Right-wing media try to smear former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch
Despite grave Judicial Watch allegations about a “surveillance” campaign from right-wing figures, the facts so far point to mere tracking of a pro-Trump disinformation campaign
Written by Courtney Hagle
Research contributions from Brendan Karet & Andrew Lawrence
Published
Updated
Update (9/1/20): With a provocative title starting with “Enemies List?” Fox News contributor John Solomon wrote about memos allegedly released by the State Department that he says show “officials at the U.S. embassy in Kiev” having “potentially violated the Privacy Act” through use of Facebook tool CrowdTangle to monitor developing social media narratives about Ukraine, Burisma, and more. Solomon wrote that figures like Rudy Giuliani, Sean Hannity, Donald Trump Jr., and others were targeted.
This was a preposterous attempted scandal in 2019, and it’s even more ridiculous today. Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, was running a shadow foreign policy in Ukraine with the help of Solomon. U.S. officials like Yovanovitch simply wanted to track what was being said about Ukraine on social media so that they could keep up. And now the State Department has apparently joined Fitton and others to turn right-wing figures into the victims.
As previously noted, CrowdTangle is a widely used, extremely basic social media search tool owned by Facebook. It’s bizarre and ridiculous for Solomon to frame this as illicit monitoring instead of merely a simple way to cut through the clutter of social media and find public posts from these figures that dealt with Ukraine.
Misinformation like this is why Solomon is the reigning Misinformer of the Year.
Update (10/24/19): It turns out that the list Marie Yovanovitch allegedly used to “spy” on conservatives was really a basic Facebook search on CrowdTangle, a mundane and widely-used social media tool that tracks public social media activity. Judicial Watch described CrowdTangle as a “Soros-linked media tracking tool.”
Representatives of right-wing group Judicial Watch have been claiming during appearances on conservative media shows that former Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was “spying” on media figures close to President Donald Trump by monitoring public statements they made on social media regarding Ukraine.
Judicial Watch is alleging that Yovanovitch -- who recently testified to House impeachment investigators that Trump pressured the State Department to remove her over baseless allegations -- was “basically running a war room” by monitoring public statements regarding Ukraine made by figures in right-wing media like Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs, Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump, Jr. The list also includes former Obama ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. Judicial Watch also claims that the searches were looking for the following keywords: “Biden,” “Giuliani,” “Soros,” and “Yovanovitch.”
That Yovanovich would monitor public statements made by public figures is unsurprising given her recent testimony claiming that Giuliani had been criticizing her in the months before her ousting, and the people she allegedly monitored are connected to the smear campaign Giuliani was waging. He had accused her of privately criticizing the president and trying to protect the interests of Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. The smear included accusations that Soros was funding a conspiracy to hurt Trump’s presidency and elect Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
Yovanovich said she was “incredulous” about her removal and that it was based on “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives” -- claims that have been promoted publicly by conservative media figures.
The Washington Post reported that George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for Ukraine, became concerned around October 2018 that Yovanovitch was the target of a “classic disinformation operation.” NBC News indicated that the State Department was concerned over the effort to oust Yovanovich, reporting that the agency “attempted to ring alarm bells” regarding Giuliani’s efforts to smear her:
The documents also show that Giuliani, through conservative writer John Solomon’s columns in The Hill, attempted to tie former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch to the liberal donor George Soros as part of a massive conspiracy to take down Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and help Hillary Clinton win the 2016 election.
...
When State Department officials saw the disinformation campaign, they attempted to ring alarm bells and strategized to correct the record, the documents show.
Yovanovitch, who has over 30 years of experience in foreign diplomacy, further testified that, as The Washington Post put it, “under Trump’s leadership, U.S. foreign policy has been compromised by self-interested actors who have badly demoralized and depleted America’s diplomatic corps.” The testimony of White House aide Fiona Hill confirmed Yovanovitch’s depiction of foreign policy under the Trump administration.
Still, Judicial Watch is attempting to push the narrative that Yovanovitch nefariously spied on Trump allies among right-wing media, appearing on the radio shows of Sebastian Gorka and Sean Hannity and Fox Business host Lou Dobbs’ prime-time show to spread the message. Some Fox News figures responded with paranoia regarding their own conversations.
Judicial Watch also shared its report on Twitter, announcing that it is “investigating if prominent conservative figures/journalists & persons [with ties] to @realDonaldTrump were unlawfully monitored by the State Dept in Ukraine at the request of ousted U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, an Obama appointee.”
