THE JUDICIAL WATCH CHRONICLES

NEW COURT CASES COVERED UP BY FBI

The Left, including the Biden administration, seems to be using the January 6 disturbance as an excuse to target, intimidate and abuse political opponents. With those concerns in mind, we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Justice for records of communication between the FBI and several financial institutions about the reported transfer of financial transactions made by people in DC, Maryland and Virginia on January 5 and January 6, 2021 (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:21-cv-01216)). Last week, the FBI refused to confirm or deny any such records exist.

We sued after the FBI failed to respond to a February 10, 2021, FOIA request for:

All records of communication between the FBI and any financial institution, including but not limited to Bank of America, Citibank, Chase Manhattan Bank, Discover, and/or American Express, in which the FBI sought transaction data for those financial institutions’ debit and credit card account holders who made purchases in Washington, DC, Maryland and/or Virginia on January 5, 2021 and/or January 6, 2021.

Bank of America reportedly “actively but secretly engaged in the hunt for extremists in cooperation with the government” and, following the events of January 6, gave the FBI financial records of their customers who fit the following profile:

1. Customers confirmed as transacting, either through bank account debit card or credit card purchases in Washington, D.C. between 1/5 and 1/6.

1. Purchases made for Hotel/Airbnb RSVPs in DC, VA, and MD after 1/6.

1. Any purchase of weapons or at a weapons-related merchant between 1/7 and their upcoming suspected stay in D.C. area around Inauguration Day.

1. Airline related purchases since 1/6.

Here’s how the FBI is playing games with our investigation:

On June 8, 2021, the court overseeing the lawsuit ordered the FBI/DOJ to respond substantively to our request within 30 days.

On June 17, 2021, the FBI responded to our request, stating that the request was “too broad” and asked for “further clarification and/or narrowing” of the request.

On June 24, 2021, we responded to this request by sending a news article detailing Bank of America’s handing over transaction records to the FBI of people in the Washington, DC area around the date of January 6.

On July 1, 2021, the FBI responded to our FOIA request with a letter stating that it accepts our narrowing of the search, but that it neither confirms nor denies the existence of these documents. The FBI states:

The FBI accepts this supplemental correspondence as evidence you are further clarifying and narrowing the subject of your request to records/financial transaction requests from financial institutions pertaining to the alleged riot on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, to include records/financial transactions from January 5, 2021 for the 3 jurisdictions.

Please be advised that it is the FBI’s policy to neither confirm nor deny the existence of any records which would disclose the existence or non-existence of non-public law enforcement techniques, procedures, and/or guidelines. The acknowledgment that any such records exist or do not exist could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of law.

We want the details on what looks to be an unprecedented abuse of the financial privacy of countless innocent Americans by big banks and the FBI. The FBI’s stonewalling and non-denial denial of our request speak volumes.

THE JUDICIAL WATCH CHRONICLES

HOW THE USPS IS SPYING ON YOU WITH YOUR OWN MONEY

Judicial Watch Sues USPS on Tracking Americans’ Social Media Posts

Did you know that the Post Office has an Internet Covert Operations Program monitoring your social media posts? That’s right. This agency, which has lost $87 billion over the past 14 years, has time to look into your opinions, even though it has trouble getting a letter into your mailbox in a timely way – or at all.

To learn more about spy operation, we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for information relating to the tracking and collecting of Americans’ social media posts through its Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Postal Service (No. 1:21-cv-01735)).

We sued after the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) failed to respond to an April 27, 2021, FOIA request seeking access to:

1. All records from January 1, 2020 to the present identifying criteria for flagging social media posts as “inflammatory” or otherwise worthy of further scrutiny by other government agencies.

1. All records from January 1, 2020 to the present relating to the Internet Covert Operations Program’s database of social media posts.

1. All records and communications from January 1, 2020 to the present between any official of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and any official of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and/or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security regarding the Internet Covert Operations Program.

1. All social media posts that the Internet Covert Operations Program has flagged and forwarded to other government agencies.

1. Any analyses outlining the authority of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to monitor, track, and collect Americans’ social media posts.

1. All records concerning the reasons for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to monitor, track, and collect Americans’ social media posts.

1. All records of communication sent to and by Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale from January 1, 2020 to the present regarding the Internet Covert Operations Program.

The FOIA request was prompted by an April 21, 2021, Yahoo! News report that the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has been “running a program that tracks and collects Americans’ social media posts, including those about planned protests.” Again, according to a document obtained by Yahoo! News, this surveillance effort is known as the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP):

“Analysts with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) monitored significant activity regarding planned [anti-lockdown] protests occurring internationally and domestically on March 20, 2021,” says the March 16 government bulletin, marked as “law enforcement sensitive” and distributed through the Department of Homeland Security’s fusion centers. “Locations and times have been identified for these protests, which are being distributed online across multiple social media platforms, to include right-wing leaning Parler and Telegram accounts.”

Did the Biden administration weaponize the United States Postal Service to improperly spy on Americans who object to lockdown policies? Judicial Watch, with your support, aims to get the truth.