices of the Secretary of State and top staff. Relying upon the State Department’s misrepresentation that the agency conducted a reasonable search, Judicial Watch agreed to dismiss its lawsuit on March 14, 2014.

Via: Judicial Watch

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The IRS Mystery Man Calling the Shots

 (REUTERS)

When it comes to the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service, the media has focused its attention on Lois Lerner, who oversaw the tax agency’s Exempt Organizations Unit. But they may want to pay more attention to William Wilkins, the IRS chief counsel, whose office, according to sources, had unprecedented involvement in applications for tax exempt status and the special scrutiny of conservative applications.

Wilkins is one of just two of the tax agency’s roughly 90,000 employees who was appointed by the White House, according to reports.  He came to the IRS in 2009 from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, where he had worked as a lobbyist since 1988. At WilmerHale, as the firm is now called, he was part of the tax practice group and as part of his responsibilities he advised nonprofit organizations on tax compliance. Prior to that, Wilkins served as staff counsel to the Democratic side of the Senate Finance Committee from 1981 to 1988.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, who is suing the IRS to force the issuance of emails related to the tax exempt scandal, is highly critical of Wilkins. He says, “The counsel’s office was up to its neck in tea party targeting. I don’t understand why he is still there.” Wilkins also led the defense team of former Obama pastor Jeremiah Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ in 2008, when it faced an IRS probe regarding its tax exempt status.

The IRS has refused to immediately release the 6,400 emails that Fitton’s group is requesting, telling a U.S. district court that they needed to be “de-duplicated” before circulating them more widely. Judicial Watch responded yesterday by requesting that the court order the IRS to produce the emails immediately. 

Adding fuel to the fire, Americans for Tax Reform issued a statement yesterday saying that the IRS was moving at a “snail’s pace” in releasing emails, and that the delay was “unacceptable.”

Via: Fox Business

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Judicial Watch Files Lawsuit against Secretary of State John Kerry to Force Action on Clinton Emails

Seeks to compel compliance with Federal Records Act provision requiring agency heads to account for official records

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State John Kerry in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to compel Secretary Kerry’s compliance with the Federal Records Act and challenge “the failure of Defendant Kerry to take any action to recover emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton” and other U.S. Department of State employees unlawfully removed from the agency (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. John F. Kerry (No. 1:15-cv-00785)).

Kerry’s predecessor at the State Department, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, conducted official government business using a secret, unsecured email server and email accounts. Her top aides and advisors also used non-“state.gov” email accounts to conduct official business.

In 2014, Clinton “unilaterally determined which of her emails were official government records and, in December 2014, returned at least a portion of these public records – as many as 55,000 pages of records – to the State Department.”

In the lawsuit, Judicial Watch argues the following:

The Clinton emails are agency records subject to the [Federal Records Act (FRA)] and the State Department’s failure to retain, manage, and search these agency records has compromised the Department’s retention of records that concern or relate to Secretary Clinton and other high level State Department officials who used non-“state.gov” email addresses.

As noted by Judicial Watch, the Federal Records Act stipulates:

Agencies may only dispose of records on terms approved by the Archivist of the United States, who is head of the National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”). … This process is the exclusive procedure by which all federal records may be disposed of or destroyed. …

The FRA imposes a direct responsibility on an agency head to take steps to recover any records unlawfully removed.

On April 30, 2015, Judicial Watch sent a letter to Kerry “notifying him of the unlawful removal of the Clinton emails and requesting that he initiate enforcement action pursuant to the FRA,” including working through the Attorney General to recover the emails.

Patrick Kennedy, under secretary of state for management, responded on Secretary Kerry’s behalf on May 14.  The letter ignored Judicial Watch’s demands that the Secretary comply with the FRA.

Judicial Watch alleges Kerry’s actions represent “an abuse of discretion” that has led to the continued withholding of official government records from the American people.

“Secretary Kerry is in cover-up mode for Hillary Clinton. While John Kerry may have replaced Hillary Clinton at the State Department, he has proven that when it comes to complying with federal records and disclosure laws, he and Clinton are cut from the same corrupted cloth,” stated Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch president. “Secretary Kerry is in a position to provide the transparency and accountability his predecessor so casually dismissed. However, those in the Obama administration will do whatever they can, including ignoring the law, to protect Clinton, her ‘legacy’ and her 2016 presidential prospects. What a sad state of affairs it is when we must petition the courts to remind our leaders what the law is and that they are obligated to follow it.”

