Courts Slow Rolled FOIA Requests in 2016 Election

Want to know why the Trump campaign was receptive to help from outside persons, groups, and national interests in conducting and receiving so called "opposition research" concerning Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton? Eight words explain it: "The courts refused to do their legal duty!"

In this regard, not just my public interest group Freedom Watch, but a host of others, including my former foundation Judicial Watch, and numerous media organization such as the Associated Press, had filed Freedom of Information Act requests to uncover documents and records concerning Mrs. Clinton’s numerous alleged scandals, ranging from the Benghazi tragedy, the misuse of a private email server, her ties to foreign interests and their perceived quid pro quo contributions to the Clinton Foundation, the selling of waivers to do business with terrorist Iran and her now famous uranium deal with Russian interests, both greased while she was Secretary of State, not to mention the huge speaking fees potentially laundered and disguised by other countries to Bill Clinton.

In every case, FOIA requests directed to the State Department and other departments and agencies of the Obama administration went either unanswered or slow rolled to the extreme. This forced the requesters, such as Freedom Watch, to file suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the court which generally has jurisdiction to hear these cases. And, in every instance except for a few, these complaints were "randomly" assigned to judges appointed by either former President Bill Clinton or then-President Barack Obama. This is because given Democratic control of the White House for 16 of the last 24 years, these presidents appointed politically partisan leftist judges to fill vacancies not just on this court, but all federal courts. Presently, about 95 percent of the judges on the federal bench in Washington, D.C., are leftist very pro-Democrat partisan jurists appointed by these presidents.

However troubling, based on my past experience, it therefore came as no surprise to me that during the lead up to the November 8, 2016, presidential and congressional elections that these judges slow rolled and indeed participated through their biased rulings in obstructing the flow of information about Mrs. Clinton’s alleged scandals to the public. I could name names but a simple Google search will confirm what I am saying about these jurists.

And, so it was that the Trump campaign and others turned to alternative means to get information about Mrs. Clinton. While Freedom Watch "played it straight," entreaties were made by the likes of Trump surrogates such as Roger Stone, and even the president himself, largely in gest, for President Putin of Russia to obtain and disclose incriminating material.

There has been no showing thus far that anyone associated with the Trump campaign, including Donald Trump Jr.,  broke any laws, but the sad truth is that they should not have been induced to try to go outside of our legal system to dig up facts about Mrs. Clinton’s and her husband’s alleged crimes and unethical actions. And, that is the biggest victim of last year’s presidential elections, and the nation as a whole. Simply put, the judiciary has become so compromised if not corrupted by partisan, intellectually dishonest leftist judges, that some feel disposed to walk the line to potentially break the law to try to enforce the law.

This is a fatal defect in the country’s body politic, which if not corrected will ultimately bring down the republic. Now is the time to correct it. Not just do we need more independent non-partisan judges who enforce the rule of law and the Constitution, as they very rare these days, but Congress needs to do its job and impeach judges who violate their oath of office.

Judges are our most important public servants in my opinion. The Founding Fathers designed this branch of government to protect the citizenry from the other two branches of government and from ourselves. When the judiciary becomes corrupted, we all are thus in grave danger.

Go to www.judicialselectionstrikeforce.org to see what Freedom Watch is doing to try to right the "ship of state" in this regard.

Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, is known for his strong public interest advocacy in furtherance of ethics in government and individual freedoms and liberties. To read more of his reports, Go Here Now.