Fire Hydrant of Freedom
Politics, Religion, Science, Culture and Humanities => Politics & Religion => Topic started by: Body-by-Guinness on January 03, 2024, 08:44:35 AM
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This could likely be folded into an existing thread, but I’d like to start cataloging FBI-specific malfeasance as, it seems to me, they have morphed into a champions of the status quo as preferred by the Democratic Party, an organ of the Deep State, and generally an agency that regularly violates constitutional protections to political ends, as this piece demonstrates.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/01/03/the_fbi-tainted_whitmer_kidnap_plot_youve_heard_next_to_nothing_about_1001971.html
If anyone is aware of other posts re FBI malfeasance please pass ‘em on so I can add a link to ‘em here.
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I get your logic, but does this thread serve your purposes?
https://firehydrantoffreedom.com/index.php?topic=2385.msg69227#msg69227
BTW, nice find!
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I get your logic, but does this thread serve your purposes?
https://firehydrantoffreedom.com/index.php?topic=2385.msg69227#msg69227
BTW, nice find!
I'm seeing the FBI's heavy hand immersed in all sorts of various un-American efforts and so was hoping to develop a standalone compilation, but will certainly abide by the preferences of our esteemed global moderator....
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An aside: while laid up with my various medical travails I spent a lot of time checking out the offerings of various streaming services, which quickly latched on to my shoot-‘em-up predilections and started suggesting various TV shows, many of which had the term “FBI” in the title or subtitle. Indeed, there were so many I started counting ‘em and think I found close to two dozen across various services
This stuff doesn’t happen by accident. Sure, there are plenty of shows that introduce the FBI in a less than flattering light, but they don’t tend to have the term “FBI” in the title. Those that do tend to cast a positive light on this org. Indeed, I came to conclude there has to be some sort of effort out there to present FBI case files and fictional treatments thereof in a positive light. I’m willing to bet, in short, that somewhere in the bowels of some FBI edifice are some Hollywood types devoted to assisting and promoting series that present the agency in a positive light.
So we have a federal agency that recent events cast as a keeper of the Deep State status quo, one that appears to relentlessly self-promote via all these gee-whiz TV shows, a set of circumstances that, if I’m guessing correctly, give me the creeps. What could possibly go wrong with an agency with snoop powers the KGB, Stasi and the like could only dream of, one that time and again has defaulted to behaviors that support political ends of the Progressive side of the Democratic Party, that then seeks to airbrush their tainted reputation—they’ve had a lot of huge gaffes over the years from tainted crime labs to tainted agents—via a relentless barrage of aggrandizing propaganda?
Bottom line I suspect there are dots to be connected here, hence this effort to aggregate accounts of FBI misbehavior.
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Well, my concern is that we already have quite the volume of threads of fairly substantial specificity-- which often traps me into playing thread nazi haha.
For what it sounds like what you want to accomplish, may I suggest that you cull through the various material of FBI malfeasance on that thread and file them for your personal use as you see fit?
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Well, my concern is that we already have quite the volume of threads of fairly substantial specificity-- which often traps me into playing thread nazi haha.
For what it sounds like what you want to accomplish, may I suggest that you cull through the various material of FBI malfeasance on that thread and file them for your personal use as you see fit?
Well sure, assuming I can find them, which is why I was seeking a place to aggregate as, given the FBI’s role in the false Trump is a Russian stooge claims, FISA falsehoods and all the attendant constitutional questions arising there, various entrapment schemes (back in the day GM and I were at odds re several septuagenarians or something in Missouri or somewhere that got sucked into something similar I’ve since had trouble finding info regarding on the outcomes front), the FBI’s entanglements in the various impeachment boondoggles, this Michigan stuff, J6, et al there would seem to be a fair amount of material that’s out there, yet unassembled and hence not viewed in a manner where commonalities, patterns, players, etc. can be compared and commented on.
Then again a dime will get you a dollar if there ISN’T some federal stooge already tracking things here and noodling on some means to use it as a means of career advancement guised as legit law enforcement, applied in a one-sided manner albeit. Perhaps a thread thumbing its nose at the utter hypocrisy of it all might prove to be more than such a creature could bear….
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Well, you seem to have a sense of mission here so go for it on the condition that you double post them on the War on the Rule of Law thread as well :-)
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https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/06/04/fbi-cuffs-shackles-trump-adviser-peter-navarro-arrested-for-not-bowing-to-jan-6-committee-its-terrorism-its-coercion-1246085/
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Well, you seem to have a sense of mission here so go for it on the condition that you double post them on the War on the Rule of Law thread as well :-)
I certainly am annoyed that a putative premier law enforcement agency so often ends up with its tit in a wringer with few in the media connecting those dots. But yes, I’ll cross post.
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Marc,
Just a year ago, it was unfathomable to me that I would be writing this email. It’s a bit long, but I would ask you to read it in its entirety. I spent a lot of time writing it and did my best to make every word count.
I write it with great sadness and astonishment, sadness for our country which I hold so dear, and astonishment at Joe Biden’s desecration of the Oath of Office he took with his hand on the Bible in front of the world.
It has come to light that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has had 40 informants inside the Biden family over the past 15 years.
For 15 years, Credible Informants have been providing criminal information against the Biden’s to FBI Field Offices across the country, and for 15 years, everytime the information has been brought to FBI HQ, the leadership of the FBI shuts it down.
But it’s not just the FBI, it’s the Department of Justice as well.
I just heard sworn witness testimony that the Biden Bribery allegations on the FD-1023 Form were CREDIBLE, and that he referred the criminal matters originating from it to three separate U.S. Attorney’s offices in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Delaware for further investigation.
Then, just like at the FBI, nothing happened.
As I’ve been saying since I started this investigation; the allegations about Joe Biden are being covered up… because they are TRUE!
While words don’t have any meaning to the Left, they still mean something to me and the law in this country.
CONSPIRACY NOUN
con·spir·a·cy
An agreement between two or more people to commit an illegal act, along with an intent to achieve the agreement's goal.
The media loves to talk about how Republicans believe in “conspiracy theories” like the Russian-Collusion Hoax, the origins of COVID, and the Steele-Dossier… but they sure have been silent about the conspiracy at the highest levels of government to cover up the expansive criminal operation being run by the Biden Crime Family.
DEFEND COMER
It’s because they are complicit in the cover-up. I’ve said it before, and it’s more true today than ever before; I am facing down and exposing the rotten corruption of the most powerful and unholy triumvirate in American history, the Biden Family, the Federal Bureaucracy, and the Corporate Media.
They are hellbent on stopping my investigation and they are throwing everything they have at me.
I’ll be honest, it is brutal… but I’m a country boy from West Kentucky who was taught to stand up for what’s right, and who certainly doesn’t back down from a fight.
DEFEND COMER
I’ve only been able to weather the attacks with the support of patriotic Americans across the country, and I’m once again asking for your help to defend my good name as I delve deeper into the belly of the corrupt beast that is ravaging our country: THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY.
As Theodore Roosevelt said “Nothing worth having is easy” and having an honest government free of corruption is not just worth having, it’s the promise of America to all of her citizens.
If you’re with me, I’d be honored to have your support.
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second
Jack Smith is no straight shooter: It's no secret that Trump special prosecutor Jack Smith is a zealot. Indeed, as we noted earlier this week, he's both unscrupulous and unconstitutional. After all, it's not every lawyer who can boast that his legal tactics have been unanimously rebuked by the U.S. Supreme Court. More evidence of Smith's anti-Republican bias came to light this week when, as Fox News reports, we learned that one of his top prosecutors, Ray Hulser, "discouraged the FBI from pursuing an investigation into the Clinton Foundation in 2016 due to what he viewed as negligible evidence, despite multiple Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign transactions." According to the Durham report, three separate FBI field offices had opened investigations into the Clinton Foundation for possible criminal activity back in 2016, but, well, nothing to see here. Move along. And we trust this guy, Jack Smith, to give Donald Trump a fair shake?
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https://www.foxnews.com/media/fbi-took-86-million-safe-deposit-boxes-appeals-court-decide-constitutional
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https://notthebee.com/article/read-the-replies-to-the-fbi-brag-about-hunting-down-three-more-j6ers?utm_source=Not+The+Bee+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01092024
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second
https://firehydrantoffreedom.com/index.php?topic=1093.msg8479#msg8479
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second
https://firehydrantoffreedom.com/index.php?topic=1093.msg8479#msg8479
Thanks Marc.
At some point I will type in “FBI” as a search term here and see what all comes up, but with a semester about to start that’s not gonna happen anytime soon.
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The FBI’s Other Secret Warrant Abuses
More evidence that the bureau abuses the FISA court process.
By
The Editorial Board
Oct. 5, 2021 6:53 pm ET
Congress has failed to reform federal surveillance laws, despite the FBI’s 2016 abuse of a secret court to spy on the Trump presidential campaign. The latest report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on the FBI’s other surveillance abuses is more evidence of the need to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Mr. Horowitz’s 2019 report found the FBI had gulled the FISA court into letting it spy on former Trump aide Carter Page by presenting false information. The scandal inspired the Horowitz team to conduct a broader audit of FBI compliance, and the results are damning.
The FBI must abide by what are known as Woods Procedures that include a file supporting every factual assertion in a warrant application. As the IG notes, surveillance warrants are among the Justice Department’s “most intrusive investigative authorities” and must be “scrupulously accurate.”
The IG’s preliminary look last year into a sample of 29 wiretap applications said the FBI couldn’t locate Woods files for four applications, and the IG found errors in the remaining 25. As last week’s full report explains, the FBI and Justice have since acknowledged the 29 applications contained a total of 209 errors. These range from typographical (38) and date (42) errors, to unsupported facts (17), misidentified sources of information (15), and deviations from source documents (93).
The IG also found 209 examples in the 29 applications of the FBI failing to provide “adequate documentation to support factual assertions.” In all “there were over 400 instances of non-compliance with the Woods Procedures.”
Most alarming are the four errors that DOJ and the FBI admit were “material”—serious enough to have potentially changed the FISA court’s determination of “probable cause” to issue a warrant. The errors related to three applications in which the FBI omitted important or relevant information about targets, or provided outdated or unverified facts.
In response to the IG’s preliminary findings last year, the FBI reviewed more than 7,000 FISA applications from January 2015 to March 2020, and the IG reports that for 183 of them “the required Woods File was missing, destroyed, or incomplete.” This is supposed to be America’s premier law-enforcement body.
The IG criticizes an FBI culture that believes it is above the rules, and he devotes an entire section to spanking its leadership for its reaction to the 2020 preliminary findings. While FBI director Christopher Wray instituted some reforms, the agency minimized the findings with statements that “appeared to display a tolerance for error.”
No one has taken responsibility—including Mr. Wray, on whose watch many of these mistakes happened. He has proposed more reforms to the very (Woods) reforms instituted 20 years ago to improve FBI behavior. Sure.
Introducing the Constitution’s independent Article III judges into intelligence collection in the executive branch was always a mistake, as we wrote in the 1970s. The system dilutes accountability for wiretaps, letting the court and FBI blame each other for mistakes and political abuses like those in 2016.
Congress should abolish the FISA court and return authority to the law enforcement leaders making surveillance decisions. Then hold them accountable, including jail time for abuses.
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Increasingly looking like BBG was right to call for this thread!
https://notthebee.com/article/a-judge-just-ordered-the-release-of-group-of-men-framed-by-the-fbi-the-fbi-invented-the-conspiracy-identified-the-targets-manufactured-the-ordinance?utm_source=Not+The+Bee+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01232024
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https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/fbi-seizures-from-safe-deposit-boxes-violated-us-constitution-federal-court-5572946?utm_source=News&src_src=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2024-01-24-2&src_cmp=breaking-2024-01-24-2&utm_medium=email&est=ZyqufY8jygU54XVViGET%2F%2BE2LsoOvqjY5NWzxnzHvhrgDymhdXfy0ROoFChjJV0s%2B2x2
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https://redstate.com/streiff/2024/01/27/ninth-circuit-finds-fbi-search-resembled-those-that-led-to-adoption-of-the-fourth-amendment-n2169312
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Howie Carr slaps around some federal bitches and incompetents:
https://www.bostonherald.com/2024/01/27/howie-carr-this-is-your-fbi-thanks-to-dei/
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Marc suggested I use Qwant for a search engine. Plunked in “FBI entrapment cases) as I did before in DuckDuckGo, and got far more early returns, including this one:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/16/fbi-entrapment-fake-terror-plots
ETA: a couple more:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/sep/22/fbi-whistleblower-counterterrorism-cases-against-a/
https://theintercept.com/2023/06/15/fbi-undercover-isis-teenager-terrorist/
I’m digging Qwant.
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8-) 8-) 8-)
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A Spanking for the FBI
The Ninth Circuit rebukes the bureau for a lawless search and seizure.
By The Editorial Board
Feb. 7, 2024 6:36 pm ET
In 2021 the FBI raided a private safe-deposit company and seized more than $86 million in cash and valuables from people accused of no wrongdoing. At the time we called this a dangerous violation of their constitutional rights. It took three years, but a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed.
U.S. Private Vaults was a private business in Beverly Hills the government was investigating for money laundering and other things. The FBI had a warrant, but this didn’t authorize a search of individual safe deposit boxes. Agents were supposed to open the boxes only to identify owners and safeguard their property until it could be returned.
But the FBI overstepped, seizing the property of innocents along with criminals. As the Ninth Circuit noted, one of U.S. Private Vaults’s selling points was not asking customers too many questions—e.g., demanding a Social Security number—which made it attractive to drug dealers and other criminals. But that’s still no excuse for the FBI to overstep its authority and then invoke civil forfeiture to keep everything it found worth more than $5,000, all without charging anyone with a crime. A group of seven safe-deposit renters sued in what became a class action, represented by the Institute for Justice.
The district court found for the government, but the Ninth Circuit has now reversed. Judge Milan Smith Jr., said the government had opened the door to the “limitless searches of an individual’s personal belongings” that the British used in colonial America. This, the judge noted, “led to the adoption of the Fourth Amendment” and its protection against “unreasonable searches and seizures.”
If the FBI has evidence of something illegal, it can get a warrant. But the Ninth Circuit ruling is a welcome reminder that the government can’t go on a fishing expedition that snares the innocent with the guilty.
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Tennessee man who was working with militias planned to act as a sniper and attack Southern border, feds say
Paul Faye was arrested Monday after he allegedly sold an undercover agent working with the FBI an unregistered suppressor for an AK-47, according to federal court records.
Read in NBC News: https://apple.news/AM6mfhQMpTRGUhhPxOKZDhA
Jesse Waters ranted on this last night.
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Tennessee man who was working with militias planned to act as a sniper and attack Southern border, feds say
Paul Faye was arrested Monday after he allegedly sold an undercover agent working with the FBI an unregistered suppressor for an AK-47, according to federal court records.
Read in NBC News: https://apple.news/AM6mfhQMpTRGUhhPxOKZDhA
Jesse Waters ranted on this last night.
It'll be interesting to see what drips out here. I'd bet big money some sort of FBI informant was whispering in this guy's ear.
Again, be careful should someone start nudging you to commit, or talk about committing, a crime. It's clear to me the FBI is more about knocking down bowling pins they or people they work with have stood up at the end of the aisle. Don't be one of those pins.
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Can someone here track down Jesse's segment last night on this?
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Can someone here track down Jesse's segment last night on this?
\
My info junkie failings will be revealed: who is Jesse?
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Jesse Waters on FOX at 8 PM
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Jesse Waters on FOX at 8 PM
I was worried you were alluding to Ventura, in which case I was gonna suggest you take some of whatever hapless Joe is taking.
And hope it does a better job for you.
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:-D
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So a 13-year FBI "trusted informant" turns into a fabulist the moment it is politically useful ... for Democrats and the Deep State, as synonymous as those two terms are, while the MSM buries the lede:
https://archive.is/Y9iHg
Links to a WSJ opinion piece.
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Nice save on that WSJ piece. Worth posting on the Deep State thread to save for posterity additionally.
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https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/02/dirtbag_fbi_agent_charged_with_stealing_from_january_6_defendant.html
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And they can’t even blame Google AI:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/02/fbi-beclowns-itself-again-the-face-of-the-shoplifting-epidemic-is-rich-white-women/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fbi-beclowns-itself-again-the-face-of-the-shoplifting-epidemic-is-rich-white-women
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This one has it all, just about every unscrupulous tactic and willingness to turn a blind eye to certain crimes this thread is devoted to. The FBI's willingness to service the political need of the moment as well as the narrative foisted by the left are demonstrated throughout:
https://theintercept.com/2024/03/06/gretchen-whitmer-kidnapping-informant/
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Have not watched yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvTsTzMZIzE
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Director Wray testifies that the FBI abides by all legal requirements as he testifies in support of 702, the surveillance regimen that replaced the Patriot Act. Social media jumps in can corrects his lies:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2024/03/30/this-fbi-tweet-just-got-nuked-by-community-notes-n2637139?fbclid=IwAR1rh92TQfrLdYL1uMripGsKJmOWd83oS9PRaDLo7V4rVnWzcQ-l_QVkXuY
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https://amgreatness.com/2024/04/09/alleged-cia-officer-caught-on-camera-describing-how-intelligence-community-sets-up-regime-opponents/
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OUTRAGE: FBI Records Reveal Posthumous Criminal Investigation of Ashli Babbitt
I was astonished when I learned the details of the 62 pages of records Judicial Watch extracted from the Justice Department showing that the FBI opened a criminal investigation of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt after her killing and listed four “potential violations of federal law,” including felony rioting and civil disorder.
It is beyond belief that the Biden FBI gave Babbitt’s killer a free pass while engaging in a malicious months-long “criminal” investigation of Babbitt herself.
The records were produced in our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Justice Department and FBI for records related to the death of Ashli Babbitt (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:21-cv-02462)).
These records may also be responsive to a recent FOIA suit for the family for FBI files and potentially related to the $30 million wrongful death lawsuit we brought on behalf of the Babbitt family.
The unarmed Babbitt was shot and killed as she climbed into a broken interior window in the United States Capitol. The identity of the shooter was kept secret by Congress, the Justice Department, and DC police for eight months until former U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd went public to try to defend his killing of Babbitt.
The newly obtained records include a January 14, 2021, Electronic Communication indicating that eight days after Babbitt’s death, under “Case ID#: 176-SD-3367083 (U) Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt,” a posthumous investigation was initiated from San Diego, California:
Details:
Captioned investigation is being initiated based on photographic and video evidence that Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt unlawfully entered the United States Capitol Building, a Restricted Building, on 6 January 2021, in violation of federal laws to include violations of 18 U.S.C. Section 1752 and 40 U.S.C. Section 5104.
CDC [Chief Division Counsel] Approval
Field Office CDC has reviewed and concurred with the opening of this investigation. The investigation will be reviewed by the CDC at least semi-annually.
Summary of Predication:
***
Babbitt was fatally shot by police as she attempted to leap through the broken window of a door inside the Capitol…
Potential Violations of Federal Law:
Potential violations of federal criminal statutes include:
Title 18 U.S.C 231 Civil Disorder
Title 18 U.S.C 1752(a) Unlawful Entry - Restricted Building or Grounds
Title 18 U.S.C 2101 - Riots
Title 40 U.S.C 5104 - Injuries to property
(U) It is therefore requested that a [redacted] case be opened and assigned to Special Agent [Redacted]
A January 7, 2021, Electronic Communication regarding Babbitt following her shooting death the previous day reports that during the protests two “subjects” were shot at the Capitol that day:
Multiple officers were injured during the incident and two subjects were shot, with one fatal injury…. Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt, a San Diego resident, was present in D.C. on January 6, 2021, and entered the United States Capitol building where she was fatally shot. Babbitt was an Air Force veteran.
An FBI Interview Report Form FD-302 dated April 23, 2021, indicates FBI agents interviewed a witness by telephone on April 15 who provided background information on Babbitt:
In 2008, Babbitt transitioned to the Air Force Reserve at Sheppard Air Force Base but continued to serve on active duty orders. In 2009, [Redacted] and Babbitt [redacted] where Babbitt continued to serve out the remainder of her career in either the Reserves of Air National Guard at Andrews Air Force Base. At one point Babbitt transitioned Military Occupational Specialties to serve as a mechanic, but ultimately returned to Security Forces. According to [Redacted] Babbitt was excellent at her job and [redacted].
Babbitt deployed several times throughout her service. In 2005, Babbitt deployed to Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan. In 2006, Babbitt was deployed to Camp Bucca in southern Iraq which served as a Theater Internment facility. In approximately 2012-2014, Babbitt deployed to the United Arab Emirates. Babbit did not suffer any physical or mental injuries stemming from her deployments and [redacted]. While stationed in Alaska, Babbitt did suffer from a torn meniscus [a common knee injury] which had occurred while she was previously stationed in Texas. While deployed to Camp Bucca, Babbitt did fly to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait [redacted].
[Redacted] characterized Babbitt as very outgoing, opinionated, loud, very intelligent, loyal, sweet, very loving and caring. At times, Babbitt was not a fan of her chain of command and made her views known. Babbitt was a leader rather than a follower and liked being her own boss. Consequently, she was happy running her pool company in California. Babbitt loved her family and loved her country.
***
[Redacted] judged that she likely did not know the risk of passing through the window. Babbitt would never “go after someone physically” according to [redacted].
[Redacted] was not aware of Babbitt’s political views as she was not political [redacted]. [Redacted] did know that Babbitt had voted for President Obama. [Redacted] did not know if Babbitt belonged to any political groups or organizations. [Redacted] was frustrated by media portrayals of Babbitt as being associated with white nationalists, which was not accurate.
A January 19, 2021, entry into the file indicates that two people were shot at the Capitol on January 6: “Multiple officers were injured during the incident and two subjects were shot, with one fatal injury.”
A separate record dated January 19 indicates that “information from a public tip” was submitted to the FBI related to Babbitt that was submitted through the fbi.gov/uscapitol online portal. The description of the information submitted is redacted.
A January 20 record regarding a “public tip” is titled “Upload of Digital Media Report,” however, the substance of the report is redacted.
A report dated January 21 indicates a tip had been submitted to the FBI’s web portal, but the information is redacted.
A January 29 FBI witness interview summary indicates that on January 23, 2021, two FBI agents interviewed an acquaintance of Babbitt, however, the substance of what the witness said is entirely redacted.
An Electronic Communication dated January 29 indicates that FBI agents from the San Diego office interviewed another acquaintance of Babbitt on January 18, but the substance of what that person said is also entirely redacted.
We are extensively investigating the events of January 6.
We recently were pleading in court for the denial of the U.S. Government’s request to transfer the Ashli Babbitt wrongful death lawsuit from California to Washington, DC. Among other legal points, we argue that it would prejudice the case and be unjust for Ashli’s family if it were transferred to the hostile forum of District of Columbia.
