Judicial Watch: Obama Travel Cost Now $105,662,975.27
Federal Appeals Court Hearing Set for September 15 on Secret Service Failure to Comply with Additional Presidential Travel Information Requests
Judicial Watch also released travel expenses related to President Trump’s travel totaling $4,082,427.71
(Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch today announced it obtained travel records from the Secret Service in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, bringing the known total of travel expenses for former President Barack Obama and his family to $105,662,975.27. The latest records show President Trump’s travel expenses total slightly over $4 million.
Judicial Watch also announced that oral argument will be heard on Friday, September 15, 2017, in an additional FOIA lawsuit challenging the district court’s dismissal of Judicial Watch’s claim that Homeland Security has a history of violating FOIA’s requirements in the processing of Judicial Watch’s requests. (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:15-cv-01983)). Judicial Watch sought discovery in this case.
The hearing will be held before D.C. Circuit Judges Judith W. Rogers, Sri Srinivasan, and Cornelia T.L. Pillard:
Date: Friday, September 15, 2017
Time: 9:30 A.M.
Location: Courtroom 31
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
333 Constitution Ave NW Washington, DC 20001
The new Obama travel records obtained from the Secret Service were the result of a FOIA lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security (No. 1:17-cv-01007)). Judicial Watch’s lawsuit produced the following travel records showing a total of $3,696,266.56 for Obama travel:
Added to the previously released costs, the known total of travel expenses for the Obamas is now $105,662,975.27.
Separately, providing protection for Hillary Clinton between April 11 and May 6, 2015 cost the Secret Service $23,323.14 in car rentals; $294.057.65 in air/rail and $32,856.80 in travel vouchers for a total of $350,237.59.
Judicial Watch also released travel expenses related to President Trump’s travel totaling $4,082,427.71:
Judicial Watch previously released records Air Force records showing Trump administration travel costs. The grand total for President Trump’s and Vice President Pence’s travel to date is $7,560,425.01.
It cost the Secret Service an additional $95,187.58 to secure Trump Tower from November 9 through December 5, 2016.
Judicial Watch recently filed a FOIA lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, for the Secret Service travel expenditures for Trump family during April 2017 and Obama family between January 2009 and April 2017 (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security (No. 1:17-cv-01341)).
The suit was filed after the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Secret Service failed to respond to FOIA requests filed in April and May 2017 seeking mission taskings, transportation costs, passenger manifests and security costs.
Judicial Watch seeks Air Force records for:
Judicial Watch seeks Secret Service records for:
“It is troubling to see such massive amounts of money paid out for trips that appear to have minimal value to the public interest,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “And it is frustrating to have file multiple FOIA lawsuits and engage in long-running court battles to get basic information about the costs of presidential travel.”
ROAM
SUPPORTING NEW FOUND GLORY ON
20 YEARS OF POP PUNK TOUR
NEW ALBUM GREAT HEIGHTS & NOSEDIVES
SET TO BE RELEASED OCTOBER 13th, 2017
STREAM THE NEW SINGLE "PLAYING FICTION"
ON YOUTUBE HERE OR ON SPOTIFY HERE
ALBUM NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER
September 14th, 2017 -ROAM has announced they will be hitting the road with New Found Glory on their 20 Years of Pop Punk Tour. This will be the first time the band will play songs from their upcoming album Great Heights & Nosedives in the United States and Canada. The tour kicks off in Columbia, SC and will be hitting cities including Baltimore, Brooklyn, Toronto, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland.
ROAM officially announced they are releasing their second album titled Great Heights & Nosedives on October 13th, 2017 via Hopeless Records earlier this year. The first single from the album, "Playing Fiction", premiered in the UK on BBC's Radio 1 Rock Show with Daniel P. Carter and can now be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music. The music video can be seen on YouTube here: smarturl.it/PlayingFictionVideo. The album is now available for pre-order through the band's site, or on iTunes with an instant grat download of "Playing Fiction" here.
