Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton attacked a Kerry aid for using his Gmail account along with his government account while sending out an email to The Daily Caller over an argument on a story the DC produced about the number of times Kerry appeared on Fox News. Of course it was a minor detail that Fitton then jumped on claiming that Glen Johnson, who is a strategic communications advisor for Kerry, should have only used his official government email, and not his Gmail account for sending communications, which Fitton then claimed could easily compromise government security and Fitton’s constant use of FOIA to make wild unsubstantiated claims about a government run amok.
Tom Fitton, president of the conservative government watchdog Judicial Watch, insists that it’s important for federal employees to use official communication channels — especially if they’re high-ranking or in positions of public interest.
“Records retention policies could be compromised by the use of private email,” he said, referencing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) rules giving citizens the right to check up on their government by requesting official documents. “There are a variety of ways that federal records laws could be compromised through the use of private emails to conduct public business.”
However, Fitton forgets his own stupid mistakes when it concerns Google and using Google Groups to foment his and True The Vote’s 30 Front Messaging War called Groundswell. It was Fitton and his stupid use of Google Groups which ended up becoming a major embarrassment for him and his conservative watchdog group when that group was exposed after a 6 month investigation by journalists here at Breitbart Unmasked. We here at BU would like to remind Fitton that throwing rocks at glass houses often will result in a broken house which often ends up being your own. Fitton claims that when government officials use Google as an email client that it’s not by accident that they use it.
“That alarm went off as soon as I read [TheDC’s] story,” said Fitton. He stressed that he couldn’t speculate on Johnson’s specific case, but noted that in his experience, “when public officials use private email accounts to conduct government business, it’s not accidental.”
My question to Fitton would be this: if government officials use Gmail by design to avoid scrutiny, then did Fitton use Google Groups by design to avoid scrutiny of Judicial Watch, or was it all some big fat stupid mistake by Fitton? The resulting Groundswell Group exposure resulted in legislation sponsored to reign in the Supreme Court on their lack of ethics and close ties to extremist right wing groups and funders as well as the wife of SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas. His wife Ginni Thomas was a leader in the Groundswell operation, which upon exposure caused quite a backlash against SCOTUS decisions such as the Voting Rights Act. Fitton was right up there in the leadership league with Groundswell, which met in a conference room at Judicial Watch every Wednesday to plot strategy, remove their enemies from circulation, and basically foment a messaging war against what they term as conservatives who don’t meet their expectations and liberals whom they feel are controlled by George Soros. It was all documented by David Corn and Karoli Kuns in several pieces on Mother Jones and Crooks and Lairs, as well as here at BU.
Message to Tom Fitton and The Judicial Watch staff, stop throwing rocks at people when you have your own mistakes that are far worse than some advisor sending out an email to a reporter which was also cc’d to his own government account. Fitton’s stupidity, and that of Judicial Watch, should let people know that Judicial Watch is a group that should be roundly mocked for their own far-reaching mistakes, and instead of allowing them to attack someone over an email that was of no consequence to anyone, they should be reminded every week just how stupid they were and still are. Fitton and Judicial Watch are still in the penalty box for that one, and probably always will be.