In January 2024, we filed a FOIA lawsuit on behalf of Aaron Babbitt and the Ashli Babbitt Estate against the U.S. Department of Justice for all FBI files on Ashli Babbitt.
In October 2023, we received the court-ordered declaration of James W. Joyce, senior counsel in the Office of the General Counsel for the Capitol Police, in which he describes emails among senior officials of the United States Capitol Police in January 2021 that show warnings of possible January 6 protests that could lead to serious disruptions at the U.S. Capitol.
In September 2023, we received records from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, a component of the Department of Justice, in a FOIA lawsuit that detailed the extensive apparatus the Biden Justice Department set up to investigate and prosecute January 6 protestors.
A previous review of records from that lawsuit highlighted the prosecution declination memorandum documenting the decision not to prosecute U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd for the shooting death of Babbitt.
In January 2023, documents from the Department of the Air Force, Joint Base Andrews, MD, showed U.S. Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd was housed at taxpayer expense at Joint Base Andrews after he shot and killed U.S. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In November 2021, we released multiple audio, visual and photo records from the DC Metropolitan Police Department about the shooting death of Babbitt on January 6, 2021, in the U.S. Capitol Building. The records included a cell phone video of the shooting and an audio of a brief police interview of the shooter, Byrd.
In October 2021, United States Park Police records related to the January 6, 2021, demonstrations at the U.S. Capitol showed that on the day before the January 6 rally featuring President Trump, U.S. Park Police expected a “large portion” of the attendees to march to the U.S. Capitol and that the FBI was monitoring the January 6 demonstrations, including travel to the events by “subjects of interest.”
Judicial Watch will continue to work to ensure justice for Ashli Babbitt and her family in the months ahead. This latest release detailing FBI abuse of her memory only spurs us on!
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This could go a number of places, but given that the FBI is threatening the people revealing this apparent Chinese penetration into electoral databases and research center I'm dropping it in. Could this, perchance, reflect a quid for Biden's numerous Chinese pro quos?
Note: these X posts are graphics heavy and hence this piece should be viewed in the oringal, which starts here:
https://x.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1666490357469822976
KanekoaTheGreat
@KanekoaTheGreat
KONNECH #1🚨: Evidence shockingly suggests that the FBI is shielding two firms closely tied to the Chinese government, which have financed and developed an American election software company for the past 15 years, all while transferring confidential election data back to China.
2) Konnech has provided election administration and logistics software to many prominent cities and counties in the United States, including:
•Alameda County, California
•Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
•Contra Costa County, California
•Denver, Colorado
•Detroit, Michigan
•Fairfax County, Virginia
•Hillsborough County, Florida
•Maron County, Indiana
•Los Angeles, California
•San Francisco, California
•Santa Clara County, California
•St. Louis County, Missouri
•Travis County, Texas
•Washington, D.C.
3) On August 13, 2022, Catherine Engelbrecht (
@truethevote
) and Gregg Phillips (
@onwardsocial
) convened a group of researchers to discuss how the FBI's headquarters had betrayed them following a 15-month investigation into Konnech's storage of American election data on Chinese servers. The data involved various sensitive information, including:
•Name, DOB, SSN, Address
•Phone, Email, Bank Account
•Voting Machine Passwords
•Thumb Drive Passwords
•Voter Registration Rolls
•Provisional Ballot Serial Numbers
•RFID Tags On Voting Equipment
•Election Building Schematics
•And More...
"You'd be startled to know that this server lives on the main Unicom backbone in China. And it's in a Chinese University in Wuhan, China. I'm not talking about this just being a storage place for data process here.
The app server for this particular application was in China... We're confronted with the fact that everything there was to know about elections in America, and in key counties in key cities, was in this server in Wuhan, China... So what do you do with this information?
Well, we went to the FBI because this was a matter of national security. And, they agreed. So, we started working with the local FBI community. From January of 2021 until April of 2022, the FBI opened up a significant counterintelligence operation on this.
The problem with it was that it wasn't just American information. It was Australian information. It was Canadian information, it was Mexican information. And we ultimately found out that the CCPs own elections are on this same server set in that university...
Everyone involved on the counter intelligence teams at the Bureau agreed on one thing, this software, this penetration, and this opening was a significant national security threat...
So two weeks before the 2000 Mules movie came out, I get a call from an agent and he says this has risen now to the level of a national security threat and headquarters has gotten involved. I don't know who he was referring to, but he said two women saw the case differently, and felt as though we were the criminals.
They had instructed the Detroit FBI office to notify Konnech that we had breached their firewalls, none of which is true... We later found out they were accusing me of stealing three servers from the Chinese Unicom backbone and having illegal possession of American private information.
And they were shopping that around to the other agencies that would be involved NSA, CIA and others. Trying to get somebody to pick up on this so that they could come Roger Stone me...
But the challenge we all have is this software is still in place... When you dig into Konnech's CEO Eugene Yu, in particular the other URLs that he owns, it will take you to the underlying URL that runs the Chinese Communist Party's elections.
It lives on that server, on that same URL address and that URL is owned by Eugene Yu."
https://open.ink/konnech
4) In 2002, Konnech CEO Eugene Yu was an "officer" on the "finance committee" of a Chinese foundation that flew Professor Charles Lieber, the head of Harvard’s Chemistry Department, to Zhejiang University to give a speech on “Nanotech in Today’s World.”
This discovery was made in a Chinese magazine entitled "Overseas Scholars," written by the China Association for Science and Technology in the United States (CAST-USA) and the American Zhu Kezhen Education Foundation (AZKEF).
CAST is a transnational organization and constituent member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), whose stated mission is to “maintain close ties with millions of Chinese scientists, engineers and other people working in the fields of science and technology” and to operate as “the bridge linking Chinese science and technology community with the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government,” according to organization’s archived “About Us” webpage.
In 2003, CAST established the Help Our Motherland through Elite Intellectual Resources from Overseas Program (HOME) in concert with the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party to recruit overseas science and technology talent to transfer technology and intellectual property back to China.
The CPPCC’s role in channeling overseas science and technology knowledge toward China’s development has grown since a 2013 directive from General Secretary Xi Jinping to focus on incentivizing overseas Chinese to contribute their technical skills and expertise to China’s national rejuvenation.
By 2020, a United States congressional body warned that the Chinese government has built a “sprawling ecosystem of structures, programs, and incentives to coopt and exploit overseas experts for the science and technology they acquire abroad.”
“Chinese leaders have long viewed advanced science and technology (S&T) as key to China’s comprehensive national power and sought to acquire it through licit and illicit means from developed countries like the United States,” the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) said in the report.
“This ecosystem sponsors promising Chinese students and scholars at the U.S. and other foreign universities, incentivizes their return to China for the long term, and employs transnational organizations to channel S&T know-how from those remaining abroad back to mainland China.”
The U.S. Senate report continues:
“Many programs associated with Beijing’s S&T transfer ecosystem—including scholarships to study abroad, talent recruitment plans, and entrepreneurship parks—contribute to China’s military-civil fusion strategy by collecting specific technologies and know-how that improve the capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and advance the goals” of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
“This ecosystem sponsors promising Chinese students and scholars to study at foreign universities, incentivizes or requires their return to China in exchange for this support, and recruits researchers via hundreds of talent programs. Moreover, it integrates Chinese students and scholars remaining abroad with organizations that facilitate the transfer of S&T back to the Mainland, where it can be exploited by the PLA, government ministries, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), state-run laboratories, and startups.”
“Even when overseas Chinese students and scholars do stay in the United States after graduation, China’s transnational technology transfer organizations and talent recruitment plans provide a means to contribute to China’s national rejuvenation by transferring technology and know-how without requiring physical return.”
In the magazine, CAST-USA refers to Eugene Yu by his Chinese name YU Jianwei (于建伟), and says that he is an “officer” on the “finance committee” of the American Zhu Kezhen Education Foundation. The foundation’s mission is “to promote exchange and cooperation between Zhejiang University and universities in the United States” and “invite United States professors or scientists to Zhejiang University.”
In 2020, Prof. Charles Lieber was arrested for concealing his funding from the Wuhan University of Technology and participating in China’s Thousand Talents Program.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Bill Priestap, the former Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, stated that China’s talent recruitment plans are effective “brain gain programs” that “encourage theft of intellectual property from U.S. institutions.”
Priestap continued, “For example, China’s talent recruitment plans, such as the Thousand Talents Program, offer competitive salaries, state-of-the-art research facilities, and honorific titles, luring both Chinese overseas talent and foreign experts alike to bring their knowledge and experience to China, even if that means stealing proprietary information or violating export controls to do so.”
Eugene Yu was an “officer” on the “finance committee” of a Chinese foundation in the United States tasked with flying professors like Charles Lieber to China. This discovery was made in a China Association for Science and Technology in the United States magazine entitled “Overseas Scholars.”
Similarly to how the U.S. congressional report described CAST’s overseas science and technology acquisition efforts, AZKEF keeps a list of talented overseas Chinese students, offers incentives for prominent scientists to fly to China, and focuses on bridging Zhejiang University with universities in the United States.
https://archive.ph/OFVCf
https://web.archive.org/web/20011119103624/http://www.azkef.org/
https://web.archive.org/web/20031220030107/http://azkef.org:80/programs.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20030402092120/http://azkef.org:80/lecture2002.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20140206035502/http://english.cast.org.cn/n1181872/n1257426/47099.html
https://uscc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-10/Overseas_Chinese_Students_and_Scholars_in_Chinas_Drive_for_Innovation.pdf
5) On November 29, 2005, Eugene Yu, also known as YU Jianwei (于建伟), established a shadow subsidiary named Jinhua Yulian Network Technology Co., Ltd. (金华宇联网络科技有限公司) in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, China, two years after founding Konnech in the United States.
6) On January 25, 2006, Jinhua Yulian Network was accepted into the Entrepreneurship Service Center at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Jinhua Science and Technology Park.
The Chinese government has funded and overseen the development of Konnech's American election software ever since.
https://web.archive.org/web/20090413172501/http://www.jhcy.cn/yqqy.asp?page=3
7) On February 25, 2006, Eugene Yu registered the website domain "http://yu-lian.cn" for Jinhua Yulian Network with the email address eyu@konnech.com.
https://archive.is/YaRv1#
8) On http://yu-lian.cn, Eugene Yu wrote in Chinese that he provides election software "with Chinese characteristics" to various levels of the Chinese government, including the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
https://web.archive.org/web/20131207150515/http://yu-lian.cn/Services.html
9) On http://yu-lian.cn, Eugene Yu praised "Comrade Jiang Zemin" and emphasized Konnech's philosophy of prioritizing "political tasks first, and economic benefits second."
He highlighted his success stories of "Election Management, Detroit" and "US Overseas Voters."
The entire website was written in Chinese.
https://web.archive.org/web/20131207151051/http://yu-lian.cn/Case.html
10) In December 2006, Konnech announced on Facebook that they had partnered with Michigan State University and the Confucius Institute to build, http://ChineseBrief.com, an "interactive communication platform and Chinese language learning tool."
https://web.archive.org/web/20120729201212/http://www.confucius.msu.edu/news.htm
11) On July 18, 2007, Eugene Yu posted an ad on the Chinese Academy of Sciences Jinhua Science and Technology Park's website, offering "5 million yuan" for developing "software packages" for Jinhua Yulian Network and http://konnech.com.
In 2007, 5 million yuan was worth around $700,000 and was the prize money offered by the Chinese government to members of the Thousand Talents Program and other elite overseas entrepreneurs.
https://web.archive.org/web/20131019061139/http://www.jhcy.cn/jsnt_detail.asp?id=16
12) The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is a national think tank with extensive research facilities and over 50,000 researchers. CAS has been linked to Chinese military, nuclear, and cyber espionage programs.
The U.S. Department of Defense acknowledges the CAS as China's leading academic institution for comprehensive research and development.
CAS and its affiliated companies are involved in developing AI initiatives, hypersonic spaceplanes, robotic submarines, and missile technology for the Chinese military.
The Justice Department has indicted several individuals associated with CAS for their roles in transferring trade secrets and military technology from U.S. companies through Chinese overseas talent programs.
In October 2002, the Jinhua Science and Technology Park became the first collaboration between the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and a prefecture-level government.
The Chinese government has built more than 150 "Overseas Chinese scholar pioneering parks" in the hearts of 54 "National New and High Technology Development Zones."
These ultra-modern facilities were designed for returning specialists to "incubate" (find commercial or military applications for) technologies acquired overseas as part of China's strategy of "serving in place" that allows Chinese scholars to stay abroad while transferring foreign technology back home.
https://uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/Interos_Supply%20Chain%20Vulnerabilities%20from%20China%20in%20U.S.%20Federal%20ICT_final.pdf
https://media.defense.gov/2019/May/02/2002127082/-1/-1/1/2019_CHINA_MILITARY_POWER_REPORT.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20100628161736/http://www.jhkjy.ac.cn/about/index.asp
13) Jinhua Yulian Network's initial address was located at No. 988 Shuanglong South Street, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, China, which is situated 500 meters away from the Jinhua People's Government building (No. 801 Shuanglong South Street) and across the street from the Jinhua Science and Technology Bureau (No. 828 Shuanglong South Street).
14) The Jinhua Science and Technology Park (JHTP) offers Chinese government-funded support to domestic and overseas enterprises, including financial assistance, living facilities, server hosting, internet access, university partnerships, technology transfers, research assistance, and patent support.
In 1988, the State Council launched the Ministry of Science and Technology’s national Torch Program to speed up the nation’s “science and technological industrialization.”
In 2005, the Ministry of Science and Technology awarded JHTP the distinction of a national-level technology business incubator.
In 2006, JHTP was granted 3 million yuan by the Ministry of Science and Technology through China's national Torch Program to establish the Park's Internet Data Center, where Jinhua Yulian Network would develop, test, and maintain Konnech's American election software.
https://web.archive.org/web/20091017113128/http://www.jhcy.cn/yqgk_01.asp?flag=%B7%FE%CE%F1%B9%A6%C4%DC&lmbm=2405&lmmc=%B7%FE%CE%F1%B9%A6%C4%DC&url=yqgk_01.asp
https://web.archive.org/web/20090413171900/http://www.jhcy.cn/cxzt_01.asp
http://jhcy.cn/jhkjy/town_details/28.html
http://jhcy.cn/jhkjy/town_details/50.html
15) A 2008 Chinese document titled "International Elite Entrepreneurship Modern Service Outsourcing" reveals that Eugene Yu worked for the Chinese government as a Project Manager of the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone (GETDZ) from 1983 until 1985.
The document features 46 Chinese high-tech companies operating overseas and describes Konnech as an "Intelligent Web Communications" company with the mission of becoming "one of the top 50 e-commerce service providers for schools and government in the United States within 10 years.”
The document mentions Konnech's Chinese venture fund and describes the company's goal of developing advanced technology in cooperation with Zhejiang University:
“The company will enter a phase of rapid development after the implementation of the venture fund in Wuzhong.”
"In terms of specialized technology, we have been developing and hiring technical personnel with expertise in the field in a rapid manner by utilizing the role of corporate and university professors and graduate classes for project development, with the aim of receiving advanced applied technology."
"... it is an indisputable fact that many cutting-edge products come from American university campuses. We must take the corresponding path and cooperate with American universities and Zhejiang University and other domestic institutions to focus on the development of applied technologies and the application-oriented development of specialized technologies."
The document describes the problems facing the U.S. market, citing “expensive software programming fees and talent shortages” and reduced “funding for IT projects” before concluding, “In this environment, the role of our China branch is fully demonstrated.”
When Eugene Yu’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss his criminal case in California, they included a section entitled FACTUAL BACKGROUND that says he “worked in various locations” after he graduated from Zhejiang University and before he was accepted into Wake Forest University.
However, it failed to mention his prior employment as a Project Manager in the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, where he worked in the Industrial Project Negotiation Department and "completed the introduction of several major projects":
"Eugene Yu was born and raised in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, China. In 1974, as part of China’s cultural revolution, Mr. Yu was sent to a communal farm where he labored for four years in squalor conditions. In 1977, after Chairman Mao died, Mr. Yu scored high on a nationwide test, qualifying him for admission to study engineering at Zhejiang University.
After graduating from college, he was sent to work in various locations in China. Mr. Yu then met and married his wife Donna Wang. In 1986, Mr. Yu and Dr. Wang were accepted to graduate school programs at Wake Forest University, where Mr. Yu obtained his MBA degree."
Since the launch of the GETDZ in 1984, China has established 219 national-level Economic and Technological Development Zones (ETDZs), which helped launch China’s rise to a global economic superpower.
In order to promote science and technology-intensive industries, ETDZs offer financial incentives and preferential policies that target domestic and overseas enterprises focused on manufacturing, scientific, and technological industries.
Two decades later, Eugene Yu would return to China to launch his company Jinhua Yulian Network Technology Co., Ltd. (金华宇联网络科技有限公司) in the Jinhua Economic and Technological Development Zone (JETDZ).
https://max.book118.com/html/2012/0222/1126480.shtm
https://cbbc.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/China-Britain%20Business%20Council%20-%20In%20the%20Zone%20-%20A%20Comprehensive%20Guide%20to%20China%E2%80%99s%20Economic%20and%20Technological%20Development%20Zones%20-%20October%202020.pdf
https://documentcloud.org/documents/2317
16) On January 4, 2011, Lin Yu, a managing supervisor at Jinhua Yulian Network, established Jinhua Red Date Software Co., Ltd., also known as Jinhua Jujube Software Co., Ltd.
On January 16, 2011, Konnech registered the domain reddatesoft[.]com with the email eyu@konnech.com.
Jinhua Red Date Software and Jinhua Yulian Network shared the same address at No. 1583 Binhong Road, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province.
Jinhua Yulian Network's website included "Jinhua Red Date Software Co., Ltd." and "reddatesoft[.]com" in its copyright statement.
Peter McCallister, the General Manager of Konnech Australia, later affirmed in an affidavit that Lin Yu is Eugene Yu's older brother and a Chinese national.
(Note: The modified domain URL "reddatesoft[.]com" is used because of safety concerns with the URL raised by Twitter.)
https://web.archive.org/web/20220822014930/https://www.11467.com/jinhua/co/273669.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20130718125224/http://yu-lian.cn/
17) On April 13, 2015, Lin Yu established Jinhua Hongzheng Technology Co., Ltd. (金华鸿正科技有限公司) in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China.
Lin Yu (Eugene Yu's brother) owned 99.4% of the company.
Jun Yu (Eugene Yu's nephew) and Guojun Shao, who co-invented a Konnech patent with Eugene Yu, were among the other equity holders.
Jinhua Yulian Network later transferred a voting patent, co-invented with a Zhejiang University professor, to Jinhua Hongzheng Technology. In a future thread, there will be a detailed discussion about Konnech's patents, employees, and the involvement of this professor.
18) Jinhua Hongzheng Technology provides election administration software, including web and mobile applications, to more than 430 National People's Congresses across over 20 provinces.
The company has established partnerships with Huawei, Lenovo, China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and the highest levels of the Chinese government.
19) On July 31, 2015, Eugene Yu registered the website domain "hongzhengtech[.]cn" for Jinhua Hongzheng Technology using the email address admin@konnech.com.
As a result, Konnech held significant control over a company that provides election administration software to the highest levels of the Chinese government.
Shortly after Catherine Engelbrecht (
@truethevote
) and Gregg Phillips (
@onwardsocial
) exposed Konnech's connection to China's National People's Congress, the domain registration email address was changed to jiadeng@hongzhengtech.com.
(Note: The modified domain URL "hongzhengtech[.]cn" is used because of safety concerns with the URL raised by Twitter.)
https://web.archive.org/web/20220824173140/https://whois-history.whoisxmlapi.com/lookup-report/AVkvG34MR7
20) In a September 1, 2022, live chat, Catherine Engelbrecht (
@truethevote
) and Gregg Phillips (
@onwardsocial
) discussed the FBI's betrayal, Konnech programming software for China's National People's Congress, and the company's storage of U.S. election data on Chinese servers.
In January 2021, Phillips said that the cyber analyst he had been working with encountered an “oddity in some of the URLs” such as http://vote4la.com, http://vote4detroit.com, and http://vote4boston.com, which Konnech’s “PollChief” software application used to gather personally-identifying information about poll workers.
Using Binary Edge, a software product companies use to identify and assess the risk of cyber breaches, “We began to look at where these URLs resolve to.
We found that most of them resolve to one I.P. address and that I.P. address — the URL resolved in China,” Phillips said. “What we also learned in our review, http://apps.konnech.net, resolved into this same URL in China, meaning that the application itself was residing in China,” he continued.
“In Binary Edge, you can figure out what type of database they are using, their database port, and all the different services offered by ports in this particular application living in China. It turned out that not only did it live there, but they left the database open.”
This database “stored the personally identifying information of over a million Americans,” he emphasized. Engelbrecht and Phillips decided that “this was a major national security risk” and immediately took the information to the FBI.
When Engelbrecht and Phillips took this information to the FBI, the FBI “said the information was forwarded to their counter-intelligence operation, and a counter-intelligence op was opened up in January or February of 2021,” Phillips said.
Phillips described how he and Engelbrecht played an active role in the FBI’s operation, “They engaged us in the operation, they were communicating with us on a regular basis. They were communicating with Catherine regarding communications with the target and this went on for approximately 15 months.”
Phillips and Engelbrecht noted that the field office they worked with for those 15 months was “legitimate” and not “political law enforcement.”
“These were legitimate people who believed that this software posed a national security risk to the United States of America and they were working with us closely to try to stop this from being in place during the midterms,” Phillips said.
“The focus point was always we needed to remove this software from the election, but taking a step further, there were a lot of other concerns that the bureau had.”
In April 2022, Engelbrecht received a call from one of the FBI agents, who informed her that the FBI’s “Washington D.C. headquarters” was now involved in the investigation.
Engelbrecht described how everything changed after this call, “There was no more goodwill, there was no more let's work together, the script had been flipped, and now we were the target,” she said. “That was a very disturbing call.”
The agent informed Engelbrecht that “two women” at the FBI’s headquarters believed that Phillips and Engelbrecht were “in the wrong for doing this” and that the D.C. office was now trying “to figure out how you guys broke the law to find all of this.”
Engelbrecht added, “which of course we didn't, but that was kind of their Modus Operandi, they were going to try to pin something on us, and today you can pick your headlines about how the FBI has done this time and again.”
Phillips remarked, “The problem is they know about this, and they chose to do nothing. They chose to investigate it, and in the end, they chose to blame us, but this is China. These are Chinese operatives in the United States; these are Chinese citizens who are programming this.”
Engelbrecht explained how the FBI agents initially hoped they could persuade the Washington D.C. office to do the right thing, “Our contacts were saying we are going to try and smooth this out, but as the days clicked on, they re-contacted us and one of them said you may need to be ready to — his term was to use the nuclear option and go to the press,” she said.
