Judicial Watch Sues for ATF Records on Arkansas Raid that Led to Shooting Death of Clinton National Airport Official

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for records regarding the fatal shooting of Little Rock, AR, resident and Executive Director of the Clinton National Airport Bryan Malinowski (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-01679)).

The lawsuit was filed June 10, 2024, after the ATF failed to respond adequately to an April 16 FOIA request for:

A. All emails and text messages sent to and from ATF officials regarding Little Rock resident Bryan Malinowski who died in an ATF raid on March 19, 2024.

B. All records related to the raid on the home of Bryan Malinowski, including but not limited to, re-operational briefing documents, raid plans, investigative reports, memoranda, warrants and audio and video recordings.

Malinowski died following an ATF raid in March 2024. The ATF only produced heavily redacted search warrant court filings.

On April 22, 2024, Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to ATF Director Steven Dettelbach, asking for details about “the deadly pre-dawn raid conducted by ATF in Little Rock, Arkansas, while executing a search warrant on the home of Bryan Malinowski, a local airport executive.”

An affidavit, which was unsealed after Malinowski’s death and produced to Judicial Watch, alleged he unlawfully sold guns without a license. Malinowski’s family lawyer and former federal prosecutor, Bud Cummins, reportedly described Malinowski’s gun sales as “a hobby and protected by the Second Amendment.” In testimony before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives, Cummins testified, “Malinowski never broke any laws selling the way he did, even when a handful of weapons turned up at crime scenes later.”

Video footage of the raid recently released by X and the Arkansas Times, shows that Malinowski’s wife thought that the law enforcement officers raiding their home were intruders.

“The Biden ATF’s deadly raid on Bryan Malinowski’s home, in what was essentially a licensing dispute, screams out for a thorough examination,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Slow walking the release of basic information about this raid suggests that the ATF has something to hide.”

Judicial Watch’s investigations and litigation on abusive lawfare practiced by the Biden administration includes:

On May 8, 2024, Judicial Watch received a recording of a phone message left by an FBI special agent for someone at the Secret Service (USSS) in the context of the raid on President Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, which showed coordination between the Secret Service and the FBI on the Raid of Trump’s Home.

In March 2024, Judicial Watch sued the U.S. Department of Energy for records about the retroactive termination of former President Donald Trump’s security clearance and/or access to classified information.

In August 2023, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for records of the Archives’ role in President Trump’s White House records controversy; whether it offered Trump a secure storage location other than the National Archives; and if the Archives consulted with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding the classification or declassification procedures of any of the alleged classified documents found at Trump’s Florida residence.

A separate Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration resulted in the release of records about the unprecedented document dispute between Archives and President Trump. Click here or here to review the records.

In August 2022, Judicial Watch successfully sued to unseal the search warrant affidavit used to justify the unprecedented raid on the home of former President Trump.

In September 2022, Judicial Watch filed lawsuits against the DOJ for its records and the FBI’s records about the Mar-a-Lago raid search warrant application and approval, as well as communications about the warrant between the FBI, Executive Office of the President and the Secret Service.

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