ROAM Upcoming Tour Dates:
September 20th - Cardiff @ Tramshed
September 21st - Oxford @ Academy
September 22nd - Norwich @ UEA
September 23rd - London @ Forum
September 25th - Portsmouth @ Pyramids
September 27th - Glasgow @ ABC
September 28th - Newcastle @ Academy
September 29th - Manchester @ Academy
September 30th - Birmingham @ Academy
October 2nd - Leeds @ Academy
October 3rd - Nottingham @ Rock City
October 5th - Bristol @ Academy
October 6th - London @ Forum
October 7th - London @ Electric Ballroom
October 8th - London @ Underworld
w/ New Found Glory
October 24th - Columbia, SC @ Music Farm Columbia
October 25th - Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
October 27th - Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage
October 28th - Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
October 29th - Brooklyn, NY@ Warsaw
October 31st - New Haven, CT @ Toad's Place
November 1st - Providence, RI @ Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel
November 3rd - Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
November 4th - Toronto, ON @ Opera House - SOLD OUT
November 5th - Pittsburgh, PA @ Rex Theater - SOLD OUT
November 6th - Pittsburgh, PA 2 Rex Theater
November 7th - Jersey City, NJ @ White Eagle Hall
November 9th - Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
November 10th - Grand Rapids, @ MI The Intersection
November 11th - Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave II
For more information
REMINDER - Judicial Watch Expert Special Panel Presentation: ‘Exposing the Deep State’
Panel Experts will be Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Diana West, James Peterson, Chris Farrell
HD 1080i SATELLITE FEED
Date: Friday, September 15, 2017
Satellite Time: 1:45pm-3:15pm EST
Event Time: 2:00pm -3:00pm EST
Satellite Space: Galaxy 17 (Ku) Digital
Transponder: 20 – UPPER (18Mhz)
Downlink Freq: 12109.00 (V)
Symbol Rate: 13.235
FEC: ¾
Data Rate: 18.295442
Encoder: MPEG-2 DVB-S QPSK
Tech #: 202-449-3814 or 202-449-3820
(Washington, DC) – Don't forget, Judicial Watch will host a special educational panel tomorrow, Friday, September 15, 2017, from 2 to 3 pm ET to discuss “Exposing the Deep State.”
Expert panelists include:
Dr. Sebastian Gorka
Former Deputy Assistant to the President
Author of New York Times best seller Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War
Diana West
Journalist and Author of American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation's Character
James Peterson
Senior Attorney
Judicial Watch
Chris Farrell
Director of Investigations and Research
Judicial Watch
Moderator:
Tom Fitton
President
Judicial Watch
Watch the panel live: www.judicialwatch.org/live. We will also livestream the panel on Facebook Live. Visit our Facebook page to watch.
Media that would like a direct HD fiber link to the live, three-camera feed should contact: Brandon Cockerham at 202-646-5190.
HD 1080i SATELLITE FEED
Date: Friday, September 15, 2017
Satellite Time: 1:45pm-3:15pm EST
Event Time: 2:00pm -3:00pm EST
Satellite Space: Galaxy 17 (Ku) Digital
Transponder: 20 – UPPER (18Mhz)
Downlink Freq: 12109.00 (V)
Symbol Rate: 13.235
FEC: ¾
Data Rate: 18.295442
Encoder: MPEG-2 DVB-S QPSK
Tech #: 202-449-3814 or 202-449-3820
Judicial Watch: New Clinton Emails Uncovered, Reveal Additional Mishandling of Classified Information
Documents also show more instances of pay to play with Clinton Foundation donors
Abedin’s controversial mother advised Clinton speechwriter to exclude references to ‘democracy/elections/freedom’ and ‘empowerment of women’ for Clinton speech in Saudi Arabia
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released 1,617 new pages of documents from the U.S. Department of State revealing numerous additional examples of classified information being transmitted through the unsecure, non-state.gov account of Huma Abedin, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, as well as many instances of Hillary Clinton donors receiving special favors from the State Department.
The documents included 97 email exchanges with Clinton not previously turned over to the State Department, bringing the known total to date to at least 627 emails that were not part of the 55,000 pages of emails that Clinton turned over, and further contradicting a statement by Clinton that, “as far as she knew,” all of her government emails had been turned over to department.
The emails are the 20th production of documents obtained in response to a court order in a May 5, 2015, lawsuit Judicial Watch filed against the State Department (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00684)). Judicial Watch sued after State failed to respond to a March 18, 2015, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking: “All emails of official State Department business received or sent by former Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin from January 1, 2009 through February 1, 2013 using a non-‘state.gov’ email address.” On September 11, 2009, the highly sensitive name and email address of the person giving the classified Presidential Daily Brief was included in an email forwarded to Abedin’s unsecure email account by State Department official Dan Fogerty. The State Department produced many more Clinton and Abedin unsecured emails that were classified:
Could I ask you to review the memo below that I wrote yesterday on my return from Israel? If you think it worthwhile, I’d be very grateful if you showed it to HRC (I have already shared it with Mitchell and Feltman). A confrontation with Bibi appears imminent. I’ve never been one to shy away from that, as she may know. But it has to be done carefully, and that doesn’t appear to be happening. And I’m concerned that she will be tarred with the same brush if this leads to a bad end. So I think she needs to make sure that the friction is productive. I’ve made some suggestions at the end of the memo
Other emails contain sensitive information that was sent via Hillary Clinton’s unsecure email servers.