Via: Judicial Watch

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BREITBART/JW POLL: MORE THAN HALF SKEPTICAL OBAMACARE WILL LOWER COSTS

A new Breitbart/Judicial Watch Poll reveals more than half of Americans are skeptical that the “Affordable Care Act” will lower their health insurance costs. Fifty-four percent say so, while only one-quarter believe their health insurance cost will decrease if they sign up for one of the government’s health plans.

As you may know, a law was passed in 2010 that makes major changes to the country's health care system. Please tell me if you agree or disagree with the following statement. “My healthcare insurance costs will decrease if I enroll in one of the government’s new health insurance plans.”

25% TOTAL AGREE (NET)

12% STRONGLY AGREE

12% SOMEWHAT AGREE

54% TOTAL DISAGREE (NET)

13% SOMEWHAT DISAGREE

40% STRONGLY DISAGREE

21% DO NOT KNOW

1% REFUSED

Democrats are more likely to be optimistic about Obamacare's cost-saving ability than Republicans. Even so, Democrats are not overwhelmingly optimistic, rather, they are split on the question.  Independents are more in line with the GOP (72%) as 54% of Independents doubt that Obamacare will lower their healthcare costs should they sign on to the program.

Expectations are different along racial lines and more likely to be divided on the issue of cost decreases. African-Americans are split along with Hispanics on the cost saving aspect of Obamacare. Forty-three percent of African-Americans do not expect their costs to decrease and 37% of Hispanics say the same, significantly lower than whites. 

Via: Breitbart

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N.Y.’s New Mayor Active Supporter of Brutal Communist Regime

The new mayor of New York City (Bill de Blasio) was an active supporter of a brutal communist regime well known as one of the worst human rights abusers in Latin America, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch.

It’s not information likely to be featured in the mainstream media, which has largely focused on de Blasio’s community organizing and work on behalf of the less fortunate. After all, he says the middle class is in danger of disappearing and he’s vowed to increase taxes for the rich, create more affordable housing and end the police department’s stop-and-frisk policy because it disproportionately effects minorities.

This may all sound fantastic, but there’s a very dark side to New York’s mayor-elect who will be sworn in with a galaxy of stars on New Year’s Day, according to a local newspaper. The shindig will include a Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist, a hip-hop mogul, several 0scar-winning actresses and a leftwing activist (Harry Belafonte) who is the self-professed leader of the American socialist revolution.

De Blasio was an active supporter of the communist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua in the 1980s, according to information uncovered by Judicial Watch. He was so enamored with Soviet-backed revolutionaries that he traveled to the capital city of the war-torn country, Managua, to aid their cause by participating in a relief mission. Upon de Blasio’s return to the United States, he joined the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York (NSN).

JW examined the records of the NSN at the Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, located on the campus of New York University (NYU) in the Greenwich Village section of New York City.  The archive is also the NYU “Reference Center for Marxist Studies.” According to the archive record guide: “The Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York (1985-2002), and its member organizations worked to support the Sandinista Revolution and to protest U.S. support of the counter-revolutionary military movement, aka the Contras, who also killed civilian supporters of the revolution, targeting medical and educational personnel in particular.”

Via: Judicial Watch

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No Joke; Obama Issues 2nd Open Govt. National Action Plan

It may seem like a cheap prank but the Obama administration, which has proven to be among the most secretive, has actually issued its second “Open Government National Action Plan”  that promises to build on (delusional) “past successes.”

Even the president’s many friends and supporters in the mainstream media have conceded that government secrecy has actually increased significantly since he moved into the White House, despite promises of an “unprecedented level of openness in government.” Instead, federal agencies have found creative excuses to keep an alarming number of public records secret, according to an analysis conducted several years ago by a national news organization.

The problem has only gotten worse over the years, according to a number of reports and probes. Just a few months ago a national news conglomerate reported that the administration even uses covert government accounts to keep electronic mail from becoming public. When the news outlet tried accessing records of the illegal secret accounts, one federal agency, the Department of Labor (DOL) tried collecting north of $1 million for its list of email addresses by claiming it had to pay 50 people to work three weeks retrieving the records.

