Double Victory: Lawsuits to Clean Up Voter Rolls Advance in Two States

In a double win for Judicial Watch and clean elections, federal courts in California and Illinois separately ruled this week that our lawsuits may proceed against those states to force them to clean up their dirty voter rolls.

Our lawsuits allege that both California and Illinois violated the National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to “conduct a general program that makes a reasonable effort to remove” from the official voter rolls “the names of ineligible voters” who have died or changed residence.

In California, Judicial Watch and the Libertarian Party of California sued after uncovering a broad failure to clean up voter rolls in dozens of California counties. The amended complaint details that, in correspondence with us, California admitted that 21 counties removed five or fewer registrations in a two-year period pursuant to a key provision of federal law. Sixteen counties removed zero such registrations during that period (Judicial Watch Inc. and the Libertarian Party of CA v. Shirley Weber et al. (No. 2:24-cv-03750).

In Illinois, Judicial Watch and two political organizations, Breakthrough Ideas and Illinois Family Action, and registered voter Carol Davis, sued after alleging 23 counties, with a combined 980,089 registered voters, reported removing a combined total of just 100 voter registrations under a key provision of federal law over the past two-year period (Judicial Watch Inc. et al. v. Illinois State Board of Elections et al. (No. 1:24-cv-01867)).

In both cases, the judges allowed the lawsuits to continue.

The voter rolls in Illinois and California are a mess, and these court decisions allow our legal team to proceed in court to clean them up. The stakes are high—as there are potentially millions of ineligible names on the voter rolls in these two states.

Judicial Watch is a national leader in voting integrity and voting rights. As part of our work, we assembled a team of highly experienced voting rights attorneys. Robert Popper, a Judicial Watch senior attorney, leads our election law program. Popper was previously in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, where he managed voting rights investigations, litigations, consent decrees, and settlements in dozens of states.

We announced in May that our work led to the removal of more than five million ineligible names from voter rolls nationwide.

Recently, the Commonwealth of Kentucky reported that 735,000 ineligible voter registrations had been removed from its voter rolls since 2019 by the State Board of Elections as part of its 2018 consent decree settling a lawsuit by Judicial Watch.

As part of its 2022 settlement, New York City alone has removed 918,139 ineligible names from its rolls. Recent data show 477,056 removals between March 2023 and February 2025, which is in addition to the 441,083 previously reported removals.

In July, we filed an opening brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in a case filed on behalf of Congressman Mike Bost and two presidential electors, who are before the court to vindicate their standing to challenge an Illinois law extending Election Day for 14 days beyond the date established by federal law (Rep. Michael J. Bost, Laura Pollastrini, and Susan Sweeney v. The Illinois State Board of Elections and Bernadette Matthews (No. 1:22-cv-02754, 23-2644, 24-568)).

In June, we announced that the U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in our lawsuit that calls on Oregon’s secretary of state to make “a reasonable effort to remove” the registrations of ineligible registrants from the voter rolls as required by federal law (Judicial Watch, et al. v. The State of Oregon et al. (No. 6:24-cv-01783)).

Emails Reveal Biden DHS and FBI Investigations of Tim Walz and China

Judicial Watch received 47 pages of records from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a FOIA lawsuit about Gov. Tim Walz’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party.

DHS and the FBI counter-intelligence investigations into Walz’s CCP connections determined that “China is happy” with Walz being selected as Kamala Harris’s running mate on the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket. Walz’s connections to the CCP were extensive and a concern to the intelligence community, according to the documents produced.

This is a major scandal. These documents show that the Biden administration covered up intelligence concerns about Tim Walz’s connections to China.

The documents were released in response to our March 2025 FOIA lawsuit (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:25-cv-00625)) for:

All documents and communications in the DHS Microsoft Teams group chat “NST NFT Bi-Weekly Sync” from July 1, 2024, to present, including all accompanying, uploaded, or imbedded attachments and documents, referring or relating to Minnesota Governor Timothy J. Walz (or the office and/or staff of Governor Walz)

All Intelligence Information Reports and Regional Intelligence Notes (including these documents that have been titled or categorized differently) from November 1, 2023, to present related to Minnesota Governor Timothy J. Walz (or the office and/or staff of Governor Walz).

All requests for assistance or referrals to other federal agencies regarding Minnesota Governor Timothy J. Walz.

An email dated August 6, 2024, the day Walz was officially named the Democrat vice presidential nominee, shows Homeland Security personnel discussing how they were aware that communist China had a plan to target politicians likely to end up in DC, specifically Walz and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo.

A Homeland Security official whose name is redacted states:

Walt’s got the Vp. You all have no idea how these feeds into what prc [People’s Republic of China] has been doing here with him and local gov. It’s seriously a line of the intel. Target someone who is perceived they can get to DC

Another official responds: “this speaks too to the rin [raw intelligence] you reviewed for us”.

A participant adds: “the perception narrative that has been pushed with one of the local ngos [non-governmental organizations] had direct ties to the former Gov here in Nevada. FBI has lead on a couple of things the only issue is being in the 9^th circuit.”