On August 18, 2009, confidential assistant Monica Hanley provided Abedin with laptop and fob (a physical device that provides a login code) logins and passwords to log onto a laptop, as well as a secure State Department website at https://one.state.gov. Included were a PIN number and instructions on how to access her email from the secure State Department website. Abedin forwarded this information to her unsecure account.
(The FBI interviewed Clinton’s confidential assistant Monica Hanley in its probe of Clinton’s email practices, and State’s Diplomatic Security staff reprimanded her after she left classified material behind in a Moscow hotel room. Hanley was the staffer tasked with finding BlackBerry phones for Clinton to use.)
On August 19, 2009, Hanley asked Abedin to call her and provide Abedin’s computer password so that she could download a UN document for Cheryl Mills from Abedin’s computer. Instead of calling Hanley, Abedin apparently provided the computer password in her unsecure reply email, saying, “Its [redacted].” On April 17, 2009, Clinton aide Lona Valmoro emailed Clinton’s sensitive daily schedule for April 18 to various Clinton Foundation officials, including Doug Band, Terry Krinvic and Justin Cooper. She also forwarded Clinton’s daily schedule for July 16 to numerous Clinton Foundation officials. She did the same thing on September 8, 2009. She did so again on January 10, January 14 and April 11, 2010.
The details of Hillary’s arrival on November 18, 2009, in war-torn Kabul, Afghanistan, for the inauguration of President Karzai, were found on Abedin’s unsecure email account. Included were precise times of landing at Kabul Airport, the occupants of her vehicle, arrival and departure times at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, and meeting times with U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
The new documents show that Clinton donors frequently requested and received special favors from the State Department that were connected to the Clinton Foundation.
On July 14, 2009, Gordon Griffin, a XL Keystone lobbyist, sent an email to Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band, asking if Band could get him into a Council on Foreign Relations dinner at which Clinton was speaking. Band forwarded the email to Abedin, saying, “Can u get him in?” Abedin replied: “Yes will get him in.” Band was a top aide to President Bill Clinton and co-founder of Teneo. Griffin was a major donor to Hillary Clinton’s Senate and presidential campaigns.
On July 16, 2009, Zachary Schwartz asked Band for help getting visas to travel to Cuba for a film production crew from Shangri La Entertainment. Band forwarded the request to Abedin, telling her, “Please call zach asap on this. [Redacted.] Important.” Abedin responded, “I’ll call zach when we land in India.” Abedin concludes with “Enjoy. Cuba is complicated. Am sure you aren’t surprised to hear that.” Schwartz worked for Steve Bing, a mega-donor to the Clintons and owner of Shangri La Entertainment. Bing has reportedly donated $10-25 million to the Clinton Foundation and paid Bill Clinton personally $2.5 million a year to be an adviser to a green construction company Bing owned.
On September 11, 2009, Terrence Duffy, chairman of futures brokerage firm CME Group, a donor to the Clinton Foundation, asked Clinton to arrange “government appointments” for him in Singapore and Hong Kong. Clinton, using her HDR22@clintonmail.com address, forwarded the request to Abedin, “fyi.” Abedin responded to Duffy’s email, saying she would “follow up” with Duffy’s secretary, Joyce. Duffy gave $4,600 to Hillary’s 2008 presidential campaign; CME Group paid Hillary $225,000 for a speaking fee and has donated between $5,001 and 10,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
Abedin, using her huma@clintonmail.com address, later told Joyce, “Would like to get some more information and details so we can try to help.” Further along in the exchange, Joyce responds “We would also like some help in arranging meetings with some key govt officials in both locations, such as the Prime Minister of Singapore, and would appreciate any help you may be able to provide.”
On September 29, 2009, Abedin followed up with Duffy, telling him that “we are happy to assist with any and all meetings” and that she had “discussed you and your trip with our assistant secretary of state for east asia and pacific affairs,” suggesting that Duffy write the assistant secretary, Kurt Campbell. Duffy replied, “Thank you very much. I did connect with Kurt Campbell today.”
