Judicial Watch Lawsuit Forces Release of Biden Interview Audio Tapes

Judicial Watch Lawsuit Forces Release of Biden Interview Audio Tapes
Judicial Watch Files Ethics Complaint for Altercation at ICE Facility
Judicial Watch Sues FEMA over NYC Illegal Immigrant Housing Payments
Trump DOJ Ends Sex Change Surgery Right for Inmates
Memorial Day – 250 Years of Sacrifice

Judicial Watch Lawsuit Forces Release of Biden Interview Audio Tapes

In another Judicial Watch victory, our lawsuit forced the release of the audio recordings of former President Joe Biden’s October 2023 interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur in the criminal investigation into his theft, retention, and disclosure of classified records.

You can listen here:
justice.gov/storage/Biden-interview-with-Hur-part-1-October-8th.mp3
justice.gov/storage/Biden-interview-with-Hur-part-2-October-9th.mp3

We filed the first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit and are the lead plaintiff asking for the Biden audio recordings (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-00700)). In February 2025, a federal court ordered the Trump Justice Department to declare whether it intended to continue denying our request for the audio, which led to this release.

These tapes show why the Biden gang was desperate to keep these audio tapes secret before the election to cover up Biden’s obvious dementia. The Trump Justice Department quite correctly ended the unlawful cover-up of these tapes.

In June 2024, the Biden administration was forced to admit that the transcripts of audio recordings of Biden’s interviews with Special Counsel Hur had been altered and are not accurate. The transcripts were altered in a way, as the actual audios show, to minimize evidence of Joe Biden’s cognitive failure.

In April 2025, we uncovered Justice Department records showing White House staffers suggesting edits to transcripts of President Biden’s interview. The Justice Department also recently turned over to us 49 pages of records detailing pressure asserted by the Biden White House and Joe Biden’s personal lawyers on Special Counsel Robert Hur regarding the interviews. Non-disclosure agreements signed by the president’s lawyers were also included in the records.

Judicial Watch Files Ethics Complaint for Altercation at ICE Facility

We filed an ethics complaint to the U.S. House of Representatives Office of Congressional Conduct against Representatives LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), Rob Menendez (D-NJ), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ).

The complaint stems from misconduct during an altercation at the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Newark, NJ, on May 9, 2025. We are requesting that the Office of Congressional Conduct “recommend appropriate disciplinary measures, including but not limited to expulsion, censure, fines, and referral to law enforcement authorities, if violations are substantiated.” (McIver has since been brought up on federal charges over the alleged assault.)

The conduct of McIver, Menendez, and Watson Coleman not only disrupted a secure federal facility but also endangered law enforcement personnel and detainees – all as part of a political stunt. The House needs to take action to punish this dangerous misconduct.

The complaint reads as follows:

Judicial Watch, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting transparency, accountability, and integrity in government, submits this formal ethics complaint against Representatives Rob Menendez (NJ-08), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), and LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) for their conduct during an altercation at the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, on May 9, 2025. Based on credible reports, including statements from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), video evidence, and media accounts, we allege that the Representatives’ actions violated House ethics rules, federal law, and standards of conduct expected of Members of Congress.

Background
On May 9, 2025, Representatives Menendez, Watson Coleman, and McIver arrived unannounced at the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility, claiming to exercise congressional oversight authority. According to DHS, as a bus carrying detainees entered the facility’s security gate, the Representatives, along with a group of protesters, “stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility,” bypassing security protocols. DHS reported that Rep. LaMonica McIver assaulted a federal ICE officer, with body camera footage allegedly showing her “barreling unprovoked through law enforcement near the gate.” The incident also involved the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for trespassing, charged after reportedly ignoring warnings to leave the facility’s premises.

The Representatives have disputed DHS’s characterization, asserting they were exercising their legal right to conduct unannounced oversight visits under federal law and denying allegations of assault or improper entry. However, DHS maintains that the lawmakers’ actions endangered law enforcement agents and detainees, describing the incident as a “bizarre political stunt” and noting that a formal tour would have been facilitated had the Representatives requested one. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin further indicated that additional arrests of the Representatives remain “on the table,” citing evidence of assault against ICE officers.