Judicial Watch encounters these sorts of obstacles regularly in its never-ending work exposing government corruption, which goes hand in hand with secrecy and often forces litigation. The Obama administration has kept JW quite busy and in court often. How bad is the problem? A few years ago JW President Tom Fitton told Congress how, under Obama, government agencies have actually created additional hurdles and stonewalled even the most basic Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. “The Bush administration was tough and tricky, but the Obama administration is tougher and trickier,” Fitton told lawmakers. Fitton testified before the House and Senate during “Sunshine Week,” a national initiative by the news media, nonprofits and other organizations to promote government transparency.

The administration’s new action plan is a sequel to a 2011 initiative that it claims set “26 commitments” that have already “increased public integrity, enhanced public access to information, improved management of public resources and given the public a more active voice in the U.S. Government’s policymaking process.” The new model will ambitiously modernize the administration of FOIA and significantly expand open data initiatives across the federal government to increase transparency.

This is laughable considering the administration’s history of secrecy without accountability. Just a  few weeks ago Judicial Watch reported on the failures of an agency created by Congress to promote government transparency. Known as the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), it’s supposed to facilitate the treacherous process of obtaining public records by serving as an objective ombudsman that forces federal agencies to comply with FOIA disputes. 

Though Congress has given it $1 million, it’s failed miserably to fulfill this mission, proving the Obama administration is anything but transparent.

Via: Judicial Watch

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Obama-Tied Firm Got $100k to Create Michelle’s “Let’s Move” Logo

A marketing firm with close ties to the president got a plum no-bid contract for $100,000 to design the “Let’s Move” logo for Michelle Obama’s childhood obesity campaign, according to government documents obtained by Judicial Watch.

The arrangement violates federal contracting rules and is even acknowledged by federal officials as an “unauthorized commitment,” the records obtained by JW show. As a result the agency that illegally awarded the contract, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), prepared a “request for ratification of an unauthorized commitment” to legitimize the expenditure. The justification provided to JW as part of the records is that the program was too important and time-sensitive for the official who awarded the no-bid deal to research the rules.

In all, JW obtained 44 pages of documents from the USDA, the agency largely in charge of distributing funds for the First Lady’s $4.5 billion measure (Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act) to revolutionize the inner-city diet and conquer childhood obesity. Among the documents is a scathing electronic mail exchange between the USDA Deputy Director (Jodey Edwards) in the Office of Procurement & Property Management and an agency administrative officer named Yvette Ward. Edwards asks “What did we get for our money … any deliverable? I know this is an unauthorized commitment: however the contractor still must provide evidence of what is being paid for …”

The firm that raked in the cash is Shepardson, Stern & Kaminsky (SS+K), which had previously served as the official agency for Obama for America’s youth initiatives in both 2008 and 2012. SS+K also received a sweet $2 million deal from the Obama Department of Education for the “TEACH” teacher recruitment campaign in 2010. Before the Obama administration started doling out money to the little-known firm, it had landed only one government contract—awarded in 2002 by the Department of Defense—worth $50,000.

The SS+K team that worked on “Let’s Move” consisted of the following: Robert Shepardson a partner in the firm who previously led SS+K’s work on Obama political campaigns; Marty Cooke, who is no longer with SS+K but served as creative director during Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign; Rebecca Matovic, a partner who also did work for the Gates Foundation, the Environmental Defense Fund, George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, and the governments of Bolivia and Colombia.

The USDA official who inappropriately authorized the no-bid “Let’s Move” slogan deal appears to have been a political appointee named David Lazarus, the records obtained by JW show. Lazarus is a former senior advisor to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack who previously served as National Rural Vote Deputy Director for Obama for America and as an advisor to the Obama-Biden transition team.

Not surprisingly, no significant action was taken against the parties responsible for the violation. Senior procurement officials simply spoke with the offender to “explain the procurement process,” according to the records. Training on procurement rules was subsequently provided to all senior advisors, the files further reveal, adding this: “The Senior Procurement Executive had intended to provide this seminar as part of the training that was given to new incoming political appointees at the start of the administration, but thought administrative oversight this wasn’t done.”

“Let’s Move” is described as “America’s move to raise a healthier generation of kids,” a comprehensive initiative launched by the First Lady dedicated to solving the challenge of childhood obesity. The goal is to solve this crisis within a generation, according to the “Let’s Move” website, by among other things, ensuring that every family has access to healthy, affordable food. Looking at the website and the slogan that cost U.S. taxpayers $100,000, it’s difficult to see the “time-sensitive” importance that could justify a no-bid contract.

Via: Judicial Watch

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