On May 5, 2010, major Clinton Global Initiative member, Clinton Foundation donor and real estate developer Eddie Trump forwarded to “Dougie” Band a request for assistance from Russian American Foundation Vice President Rina Kirshner to get the Russian American Foundation involved in a State Department program. Band forwarded the request to Abedin, saying, “Can we get this done/mtg set.” As Judicial Watch previously reported, the State Department doled out more than $260,000 to the Russian American Foundation for “public diplomacy.”
Major Clinton donor Bal Das, a New York financier who reportedly raised $300,000 for Hillary’s 2008 presidential campaign, asked Abedin on November 11, 2009 if Hillary Clinton could address the Japan Society at its annual conference in 2010. Clinton did speak to the Japan Society’s annual conference in 2011.
The emails also provide insight on the inner workings of the Clinton State Department, in particular her engagement with her staff.
In a May 19, 2009, “Global Press Conference” memo, Clinton was given in advance the “proposed questions” of four of the seven foreign reporters. Examples include: “What is the Obama administration’s view of Australian PM Rudd’s proposal to form an Asia-Pacific Community” and “Why can’t American drones not find, detect and destroy the insurgency supply line?” In a document entitled “HRC Pakistan Notes” prepared for Clinton by her staff, Clinton apparently had to be reminded about all her trips to Pakistan and of “stories that you have told/remember.” Her reminder instructions include: “You loved Faisal mosque, and it was especially meaningful to have CVC [Chelsea] with you.” And: “Your first Pakistani friend was in College. She introduced you to Pakistani food and clothes.” And: “You have had lots of Pakistani and Pakistani American friends over the years. From Chicago to California to Washington, DC, you have friends all over the country. They know how much you love Pakistani food …”
On February 12, 2010, Case Button, a Clinton speechwriter, asked Abedin if her mother, a professor at Dar Al Hekma, a women’s university in Saudi Arabia where Clinton held a town hall meeting, would be willing to give him advice on talking points he was preparing for Clinton. Abedin responded, “Talk to my mom for sure. She will have good points for you.” After reviewing Hillary’s draft remarks, Huma’s mother, Saleha Abedin, (a controversial Islamist activist), offered some advice: “Do not use the political terms such as ‘democracy/elections/freedom.’ Do not use the term ‘empowerment of women’ instead say ‘enabling women’ Do not even mention driving for women! Don’t sound sympathetic to ‘women’s plight’ or be ‘patronizing’ as other visitors have done and made the students extremely annoyed. They rightly consider these as in-house issues …” No references to these issues appear in Clinton’s speech.
Abedin’s involvement in a major appointment at the State Department is controversial given that Abedin’s mother was an Islamist activist. On July 24, 2009, Cheryl Mills forwarded to Abedin a CV for someone being considered for the position of Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. It had been sent to Mills from State Department recruiter Margaret Carpenter. Rather than forwarding the resume on to Clinton for her approval, Abedin simply responds to Mills: “I’m a hundred percent fine with him.”
Abedin also offered her opinion to Clinton on administration leaders: On January 21, 2011, while on a trip to Mexico, Abedin emailed Hillary that “Biden is a disaster here.”
On February 20, 2012, Clinton expresses outrage over an apparent wardrobe miscommunication for a meeting in Mexico and sent an email to Abedin with the subject line “I’m venting.” Clinton admonished:
So, here I sit in the meeting surrounded by ever other person dressed in a white shirt provided by the Mexicans. Patricia is not wearing the exact style that all others are but her own white shirt. But, since no one ever told me about this, and instead assumed I didn’t need to know, I had no idea about any of this until I just walked into the large meeting in front of the entire press corps and I’m wearing a green top. So, what’s my answer when asked why I think I’m different than all my colleagues and why I’m dissing our hosts? I am sick of people deciding what I should know rather than giving me the info so I can make a decision. This really annoys me and I told Monica [Hanley] I just didn’t understand.
“The emails show ‘what happened’ was that Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin obviously violated laws about the handling of classified information and turned the State Department into a pay for play tool for the corrupt Clinton Foundation,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The clear and mounting evidence of pay for play and mishandling of classified information warrant a serious criminal investigation by an independent Trump Justice Department.”
To read more about Huma Abedin’s emails, click here.
