Judicial Watch Corruption Chronicles

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Will There EVER Be Prosecutions!
Judicial Watch On the Air Report <media@pr.judicialwatch.org>
8/21/25
https://jw.structure.email/on-the-ai...m_term=members

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton joins "Rob Schmitt Tonight" on ‪Newsmax TV‬ to discuss the Russiagate Hoax and the need for accountability.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=TTCWRxFuLOA

NEW: Will Ghislaine Maxwell Spill It on Epstein?
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton appeared on ‪Fox News‬ to discuss the latest about Jeffrey Epstein and more!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YvragyZbx6E

FITTON: Credible Evidence of Adam Schiff CRIMES!
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton joins Eric Bolling on Real America's Voice to discuss Senator Adam Schiff's alleged mortgage fraud, and more.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=W0XwQLUnXnw

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Judicial Watch Sues DOJ for Epstein Records Subpoenaed by House Committee
12/6/25
https://jw.structure.email/weekly-up...m_term=members

"The U.S. Department of Justice is sitting on information about Jeffrey Epstein that the public should have.

We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Justice Department for records subpoenaed by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding Epstein, the accused sex trafficker (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-04123 )).

The Justice Department should immediately release this information. Americans deserve the truth. It’s time to end the leaks and the guessing games.

We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Justice Department failed to respond to an August 22, 2025, FOIA request for:

All records provided to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform or any member thereof in response to the subpoena transmitted to Attorney General Bondi on or about August 5, 2025.

All records relied upon during the preparation of any response to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoena transmitted to Attorney General Bondi on or about August 5, 2025.

All records of communication between Attorney General Bondi or Deputy Attorney General Blanche and any other individual or entity regarding the Department’s response to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoena transmitted to Attorney General Bondi on or about August 5, 2025.

In August 2025, James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, issued deposition subpoenas to former high-level officials including Bill and Hillary Clinton; former U.S. Attorneys General William Barr, Alberto Gonzales, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Merrick Garland; and former FBI Directors Robert Mueller and James Comey — seeking testimony and documents related to the investigation of Epstein. Additionally, a subpoena was issued to the Justice Department for records related to Epstein. For example, the subpoena cover letter to Gonzales states:

On July 23, 2025, the Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (“Committee”) unanimously voted to approve a motion directing the Committee to authorize and issue a subpoena to you for a deposition. Your tenure as U.S. Attorney General, from 2005 to late 2007, coincided with a time period when the FBI investigated Jeffrey Epstein for sex crimes, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida prepared a draft 60-count indictment of Mr. Epstein, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida offered a plea bargain to Mr. Epstein, leading to the signing of Mr. Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement only one week after you left office. Pursuant to this direction, please see the attached subpoena for you to appear at a deposition on August 26, 2025.

On July 6, 2019, federal authorities arrested Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and two days later an indictment was unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District for New York charging him with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors. According to the indictment, Mr. Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, Palm Beach, and other locations. Among other things, the indictment alleged that Mr. Epstein enticed girls as young as 14 years old to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for money. This was not the first time that Mr. Epstein had been investigated for committing sex crimes. In 2008, he pled guilty in Florida state court to two prostitution offenses, and, in exchange, he and his co-conspirators received immunity from federal prosecution through a non-prosecution agreement that was negotiated during your time as Attorney General.

We have been actively pursuing details of the Epstein case.

In October, we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for records involving any role Epstein might have played in connection with the agency, his business dealings, travel, victim or witness information, and records concerning his death.

In September, we sued the Justice Department for communication the department had with the media outlet Axios regarding the outlet’s “exclusives” on the release of audio of then-President Joe Biden’s August 2023 interview with then-Special Counsel Robert Hur regarding Biden’s handling of secret documents and the July 2025 memo that states there is no Jeffrey Epstein “client list.”

In a Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit, a “joint status report” filed on July 7 in federal court reported that the Justice Department and the FBI were continuing to search for and review records in response to our FOIA lawsuit for records regarding Epstein. The lawsuit requests any records on the identities of clients or associates of Epstein. The Justice Department’s disclosure is at odds with the leaked, unsigned and undated Justice Department/FBI memo that suggests no more Epstein records would be disclosed to the American public. The memo was first disclosed late on July 6.

