Judicial Watch Sues Homeland Security for Records Tied to Election Censorship Collusion

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for all records of communications tied to the Election Integrity Partnership (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:23-cv-01698)).

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the DHS’s Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency failed to comply with an October 27, 2022, FOIA request for:

1. All emails, direct messages, task management alerts, or other records of communication related to the work of the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) sent via the Atlassian Jira platform between any official or employee of the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency and any member, officer, employee, or representative of any of the following:

• The Election Integrity Partnership
• The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public
• Stanford University’s Internet Observatory
• The Center for Internet Security
• The Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center
• The National Association of Secretaries of State
• The National Association of State Election Directors
• Graphika
• The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Laboratory
• Any social media company

2. All memoranda of understanding, guidelines, or similar records related to the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency’s use of the Atlassian Jira platform for work related to the Election Integrity Partnership.

Jira is a software application developed by the Australian company Atlassian. The Atlassian website states: “Jira helps teams plan, assign, track, report, and manage work. It brings teams together for everything from agile software development, customer support, start-ups, and enterprises.” 

Based on representations from the Election Integrity Partnership (see here and here), the federal government, social media companies, the EIP, the Center for Internet Security (a non-profit organization funded partly by DHS and the Defense Department) and numerous other leftist groups communicated privately via the Jira platform.

In a July 2022 blog, the Election Integrity Partnership states: “The EIP’s core conveners are the Stanford Internet Observatory and the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public. We work in collaboration with some of the nation’s leading institutions focused on analysis of online harms, including the National Conference on Citizenship, Graphika, and the Digital Forensic Research Lab.”

“To be blunt, the Biden DHS is unlawfully hiding evidence of their election interference and censorship of Americans,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Judicial Watch in January 2023 sued the DOJ for records of communications between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and social media sites regarding foreign influence in elections, as well as the Hunter Biden laptop story.

In September 2022, Judicial Watch sued the Secretary of State of the State of California for having YouTube censor a Judicial Watch election integrity video.

In May 2022, YouTube censored a Judicial Watch video about Biden corruption and election integrity issues in the 2020 election. The video, titled “Impeach? Biden Corruption Threatens National Security,” was falsely determined to be “election misinformation” and removed by YouTube, and Judicial Watch’s YouTube account was suspended for a week. The video featured an interview of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. Judicial Watch continues to post its video content on its Rumble channel (https://rumble.com/vz7aof-fitton-impeach-biden-corruption-threatens-national-security.html).

In April 2021, Judicial Watch published documents revealing how California state officials pressured social media companies (Twitter, Facebook, Google (YouTube)) to censor posts about the 2020 election.

In May 2021, Judicial Watch revealed documents showing that Iowa state officials pressured social media companies Twitter and Facebook to censor posts about the 2020 election.

In July 2021, Judicial Watch uncovered records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which revealed that Facebook coordinated closely with the CDC to control the COVID narrative and “misinformation” and that over $3.5 million in free advertising given to the CDC by social media companies.

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