TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — On day one of Attorney General Ashley Moody’s trial to hold Joe Biden responsible for the border crisis, the attorney general’s legal team presented bombshell new evidence exposing the federal government for wrongfully withholding evidence until just before trial.
According to Moody, Biden’s immigration policies are allowing deadly drugs, criminals, and individuals on the terrorist watchlist to flood into the country, posing a threat to people in all 50 states. Border Patrol encountered a record 2.76 million illegal immigrants during the federal fiscal year ending in September 2022.
Nearly 100 people on the terrorist watchlist were encountered in the interior of the United States in FY 2022, a 276 percent increase compared to the past five years combined. Since February 2021, authorities have seized nearly 25,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl, enough to kill every man, woman, and child in the U.S. more than 17 times over. The influx of fentanyl has contributed to more than 100,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. annually.
WITHHELD EMAILS
The evidence withheld includes Department of Homeland Security emails with talking points for Troy Miller, Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection for a briefing with David Pekoske, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. The messages, sent just eight days after Biden took office, state that the surge of illegal immigrants caused by the Biden administration’s immigration policies will “immediately overwhelm” federal detention capacity.
One email from a DHS official sent on January 28, 2021, states: “The pause on processing pathways (MPP, ACA, PACR) and recent policy changes have also impacted USBP’s ability to expeditiously process and remove those encountered…The USBP will be required to promptly process and release family units and single adults due to lack of adjudication pathways.”
According to state prosecutors, the DOJ should have disclosed the emails to the State of Florida as a part of the discovery process. However, the DOJ failed to do so. Attorney General Moody obtained the messages through a separate FOIA request and subsequent litigation just in time to present it today in federal court.
TOLD TO STAND DOWN
“Biden’s willingness to hide evidence and lie to the American people about the border crisis he created is deeply concerning,” Attorney General Moody told The Florida Standard. “The records we obtained through our aggressive litigation efforts prove the Biden administration knew – as early as eight days after taking office – its destructive immigration policies were creating a colossal public safety crisis.
“The evidence that we fought ferociously to obtain is damning for the Biden administration, and we will continue to use his administration’s own actions and words against them in an attempt to force the president to follow the law,” Moody added.
The messages are just one piece in a stack of new information uncovered by Moody’s legal team. Evidence that will be presented in trial this week include depositions of DHS officials and memos dictating that USBP stand down in the event the border is overrun by migrants.
An outline of some of the additional evidence in the State’s case can be found here, and the amended federal complaint can be found here.
