Judicial Watch Sues Justice Dept. for Details of Meeting Between Milley and Garland about President Trump

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for details of a reported meeting between Attorney General Merrick Garland and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark A. Milley in which they discussed President Trump and during which General Milley pressured Garland to target American “far right” militia movements (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-03380)).

Judicial Watch sued after the Justice Department failed to respond to an October 15, 2024, FOIA request for:

Records and communications including emails, email chains, email attachments, text message meeting minutes, outlook calendars, voice recordings, video recordings, correspondence, statements, letters, memoranda, letters, reports, briefings, cables, presentations, notes, or other form of record, regarding a meeting between Merrick Garland, Attorney General, DOJ, and General Mark Alexander Milley, former, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, concerning:

(1) President or former President Donald J. Trump

(2) Domestic Violent Extremism

(3) Far-right Militia Movements. 

The request asked that records be provided for the period “from January 7, 2021, to present.”

In his recent book, journalist Bob Woodward wrote that in early 2021 Garland and Milley met for lunch at the Department of Justice. They discussed then-former President Donald J. Trump, and Chairman Milley pressed the attorney general to investigate domestic threats and “far-right militia groups.” Woodward described the meeting as “highly unusual, if not unprecedented.” 

“General Milley and Garland’s reported meeting about targeting President Trump and other American citizens further demonstrates the Biden administration was and is at odds with the foundational principles of our constitutional republic,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “And that the Justice Department would flout FOIA law to hide the details of this conspiracy meeting speaks volumes about its contempt for the rule of law.”  

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