(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced this week that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for all communications between the Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the search warrant which precipitated the raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022 (Judicial Watch Inc. v U.S. Department of Homeland Security (1:22-cv-03275)).
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit to compel DHS to comply with an August 9, 2022, FOIA request for:
All records of communication between any official or employee of the U.S. Secret Service and any official or employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the execution of a search warrant at the residence of President Trump on August 8, 2022.
The Secret Service had indicated in an August 23, 2022, letter that it had completed its search for records responsive to the FOIA request, had located potentially responsive records. In a September letter, the Secret Service retracted that assertion.
Citing the BBC, as well as ABC News, Judicial Watch details in the lawsuit that the FBI reportedlyprovided the Secret Service with advance notice of the pending execution of the search warrant:
Specifically, the reporting indicates that an employee or employees of the FBI Miami Field Office notified President Trump’s Secret Service protective detail approximately 45 minutes before their arrival at Mar-a-Lago. Records of any such communication would be responsive to the request and fall within the specified time frame.
“The Secret Service’s changing story on whether it has documents on the Biden administration’s unprecedented raid on former President Trump’s home should be resolved by a federal court,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
In October, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against Homeland Security for all communications of the Secret Service internally and with the FBI regarding the raid on President Trump’s home and for any video or audio recordings made during the raid.
Also, Judicial Watch announced that the National Archives is withholding 99% of the requested records about the raid in response to Judicial Watch’s FOIA lawsuit.
In August, Judicial Watch forced the release of the raid affidavit through its court request to unseal the warrant materials used in the raid.
Judicial Watch also filed two lawsuits against the Justice Department for records of the raid search warrant application and approval, as well as communications about the warrant between the FBI, the Executive Office of the President, and the Secret Service.