Also in July, we sued the Justice Department for all interviews and other records provided to the FBI by Epstein victim Virginia Louise Giuffre, who reportedly committed suicide on April 25, 2025.

Judicial Watch Sues for Jack Smith’s Emails Targeting Donald Trump

We are working to find the communications between former Special Counsel Jack Smith and the state and federal actors who took part in the lawfare against President Donald Trump. The American people deserve transparency about the about the abuses committed against Trump and other Americans.

We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for Smith’s emails with officials in Georgia, New York, and the White House, plus congressional and law enforcement offices regarding his investigation into then President-elect Donald Trump (Judicial Watch Inc. v U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-03849)).

We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Justice Department failed to respond to two FOIA requests. The first, on November 13, 2024, asks for:

All emails of Special Counsel Jack Smith between November 5, 2024, and November 13, 2024.

On November 21, 2024, we requested:

All communications of any current or former member of the Smith’s office since November 1, 2022, regarding investigation into President-elect Trump, including those with:

Any New York State governmental or law enforcement office

Fulton County District Attorney’s office or Georgia secretary of State’s office

White House, Congressional or Senate office

Any federal law enforcement or government office

Smith reportedly coordinated prosecutions of Trump with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis. The House Judiciary Committee recently subpoenaed Smith for a deposition about the federal prosecutions he brought against Trump during the Biden administration.

We are a national leader in exposing the lawfare and abuse targeting Trump and other American citizens.

In June 2025, we sued Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes for her communications with Smith (Judicial Watch v. Kristin Mayes and Arizona Department of Law (CV 2025-020674).

In March 2025, we sued the Justice Department for details of any investigations, inquiries, or referrals concerning potential misconduct of any person working for Smith (Judicial Watch Inc. v U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-00801)).

Also in March, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis was ordered to turn over 212 pages of records to a state court judge. The court also ordered Willis to detail how the records were found and the reason for withholding them from the public. The records were belatedly found in response to a Judicial Watch request and lawsuit for communications with Smith and the House January 6 Committee (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Fani Willis et al. (No. 24-CV-002805)).

New Air Marshal Assistant Director has a Questionable Past

If you’re a frequent traveler you won’t be comforted by personnel moves in the Federal Air Marshall Service, as our Corruption Chronicles blog reports.

In the latest controversy to rock the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS), an agency veteran, who created a wasteful VIP Congressional Concierge and oversaw a surveillance program that put Americans—including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard—with opposing political views on a terror watchlist, has been promoted to assistant director. His name is Serge V. Potapov, and he has risen through the ranks at FAMS despite playing a key role in highly questionable programs and a documented history of misconduct that put him at the center of various investigations over the years, according to agency documents reviewed by Judicial Watch. Now Potapov, a former U.S. Marine who recently served as a counselor to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, is second in command at FAMS which operates under the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), created after 9/11 to prevent another terrorist attack. Both agencies function under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and have been plagued by controversy and mismanagement that has left the nation vulnerable from a security standpoint, say multiple DHS sources interviewed by Judicial Watch over the years.

FAMS in particular has experienced tremendous instability with four different directors in around as many years and flagrant mismanagement that includes controversial deployments of the uniquely skilled law enforcement officers to the Mexican border to perform duties unrelated to transportation, such as welfare checks, hospital watch and chauffeuring illegal immigrants. TSA has admitted it does not know the operational impact that the air marshal border deployments had on aviation security. During the chaos last year FAMS named a deputy director, Pauline (Polly) Hanson, with a shady history that includes being investigated for fraud and conflict of interest as chief of the Amtrak Police, a federal law enforcement agency of about 500 charged with protecting the nation’s railroad system. Hanson’s appointment rattled many inside FAMS and raised questions about the criteria to qualify for the top-secret clearance required for the position. Hanson stepped down after a few weeks on the job because Judicial Watch exposed her record, which was brought to our attention by the Air Marshal National Council, the union that represents thousands of agents nationwide and has uncovered a multitude of problems at the agency in recent years.