A participant states: “Good to know and yes there involvement with HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] and fbi on things here”.

Another adds: “If anyone has interest I can give provide context in a classified setting.”

An official noted: “But this has more of strategic impact then obviously the general public knows”.

A BBC article titled “‘Harris’s no 2 taught in China': Chinese internet reacts to Walz.” is posted to the non-classified, Microsoft Teams group chat, on August 7, 2024, by a redacted Homeland Security participant in the group.

The article states that Walz “spent a year in the south-eastern province of Guandong in 1989 – a topic that was trending on Weibo with 12 million views.”

“The fact that it happened in 1989 - the year of the Tiananmen Square massacre – was not lost on those commenting on Chinese social media,” the article adds.

A participant in the August 7, 2024, group chat with a name states: “China is happy”

Another noted: “you need components”

Someone adds: “and CIFTs [Counterintelligence Task Force] too”

A group chat participant states: “with FBI mission in the CI [counterintelligence] field i believe they need to get included….”

Another clarifies: “CITF [corrects the previous acronym above]”

A group chat participant adds: “I think this conversation is FOIA-able…”

A participant states: “makes a great point about CITF coordination, I will state though that folks need to be cognizant of who the primary players even with FBI being the executive agency for CITF. ie dealing with SAPs [Special Access Programs] here so CI depends on what the problem set is and who will take point”

On October 29, 2024, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said a Homeland Security whistleblower told the committee that Walz was a “target” of the Chinese Communist Party as “someone they can get to DC.” The whistleblower also disclosed “that officials from DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have been involved in the Department’s investigative and/or intelligence work connected with the CCP, the state of Minnesota, and Governor Walz.”

The documents show a skeptical internal DHS discussion about Wang’s contacts with Walz.

In the nation-state threat Bi-weekly sync conversation dated September 12, 2024, a DHS participant who has a redacted dhs.gov email address states: “I need someones thoughts (please keep internal to DHS)”

Another participant explains: “so this person requested a meeting with Walz due to the house investigation they have walz for his relationship china. Then he drafted this letter for upcoming travel he has to china assuming he will get detained”.

The person who requested the meeting with Walz, Chang Wang, is a U.S. citizen, an attorney, adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota, and vice chair of the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans. Wang writes to Walz that he fears being “forcibly detained” upon an upcoming visit to China. He also includes a copy of his itinerary while in China which includes being a witness in a court case.

One participant responds: “I read this as TNR but what am I missing”.

Another adds: “that’s what it looks like…begs the question, if he anticipates being detained, why go? weird.”

Someone replies: “I know right”.

Another group chat participant adds: “I am working with hsi (Homeland Security Investigations) on it”.

A question follows: “what is TNR?”

Another participant clarifies: “transnational repression”.

One person elaborates: “i’m not sure it counts as TNR since it seems to assume being snatched while in China, so it isn’t crossing borders. if he claims they have been pressuring or seeking to coerce him while he’s home in, apparently MN, that would count as TNR. I don’t know the background on him. [Redacted] is my TNR lead.”

Another offers: “can reach [redacted] as well, my China lead.

A group chat participant writes: “mind you, if he's a known dissident they probably were pressuring him while he was in the U.S. If he went back anyway, Navalny style, and got pinched, it's just that part that might not be treated as TNR. There's no TNR statute per se (only proposals) so FBI investigates it as elements of the underlying offenses (like the stalking, extortion, assault, kidnapping, etc.”

Another group chat participant adds: “Not my area but his itinerary entry for 9/29 is interesting appears he is a witness for the plaintiffs in a court case. Could be related to why he thinks he may be detained. Also is there additional context on why he requested that meeting or the proposed topic?”

Justice Department Settles Judicial Watch Biden Audio Tapes Lawsuit

Judicial Watch reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in which the government agreed to pay $10,000 for attorneys’ fees and other costs associated with our successful lawsuit forcing the release of the audio tapes of President Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24 CV-700-TJK)).

We filed the first FOIA lawsuit in July 2024 for the audio recordings (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-00700)). The lawsuit forced the release of the tapes in May, which has resulted in criminal and congressional investigations into the Biden White House

Judicial Watch’s heavy lifting ended the cover-up of the Biden-Hur tapes. Our lawsuit caused the release of the tapes and multiple new official investigations of exactly who was running the Biden White House. The modest settlement of $10,000 is a fraction of the value to the public interest from our lawsuit.

In June 2024, this lawsuit forced the Biden administration to admit that the transcripts of audio recordings of Biden’s interviews with Special Counsel Hur had been altered and are not accurate. The transcripts were altered in a way, as the actual audio shows, to minimize evidence of Joe Biden’s cognitive failure.

In February 2025, a federal court ordered the Trump Justice Department to declare whether it intended to continue denying our request for the audio, which led to today’s release.

