Judicial Watch Sues To Obtain Records Showing Alleged 2020 Election Interference By Department Of Homeland Security

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The lawsuit seeks all records of communications related to the Election Integrity Partnership. The case is known as Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia following the DHS's Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency's failure to fulfill a FOIA request made on October 27, 2022.

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The FOIA requested all communication records related to the work of the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) sent via the Atlassian Jira platform between any official or employee of the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency and any member, officer, employee, or representative of any of the following organizations:

• The Election Integrity Partnership
• The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public
• Stanford University’s Internet Observatory
• The Center for Internet Security
• The Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center
• The National Association of Secretaries of State
• The National Association of State Election Directors
• Graphika
• The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Laboratory
• Any company that operates in the social media industry.

The FOIA also asks that the DHS's Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency provide any memoranda of understanding, guidelines, or similar records pertaining to the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency's utilization of the Atlassian Jira platform for tasks associated with the Election Integrity Partnership.

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Jira is a software application created by Atlassian, an Australian company. According to the Atlassian website, Jira is a tool that assists teams in planning, assigning, tracking, reporting, and managing work. 

According to previous Judicial Watch reports, various organizations including the federal government, social media companies, the EIP, the Center for Internet Security (a non-profit organization partially funded by DHS and the Defense Department), and other groups communicated through the Jira platform.

According to an Election Integrity Partnership blog post in July 2022, the Election Integrity Partnership's main organizers are the Stanford Internet Observatory and the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public. They claim their organization collaborates with various institutions that specialize in analyzing online harms, such as the National Conference on Citizenship, Graphika, and the Digital Forensic Research Lab.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton stated he believes that the Biden DHS is concealing evidence of their alleged election interference and censorship of Americans.

In September 2022, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State of California for allegedly having a Judicial Watch election integrity video censored by YouTube.

Then, in January 2023, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the DOJ to obtain records of communications between the FBI and social media platforms related to foreign influence in elections and the alleged Hunter Biden laptop story.

A video by Judicial Watch regarding alleged corruption by Biden and election integrity concerns during the 2020 election was supposedly censored by YouTube in May 2022. The video, titled "Impeach? Biden Corruption Threatens National Security" was reportedly removed by YouTube for allegedly containing election misinformation. As a result, Judicial Watch's YouTube account was allegedly suspended for a week. The video included an interview with Tom Fitton, who is the President of Judicial Watch. 

Previously in April 2021, Judicial Watch released documents that allegedly showed how California state officials exerted pressure on social media companies such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google (YouTube) to regulate posts related to the 2020 election.

Then in May 2021, Judicial Watch released documents allegedly indicating that Iowa state officials urged social media companies Twitter and Facebook to moderate posts related to the 2020 election.

Following that, in July 2021, records were uncovered by Judicial Watch from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which Judicial Watch believes showed that Facebook and the CDC had close coordination to manage the COVID narrative and what the CDC believed was "misinformation." Additionally, social media companies allegedly provided over $3.5 million in free advertising to the CDC.