Alleged Violations
We respectfully request that the Office of Congressional Ethics investigate the following potential violations of House Rules, the Code of Official Conduct, and federal law:

• Conduct Unbecoming a Member of Congress (House Rule XXIII, Clause 1)
  House Rule XXIII, Clause 1, states that a Member “shall behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.” The Representatives’ alleged actions—storming a secure federal facility, engaging in physical altercations with federal officers, and contributing to a chaotic scene that endangered law enforcement and detainees—appear to violate this standard. Specifically, DHS’s claim that Rep. McIver assaulted an ICE officer, supported by body camera footage, suggests conduct that undermines the dignity and integrity of the House. Even if the Representatives believed they were exercising oversight authority, their failure to coordinate with ICE officials and their alleged disregard for security protocols reflect poorly on their roles as public servants.
• Potential Violation of Federal Law (18 U.S.C. § 111 – Assaulting a Federal Officer)
  DHS has accused Rep. McIver of assaulting an ICE officer, with video evidence purportedly showing her pushing past law enforcement personnel. Additionally, DHS alleges that all three Representatives engaged in actions that could constitute interference with federal operations. Such conduct may violate 18 U.S.C. § 111, which prohibits assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers in the performance of their duties. While the Representatives deny these allegations, the existence of body camera footage and DHS’s public statements warrant an investigation to determine whether their actions crossed legal boundaries.
• Misuse of Congressional Oversight Authority
  While Members of Congress have the legal right to conduct unannounced oversight visits to ICE facilities, this authority does not grant license to disrupt operations, bypass security, or engage in physical confrontations. DHS reports that the Representatives failed to request a formal tour, which would have been accommodated, and instead rushed through security gates during a detainee transfer, creating a dangerous situation. This conduct suggests a possible abuse of their oversight privileges for political purposes, potentially violating House ethics standards that require Members to act in good faith and within the bounds of their authority.
• Endangering Public Safety
  The Representatives’ actions reportedly jeopardized the safety of ICE agents, detainees, and protesters. DHS stated that their unauthorized entry “put the safety of our law enforcement agents and the detainees at risk.” By contributing to a chaotic scene involving physical confrontations, the Representatives may have breached their duty to uphold public safety, a core expectation of elected officials. This is particularly concerning given the presence of a bus carrying detainees, which heightened the sensitivity of the situation.

Requested Action
Judicial Watch urges the Office of Congressional Ethics to conduct a thorough investigation into the conduct of Representatives Menendez, Watson Coleman, and McIver during the May 9, 2025, incident at the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility. We request that the Office:

Review all available evidence, including DHS body camera footage, witness statements, and communications between the Representatives and ICE officials.

• Issue a formal request to all involved agencies and individuals to preserve all relevant evidence, including surveillance video, body camera footage, internal communications, visitor logs, and official correspondence related to the incident.
• Review all available evidence, including DHS body camera footage, witness statements, and communications between the Representatives and ICE officials.
• Determine whether the Representatives’ actions violated House Rule XXIII, federal law (e.g., 18 U.S.C. § 111), or other ethical standards.
• Assess whether the Representatives misused their oversight authority for political purposes, thereby undermining public trust in Congress.
• Recommend appropriate disciplinary measures, including but not limited to expulsion, censure, fines, and referral to law enforcement authorities, if violations are substantiated.

Conclusion
The conduct of Representatives Menendez, Watson Coleman, and McIver during the altercation at the Delaney Hall ICE facility raises serious questions about their adherence to House ethics rules, federal law, and the standards of conduct expected of Members of Congress. Their alleged actions not only disrupted a secure federal facility but also endangered law enforcement personnel and detainees, potentially for political gain. Judicial Watch respectfully requests that the Office of Congressional Ethics investigate these allegations to ensure accountability and uphold the integrity of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Judicial Watch is a national leader in advocating high ethical standards in Congress.

In March 2024, we filed a complaint to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics calling for a full investigation into potential ethics violations tied to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) for abusing his office to benefit himself and his wife. The complaint read in part, “The publicly available facts suggest that Senator Whitehouse’s legislative activity, particularly his sponsorship of environmental legislation, funding his wife’s clients and her specific area of expertise (marine spatial planning), creates a reasonable appearance of a conflict of interest.” In August 2019, we filed a complaint to the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee of the Rhode Island Supreme Court against Whitehouse for filing an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of four clients while maintaining inactive status as a lawyer. In addition, we argued: “the brief Senator Whitehouse filed was unbecoming of the legal profession as it is nothing more than an attack on the federal judiciary and an open threat to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

In April 2021, we filed a complaint to the chairman of the House Office of Congressional Ethics against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) for violating House ethics rules by encouraging violence and attempting to intimidate the jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin. The complaint argues that Rep. Maxine Waters encouraged violence by urging protestors to “get more confrontational” if Chauvin was found not guilty.

