Judicial Watch (JW) is an American conservative activist group and self-styled watchdog group that files Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits to investigate alleged misconduct by government officials.
Founded in 1994, JW has primarily targeted Democrats, in particular the Clinton administration, the Obama administration, and Hillary Clinton, although it has sued Republicans as well including the administration of George W. Bush. It has also filed lawsuits against government climate scientists; Judicial Watch has described climate science as "fraud science". The group has made numerous false and unsubstantiated claims, which have been picked up by right-wing news outlets. Most of its lawsuits have been dismissed.
Video Judicial Watch
History
Judicial Watch was founded in 1994 by attorney and right-wing activist Larry Klayman. Before leaving in 2003 Klayman hired the current president Tom Fitton. Klayman has since accused Fitton of claiming credit for the early successes of Judicial Watch.
Clinton Administration
Judicial Watch came to public attention after filing 18 lawsuits against the administration of Democratic U.S. President Bill Clinton and other figures in the Clinton administration. An early lawsuit was filed by Judicial Watch on behalf of the Western Center for Journalism (WCJ) in 1998. The lawsuit alleged a retaliatory audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The WCJ was investigating the death of Clinton deputy White House counsel Vince Foster at the time.
The organization received considerable financial support from prominent Clinton critics, including $7.74 million from conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife. This led Clinton administration officials to accuse Judicial Watch of "abusing the judicial system for partisan ends".
Bush Administration
In July 2003 Judicial Watch joined the environmental organization Sierra Club in suing the George W. Bush administration for access to minutes of Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force. Judicial Watch was involved in a similar legal dispute with Vice President Dick Cheney in 2002 when the group filed a shareholder lawsuit against Halliburton. The lawsuit, which accused Halliburton of accounting fraud, alleged that "when Mr. Cheney was chief executive of Halliburton, he and other directors inflated revenue reports, boosting Halliburton's share price." As reported by the Wall Street Journal the court filing claims the oil-field-services concern overstated revenue by a total of $445 million from 1999 through the end of 2001.
Obama Administration
Judicial Watch has filed over twenty FOIA lawsuits involving the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails.
A federal judge ruled on February 23, 2016 that top aides to Hillary Clinton could be questioned under oath by Judicial Watch about her use of a private email server as secretary of state. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan granted Judicial Watch's motion for discovery into whether the State Department and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton deliberately thwarted the Freedom of Information Act by using a private email server to obscure her communications from public records requests.
Maps Judicial Watch
Major investigations and lawsuits
Judicial Watch's main targets have been Democrats, particularly Bill and Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration.
Commerce Department trade mission scandal
In 1995, Judicial Watch, Inc. filed an action in the District Court under the FOIA, seeking information from the Department of Commerce (DOC) regarding DOC's selection of participants for foreign trade missions. In May 1995, following a search in response to Judicial Watch's FOIA requests, DOC produced approximately 28,000 pages of nonexempt information and withheld about 1,000 documents as exempt. Disputes arose between the parties over the adequacy of DOC's search, and Judicial Watch charged that some DOC officials had destroyed or removed responsive documents. In December 1998, following discovery, the District Court granted partial summary judgment to Judicial Watch and ordered DOC to perform a new search. During the investigation, Nolanda B. Hill, a business partner of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown testified that Brown had told her that first lady Hillary Clinton was the driving force behind the efforts to raise as much money as possible for President Clinton's reelection and the DNC. And further that, "...companies were being solicited to donate large sums of money in exchange for their selection to participate on trade missions of the Commerce Department."
Vince Foster conspiracy
Judicial Watch helped stir the conspiracy theory that Vince Foster was murdered by the Clintons.
White House visitor logs
August 10, 2009 Judicial Watch sent a FOIA request to the US Secret Service asking that official White House visitor logs be made public. In August 2011, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ordered the agency to process the group's data request. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia partially affirmed the decision, holding that the Secret Service did not have to produce records of visitors to the president's office.
False Nancy Pelosi claims
In 2010, Judicial Watch made inaccurate claims about air travel spending by Nancy Pelosi's congressional delegation; Judicial Watch's claims were picked up by the conservative conspiracy site WorldNetDaily. Judicial Watch also made false claims about Pelosi's air travel in 2008 as well.
Operation Neptune Spear
Osama bin Laden, leader of the terror group al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 1, 2011 in a joint operation by the United States Navy SEALs and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This operation was code-named Operation Neptune Spear. On May 2, 2011 Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request with the Department of Defense and the CIA for photographs and videos of bin Laden taken during or after the operation.
The Federal Government failed to produce any records within the required 20-day time period. In order to force compliance, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against the DOD and CIA on June 8, 2011. On January 31, 2014, after legal wrangling, the Pentagon was forced to release Operation Neptune Spear documents to Judicial Watch. One obtained email had the subject line OPSEC Guidance / Neptune Spear and is proof that days after the original FOIA request U.S. Special Operations Commander, Admiral William McRaven ordered his subordinates to immediately destroy any Osama bin Laden photos they may have had.
