Jack Smith’s Political Persecution of Donald Trump Ends
Happy Thanksgiving!

Jack Smith’s Political Persecution of Donald Trump Ends

Following a request by Special Counsel Jack Smith, a judge has dropped the charges against President-elect Donald Trump. At last, this egregious political persecution comes to an end. This is a good day for the rule of law.

The political decision to seek this dismissal is forced recognition that the American people essentially found President Trump innocent of the political and baseless lawfare charges brought against him by the Democratic Party machine.

The Department of Justice under Joe Biden became a Department of Injustice as it waged lawfare against Donald Trump. Jack Smith’s mission was never anything more than retaliation and election interference at the highest level. The fake charges against Trump were built on sand and about nothing. Judicial Watch and I witnessed firsthand the corruption of Jack Smith’s operation when they forced me to testify for hours before a grand jury over my tweets, election and public policy battles, and what I had for lunch with President Trump.

Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and all the other shady characters at Justice are no less villainous than their puppet Smith. The FBI and Justice Department (and many other Deep State agencies) are irredeemably corrupt. Indeed, even in seeking dismissal, the Biden regime asks the court to keep the option open to further persecute President Trump when he leaves office!

This unprecedented corruption and abuse of power by the Biden regime and its party allies must now be the subject of a thorough criminal investigation.  In the meantime, Judicial Watch will continue to investigate and sue over what has been the worst government corruption in American history.

In my new book Rights and Freedoms in Peril I detail a long chain of abuses officials and politicians have made against the American people and call readers to battle for “the soul and survival of America.” The book details how the progressive movement threatens America’s most venerable institutions, undermining the core principles that make this country a beacon of hope to the world.

Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in May 2023 after the Justice Department rejected a December 9, 2022, FOIA request for ”staff rosters, phone lists, or similar records depicting all employees hired by or detailed to the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith.”

In February 2024 the Department of Justice asked a federal court to allow the agency to keep secret the names of top staffers working in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office that is targeting former President Donald Trump and other Americans.

In May 2024 we asked the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, to declare a default judgment against District Attorney Fani Willis in Judicial Watch’s lawsuit seeking records of communications Willis had with Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee.

Before his appointment to investigate and prosecute Trump, Jack Smith previously was at the center of several other controversial issues, the IRS scandal among them.

In 2014, a Judicial Watch investigation revealed that top IRS officials had been in communication with Jack Smith’s then-Public Integrity Section about a plan to launch criminal investigations into conservative tax-exempt groups. Government officials were looking to step up a probe into requests for tax-exemption from organizations with conservative-sounding names like “Tea Party” and other “political sounding names,” according to a later report by the Treasury Department’s inspector general. Jack Smith appears to have been a key player in this attempt to silence conservative voices.

You can see that the end of this chapter of terrible abuses of President Trump is only the middle of Judicial Watch’s ongoing investigation and accountability lawsuits over this unprecedented and dangerous lawfare.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Each year I like to remind our supporters to recall what life was like for the Pilgrims who arrived on these shores in December of 1620. As the Plimoth Plantation describes it:

Many of the colonists fell ill. They were probably suffering from scurvy and pneumonia caused by a lack of shelter in the cold, wet weather. Although the Pilgrims were not starving, their sea-diet was very high in salt, which weakened their bodies on the long journey and during that first winter. As many as two or three people died each day during their first two months on land. Only 52 people survived the first year in Plymouth. When Mayflower left Plymouth on April 5, 1621, she was sailed back to England by only half of her crew.

Nevertheless, a year after their arrival they sat down for a feast of thanksgiving. They had befriended and made a treaty of mutual protection with the Pokanoket Wampanoag leader, Ousamequin, also known as Massasoit to the Pilgrims.

In the fall of 1621, the colonists marked their first harvest with a three-day celebration. Massasoit and 90 of his men joined the English for feasting and entertainment. In the 1800s this famous celebration became the basis for the story of the First Thanksgiving.It would be easy to focus on the passing difficulties of our time, especially for those of us who fight daily to preserve the God-given liberties that have blessed this land since the time of the Pilgrims. But, as they did, we must pause to reflect on all that is good and on the Source of this goodness.

I am particularly fond of a hymn popularly associated with Thanksgiving Day and often sung at family meals and religious services on this day, having been brought to America by Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam, now New York City. It was written by Adrianus Valerius and is entitled “Wilt Heden Nu Treden” (“We Gather Together.”)

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

All of us at Judicial Watch wish you and yours a most blessed Thanksgiving! I would be remiss if I also did not thank you, dear supporter, for any and all support you’ve given Judicial Watch throughout the year. Of course, your special support now for Judicial Watch’s essential work would be most welcome.

