Thread: Judicial Watch

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December 14, 2007

From the Desk of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton:


Hearing Scheduled for Monday, December 17, in Judicial Watch’s Lawsuit to Obtain Hillary’s White House Records

On Monday, December 17, Judicial Watch attorneys will be in court for a hearing in JW’s lawsuit to obtain Hillary’s White House office records from the National Archives. These include her calendar, her daily office diary, schedule, day planner, telephone log book, and chronological file.

So here is where we stand right now. The National Archives submitted to the court a "Status Report and Processing Schedule," for the records, which essentially requests an indefinite period of time to review them. (Which would mean there is virtually no chance any records would be released prior to the presidential election next year.) To justify their request, the National Archives cited, "the right afforded to representatives of the incumbent and former Presidents to review the Presidential records prior to public disclosure."

However, as Judicial Watch points out in its response, in a separate lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly invalidated the part of President Bush's executive order that allows former presidents and vice presidents to stop the release of Archives records for an indefinite period of time.

The Clintons, for their part, are talking a good game publicly with respect to releasing the records.

As I reported last week, Bill Clinton told C-SPAN: "I want to push the release of more [White House records], including the request for documents about Hillary’s time in the White House…So I’d like it if the records got out there…but the American people just [need] to know, we’re getting this stuff out there as soon as we can…"

Hillary Clinton also publicly called for the release of her records during a recent Democratic presidential debate, blaming the National Archives process for delays. "…We're moving as quickly as our circumstances and the processes of the National Archives permits," she said.

Of course, this is a little game the Clintons and the National Archives would love to keep playing right on through the presidential election (or at least through the primaries) next year. On the one hand, the Clintons say they want the records released immediately, but that National Archives rules and regulations are supposedly slowing the process down. The National Archives, meanwhile, blames the delays on the Clintons and their representatives, who are taking, on average, 237 days to review the records. And just recently, the Archives tried to shift the blame to President Bush, saying it has no choice but to give him unlimited time to review Hillary’s records! Washington is fun, isn’t it? Anyway, I’d be shocked if the Clintons weren’t putting pressure on the Archives to slow pedal the process.

Hopefully the court will see through this gamesmanship and order the release of Hillary’s White House records as mandated by law. Judicial Watch is committed to making sure the full and complete record of Hillary’s role in the many Clinton-era scandals is made available to the public, and her office records are a good place to start. I’ll be sure to follow up with you as events warrant.

JW Continues Legal Battle for Secret Service Logs Detailing Abramoff White House Visits

Now we go from Clinton stonewalling to Bush administration stonewalling. Convicted felon and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff has been out of the news of late, but Judicial Watch has not forgotten about him or his visits to the White House. JW continues to battle for Secret Service logs detailing those visits. To date, we have already forced the release of documents detailing at least eight visits by Abramoff to the White House. The Secret Service admits additional records do exist, but refuses to comply with a court order to release the records, citing, as you might have guessed, privacy exemptions.

This according to the December 1, 2007, report by Pete Yost of the Associated Press:

The Bush administration is laying out a new secrecy defense in an effort to end a court battle about the White House visits of now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The administration agreed last year to produce all responsive records about the visits "without redactions or claims of exemption," according to a court order. But in a court filing Friday night (November 30, 2007) administration lawyers said that the Secret Service has identified a category of highly sensitive documents that might contain information sought in a lawsuit about Abramoff's trips to the White House.

The Justice Department, citing a Cold War-era court ruling, declared that the contents of the "Sensitive Security Records" cannot be publicly revealed even though they could show whether Abramoff made more visits to the White House than those already acknowledged.

As I told the newswire, this is an extraordinary development that raises the likelihood of previously undisclosed additional contacts by Abramoff with top White House officials, including President Bush. We’ve already alleged misconduct by the government in this litigation and this adds fuel to that fire.

Weekly Update readers will recall that Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud and a host of other charges in connection with a massive scandal involving the sale of political influence for campaign contributions. He is reportedly cooperating with investigators and identifying by name his congressional co-conspirators. At least a dozen members of Congress are allegedly implicated.

Judicial Watch filed its original Freedom of Information Act request in January 2006. In April 2006, Judge John Garrett Penn (now deceased) of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the United States Secret Service to produce White House logs detailing the White House visits of corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff by May 10, 2006. And here we are almost 18 months later. The Bush administration promised to a federal court judge to produce all responsive records, and now it is going back on its word. We hope the court takes strong action.

The bottom line: Jack Abramoff is at the center of one of the largest influence peddling scandals in modern political history. The American people deserve to know the level of contact he had with the White House.

To view the government’s motion click here: http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/20 ... pSJmot.pdf

To view Judicial Watch’s opposition click here: http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/20 ... talmsj.pdf Exhibit A: http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/20 ... 122107.pdf Exhibit B: http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/20 ... 104827.pdf

Boxer Blocks Judicial Nomination for Political Revenge

What does Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998 have to do with a judicial nomination submitted by President Bush in 2007?

This according to the Burbank Leader:

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer is blocking the nomination of former Rep. James E. Rogan to the federal bench, citing concerns about his lead role in the impeachment proceedings of former President Bill Clinton and conservative stances on gun control and abortion.

“Congressman Rogan was one of the most enthusiastic backers of impeachment — he thought President Clinton had committed high crimes and misdemeanors,â€

Wow.......Judicial Watch has been really busy!!

It is GREAT that they are helping to expose the lies and corruption in Washington!!

I love getting emails from them----as they always have all kinds of good stuff to report.

Originally Posted by Bren4824

Wow.......Judicial Watch has been really busy!!

It is GREAT that they are helping to expose the lies and corruption in Washington!!

I love getting emails from them----as they always have all kinds of good stuff to report.

I agree, and I always look forward to their e-mails.

Originally Posted by Doots

Originally Posted by Bren4824

Wow.......Judicial Watch has been really busy!!

It is GREAT that they are helping to expose the lies and corruption in Washington!!

I love getting emails from them----as they always have all kinds of good stuff to report.

I agree, and I always look forward to their e-mails.

Tom Fitton has been doing a great job lately.

I'm glad that gadfly Larry Klayman is no longer associated with JW.

He has always given me that Paper Moon/grifter vibe.