Now, the union is battling against another highly questionable figure quietly elevated to assistant director at the ailing agency. As of this week Potapov is Assistant Administrator at FAMS despite a lengthy history of wrongdoing. His misconduct began at the Federal Air Marshal Training Center in New Jersey where he simulated shooting a female instructor in the head, kicked her during training, pulled her hair and told women “You don’t belong here,” according to documents provided to Judicial Watch by the Air Marshal National Council. Potapov was suspended and involuntarily transferred to the Philadelphia Field Office before being promoted to help lead the Insider Threat Unit, which got blasted in a DHS audit for its many failures during his leadership. An agency insider told Judicial Watch Potapov helped build a unit later condemned as structurally broken. Yet in 2020 he was promoted to Assistant Special Agent in Charge in Washington D.C. where he helped create a special VIP Congressional Concierge that pulled air marshals off high-risk flights so members of Congress could get extra protection on flights that did not meet the threat criteria, usually determined by the FBI, for air marshals. In 2021 Judicial Watch exposed the program, reporting that FAMS were yanked from a high-risk flight so California Congresswoman Maxine Waters could have extra security during a trip to Minnesota though she was already covered by a four-man detail consisting of two Capitol Police officers and two Secret Service agents. The story led to the program’s elimination, DHS sources confirmed.

After launching the outrageous VIP Congressional Concierge, Potapov was promoted to executive director of flight operations, which oversaw another scandal-plagued program called Quiet Skies that secretly surveilled Americans on flights in the name of preventing terrorism. Hundreds of Americans, including then Hawaii Congresswoman Gabbard, were put on a watchlist and deemed threats to national security for holding political views against the Biden administration. In fact, Gabbard was added to the Quiet Skies program on July 23, 2024, one day after she criticized the Biden administration in an interview. The Trump administration ended the Quiet Skies program over the summer and in the fall a Senate Homeland Security committee confirmed the Biden administration weaponized the watch list against everyday Americans, deeming them threats to national security simply for holding opposing political views. As Executive Director of Flight Operations in 2023, Potapov oversaw Quiet Skies and all global FAMS deployments, making him a strange choice to help lead the agency.

In an internal memo announcing Potapov as his number two guy, FAMS Director Brian C. Belcher fails to mention his sordid past, instead promoting him as a 23-year FAMS veteran who has demonstrated “exceptional leadership and dedication to our mission of safeguarding the nation’s transportation system.” Belcher also praises Potapov’s expertise and commitment to operational excellence that make him uniquely qualified to serve in this leadership position. The reality is much different, says David Londo, president of the Air Marshal National Council, who says many inside the agency are outraged. “His career provides a clear example of systemic breakdowns in federal accountability, leadership vetting, and taxpayer stewardship,” Londo said, pointing to Potapov’s court-confirmed misconduct, failures documented in federal audits, warnings from a congressional investigative unit and widespread internal concerns.

Until next week,
Tom Fitton "

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Judicial Watch Sues for Records on Crossfire Hurricane Investigation
1/23/26
https://jw.structure.email/weekly-update/wu-12325-1

(Hyperlinks in the article not embedded here)


"We are working to get the entire record on the Obama/Biden Justice Department lawfare against President Trump. It is the worst government corruption scandal in U.S. history, and the American people deserve to see the whole story.

We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for fully unredacted records and previously withheld or missing portions of Durham’s investigation into the origins of Crossfire Hurricane/Russiagate (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:26-cv-00138)).

We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Justice Department failed to respond to an August 5, 2025, FOIA request for:

The complete, unredacted notes taken by former CIA Director John Brennan during the August 3, 2016, White House briefing, which reportedly discussed intelligence regarding a Hillary Clinton campaign plan to link Donald Trump to Russia.
The full, unredacted Inspection Division Report from the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General that critiques the FBI’s handling of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
The 14 missing pages of the Durham Report appendix that have not been publicly released.
All unredacted transcripts, summaries, or notes from interviews conducted by Special Counsel John Durham with the following individuals regarding the 2016 election and related investigations:
Hillary Clinton (interviewed May 2022)
John Brennan (interviewed August 2020)
Stefan Halper
Alexander Downer
Jake Sullivan (interviewed November 2021)
John Podesta (interviewed January 2022)
Robby Mook
All unredacted records of referrals made by Special Counsel John Durham to the Department of Defense or any other federal agencies.
All emails and communications between Fusion GPS and The New York Times, The Washington Post, or other major media outlets as well as between Fusion GPS and the Hillary Clinton campaign or the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
All unredacted emails, memoranda, or other communications between former head of British intelligence Sir Richard Dearlove, U.S. intelligence officials (including CIA and FBI personnel), Stefan Halper, and Christopher Steele.
In July 2016, during the presidential election campaign between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. In August 2016, then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed President Obama and other senior officials on intelligence reportedly showing a Hillary Clinton campaign plan to link Trump to Russia.