With the FBI no longer interested in pursuing Konnech, Englebrecht and Phillips organized an event for Saturday, August 13th in Arizona called “the Pit” where they brought together about two hundred “researchers, independent journalists, and big thinkers” to share their story.
“We asked the people in attendance for help, we didn't know what the FBI's plans were for us, we didn't know if we didn't speak this publicly if we would ever have the chance to, but we felt like our best chance was to share this with people we trusted who had the wherewithal to get the word out,” Englebrecht said.
She continued, “There have been so many great things that have happened since that event, but one of the greatest, was this community that came out shoulder to shoulder saying let’s dig this, let's see how much more information we can find.”
“The quality of research that has been done to supplement what we already had and to corroborate what we already had has been incredible.”
Phillips added, “This is some of the best research I have ever seen. The quality of it, the depth of it, we were with a prosecutor the other day and we had an opportunity to share some of this information with them.”
He continued, “There's likely going to be a grand jury convened here in the next week or so. It's supported by not just the research that my team OPSEC did for Catherine and True the Vote, but by the research of one of the best research teams I've ever seen come together.”
“The data and research all stand on their own.”
https://truethevote.locals.com/post/2664780/the-tiger-project
21) On September 12, 2022, Konnech filed a defamation lawsuit against Catherine Engelbrecht (
@truethevote
) and Gregg Phillips (
@onwardsocial
), accusing them of spreading baseless "conspiracy theories" and engaging in "racism and xenophobia."
Konnech denied any affiliation with the Communist Party of China and stated that they had never stored American election data on servers in China.
The legacy media echoed Konnech's claims against
@TrueTheVote
and
@onwardsocial
without conducting any examination of the company's connections to Jinhua Yulian Network, Jinhua Hongzheng Technology, or China's National People's Congress.
22) In an unusual move, U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Hoyt issued an ex-parte temporary restraining order in favor of Konnech without providing an opportunity for
@TrueTheVote
and
@OnwardSocial
to respond to the complaint.
Furthermore, Judge Hoyt immediately ordered them to disclose the identities of all individuals involved in their investigation of Konnech at the outset of the trial, prior to the discovery phase.
Failure to comply would result in the imprisonment of Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips for contempt of court.
23) On October 4, 2022, Eugene Yu, the CEO of Konnech, was arrested by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office for storing the data of American election workers on servers in China.
Deputy District Attorney Eric Neff described the scale of the data breach as "astounding," suggesting that it could be "the largest data breach in United States history."
Prosecutors alleged that Konnech employees shared the personal information of Los Angeles election workers with third-party software developers in China, who were involved in creating and fixing Konnech's software called PollChief.
Furthermore, software developers in China had "super administration access" to PollChief software and confidential election data from the United States.
https://truethevote.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/eugene-yu-complaint-101322.pdf
24) On October 5, 2022, during Eugene Yu's bond hearing, his attorney contended that he posed no risk of fleeing as he had been actively cooperating with the FBI for the preceding month, and his arrest had taken the agency by surprise.
However, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office argued that Yu presented a substantial flight risk due to his strong business ties in China.
Additionally, the prosecution raised concerns about the suspicious nature of Yu's arrest, noting that he was taken into custody without his cell phone while on his way to the airport.
25) On October 28, 2022,
@TrueTheVote
and
@OnwardSocial
submitted an affidavit containing approximately 10% of their text messages exchanged with FBI Agents in Detroit and San Antonio, supporting their claim of working with the FBI on a 15-month "counter-intelligence operation" against Eugene Yu, prior to the involvement of FBI headquarters in Washington D.C.
The text messages included conversations with the following individuals:
-Special Agent Bruce Fowler, Detroit
-SA Huy Nguyen, San Antonio
-SA Kevin McKenna, San Antonio
-SA Kristina Spindel, San Antonio
In one text message exchange, Fowler provided his FBI email address and mentioned receiving three thumb drives from the San Antonio office. He asked Engelbrecht to guide him on where to find information on those drives.
In another text message exchange, Engelbrecht asked for the name of an agent in Georgia. Nguyen responded that he would provide the name later, but “in the meantime, you can tell them that you filed the complaint with SA Huy Nguyen and SA Kevin McKenna with San Antonio Division.”
In another exchange, Engelbrecht texted Nguyen, stating:
"I wanted to let you know that we took the nuclear option and went public (in a very limited way, but nonetheless we did it). Konnech quickly filed a civil suit against us in Houston federal court and got an ex parte [temporary restraining order].
Part of the TRO required that we name who we’d gotten the election worker data from, same person who’d provided it to you. We gave the court the name under seal. Our attorney also notified the Houston FBI office, where the case was filed.
I’m very concerned about everyone’s safety at this point. Please do whatever possible to help ensure that name never comes out. I can provide you with whatever you may need."
Nguyen did not respond to Engelbrecht’s text. According to further texts provided by Engelbrecht, she reached out to “KayKay,” saying she hoped to talk, in person, if possible.
“KayKay” replied that she was on a temporary assignment out of state until January and asked if Engelbrecht still had Nguyen’s number. Engelbrecht then explained that she had “called and written him but no response.”
The text then explained: “We have been drug into a vicious lawsuit filed against us by Konnech.” “Our attorneys have contacted the FBI and been told that the Bureau has no interest in engaging with the court in order to maintain confidentiality.”
Engelbrecht added that she, Phillips, and “the researcher who originally provided us the data” are being “doxed,” and that it’s “a very serious situation and we’ve been left to hang.”
Engelbrecht then noted, “Yu has already been indicted by a Grand Jury and arrested,” but they “continue to hear chatter that the FBI is working with Konnech, against us, and still trying to accuse us of crimes we did not commit.”
The True the Vote founder then noted that “what Bobby said on the phone that day in April 22 (when you were reading the yearly CI disclaimer to me) has gone into full overdrive.” She added: “I also now believe Gregg and I have been set up. It’s appalling, heartbreaking, and wrong.”
https://thefederalist.com/2022/11/18/in-this-untold-story-of-poll-worker-data-chinese-servers-and-scandal-only-the-fbi-knows-the-truth/
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txsd.1888133/gov.uscourts.txsd.1888133.46.2.pdf
26) On October 31, 2022, Catherine Engelbrecht (
@truethevote
) and Gregg Phillips (
@onwardsocial
) were imprisoned for contempt of court as they refused to disclose the identity of a researcher who provided information to the LADA that resulted in the indictment of Eugene Yu:
Despite Eugene Yu's arrest by the Los Angeles District Attorney based on the allegations he had previously denied in his defamation lawsuit, Judge Kenneth Hoyt refused to admit any evidence from the criminal proceedings against Konnech in his courtroom.
Furthermore, Judge Hoyt declined to respond to a phone call from the Los Angeles District Attorney's office and asserted that the criminal case against Eugene Yu was unrelated to the civil case involving Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips.
27) On November 5, 2022, Tucker Carlson discussed Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips being arrested for refusing to reveal the identity of a researcher who provided information to the LADA that resulted in criminal charges against Eugene Yu, the CEO of Konnech:
"George Gascon actually indicted Eugene Yu for exfiltrating the personal records of American poll workers, including their social security numbers and home addresses, out of the country to servers in China. These researchers developed that information.
Catherine attempted to give it to law enforcement at the FBI and elsewhere and was sued by Konnech for doing that. When Konnech sued them, they got a restraining order, ordering Catherine to turn over the names of these researchers.
Catherine and Gregg, who are very courageous people, simply refused to do it, and as a result, while Yu is home on bail, Catherine and Gregg are in jail tonight...
The civil libertarians and the mainstream press are basically a flock of sheep that are each bleeding the exact same tune, and all they want to do is deny any conversation about the possibility of fraud in elections."
28) On November 7, 2022,
@TrueTheVote
and
@OnwardSocial
were released from prison following a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which overturned Judge Kenneth Hoyt's order to unjustly detain them for contempt of court in a civil defamation case.
Two week later, the appeals court vacated the contempt order and wrote, "the record does not reveal what sort of emergency justified the district court's demand for that information before the parties could file Rule 12 motions before the defendants could file an answer, before the parties could file their initial disclosures, or before discovery could begin let alone conclude in the ordinary course."
"Much less did the district court explain what sort of emergency could warrant jailing the petitioner-defendants for not making such immediate disclosures. Rather, the district court made clear that it was imposing its disclosure requirements because it—the district court—wanted to add defendants to the lawsuit. Resp. 13; App. 188. That is not how the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure work."
Furthermore, the appeals court criticized Judge Kenneth Hoyt for "using a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, and a civil-contempt order to litigate the case on Konnech's behalf."
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txsd.1888133/gov.uscourts.txsd.1888133.62.0.pdf
@gatewaypundit
about their arrest and subsequent solitary confinement and provided information about the Konnech data breach that occurred in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, or Allegheny County.
The breach involved the unauthorized exposure of sensitive information belonging to election workers, election judges, the complete Pennsylvania voting registration file, voting machine serial numbers, passwords, and "everything that one would need to cheat."
"This isn't software, guys. This is malware. This is spyware. They are sucking data from the United States, storing it in China, and then using it to create a Chinese-style social credit system where we're all scored.
United States citizens are scored to manipulate votes, manipulate thought, manipulate pretty much everything you can imagine in our lives. And these people are the tip of the spear for that. They're not the only ones but they're there."
30) On November 9, 2022, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office dropped charges against Konnech and its CEO, Eugene Yu.
District Attorney George Gascon cited concerns over “potential bias” and the “pace of the investigation” as his reasons for the decision.
"We are concerned about both the pace of the investigation and the potential bias in the presentation and investigation of the evidence," Gascon said in a statement.
"We currently have an immense volume of digital data that will define this case, but the processing of that data will take months. We would not be able to fairly and accurately process and present all of that evidence within the statutory timeframes."
"As a result, we have decided to ask the court to dismiss the current case and alert the public in order to ensure transparency."
A few weeks later, Gascon placed Deputy District Attorney Eric Neff, who alleged in court that this was potentially "the largest data breach in United States history," on administrative leave.
31) On December 22, 2022, Grant Bradley, a former employee of Konnech, filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the company that stated he personally “witnessed customer’s data (specifically poll watcher information) being made accessible to foreign nationals from China.”
Additionally, Bradley stated that Konnech used “developers, designers, and coders” who “are all Chinese nationals based out of Wuhan, China.”
https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/20/whistleblower-yes-election-data-company-gave-u-s-poll-workers-personal-info-to-china/
https://scribd.com/document/620894361/22-12-22-Verified-Complaint-1#
32) On February 24, 2023, cybersecurity expert Harry Haury, who forensically imaged Konnech's devices for the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, signed an affidavit stating that he witnessed Konnech storing the personal data of U.S. election workers on servers in China.
Furthermore, the affidavit stated that Konnech's software was developed, tested, and maintained in China, and metadata indicated that Eugene Yu was involved in developing election software for the Chinese government.
Haury, who is the CEO of Cain & Associates, stated that his company assisted the Los Angeles District Attorney's office by following FBI and Justice Department protocols to forensically image servers, computers, cell phones, and other electronic storage devices belonging to Konnech and Eugene Yu.
Haury, who has over 28 years of experience working as a cybersecurity expert for prominent organizations such as the Department of Defense, NSA, CIA, U.S. Treasury, NorthCOM, Sandia National Laboratories, more than a dozen top American banks, and the U.S. Justice Department stated that Konnech's data security system, "amounted to by far the worst example of complete disregard or negligence regarding the protection of PII and sensitive data I have ever seen. We discovered a data breach of U.S. data, which is classified as a total loss of control.”
Substantial evidence was reportedly discovered on Konnech's seized devices, including:
• confirmed multiple instances of Konnech hosting, on servers based in China, U.S. citizens’ personally identifiable information (PII);
• found evidence in private company messages that software code was being developed, tested, and maintained in China;
• confirmed that Konnech was providing administrative credentials to Chinese developers;
• PollChief software suffered from a security vulnerability that allowed any PollChief or Konnech worker to gain "super user" status, giving him or her broad access to information on all U.S. poll workers in the system;
• has evidence that Konnech employees have shared election-related data through, from, and on Chinese servers and applications;
• has evidence in metadata pulled from relevant files indicating Eugene Yu was involved in developing Chinese government (i.e., Wucheng District People’s Congress) election software; and
• has evidence showing Konnech is associated with several companies based in mainland China that appear to be associated with if not subsidized by the Chinese government.
Haury stated, "We concluded that this incident is a very high risk indicator of an intrusion by a foreign intelligence into the U.S. strategic infrastructure, and as obliged by law, we informed the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) and other pertinent law enforcement agencies of this contact."
https://truethevote.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023.02.24-Konnech-Dkt.-87-Motion-to-Inspect-Property.pdf
33) On March 24, 2023, Peter McCallister, the former General Manager of Konnech Australia, signed an affidavit stating that he believed Konnech's software development was done in China by Jinhua Hongzheng Technology, a company owned by "Mr. Yu's older brother" and "Jun Yu, Mr. Yu's nephew, was the person responsible for depositing the data onto the server in China."
Additionally, McCallister stated that after Eugene Yu's arrest, Konnech employees in China attempted to hack Konnech's CTO, Luis Nabergoi, and deleted "all conversations referencing or involving Eugene's nephew, Jun Yu."
Lastly, McCallister believed that Jinhua Hongzheng Technology was "the main provider of election software products to the Communist Party of China" and that Eugene Yu had asked him to sell the same "meeting administration and voting software" to the Australian government.
34) On April 5, 2023, Grant Bradley, the former Konnech employee, signed another affidavit stating "Konnech provided programmers in China private data of U.S.-based election workers, to include social security numbers and other identifying information."
"Konnech appeared to employ at least 80 and perhaps around 100 Chinese nationals to work on its elections software for American clients."
"I witnessed customers' data (specifically poll-watcher information) being made accessible to foreign nationals in China."
"Konnech's election logistics software was (and may still be) substantially developed by developers, designers, and coders who (to the best of my knowledge, information and belief), are all Chinese nationals based out of Wuhan, China."
"The standard process Konnech used to onboard China-based programmers was to create customer environments for the programmers by uploading files containing all of the American customers' poll workers' information, polling locations, and other data to DingTalk or Jira, where the leaders from the Chinese team would have access to Jira, and the entire Chinese team would have access to DingTalk."
"During my employment, on or after October 4, 2022 I was instructed by my superiors to say outwardly to customers that poll worker data was not stored overseas, was not available to foreign nationals, and that we had no idea why Eugene Yu had been arrested... My superiors who instructed me in these regards, and I, knew these statements were false."
https://truethevote.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023.04.07-Konnech-Dkt.-94-1-Exhibit-H-Affidavit-of-Grant-Bradley.pdf
https://truethevote.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023.03.24-Konnech-Dkt.-91-Reply-ISO-Motion-to-Inspect.pdf
35) On April 14, 2023, cybersecurity expert Nate Cain (
@cain_nate
), who forensically imaged Konnech's devices for the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, stated that Konnech stored the personal data of U.S. election workers and judges on servers in China.
Furthermore, Cain stated that a "Chinese company that has ties to the CCP" did Konnech's "software development and maintenance," and a Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency (DCSA) analyst reviewed their report, verified that it was accurate, and forwarded it to the FBI.
However, Cain mentioned that he had provided evidence of a major Konnech data breach to the police superintendent of a prominent U.S. county, who subsequently took the information to the FBI, and the FBI had declined to provide assistance, informing the superintendent that they were not interested in pursuing the matter.
Additionally, Cain stated that Los Angeles County had refused to inform several other counties that their data had also been breached.
Cain, who has over 25 years of experience working as a cybersecurity expert for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, DISA, and the FBI, received his cybersecurity training from the NSA as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command (MARFORCYBER).
"We found that there was voter poll worker data, as well as election judge data, and election inventory system data found on Chinese servers."
"We weren't expecting to see what we saw, which was that there was a Chinese company that was essentially doing the software development and all of the software maintenance for this company.
And what we discovered was that we got behind the Chinese firewall, and we found documents that showed that this Chinese company actually had ties to the CCP.
And then at that point, I had no choice but to take that information, package it up and provide it to the Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency (DCSA) because as a cleared contractor, I have a sworn obligation to provide them that information that this could be a potential Chinese espionage or intelligence operation working against the United States and our critical infrastructure.
So, I provided that information to them, and now, we're in a difficult situation because I don't think that George Gascon was very happy about that."
36) On April 20, 2023, Konnech and Eugene Yu retracted their defamation case against Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, a day after
@truethevote
and
@onwardsocial
unveiled a website (http://openink.com/konnech) containing much of the information discussed in this Twitter thread.
37) In conclusion, Eugene Yu develops election administration software for the Chinese government in partnership with Huawei, China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile, and Lenovo.
Two of his former employees have signed affidavits stating that he stored confidential U.S. election data on servers in China, where his software was developed, tested, and maintained.
Two cybersecurity experts, who forensically imaged Konnech's devices for the LADA, have stated that he stored confidential U.S. election data on servers in China, where he developed election administration software for the Chinese government.
This information is publicly available on the internet.
So, why is the FBI still allowing Konnech's election administration software to be used across the country?
38) On April 14, 2016, Jinhua Hongzheng Technology announced on Weibo that it provides election administration software to China's National People's Congress, Detroit, Michigan, St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, D.C.
Its predecessor is Jinhua Yulian Network and "Konnech."
https://archive.ph/8xIqe
39) So, why is the FBI shielding two firms closely tied to the Chinese government, which have financed and developed an American election software company for the past 15 years, all while transferring election data back to China?
40) And lastly, why is the FBI headquarters in Washington D.C., targeting Catherine (
@truethevote
) and Gregg (
@onwardsocial
) for exposing this while seemingly protecting Jianwei Yu (于建伟)?
41) If you would like Congress to hold the FBI accountable for betraying Catherine, Gregg, and their commitment to preserving the integrity of our election system, please visit
@TrueTheVote
's website, http://stopccpelectionfraud.com, and follow these three simple steps:
1. Sign the petition
2. Contact your representatives
3. Review these articles
42) In all of my interactions with Catherine and Gregg, despite facing lawsuits, wrongful arrests, and solitary confinement, their main concern has always been the removal of this national security threat from our election system.
If you would like to support their election integrity efforts, you can donate at:
https://truethevote.org/donate/
43) Finally, if you'd like to support my journalism, please consider becoming a member of my Twitter subscriber community.
By joining, you'll gain exclusive access to my reporting, including:
• Exclusive Konnech threads
• Content creation tips
• OSINT research tools
• Monthly Q&A sessions
Thank you for your time!
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/05/former-government-official-charged-falsely-accusing-colleagues-involvement/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3X8SnqQ6Sev8PwZpej_kLuOtXV8CepjbDMQMNSPxQiwjssAoe9yfJFM2E_aem_AbGDvJpsg3P5KrD5F7cly-P3xSY7THy3iDTCzo7Iq8YITGaS7H-mzxBa5eHcRYnCqSIVcCTec5uNfH7E6asTmfCK
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Utterly par for the course, if true:
https://x.com/austerrewyatt1/status/1787993783184859623
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Second post.
So it turns out the "Top Secret" coversheets shown if a lot of the Mar El Lago raid pics shared with the press--and which "Progressives" extrapolated by suggesting nuclear codes and similar were found on site--were brought to the scene by the FBI. But hey, what's a little stage management between what clearly has morphed into a political foe?
https://amgreatness.com/2024/05/08/fbi-admits-to-bringing-props-to-stage-crime-scene-photos-at-mar-a-lago/
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When it rains, it pours. Third post.
A significant point this blogger makes involves the FBI under Hoover being set up for political control and grandstanding, rather than investigating crime, an antecendant coming into its own these days:
Trump Triumphing Over Evil
The Raid on Mar-A-Lago likely gets him re-elected. (By the way, today's poll is terrific.)
MAY 08, 2024
“Come sundown, there’s gonna be two things true that ain’t true now. One is the United States Department of Justice is goin’ to know what in the good Christ is goin’ on around here. And the other is I’m gonna have someone’s ass in my briefcase.” Wilford Brimley as Wells in Absence of Malice.
In the movie, DOJ lawyers tried to pressure Paul Newman’s character into testifying by leaking lies about him to the press. Newman uses his wit to get the investigators investigated as Washington sends in a grown-up, played by Wilford Brimley, to clean up the mess.
America needs you, Wilford Brimley. Wilford, won’t you please come home.
But there are no grown-ups left in Washington. The FBI and the rest of the government feed a steady stream of lies to a Washington press corps that believes it is doing the work of Edward R. Murrow when it is really Ralph Wiggums saying, “I’m helping.”
For four years, the press flogged the dead piñata of the Russian hoax. The press promoted the Mueller investigation as if the former FBI director were Eliot Ness going after Al Capone. The Jeff Bezos Washington Post, NYT, AP, the networks and the cable news stations all praised Bobby Sox Mueller.
Carl Cannon, executive editor of RealClearPolitics, stood almost alone in reminding the public how Mueller and his successor at the FBI, Jimmy the Weasel Comey, botched their first big case after 9/11.
Cannon wrote, “They botched the investigation of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks that took five lives and infected 17 other people, shut down the U.S. Capitol and Washington’s mail system, solidified the Bush administration’s antipathy for Iraq, and eventually, when the facts finally came out, made the FBI look feckless, incompetent, and easily manipulated by outside political pressure.”
It was an inside job. A government researcher sent the anthrax letters. Clouseau and Clueless nabbed the wrong researcher.
Cannon wrote, “Despite the jihadist slogans accompanying the mailed anthrax, it had nothing to do with Saddam Hussein or any foreign element; the FBI ignored a 2002 tip from a scientific colleague of the actual anthrax killer, who turned out to be a Fort Detrick scientist named Bruce Edwards Ivins; the reason is that they had quickly obsessed on an innocent man named Steven Hatfill; the bureau was bullied into focusing on the government scientist by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy (whose office, along with that of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, was targeted by an anthrax-laced letter) and was duped into focusing on Hatfill by two sources — a conspiracy-minded college professor with a political agenda who’d never met Hatfill and by Nicholas Kristof, who put her conspiracy theories in the paper while mocking the FBI for not arresting Hatfill.
“In truth, Hatfill was an implausible suspect from the outset. He was a virologist who never handled anthrax, which is a bacterium. (Ivins, by contrast, shared ownership of anthrax patents, was diagnosed as having paranoid personality disorder, and had a habit of stalking and threatening people with anonymous letters — including the woman who provided the long-ignored tip to the FBI).”
Eventually, evidence cleared Hatfill and Ivins killed himself. Taxpayers paid Hatfill $5.82 million — hush money — to cover the asses of Mueller and Comey.
Everyone in DC knew this when the Russian hoax investigation began but ignored it to praise Mueller and promote him as the savior of the republic who would get Donald Trump for a crime that not only did he not commit but it didn’t exist!