Fox & Friends hosted Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, who repeated that his “sourcing tells us that she was asking that folks like Rudy Giuliani, Don Trump Jr., a whole list of your colleagues there at Fox, be monitored on certain phrases.” Co-host Steve Doocy invited Fitton to “go ahead and speculate for a second” about Yovanovitch’s motives, to which Fitton replied, “It looks an awful lot like an enemy’s list to me.” Doocy noted that Yovanovitch is “keeping an eye on television, of all things,” and he called it “particularly disturbing that, you know, somebody in the federal government would be tracking people on TV.”
Citation From the October 16 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): So what are you thinking [Yovanovitch] may have done?
TOM FITTON (PRESIDENT, JUDICIAL WATCH): Well, our sourcing tells us that she was asking that folks like Rudy Giuliani, Don Trump Jr., a whole list of your colleagues there at Fox, be monitored on certain phrases. And this is around March of this year. Biden, Giuliani, Soros and her own name, Yovanovitch. So the problem is that it's not legal for the State Department to do that type of monitoring, certainly overseas, of American citizens. And it may have been only social media posts but they still can't be tracking American citizens' activities like that. The project was so big, they sought help from D.C. and that's when someone in D.C. said hold on a sec. You can't be doing this. It's not legal.
DOOCY: And of course she testified behind closed doors, and the way they have set it up is that's all supposed to be confidential. It's supposed to be secret. And yet somehow not so secret to some newspapers.
FITTON: Yeah. The selective leaks of the secret star chamber type testimony is really deplorable, to use a turn of phrase. And I would like to see her full transcript so we can figure out whether members of Congress questioned her about this issue. You know, the State Department is aware of this, guys. And it's about time we get a fuller explanation as to why this ambassador, a career civil service person who had been placed as ambassador by President Obama, was so concerned about Biden and Ukraine and George Soros, who controversially was involved in Ukraine as well through his Open Society funding and foundations. Why were they monitoring the president's lawyer and his son?
DOOCY: Sure. And keeping an eye on people on television of all things. And I know you filed a Freedom of Information Act request so perhaps you will get the answer to it. But just, you know, go ahead and speculate for a second. Connect some dots. Why would she want to do that?
FITTON: Well, you know, it looks an awful lot like an enemy's list to me. And when you are concerned about an issue, you start searching on the terms you are concerned about. Biden, Ukraine, Soros. What was going on in March? What was it about those subjects that our ambassador was tasking her staff with tracking the social media postings of these figures, contrary to law and in a way such that people in Washington said you can't do it and you have to stop. There are issues here that are not just about why they were tracking it, but whether the rights of those being targeted were violated as a result.
DOOCY: And it's particularly disturbing that, you know, somebody in the federal government would be tracking people on TV.
FITTON: Well yeah I mean, it is social media posts. But look, you know, any of your viewers and you, Steve, do you want the government creating a file on you based on what your social media postings are? No, you don't. And sure enough the law doesn't allow it.
DOOCY: It does not.
On America First with Sebastian Gorka, Judicial Watch’s Chris Farrell described Yovanovitch as an “absolute Obama partisan.” Farrell claimed that Judicial Watch has “very reliable information” that the State Department was “basically running a war room” by “documenting, capturing, archiving all the statements, publications, tweets, social media, anything that those folks put out was ordered to be compiled and monitored.” Farrell did not reveal what the reliable information was. He then claimed Yovanovitch’s action amounted to an “abuse of power” and he described it as a “political operative using their government position as leverage against their political opponents.”
On Gorka's radio show, Chris Farrell claims Yovanovitch was monitoring journalists
Citation From the October 11 edition of Salem Radio Networks' America First with Sebastian Gorka:
CHRIS FARRELL (JUDICIAL WATCH): Well, this is an ambassador, Maria -- I'm going to get her name incorrect -- Yovanovitch, I believe it is pronounced, although I am subject to Ukrainian slash Russian checks -- the -- who the -- an absolute Obama partisan, she's unabashedly so. She's complicit in this Schiff show trial, and the reason I say that is because her secret testimony is already in the hands of The New York Times and that of the internet all over, so, so much for the highly classified, confidential, behind closed doors testimony.
SEBASTIAN GORKA (HOST): Right.
