Judicial Watch Sues Justice Department Over Last-Minute January 6 Targeting

The Biden administration, anticipating President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to issue pardons for January 6, 2021, defendants, is believed to have accelerated prosecutions in the final months of Biden’s term.

That is why we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for records on accelerated January 6 prosecutions after Donald Trump was elected president in November 2024 (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-02161)).

We sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Justice Department failed to respond to a November 2024 FOIA request for the records of then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, then-Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco, then-Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer, and then-Special Counsel Jack Smith “regarding a) pardons of any person(s) incarcerated due convictions in federal court in the District of Columbia related to crimes committed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C, on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 b) directives or orders to focus on arresting additional suspects by type of offense allegedly committed. The timeframe of the request is from January – November 2024.”

On January 6, 2025, the Justice Department reportedly considered charging up to 200 additional people for their alleged involvement at the U.S. Capitol disturbance. About 1,583 people already had been facing federal charges. On January 17, 2025, it was reported that the FBI and federal prosecutors continued to make arrests and “pursue hefty sentences for those who breached the U.S. Capitol grounds.” Authorities made four arrests just days before Trump’s inauguration.

The corrupt Biden Justice Department tried to undermine the Trump administration by maliciously prosecuting American citizens tied to January 6. Our lawsuit aims to get to the truth about this last-minute abuse of power.

We have several FOIA lawsuits dealing with the lawfare targeting Trump and his supporters.

In August 2025, we announced that the U.S. Air Force will finally provide full military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran who was shot and killed inside the U.S. Capitol by then-Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd on January 6, 2021. Babbitt was the only official January 6 homicide victim. The Biden administration had previously denied Babbitt and her family these honors in retaliation for being at the U.S. Capitol that day. This decision comes on the heels of a massive, nearly $5 million Trump administration settlement to her family for wrongful death and other claims against the U.S. Government.

Also in August, a Georgia state court issued an order in our lawsuit for Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis to provide new information and potentially conduct a new search for Trump-related records because her affidavit to the court made no reference to whether any searches of the devices of former Fulton County Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade or those of Chief Investigator Michael L. Hill, who was involved in gathering evidence and coordinating investigative efforts and likely met with the January 6 Committee.

In May 2025, we sued the U.S. Department of Defense for records regarding a reported 2021 meeting between then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley during which they discussed President Trump. During the meeting, Milley is alleged to have pressured Garland to target “far-right” militia movements (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:25-cv-01330)).

In April 2025, we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service to obtain records related to possible improper targeting of January 6, 2021, Capitol protesters, their supporters, and related nonprofits (Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:25-cv-01290)).

In February 2025, we sued the U.S. Department of Defense for information about two conference calls involving then-Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley with the Departments of Justice, Interior and Homeland Security regarding coordination for the January 6, 2021, election certification (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:25-cv-00439)).

In December 2024, we sued the Justice Department for details of a reported meeting between Attorney General Merrick Garland and. Milley in which they discussed President Trump and during which General Milley pressured Garland to target American “far right” militia movements (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-03380)).

FEMA, Latest Agency with Employees Watching Porn at Work

Most of us believe that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees are dedicated to keeping us safe, but it turns out many of them were watching porn at work on government computers. Our Corruption Chronicles blog reports:

Over a decade after legislation was introduced in Congress to contain an epidemic of federal workers watching pornography on government computers, the nation’s Homeland Security Secretary has fired numerous employees “for consuming pornographic content during work hours while on government issued devices,” according to statement issued a few days ago by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “Today, I am announcing that multiple disgraced FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] employees were fired for using their government devices to consume sexually explicit content while on the job,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in the recent announcement. “These individuals had access to critical information and intelligence and were entrusted to safeguard Americans from emergencies—and instead they were consuming pornography.” The DHS secretary added that “in at least one case the pornography consumed was racially charged and involved bestiality.”

During the recent audit, DHS investigators also discovered that nearly half of the FEMA staff regularly log into social media platforms while performing taxpayer funded duties. DHS’s Insider Threat Operations Center (ITOC) identified that one employee typed explicit and sexually charged phrases into a chatbot website from his government devices for the purpose of having the comments read back to him in an accent. Another individual, a government contracted employee also stationed at the command center, accessed a popular social media platform 578 times over a 30-day period. He was engaged in extensive interactions with individuals online, viewing explicit sexual content while on his work devices. He also accessed content that included graphic photographs and videos and, on several occasions, used his government computer to chat online with members presenting explicit content. The examples appear to be a snippet of the porn problem at FEMA, the beleaguered agency created by Jimmy Carter to help Americans recover from disasters.

Porn has for years been part of the job at some government agencies and in fact, numerous federal audits have long documented the enraging details of public servants consuming it during business hours. Judicial Watch has reported on the scandal for over 15 years, beginning with the porn scandal at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency charged with policing the nation’s financial industry. While the economy crumbled, the SEC was preoccupied with pornography. In fact, high-ranking managers at the agency regularly spent work hours gawking at pornography web sites on their government computers while the country’s financial system collapsed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has also been embroiled in a large-scale pornography scandal with the agency’s inspector general issuing a special alert involving a “significant increase” in the number of employees and contractors viewing and sharing unlawful or otherwise inappropriate pornographic content—including child pornography—using their government-issued computers and other communication devices. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has also been exposed by its inspector general for employees spending significant portions of their workdays watching, downloading and e-mailing pornography on government computers without ever getting caught. The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general has also uncovered multiple cases of employees working hard at watching porn.

Government employees viewing porn on taxpayer dime has been so pervasive that over ten years ago a bill, Eliminating Pornography from Agencies Act, was introduced in Congress to contain the embarrassing crisis. Though it was never enacted, the proposed law brought much-needed attention to the matter and inspired some agencies to address the problem individually. The North Carolina congressman who introduced the measure over a decade ago said it was necessary to stop federal employees from accessing, watching or sharing pornography on government-issued computers and devices. The former Republican lawmaker introduced the bill after the EPA scandal, which included one veteran employee viewing as much as six hours of pornography a day in his office, according to a federal audit. The same employee downloaded thousands of pornographic files onto his government computer, and another used his official EPA email to access an internet site with child pornography. The former congressman, Mark Meadows, who introduced the anti-porn bill, rightfully said it was appalling that it requires an act of Congress to ensure that federal agencies block access to porn sites.

Until next week,