For months on end, the press passed along lie after lie as Mueller fed their fantasies of the 2016 election being all a fantasy. The press rewarded Mueller with reports about the walls closing in and a dam about to break. Two years and $24 million later, Mueller found nothing because there was nothing to find.
No one in the press apologized. The media went on to the next nonsense — the impeachment of a president because he asked Zelensky to see about investigating corruption by Hunter Biden. Investigating a political opponent is something only done in a banana republic.
We know now, buddy. Boy, do we know.
The press thought it hit the jackpot with the January 6 actually peaceful protest inside the Capitol. Thousands of innocents face bogus charges approved by the kangaroo courts of DC but this horseshit opera isn’t over until the fat ladies and gentlemen of the Supreme Court sing their song.
Which brings me to Mar-A-Lago.
In the summer of 2022, an FBI SWAT team raided Donald Trump’s home.
30 agents spent 9 hours rifling through his stuff. They confiscated 100,000 items and claimed 100 of them were classified material that Trump should not have.
That means 99.9% of the stuff the FBI took the agents had no business taking. They stole it. The full list of items taken is here. The items seized included 1,693 newspapers and news clippings. Having a clipping of a recipe from a newspaper can land you in jail as a national security law violator but being secretary of state and sending 33,000 emails full of State secrets to foreign donors to your fake charity does not.
I was blogging at the time. I wrote on September 5, 2022:
J. Edgar Hoover set the FBI up not to necessarily solve crimes but to garner publicity and get the goods on the politicians in Washington.
The tradition continues today. The FBI used facial recognition technology to hunt down and harass Trump supporters who dared protest at the Capitol.
This raid is all too typical. They did the same thing to Richard Jewell 26 years ago when they tried to frame him for the Atlanta Olympics bombing. He was a hero who saved hundreds of lives and the FBI treated him like shit.
The president is only the latest to suffer from the bureau bullies. The list of items confiscated shows the biggest threat to domestic tranquility is spelled F-B-I.
By the way, taxpayers had to pay hush money to Jewell to cover up the FBI’s persecution of the man. I can list many more examples including Ruby Ridge. I won’t because I need the space to look at the Raid at Mar-A-Lago, which is about to get its Happily Ever After.
Fox reported the judge on Tuesday postponed the trial indefinitely. This came after chief witch hunter Jack R. Smith admitted on Friday that he tampered with evidence.
The Fox story said, “Smith and federal prosecutors admitted in a court filing that documents seized during the raid on Mar-a-Lago are no longer in their original order and sequence.
“‘There are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans,’ Smith’s filing states.
“The prosecutors had previously told the court that the documents were ‘in their original, intact form as seized.’”
I am not a lawyer but it looks like the judge must dismiss the case with prejudice because of this tampering. How can anyone trust the FBI when it claims this paper or that document was at Mar-A-Lago when they raided the place? Jack S lying to the court should result in an investigation. Perhaps the various Bars that the Jack S is a member of should issue sanctions against him.
The contamination of the evidence also should moot the indictments in DC but again, I am no lawyer.
After the judge postponed this trainwreck indefinitely, Julie Kelly of Real Clear Investigations tweeted:
You will see tonight outrage by legal “experts” about Judge Cannon vacating trial date and refusing to set a new one. They will again accuse her of being in the tank for Trump and demand Jack Smith seek her recusal.
At the same time, these frauds will refuse to cover all of the new developments related to DOJ tampering with evidence, misrepresenting the condition of the evidence to the court, doctored evidence, and perhaps even missing/misplaced documents.
Keep in mind — Jack Smith is the one who decided to bring this unprecedented indictment in June 2023 then add a superseding indictment on the case a month later. He then handed down the DC indictment in August 2023--Judge Chutkan leapfrogged over Cannon's initial date and set a March 4 trial date, further delaying proceedings in Florida.
Smith forced the defendants to comply with CIPA, which are stringent rules related to handling/sharing of classified materials in such cases.
His team foot-dragged discovery and failed to set up a secure location for months where defense could view classified discovery evidence.
Cannon has held numerous sealed and public hearings over the past several months as well as addressed multiple competing motions for dismissal of the case.
We know why Jack S wants a delay because he knew all along he has no case and this is all for show like the Mueller investigation was. Jack S should have his ass in a briefcase.
As I said, there are no Wilford Brimleys in Washington.
But the American public is there and most people know the difference between shit and Shinola.
Last summer, the Bezos Post reported, “Nearly 6 in 10 Americans think that the investigations into Trump are an effort to keep him from winning the White House next year. Trump argues that he’s being indicted because his opponents want to punish his supporters; half of Republicans think that the probes are ‘an attack on people like me.’”
That poll was taken weeks before the Mugshot Seen ’Round The World.
https://donsurber.substack.com/p/trump-triumphing-over-evil?r=1qo1e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true
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Will the convicted “kidnap” plotters see a new retrial if FBI texts are admitted?
https://x.com/julie_kelly2/status/1790143942844887518?s=61
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2nd post. FBI/DOJ retaliating against whistleblowers:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2024/05/14/inspector-general-confirms-doj-has-been-retaliating-against-whistleblowers-n2639048
Perhaps it’s time to add “DOJ” to the title of this thread….
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Inspector DOJ IG Michael Horowitz seems like a straight shooter
BUT HAS ANYONE EVER SEEN ANYONE PUNISHED FOR HIS FINDINGS?
did I miss anything?
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Lest we forget:
https://x.com/jamesokeefeiii/status/1790429833102803377?s=61
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ATF’s head dodges and weaves while grilled about various awful ATF policies and operations:
Hard Questions, But Few Clear Answers as Congress Probes ATF Tactics and Overreach
TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2024 Hard Questions, But Few Clear Answers as Congress Probes ATF Tactics and Overreach
SUPPORT NRA-ILA
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) suffered two bruising days on Capitol Hill last week during oversight hearings attempting to get to the bottom of a fatal raid and other recent enforcement overreaches involving peaceable Americans. Many hard questions were asked but few clear answers emerged, as ATF and its apologists insisted the agency remained committed to public safety, while invoking pending investigations and lawsuits as a means of avoiding detailed responses. At the very least, the hearings made it unmistakably clear that ATF has a lot to answer for to regain the trust of pro-gun lawmakers and the gun-owning American public.
On Wednesday, the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government held a hearing on a March 19 raid on the home of Bryan Malinowski in Little Rock, AR, that resulted in one ATF agent being shot and Malinowski himself being killed. The SWAT-style operation to execute a search warrant featured 10 carloads of ATF agents and local officers who descended on Malinowski’s residence an hour before dawn, killed power to the home, covered up a security camera on Malinowski’s front porch, and broke in through the locked front door. Contrary to the established policies of the ATF and Little Rock Police Department, none of those conducting the raid was wearing a body camera to record what happened next.
The star witness at the hearing was Bud Cummins, a former U.S. attorney and the lawyer now representing Malinowski’s family and widow, Maer Malinowski. Cummins recounted how the racket of agents “caving in the door” awakened the frightened couple, leading Bryan to arm himself with a handgun and investigate. Maer followed her husband as he confronted a group of shadowy figures entering the darkened home. Cummins said Malinowski fired at their legs to drive them back out of the house, believing them to be home invaders. An agent was struck in the foot, and the entry team returned fire, shooting Malinowski in the forehead as his bewildered wife looked on in horror.
Cummins testified that only 57 seconds elapsed between the time an agent was seen on video covering up the security camera to when Malinowski was fatally shot. This meant, he said, the operation was a no-knock entry in fact, if not on paper, as Malinowski did not have time to appreciate what was happening before he reacted. Cummins noted that Malinowki’s frantic wife, not accused of any crime, was locked in the back of a police vehicle for four hours in the 34 degree morning air, wearing only a thin nightgown. She was not allowed to check on her husband or even to use the bathroom. When she finally persuaded agents to let her use the bathroom, she was taken to local firehouse, paraded before the firemen in her nightgown, and forced to relieve herself in the presence of a female officer.
The raid to execute the search warrant came after a months-long investigation in which ATF agents came to believe Malinowski was dealing in firearms without a license. Significantly, it occurred exactly one month before ATF published its controversial rule, “Definition of ‘Engaged in the Business’ as a Dealer in Firearms.” That rule was supposedly prompted by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, which changed the statutory definition of a “dealer” in firearms to focus on the intent to earn a profit, rather than to earn a livelihood. Proponents of the change said it merely codified case law, making clear that a person could be considered a “dealer in firearms,” even if the person had another full-time job or career.
Yet ATF treated the change as an opportunity for a sweeping expansion of the dealer licensing requirement, with a serious of presumptions about what sort of behaviors triggered the requirement or its requisite intent. ATF in particular focused on advertising sales via the Internet and selling at gun shows, circumstances that would have explicitly required a license in the failed Manchin-Toomey legislation the Obama/Biden administration pursued in 2013. Ironically, mere days before the hearing, a federal district judge in Texas temporarily enjoined enforcement of the ATF’s rule against a broad class of plaintiffs after finding the terms of the rule likely violated ATF’s authority.
An affidavit in support of the search warrant application for Malinowski’s home detailed many of the government’s accusations against him. These included that he bought some 147 guns over a three-year period, that he resold an unknown number of them, and that nine subsequently wound up at the scenes of crimes or in the possession of prohibited people (including at least three undercover informants). None of the guns, however, was said to have been used against a person in a crime of violence. It is striking how many of the circumstances mentioned in the affidavit that caused the government to scrutinize Malinowski would later end up as presumptions in the regulation a federal judge has already ruled is likely illegal.
The testimony of Bud Cummins emphasized that Malinowski had no criminal history and a lucrative, high-paying job as the director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock that he would not have knowingly jeopardized with illegal activity. Cummins described Malinowski as an avid collector and hobbyist, of coins as well as firearms. He said Malinowski sold both of these things at gun shows, as the text of federal statute says he had a right to do to enhance his personal collection. Cummins said the government could have resolved the matter without the escalations that led to the eventual exchange of gunfire, including by simply serving Malinowski with a cease and desist letter. Even in the context of a criminal investigation, Cummins testified, the ATF’s tactics were unnecessarily aggressive, ignored less risky alternatives, and lacked indicia of transparency.
The day after the subcommittee’s hearing, ATF Director Steven Dettelbach appeared before the full House Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing. Malinwoski’s widow attended both hearings. Pro-gun members grilled the director on the Malinowski case, which he claimed was only one of thousands of ATF operations he was only vaguely aware of before the fact. Dettelbach deflected any attempt to elicit explanations for the ATF’s conduct by insisting the matter was under “independent” investigation by the Arkansas State Police and therefore Justice Department policy prohibited him from discussing it. In general terms, he emphasized the dangerousness of ATF’s work and the necessity of deferring to the operational decisions of “professionals” in the field. He also blamed ATF’s lack of compliance with policies requiring body cameras, as a general matter, on budgetary constraints.
Dettelbach additionally refused to comment upon or explain the details of various controversial ATF rules, on the bases that the rules spoke for themselves, and ATF’s defense of them was well-documented in the many legal cases challenging them in various courts. He claimed his attempts to summarize, elaborate, or defend any of the rules could adversely affect those proceedings.
Pro-gun members of the committee treated these excuses as a cop-out and vainly tried to elicit more specifics from Dettelbach. Anti-gun committee members tried to portray the pro-gun members as hypocrites for wanting to cut ATF funding, while claiming support for law enforcement, and emphasized the supposed importance of ATF’s collaboration with state and local police in the enforcement of gun control laws. Some tried to paint the Malinowski case as a typical and justified law enforcement investigation, while others admitted concern about its tactics but criticized pro-gun committee members for ignoring similar cases involving minority defendants.
When the smoke cleared, Americans had few answers about the concerns expressed in the hearings, and no clear sense of how much knowledge or involvement Dettelbach himself has in the workings of the agency he directs. Overall, however, he appeared more as the agency’s cheerleader than its operational leader.
Yet enough was said to put Americans who believe in the right to keep and bear arms on notice that the Biden administration is using ATF to pursue its anti-gun political agenda, and not just to impartially enforce the law against violent criminals or those who intentionally flout the law. Hearings are useful to illustrate the problems, but the only solutions are to be found at the ballot box.
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20240528/hard-questions-but-few-clear-answers-as-congress-probes-atf-tactics-and-overreach
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Jeepers, you think this suggests the whole January 6 narrative may be a wee bit overstated? Moreover, perhaps the DC court holding Jan 6 protestors as it releases violent felons and convicts folks for walking into the Capitol while those arrested at violent anti-Trump protests in DC plead to misdemeanors if charges aren’t dismissed outright are in fact quite partisan? Nah, unpossible….
Paul Sperry
@paulsperry_
·
6m
BREAKING: FBI agent Marcus Allen who was suspended & stripped of his security clearance for questioning the official narrative of the events of Jan. 6 sworn by FBI Director Wray has been fully reinstated and had 27 mos of back pay restored, his Empower Oversight lawyers announced
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Judicial Watch: Records Show FBI Provided Democrats with Information on Whistleblowers Who Testified at May 2023 Weaponization Hearing
PR
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it received 54 pages of records from the Department of Justice in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit which show the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Office of Congressional Affairs (OCA) provided a Democrat staffer with information on FBI whistleblowers who detailed the bureau’s targeting of political opponents and retaliation for their testifying at a May 18, 2023, hearing of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
A May 23, 2023, email from Damon Marx, senior counsel in the office of New York Democrat Rep. Dan Goldman, shows that the FBI provided documents apparently pertaining to the whistleblowers that were “very helpful” to Goldman.
Marx writes to an FBI Office of Congressional Affairs (OCA) official whose name is redacted:
We spoke last week before the Weaponization hearing on Thursday. Thanks again for sending over those documents. They were very helpful to the Congressman.
Francesco (my colleague cc’ed here) and I will be good points of contact for you going forward. Both of us broadly cover law enforcement; however, in terms of specifics, I cover cybersecurity, counterterrorism, and much of the Congressman’s committee work, while Francesco covers issues ranging from immigration to gun violence.
We would love to meet in person next time you have the chance. Please let us know when you’re available for coffee or just to swing by the office. And don’t hesitate to reach out on any other matters!
The CC’d colleague is Francesco Arreaga, then a Democrat staffer on the House Homeland Security Committee and former Elizabeth Warren campaign staffer.
On May 18, 2023, a hearing was held by the House Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Highlights of the hearing include:
It is clear from these disclosures, and especially in wake of Special Counsel John Durham’s report, that the FBI has become politically weaponized.
To date, the Committee and Select Subcommittee have received whistleblower testimony from several current and former FBI employees who chose to risk their careers to expose abuses and misconduct in the FBI. Some of these employees—Special Agents Garret O’Boyle and Stephen Friend, Supervisory Intelligence Analyst George Hill, and Staff Operations Specialist Marcus Allen—have chosen to speak on the record about their experiences.
During the hearing, Allen was allowed to discuss the suspension he incurred for merely forwarding open-source news articles to his colleagues, as his job required:
Q. And why exactly did you send th[e] email?
A. I sent [the emails] just for awareness because the[y] . . . indicated potential problems with the investigation as far as informants were concerned, and our organization’s potential forthrightness about the utilization of informants there on that day. That might have some impact on our cases and the subjects that we’re looking up, and just a general awareness overall for the investigation as a whole, that there might have been some kind of potential Federal involvement with the activities on January 6th, and I thought it was important enough that it like warranted our attention, you know.
Q. Is it safe to say that you sending th[ose] email was part of your job at the time?
A. Yes.
The Committee explained that “ecause these open-source articles questioned the FBI’s handling of the violence at the Capitol, the FBI suspended Allen for ‘conspiratorial views in regards to the events of January 6th . . . .’”
The day before the hearing, the FBI revoked the security clearances of three agents who testified, Steve Friend, Garret O’Boyle, and Marcus Allen, according to a letter the bureau sent to congressional investigators and obtained by ABC News. Allen’s clearance was recently reinstated.
The records include a May 16, 2023, email to an FBI OCA official, whose name is redacted, from Marx, who writes:
It’s my understanding that you’re out this week, but if you have a moment to chat about some of the witnesses for Thursday’s Weaponization hearing, it would be super helpful. Please let me know if you’re available tomorrow when you have a chance.
The FBI OCA official responds:
Sure, give me a call when you can.
In a May 9, 2023, email to Goldman’s then-Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director Erin Meegan, an FBI OCA official whose name is redacted writes:
I was disappointed I didn’t get the opportunity to meet you during our trip to Quantico. We are planning to take another trip there, maybe later this summer, so hopefully you’ll be able to join us then. I serve as [redacted]. OCA plays a key role in communicating with lawmakers and their staffers about FBI activities and is the primary point of contact for all Congressional matters.
I would like an opportunity to meet with you to properly introduce myself and tell you more about the mission of OCA, along with providing information about what OCA can offer your office. I would also like to know what issues Rep. Goldman and your office are interested in to see if there is any way I can assist in those areas. Additionally, based on my background, I think I may be able to provide insight or answer some questions about issues that do not require senior FBI leadership briefings or hearings.
The Judicial Watch October 2023 lawsuit that uncovered these documents was filed after the Justice Department failed to respond to a May 18, 2023, FOIA request (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:23-cv-03003)). Judicial Watch asked for:
All records of communication between any official or employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and any member of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, any staff member for the subcommittee, or any staff member for any subcommittee member between April 1, 2023, and the present.
For purposes of clarification, in the request, Judicial Watch provided the following link, which identified the members of the committee: https://judiciary.house.gov/subcommittees/committee-judiciary/select-subcommittee-weaponization-federal-government
“These troubling records show how the FBI colluded with Democrats hostile to FBI whistleblowers who were set to testify to Congress,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Judicial Watch is in the forefront of uncovering the weaponizing of the federal government against whistleblowers.
Judicial Watch represented Marcus Allen, a decorated veteran, FBI analyst and witness before the Weaponization Subcommittee, in a lawsuit against FBI Director Christopher Wray for violating Allen’s constitutional rights by falsely accusing him of holding “conspiratorial views,” stripping his security clearance, and suspending him from duty without pay. On May 31, 2024, Allen’s security clearance was reinstated.
In June 2023, Judicial Watch sued for all FBI communications from bureau officials using several systems and databases regarding investigations carried out after an October 4, 2021, memo from Attorney General Merrick Garland instructing investigators to target American parents due to an alleged “increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation’s public schools” In a March 21, 2023, report on the Garland memo, the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government cited FBI data which states that 25 inquiries under the threat tag “EDUOFFICIALS” had been opened since the bureau began tracking the alleged incidents.
In September 2022, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for all records in the possession of FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten regarding an August 6, 2020, briefing provided to members of the U.S. Senate. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) that raised concerns that the briefing was intended to undermine the senators’ investigation of Hunter Biden.
Judicial Watch recently sued the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for all agency records relating to the Department of Justice or Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigations of Hunter Biden and all records relating to efforts to interview lawyer Patrick Kevin Morris regarding Hunter Biden.
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Let’s add the DOJ to the hall of shame. Imagine how differently The Hill would cover this if it were a Repub AG:
DOJ declines to prosecute Garland after congressional contempt vote
The Hill News / by Rebecca Beitsch / Jun 14, 2024 at 3:09 PM
The Justice Department (DOJ) issued a determination Friday that Attorney General Merrick Garland committed no crime in failing to meet the demand of House Republicans who subpoenaed audio of President Biden’s conversation with special counsel Robert Hur.
The determination is in line with a Wednesday memo from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel that stated Biden’s claim of executive privilege over the tapes protected Garland from prosecution. That memo was drafted hours before all but one House Republican approved a resolution to hold Garland in contempt of Congress.
However, such resolutions act as a referral to the Justice Department, which must then determine whether grounds exist for criminal charges — in this case with the DOJ strongly rebuffing the request in a three-page letter.
The DOJ under administrations of both parties has repeatedly declined to prosecute several attorneys general or other officials who have not turned materials over to Congress, the department noted in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
“Consistent with this longstanding position and uniform practice, the Department has determined that the responses by Attorney General Garland to the subpoenas issued by the Committees did not constitute a crime, and accordingly the Department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General,” Carlos Uriarte, the DOJ’s head of legislative affairs, wrote in the letter.
Republicans already have the transcript of the conversation, and while they’d publicly sought to connect the tapes to their impeachment probe, the transcript makes clear no items they marked as important to their investigation were discussed.
Garland after Wednesday’s vote had accused Republicans of using contempt as a partisan tool.
“It is deeply disappointing that this House of Representatives has turned a serious congressional authority into a partisan weapon. Today’s vote disregards the constitutional separation of powers, the Justice Department’s need to protect its investigations, and the substantial amount of information we have provided to the Committees,” he said.
The refusal is likely to tee up additional action from House Republicans.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said she would file a privileged motion to take up a previously filed inherent contempt resolution – legislation that if approved would greenlight the House sergeant at arms to bring Garland to the House to force him to turn over subpoenaed items.
“It hasn't been done since the early 1900s and was actually a pretty common practice for when people blatantly ignored and disrespected the authority of the House Representatives. So we hope that Garland does the right thing and we hope that the DOJ does the right thing,” she told The Hill ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
DOJ on Friday stressed the numerous documents turned over in response to the subpoena, including the transcript and two classified documents. They noted Hur himself also testified for hours about his investigation.
Leading into the vote, Republicans suggested that because Biden had shared the transcript he had little ground for holding back the audio.
“The president has waived any executive privilege over these audio recordings by releasing a transcript of the entire interview to the public,” House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said during a House Rules Committee meeting Tuesday.
But the 57-page memo from the department’s Office of Legal Counsel rejected that argument.
“Because the committees have the transcripts of the special counsel’s interviews, the needs the committees have articulated for the recordings are plainly insufficient to overcome a privilege claim grounded in these important separation of powers concerns,” according to the memo.
“The audio recording will not reveal any information relevant to the committees’ stated needs that is not available in the transcripts.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4722840-doj-declines-to-prosecute-garland-after-congressional-contempt-vote/
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If it were Trump himself on the chopping block they’d have found more than 1 felony to charge:
Former FBI attorney pleads guilty in Durham probe
Kevin Clinesmith admitted to altering an email used to seek surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
FBI headquarters
FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. | AP Photo/J. David Ake
By JOSH GERSTEIN and KYLE CHENEY
08/19/2020 02:34 PM EDT
Updated: 08/19/2020 10:04 PM EDT
The Justice Department’s unusual probe into its own handling of the investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia netted its first guilty plea Wednesday as former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith admitted to altering an email used to seek surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Clinesmith, 38, tendered the guilty plea to a single felony count of making a false statement in an official proceeding by telephone during a virtual hearing that lasted less than half an hour before U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg.
The so-called colloquy between Boasberg and Clinesmith highlighted a nuanced defense on the part of the FBI lawyer, who played a key role in preparing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court applications to listen to Page’s phone calls, read his emails and search his property.
While Clinesmith acknowledged changing an email to indicate that Page was not a source for the Central Intelligence Agency, the former FBI lawyer insisted that he thought then that was actually the case, although he conceded he should not have doctored the message.