FARRELL: When the New York Times is out peddling it five minutes after she goes in the door. Look, she had the Obama administration's back. She had Joe Biden's back, because we have very reliable information that she was conducting a, or had directed elements, bureaus within the State Department, to conduct a monitoring mission of about a dozen or so people that -- who were either close to the president or were reporters, editorial writers, perhaps even television and radio hosts who were identified as being close to President Trump.
And they were basically running a war room. They were documenting, capturing, archiving all the statements, publications, tweets, social media, anything that those folks put out was ordered to be compiled and monitored.
And at some point, somebody in the State Department said, “Hey wait a minute, those are US persons, you can't do that.” The State Department can't run a monitoring mission, a media war room on U.S. persons, particularly when they're targeting those persons and then using key words like “Biden" and “Soros" and “Ukraine" and “Giuliani" of all names.
And so, we're very interested in this, and yesterday, as we are wont to do, we filed a Freedom Of Information Act request with the State Department with some very specific language, looking for what the dear ambassador was up to and what those bureaus and departments and agencies within the State Department were doing with respect to this monitoring mission.
GORKA: So Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, recalled by President Trump, who tasked the State Department to monitor U.S. persons, journalists, that handful of names she asked to be monitored, did any of those include radio hosts that you've worked with in the past, Chris Farrell?
FARRELL: I have reason to believe that that's so, and, you know, when we nail down some additional details -- of course, when we also nail down some of the documentation from the State Department, your listening audience can rest assured that we will make it widely known across the land that this sort of unlawful activity, once we document it, that it was going on -- because you want to talk about an abuse of power, and a political operative using their government position as leverage against their political opponents, you're talking about the definition of corruption.
GORKA: So, let's be clear here, I don't want to sound didactic and like a pedant, but an ambassador running a foreign mission is there with a very specific job to do. They are the president's representative, an ambassador is the president's representative to that government, and runs that mission to establish and maintain the bilateral relations between the United States and that country, as long as they are running that embassy. Have you ever seen, in your professional history, the national security establishment or at Judicial Watch, an ambassador ever -- ever task Foggy Bottom, ever task the State Department to monitor the work, to monitor the statements, to monitor the activities of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, Chris Farrell?
FARRELL: No, it's -- in fact, it's the polar opposite of what they should be doing. I mean, normally they're very busy checking the foreign press, and certainly the nation they're representative of, for anything that may be of interest in the, you know, to the United States, to our national interest, to our defense, to our political advantage. The lens of the telescope, or the microscope, is supposed to be turned around the other way.
But in this case, you know, it appears that bureaus in the State Department, like the Global Engagement Center, which has a kind of a weird Orwellian title --
GORKA: the GEC.
FARRELL: -- that they were running this sort of information operation, this -- but a collection one, not a -- not putting forth the position of the U.S. and advancing our goals and objectives, but instead, flipping it around and carefully tracking the comments, the tweets, the writings, the reporting of U.S. persons -- but in particular, not just with respect to Ukraine, but on this very controversial hornet's nest we've found ourselves in now, with respect to the Bidens, Mr. Giuliani's investigations, and the other thing I found curious was the involvement of Mr. Soros --
GORKA: Chris, can -- Chris, can you hold it right there on that cliffhanger? Can you stay with us for one more segment?
FARRELL: Sure. Certainly.
GORKA: Alright, the name has been mentioned. Media Matters, are you watching? Are you typing away? We mentioned George Soros, so wake up, because I want to see that transcript when we're done with the next segment, with Judicial Watch's Chris Farrell.
On Tucker Carlson Tonight, Fox correspondent Trace Gallagher reported on Judicial Watch's story, who claimed that the reporting comes after “news reports that Yovanovitch had an anti-Trump bias.”
Citation From the October 16 edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight:
TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): America's former ambassador to Ukraine may have ordered government personnel to monitor journalists and allies of President Trump. Our chief breaking news correspondent Trace Gallagher has the latest on this breaking story.
TRACE GALLAGHER: Hi, Tucker. Yeah, at the center of this is Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine appointed by Obama and ousted by President Trump. Yovanovitch made headlines last week when she testified before the House Intel committee as part of the Democrats impeachment inquiry. Now, two sources with close knowledge of the situation confirmed to Tucker Carlson Tonight that in the spring of 2019 the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine requested that several journalists and people close to President Trump have their social media accounts monitored.
