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5/15/2006
Judicial Watch
News Update Secret Service Releases to JW Logs Detailing Abramoff’s White House Visits Wednesday was one of the busiest days I can remember at Judicial Watch. All day long we were deluged by phone calls from the news media. Why? Because on Wednesday we finally received the U.S. Secret Service logs detailing the visits made by admitted felon and lobbyist Jack Abramoff to the White House. NBC Nightly News made the trip over to our offices to make sure they were here when the docs were released. CNN produced a full segment on the logs on its program “The Situation Room,” within minutes after we sent out our press release. Virtually every newspaper, radio station and news network covered the story. (Here is the Associated Press article for your review.) So, what did the logs show? According to the “U.S. Secret Service Access Control Records Report,” released to Judicial Watch, Abramoff visited the White House on two occasions. On January 20, 2004, Abramoff entered the White House at 10:42:20 a.m. and exited at 11:29:34 a.m. On March 6, 2001, Abramoff entered the White House at 16:23:35 p.m. and exited at 16:49:50 p.m. No further details about the visits were included in either document. Now, I knew almost immediately upon reviewing the two documents that they were incomplete, for two reasons. First, the two documents were not consistent with each other in terms of format and content. Each included different information. Secondly, these Secret Service logs contained less information than similar logs obtained by Judicial Watch during the Clinton administration. The Clinton-era Secret Service logs contained the name of the “Visitee,” the room number, and the name of the person who requested the meeting. None of this information was included on the Abramoff logs. Of course, former White House spokesman Scott McClellan tipped us off that the records would not tell the full story of Abramoff’s contacts with the White House during one of his last press briefings. “I wouldn't look at it as a complete historical record of things -- of events here at the White House. I'd just caution you on that,” McClellan told the press. (It turns out one of the meetings JW uncovered through the documents was a meeting between Abramoff and Karl Rove.) Judicial Watch will, of course, continue to press for full disclosure to complete the public record with respect to Abramoff’s relationship with the White House. At least now, Judicial Watch can question the White House on the two specific meetings noted in these documents. Much more to come… New JW Special Report Exposes Clinton’s Aggressive Campaign to Force Abortion Pill on America You may recall a couple of months ago, I told you that JW staff had traveled to the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas to review Clinton’s newly released presidential papers. Well, this trip has already paid dividends. Earlier this week, Judicial Watch released a special report, “The Clinton RU-486 Files: The Clinton Administration’s Radical Drive to Force an Abortion Drug on America.” The report contains recently uncovered documents from the Clinton library that shed new light on the Clinton administration’s aggressive drive to push RU-486 to market in the United States. Here’s a brief summary of what we discovered: President Clinton ordered the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the FDA to coordinate the marketing of RU-486 as his first official act in office. Within one month, the FDA Commissioner had met with the RU-486 manufacturer and parent company. Official U.S. government political, economic and diplomatic pressure was brought to bear to strong-arm the companies into changing their policies in order to make the drug available in the United States. In one confidential memo, former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala brags that she and former FDA Commissioner David Kessler personally changed the positions of the makers of RU-486 to market the abortion pill in the United States. The FDA was compromised in its role as an objective reviewer of the safety and efficacy of the drug because of its active role in brokering a deal between pharmaceutical firms and an abortion rights foundation. (The five standard requirements for certifying a drug “safe and effective” were circumvented to rush RU-486 to market.) These new documents prove the RU-486 approval process was infected by raw politics. The Clinton administration rushed the abortion pill through the approval process in order to appease the abortion lobby. Judicial Watch is urging Congress and other appropriate authorities to investigate. While the documents date back to the Clinton years, JW’s report could not be more timely. As I write this week’s update, the Food and Drug Administration and other government agencies is holding a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia focusing on deadly infections allegedly caused by the abortion pill RU-486. At least six women and 560,000 unborn children have been killed by the abortion pill. I hope the FDA does the right thing. We don’t need another warning label. The abortion pill should be pulled off the market immediately. JW to Host Educational Panel, “New Fronts in the Illegal Immigration Debate” The debate over illegal immigration shows no signs of slowing down. Last week, on May 1, illegal immigrants staged numerous protests around the country during what they called, “A Day without an Immigrant.” (As was noted in this excellent San Francisco Chronicle article, the event largely backfired.) News reports this week revealed that U.S. Border Patrol has been tipping off the Mexican government as to the location of Minutemen volunteers who have been peacefully watching the borders. And on Wednesday night, I was interviewed by CNN’s Lou Dobbs about Judicial Watch’s lawsuit against the LAPD over their “Special Order 40” policy, which prevents police officers from inquiring about the immigration status of individuals and from cooperating with federal immigration officials, a violation of federal and California law. In this context, Judicial Watch has decided to hold its second educational panel of the year, “New Fronts in the Illegal Immigration Debate,” on May 18, 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Confirmed panelists include: Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CA); T.J. Bonner, President, National Border Patrol Council; Erin Anderson, Help Save Herndon; Steven Camarota, Director of Research, Center for Immigration Studies; and Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Beverly LaHaye Institute. Click here for more information or to register for the event. Investigators Turn up the Heat Against Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) On Sunday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was on NBC’s “Meet the Press” once again insisting that corruption is a Republican-only problem. On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported on new evidence against one of Pelosi’s Democratic colleagues, Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), in a wide-ranging corruption investigation. According to the Post story, a court document released this week revealed that, “A wary Northern Virginia investor agreed to cooperate with the FBI in a public corruption investigation of Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) and wear a ‘wire while engaged in face-to-face meetings with the Congressman.’” “The disclosures,” the Post continued, “provided new insights into the mounting case against Jefferson.” In the past two months, two individuals pleaded guilty to bribing the Congressman to illegally promote a high-tech Kentucky company, which sought to market its broadband technology for the Internet and for cable television in South Africa. Among the charges levied against Jefferson: bribery, a scheme to defraud, wire fraud and bribery of a foreign official. Democrats will try to make corruption a campaign issue against Republicans, but it is obvious to most people that members of both parties are to blame for the culture of corruption that pervades Capitol Hill. Until next week… Tom Fitton President Judicial Watch is a non-partisan, educational foundation organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code. Judicial Watch is dedicated to fighting government and judicial corruption and promoting a return to ethics and morality in our nation's public life.
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