“You intentionally altered an email to add the language ‘and not a source’ with regard to Individual No.1 and you knew that that statement was not in fact true?” asked Boasberg, an Obama appointee.
A pause followed while Clinesmith consulted with his attorneys. The ex-FBI employee surfaced a short time later to try to clarify his stance.
“Sir, at the time, I believed that the information I was providing in the email was accurate but I am agreeing that the information I entered into the email was not originally there and I inserted that information,” Clinesmith said.
“In other words, you agree you intentionally altered the email to include information that was not originally in the email?” the judge asked.
“Yes, your honor,” Clinesmith replied.
In advance of the hearing, reports of the defendant’s nuanced admission prompted some criticism from critics of the FBI’s Russia probe, who suggested prosecutors might be acquiescing in a cover-up.
“Huge problem,” former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s lead attorney Sidney Powell wrote on Twitter last week after Clinesmith’s planned guilty plea was revealed. “Judge cannot accept that plea. Someone is not shooting straight. Highly suspicious. #Notbuyingit Indict him now on it all.”
However, Boasberg offered no indication Wednesday that Clinesmith’s explanation presented any concern about his plea or the deal he entered into with the Justice Department that precludes him from facing any other charges in the matter.
After inquiring about whether Clinesmith understood the rights he was giving up by pleading guilty and whether he understood that the maximum possible sentence in the case is five years in prison, Boasberg accepted the plea and set sentencing for Dec. 10.
Some of those who’ve railed against the FBI investigation suggested Wednesday that Clinesmith’s plea was a prelude to charges against others, despite recent signals that the prosecutor Attorney General William Barr selected to probe the origins of the Russia probe — U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham — isn’t planning any earth-shaking cases.
“The wheels of justice are turning,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tweeted after Clinesmith’s plea. “It is imperative we restore trust to a broken system and the only way that is possible is for people to be held accountable for their actions. More to come.” But neither the official summary prosecutors offered of the facts surrounding Clinesmith’s actions nor the formal plea agreement between the prosecution and the ex-FBI lawyer’s attorneys indicated the government views him as part of a broader conspiracy.
The deal with Clinesmith does not call for him to provide ongoing cooperation with prosecutors, although he did agree to be debriefed by FBI personnel working on a review of the law enforcement agency’s filings with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
The judge did note at the outset of Wednesday’s hearing that he currently serves as the chief judge of that secretive court, which he said could be considered the victim of Clinesmith’s false statement.
Boasberg said he flagged the issue to both sides in the case a couple of days ago, and he added that he’d be happy to recuse himself if either side objected. Neither did.
The altered email at the heart of the case against Clinesmith was among the most explosive findings in a review Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued last December of the FBI’s handling of the surveillance warrants against Page. He also found the initial warrant and three renewals were riddled with errors and omissions, some of them significant.
The findings led the Justice Department to rescind two of the renewal warrants, though Horowitz did not ultimately conclude that the FBI lacked a basis to surveil Page altogether.
Barr, who had previously tasked Durham with investigating the origins of the Russia probe, added the potential crimes uncovered by Horowitz to Durham’s mandate. As a result, the case against Clinesmith is being handled by Durham’s office, although the charge was filed in federal court in Washington.
The government was represented at Wednesday’s hearing by an assistant U.S. attorney from Durham’s Connecticut office, Neeraj Patel, along with Washington-based Assistant U.S. Attorney, Anthony Scarpelli.
The two prosecutors were joined at the virtual court hearing by a retired FBI agent who is assisting Durham’s probe, Timothy Fuhrman. Scarpelli described Fuhrman, the former head of the FBI’s offices in Mobile, Ala., and Salt Lake City, as a “Department of Justice investigator.”
Scarpelli said the government was not asking that Clinesmith be detained pending sentencing, but they did get the judge to order that Clinesmith surrender his passport and get prior approval for domestic travel outside specified states.
Attorneys Justin Shur, Megan Church and Emily Damrau appeared for Clinesmith at the hearing.
Although the government’s case against Clinesmith does not suggest a broader conspiracy to take down or damage President Donald Trump, it is likely however, to fuel the president’s allegations that the FBI abused its power to spy on his campaign and damage him after the election.
Trump blasted Clinesmith at a news conference last week, calling him “a corrupt FBI attorney.”
“So that’s just the beginning, I would imagine, because what happened should never happen again,” Trump said.
Trump has called for widespread prosecutions of those in the FBI and intelligence community he perceives as his political enemies, contending that the entire investigation of his campaign’s contacts with Russia was a “witch hunt” against him. Horowitz’s probe, despite its findings of wrongdoing by Clinesmith and problems with the FISA applications, concluded that the FBI had a legitimate basis to investigate the campaign’s contacts with Russia.
Clinesmith’s alteration of the email followed a discussion with colleagues about whether Page had a history as a CIA source.
Clinesmith, in internal messages, indicated that he believed Page was a “subsource” but never a source, and when a superior asked whether he had it in writing, Clinesmith forwarded an email from a CIA liaison but added his own words to it to underscore his view that Page was “not a source.”
“Relying on the altered email, [the supervisory FBI agent] signed and submitted the application to the court on June 29, 2017,” prosecutors said.
Clinesmith was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe after Horowitz discovered internal messages that revealed he espoused anti-Trump sentiment. Mueller also removed FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page after discovering similarly anti-Trump messages, though all officials have argued their personal political views did not influence their investigative decisions.
Among the messages Horowitz uncovered was one sent the day after Trump’s election in 2016:
“Who knows if the rhetoric about deporting people, walls, and crap is true. I honestly feel like there is going to be a lot more gun issues, too, the crazies won finally,” Clinesmith wrote. “This is the tea party on steroids. And the GOP is going to be lost, they have to deal with an incumbent in 4 years. We have to fight this again. Also Pence is stupid.”
Two weeks later, when a colleague asked Clinesmith about whether he was rethinking his commitment to serving in the Trump administration, Clinesmith replied “Hell no” and added “Viva le resistance.”
While the false-statement charge Clinesmith admitted to carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, defendants typically get more lenient sentences in accordance with federal sentencing guidelines. Many who plead guilty to a false-statement charge receive no prison time.
Court filings indicate that the non-binding sentencing guidelines will call for Clinesmith to receive between zero and six months in prison and a fine of $9,500 or less, although the plea agreement allows prosecutors to argue for a sentence above the guidelines range.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/19/former-fbi-attorney-pleads-guilty-durham-398605
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An interesting history of a politicized FBI:
What Rhymes with FBI?
Publius
JUN 29, 2024
Mark Twain has been credited with the quip that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” When it comes to corruption and the FBI, he may have been right.
In the late teens to early twenties, evidence began to trickle out in the media suggesting that an individual within the Executive Branch of the United States Government had profited significantly from his official position. Over the course of several years, it became clear that money had flowed from an energy company looking to secure favorable business deals to a self-dealing Executive Branch official. Millions changed hands and the Bureau was called in to investigate.
Yet, the Bureau wasn't actually there to investigate the corrupt official. They were there to investigate any person asking questions about the corruption. They were there as part of an effort to protect the high-level official from rightful scrutiny for his unexplainable wealth. They were there to intimidate those bringing to light misdeeds and corruption.
If this sounds familiar, it should.
You just may have the century wrong.
The Teapot Dome Scandal rocked the Republican administration of Warren G. Harding. The self-dealing and fraud that gave rise to the Teapot Dome Scandal ultimately resulted in the indictment, conviction, and imprisonment of a member of the President’s cabinet. And the behavior of the Bureau during the scandal resulted in the Attorney General being fired following President Harding’s death.
J. Edgar Hoover was brought in to reform the Bureau. By the time he took control of the law enforcement agency that would eventually become the FBI, the agency had been exposed as having been involved in spying on members of Congress in connection with Congressional investigations into the Teapot Dome Scandal. In the short 20 years of its history, the soon-to-be FBI had devolved from a professional law enforcement agency focused on combatting criminal behavior that crossed state lines to a tool for the party in power to harass and investigate political rivals.
Director Hoover purged the ranks. He saw the purge as a necessary step to change the politicized culture of the Bureau by removing agents and staff hired not on merit, but based on ideology. His later misdeeds aside, Hoover was right about the connection between personnel and policy and the need for a personnel reset at the Bureau.
Despite the fact President Harding was a Republican, it was a Republican Senator who arranged for the Senate to investigate the Teapot Dome scandal. And it was that same Republican who had his office ransacked—presumably by the Bureau—in response. The investigation into the Teapot Dome scandal was shockingly bipartisan. Yet it wasn’t the last time Republicans would demonstrate a willingness to investigate the apparent misdeeds of the Bureau under a Republican Administration.
50 years after the Teapot Dome scandal came to light, evidence again began to trickle out in the media. Questions again were raised whether the Bureau and the broader intelligence community were abusing their authorities and had been used by the Nixon Administration to spy on, investigate, and harass political opponents. Once again, Republican members of Congress rose to the occasion, recognizing the risks that the politically-driven abuse of law enforcement and intelligence authorities posed to the Republic. Republicans participated in the congressional investigations into Watergate and the accompanying abuses of Executive Branch authorities by the Bureau and the intelligence community. Republicans again put party aside and stepped forward and supported an investigation into a Republican Administration. The investigations resulted in significant changes to the Bureau, the broader intelligence community, and how Congress conducted oversight of both.
And here we are today. Another 50 years have passed. Again, evidence of misdeeds has trickled out in the media. Again, questions have been raised about the activities of the Bureau and whether the FBI’s authorities have been usurped for political purposes.
Yet, history has not actually repeated itself. Disappointingly, although not surprisingly, there is no Democratic Party support for a bipartisan investigation into the misdeeds of the Bureau under a Democrat Administration. They are unwilling to investigate one of their own, lacking the same fortitude, honor, and will to put the Republic over party that was demonstrated by Republicans following the Teapot Dome scandal and Watergate.
Unfortunately for our Republic, some in the halls of power appear to have read George Washington’s farewell address as instructions rather than words of caution. As the second greatest man ever to walk the earth once said, political parties are “likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.” We near the 250th anniversary of our nation's declaration of independence from a nation and king where abuse of authority was the norm. Despite the passage of time, the words of our founding fathers are more important than ever.
We return to where we started and the quote from one of the greats of American literature: “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” We are 50 years removed from the second major scandal involving the politicization of the Bureau, which itself happened 50 years after the first major scandal involving the politicization of the Bureau. Is anything rhyming yet?
https://peternavarro.substack.com/p/what-rhymes-with-fbi
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Perhaps a stretch, but an interesting analysis of the Mueller investigation in light of the recent SCOTUS finding re executive powers. The takeaway? Mueller’s clown show would not have survived the new standard.
A lot of formatting I’m unwilling to reproduce so give it a gander here:
https://reason.com/volokh/2024/07/08/revisiting-the-mueller-report-in-light-of-trump-v-united-states/
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Nice attention to conceptual detail.
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Not sure this fits with the letter of this thread, but certainly its spirit:
The Government Spent 5 Years Trying to Shut Down the Freedom Center
What Are They So Afraid Of?
by Daniel Greenfield
July 10, 2024 at 4:00 am
[W]e have been left suspended in a state of permanent investigation because.... there's no basis for shutting us down....
[T]he only thing we were ever accused of was providing a forum for political opinions the government didn't like.
And that's not a crime. Unless the government succeeds in making it one.
Since the last presidential election, hundreds of people, from Trump on down, have been dragged through legal proceedings for their political activism based on distorted laws, newly invented charges and abuses of process reminiscent of Franz Kafka's The Trial.
What are they afraid of?
We have conducted deep dives into the Chinese business ties of the Biden family in our new digital pamphlet, Beijing Biden: The Secret Relationship With China That Threatens America, and we have another coming on the Islamic connections in this administration. That's not because we're 'electioneering' but because we're engaging in investigative journalism that explores the conduct and misconduct of those in power.
And the government would rather that we didn't.
Instead of folding, as some other groups in our position might have, we investigated the government and came away with shocking revelations about the enemy nations, foreign and domestic terrorists, pedophiles and every kind of abusive entity being harbored by the IRS.
Those are not places we would have even looked if we had not been targeted in the first place.
That's what they're so afraid of. They're afraid of us. And they're afraid of you.
While Freedom Center Investigates has documented multiple cases of terrorists benefiting from nonprofit status, the IRS ignores and continues to pursue the David Horowitz Freedom Center's nonprofit status. Pictured: The Internal Revenue Service headquarters in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Since its confused retreat from Afghanistan, the Biden administration has spent more time trying to shut down the David Horowitz Freedom Center than fighting Al Qaeda.
While Freedom Center Investigates has documented multiple cases of terrorists benefiting from nonprofit status, the IRS ignores and continues to pursue the Freedom Center's nonprofit status.
Five years should have been more than enough to decide the issue one way or another, but instead we have been left suspended in a state of permanent investigation because while there's no basis for shutting us down, bleeding us from a thousand cuts makes it harder for the Freedom Center to do our work, to raise money and to keep holding the Left accountable.
Five years is a long time. It's the statute of limitations for most federal crimes. But the only thing we were ever accused of was providing a forum for political opinions the government didn't like.
And that's not a crime. Unless the government succeeds in making it one.
The government accused the Freedom Center of 'electioneering' because we had criticized Hillary Clinton. Compared to what happened to some Hillary critics, we probably got off lightly with a 5-year investigation. And we haven't stopped criticizing Hillary (we have two recent articles about her, including an investigative piece that traced her organization to funding for attacks on art around the world and even on the Constitution at the National Archives).
But the perpetual investigation, which has been covered by the Daily Wire and other conservative media outlets, has become a disturbing feature of life and not just for us.
Since the last presidential election, hundreds of people, from Trump on down, have been dragged through legal proceedings for their political activism based on distorted laws, newly invented charges and abuses of process reminiscent of Franz Kafka's The Trial. And even though we are journalists and were not active in the election, we are still being subjected to an endless process because of the reporting and opinion pieces we ran in the 2016 election.
The 2024 election is almost here, and we're being persecuted for journalism from 8 years ago.
How long can this go on? Unlike Josef K, the protagonist of The Trial, we refuse to let it define us. We've cut costs and refocused on our journalism because it's what the government fears.
Unlike The Trial, we know that there's nothing irrational or coincidental about what we're going through. Our investigations of the IRS and weaponized nonprofits have made it all too clear that the government calculatedly turns a blind eye to nonprofits that electioneer and act as voter turnout operations for the regime. Those investigations have only made us a bigger target.
The five years of the government trying to shut us down has become a badge of honor.
When we uncovered a letter by the former IRS Chief of Exempt Organizations, a crony of the infamous Lois Lerner best known from the Obama's Tea Party targeting scandal, denouncing the Freedom Center and Front Page Magazine because according to him our articles, including one about the Paris Climate Accord, were not "sufficiently full and fair", it was a validation of our work.
This is not about anything except the fact that the government fears our reporting.
What are they afraid of? In the 5 years since the government has been investigating us, we exposed the terrorist sympathies of Biden administration appointees, the fundraising links between Antifa and the DNC, the intersections between cryptocurrency, terror money and smuggled gold bars of the Biden family, and the relaunch of the Clinton Global Initiative.
And that's just a small sampling of the investigative journalism that we do on a regular basis.
We have conducted deep dives into the Chinese business ties of the Biden family in our new digital pamphlet, Beijing Biden: The Secret Relationship With China That Threatens America, and we have another coming on the Islamic connections in this administration. That's not because we're 'electioneering' but because we're engaging in investigative journalism that explores the conduct and misconduct of those in power.
And the government would rather that we didn't.
After five years and legal expenses of over $600,000, the Freedom Center has struggled, but we know that there are others in prison who are far worse off than we are. If the IRS thought that subjecting us to an indefinite investigation would cause us to rethink our convictions or fall apart, the organization's politicized figures had underestimated us and this country.
Instead of folding, as some other groups in our position might have, we investigated the government and came away with shocking revelations about the enemy nations, foreign and domestic terrorists, pedophiles and every kind of abusive entity being harbored by the IRS.
Those are not places we would have even looked if we had not been targeted in the first place.
Last month, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyoming) quoted our work at a congressional hearing to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
"I actually think that Daniel Greenfield, a contributor to Front Page Magazine, may have said it best when he said that a justice system can survive those who challenge the prosecutors, but it can't survive those who prosecute the challengers which is kind of the situation with the Biden administration."
We have challenged and we have been prosecuted. And it is important for Attorney General Garland all those in power to know that we are going to continue investigating those in power.
Despite being targeted for our criticism of Hillary, Front Page Magazine has outlived her political career. And of many others. We're not about to be intimidated into stopping. Not now. Or ever.
That's what they're so afraid of. They're afraid of us. And they're afraid of you.
Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20772/government-trying-to-shut-down-freedom-center
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I'm thinking the Lawfare thread an apt place for it as well.
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These came across my desk.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/buffalo-shooting-federal-agent-knew-shooters-plans-investigation.amp
https://headlineusa.com/scoop-fbi-identified-person-of-interest-in-capitol-pipe-bomb-case-by-jan-10-2021/
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/what-did-fbi-really-know-terrorist-attack-garland-texas
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Placed here as there are links to a number of FBI investigative failures at the original piece:
It’s Biden’s Fault
JULY 2024BY ADAM MILL
President Joe Biden is in charge of protecting his political rivals. He’s in charge of the Secret Service. Elections need candidates. The assassination attempt against Trump was a literal attack on the integrity of America’s elections. If the president won’t vigorously protect his rival candidates, then he’s not protecting American democracy.
Instead of taking responsibility for what happened, President Biden has repeatedly expressed full confidence in Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas who, in turn, has expressed full confidence in Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. Unlike in the cases of the attacks on sitting Presidents Kennedy and Reagan, former President Trump and candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cannot, as candidates, direct the federal government to provide adequate protection. It is President Biden who is responsible for providing that protection.
Biden is also responsible for providing the American people with a prompt and accurate explanation of what went wrong. Unless he fires the responsible officials, he is tacitly endorsing what happened in Butler, Pa., and inviting repetition. It’s up to him, not the American public, to restore public faith in the federal government by prying the truth from his subordinate agencies.
We’re still learning key facts about the attempt on President Trump’s life. Where did the ladder come from? Why is there no apparent social media for this 20-year-old? Why wasn’t the shooter’s vantage point, an obvious point of attack, covered by the Secret Service? The gap in security far exceeds anything that Lee Harvey Oswald or John Hinckley, Jr. had to exploit. We’re not talking about a window overlooking a speeding motorcade. The rooftop should have been secured—nobody disputes that.
The glaring security lapse is made more problematic by Biden’s heated rhetoric, calling Trump a dictator who will end democracy. He has repeatedly suggested the urgent need to “stop” Trump. Trump, according to Biden, is an “existential threat” to American Democracy. His speech blaming Trump for violent rhetoric has no credibility. Trump is not responsible for the assassination attempt. Trump doesn’t invoke the urgency of rising fascism in 1930s Germany. The anti-Trump hysteria created an environment in which many people warned of the gathering conditions that put Trump at risk of exactly what happened. Almost everyone saw the attack coming.
The FBI has swooped in to take control of the case. Unfortunately, the agency has given the American public ample reasons to be skeptical that it will handle the investigation in a professional and nonpartisan manner. We can predict this outcome because the FBI has a long history of abusing its role in investigating high-profile cases. The examples of the FBI mishandling high-profile cases are much longer than the list of their successes:
The Robert Hanssen case
the Atlanta bombing case
the Anthrax attack investigation
the Ted Stevens corruption case
the DC sniper case
Midyear Exam (the Clinton email investigation)
Crossfire Hurricane (the Trump/Russia collusion investigation)
the Mueller probe
FBI agent David Harris (sexual predation of multiple children)
the Seth Rich investigation
the Epstein “investigation”
the Larry Nassar investigation
the Las Vegas mass shooting
the Hunter Biden laptop
Each of these examples follows a common pattern. The FBI rushes in to control the narrative but fails to timely deliver a bona fide criminal case or provide a clear picture of the facts. In political cases, the FBI has repeatedly used its authority to influence domestic politics. But rarely, if ever, has the FBI handled a high-profile case in a manner that fosters confidence. These aren’t exceptions. The pattern is almost uninterrupted.
There’s really no hope that the FBI will help Americans gain a greater understanding of the attack on Trump. The case is political and the FBI, at its core, is a political operation cosplaying as a law enforcement agency.
The FBI’s long pattern of misconduct has become so obvious that serious people are asking whether the rogue agency does more harm than good. Many have detected a contemptuous, dismissive attitude from FBI Director Christopher Wray towards the FBI’s constitutional masters. In light of the recent ascendance of its most famous victim, Donald Trump, skepticism of the FBI will only grow.
We all remember FBI Agent Peter Strzok promising his anti-Trump lover, FBI attorney Lisa Page, that he would use his authority as an FBI agent to “stop” Trump from being elected. Many believe this attitude persists within FBI leadership. This time eight years ago, the FBI had already started hatching plans to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power to Trump. If the FBI bungles the assassination investigation, we should treat it as a last straw and get rid of the agency.
The lack of a coherent explanation for what happened in Butler breeds conspiracy theories. When we hear the head of the Secret Service explain that the slope of the roof prevented the Secret Service from closing off the threat to candidate Trump, we know we’re being lied to. The roof’s slope was no greater than that used by the Secret Service counter-snipers who shot the assassin. While important, the safety of the Secret Service officers is never paramount to the safety of a current or former president.
Will we find emails and texts among Secret Service personnel like the ones exchanged between Strzok and Page? Will we uncover denials of requests to boost Trump’s security detail? The stonewalling hints that the truth is more terrible than we already know.
But there’s no question who is at fault. President Biden is in charge of both the FBI and the Secret Service. He is responsible for providing answers to the public questions about this attack on our election. If he won’t answer the questions, it’s because the answers would make him look even worse than he already does.
https://chroniclesmagazine.org/online-feature/its-bidens-fault/
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https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/what-did-fbi-really-know-terrorist-attack-garland-texas
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Nothing new here, though there are links within to deeper explorations of some of the FBIs more atrocious entrapments. And the piece’s main point is worth mulling: is the FBI any longer able to actually investigate, rather than set up political entrapment schemes?
The FBI is made of snitches, often trapping Americans into committing crime
By Michael Walsh
Published July 24, 2021
Updated July 24, 2021, 7:50 p.m. ET
Back in 1935, tough guy James Cagney cemented the image of the incorruptible FBI agent in the movie “G Men.” The film played on Cagney’s outlaw image — honed in pictures like “The Public Enemy” and “Blonde Crazy” — but flipped the script and put his character, Brick Davis, on the side of the good guys. Same Cagney, cracking wise, firing guns and socking jaws, but this time from behind a badge.