Kennedy assassination records
Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to obtain the records from Robert F. Kennedy's tenure as the U.S. Attorney General. The records covered sensitive intelligence operations conducted during the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations.
Hillary Clinton email lawsuits
Judicial Watch has currently filed twenty FOIA lawsuits involving the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails.
On February 8, 2015 the FBI confirmed it was investigating Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State. The Bureau was forced to formally acknowledge the investigation due to an ongoing FOIA lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch. The FBI had previously declined to confirm or deny the existence of the Clinton probe.
A federal judge ruled on February 23, 2016 that top aides to Hillary Clinton could be questioned under oath by Judicial Watch about her use of a private email server as secretary of state. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan granted Judicial Watch's motion for discovery into whether the State Department and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton deliberately thwarted the Freedom of Information Act by using a private email server to obscure her communications from public records requests.
In May 2016 U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan granted "discovery" to Judicial Watch into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email system. This ruling allowed Judicial Watch to question two close Clinton aides, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, under oath. In a separate FOIA lawsuit concerning Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi terrorist attack, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled Judicial Watch can conduct discovery into the email practices of Clinton and her top aides.
In a separate case, on March 29, 2016 U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth granted Judicial Watch limited discovery, citing potential bad faith by the government in responding to requests for documents related to talking points provided to Susan Rice in response to the Benghazi attack.
A FOIA lawsuit by Judicial Watch led to the release of 2,800 e-mails from Clinton aide Huma Abedin that were found on the laptop computer of Anthony Weiner, Abedin's estranged husband. Five of the e-mails were classified.
False claims about George Zimmermann protests
In 2013, Judicial Watch claimed that the Department of Justice under the Obama administration organized protests against George Zimmermann after the Trayvon Martin shooting; PolitiFact said that this "mostly false" and that while Justice Department employees were sent to Florida, they "were sent with the idea of keeping the situation peaceful and calm, not to instigate or condone protests or violence."
IRS targeting scandal
On May 10, 2013 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official Lois Lerner admitted to inappropriately targeting Tea Party affiliated entities for extra scrutiny between 2010 and 2012, in addition to other political groups. Judicial Watch filed a number of FOIA requests and lawsuits to obtain records to the controversy.
ISIS in Mexico scares
In 2014 and 2015, Judicial Watch falsely claimed that ISIS had set up camp in Mexico; Judicial Watch's claims were picked up by several right-wing news outlets.
Collaboration with Steve Bannon and Breitbart News
In 2013, Judicial Watch collaborated with Steve Bannon, executive chairman of the alt-right website Breitbart, on the film "District of Corruption", which critiqued the Obama administration. Judicial Watch paid Bannon's group Victory Film Project $382,143 for the film. Politico described the film as an "infomercial for the work of Judicial Watch".
Judicial Watch has for a number of years advertised on Breitbart News, the alt-right website run by Steve Bannon. Judicial Watch's president Tom Fitton said "Liberal activists want to destroy Breitbart, but we won't be cowed".
Murder of Seth Rich conspiracy theory
In 2017, Judicial Watch requested documents related to the death of DNC staffer Seth Rich; Seth Rich's death lead to debunked rightwing conspiracy theories which alleged that Hillary Clinton or the Democratic Party had him killed.
False voter fraud claims
In August 2017, Judicial Watch falsely alleged that 11 California counties had more registered voters than their estimated populations of citizens eligible to vote; the claims were picked up by outlets such as Breitbart News and Russian propaganda network RT (Russia Today). Judicial Watch counted "inactive voters" in its tally, which is a list of people that California maintains of people who have been removed from active rolls after a mail ballot, voter guide or other official document was returned as undeliverable; California keeps such a list as a fail-safe in case eligible voters have been erroneously categorized as "inactive". California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Judicial Watch's claims were "baseless", and "bad math and dubious methodology". When the Los Angeles Times asked Judicial Watch to share its analysis of voter registration in California, Judicial Watch declined. Judicial Watch's voter fraud claims came in the wake of President Donald Trump's false claims of extensive voter fraud in California during the 2016 presidential election.
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton has made alarmist claims about voter fraud, saying "We have all heard about voter fraud and the attempts by liberal media organs like the New York Times and Ivory Tower academics to dismiss it as a nonexistent problem. But is it real, widespread, and substantial to the point that it can decide elections."
False claims about Trump Nazi billboard
In 2017, Judicial Watch falsely claimed that taxpayer money went into a billboard which depicted President Donald Trump as a Nazi; FactCheck.org noted that this was false.
