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Tom Fitton's Judicial Watch Weekly Update

Trump Secret Service Protection Update!

Judicial Watch Sues for Secret Service Protection Requests by Trump
Pentagon Official Earned $2.5 Million Salary While Operating Dog-Fighting Ring
Over Half a Billion to Build EV Chargers in Underserved Communities

 


Judicial Watch Sues for Secret Service Protection Requests by Trump

The Biden-Harris administration is in full cover-up mode over its failure to protect President Trump at his Butler, PA, rally.

Following up on reports that the Secret Service denied President Trump’s requests for additional protection, we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for all Secret Service and other records regarding potential increased protective services to former President Trump’s security detail prior to the attempt on his life at his July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:24-cv-02495)).

We sued after the agency failed to respond to a July 16 FOIA request for:

All records including emails, email chains, email attachments, text messages, video or audio recordings, photographs, outlook calendars, meeting minutes, correspondence, statements, letters, memoranda, reports, briefings, presentations, notes, summaries, requests for assistance, between or among the Office of the Secretary and / or Office of the Deputy Secretary, Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service, referring or relating to any potential increase or addition of protective resources to President Trump’s protective security detail.

One day after Trump was wounded at the Butler rally, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said claims that increased protective services requests from Trump’s Secret Service detail had been denied were “absolutely false.”

On July 15, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the Secret Service, called claims that he had personally denied such requests “baseless and irresponsible” and “unequivocally false” in a CNN interview.

The Washington Post reported on July 20 that the Secret Service had repeatedly denied requests for additional security at Trump events for two years prior to the July 13 assassination attempt by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

According to the Post’s report, Secret Service agents on Trump’s detail had requested magnetometers and additional agents to assist with security screenings at large public gatherings Trump attended, as well as additional snipers and specialty teams at other outdoor events.

Guglielmi admitted to the Post that the Secret Service had denied Trump’s request for additional security but claimed it had only learned about the new information after the July 13 shooting.

Kimberly Cheatle, who was appointed Secret Service Director by President Biden in August 2022, resigned on July 23, one day after she testified before a congressional committee and was highly criticized by both Democrats and Republicans for the security failures on July 13. She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades but failed to answer lawmakers’ specific questions about the investigation into the assassination attempt.

The Biden-Harris Secret Service lied about denying President Trump increased protection requests and is now trying to cover up that deadly scandal. The Biden-Harris administration has yet to release one record about the Trump assassination attempt under FOIA – which is why we are now in federal court.

In August, we received Secret Service records that showed the Secret Service has made it a top priority that “diversity and inclusion is not just ‘talked about’ – but demonstrated by all employees through ‘Every Action, Every Day.’” [Emphasis in original]

We also uncovered records from the district attorney’s office in Butler County, PA, detailing the extensive preparation of local police for the rally at which former President Trump was shot, including sniper teams, counter-assault teams and a quick response force.

In response to a separate open records request, we obtained bodycam footage of the July 13 assassination events from the Butler Township Police Department.

We reported that the FBI withheld information on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about its coordination with the U.S. Secret Service regarding the July 13 Butler, PA, rally.

On July 31, we reported that the United States Secret Service completely denied multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for documents about the assassination attempt on former President Trump.

We have more than 25 FOIA and open records currently pending on the shooting of Trump with the Biden administration and local and state officials and agencies in Pennsylvania.

 

Pentagon Official Earned $2.5 Million Salary While Operating Dog-Fighting Ring

The Biden-Harris Pentagon has a peculiar HR approach – fire good men and women who object to forced Covid vaccines but allow indicted individuals to ‘voluntarily retire’ with full benefits.

We received 81 pages of federal employee payment records from the U.S. Department of Defense revealing that Frederick Douglass Moorefield, Jr., Deputy Chief Information Officer for Command, Control, and Communications, for Office of the Secretary of Defense earned federal salary and bonuses of $2,471,478 million over 10 years while operating a dog-fighting ring on the side and was allowed to “voluntarily retire” after his indictment.

