➡ Tom Fitten, the president of Judicial Watch, discusses the political implications of Jack Smith’s actions and the potential appointment of Matt Gaetz as Attorney General. He criticizes Smith’s rush to complete his project before the end of December, suggesting it’s politically motivated. Fitten also expresses support for Gaetz, believing he understands the corruption within the Justice Department and could help rectify it. However, he acknowledges the challenges Gaetz may face, including gaining confirmation and ensuring he has a supportive team.
➡ After the election, President Trump and Senate Republicans are expected to make significant changes, including reforms in the Justice Department and FBI. There are concerns about the current state of these departments and the Defense Department. The hope is that these changes will address issues of corruption and improve the morale of these agencies. The goal is to preserve the concept of self-government and prevent the country from straying from its constitutional republic roots.

Tom Fitten, the president of Judicial Watch, who joins us on the phone. Hello, Tom. Good to have you back with us, sir. Hey, Vince, how are you? Good to be with you. I have not been selected for FBI director. I just want everyone to know. Wait a second. Are you officially taking yourself out of the running, though? I’ve seen some people do that. I won’t be so arrogant as to officially take myself out of the running, because that would presume I was in the running. Well, I tell you what, it would be a much better FBI if you were in the running.

All right. Well, Tom… We will do worse. Yeah, we have done worse. So, Tom, tell me what you think of this Jack Smith stuff. You know, Jack Smith, he had said up and down ahead of the election that, oh, no, no, no, we shouldn’t even worry about election day. We shouldn’t even think about it at all. But election day came and went, and all of a sudden he’s got to wrap up his project? What’s going on? Yeah, you raise a good point. If the process was apolitical, what difference does it matter who is running the presidency? He should just be proceeding as he’s supposed to a special counsel with no timeline or deadline.

If he’s working on a report, why does it have to be done by the end of December, as is reported? It should just continue until it’s done, and it shouldn’t matter who’s president. But he’s highlighting that it is a political operation, and they consider it to be a political operation, and that’s why they’re rushing it through. And frankly, he shouldn’t be allowed to even walk into the office anymore under the law, because the president-elect is the constitutional equivalent of the president in terms of the deference that he’s supposed to get. And right now, this Justice Department, by letting him even spend a dime, is harassing the incoming president.

So, let me take people to the next phase of this, because we’ve seen a lot of headlines on this subject, which is that he’s wrapping up the legal proceedings, and they’re dressing it up as, oh, you can’t prosecute a sitting president of the United States, and he’s going to fire him anyway, so it’s time to go. But one of the most important elements of this story, which is not being talked about a ton right now, is that Jack Smith apparently still intends to produce a public report designed to smear Donald Trump and release it before he leaves office? Yeah, and that goes to my earlier point.

He shouldn’t be writing anything. It’s done. I mean, the Justice Department is not supposed to be trying to destroy the incoming president, given the Supreme Court rulings and basic constitutional principle. What’s there to do here? You know, if their theory is that they can’t prosecute a president, they can write reports on him and divulge all sorts of other confidences and details about his governance as president of the United States previously, it doesn’t make any sense. And it shows you that this attack on Trump isn’t going to go away. These same people, many of them, won’t be removed when Biden leaves, because a lot of the those involved are not political appointees.

Judge Eileen Cannon, as I mentioned earlier, has determined that Jack Smith is not a legitimate special counsel, that he was not constitutionally legally appointed, that that Merrick Garland did something unconstitutional. We declared that Jack Smith is a special counsel. So in other words, shouldn’t the Trump legal team file an injunction against the Justice Department to release anything official from this guy, considering there’s a sitting federal judge who has declared he’s not even legitimate? Yes, but the problem is they have there before Judge Chutkin. And Judge Chutkin and this circuit is the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, which is largely anti-Trump.

But you know, on the other hand, they could go into the Supreme Court on it. I mean, my guess is the Trump team is thinking, you know, this is just, you know, they’re done. And why make them out and out of a molehill when they have effectively won and beat them? But it highlights the abusive nature of what Smith was up to. It calls into question everything he was doing. And going forward, it provides more justification for the new Justice Department, or I would argue a special counsel outside the Justice Department to investigate Jack Smith and all the other abusers of Trump civil rights and the civil rights of other Americans whose only crime was to dispute an election and be on the wrong side of the Democratic Party machine.

Absolutely. And I think that’s well within the statute of limitations, considering everything that Jack Smith has been doing has been in the last year by design because it was meant to interfere in the election. Matt Gaetz needs to bring a big roll of crime scene tape and wrap it around the Justice Department headquarters as his first job. Tell me about Matt Gaetz and what you think of this. You know, Gaetz is, institutional Washington hates him, which only makes me like him more. What do you, what do you make of the selection of Matt Gaetz for attorney general? And will he be able to do this job? I think it’s an inspired choice.

He’s someone who understands the crisis we’re in as a result of Justice Department corruption and how close we’ve come to losing our Republic because of their efforts to destroy Trump for now, nearly 10 years. And he’s certainly the type of leader the Justice Department needs in terms of folks, voters desires to clean house there. The initial challenges he will have are getting confirmed. And I think that’s a easier thing than we’re hearing right now. But secondly, to make sure there are people around him who are on his team, as opposed to the traditional institutional Republican approach to the Justice Department, which is, oh, well, let’s not rock the boat.

Let’s be conservative in the worst sense of the word and don’t let the president direct the operations of the Justice Department as the Constitution requires. And that’s why whether or not Gaetz is the DOJ or the Attorney General, President Trump should directly appoint a special counsel to investigate what went on. Because the Justice Department, even under the best of Attorney Generals, can’t be trusted to tie its own shoes, let alone investigate itself without an irredeemable conflict of interest. And it’s a huge it’s a huge agency with a lot of sub agencies. You got the FBI to deal with.

I think that anyone who comes in, they should tackle the Civil Rights Department or the Justice Department as one of their first priorities because that’s right. I find them to managing judicial watch FOIA requests and reviewing the documents and giving them to us from the Civil Rights Division. Are you just me broadly? Well, everyone, everyone there, they should be working on FOIA rather than destroying the republic. Yes. But I mean, like the reason I highlight the Civil Rights Division is because it’s just a group of left wing activists who exist to punish Republicans and Trump voters.

And what it should be is a division that actually protects the civil rights of Americans and makes it so that they’re not harassed just because they go to church, that they are treated like American citizens who have constitutional rights. And in other words, that that Justice Department, if it’s going to exist, it is possible for it to do good work. We just need people who can make sure that that’s what’s happening. That’s right. And it’s been I think there have been 300 extra attorneys they brought in recently. And you can make sure they’re all creatures of the left as you highlight.

And they see their job is to advance the not just Democratic agenda, but a radical left agenda. And, you know, in the meantime, we have these in your face violations of civil rights and the Justice Department’s AWOL. Why? Because they support the violations of civil rights if the political target is correct. Yeah, it’s disgraceful. By the way, I just wanted to share with people the breaking news. Now, Donald Trump has confirmed President Trump has confirmed that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be the Secretary of Health and Human Services just moments ago.

So that’s yet another pick today. Tom, I don’t I don’t think Washington is going to enjoy that pick either, actually. You know, each pick is historic in its own way. And we could you could do three hours on why Gates’s pick is important, or head test pick is important. Kennedy, obviously, and Tulsi Gabbard. This city is so darn corrupt. All these agencies need really a wrecking ball approach by the Cabinet officials or related officials that are running them. Yeah. Otherwise, you know, it’s four years will pass and they’ll still be largely the same they were before.

And just the new crowd will come in and we’ll be back to where we are where we’re all facing prosecution and censorship and all the rest. As a political matter, do you feel like this is this is the time for to shoot for the stars to go for the big picks? It’s right now when President Trump is coming right out of this election, he’s got this huge mandate. And this is when Senate Republicans are most likely to say, I sir, we’ll go with that. Oh, yeah, you got to get it done quickly.

And not only that, but the confirmation votes are the first important votes. The other votes are going to be implementing the reforms, decimating the Justice Department. I don’t think the FBI is redeemable. You know, are they going to be brave enough? Are they going to be enough brave Republicans that institute their reform in that regard? That this job is we’re facing a crisis, right, in terms of what the Justice Department FBI has done to our country. And, you know, the Defense Department is really just the morale is sunk. What the intelligence agencies we still don’t even know.

We know a little bit of the damage to us. But I’m hoping with folks like Kelsie and Ratcliffe, we’ll get a better feel for it. So who knows how much needs to be done there to break down that corruption? They don’t like us in those agencies. The deep state hates American voters and the concept of self-government. And we got to correct that attitude. Otherwise, we’re going to lose our country in ways we’re concerned about now. We won’t even know how far off we’ll be from the constitutional republic if this isn’t handled in a timely way.

All right, Tom Fitton, the president of judicial laws, please keep up the great work and thank you for your time as always, sir. [tr:trw].

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