Lawsuits against climate scientists
Judicial Watch, which has claimed that climate science is "fraud science", has filed lawsuits seeking to force the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to release the correspondence of climate scientists who published a 2015 study in the journal Science. The study had debunked one of the common claims made by those who reject the scientific consensus on climate change, namely that there existed global warming "hiatus" between 1998-2012. The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF), American Meteorological Society and Union of Concerned Scientists condemned Judicial Watch, saying that the disclosure of private communications between scientists "would harm (or halt altogether) government scientists' ability to collaborate with colleagues, damage the government's ability to recruit or retain top scientists, and deter critically important research into politically charged fields like climate change". The Judicial Watch lawsuit was inspired by Rep. Lamar Smith, a climate change denier, who had accused the authors of the study of "alter[ing] data" to "get the politically correct results they want." Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said "There has been scandal after scandal involving climate data and we are skeptical of government agencies that won't tell people what they are up to... I'm sure scientists are concerned that funding for dubious research will be cut, but the truth will win out in the end."
Mueller and FBI investigations into Russian interference
In 2017, Judicial Watch helped to stoke Republican attacks against Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton has called for the Special Counsel investigation to be shut down, arguing that prosecutors in the probe were too biased against President Trump to conduct a credible investigation. Fitton furthermore called for shutting down the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) "because it was turned into a KGB-type operation by the Obama administration."
Accusations against the Clinton Foundation
In January 2018, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton repeated accusations against the Clinton Foundation that it had funneled money intended for charity work in Haiti to pay for Chelsea Clinton's wedding. The Washington Post fact-checked the claim a year earlier and found that it was "lacking any evidence".
Positions
The organization has taken positions on a wide range of issues. Though non-partisan, Judicial Watch is conservative and avows a belief in limited government, individual liberty, the free market, traditional values, and a strong national defense.
According to David Corn, Judicial Watch uses litigation as its primary tool.
Larry Klayman lawsuits
In September 2003, Judicial Watch founder Larry Klayman left the organization to run for the United States Senate from Florida. In 2006 Klayman sued Judicial Watch and its president Tom Fitton. The lawsuit charged Fitton with misrepresentation of his academic and professional credentials upon hiring, and upon assuming his position engaged in false and misleading fund raising, misuse of donor money, failure to appoint an attorney as Chairman, failure to comply with a promised severance package to Klayman, and other actions which damaged Judicial Watch, the donors and Klayman. The majority of Klayman's claims have been dismissed, including all claims against Fitton and the other officers of the organization. The only claims by Klayman that remain pending before the Court consist of allegations that Judicial Watch breached a severance agreement with Klayman.
Judicial Watch has asserted several claims against Klayman. On October 14, 2009, the Court found that Klayman breached the severance agreement by failing to pay Judicial Watch, $69,358.48 in un-reimbursed personal expenses. The remainder of Judicial Watch's claims against Klayman, which include additional claims of breaches of the severance agreement and trademark infringement, remain pending before the Court as of October 5, 2010.
In 2012, a Judicial Watch employee falsely told Orly Taitz that Klayman had been convicted of not paying child support (Klayman had been indicted, but the charges were later dismissed). Taitz then published the employee's comment on her website. Klayman sued Judicial Watch for defamation, and in 2014, a federal jury awarded Klayman $156,000 in compensatory damages and $25,000 in punitive damages.
In 2014, Klayman agreed to be publicly censured by the D.C. Bar. Klayman represented three individuals who had sued Judicial Watch, his former employer and client, but he failed to obtain Judicial Watch's consent to waive his conflict of interest. Klayman maintained that the bar "recognized there was no evidence of dishonesty or personal gain". In June 2017, however, the discipline committee recommended that Klayman be suspended from practicing law for 90 days.
In July 2017, Freedom Watch (Klayman's successor organization to Judicial Watch) sued Judicial Watch and the American Conservative Union (ACU), alleging they violated the Sherman Act by colluding to prevent Freedom Watch from participating at the ACU's Conservative Political Action Conference. In January 2018, a federal court dismissed the lawsuit.
Peter Paul lawsuit
In 2007 former donor Peter F. Paul sued Judicial Watch, accusing it of using his name to raise more than $15 million to support his lawsuit against Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton while doing little to advance his case. All of Paul's claims have been dismissed.
Funding
Judicial Watch has an annual budget of about $35 million. Between 1997 and 2002 Judicial Watch received $7,069,500 in 19 grants from a handful of foundations. The bulk of this funding came from three foundations: the Sarah Scaife Foundation, a funder of politically conservative causes; The Carthage Foundation, which merged into the Sarah Scaife Foundation in 2014; and the John M. Olin Foundation, Inc., another conservative foundation which folded in 2005. As of 2010, the Sarah Scaife Foundation was the group's largest contributor.
Notes
Further reading
- Fitton, Tom The Corruption Chronicles: Obama's Big Secrecy, Big Corruption, and Big Government (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012). ISBN 978-1-4516-7787-4
- Fitton, Tom Clean House: Exposing Our Government's Secrets and Lies (New York: Threshold Editions, 2016). ISBN 978-1-5011-3704-4
External links
Media related to Judicial Watch at Wikimedia Commons
- Official website
- Organizational Profile - National Center for Charitable Statistics (Urban Institute)
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments
