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Tom Fitton's Judicial Watch Weekly Update

New Lawsuit on Trump Raid

Judicial Watch Sues Secret Service for Records about Raid on Trump’s Home
FDA Records Detail Pressure on Covid Booster Use and Approval
Delaware Supreme Court Kills Vote-by-Mail, Same-Day Voter Registration
Records Show CDC Officials Discussing Post-Vaccine Myocarditis in Adolescents

 


Judicial Watch Sues Secret Service for Records about Raid on Trump’s Home

Given that the Secret Service is charged with protecting former President Trump and his home, it’s critical that we know what it knew when Biden’s FBI stormed into Trump’s Florida estate.

We filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for all communications of the U.S. Secret Service internally and with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the raid on President Trump’s home and for any video or audio recordings made during the raid on August 8, 2022 (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:22-cv-03147))

We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Secret Service ignored an August 11, 2022, FOIA request asking for:

  • All emails and text messages between officials in the Office of the USSS Director and officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the search warrant and/or execution of the search warrant on former President Trump’s home on or about August 8, 2022.
  • All emails and text messages sent to and from officials on President Trump’s USSS protective detail regarding the search warrant and/or execution of the search warrant on President Trump’s residence on or about August 8, 2022.
  • All video and audio recordings capturing the execution of the search warrant on President Trump’s home on August 8, 2022.

The FBI reportedly notified the Secret Service a few hours before the raid that it would happen and that Secret Service agents facilitated access to Trump’s home.

What is the Secret Service trying to hide about its involvement in the Biden FBI’s unprecedented and abusive raid of Trump’s home. This FOIA lawsuit, the fourth we’ve filed on the Trump raid, further highlights the Biden administration’s comprehensive cover-up about its latest abuses of the former president.

We are in the forefront on the court battle for transparency regarding the raid.

Last week, we announced that the National Archives is withholding 99% of the requested records about the raid in response to Judicial Watch’s 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.

More is coming…

 

FDA Records Detail Pressure on Covid Booster Use and Approval

We received 43 pages of heavily redacted records from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the COVID-19 booster vaccine.

We obtained the records in response to a February 2022 FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) we filed after HHS failed to respond to a September 3, 2021, FOIA request for records of communication from the former director and deputy director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review, Dr. Marion Gruber and Dr. Philip Krause, (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:22-cv-00293)).

On September 13, 2021, Gruber and Krause were among a group of resigning doctors who agreed that, “Available evidence doesn’t yet indicate a need for COVID-19 vaccine booster shots among the general population …”

In a July 13, 2021, email to an individual whose name is redacted, Beatrice Kalungall, a Branch Chief in the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER)/ Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies, provided a list of responses to questions posed about “Use of Covid-19 Vaccines in Research.”

One of the questions asked was, “Are the EUA vaccines [Emergency Use Authorization Covid-19 vaccines] considered ‘lawfully marketed’ (21 CFR 312.2(b)) for the purposes of an IND [Investigational New Drug] exemption (though we anticipate it is likely that we would still file an IND based on other criteria)?”

Kalungall replied:

“Vaccines which are available under EUA may be considered ‘lawfully marketed’ if used under the scope of authorization as described in the Letter of Authorization (LOA) for each product. Note that an important consideration is the possible risk to subjects so please clearly identify the intended study population and include a discussion of the issue from your perspective.”

In a separate email thread and discussion generated from the same initiating July 13, 2021, email regarding “Use of Covid-19 Vaccines in Research”, Dr. Doran Fink, a top official in the Office of Vaccines Research and Review, writes:

“Providers are losing confidence in FDA/CDC to do the right thing for their patients, including that we can’t give inquiring patients a straight answer about what they are allowed to do outside of an IND [Investigational New Drug].”

Dr. Krause, Deputy Director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review, responds to Fink:

“From my brief discussion with Peter [presumably, CBER Director Peter Marks] this morning, after some calls with CDC and HHS last night, the problem is that the [redacted]. Take a deep breath before reading this next paragraph. On that call, the CDC evidently stated that they will assemble all the data they are aware of on third dosing in this setting, and send it to us in the hope that we will (very soon) authorize the third dose for immunocompromised as part of the EUA. Peter told me that CBER IOD [presumably CBER Immediate Office of the Director] will triage this—I told him I need to be cc:ed on any of these communications so we don’t get blindsided, but that we also need to protect the review team.”

These FDA records further document top officials’ concerns about the controversial COVID-19 booster shots. That it has taken months and a federal lawsuit to uncover this critical material is a scandal.

In a previous production from the February 2022 FOIA lawsuit, Judicial Watch received 112 pages from the FDA that show top officials being pressured by companies and the Biden administration to impose timelines on approval for the booster shots “that make no sense.”

Through FOIA, we have uncovered a substantial amount of information about COVID-19 issues:

  • Recently, we revealed HHS records that detail the extensive plans for a propaganda campaign to push the COVID-19 vaccine.
  • We uncovered NIH records revealing an FBI “inquiry” into the NIH’s controversial bat coronavirus grant tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The records also show National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) officials were concerned about “gain-of-function” research in China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2016. The Fauci agency was also concerned about EcoHealth Alliance’s lack of compliance with reporting rules and use of gain-of-function research in the NIH-funded research involving bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China.
  • Department of Veterans Affairs records detailed the adverse reactions of veterans to the COVID-19 vaccines. As of April 2021, Veteran’s Health Services reported 895 serious reactions which included: 20 cardiac arrests, 36 strokes, 15 cases of deep vein thrombosis, 10 heart attacks, and 19 pulmonary embolisms. They also reported over 26,000 less serious reactions. The agency withheld individual report details asserting privacy exemptions under FOIA.
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention records show Director Rochelle Walensky’s communications, include a request for details about the death of a teenager who died days after receiving a coronavirus vaccination.

The records also include a study paid for and conducted by Pfizer and BioNTech that found:

Adverse event analyses during the blinded period are provided for 43,847 ≥16-year-olds (Table S3). Reactogenicity events among participants not in the reactogenicity subset are reported as adverse events, resulting in imbalances in adverse events (30% vs 14%), related adverse events (24% vs 6%), and severe adverse events (1.2% vs 0.7%) between BNT162b2 and placebo groups. Decreased appetite, lethargy, asthenia, malaise, night sweats, and hyperhidrosis were new adverse events attributable to BNT162b2 not previously identified in earlier reports.

HHS records reveal that from 2014 to 2019, $826,277 was given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research by the NIAID. NIAID records show that it gave nine China-related grants to EcoHealth Alliance to research coronavirus emergence in bats and was the NIH’s top issuer of grants to the Wuhan lab itself. The records also include an email from the vice director of the Wuhan Lab asking an NIH official for help finding disinfectants for decontamination of airtight suits and indoor surfaces.

HHS records include an “urgent for Dr. Fauci ” email chain, citing ties between the Wuhan lab and the taxpayer-funded EcoHealth Alliance. The government emails also reported that U.S. billionaire Bill Gates’s foundation worked closely with the Chinese government to pave the way for Chinese-produced medications to be sold outside China and help “raise China’s voice of governance by placing representatives from China on important international counsels as high level commitment from China.”

HHS records include a grant application for research involving the coronavirus that appears to describe “gain-of-function” research involving RNA extractions from bats, experiments on viruses, attempts to develop a chimeric virus and efforts to genetically manipulate the full-length bat SARSr-CoV WIV1 strain molecular clone.

HHS records show the State Department and NIAID knew immediately in January 2020 that China was withholding COVID data, which was hindering risk assessment and response by public health officials.

University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) records show the former director of the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), James W. Le Duc, warned Chinese researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology of potential investigations into the COVID issue by Congress.

HHS records regarding biodistribution studies and related data for the COVID-19 vaccines show a key component of the vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), were found outside the injection site, mainly the liver, adrenal glands, spleen and ovaries of test animals, eight to 48 hours after injection.

Records from the Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP) reveal safety lapses and violations at U.S. biosafety laboratories that conduct research on dangerous agents and toxins.

HHS records include emails between National Institutes of Health (NIH) then-Director Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), about hydroxychloroquine and COVID-19.

HHS records show that NIH officials tailored confidentiality forms to China’s terms and that the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted an unreleased, “strictly confidential” COVID-19 epidemiological analysis in January 2020.

Fauci emails include his approval of a press release supportive of China’s response to the 2019 novel coronavirus.

 

Delaware Supreme Court Kills Vote-by-Mail, Same-Day Voter Registration

We can claim a victory for cleaner elections in Delaware.

The Delaware Supreme Court struck down the state’s vote-by-mail and same-day voter registration statutes for violating the Delaware Constitution. The court effectively concurs with the amicus curiae brief we submitted in the case, which argues the Delaware statute impermissibly expands those practices far beyond the limits set in the Delaware Constitution.

The October 7 decision comes in the case Albence v Higgin et al. (DE Vote by Mail 342,2022), in which the court considered the constitutionality of two state laws passed by the Delaware General Assembly that attempted to grant every voter the opportunity to vote by mail and register to vote up to the day of the general election. The court ruled:

The Vote-by-Mail Statute impermissibly expands the categories of absentee voters identified in Article V, Section 4A of the Delaware Constitution…The Same-Day Registration Statute conflicts with the provisions of Article V, Section 4 of the Delaware Constitution…The Court enters this abbreviated order in recognition of the impending election scheduled for November 8, 2022, and the Department of Election’s desire to mail ballots to voters by or around October 10, 2022. A more formal opinion, fully explaining the Court’s views and the reasons supporting our unanimous decision, will issue in due course. The mandate shall issue immediately.

In our amicus curiae brief, we emphasized that mail-in voting is “highly susceptible to fraud and abuse” and told the court the statute in question is unconstitutional and should be struck down:

State and federal officials have universally acknowledged the existence of the threat of fraud due to mail-in voting…Voting by mail is … problematic enough that election experts say there have been multiple elections in which no one can say with confidence which candidate was the deserved winner.”

***

The Delaware Constitution and precedent allow absentee and mail-in voting in only the following instances: when in public service to the United States or the State of Delaware, due to illness or disability, by reason of absence while on vacation, due to religious tenets or teachings, and due to emergency declaration by the General Assembly in response to an ongoing pandemic…Without amending the Delaware Constitution, any legislative act by the General Assembly to expand absentee voting beyond these requirements is per se invalid.

The court’s ruling makes it harder to unlawfully tamper with an election. We are gratified that the court agreed with our amicus brief and acted swiftly to strike down these unconstitutional election laws that created increased opportunities for fraud in the November 8 elections.

 

Records Show CDC Officials Discussing Post-Vaccine Myocarditis in Adolescents

Given reports of myocarditis in adolescents after Covid vaccination, it is disconcerting that our Centers for Disease Control has been less than forthcoming about what it knew and when.

We uncovered 1,081 pages of records from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) detailing internal discussions about myocarditis and the COVID vaccine. Other documents detail adverse “events for which a contributory effect of the vaccine could not be excluded.”

We obtained the records through a FOIA lawsuit against HHS (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:22-cv-00660)) after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is an agency of HHS, failed to respond to an August 30, 2021, FOIA request for:

All emails sent to and from members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee regarding adverse events, deaths and/or injuries caused by investigatory vaccines for the prevention or treatment of SARS-CoV-2 and/or COVID-19 currently produced by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and/or Johnson & Johnson.

The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) is the U.S. Government’s central advisory body, along with Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), advising whether to approve COVID vaccines.

On May 13, 2021, senior CDC Director, Division of Birth Defects and Infant Disorders Dr. Amanda Cohn, wrote to FDA Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) Dr. Peter Marks and other officials about COVID-19 vaccines: “I have another issue to discuss as well, reports of myocarditis in adolescents. I am putting together an email, but this may come to the surface this weekend.”

In a section of an FDA briefing document submitted by Johnson & Johnson/Janssen to the FDA regarding trials of its COVID vaccine, J&J notes that five people experienced serious adverse events: “selected events among vaccine recipients for which a contributory effect of the vaccine could not be excluded based on FDA assessment of the clinical information provided.”

These adverse events included deep vein thromboses, pulmonary embolism, transverse sinus thrombosis, seizure and hemiparesis (inability to move one side of the body) occurring anywhere from three to 28 days following vaccination.

In a section of the same briefing document as above, titled “Pregnancies,” the briefing document notes that of four women who became pregnant following the Janssen shot, two of the babies were lost – one due to an ectopic pregnancy and the other due to “spontaneous abortion.”

In a section of the document titled “Safety Summary,” the study states: “Numerical imbalances were reported between vaccine and placebo recipients for thromboembolic events (15 versus 10) and tinnitus (6 versus 0).”

It beggars belief that the Biden administration tried to hide these key documents that would serve to inform the public about the safety of the COVID vaccines.

 

Until next week,


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