This happened following news reports that Yovanovitch had an anti-Trump bias. The list includes 13 people including our own Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Lou Dobbs, as well as Fox News contributor's Sara Carter and Dan Bongino along with Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump Jr. According to the sources, the monitoring lasted for at least a few days before stopping, because the State Department is not allowed to conduct this sort of monitoring of U.S. citizens obviously.
The conservative government watchdog Judicial Watch has now filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the State Department. seeking, quoting here, "Any and all records regarding, concerning, or related to the monitoring of any U.S.-based journalists, reporter, or media commentator by any employee or office of the Department of State between January 1, 2019, and the present." Judicial Watch says they have information that indicated Yovanovitch directly ordered subordinates to target this list of people, Tucker.
CARLSON: Shocking story, I would say. Trace Gallagher, thank you.
Fox Business host Lou Dobbs listed a string of conservative media figures Judicial Watch claims were being monitored, noting that “yours truly” was included. Dobbs concluded that the monitoring is “unlawful.”
Citation From the October 14 edition of Fox Business' Lou Dobbs Tonight
LOU DOBBS (HOST): A number of journalists, including myself have, well, when they asked the -- one ambassador to Ukraine, the ousted U.S. ambassador, Marie Yovanovich, had asked that we be monitored. Judicial Watch discovering all of that and uncovering our names today, including Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Fox News contributors John Solomon, Sara Carter, Dan Bongino, and yours truly. Others may have been targeted, including Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, Sebastian Gorka.
The list goes on, and the -- well, the entire extent we don't know, but we do know this -- it would be unlawful to have done so, and we can't wait to hear which of my fascinating conversations may have been heard as a result. Not really that fascinating, but I had to say that.
Later in the same show, Dobbs repeated that Yovanovitch was “talking about monitoring me and surveilling me.” He asserted that he “take[s] that sort of as a badge of honor honestly” but expressed concern for his colleagues “who are less courageous than me.” His guest Ed Rollins agreed that the story is “absolutely unbelievable.”
Citation From the October 14 edition of Fox Business' Lou Dobbs Tonight
ED ROLLINS (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): I’ve watched all day today people saying the president fired this ambassador, how outrageous. Every ambassador can be fired by the president. They are hired by the president, they are appointed by a president. If she was bad-mouthing the president as people said she was, she should be fired.
LOU DOBBS (HOST): You know what she was doing is -- as terrible as that is -- I mean, she was talking about monitoring me and surveilling me? I mean, I take that sort of as a badge of honor honestly, but my colleagues who are less courageous than me, you know, I feel badly for Sean Hannity, for example, who might be intimidated by such a thing. I'm kidding. I’m kidding.
ED ROLLINS: Certainly you are not intimidated, and if they wanted to know what you want to think, you have five hours a week on here and three times a day on Salem Radio. So, anybody who wants to know what you are thinking, saying, it's right there out in the public, and it's always very smart.
...
DOBBS: It's just amazing. Sean Hannity, John Solomon, I mean, the foremost reporting on this spygate has been coming from John Solomon, and Sean Hannity, and Sara Carter. It's crazy what she was doing.
ROLLINS: Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable, and the public is going to know, and at the end of the day here, this thing is going to -- you know, again, they may put the 218 votes up tomorrow and impeach him, but they’re not going to basically put any evidence forward that he should get -- put out of office.
On his radio show, Fox host Sean Hannity claimed that if true, the monitoring is a “constitutional violation” that “would be something that you would expect in a third-world banana republic.” He added that Judicial Watch’s reporting shows Yovanovitch may have “violated laws and government regulations by ordering subordinates to target certain U.S. persons,” suggesting at times that the State Department was listening in on personal conversations.
Sean Hannity Tom Fitton surveillance claim

Citation From the October 15 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:
SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Well everybody starts sending me this tweet by our friend Tom Fitton over at Judicial Watch, and then I'm looking at the piece that they put out, an investigation that they're involved in, to find out if this Ukraine ambassador ordered State Department officials to monitor journalists and friends of the president, or people that are outspoken in terms of the president. In other words, illegal surveillance perhaps took place, I can't say for sure that this did. Certain figures in the media and elsewhere, private conversations that are being held between private citizens were being monitored, in an effort to find out information that could hurt Donald Trump -- that would be a constitutional violation. That would be something that you would expect in a third-world banana republic.
…
Judicial Watch has obtained some information indicating that this ambassador may have violated laws and government regulations by ordering subordinates to target certain U.S. persons, using State Department resources, and apparently, reportedly ordered the monitoring keyed to the following terms: “Biden," “Giuliani," “Soros," “Yovanovitch." And Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom Of Information Act request with the State Department, and continue to gather facts. All right, I want to stay very clear of anything that is not factual here, Tom Fitton.
TOM FITTON (PRESIDENT, JUDICIAL WATCH): That's right.
HANNITY: I've read the piece. Do we know this happened for a certainty? We don't know yet.
FITTON: Well, our sources say it did, and so the concern is, and this is the process, is that the government, and certainly the government abroad, our representatives abroad, can't use government resources to track even the public communications, like tweets or public comments by American citizens. And so, evidently that was going on in the Ukrainian embassy, using the search terms that you highlighted, "Biden," "Giuliani," "Soros" and "Yovanovitch." They then sought additional help to do that process, that project, from the State Department here in Washington, D.C., and that's when someone said "Well, hold on a second. You can't be doing this at all, you got to stop it. It's illegal."
And so, we don't know if they actually stopped it, we're not sure how long it went on for, but we do know that this target list is pretty darn accurate. I don't know if it's complete, but it included you, other Fox News personalities, and contributors associated with Fox, and other conservatives who are known for taking strong stances on social media, certainly allied with President Trump generally.
So, it's very curious that they would be concerned about these issues, Biden, Soros and Yovanovitch, way back at -- it looks like the date timeframe is back in March of this year, so it was before she was removed.
…
HANNITY: But this wasn't even really an issue at the time, was it? I mean, we were focused on many other things at that time, if I recall, and, you know, not the least of which I guess was the pending Mueller report. When did the Mueller report come out?
FITTON: The Mueller report came out around the same time, but the noises about Biden and Ukraine began around that same timeframe. I should go back and check. So, you have to wonder why it is -- we don't know why these individuals such as you made it onto that list.
...
FITTON: This is why the coup's taking place against President Trump, because they want to freeze any investigation of these issues, both in Ukraine and in China. They're targeting Trump, they're targeting president -- his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani now, and you can see that they were nervous about what others were saying about it. It looks like, according to our reporting, from -- from you on down, and it's just an incredible list, and you know, the idea that you would have illegal monitoring of not only all these Fox News journalists, I'm sure all the other media are rushing to your defense, Sean -- but the president's lawyer and the president's son, it ought to be concerning that this abuse was taking place. This is -- to me, this is just another extension of spygate.
HANNITY: It is -- if we have the powerful tools of intelligence, and by the way, this is not the first time in all of this process, in all of our coverage that I have been told -- you know, I have to go about my daily life, what am I supposed to do -- that this type of thing has happened to me, and I know to others. So, then the question becomes at what point do the American people step up and say we can't live in a country that denies fundamental constitutional rights to people, like is happening here. Because to me, we lose the country if the powerful tools of intelligence are turned on the American people.
We saw that with the General Flynn case. I mean, what happened in his case is they knew the whole conversation that had taken place, because they had raw intelligence, he had been unmasked, and they had the information when McCabe's -- and Comey, Comey bragging about taking advantage of the chaos, which he'd never do in the Obama or Bush administration, sending his FBI guys in, and his partner, the deputy director of the FBI, McCabe, is saying you don't need a lawyer. Well, that would deny him his Miranda rights, on that issue alone the case should be thrown out. But then, they went into his office knowing the full conversation, because they had unmasked and surveilled him, and they had raw intelligence on the whole conversation. So, they were setting him up, and he was immediately in a perjury trap, without even the benefit of a lawyer to tell him "Maybe you should clam up, here."
FITTON: Well, it's -- Sean, they're trying to remove a president based on allegations from an anonymous source, who it looks like may have illicitly shared classified information with the investigator, Adam Schiff. It's -- it's -- it's just another -- it's another variation of the theme, of the civil rights of those who are targeted taking a backseat to this power politics where they abuse the rule of law to change political results. It's a constitutional crisis we're in, and it's not because of any misconduct by President Trump. It's because of the misconduct of those investigating him, who were purporting to be concerned about his activities.