In September 2019, we filed a complaint to the U.S. House of Representatives Office of Congressional Ethics calling for further investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar over allegations that her alleged lover, Tim Mynett, received nearly $230,000 from her campaign since July 2018. The letter supplemented our July complaint demanding an investigation of alleged marriage, immigration, tax, and other fraud related to the allegation that Rep. Omar had married her brother.

In March 2019, we filed a complaint to the Office of Congressional Ethics about Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) controversial communications and contacts with two congressional witnesses: Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS and Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer. The complaint asked that Schiff, who was chairman of the House Intelligence Community, be investigated in connection with revelations that he met with Simpson in Aspen, CO, in July 2018 and that he and his staff coordinated with Cohen on his testimony to congressional committees. Cohen’s testimony was alleged to be false in several important respects. We also filed an ethics complaint in April 2018 against Schiff and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) for improperly confirming classified information in violation of House rules.

In 2011 we helped rewrite House ethics rules, working with the then-Democratic majority to create the Office of Congressional Ethics to try to ensure more transparency and accountability in the House ethics process.

Judicial Watch Sues FEMA over NYC Illegal Immigrant Housing Payments

Taxpayer money was misused to fund hotel rooms in New York City for illegal alien invaders. The Trump administration should make the details of this potentially illegal misuse of government funds transparent.

We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for records of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) payments to New York City for migrant housing (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:25-cv-01579)).

Judicial Watch sued after the Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to respond to its February 11, 2025, FOIA request for:

1. Records of Payments and Funding Allocations:

1. Documents, invoices, receipts, contracts, and financial records reflecting FEMA payments to New York City or any associated entities under the Shelter and Services Program (SSP) from January 1, 2023, to present.
2. Any records indicating whether these funds were used for “hotels” or other accommodations.

Internal Communications and Directives:

1. Emails, memos, or other written communications between FEMA officials, DHS leadership, and New York City officials regarding the use of FEMA funds for migrant housing.
2. Any internal communications discussing whether these payments complied with federal policies and regulations.

Policy and Procedural Guidelines:

Copies of FEMA and DHS policies governing the Shelter and Services Program, including eligibility, approval processes, and financial oversight mechanisms.

In February, Cameron Hamilton, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, reportedly suspended payments to New York City to house migrants and said that staff who made them will be held accountable. Elon Musk wrote on X that we “just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants.

It was also reported that four FEMA officials who made the payments were fired. They include the agency’s chief financial officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X: “I have clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels.”

Earlier this year, we sued Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for records regarding his vow to resist the Trump administration’s mass deportation and other immigration law enforcement activities.

Trump DOJ Ends Sex Change Surgery Right for Inmates

You won’t have to pay through your tax dollars for sex change surgery for federal criminals anymore thanks to the Trump Department of Justice. Our Corruption Chronicles blog reports.

A ludicrous Biden administration policy making costly treatments—including sex reassignment surgery—a protected right for transgender prison inmates under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been reversed by the Trump administration. Under Biden, American taxpayers were on the hook for experimental gender-affirming surgery, breast augmentation, facial-feminization, permanent hair removal and other procedures for jailed felons who claim to have gender dysphoria. In fact, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) even created a Transgender Executive Council and in 2022 agreed to provide gender-affirming surgery for the first federal inmate, a trans man incarcerated for a series of terrorist threats and an anthrax attack who sued the BOP after it repeatedly denied his request for the procedure. Under the agreement the BOP provided the trans man with vaginoplasty and other “medically necessary gender-affirming procedures.”

The Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) recently dismantled the outrageous transgender surgery policy for federal inmates and has been diligent in countering it for state prisoners as well. In two Georgia cases, the DOJ reversed support granted under Biden to provide inmates with sexual reassignment surgeries at state expense. “The prior administration portrayed such claims as necessary medical care for gender dysphoria under the ADA,” the DOJ writes in a statement that goes on to say it was based on guidelines that were politically motivated and based on junk science. The Biden administration had validated in a court filing a Georgia inmate’s assertion that treatment for gender dysphoria is a protected right under the ADA as well as the Eighth Amendment. “[T]he Eighth Amendment requires prison officials to provide incarcerated people with adequate medical care for serious medical conditions,” the Biden DOJ wrote in the filing. “It is well established that gender dysphoria is a serious medical condition. Prison officials demonstrate deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm—and thus violate the Eighth Amendment—when they categorically refuse to provide medically necessary gender-affirming surgery to an incarcerated individual with gender dysphoria.”

The recent DOJ court actions, both in Georgia, undo the Biden administration’s “abuse of the legal system that pushed an agenda driven by politics, not law,” according to the agency, which explains that it withdrew an incorrect statement of interest in one case and submitted a new statement of interest in a separate case brought by prisoners seeking the state to provide “dangerous, elective surgery as treatment of inmates’ gender dysphoria claims.” The new filings lay bare the Biden administration’s manipulation of supposed medical guidelines to try to create an inmate’s right to optional surgeries where no such entitlement exists, the DOJ confirms. “There has never been an Eighth Amendment right for inmates to demand elective and experimental surgeries,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. “The prior administration’s nonsensical reading of the Americans with Disabilities Act was an affront to the very people the statute intended to protect.”

In one case a 45-year-old woman, Ronnie Fuller, sentenced to life for murder sued the state alleging Eighth Amendment violations for being denied access to a mastectomy. In 2017 she told a mental health counselor she had feelings of body hatred and depression and was eventually diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The murderer requested and was provided with hormone replacement therapy and later demanded a subcutaneous mastectomy, claiming emotional distress and mental anguish for “want of a preferred top surgery.” However, gender dysphoria is not a disability under the ADA, the DOJ confirms in its recent statement of interest to the court. “The ADA specifically excludes from its definition of “disability” “transvestism, transsexualism, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments, or other sexual behavior disorders,” the federal court document states. In the other case supported by the Biden administration, a man incarcerated for decades for an unidentified crime sued the state to fund his sex-change surgery to become a woman. “The United States has since disavowed the scientific theories” of World Professional Association for Transgender Health, a key source used in the Biden administration court document supporting the trans inmate, according to the DOJ reversal under Trump. The legal document also states that the previous administration “wrongly asserted that gender dysphoria necessitated elective care to abate risk of suicide.”

Memorial Day – 250 Years of Sacrifice

As we spend the next few days celebrating and honoring our Fallen Heroes for Memorial Day, let us think back to the ultimate sacrifices of our Founding generation as we begin the 250th Celebration of our nation’s creation. George Washington, as a veteran, was very much aware of the price of war as he accepted the commission of Commander-in-Chief.  In his address to the New York Provincial Congress nearly 250 years ago, he reassured the assembly that citizen-soldiers would defend the country with their lives and reject the temptations of military tyranny:

At ⟨the same time that with you I deplore⟩ the unhappy Necessity of suc⟨h an Appointment, as that⟩ with which I am now honoured, ⟨I cannot but feel sentiments⟩ of the highest Gratitude for this af⟨fecting Instance of⟩ Distinction & Regard.

May your warmest w⟨ish be realized in⟩ the Success of America at this importa⟨nt and interesting⟩ Period; & be assured that, every Exertion ⟨of my worthy Colleagues⟩ & myself, will be equally extended to ⟨the re establishment⟩ of Peace & Harmony between the Mother ⟨Country and the⟩ Colonies. As to the fatal, but necessary Opera⟨tions of War.⟩ When we assumed the Soldier, we did not ⟨lay aside the⟩ Citizen, & we shall most sincerely rejoice ⟨with you in⟩ that happy Hour, when the Establishment ⟨of American⟩ L⟨iber⟩ty on the most firm, & solid Foundat⟨ions, shall enable us⟩ to return to our private Stations in ⟨the bosom of a⟩ free, peaceful, & happy Country.

Washington and his army were willing to engage in the “fatal operation” of war – not for despotic power but for a “free, peaceful and happy Country.” Tens of thousands of patriots died in the Revolutionary War. On this Memorial Day, a quarter of a millennium later, we should mourn and give special honor to their sacrifice as if it were yesterday. 

Until next week,

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