In May 2019, Durham was appointed special counsel to investigate the origins and conduct of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

In May 2023, Durham released his final report, concluding that the FBI opened a full investigation based on “raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence” and displayed “confirmation bias” in pursuing the investigation. The report noted problems with the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) surveillance practices, noting that unverified information from the Steele dossier was used to help justify FISA applications targeting Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The report also noted that an FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty to altering an email used in a FISA application.

In July 2025, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) made public the formerly classified Appendix (“Durham Annex”) to John Durham’s 2023 Special Counsel report, which “contains previously classified information exposing a reported Clinton campaign plan to falsely tie President Donald Trump to Russia.”

We have been instrumental in uncovering much of what the public knows about Crossfire Hurricane/Russiagate, which involved a long list of Democratic political figures, lawyers, and staffers who shaped the narrative around the Trump-Russia hoax.

In November 2025, we provided an in-depth recap of the Crossfire Hurricane/Russiagate debacle.

In May 2025, we sued the Justice Department for all records regarding the FBI, under then-Director James Comey, initiating an investigation of hen-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016.

In October 2020, we uncovered heavily redacted email communications among top-level U.S. State Department officials and a U.S. ambassador expressing skepticism about reports by Steele’s London-based private intelligence firm Orbis Business Intelligence. (Steele was the author of the Clinton-funded, anti-Trump dossier.) The emails show one assistant secretary of state saying some of Steele’s reports sound “extreme” and others “do not ring true,” while the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine called some of the Steele reports “flaky.”

In May 2020, we forced the declassification and release of the “electronic communication” used to launch Crossfire Hurricane, written by former FBI official Peter Strzok.

In April 2020, we obtained emails between former FBI official Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page, including an email dated January 10, 2017, in which Strzok said that the version of the dossier published by BuzzFeed was “identical” to the version given to the FBI by McCain and had “differences” from the dossier provided to the FBI by Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson and Mother Jones reporter David Corn. January 10, 2017, is the same day BuzzFeed published the anti-Trump dossier by former British spy Steele. The emails also show Strzok and other FBI agents mocking President Trump a few weeks before he was inaugurated. In addition, the emails revealed that Strzok communicated with then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe about the “leak investigation” tied to the Clinton Foundation (the very leak in which McCabe was later implicated).

In September 2019, we released State Department records revealing that Steele had an extensive and close working relationship dating back to May of 2014 with high-ranking Obama State Department officials including Jonathan Winer and Victoria Nuland.

In August 2019, we obtained “302” report material from 2016 FBI interviews of Associate Deputy U.S. Attorney Bruce Ohr, who was removed from his position in December 2017. (A Form 302 is used by FBI agents to memorialize interviews they undertake during an investigation.) In a November 22, 2016, interview, Ohr said that “reporting on Trump’s ties to Russia were going to the Clinton Campaign, Winer at the State Department and the FBI.” In a late September 2016 interview, Ohr described a person (likely Christopher Steele) as “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being the U.S. President.” A report states that “Ohr knew that [Fusion GPS’s] Glenn Simpson and others were talking to Victoria Nuland at the U.S. State Department.”

In July 2019, we obtained records revealing a September 2016 email exchange between then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Special Coordinator for Libya, Winer, who was a close associate of dossier author Steele, discussing a “face-to-face” meeting on a “Russian matter.”

In August 2018, the Justice Department admitted in a Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit court filing that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held no hearings on the FISA spy warrant applications targeting Carter Page, a former Trump campaign part-time adviser who was the subject of four controversial FISA warrants.

In July 2018, we released records about FISA warrants targeting Page, which appeared to confirm that the FBI and DOJ misled the FISA court by withholding material information showing that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC were behind the “intelligence” used to persuade the court to approve the FISA warrants targeting the Trump team.

Judicial Watch Sues Justice Dept. Over FBI Celebrating Peter Navarro Prosecution

With the Clintons in the news for refusing a congressional subpoena, it is instructive to look back at how the Left used subpoenas against Trump’s team.

We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for communications of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents regarding the prosecution of former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:26-cv-00079)).