In April 2025, we uncovered Justice Department records showing White House staffers suggesting edits to transcripts of President Biden’s interview regarding his handling of secret documents. The Justice Department also recently turned over to ush 49 pages of records detailing pressure asserted by the Biden White House and Joe Biden’s personal lawyers on Special Counsel Robert Hur regarding the interviews of then-President Biden. Non-disclosure agreements signed by the president’s lawyers were also included in the records.

Judicial Watch Sues for Records on Sen. Van Hollen’s Visit to El Salvador

You’re aware of Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s infamous trip to El Salvador to give aid and comfort to a dangerous illegal alien. Your tax dollars paid for the Maryland Democrat’s political theater, so we want to know more.

Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against the U.S. State Department for all records regarding the trip, on which he met with deported illegal alien and accused MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:25-cv-02273)).

Judicial Watch sued after the State Department failed to respond to an April 22, 2025, FOIA request for:

Any and all records concerning, regarding, or relating to the April 2025 visit to El Salvador by Senator Chris Van Hollen. This request includes, but is not limited to, all related agendas, briefing materials, and records of communications.

Van Hollen met with Garcia in El Salvador on April 17. The senator admitted in an April 20 interview with Fox News that his trip to El Salvador was taxpayer funded.

Homeland Security released documents that it says prove the 29-year-old Garcia is a member of the notorious MS-13 gang, which the Trump administration has declared a foreign terrorist organization. García is currently detained in a Tennessee jail, awaiting a judicial decision in his human smuggling trial.

Criminal Aliens Infiltrate U.S. Through Program to Help Abandoned Kids

The word “porous” doesn’t begin to explain our southern border before Donald Trump was elected President. Our Corruption Chronicles blog describes one of the many loopholes.

Violent gang members, murderers and sex offenders have infiltrated the United States through a special government program that provides illegal immigrants under the age of 21 who claim to be abused, abandoned or neglected by a parent with a pathway to residency and citizenship. In the last ten years more than 300,000 migrants have applied for the protection, known as Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) classification, and federal authorities are finally exposing the serious national security and integrity vulnerabilities of the decades-old initiative. Besides widespread identity and age fraud, known or suspected terrorists are filing SIJ petitions, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that oversees the program.

In a recently published report USCIS confirms that 198,414 SIJ petitions were approved in the last ten years and more than half were over the age of 18. The overwhelming majority—72%—came to the U.S. illegally from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, a region known as the northern triangle that received billions of American taxpayer dollars under former Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed Root Causes Strategy to curb illegal immigration. Unbelievably, over 500 known or suspected members of the notoriously violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) were authorized by the government for SIJ classification during the period examined. SIJ petitions were also approved for members of other deadly gangs, including Tren de Aragua (TdA), 18th Street gang and members of the Sureño and Norteño gangs. “The gang statistics were compiled by manual identification and, consequently, are likely an underrepresentation of the total number of gang members within this population,” USCIS found. The agency discloses that dozens of gang members have been charged with federal racketeering offenses for murder and attempted murder. Nearly 19,000 SIJ petitioners had criminal arrests and at least 120 were arrested for murder, the agency records show. At least 200 approved SIJ petitioners were convicted of sex crimes and were registered in the National Sex Offender Registry.

As if this were not bad enough, federal immigration authorities observed a “significant increase in SIJ petitions in recent years filed by aliens from countries where designated foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) are known to recruit or operate.” The countries include Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Somalia, and Afghanistan. Many of the SIJ petitioners from the terrorist countries entered the U.S. “without inspection,” the report says, adding that “federal law enforcement authorities have determined some of these SIJ petitioners may pose a risk to national security.” As an example, USCIS offers the case of an 18-year-old man from Tajikistan who crossed into the U.S. illegally from Mexico through the San Ysidro port of entry in April 2023. He claimed both his parents physically abused him, his father by beating him while drunk and throwing vodka bottles at him and his mother by hitting, slapping, and throwing heavy objects at him. About a year later he was among a group of Tajik nationals arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for ties to the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) terrorist group. Federal law enforcement officials said that after the Tajik nationals entered the U.S., they identified a terrorist plot in its early stages.

Many criminals have also come to the U.S. under another special program that welcomes illegal immigrants under the age of 18 and provides them with a multitude of taxpayer benefits. The government refers to them as Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) and hundreds of thousands have entered the country in the last few years. The overwhelming majority of UAC are not really children but rather young adults in their teens and some have criminal histories. Approximately 72% of UAC in custody are over 14 years of age and 66% are male. Nearly half (47%) of the underage migrants come from Guatemala, 32% from Honduras,13% from El Salvador and 8% from other countries. A few years ago, a 17-year-old MS-13 gang member who entered the U.S. as a UAC raped and murdered a 20-year-old woman just months after being released in the country. Years earlier two UAC were charged with raping a 14-year-old girl in the bathroom of a Maryland public high school. The illegal immigrants were both charged with first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree sexual offense. Both were in the ninth grade like their victim. One came from El Salvador and the other from Guatemala. A year earlier two UAC, both 17-year-old MS-13 members from Central America, executed a Massachusetts man by shooting him in the head shortly after being welcomed into the U.S.

Until next week,