What a difference a new century makes. Leading up to the events of 9/11, there was probably no federal agency with a higher public stature than the FBI: a predominantly Irish-Catholic agency of armed lawyers recruited from Fordham and St. John’s (as opposed to the Ivy League-heavy, Protestant CIA). But today, after two decades of failure, embarrassment, mendacity, favoritism, political partisanship, incompetent leadership and exasperating sanctimony about a “higher loyalty,” the Bureau’s moral reputation lies in tatters.
Whether it was former Director James Comey sanctimoniously dithering in public over Hillary Clinton’s emails in 2016, to former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s misleading of investigators about his role in leaking confidential memos to the news media, to the illicit lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page cooing about an “insurance policy” against a Trump victory that year, the FBI has destroyed its squeaky-clean public image.
But wait — there’s worse. It’s become an organization of snitches and spies, borderline entrapping the angry and the weak-minded into committing crimes. Nearly a decade ago, New York Times’ David K. Shipler listed a series of would-be terrorist plots thwarted by the FBI — only to find that the vast majority of them were facilitated by agents and informers posing as terrorists themselves. They even chauffeured some of the suspects to the would-be crime scenes themselves, only to foil the “plot” at the last minute.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (from left) and agents Lisa Page and Peter Strzok have all helped damage the FBI's reputation.
It’s unethical, immoral, shameful — but not illegal. And it’s still going on, with the conservatives right now in the crosshairs instead of lone-wolf Muslims and cranky survivalists.
Consider the Gretchen Whitmer “kidnapping” plot. Conveniently timed to break just a month before the 2020 election, the FBI announced it had disrupted a conspiracy to kidnap the dictatorial governor of Michigan. Fourteen alleged members of a right-wing militia called the Wolverine Watchmen were arrested, and six were charged in federal court.
Problem was, the Gang that Couldn’t Scheme Straight was heavily infiltrated, if not actually entrapped, by a dozen or so undercover informants, to the extent that the G-men became more provocateurs than agents. According to reporting by Buzzfeed News, they went far beyond monitoring the group’s activities, instead covering hotel and travel expenses and otherwise egging them on in a crazy plan to grab the governor at her vacation home and somehow maroon her on a boat in Lake Michigan.
FBI agent Richard Trask was arrested for domestic assault last week.
The farce peaked last week when one of the lead FBI agents on the case, Richard Trask, was arrested and charged with smashing his wife’s head against a nightstand and choking her after a swingers’ party they had both attended. But the damage in the crucial swing state had been done: The implication that Trump supporters were dangerous white nationalists and domestic terrorists no doubt cost the former president’s votes in a state he lost by only 154,188 votes.
A politicized Bureau with no moral compass is one of the lasting legacies of the rise of the national-security state, pioneered by a panicky George W. Bush in the aftermath of Sept. 11 and now seemingly with us forever. The G-men who once shot it out with bank robbers in Kansas City and rolled up Russian spy networks are now acting more like a domestic security service, enforcing the whims of the party in power.
After 9/11, the nation was shocked to learn that the intelligence agencies had ample warning of al Qaeda’s malign intentions but somehow failed to “connect the dots.” Twenty years on, those dots are now being connected — and they’re pointing straight at the American people.
Michael Walsh is an author and screenwriter. His latest book, “Last Stands: Why Men Fight When All Is Lost” (St. Martins), is out now.
https://nypost.com/2021/07/24/todays-fbi-of-snitches-often-traps-americans-into-committing-crimes/
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from 2023
https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/durhams-damning-report-assails-fbi-leadership-media-enabling-hillary
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https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/25/sources-secret-service-inserted-itself-into-case-of-hunter-bidens-gun-477879
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third
https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1815446054428352591
Please give this a close read!
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Fourth
https://dallasexpress.com/national/fbi-allegedly-ordered-destruction-of-evidence/
https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/370122-another-software-upgrade-suppressing-evidence-is-fbi-standard-procedure/
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/fbi-secrets-agents-expose
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It’s not that Wray lies, it’s that he does it so casually, publicly, and smugly:
https://x.com/ronnyjacksontx/status/1816591560491876589?s=61
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At first, I doubted the need for this thread, , ,
https://headlineusa.com/utah-attorney-catches-fbi-deception-in-okc-bomb-records-case/
https://ucentralmedia.com/death-of-okc-bombing-responder-prompts-new-investigation/
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1996/05/10/finding-hero-label-hard-police-officer-kills-self/62355661007/
https://www.activistpost.com/2017/04/never-forget-hero-cop-blew-whistle-okc-bombing-not-commit-suicide.html
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At first, I doubted the need for this thread, , ,
https://headlineusa.com/utah-attorney-catches-fbi-deception-in-okc-bomb-records-case/
https://ucentralmedia.com/death-of-okc-bombing-responder-prompts-new-investigation/
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1996/05/10/finding-hero-label-hard-police-officer-kills-self/62355661007/
https://www.activistpost.com/2017/04/never-forget-hero-cop-blew-whistle-okc-bombing-not-commit-suicide.html
Back when the bombing occurred, I would have called BS on this stuff. Having watched all the FBI entrapment ops that followed … I’m not so sure.
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Exactly so.
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Those of us that have watched The Wire have seen a fictional treatment of this very real effort to minimize spiking crime by ... not reporting it:
Bad data from the FBI mislead about crime
By
Mark Morgan
and
Sean Kennedy
April 5, 2024 6:00 am
The fourth quarter 2023 crime report from the FBI, the federal government’s keeper of crime data, is unreliable at best and deceptive at worst.
The FBI’s preliminary 2023 data show murder declined by 13.2% across the country and violent crime dropped 5.7% compared to 2022 levels. Various news headlines have reported the FBI’s numbers unquestioningly, claiming murder is “plummeting” and violent crime “declined significantly” to pre-pandemic levels.
But these latest figures warrant skepticism, as we outline in a new report. In fact, violent crime is up substantially from 2019 levels, and last year’s apparent drop is less significant than it appears.
Part of the problem is how police departments report offenses to the FBI. The FBI asked, then demanded, that law enforcement agencies “transition” away from the system they used for decades to a new, more detailed but onerous one. The 2021 mandate to use NIBRS to submit crime data proved a disaster as overstretched departments, especially in large cities, failed to reach compliance and thus did not submit data.
In 2019, 89% of agencies covering 97% of the population submitted data, but by 2021, that coverage plummeted to less than 63% of departments overseeing just 65% of the population. Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City all failed to submit crime data. To increase participation, the FBI relaxed the NIBRS requirement in 2022, allowing agencies to report via the legacy system.
But many other cities, such as St. Louis, which had transitioned to the new method, still struggle to comply and submit partial or faulty data. The FBI compensates by relying more heavily on “estimation,” or informed guesswork, to fill in the gaps and produce aggregated data.
That method of inferring offense totals is based on similar jurisdictions and past trends but is prone to error since it cannot compensate for local factors or events. For example, comparing Baltimore’s 2015 homicide total to similar cities’ trends would produce a skewed result. Baltimore, beset by riots and a police stand-down, saw murder rise 62% that year. In peer cities, murders rose in Cleveland only 15% and fell in Detroit by 1% and Memphis by 4%.
And the figures the agencies do report to the FBI do not match the agencies’ publicly reported figures. For Baltimore, the FBI reported 225 murders in 2023, but the city reported 262 — which means the FBI left out 37 murders. In Milwaukee, the police department reported a 7% increase in robberies, but the FBI showed a 13% drop. Nashville’s own data tallied more than 6,900 aggravated assaults in 2023, but the FBI counted only 5,941, leaving almost 1,000 of those offenses “missing.” This trend is consistent across the board: While 2022’s FBI city-level figures track the police’s own data, the 2023 numbers consistently undercount offense totals. Any year-to-year comparison overstates decline.
Other measures of crime levels undermine, or at least muddle, the veracity of the FBI’s data, which rely on “reported” offenses by victims and law enforcement themselves. The federal government’s own victims’ survey, which attempts to capture the gap between the number of actual offenses and the number reported to police, shows much higher offense rates than the FBI does. Moreover, a rising share of victims are failing to report their victimizations at all. In 2022, only 42% of violent crime victims and 33% of property crime victims bothered to report the crime to police.
That underreporting reduces the reliability of FBI numbers in measuring actual offense levels. For example, robbery offenses, which constitute roughly 25% of all violent crime by volume compared to 5% for murder, declined 18% between 2019 and 2022, according to the FBI, while the victim’s survey suggests a 30% rise.
Another complicating factor is underreporting by the police themselves, who might be under pressure to “downcharge” offenses or dissuade the victims from reporting the crime at all. While the prevalence of underreporting by the police is hard to quantify, an investigation found that between 2005 and 2012, the Los Angeles Police Department erased thousands of crimes, mostly violent assaults, by reclassifying them as lesser offenses or not capturing them at all. The fuzzy math artificially reduced the city’s crime rate by 7%. Any such malfeasance, when officials are under immense pressure to show progress in fighting crime, would inject bad data into the FBI’s estimation model, only compounding its errors.
Our analysis of 40 jurisdictions that both reported data to the FBI and the Major Cities Chiefs Association, which collects data from the largest police departments, shows that homicide declined 10.2% across 40 major cities in 2023 since 2022, but the FBI reported a 12.8% decline in those same jurisdictions. Similarly, the FBI reported a 6.6% decline in violent crime since 2022, but the same cities reported only a 4.5% drop, with the FBI counting 3,200 more violent crimes in 2022 than the MCCA and 2,600 fewer in 2023 — a net discrepancy of almost 5,900 offenses. That gap conveniently results in a more significant drop in crime levels year to year.
In reality, violent crime is up substantially from 2019 levels. In big cities, murder is still elevated — up 23% since 2019 across all 70 cities tracked by the MCCA and up 18% according to a 32-city analysis by the nonprofit organization Council on Criminal Justice. For aggravated assaults, CCJ’s 25-city sample found those up 8%, while the MCCA larger sample of cities reported a 26% increase over the same period.
To say crime is down is like descending from a tall peak and standing on a high bluff and saying you are closer to the ground — a true but misleading statement. Worse, the FBI’s crime data serve as a poor altimeter to judge how high (or low) crime actually is.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/2953562/bad-data-from-the-fbi-mislead-about-crime/
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Good to have precise answer to this lie of theirs.
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Good to have precise answer to this lie of theirs.
As the piece notes, a lot of jurisdictions don’t even report their data, while the FBI’s new system, as also noted, is complex and hence prone to error, while there is also the GIGO issue (old geek programming term for “garbage in, garbage out”), meaning a lot of the people submitting stuff are juking the stats to begin with. Throw in strong political motivation to conceal spiking crime and you end up with “uniform” stats that are anything but.
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A lot of links and formatting that don’t translate well, but make quite clear the FBI has infiltrated the group while those that join it end up in the maw of an entrapment machine:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/surprise-fbi-declassifies-950-pages-suspected-fed-front/
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When I first started this thread I had no inkling the Secret Service should be included in its title. After the assassination attempt Trump survived it now appears obvious it should have been included at the outset. Imagine a law enforcement official counseling the destruction of evidence! It certainly demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that Cheatle's loyalty lay with the Biden's rather than the institution she, clearly poorly, led:
Former Secret Service Chief Wanted To Destroy Cocaine Evidence
By Susan Crabtree - RCP StaffAugust 05, 2024
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and others in top agency leadership positions wanted to destroy the cocaine discovered in the White House last summer, but the Secret Service Forensics Services Division and the Uniformed Division stood firm and rejected the push to dispose of the evidence, according to three sources in the Secret Service community.
Multiple heated confrontations and disagreements over how best to handle the cocaine ensued after a Secret Services Uniformed Division officer found the bag on July 2, 2023, a quiet Sunday while President Biden and his family were at Camp David in Maryland, the sources said.
At least one Uniformed Division officer was initially assigned to investigate the cocaine incident. But after he told his supervisors, including Cheatle and Acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe, who was deputy director at the time, that he wanted to follow a certain crime-scene investigative protocol, he was taken off the case, according to a source within the Secret Service community familiar with the circumstances of his removal.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi did not immediately return RCP’s request for comment.
The discovery of the bag of cocaine posed an unusual problem for Cheatle, who resigned in the face of bipartisan pressure after the July 13 assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
Hunter Biden had a well-documented addiction to cocaine, crack cocaine, and other substances for many years but repeatedly claimed to be sober since 2021, an assertion that has prompted President Biden to often proclaim how “proud” he is of his son. While neither Joe nor Hunter Biden were at the executive mansion when the cocaine was found, it was discovered after a period when Hunter had been staying there.
Cheatle became close to the Biden family while serving on Vice President Joe Biden’s protective detail – so close that Biden tapped Cheatle for the director job in 2022, in part because of her close relationship to first lady Jill Biden.
When the cocaine was first discovered, Cheatle apparently knew it would spark a media firestorm. The incident prompted viral memes about Hunter Biden’s addictions and accusations from Republican political figures, including Nikki Haley, that the Secret Service knew whose cocaine it was and was trying to cover it up.
Normally, the discovery of cocaine or another illegal narcotic in the White House complex or in and around the first family and their staff wouldn’t come to light at all.
That’s because the president’s and first lady’s, as well as family members’ protective Secret Service details, the inner-most ring of protective agents assigned to the first family, would simply dispose of illegal drugs or other “contraband” found in the White House, personal residences, or other private areas of the president, his family, and White House staff, according to three sources in the Secret Service community.
But it wasn’t a member of President Biden’s regular detail who found the bag of cocaine just two days before the July 4 holiday last year. Instead, a member of the agency’s Uniformed Division, which is charged with protecting the facilities and venues for presidents and other agency protectees, discovered the substance in the White House complex while conducting routine rounds of the building.
The exact location where the officer found the bag changed several times during the first weeks of media reports on the incident. Initial reports said the cocaine was found in a reference library. Later reports indicated it was in a “work area” of the West Wing, which is attached to the mansion that houses the president and his family, the Oval Office, the cabinet room, the press briefing room, and offices for staff. CBS News, citing law enforcement sources, then reported it was found in a facility used by White House staff and guests to store phones.
An official Secret Service statement, issued at the conclusion of the agency’s internal investigation into the cocaine discovery, said a Uniformed Division officer found the bag in a “vestibule leading to the lobby area of the West Executive Avenue entrance to the White House,” a well-trafficked area used on the weekend for White House tours. That statement was released on July 13, eleven days after the cocaine’s discovery.
The officer who first found the bag with a white substance immediately flagged it as a potentially hazardous substance, worried that the bag of white power could contain deadly anthrax or ricin.
A Technical Security Division, or TSD, investigator would normally be deployed to the scene. These investigators, sometimes wearing hazmat suits, can identify different types of hazardous substances and explosives and work to quickly remove or defuse them. However, the TSD investigator was not called in on a Sunday evening of a holiday weekend. Instead, a Secret Service officer or agent called in the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department, who evacuated the White House complex while they tested the white substance on site, determining it was cocaine.
Because the press was part of the evacuation, there was no way to hide the information about the discovery, and the Secret Service leaders quickly shifted to crisis communications mode. Meanwhile, the substance and packaging were treated as evidence and sent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, which again analyzed it for biothreats. Those tests also came back negative for hazardous material.
Then, the Secret Service sent the plastic bag and its contents to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s crime laboratory for fingerprint and DNA analysis. While there were no latent fingerprints detected, the FBI lab found some DNA material, according to three sources in the Secret Service community. Several sources, citing private statements by a special agent in the Forensics Services Division who supervised the vault containing the cocaine evidence, said the agency ran the DNA material against national criminal databases and “got a partial hit.” The term “partial hit” is vague in this context, but in forensics lingo usually means law enforcement found DNA matching a blood relative of a finite pool of people.
“The Congressional oversight committees need to put White under oath and confirm the ‘partial hit,’” a source told RCP. “Then the FBI needs to explain who the partial hit was against, then determine what blood family member has ties to the White House or what person matching the partial hit was present at the White House that weekend.”
Other sources familiar with the investigation and Cheatle’s alleged push to destroy the cocaine didn’t know if anyone at the Secret Service ran the DNA material found on the cocaine against a national criminal database. In January, federal prosecutors urged a judge to reject Hunter Biden’s efforts to dismiss gun charges against him, revealing that investigators last year discovered cocaine residue on the pouch the president’s son used to hold his gun. In June, a 12-member jury found Hunter Biden guilty on charges related to his purchase and possession of the firearm while he was addicted to crack cocaine.
But Secret Service leaders, under pressure from Cheatle and other top agency officials, chose not to run additional searches for DNA matches or conduct interviews with the hundreds of people who work in the White House complex.
“That’s because they didn’t want to know, or even narrow down the field of who it could be,” a source stated. “It could have been Hunter Biden, it could have been a staffer, it could have been someone doing a tour – we’ll never know.”
During the feverish speculation in the days and weeks after the cocaine’s discovery, the White House refused to answer whether the cocaine came from a Biden family member and labeled as “irresponsible” reporters who asked about a possible link to Hunter or another Biden family member.
In announcing the conclusion of its investigation into the cocaine incident, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency determined that interviewing all 500 people could be a strain on resources, might infringe upon civil liberties, and would likely be fruitless without corresponding physical evidence tying any person to the drugs.
“On July 12, the Secret Service received the FBI’s laboratory results, which did not develop latent fingerprints, and insufficient DNA was present for investigative comparisons,” Guglielmi said. “Therefore, the Secret Service is not able to compare evidence against the known pool of individuals.”
“There was no surveillance video footage found that provided investigative leads or any other means for investigators to identify who may have deposited the found substance in this area,” Guglielmi continued. “Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered.”
“At this time, the Secret Service's investigation is closed due to a lack of physical evidence,” the spokesman added. “The U.S. Secret Service takes its mission to protect U.S. leaders, facilities, and events seriously, and we are constantly adapting to meet the needs of the current and future security environment.”
Over the last month as the agency has come under fire for a series of mistakes leading to an assassination attempt against Trump, Guglielmi has been forced to correct a previous press statement that the agency did not deny repeated requests for additional security assets from the former president’s staff in the months leading up to the assassination attempt.
It’s unclear exactly when Cheatle and other top officials tried to persuade the Forensics Services Division to destroy the evidence. At some point during the investigation, Matt White, the vault supervisor, received a call from Cheatle or someone speaking on her behalf asking him to destroy the bag of cocaine because agency leaders wanted to close the case, according to two sources in the Secret Service community.
“Protocol is, whether you act on the [DNA] hit or not, we still have to maintain evidence for a period of up to seven years,” a source told RCP. “It became a big to-do.”
White’s boss, Glenn Dennis, the head of the Forensics Services Division, then conferred with the Uniformed Division, which first discovered the cocaine.
“A decision was made not to get rid of the evidence, and it really pissed off Cheatle,” a source in the Secret Service community said in an interview.
At the time of the cocaine’s discovery, Richard Macauley was serving as the acting chief of the Uniformed Division after the recent retirement of Alfonso Dyson Sr., a 29-year veteran of the agency. When Dyson left his position, Macauley, who is black, became the acting director. Despite Cheatle’s push to hire and promote minority men and women, Macauley was passed over for the job of Uniformed Division chief in what many in the agency view as an act of retaliation for supporting those who refused to dispose of the cocaine, according to several sources in the Secret Service community.
In 2018, Macauley was named the Secret Services Uniformed Division Officer of the Year. In an interview with Federal News Network, a news talk show focused on issues of interest to federal government workers, a host lauded Macauley for receiving the award and credited him with tightening operations, increasing diversity, boosting officer training, and improving working conditions, “all while taking care of his own shift operations.” Macauley would go on to serve one year, from February 2022 to January 2023, as deputy assistant sergeant at arms at the U.S. House of Representatives.
Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics' national political correspondent.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/08/05/former_secret_service_chief_wanted_to_destroy_cocaine_evidence_151392.html
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SS now in the thread subject line.
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funny how destruction of evidence is not a crime in this case.
https://www.conservativereview.com/they-didnt-want-to-know-secret-service-and-disgraced-director-kimberly-cheatle-wanted-to-cover-up-cocaine-evidence-found-in-white-house-sources-say-2668899093.html
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Congressional author or articles of impeachment against Harris has TN home raided by FBI due to campaign finance “irregularities.” FBI Director Wray, moreover, visited TN the day before. All a coincidence, no doubt:
https://tennesseestar.com/politics/kamalawfare-politicized-fbi-executes-search-warrant-on-gop-rep-andy-ogles-who-leads-impeachment-of-vp-harris/tpappert/2024/08/06/
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https://www.malone.news/p/tsa-ssss-tulsi-gabbard-pre-crime?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=583200&post_id=147490206&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=z2120&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
https://www.malone.news/p/the-stazi-old-school-masters-of-psywar
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SS picks lock of hair salon without authorization so Harris, others, can tinkle the, after 2 hours depart leaving door unlocked and security cams disabled:
https://x.com/yashar/status/1822446668333416826?s=61
ETA more: https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2024/08/11/why-the-secret-service-had-to-apologize-to-a-local-salon-owner-n2643238
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https://www.zerohedge.com/political/big-question-how-are-ukraine-stakeholders-cia-us-intel-community-going-stop-donald-trump
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https://www.malone.news/p/the-stazi-old-school-masters-of-psywar?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=583200&post_id=147445785&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo1ODg4MTI0MCwicG9zdF9pZCI6MTQ3NDQ1Nzg1LCJpYXQiOjE3MjMwNDg5NzMsImV4cCI6MTcyNTY0MDk3MywiaXNzIjoicHViLTU4MzIwMCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.VBvOR-tE5IXt3UEpU3VsCVS8eVZA5curVAwQ6zgBtrc&r=z2120&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
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Check out this memo written by the FBI’s ombudsman calling out the Bureau’s (abbreviated “Bu”) political hacks:
https://x.com/julie_kelly2/status/1823052418625454082?s=61
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IIRC Ritter is a fg snake and know nothing about Simes:
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According to Biden administration officials, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is beginning a broad criminal investigation into Americans with connections to Russian state media. The FBI searched the homes of former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter and former Trump adviser Dimitri Simes earlier this month, and the officials said more searches are expected soon.
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https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/our-out-of-control-federal-law-enforcement-agencies/
August 2024 | Volume 53, Issue 8
Our Out-of-Control Federal Law Enforcement Agencies
Ryan Cleckner
Businessman, Attorney, and Author
The following is adapted from a talk delivered on July 23, 2024, at Hillsdale College’s Blake Center for Faith and Freedom in Somers, Connecticut.
In March of this year, Bryan Malinowski, the executive director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, was killed by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) during a pre-dawn raid of his home. It was an unwarranted and indefensible killing of a kind that should never, ever happen in a free country like the United States. Because we have a media that no longer serves in its traditional role as a government watchdog, this incident was not widely reported. Because too many members of Congress no longer take seriously their responsibility to protect the rights of those who elect them, the ATF has suffered no repercussions.
How and why did this killing take place?