Navarro was sentenced on January 24, 2024, to four months in prison for refusing to appear before the U.S. Congress to give testimony and produce documents as required by a subpoena he received from the Democrat-led Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

The politicization of the Justice Department and FBI against President Trump and his advisers is a disgrace. The lives of outstanding public servants were derailed.

We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Justice Department failed to respond adequately to a May 2, 2025, FOIA request for:

Records and communications of Special Agent Walter Giardina; Supervisory Special Agent Blaire Toleman; and Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault about the investigation, arrest, indictment, or prosecution of Peter Navarro – including contempt of Congress referrals regarding Navarro or any former Trump administration officials.
Giardina was fired from the FBI in 2025, Toleman also was fired in 2025, and Thibault resigned in 2022.

In April 2025 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) issued a letter to the Justice Department and FBI pointing out the results of an initial search into the FBI’s political weaponization against Navarro. In May 2025 Grassley released a few FBI emails showing Biden administration FBI agents planning and celebrating the indictment of Navarro.

We have actively pursued transparency for the lawfare waged against Trump.

In November 2025, we sued the Justice Department for the emails of former Special Counsel Jack Smith with officials in Georgia and New York and with the White House, congressional and law enforcement offices regarding his investigation into President-elect Donald Trump (Judicial Watch Inc. v U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-03849)).

In September 2025 we sued the Justice Department for communications between former Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault and the anti-Trump organization American Oversight (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv–02556)).

In June 2025, we launched a related lawsuit against the Justice Department for records about the FBI’s investigation of Trump codenamed “Arctic Frost,” which was part of the Biden administration effort to prosecute and jail President Trump for disputing Biden’s controversial election victory (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-02011)).

In March 2025, we sued the Justice Department for details of any investigations, inquiries, or referrals concerning potential misconduct of any person working for Special Counsel Jack Smith (Judicial Watch Inc. v U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-00801)).

Also in March, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis was ordered to turn over 212 pages of records to a state court judge. The court also ordered Willis to detail how the records were found and the reason for withholding them from the public. The records were belatedly disclosed in response to a Judicial Watch request and lawsuit for communications with Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee.

In January, we were awarded $21,578 for “attorney’s fees and costs” incurred in the case. The court previously found Willis in default and stated: “The Court finds Defendant [Willis, in her official capacity] is in default and has been since 11 April 2024” (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Fani Willis et al. (No. 24-CV-002805)).

In January 2025, a federal court ordered the Justice Department to provide us information on communications between Special Counsel Jack Smith and Willis regarding the prosecution of then-former President Donald Trump. In May, the Justice Department was directed to search text messages from the Special Counsel’s Office for responsive records (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 23-cv-03110)).

In January 2025, records from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) showed it and the FBI warning that law enforcement agencies should be prepared for a surge in threats from so-called Domestic Violence Extremists (DVEs) following the August 8, 2022, FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (1:22-cv-03275)).

In May 2024, we uncovered a recording of a phone message left by an FBI special agent for someone at the Secret Service in the context of the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:22-cv-03147)).

In February 2024, the Justice Department asked a federal court to allow the agency to keep secret the names of top staffers working in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office that was targeting Trump and other Americans (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:23-cv-01485)).

In August 2022, we successfully sued to unseal the search warrant affidavit used to justify the unprecedented raid on Trump’s home (U.S. v. Sealed Search Warrant (No. 9:22-mj-08332)).

Judicial Watch Sues Chicago Treasurer Over Plan to Halt U.S. Treasury Purchases

We filed an Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against Melissa Conyears-Ervin, treasurer of the City of Chicago, for details of her declared plan to stop buying new U.S. Treasury securities and divest the city of indirect holdings (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Chicago Treasurer’s Office (No. 2026CH00302)).

On November 17, 2025, Conyears-Ervin issued a press release announcing that the city of Chicago “will not invest in a federal administration that is using the power of government to terrorize us.” She also stated:

Before my budget presentation on Wednesday, I informed City Council members that I would boycott the purchase of United States Treasury securities and seek their authority to grant me freedoms to modify the portfolio of the nearly $11 billion in Chicago taxpayer money the office manages.

[We will] immediately stop making new, direct purchases of U.S. Treasury marketable securities. Second, with approval from the City Council, we will explore reducing our indirect exposure by adjusting our holdings in money market funds and other instruments that derive their value from Treasurys.