Until next week,

The post Trump WINS – Jack Smith Shuts Down Lawfare appeared first on Judicial Watch.

Thankfully, some positive news involving the national epidemic of local governments that protect criminal aliens from federal authorities. Legislators in North Carolina overrode the veto of the state’s Democratic governor to pass a bill that requires all local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under a program known as 287(g) local authorities are supposed to notify ICE of jail inmates in the country illegally, enhancing the safety and security of communities by creating partnerships with state and local police to identify and deport dangerous migrants amenable to removal from the United States.

Unfortunately for Americans nationwide, a growing number of states and municipalities shield even the most violent of illegal immigrants by enacting sanctuary laws that prohibit public employees, including police, from cooperating with federal authorities. As of May 2024, ICE has 287(g) agreements with 135 law enforcement agencies in 27 states, according to the agency’s latest figures. Sixty of the pacts are designed to identify and process removable noncitizens with criminal or pending criminal charges who have been arrested by local police. In agreements with 75 local agencies ICE trains, certifies, and authorizes officers to serve and execute administrative warrants on noncitizens in their jail. Most cooperating agencies are in Florida and Texas, though local police in other states such as Wisconsin and Georgia also participate in the federal partnership.

In North Carolina more than a dozen local law enforcement agencies cooperate with the feds to deport illegal immigrants arrested for state offenses but they tend to be smaller departments that do not typically encounter many alien criminals. The state’s two most populous counties have long offered illegal immigrants sanctuary. Wake County, the state’s most populous, does not cooperate with federal authorities and has released a multitude of criminal aliens. A few years ago, ICE blasted Wake County officials for putting “politics before public safety” by releasing foreign nationals with active ICE detainers arrested for serious criminal offenses. Among them were child rapists and a drug felon. About 170 miles west in Mecklenburg County, the state’s second most populous, the elected sheriff has kept his campaign promise to protect illegal immigrants by releasing from custody numerous violent offenders rather than turn them over to federal authorities for removal. They include rapists, child molesters, kidnappers, burglars, and migrants charged with gun-related and drug crimes. Other significant counties such as Guilford, Forsyth and Buncombe also do not honor ICE detainers and combined have released hundreds of criminal aliens with serious charges in the last few years.

To end the madness, legislators in the Tar Heel State recently passed a bill forcing state and local law enforcement to honor ICE detainers, which are largely issued for serious criminals. The measure requires law enforcement agencies throughout North Carolina that arrest illegal aliens for state crimes to hold them for 48 hours or until ICE picks them up when the agency issues a detainer. It also requires local jail officials to check the immigration or detainer status of suspects arrested for serious offenses such as gang-related crimes, homicide, kidnapping, human trafficking, drug, and sex crimes. “Prior to the prisoner’s release, and after receipt of the detainer and administrative warrant, or a copy thereof, by the administrator or other person in charge of the facility, the prisoner shall be taken without unnecessary delay before a State judicial official who shall be provided with the detainer and administrative warrant, or a copy thereof,” the new law states. It also shields local authorities from criminal or civil liability for cooperating with ICE.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to protect communities from serious criminals who should not even be in the country. Nevertheless, North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, vetoed the bill with his allies in the state legislature citing the worn-out rhetoric that local police need to have trusting relationships with the communities they serve and therefore should not cooperate with the feds to deport alien criminals. Fortunately, state legislators overrode the governor’s veto and every law enforcement agency in the state must comply with ICE detainers after years of blowing them off.

The post After Releasing Hundreds of Alien Criminals State Passes Law to Honor ICE Detainers appeared first on Judicial Watch.

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton issued the following statement on Special Counsel Jack Smith moving to drop all charges against President Donald Trump:

At last this egregious political persecution comes to an end. This is a good day for the rule of law.

The political decision to seek this dismissal is forced recognition that the American people essentially found President Trump innocent of the political and baseless lawfare charges brought against him by the Democratic Party machine.

The Department of Justice under Joe Biden became a Department of Injustice as it waged lawfare against Donald Trump. Jack Smith’s mission was never anything more than retaliation and election interference at the highest level. The fake charges against Trump were built on sand and about nothing. Judicial Watch and I witnessed firsthand the corruption of Jack Smith’s operation when they forced me to testify for hours before a grand jury over my tweets, election and public policy battles, and what I had for lunch with President Trump.

Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and all the other shady characters at Justice are no less villainous than their puppet Smith. The FBI and Justice Department (and many other Deep State agencies) are irredeemably corrupt. Indeed, even in seeking dismissal, the Biden regime asks the court to keep the option open to further persecute President Trump when he leaves office!

This unprecedented corruption and abuse of power by the Biden regime and its party allies must now be the subject of a thorough criminal investigation.  In the meantime, Judicial Watch will continue to investigate and sue over what has been the worst government corruption in American history.

