Legal watchdog group Judicial Watch has filed a Public Information Act lawsuit alleging that the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland is withholding public records regarding protests outside of conservative-leaning Supreme Court justices’ homes last year, suggesting that the police department may have communicated with the Biden administration regarding the protests.
When the decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which eventually overturned the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, was leaked in May of last year, the homes of the conservative justices became prime locations for pro-abortion crowds to make their displeasure known. Despite such protests being illegal, officials in Montgomery County allowed them to continue — even though justices had received death threats and one armed man, Nicholas John Roske, was arrested outside of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home. Roske was armed with a gun, a knife, and pepper spray, and would later admit that he was there to kill Kavanaugh.
Judicial Watch has some questions about any interactions the department might have had with the Biden administration at the time.
“For more than a year, the Montgomery County Police Department has unlawfully stonewalled Judicial Watch’s request for records and communications with the Biden administration about the dangerous and illegal protests that were trying to intimidate Supreme Court justices at their homes,” said the group’s president, Tom Fitton.
Judicial Watch originally filed a Public Information Act request on June 16, 2022. It has thus far gone unanswered.
The watchdog group is seeking “All records including email communications (including emails, complete email chains, and email attachments), memoranda, draft memoranda, reports, investigative reports, incident reports and other communications maintained by the Montgomery County Police Department and/or communicated with any of the below listed agencies, or employees of those agencies concerning protests, demonstrations, marches, pickets, or gatherings at the Montgomery County dwellings of Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.”
In addition, the suit seeks materials concerning the U.S. Marshals Service, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the Maryland State Police, and the Maryland Attorney General’s office.
Judicial Watch appears to be looking to connect some dots regarding the accusation that the federal government has been “weaponized” against conservatives in the past decade.
“Because the violations of the protest law protecting justices [have] yet to be enforced, Attorney General Merrick Garland was accused during a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing of politicizing the Justice Department and prosecuting conservatives more aggressively than liberals,” stated a press release from Judicial Watch.
The same issue was brought up when Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) questioned Garland in March.
“Have you brought a single case against any of these protesters threatening Justice Brett Kavanaugh? Have you brought even one?” Cruz asked.
Garland deflected, saying that he ordered the U.S. Marshals to protect the justices, but ultimately conceded, “As far as I know, we haven’t.”
Which is odd considering that this is the same Department of Justice that completely overreacted to the unrest of January 6, 2021 at the Capitol, calling it an “insurrection” and arresting over a thousand people, some of whom were held without bail or trial (in some cases, even without clear charges) for months on end.
In addition, the Biden DOJ seems reluctant to act on attacks against pro-life pregnancy centers. Despite more than 200 such incidents — including some firebombing and arson incidents — only two people have been arrested in the past year.
In Judicial Watch’s case, appealing to the local law enforcement agency for documentation may be an attempt to sidestep the federal government, which appears to be in full cover-up mode — from Garland on down.