Bryan Malinowski grew up as an avid collector of coins and, more recently, firearms. He took to displaying his coin and firearm collections at gun shows, where he would occasionally purchase and sell firearms.
Under federal law, it is perfectly legal to buy and sell firearms as a collector or hobbyist, even without a Federal Firearms License (FFL). An individual doesn’t need to obtain an FFL unless he is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms. Congress has defined “engaged in the business” to apply to those who deal in firearms “as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit” as opposed to those who make “occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby.”
Malinowski already had a livelihood—indeed, as the executive director of the airport, he was one of the highest paid city employees in Little Rock. Buying or selling firearms was something he did in his spare time. So it makes sense that he did not see the need to obtain a license. At some point, however, the ATF came to the view that Malinowski had crossed over the nebulous line from hobbyist to “engaged in the business” and that he therefore did need to obtain an FFL.
Leaving aside the question of whether the ATF was right about this—a moot issue now, given the fact that the ATF killed him—the obvious thing for the ATF to have done was to contact Malinowski through the mail, by phone, or in person, to inform him that it had determined he needed a license. If it had, he could have decided whether to stop selling firearms or to pay the nominal annual fee of $65 for an FFL.
But the ATF didn’t do the obvious thing and contact Malinowski. Here is what we know happened instead. Multiple undercover ATF agents were sent to observe Malinowski selling firearms at a gun show, a GPS tracker was secretly placed on Malinowski’s car, and a search warrant was obtained for his home. Malinowski wasn’t home the first time ATF agents showed up to serve the warrant, so the second time they left nothing to chance. Dressed in SWAT gear, together with Little Rock police, they showed up in ten vehicles at Malinowski’s house before dawn on March 19. They cut the power to his house and put a piece of tape over the doorbell camera so that Malinowski couldn’t see who they were. Less than a minute later, after an exchange of gunfire, Malinowski was dead. And in violation of both ATF and Little Rock police policies requiring body cameras, not one of the law enforcement agents involved in this deadly raid was wearing an activated camera.
After the killing, Malinowski’s wife was forcibly taken outside in her nightgown in 34-degree weather and was kept outside for over four hours despite multiple requests to see her husband and use the bathroom. In an audio recording from a police vehicle she can be heard sobbing, asking why they killed her husband, and insisting that the agents must have the wrong house because she and her husband are honest, law-abiding people.
***
What happened to Bryan Malinowski is not an isolated incident. It is part of a growing pattern of KGB-style behavior by U.S. federal law enforcement agencies. Let me mention briefly just a few other cases.
Back during the Trump presidency, Roger Stone, a Republican political consultant since the Nixon era, was targeted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for obstruction of justice and making false statements regarding the WikiLeaks release of Hillary Clinton’s emails. These are non-violent crimes, and the nattily dressed, 72-year-old Stone has given no indication over his long life that he is prone to violence of any kind. But on January 25, 2019, the FBI conducted a pre-dawn raid at Stone’s Fort Lauderdale home in a manner befitting a raid on an armed compound of a Mexican drug lord. Nearly 30 heavily armed agents swarmed Stone’s home at 6:00 a.m. With guns aimed at his entryway, they pounded on the door until Stone showed up barefoot in his pajamas. Topping things off, there was a boat offshore behind Stone’s home manned by armed agents and equipped with floodlights.
In October 2021, pro-life activist Mark Houck and his twelve-year-old son were conducting a weekly prayer vigil near an abortion clinic in Philadelphia. Their standard practice was to hand out literature and, if women were interested, to help them find alternatives to abortion. Bruce Love, a volunteer escort at the facility, began to harass Houck’s son using vulgar language. During the ensuing argument, Houck pushed Love and Love fell to the ground. Philadelphia police reviewed the incident and no charges were filed. Love later pressed charges, but the case was reviewed and dismissed. Soon thereafter, Houck received notice that he was the target of a federal grand jury investigation for violating the FACE Act, which prohibits blocking access to abortion clinics. Houck’s attorney offered video evidence that Houck had not blocked access. He also told federal prosecutors that if they insisted on bringing charges, Houck would voluntarily surrender. The FBI ignored the offer, and on September 23, 2022, at 6:30 a.m., roughly two dozen FBI agents and Pennsylvania law enforcement officers showed up at Houck’s home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Houck’s wife and seven children were still sleeping when five agents armed with rifles, tactical gear, and battering rams, began pounding on the door. Additional agents surrounded the property. Houck came to the door and his wife wandered down in her bathrobe. Houck was not allowed to say goodbye to his screaming children. Taken to a federal building, he was belly chained and had his wrists shackled to a table for six hours. Four months later a jury found him not guilty.
Craig Robertson was a 75-year-old Air Force veteran from Provo, Utah, likely demented, who made online threats against elected leaders, including President Biden. Neighbors described Robertson as “barely [able to] get around with a cane.” But instead of confronting Robertson on his regular outings to church or to the grocery store, the FBI again decided on a pre-dawn raid. At 6:00 a.m. on August 9, 2023, FBI agents first attempted to break down Robertson’s door with a battering ram, then resorted to using an armored vehicle to smash a hole in his house. The FBI claims that Robertson shot at agents before its agents shot and killed him—though the agency has refused to release any bodycam footage. Robertson’s body was moved to the sidewalk and left unattended for hours.
Other cases could be cited—including the FBI’s unprecedented raid on President Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, in which the use of “deadly force” was authorized—but the point is clear enough. Such actions by federal law enforcement agencies go far beyond what is justified by law and custom in America. The agencies involved respond to criticism by saying that their actions are “by the book.” But this lie, parroted by corporate media, is preposterous on its face. If such a book exists, it represents a radical departure from the historical constraints of constitutional authority and the idea of equality before the law.
I served in the military as a Special Operations sniper and Sniper Team leader in 1st Ranger Battalion. I could have gone on to become a sharpshooter on a police SWAT team or even joined the FBI or one of the other three-letter federal agencies that were widely considered, in the past, to be the cream of the crop in terms of law enforcement. Sadly, they are no longer thought of in the same way.
The flip side of the increasingly thuggish character of these agencies is their diminished effectiveness in fulfilling their core missions, to the point that the American public cannot help but notice. Consider the recent assassination attempt—very nearly successful—on President Trump. The U.S. Secret Service and the FBI are being anything but transparent about their investigations and seem to be going out of their way to make it as difficult as possible for Congress and the public to learn what happened. But the most obvious fact about it, which cannot be covered up, is that the Secret Service allowed a 20-year-old shooter to access the most ideal location for a sniper, even after he had been spotted acting suspiciously and using a laser rangefinder and had been watched for almost 30 minutes. This alone is enough to know the Secret Service that day was more Keystone Cop than cream of the crop.
***
In closing, let me return to the agency I know best, having a lot of first-hand experience dealing with it—the ATF. Like all these federal law enforcement agencies, the ATF was created by Congress and is tasked with executing laws passed by Congress. Congress, in turn, represents and acts on behalf of the American people. In this context, the first and most important thing in bringing the ATF and these other agencies back under control is to impress firmly upon them the fact that they are accountable to Congress and are the servants and not the enemies of the American people—and in the case of the ATF, the fact that one of the people it would still be serving, had ATF agents not killed him, is Bryan Malinowski.
Most of the cases in which I have dealt with the ATF have to do with companies that are licensed to sell firearms—companies that have FFLs—and are under threat of losing their license and thus being put out of business. The Gun Control Act of 1968 is the main body of law concerning this, and in 1986 this law was amended to allow the ATF to revoke an FFL only for a “willful” violation of the law. The willfulness standard was added “to ensure that licenses are not revoked for inadvertent errors or technical mistakes.” In recent years, however, the ATF has adopted what it calls a “Zero Tolerance Policy” that flies in the face of the willfulness standard—and therefore in the face of laws passed by Congress on behalf of the American people.
The ATF’s egregious treatment of Point Blank Firearms, a Michigan company that it is trying to put out of business, provides an example of the harm caused by ATF overreach.
During compliance inspections, the ATF is largely concerned with determining three things: if there are any missing firearms, if all the required records have been filled out and kept properly, and if the licensed company is doing its job as the front line of defense against the criminal possession of firearms.
In the case of Point Blank, the ATF makes three claims, one of which amounts to an inadvertent clerical error. The other two are provably false. The first is that Point Blank was missing firearms transaction forms, which, if true, would be serious. These forms are filled out by the purchaser of a firearm and contain information about the gun, the purchaser, and the background check results. They are the only way for the ATF to prove who ended up with a firearm or who possibly lied on the form. But every single form at Point Blank has been accounted for, complete with the customer’s signature and background check information.
The second claim is that Point Blank transferred a firearm to someone more than 30 days after his background check was run. Again, if true, this is a violation of the law. However, it has been proven that the firearm was transferred on the very same day as the background check. Yet the Detroit field division of the ATF continues to threaten Point Blank with the loss of its license.
Point Blank is a client of mine, so I understand if you don’t take my word on faith. But if you look into it, you will see that the ATF is not only overreaching, but is violating the very rules it requires everyone else to follow. Indeed, of the many ATF inspections I’ve been a part of, not once have the ATF’s records been accurate.
Do you remember Operation Fast and Furious, a program in which the ATF used licensed firearms dealers to funnel thousands of American firearms to Mexican drug cartels? Due to sheer incompetence, most of those firearms were lost and never recovered, and none of the high-level Mexican drug cartel members who ended up with the firearms have been arrested. When U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in a shootout at the border, the weapon that was used to kill him was one of the guns that the ATF intentionally gave to the drug cartels. Needless to say, no heads ever rolled at the ATF as a result.
Another area in which the ATF is violating federal law is in keeping a firearms registry. The Firearms Owners Protection Act passed by Congress in 1986 specifically prohibits the ATF from having an electronic database of firearms and their owners. But Georgia Congressman Andrew Clyde recently visited the ATF records center in West Virginia and discovered that the ATF currently has over 900 million such records scanned and stored electronically.
So how do we regain control over the ATF and other federal law enforcement agencies? It is not going to happen through congressional hearings that provide a forum for political showboating and partisan posturing and that go nowhere. We the American people must demand that Congress, on our behalf, either reassert its authority over these agencies in a way to make it stick or else abolish the agencies and start anew.
If we don’t, Bryan Malinowski will have died in vain and the rest of us, as if we are no longer Americans, will be looking over our shoulders.
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https://revolver.news/2024/09/breaking-fbi-letter-to-dhs-ig-confirms-agency-deleted-j6-pipe-bomb-footage-by-early-march-2022/
Do we have a good list of all the various deleted/lost federal footage in all the various cases?
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https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/our-out-of-control-federal-law-enforcement-agencies/
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Second post:
I'm not sure what it is saying but it seems like pages 11-13 a the heart of the matter here.
https://dodsioo.defense.gov/Portals/46/Documents/DoDD_5240.01_DoD_Intel_Intel-Related_Assist_to_LE_and_Civil_Authorities_27_Sep_24.pdf?ver=5mL1ROn5buFBpQmcUsG3ig%3D%3D
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https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2024/10/14/the-biden-regime-has-just-issued-a-very-suspicious-directive-permitting-military-intervention-in-us-domestic-affairs/
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/supreme-court-tosses-decision-that-shielded-officers-who-arrested-citizen-journalist/ar-AA1sj5vR?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=e3762c48225d4a479480ffee4f203fa2&ei=15
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/supreme-court-tosses-decision-that-shielded-officers-who-arrested-citizen-journalist/ar-AA1sj5vR?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=e3762c48225d4a479480ffee4f203fa2&ei=15
I won't smirk about QI taking it on the chin if you don't do the same re my prediction energy prices would spike enough to be an election issue come November. We've seen $.30 - .40 rise in my neck of the woods of late, but not enough to become a part of the election conversation specifically, in my estimation.
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:-D
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I have not read these yet.
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Remember the old saying? "One man's terrorist, is another's parent at a local school board meeting".
https://judiciary.house.gov/media/press-releases/us-house-judiciary-republicans-doj-labeled-dozens-of-parents-as-terrorist
https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/watch/frank-figliuzzi-calls-republican-ties-to-extremist-groups-the-mainstreaming-of-madness-100251205756
When is the IC/mil using "assistance to local law enforcement" as a fig leaf for an illegal domestic op?
https://www.thefederalcriminalattorneys.com/parallel-construction-investigation
https://www.boylejasari.com/the-problem-of-parallel-construction-in-criminal-investigations/
https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2014/feb/03/dea-parallel-construction-guides/
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/08/dea-and-nsa-team-intelligence-laundering
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https://www.oann.com/newsroom/fbi-quietly-revises-crime-statistics-after-previously-claiming-crime-dropped-during-biden-admin/
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https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2024/10/29/report-whistleblower-claims-there-was-an-off-book-fbi-investigation-into-trump-ordered-by-comey-n3796443
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Once Joyful Harris Now Goes the Full McCarthyite[/b]
Embracing the Big Lie.
November 1, 2024 by Victor Davis Hanson
In the last two weeks, Kamala Harris has been trying to revive her stagnant campaign by smearing Trump as being Hitlerian and a fascist. She claims Trump is planning to put his enemies in encampments.
Yet in the modern era, it was not Trump who put large numbers of U.S. residents and citizens into “relocation camps,” but liberal Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt who sent Japanese-American citizens and residents into them.
If Harris refers to Trump’s supposed fascist policies during his prior four-year tenure, there is no such evidence.
Nonetheless, the once “joyful” Harris is ending her campaign by trafficking in lies and smears reminiscent of the Joe McCarthy era.
Recall that fascists hijack law enforcement and the military to suspend constitutional rights and punish enemies. But Trump did neither.
Instead, in 2016, a corrupt FBI went after Trump himself during the Obama administration with the bogus Steele dossier.
The FBI, which in 2016 had hired the faker Steele, in 2020, fused with social media to suppress accurate news reporting of the embarrassing Hunter Biden laptop scandal.
A number of FBI directors and intelligence officials—John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, Andrew McCabe—who openly sought to destroy Trump had a long history of either lying or feigning amnesia under oath.
Fascists try to warp the legal system. But Trump’s own Justice Department selected an independent special counsel to investigate the invented Russian collusion accusations against him.
In vast contrast, the Biden Justice Department coordinated with Georgia prosecutors Fani Willis and Nathan Wade, special counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, and New York Attorney General Letitia James to prosecute Trump, bankrupt him, and keep off the campaign trail.
Fascists use their governments to destroy their enemies.
During Trump’s term, for the first time in history, the House of Representatives impeached a first-term president twice. And in another first, the Senate tried Trump as a private citizen.
A self-styled “anonymous” federal official bragged openly of deliberately, and likely unlawfully, leading a bureaucratic cabal to sabotage Trump’s lawful executive orders.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, in collusion with other bureaucrats, deliberately leaked a classified presidential phone call in an effort to ensure that Trump was impeached.
Fascists seek to change existing laws to destroy opponents and illegally consolidate power.
Currently, it is only the Democrats who seek to pack the court, destroy the Electoral College, end the Senate filibuster, and create two new states and thus gain four left-wing senators.
In key states, they radically changed voting laws.
As a result, roughly 70 percent of voters in 2020 did not cast their ballots in person on Election Day—even as the traditional rejection rates for fraudulent ballots mysteriously dived amid the influx.
Fascists arbitrarily nullify any laws they feel do not aid their agendas. Biden-Harris destroyed immigration law in order to bring in more than 12 million illegal aliens and gain new constituencies.
They also protected sanctuary cities, as some 600 such jurisdictions illegally and with impunity nullified federal immigration laws in neo-Confederate fashion.
Fascists seek to politicize the military.
But in Trump’s case, his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, brazenly violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice by libeling Trump as a fascist.
Worse still, Milley sabotaged the chain of command by ordering theater commanders to report directly to him in times of serious crises.
And in near-treasonous fashion, Milley contacted his Chinese communist counterpart in the People’s Liberation Army to assure him that he would warn the Chinese military before carrying out any Trump order he felt existentially dangerous.
Some of the most prominent retired four-star military officers—again in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice—publicly smeared Trump as a coward, liar, fascist, Hitler-like, a Mussolini, a creator of Auschwitz-like death camps, and worthy of being removed “the sooner the better.”
Fascists seek to control and weaponize the media. So, Facebook and Twitter both conspired with the FBI to censure news accounts favorable to Trump. The major newspapers, social media corporations, television networks, and public broadcasting systematically and continually attacked Trump, censured his supporters, and fused with his opponents.
Why then the charges of Trump the fascist and Hitler reincarnation?
Simple. Harris’s personal negatives are rising, her polls inert.
She has abandoned her prior run-out-the-clock avoidance of the media, her smiley “joy” campaign, and instead now embraces the big lie, while Joe Biden writes off Trump supporters as “garbage”.
Harris is now confirming to voters that she really can neither think nor speak well and has no consistent agenda that appeals to the middle class.
So, in final desperation, Harris is smearing Trump as a fascist, even though ironically, he has been the target of fascist machinations from her own party and supporters for nearly a decade.
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yes
at first she was letting her surrogates do this now "Joy" Reid Harris is cackling about the threat of Hitler who will put Muslims in camps , strip women of all rights, enrich his cronies while robbing the poor, kill Jews, kill Cheney, put all Democrat elitists and deep staters in a gulag in Alaska etc etc.
Speaking of Churchill this looks like it would be good but I don't get Netflix:
https://www.firstshowing.net/2024/official-trailer-for-churchill-at-war-doc-produced-by-howard-grazer/
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Our pal James Comey got a couple female minions to go after Trump BEFORE Crossfire Hurricane was in full swing:
Whistleblower: James Comey had FBI ‘honey pot’ spies infiltrate Trump’s 2016 campaign
Alleged off-the-books investigation predated FBI's Russia collusion probe
By Kerry Picket - The Washington Times - Tuesday, October 29, 2024
The House Judiciary Committee is examining a whistleblower report that the FBI targeted Donald Trump soon after he announced his presidential campaign in June 2015, an off-the-books operation ordered by FBI Director James B. Comey that predated the Crossfire Hurricane operation.
An FBI agent involved in the probe revealed the off-the-books criminal investigation on Tuesday in a protected disclosure sent to the committee.
The whistleblower disclosure said two female FBI undercover agents infiltrated Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign at high levels and were directed to act as “honeypots” while traveling with Mr. Trump and his campaign staff on the trail.
According to the disclosure, which The Washington Times reviewed, the investigation differed from the later Crossfire Hurricane counterintelligence operation targeting Russian collusion. It said the early off-the-books probe was a criminal investigation targeting Mr. Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign staff.
The agent “personally knew” that Mr. Comey ordered an FBI investigation against Mr. Trump and that Mr. Comey “personally directed it,” according to the disclosure.
The off-the-books investigation did not appear to target a specific crime but was more of what agents would describe as a fishing expedition to find something incriminating about Mr. Trump.
The Times reached out to the FBI and Mr. Comey for comment.
A House Judiciary Committee spokesman said the committee received the whistleblower allegations and “plans to look into them.”
The whistleblower said the undercover operation was hidden from Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, who investigated misconduct in the bureau’s probe of the Trump campaign.
The whistleblower disclosure also said the secret investigation may indicate institutional bias against Mr. Trump, though “it does not appear that any information about this investigation was turned over to Trump’s criminal defense counsels.”
Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker said the report, if true, is a “booming, egregious violation” of the rules governing the attorney general and the FBI.
“It’s an unpredicated infiltration of a presidential campaign which is sensitive,” he told The Times. “It’s sensitive to the point where it would have to have been approved by the [attorney general] and … would have to be predicated. And in this case, I’m not hearing any predication. It would have to be on the books anyway, regardless.”
Mr. Trump launched his first presidential campaign on June 16, 2015, at Trump Tower in New York City, about a year before the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane, a counterintelligence investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign coordinated, knowingly or unknowingly, with the Russian government’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.
The FBI investigation and a Justice Department special counsel probe did not find evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
The earlier off-the-books investigation, according to the disclosure, “had no predicated foundation, so Mr. Comey personally directed the investigation without creating an official case file in Sentinel or any other FBI system.”
The disclosure notes that the FBI has multiple methods of concealing highly sensitive investigations, so Mr. Comey did not have a “legitimate reason” to avoid creating a case file in the FBI’s system.
Mr. Comey served as director of the FBI from 2013 until May 2017, when President Trump fired him.
The disclosure said Deputy Director Dave Bowdich and Paul Abbate, assistant director in charge of the Washington field office, were also involved in helping Mr. Comey execute the secret probe.
The undercover “honeypot” agents targeted Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, according to the whistleblower.
Mr. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to the felony charge of making false statements to the FBI in October 2017 about his contacts related to U.S.-Russia relations.
Mr. Trump pardoned him in 2020, two years after he served 12 days in federal prison and was placed on a one-year supervised release.
Justice Department documents declassified in April 2020 revealed that FBI agent Curtis Heide was the handler for a confidential human source who recorded Mr. Papadopoulos.
In the recordings, Mr. Papadopoulos adamantly denied that the Trump campaign was involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee’s emails in 2016.
He rebuffed claims that the Trump campaign was working with Russia.
Mr. Papadopoulos’ denials were withheld from the FBI’s warrant application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to documents released by Attorney General William P. Barr.
In a December 2019 report, Mr. Horowitz listed the failure to include Mr. Papadopoulos’ denials as two of 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the FBI’s application for court permission to spy on Trump campaign figure Carter Page.
The FBI whistleblower said the off-the-books investigation was closed because a newspaper obtained a photograph of one of the undercover agents and was about to publish it.
The FBI press office, according to the agent’s disclosure, misled the newspaper by claiming the photograph was of an FBI informant, not an undercover agent. The FBI said the informant would be killed if the photograph was published.
Additionally, the FBI employee alleged that one of the undercover agents agreed to be transferred to the CIA so she would not be available as a potential witness, and another bureau employee involved in the operation was rewarded for her activities with a promotion and now is a high-level FBI executive.
“The FBI employee personally observed one or more employees in the FBI being directed to never discuss the operation with anyone ever again, which included talking with other people involved in the operation,” the disclosure states.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/oct/29/whistleblower-james-comey-fbi-honey-pot-spies-infi/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork&fbclid=IwY2xjawGOBU9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHfKwlB7GO1QAHVPa8yYXn1RmBCK8ZFybf5VG3KTF9hlHLnsA_u6QSnBHFQ_aem_1TWyWzrbzrboeliwSbBbKg
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An FBI raid of the wrong house leads to a court misapplying the federal law that allows those terrorized during that raid to receive recompense:
https://reason.com/2024/11/04/the-fbi-wrongly-raided-this-familys-home-a-bipartisan-group-of-lawmakers-wants-the-supreme-court-to-step-in/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=reason_brand&utm_content=autoshare&utm_term=post
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Just another law abiding citizens caught up in a kafkaesque FBI purgatory:
The FBI Puts Victims of Civil Forfeiture through Bureaucratic Hell
Cato @ Liberty / by Thomas A. Berry / Nov 8, 2024 at 12:46 PM
Thomas A. Berry and Ethan Yang
In March 2022, the FBI raided a private vault company, seizing any boxes holding over $5,000. The raid was executed on the purported suspicion that such funds had illegal origins. Without express authorization from a warrant, the agency seized over 400 safes, including one belonging to Linda Martin. Martin was an innocent patron of the vault, using it to set aside money for a house. The FBI seized $40,200 from her safe, intending to keep and spend her money.