In his new book Rights and Freedoms in Peril Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton details a long chain of abuses officials and politicians have made against the American people and calls readers to battle for “the soul and survival of America.” The book details how the progressive movement threatens America’s most venerable institutions, undermining the core principles that make this country a beacon of hope to the world.

Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in May 2023 after the Justice Department rejected a December 9, 2022, FOIA request for ”staff rosters, phone lists, or similar records depicting all employees hired by or detailed to the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith.”

In February 2024 the Department of Justice asked a federal court to allow the agency to keep secret the names of top staffers working in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office that is targeting former President Donald Trump and other Americans.

In May 2024 Judicial Watch asked the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, to declare a default judgment against District Attorney Fani Willis in Judicial Watch’s lawsuit seeking records of communications Willis had with Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee.

Before his appointment to investigate and prosecute Trump, Jack Smith previously was at the center of several other controversial issues, the IRS scandal among them.

In 2014, a Judicial Watch investigation revealed that top IRS officials had been in communication with Jack Smith’s then-Public Integrity Section about a plan to launch criminal investigations into conservative tax-exempt groups. Government officials were looking to step up a probe into requests for tax-exemption from organizations with conservative-sounding names like “Tea Party” and other “political sounding names,” according to a later report by the Treasury Department’s inspector general. Jack Smith appears to have been a key player in this attempt to silence conservative voices.

###

The post Judicial Watch Statement on Jack Smith Moving to Drop Charges Against President Trump appeared first on Judicial Watch.

From Vox:

A majority of voters support President-elect Donald Trump declaring a national emergency to address the immigration crisis. So revealed a Napolitan News Service poll conducted online by Scott Rasmussen.

According to the poll, 55% of voters favor the GOP president-elect’s plan. Meanwhile, 38% oppose the measure.

“Declaring a national emergency would allow the president to use military forces to assist in the deportation of illegal immigrants,” the poll noted.

President-elect Donald Trump confirmed Monday on his social network Truth Social that he intends to declare a national emergency in order to subsequently use the U.S. military in some form to assist in his plans for mass deportations.

The Republican was responding to a post made earlier this month by Tom Fitton, director of the conservative activist group Judicial Watch. In his post, Fitton said the Trump administration would “declare a national emergency and will use military assets” to deal with illegal immigration “through a mass deportation program.”

Trump quoted Fitton’s post with the comment, “TRUE!!!!!”

Read more here…

The post Majority of voters back Trump declaring national emergency to address immigration crisis appeared first on Judicial Watch.

From Blaze Media:

The U.S. Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt on January 6 once fired his service weapon at fleeing vehicles near his home while his neighbor was in the line of fire, a congressional oversight committee reported.

Judicial Watch sued the U.S. Air Force for records related to Byrd’s stay at Joint Base Andrews. Costs for his accommodations at the Presidential Inn totaled more than $35,000 from July 8, 2021, through Jan. 28, 2022, according to records obtained in 2023 by Judicial Watch.

Capitol Police instructed Byrd not to sit for a fitness-for-duty evaluation following Jan. 6, “concerned that Byrd may fail” and if he did, “he would not be permitted to carry his service weapon,” the letter said.

In September 2021, Byrd attempted to purchase a shotgun but failed the mandatory background check required by federal law, the report said. The department “took steps to provide him with a USCP-issued shotgun and intended to ‘lend’ him a shotgun even if his background check ‘did not come through,’” the report said.

Read more here…

The post Cop who killed Ashli Babbitt has ‘significant’ discipline history, including gun incidents: Report appeared first on Judicial Watch.

From Washington Examiner:

The group Judicial Watch is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse federal court rulings that upheld Illinois’ law allowing mail-in ballots to be counted for 14 days after Election Day.

Roy Horras, a leader for an Illinois election integrity group, said that in a split decision, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, had no standing to challenge the provision. But now, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals just ruled in a separate Judicial Watch lawsuit that counting ballots received after Election Day is unlawful.

“The other case, in Mississippi, they had struck down the five-day rule. Somewhere between those two different appellate court jurisdictions, Judicial Watch is pushing it up to the Supreme Court to make a [uniform] judgment,” said Horras.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said Illinois’ 14-day extension of Election Day thwarts federal law, violates the civil rights of voters and invites fraud.

“We have a civil rights lawsuit for Mississippi voters who object to that state counting absentee ballots for up to five days that arrive after an election,” said Fitton. “We also have a lawsuit in Illinois where they count ballots up to 14 days after an election, even without a valid postmark.”

Read more here…

The post SCOTUS asked to review Illinois counting mail-in ballots after election day appeared first on Judicial Watch.