HANNITY: Yeah. What do you think -- I know you work with a lot of lawyers, I know you're not a lawyer yourself, but what do you think is the legal recourse if in fact such illegality happens, to citizens, even people like myself as a public figure, do I have a right to -- for recourse, or a path for recourse, in something like this?
FITTON: Well, there could be potential violations of the privacy act, that's -- that's an easy call. The other law that covers this is the Smith-Mundt Act, which prohibits the US government from propagandizing Americans or targeting, and, or targeting them, the State Department especially. So, you know, talk to any civil rights lawyer. They'll probably provide you all sorts of other claims you could pursue, when the government is illegally targeting you with a spy operation, even if they are just tracking your public comments.
And, you know, I guarantee you, all your listeners will be very nervous to know if this -- that -- if the government was tracking what they were doing, and keeping a file on them, which is what purportedly may have been going on here, and we're just trying to figure out what the scope of it was and how far it went, but it's just disturbing it took place at all, because the government's not allowed to do that. It -- because obviously, it's a chilling effect, and the law doesn't allow it because it's a chilling effect.
One America News Network’s Jack Posobiec, who pushed the Pizzagate and Seth Rich conspiracy theories and has ties to white nationalists, covered Judicial Watch’s reporting on the network, highlighting his inclusion. Reporter Stephanie Myers commented that Posobiec now has his “guard up” because it’s “like Big Brother watching you” and called on Yovanovitch to be “held accountable for this unlawful monitoring.”
Citation From the October 16 edition of One America News Networks' OAN News
STEPHANIE MYERS (OAN ANCHOR): But first, Judicial Watch takes a look into former Ukrainian ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who allegedly ordered the monitoring of journalists and those tied to the Trump administration. One of those people named was One America's Jack Posobiec. Jack is live in Washington, D.C. to give us the details on the probe. Good morning, Jack.
JACK POSOBIEC (OANN): Hey, good morning Stephanie. So we're now learning of course from Judicial Watch and our own One American News sources at the White House and within the administration about this list. Now Maria Yovanovitch, she's the former ambassador, in terms of contacts, the former ambassador to the Ukraine that had been recalled by President Trump. She herself had been appointed by Barack Obama and was seen as a holdover from her administration. Now just last week she testified against President Trump behind closed doors as part of this impeachment inquiry with the Democrats, so we're not really hearing very much what came out of that. However just days later, we see this report from Judicial Watch naming a list, apparently a watch list, that she put together at the embassy but then also reached back to her colleagues at State Department headquarters asking for more resources into what the report describes as monitoring of the people on this list which include myself, a number of other journalists, Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, and the list goes on. I found my name to be right at the very top of it and so we're not sure exactly yet what exactly the scope of this monitoring was, whether or not it was simply following on their on-air reports and tweets or whether or not it included something further with government resources.
MYERS: Right, and you mentioned some of the other people, Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Guiliani, and again it's believed that Yovanovitch ordered the State Department to monitor those employees, including yourself, who may be allies of the president. What can you tell us about the investigation conducted by Judicial Watch?
POSOBIEC: So Judicial Watch so far has filed a Freedom of Information Act request. And we are gonna be following up as well with the privacy act requests -- for myself it's a privacy act request because it's actually records pertaining to myself that the government is holding. From sources that have reported back to Judicial Watch, they have essentially said that Marie Yovanovitch was looking for certain key words in reports or in tweets that she was tracking through the State Department, and having her own employees and members of the State Department track one of which, believe it or not was the word "Biden," which is very interesting because apparently this list may have been done as early as a year ago. So those of us who are covering this story, so One American News, we were certainly covering the story. I know I was making it certainly a highlight of my coverage. They've been noting that Joe Biden has had an issue, Hunter Biden has had an issue, for well over a year at this point. And that's something that even members of our own State Department were tracking it, certainly doesn't seem like something that was done in the course of official duties and unfortunately it smacks of the type of partisan political targeting that was done by members of the Barack Obama administration and now we're seeing hauled over into the Trump administration.
MYERS: I can only imagine, especially someone like you who was targeted, that you may have your guard up at this point and it's essentially like Big Brother watching you but can we expect Yovanovitch and other State Department officials who may have been involved in this to be held accountable for this unlawful monitoring?