On October 2, 2023, the Justice Department issued a press release, stating:

A federal criminal complaint has been filed charging Frederick Douglass Moorefield, Jr., age 62, of Arnold, Maryland, and Mario Damon Flythe, age 49, of Glen Burnie, Maryland with promoting and furthering animal fighting venture. The criminal complaint was filed on September 21, 2023, and was unsealed at the defendants’ initial appearances on September 28, 2023.

On October 4, 2023, the Justice Department announced the federal indictment of Moorefield and his associate Mario Flythe, stating:

A federal grand jury returned a 10-count indictment late yesterday charging [Moorefield and Flythe] with conspiracy to engage in an animal fighting venture and other charges related to their alleged establishment and promotion of a dog fighting ring.

We obtained the records through an October 2023 FOIA request to the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Joint Staff for:

1. All [payment records] SF-50s and SF-52s of Frederick Douglass Moorefield, Jr., deputy chief information officer for command, control and communication for the Secretary of Defense’s Chief Information Officer, for the period 2013 to 2023.

2. All disciplinary records of Mr. Moorefield for the period 2002 through 2023.

3. All emails sent to and from Mr. Moorefield referencing the terms “dog,” “dogs,” “DMV Board,” and/or “Geehad Kennels” 


The salary records show that over the final 10 years of Moorefield’s employment at the Defense Department he earned $2,174,565 in base compensation.

In that same 10-year period, he also received nine “Senior Executive Service Performance Awards” totaling $191,198, and two “Presidential Rank Awards” totaling $105,715, for total bonuses over the 10-year period of $296,913.

During 2022, Moorefield’s last complete year of employment, Moorefield received total government compensation of $306,701:

  • On January 2, 2022, Moorefield’s salary was increased from $198,162 to $203,700;
  • On October 6, 2022, Moorefield received a “Presidential Rank Award” of $71,295 on top of his base salary of $203,700;
  • On December 31, 2022, Moorefield received an “SES Performance Award” of $28,111, on top of his $203,700 base salary.

During 2023, Moorefield’s last partial year of employment:

  • On January 1, 2023, Moorefield’s base salary was raised from $203,700 to $212,100;
  • On October 1, 2023, Moorefield’s job title was changed from Deputy Chief Information Officer for Command, Control and Communications to Special Assistant to the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer while his salary remained unchanged;
  • On October 6, Moorefield was permitted “Retirement-Voluntary.” In the “Remarks” section of the form, a note says: “Lump-sum payment to be made for any unused annual leave. Reason for retirement: to obtain retirement benefits.” The remarks further provide a forwarding address for Moorefield at a home that he sold on January 30, 2024, for $454,500.

According to an October 3, 2023, news report in Stars and Stripes:

An affidavit written by FBI Special Agent Ryan C. Daly indicated that authorities have been investigating the dogfighting ring, which called itself “the DMV Board,” for years. Nine fellow dog-fighters were indicted in Virginia last year, and eight have pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators. Members communicated on the “Telegram” messaging app about training fighting dogs, exchanging videos, arranging fights and wagers, and comparing methods of killing dogs who lost fights, the affidavit states.

The same article reports:

The FBI, the Department of Agriculture, and other local and federal agencies raided [two] houses on Sept. 6, according to a federal affidavit, finding weighted collars and heavy metal chains used to increase fighting dogs’ strength. Authorities said they also found “an apparatus that is used for involuntarily inseminating female dogs” and stains “consistent with bloodstains from dogfights.”

Our previous FOIA requests and lawsuits exposed initial White House falsehoods about the severity and number of attacks by the Bidens’ previous dog, Major. Judicial Watch then received a tip that Commander was also attacking Secret Service personnel and uncovered documents last July showing 10 biting incidents.

According to a Judicial Watch source, President Biden mistreated his dogs. The source disclosed Biden punched and kicked his dogs.