We sued in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Chancery Division, after the Treasurer’s Office failed to respond to a November 17, 2025, FOIA request for:

All internal Chicago City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) emails discussing whether to purchase U.S. Treasury debt in any form.
Internal emails and communications from Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin referencing U.S. Treasury securities and immigration-related terms; and
Reports regarding the fiscal impact of purchasing or declining to purchase U.S. debt.
Conyears-Ervin should focus on Chicago’s crumbling finances instead of playing national policy maven and engaging in symbolic political stunts that risk taxpayer money and could undermine the city’s fiscal stability.

In December 2025, we reported that Illinois released more than 1,700 criminal aliens from jails and prisons across the state after declining to honor federal immigration detainers.

In November 2025, we sued Evanston, IL, Mayor Daniel Biss for records related to obstruction of federal immigration enforcement.

In January 2025, we sued Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for records regarding his vow to resist the Trump administration’s deportation and other immigration law enforcement activities. The mayor previously had held a press conference at which he stated that Chicago would remain a so-called “sanctuary city.”

Americans Pay Billions to Subsidize Illegal Aliens’ College Education

Worried about affording college tuition for your children? If so, you might want to know that your tax dollars are going – against the law – to illegal aliens for their tuition. Our Corruption Chronicles blog has the details.

Although a 30-year-old federal law prohibits giving illegal aliens discounted in-state tuition at public colleges and universities, 22 states and the District of Columbia still do it and the cost to American taxpayers is over a billion dollars annually. In an effort to force the violators to stop offering undocumented students the pricey benefit, a U.S. senator has introduced a bill (Put American Students First Act) to specifically prevent any alien who is not lawfully admitted for permanent residence from obtaining in-state tuition rates at public institutions of higher education. The proposed measure notes that section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 already bans states from granting discounted tuition and fees to students not lawfully present in the U.S. simply because they live—albeit illegally—in that state unless the same rates are also offered to citizens of the United States regardless of residence.

Besides the discounted tuition, most of the offenders also extend additional financial aid to students in the country illegally. The Trump administration has legally challenged many of the policies, but most continue. The violators include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Last year the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued several states over the policy but only three—Texas, Oklahoma and Kentucky—have terminated their in-state tuition policies for illegal alien students. Others, such as California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Illinois, have ignored the lawsuits. Illinois has taken it a step further by not only blowing off the DOJ’s lawsuit, but also passing a special law making undocumented students eligible for state and local financial aid, including grants, scholarships and stipends, as of January 2026. The measure includes the same perks for transgender students who are disqualified for failing to register for selective service.

Over 500,000 illegal immigrants are enrolled in U.S. institutions of higher education, according to an alliance of college and university leaders dedicated to supporting immigrant and undocumented students and policies that create a welcoming environment for them. The Washington, D.C.-based group, Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, reveals that three-quarters of undocumented students live in about a dozen states and most are in just four states—California, Texas, Florida, and New York—and California leads the group with nearly 90,000 illegal alien students. The alliance insists that offering students in the country illegally discounted tuition at taxpayer-funded colleges is “tuition equity” and provides access to higher education for all students, which the group claims benefits colleges and universities as well as the U.S. economy. “Undocumented students are an integral part of American society and the U.S. higher education system,” the group claims. “They advance scientific innovation, drive economic growth, and make valuable contributions as classmates, instructors, scholars, and campus leaders.”

But are American taxpayers responsible for funding their education in rogue states that refuse to obey a decades-old federal law forbidding it? In an effort to force compliance, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton introduced the Put American Students First Act in mid-December. The bill points out that the subsidies create a perverse incentive for illegal immigration, rewarding unlawful presence with benefits unavailable to citizens and legal residents of the United States, undermining the rule of law. “Students of the United States in higher education, including students from modest-income families in neighboring States, are effectively penalized by States that provide such subsidies because the students pay higher out-of-state rates for tuition and fees while aliens not lawfully admitted for permanent residence receive taxpayer-subsidized discounts,” the proposed law states. “Enforcing this Federal prohibition nationwide is essential to restoring fairness, deterring illegal immigration, and prioritizing postsecondary education benefits for citizens and lawful permanent residents of the United States.” If Congress passes the law, it will take effect in July and will empower the Secretary of Education to withhold funding from any state that violates it.

Until next week,
Tom Fitton "

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