JACK POSOBIEC: Well she's already been pulled from her State Department -- her at least ambassadorship post. She's still at the State Department but we would like to see -- I mean once the Freedom of Information Act request comes back out, I would certainly like to go to the House intelligence committee ,to the Senate intelligence committee to see if the lawmakers there -- and by the way in a bipartisan fashion because this shouldn't be something that's a partisan issue. The United States government should not be using state resources, national security resources for use against partisan political opponents. I myself was a former member of the intelligence community and believe me Stephanie, I would not dream of using any of those assets for my own personal gain.
MYERS: Yeah, we'll have to see if this is just the tip of the iceberg as more information unfollows. It almost seems like an onion and you're peeling back the layers so it's definitely an interesting development, especially since you were one of those names.
On The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham invited Fitton on to discuss his report. Ingraham claimed that Democrats' efforts to “note [Yovanitch's] deep integrity” were “a bit premature.” Fitton insisted he has it on “solid gold authority” that Yovanovitch “illegally” monitored conservative personalities.
Citation From the October 16 edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle:
LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): And last week, ousted US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified behind closed doors for ten hours. It was part of the impeachment star chamber against President Trump.
Now, most people didn't even know who she even was, but since she was there to hit Trump, the media and the Democrats were quick to note her deep integrity.
...
INGRAHAM: Well, it turns out that praise may be a bit premature. The group Judicial Watch is investigating whether prominent conservatives, including yours truly, were unlawfully monitored by the State Department in Ukraine.
Now, this was reportedly all done at the request of Yovanovitch herself. Joining me now, the man who first uncovered this, was Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. He is here with us now.
Tom, what's going on, what have you uncovered, what do we know?
TOM FITTON: Well, we understand that she had directed that a list of people, including you, Donald Trump Jr., the president's lawyer Rudy Giuliani --
INGRAHAM: I feel so special.
FITTON: Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, other Fox News contributors --
INGRAHAM: Okay, all the cool kids.
FITTON: -- Be tracked. She wanted to know, the staff wanted to know, the social media postings of what you were saying about Biden, Soros, Giuliani, and her.
INGRAHAM: Why so defensive, you think?
FITTON: Well, because this supposedly happened back in March when noise started happening about whether she was a never-Trumper, and whether she was improperly protecting that crowd.
INGRAHAM: So, people have to understand this, this is a U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine at the State Department, and you have it on -- is this solid gold authority, Tommy? Solid gold?
FITTON: Is sure is. I wouldn't be here if it weren't.
INGRAHAM: So, so we were -- I mean, I completely trust, you know -- make sure that she was ordering or requesting that we be tracked. Now, who did the tracking? Do we know?
FITTON: Well, the staff was doing it and evidently it was a big project and they asked the help of the State Department here in Washington, D.C., someone took the request in, looked at what was going on and said, "Wait, you can't be doing this."
...
INGRAHAM: I want to show the comment from March that might have triggered this on this show, from me, troublemaker always. Watch.
...
INGRAHAM: Well, she did get -- that was the first time I mentioned her.
FITTON: And around the same time, this list was generated, and it's an -- The concern is it is in violation of the law. The government can't be tracking people like this.
INGRAHAM: The liberals used to care about this. Going back to what I said in The Angle, liberals used to care about government police state-like behavior, deep state, endless wars. Do you see how they really are turned into these political pretzels by just their opposition to Trump. Like, nothing he does you could ever agree with, even a smidgen of it.
FITTON: And, you know, you are acting as a journalist, and your fellow journalists were also on this list. So, the left doesn't care that journalists were being targeted, according to our source, illegally, because you were critical of a U.S. official abroad.
INGRAHAM: What's the recourse? What's the recourse here? Any recourse?
FITTON: Well, the Privacy Act, you know, there are civil remedies, and frankly -- you know, look -- look who's being investigated. Wall Street Journal reports that Sessions gets a subpoena, the man who was sent a letter, Giuliani is being targeted. Violating the Privacy Act carries criminal penalties if you're found to have done it.
INGRAHAM: I think my D.C. bar license is still pretty active. Get a little pro bono, I will represent myself, so, no problem.
FITTON: Well, maybe we can do it, too. But we're suing, we're asking under FOIA, we want the -- more information, and I want to know whether Congress is going to look at this.
INGRAHAM: Spit out the email, we want the emails. They don't like turning over their emails. They hide the emails. Alright Tom, thank you for doing this, and thank you for finding out about the surveillance.