On May 14, 2024, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit regarding Biden’s dogs after the Department of Homeland Security failed to respond to a February 28, 2024, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:24-cv-01397)). Judicial Watch is asking for:

All emails and text messages sent to and from the following officials regarding the submission of CA-1 Forms (“Notice of Traumatic Injury and Claim for Continuation of Pay or Compensation”) in connection with bites by Biden family dogs: Director Kimberly Cheatle, Deputy Dir. Ronald Rowe, Chief Operating Officer Cynthia Radway, Asst. Dir. Michael Plati, Asst. Dir. Brian Lambert, Chief Human Capital Officer Denise Walker Hall, Asst. Dir. David Smith, Asst. Dir. Miltom Wilson, Uniformed Division Chief Michael Buck, Chief Counsel Thomas Huse, and Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi.

 

Over Half a Billion to Build EV Chargers in Underserved Communities

Nobody is asking if residents of poor communities can afford electric vehicles, but the Biden-Harris administration is generously funding EV charging stations for them. Our Corruption Chronicles blog reports.

Less than a year after the Biden administration dedicated $100 million to repair electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in disadvantaged communities, it is giving local governments in dozens of states $521 million to build EV charging ports in mostly underserved areas. It is part of the president’s multi-billion-dollar program to create EV charging infrastructure in urban and rural regions, “particularly in underserved and disadvantaged communities.” The money flows through the Department of Transportation (DOT), which proudly claims that the “number of publicly available Electric Vehicle chargers has doubled since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration.”

The cost to American taxpayers has been exorbitant and it doesn’t even include the fact that the administration is subsidizing the EV industry with a staggering $15.54 billion. That is part of a Department of Energy (DOE) program focused on retooling existing factories for the transition to EVs, which supports good jobs and a just transition to electric cars, according to the agency. The charger initiative is separate and is mainly funded by a $2.5 billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program that spits money annually to “strategically deploy publicly accessible electric vehicle charging and alternative fueling infrastructure in the places people live and work—urban and rural areas alike.” Another pot of cash is also available under the multi-million-dollar National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program that provides states with funds to strategically deploy charging stations and establish an interconnected network to facilitate data collection, access, and reliability.

Not surprisingly, Biden’s EV revolution operates under his Justice40 Initiative which requires at least 40% of all federal government investments to flow to “disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened with pollution.” The president signed an executive order within days of taking office to allocate unprecedented public funds to poor minority communities in the name of environmental justice. Over half of the latest $521 million allocation will go to sites located in disadvantaged communities, the DOT confirms in its recent grant announcement. “Investing in these communities creates jobs, reduces transportation costs, and helps mitigate healthcare costs caused by air pollution, while also ensuring all equitable access to EV charging infrastructure,” the agency writes. In the press release Biden Climate Czar Ali Zaidi says building the new charging infrastructure is already creating good-paying union jobs.

Here is where some of the money is going, according to a lengthy list provided by the government. The city of Atlanta, Georgia will receive around $11.8 million to install 50 fast chargers at the Atlanta Airport “to improve asthma related issues in predominantly Black and underserved neighborhoods” and to “engage underserved communities to ensure widespread adoption of EVs.” Chicago is getting $15 million to expand charging access, engage community members and develop strategic plans to support “more equitable transportation decarbonization in underserved communities where the private sector is not currently investing in EV infrastructure.” Arizona’s Maricopa County is also receiving $15 million to install publicly accessible charging stations in schools and businesses in an effort “to close gaps and equalize access to EV charging stations.” Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in northern California is getting $14 million to install chargers at all its managed parking facilities and the project will “prioritize deployment at stations in or near disadvantaged communities.” A few hundred miles south, Los Angeles is getting $15 million to develop a comprehensive network of publicly accessible, community-based chargers “strategically located to directly benefit underserved and Justice40 communities.”

The list goes on and on, with most grants going to improve the quality of life in poor neighborhoods throughout the country, though it is not clear what the EV ownership rate is in marginalized or overburdened communities or the demand for chargers because the government has failed to provide that information. Practically every state is getting a chunk of change to promote EVs and create charging infrastructure in the name of environmental justice.

Until next week,


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