This procedure, in which the government permanently confiscates any property that it claims to be connected to criminal activity, is known as civil forfeiture. Two months after this seizure, Martin received a notice from the FBI stating only that her funds had been seized pursuant to a general law that itself references hundreds of potential criminal statutes. The notice gave no explanation of her alleged wrongdoing. When she questioned the FBI about the return of her money, the agency put her through more than two years of a slow and confusing internal petition process that ultimately did not result in the return of her funds. Martin then proceeded to launch a class action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the FBI’s forfeiture proceedings, arguing that they deprived property owners of their due process rights. Only after Martin brought her suit did the FBI finally return her money.
A federal district court sided with the FBI, holding that Martin should have exhausted all potential internal remedies with the FBI before suing. But Martin is appealing that decision, and Cato has filed an amicus brief supporting her.
In our brief, we outline the perverse incentives that influence forfeiture proceedings, which often lead to egregious violations of constitutional rights. The FBI has a tremendous monetary interest in confiscating as many assets as possible, because these funds are used to finance the agency. Furthermore, the FBI’s ability to use administrative forfeiture procedures means that the agency doesn’t need to go to court to justify its takings. Instead, the FBI can internally approve its own actions. This places the burden on victims to challenge forfeiture orders, often at great cost. And the monetary incentive is even more perverse at the state and local level, where underfunded law enforcement agencies often derive large portions of their budget from the proceeds of forfeiture.
As our brief recounts, civil forfeiture was not always a problematic money-making scheme for law enforcement. Prior to the passage of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act (CCCA) in 1984, civil forfeiture actions typically respected the rule of law. Unlike the notices of today, law enforcement agencies made efforts to list the specific law violated and the nature of the infraction. That is because the historic purpose of civil forfeiture was not to seize anything of value associated with crime but instead to target the specific assets of suspects that could not be easily prosecuted, such as pirates and smugglers. That changed after the CCCA significantly raised the maximum confiscation amount and established a federal forfeiture fund.
Modern civil forfeiture is destroying the livelihoods and liberties of innocent Americans. The court of appeals should reverse the lower court and make clear that victims of civil forfeiture have a due process right to a straightforward and timely procedure for the return of their property.
https://www.cato.org/blog/fbi-puts-victims-civil-forfeiture-through-bureaucratic-hell
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The Civil Forfeiture laws are a great blight upon the C'l Rule of Law of America!!!
Thank you for this article. I am forwarding it to a very good friend who until a couple of years ago was high up in the DEA. He is a good and honorable man, and we have had genuine conversation on this subject over several years. I have him on his heels and this will add to my momentum.
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The Civil Forfeiture laws are a great blight upon the C'l Rule of Law of America!!!
Thank you for this article. I am forwarding it to a very good friend who until a couple of years ago was high up in the DEA. He is a good and honorable man, and we have had genuine conversation on this subject over several years. I have him on his heels and this will add to my momentum.
:-D
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https://ace.mu.nu/archives/412297.php
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https://ace.mu.nu/archives/412297.php
The thought of all those venal, partisan bastards competing with each other for landing spots in think tanks and lobbying firms around town, reducing compensation packages via a glutted market, and likely thrusting subtle daggers into each other’s back as they jostle warms my heart.
Hopefully a huge wave of well timed security clearance revocations are also planned, and will be issued once these weasels have landed a job requiring a clearance….
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Trump election sends ‘stunned’ FBI brass to exit
Former investigators, senior executives see writing on wall
By Kerry Picket THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The brass on the seventh floor at FBI headquarters in Washington have been in a daze and wary of a housecleaning since Donald Trump was reelected president on Tuesday, inside sources say.
The Washington Times learned through several anonymous bureau sources that senior agency executives were “stunned” and “shell-shocked” by Mr. Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
“You know the fit test? How they let the standards slack on the fit test?” said the first FBI source, referring to the agency’s physical fitness requirements. “Everyone’s going to have a real problem when they’re running for the door.”
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and Deputy Director Paul Abbate have little chance of remaining at the bureau by the time Mr. Trump is inaugurated, sources say.
FBI employees recall Mr. Trump firing Director James B. Comey five months after taking the oath of office in 2017.
“It’s a countdown for Wray because [people here] don’t think he will stay to get fired after what Trump did to Comey,” the first
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray may be stepping down before Inauguration Day in January.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
source said. “Trump will say, ‘Yeah, fire his a--. Don’t let him take the plane home.’” Mr. Comey learned about his termination while flying to California on the bureau’s airplane.
Mr. Trump appointed Mr. Wray as FBI director in 2017 after firing Mr. Comey. The director’s term is 10 years, depending on the president’s confidence.
Sources say others on the seventh floor of the FBI are so concerned about their jobs that they are likely to flood Washington’s private security job market.
Most of the sources said no one’s job in the FBI at a GS-14 level or higher is safe, and they fully expect Mr. Trump to “smash the place to pieces when he gets in” and that it will be a “bloodbath.”
Former FBI whistleblower George Hill told The Washington Times that people in the agency say the state of the FBI is “frazzled.”
“I have friends still at the bureau telling me that no less than 50 senior executives (SES) are scrambling to retire ASAP,” he said.
The Times reached out to the FBI for comment.
The FBI and Mr. Trump have had a tense history since the 2016 presidential campaign. Under Mr. Comey, the agency launched its Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the Trump campaign’s alleged links to Russia in July 2016.
Mr. Trump’s firing of Mr. Comey in 2017 raised suspicions in the Justice Department that the president was obstructing justice, leading to special counsel Robert Mueller’s long-running and costly investigation. Mr. Mueller ultimately found no evidence that Trump campaign officials conspired with or were connected to Moscow.
A subsequent government watchdog investigation found that FBI officials made numerous errors or omissions in secret warrant applications for surveillance of a Trump campaign aide.
More recently, The Times exclusively reported about an FBI whistleblower’s protected disclosure to Congress that Mr. Comey launched an off-the-books undercover criminal investigation against Mr. Trump in June 2015. The operation was not predicated on any particular case and was not connected to Russia.
Mr. Trump also clashed with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was fired in 2018 hours before his retirement. Mr. McCabe became a cable news analyst who was highly critical of Mr. Trump.
In August 2022, the FBI executed a search warrant at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort home in Florida and seized documents. Subsequent criminal charges accused him of mishandling classified materials. That prosecution is now in jeopardy because of Mr. Trump’s reelection.
Many at the FBI remembered when Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan, a longtime FBI official, resigned six months into 2017 after Mr. Trump took office. Mr. Trump later hired him to head Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
Many on the seventh floor of the FBI are also concerned about billionaire technology executive Elon Musk, owner of X and Tesla, joining the Trump administration as head of a government efficiency commission.
“When he tries to do efficiency at headquarters, the place is going to have five people … if he’s talking about a lot of dead weight,” a second FBI source said.
“Try to find a person that’s actually working,” the source said. “That may be the biggest problem there — that there’s no efficiency. So that’s actually the bigger threat. If you’re going to try to make the government efficient, you would start with the FBI because if you do politics all the time, you’re probably bloated.”
FBI agents spent much of their time during the Biden administration seeking out, investigating and arresting Jan. 6 defendants. Mr. Trump has pledged to pardon them at the beginning of his second term.
A third FBI source said some bureau personnel tired of the Jan. 6 investigations are amused “at the fact that Trump [likely] pardons everybody involved in Jan. 6.
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Don't you be eating anything while reading this lest you aspirate when running your eyes across concern about and "independent DOJ" losing that status under Trump. Yeah, right, independent under Garland. Gawd:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/11/politics/attorney-general-donald-trump-justice-department-fears
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if the burgled are celebrities:
https://www.westernjournal.com/fbi-involved-homes-travis-kelce-patrick-mahomes-targeted-hours-apart/
So if someone came into my house and stole something would the FBI care or have time or resources to investigate?
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Transplant from another thread:
« Reply #2065 on: Today at 04:34:13 PM »
Well this plot just got thicker:
https://justthenews.com/government/security/hldcell-companies-refute-fbi-testimony-j6-pipe-bomber-investigation-loudermilk?utm_medium=social_media&utm_source=facebook_social_icon&utm_campaign=social_icons
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Comey before an appreciative audience describing how he set Flynn, and hence Trump up:
https://x.com/gregg_re/status/1857216473145450823
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More on why Trump is likely avoiding the FBI background check process. Big surprise, the political biases of FBI leadership can derail some appointees:
Whistleblower warns FBI can’t be trusted with background checks for Trump’s nominees
By Kerry Picket and Jeff Mordock - The Washington Times - Saturday, November 16, 2024
An official at FBI headquarters in Washington is warning that the bureau’s security clearance division is politicized and can’t be trusted to screen President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees for top administration jobs.
The allegations of political bias at the FBI’s Security Division or SecD were revealed in a protected whistleblower disclosure sent to the House Judiciary Committee, which The Washington Times reviewed.
The official said the security clearance process has been “contaminated by the political agendas of [Security Division] officials and other executives in the FBI.”
The process is also subordinate to the same FBI executives who Mr. Trump has promised to sweep out of the agency, according to the whistleblower.
“FBI SecD has been politicized, and both Director [Christopher] Wray and Deputy Director [Paul] Abbate have the ability to examine the background investigations of anyone who is having a security clearance done,” said the disclosure, which was submitted on Saturday.
The FBI whistleblower said lawmakers need to know that the background investigations are conducted by SecD, the same office that has been accused of weaponizing the process and using it to retaliate against FBI employees because of their political views, including conservative and pro-Trump views.
In a statement to The Times, the FBI cited the executive order and the section of the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 that names the FBI as “one of the appropriate agencies responsible for candidate background investigations for Presidential appointees, White House staff, positions requiring Senate confirmation, and other national security positions requiring a security clearance.”
“Being completed as expeditiously as possible, the background investigation focuses on character and conduct. The FBI serves as an investigative service provider and does not adjudicate or render an opinion on the results of the background investigation. The FBI’s role is purely fact-finding. Once the investigation is complete, the report is sent to the Office of White House Counsel or the Office of the President-Elect for their use as deemed appropriate,” the FBI said.
Mr. Trump’s transition team has bypassed the traditional FBI background checks for some of his picks and instead uses private companies to screen the nominees, CNN reported.
The decision to bypass the FBI screening for nominees breaks with Washington norms and coincides with Mr. Trump’s unconventional picks, such as former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida for attorney general, Pete Haegseth for defense secretary and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary.
A security clearance is required for some Cabinet posts and that process includes an FBI background check. However, a president can override the process and order a security clearance for nominees, a power Mr. Trump will not have until he’s sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025.
The whistleblower said that SecD yanked security clearances of FBI employees for political reasons and that Mr. Wray and Mr. Abbate will have access to each background check that is performed.
“Under Wray and Abbate, SecD refused clearances to U.S. military veterans, employees who refused to get Covid shots, employees who attended Trump rallies and employees with conservative Christian beliefs,” the disclosure said. “The same FBI officials will be adjudicating President Trump’s nominees. Deputy Director Abbate and Director Wray will have unfettered access to any information that President Trump’s appointees provide during their security clearance background investigation.”
The bureau official also warns that SecD can share the information they learn with the Biden White House.
“There is no wall between the background investigation data held by SecD and the Director’s Office. Anyone providing information to the FBI for background investigations should assume that the information, along with all associated electronic inquiries, will be provided to Deputy Director Abbate, Director Wray or even officials in the current White House administration for ‘national security reasons.’”
What’s more, anything that is gleaned from the background checks can be used by the bureau to send “lead” information to state officials for potential prosecutions, according to the disclosure.
“Based on statements that the FBI top leadership should be cleaned out, senior FBI officials have a personal interest in protecting their positions by providing background information to other agencies or giving informal briefings,” it said.
“Although the FBI may advise that it does not provide interim clearances, it actually does. One example of the FBI executives abusing their security authorization privilege was when Director Comey’s leaker from Columbia University was provided a security clearance or when leadership is allowed to maintain security clearances in order to get retirement jobs.”
Although security clearance background interviews are conducted by agents from FBI field offices, the security clearance investigations are controlled and adjudicated by SecD. Parts of SecD are located in Huntsville, Alabama, but the primary location of SecD and its leadership is at FBI headquarters in Washington.
The disclosure also alleges that there have been “hundreds of complaints of sexual misconduct by senior executives and none of them lost their security clearance.”
Mr. Wray, a 2017 appointee of Mr. Trump, oversaw the bureau through the Capitol riot and almost four years of FBI investigations and arrests of those who participated in the protests.
He has been scrutinized by congressional Republicans for the FBI’s lack of transparency in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, its memo to probe the Catholic Church, the raid on Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and pursuit of pro-life activists who protested at abortion clinics.
There is no federal mandate for the FBI to vet presidential appointees, but the bureau has done so since President Eisenhower was in the Oval Office. Agents conduct interviews with a nominee’s friends, families, business associates and others to uncover anything that might prevent a nominee from being issued a security clearance.
The FBI has White House employees fill out an online questionnaire. FBI agents then perform the background check. When the background check is complete, the information they collect on the White House employee is sent to Sec D.
Sec D then reviews any uncovered criminal histories, conflicts of interest, financial problems, ties to foreign governments or other potentially disqualifying factors to determine whether to deny or approve the clearance.
Concerns have been raised about the backgrounds of some of Mr. Trump’s nominees.
Mr. Gaetz was the subject of a Justice Department sex trafficking probe, but prosecutors declined to bring charges.
He was also the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation for alleged sexual misconduct, illegal drug use and accepting improper gifts. The investigation ended when he resigned from his House seat this week. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Ms. Gabbard has frequently taken political positions critics said were favorable to American adversaries, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr. Kennedy is a vaccine skeptic who advocates for food purity and unorthodox medical treatments. He has been mired in an extramarital sexting scandal with New York magazine political reporter Olivia Nuzzi, though he was joined by his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, at a Mr. Trump’s gala Thursday at Mar-a-Lago.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/nov/16/whistleblower-warns-fbi-trusted-background-checks-/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork
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No doubt misfiled, but given that this dismantling effort will defang the FBI and its ability to serve political masters to political ends, I am down with this approach, particularly as it will serve to fire a shot across the bow of EVERY bloated agency and serves as a model for how to combine federal efforts by function, pulling law enforcement function out of orgs that tainted by politics, or privatizes these functions.
This proposal does leave one burning question: what will happen to all those hagiographic FBI TV shows?
As that may be, these outcomes couldn’t happen to a nicer set of bastards:
Take apart the FBI, piece by piece. Here's how.
J Michael Waller
@JMichaelWaller
·
Nov 15
Take an antitrust approach to the FBI. The Bureau has value. But it has become predatory, abusive, and dangerous to the public. So it must be taken apart in favor of something new.
Here's an action plan for what to do with the FBI, drawn from chapter 37 of my book, Big Intel: How the CIA and FBI Went from Cold War Heroes to Deep State Villains (Regnery, 2024).
The plan examines the anatomy of the FBI and proposes what to do with each part. The plan leaves room for creating better efficiencies in federal investigations, counterintelligence, law enforcement, and other essential functions. For now, we look at the FBI's structure and functions.
FBI is only a bureaucracy, not created by any law
Like the Bureau of Engraving and Printing or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the FBI, as its name states, is only a bureaucracy. J. Edgar Hoover built that bureaucracy's brand. Once we get over the brand name and stop thinking of the Bureau as "sacred," we see the emperor has no clothes.
No statutory basis exists for the FBI. The FBI has no legal charter. The FBI traces its founding to a one-page attorney general memorandum from 1908.
Therefore, the FBI can be abolished by an attorney general memorandum.
So how would we protect ourselves as a country without an FBI?
Take a critical look at the FBI and its components, and it's easy to see how.
FBI's basic structure
The FBI has six branches, each of which is divided into units called divisions.
The six branches are:
National Security Branch
Intelligence Branch
Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch
Science and Technology Branch
Information and Technology Branch
Human Resources Branch
These branches awkwardly make the FBI a domestic intelligence agency with police powers - a threat to our constitutional system. No other major democracy has a domestic intelligence agency with police powers.
Many FBI functions duplicate what other agencies already do. So in the interests of curbing the FBI, we have to take the imperfect approach of transferring duplicative functions to other agencies.
That approach risks empowering other problematic agencies, which we will have to deal with later.
National Security Branch
This politicized and compromised FBI branch must be broken apart, division by division, with relevant personnel, authority, equipment, and budgets transferred to other agencies and, where feasible, removed from federal authority completely and handed back to the 50 states.
Counterintelligence Division. Made notorious by its head, Peter Strzok, the Counterintelligence Division doesn't do as much spy-hunting as the FBI wants people to think. It has a poor track record. It goes after the low-hanging fruit, and is not a strategic tool to penetrate and disrupt hostile intelligence organizations from within.
Counterintelligence should be moved out of the FBI, with the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, moved out of DHS. This will be difficult, because NCSC is flaccid and politicized.
Both should be combined into an independent Counterintelligence Service (CIS) with its own ethos as a spy-hunting organization, similar to what the short-lived National Counterintelligence Executive (NCIX) was designed to have been.
The CIS - which does not exist - would inherit all the personnel, data, technology, and other resources of the FBI Counterintelligence Division and NCSC, retain the most capable and promising personnel, and hunt foreign spies. It would not answer to the Justice Department. DOJ would be responsible solely for prosecuting spies as CIS finds necessary.
Counterterrorism Division. Create a stand-alone counterterrorism agency that has no law-enforcement functions. Remove the Counterterrorism Division, the Terrorist Screening Center, and related elements from the FBI. At the same time, remove the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. NCTC has its own problems to be addressed.
Merge the FBI's former counterterrorism functions and resources with the NCTC into a new, small, stand-alone counterterrorist agency. The proper leadership will transform the agency ethos, cull incompetent and inefficient personnel, and build a small CT service with no law enforcement powers. At the same time, dispense with the "domestic violent extremist" approach and focus on real terrorism.
Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. The FBI's WMDD already duplicates the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives of DHS. ATF is already a significant problem. As with counterintelligence and counterterrorism, remove WMDD from the FBI, remove ATF from DHS, cull the personnel, and create a new, small, independent unit dealing with weapons of mass destruction inside the United States. The new service will have no law enforcement powers and will not answer to DOJ.
The FBI National Security Branch is thus dissolved.
Intelligence Branch
The FBI Intelligence Branch collects information and synthesizes it into analytical products and coordination with other agencies. Such a branch, with entirely different standards of evidence from a law enforcement agency, has no place in the Department of Justice at all.
Divide the Intelligence Branch and its personnel along topical and functional lines. Parcel them out to other agencies with the legal authority and obligation to perform those varied work functions. This includes the new independent counterintelligence, counterterrorism, and WMD services.
The FBI intelligence branch is thus dissolved.
Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch
This FBI branch is a mishmash of functions patchworked together since 9/11. It performs important duties, though, and does not have the reputation of being as politicized as the rest of the Bureau.
The Trump Administration can take apart this branch without public danger.
Criminal Investigation Division. This division combats organized crime, international crime, certain violent crimes under federal statute, and certain crimes against children. It also investigates public corruption, financial crimes, and violations of civil rights laws.
The public corruption unit tends to attract some of the most politicized elements of the FBI.
DOJ must transfer as many criminal investigative functions as possible to the states that wish to assume them. Those states can receive federal block grants for the purpose of improving their own capabilities, free of federal interference.
FBI's financial crimes unit should be transferred to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has robust financial crimes capabilities.
The remainder of the Criminal Investigation Division should go to the United States Marshals Service, which is the only federal law enforcement entity created by America's Founding Fathers. All FBI personnel going to the Marshals would be screened for adequacy and retrained under the Marshals ethos.
Cyber Division. Cyber is an increasingly important criminal and national security domain. Because of cyber's growing politicization, often to extremist ends, the solutions offered here are only interim.
Transfer the Cyber Division's security functions to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), while moving the very politicized CISA out of the Department of Homeland Security. The merger between CD and CISA, under proper leadership, would result in a professional, stand-alone cyber security agency. Cyber Division's intelligence functions and resources will go to the new Counterintelligence Service (CIS) created from the FBI's Counterintelligence Division and DHS's NCSC.
Cyber Division's law enforcement functions should be transferred out of DOJ to the independent U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Critical Incident Response Group. The Response portion of the branch is a crisis management unit. It should be transferred to FEMA, which itself needs a complete overhaul.
Services. The Services section of the branch assists victims of terrorism and crime. Its duties should go to FEMA and the Department of Health and Human Services. The budget for this unit can go to disaster-prone states as block grants, which the states can spend on disaster relief as they see fit.
A separate unit, International Operations, coordinates federal law enforcement abroad to investigate transnational crimes and to assist foreign countries in assisting American investigators. These experienced personnel can be placed in the service of other federal agencies that presently perform law enforcement/counterterrorism/counter-WMD work abroad, or which would do so under the proposed changes.
The FBI Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch is thus dissolved.
Science and Technology Branch
This small FBI branch creates new scientific and technological methods, products, and training for the rest of the FBI's operations, and provides important support support to state and local law enforcement. Private companies already create these products and services, such as forensic sciences (fingerprint, DNA, and other biometric analysis), other scientific analysis, computer forensics, safe transport of evidence and hazardous materials. The branch also runs the FBI Crime Lab, FBI information services, and the National Crime Information Center.
In Big Intel, I proposed handing the Science and Technology Branch over to FEMA, or establishing it as a stand-alone entity under rotating governors, but after consideration, many functions of the branch should be privatized, with the Crime Lab and National Crime Information Center transferred to the US Marshals.
The FBI Science and Technology Branch is thus dissolved.
Information and Technology Branch
The purpose of this branch is to manage FBI information and maintain and upgrade the Bureau's information systems. With the FBI being dismembered, the need for this branch is mooted, though the experienced personnel, with their specialized training can be transferred to other agencies along with related FBI components.
The FBI Information and Technology Branch is thus dissolved.
Human Resources Branch
This branch will not be transferred anywhere. Its personnel will leave the federal workforce.
The exception is the FBI Academy, which resides in this branch. Since the FBI Academy offers basic training for special agents and other law enforcement, it can be transferred to the US Marshals.
The FBI Human Resources Branch is thus dissolved.
Field Offices
The FBI has 56 field offices and smaller offices across the United States. These offices have secure facilities and other resources that the Marshals, the SEC, the Postal Inspector, the new independent Counterintelligence Service, the new counterterrorism and counter-WMD services, and so forth, can use without disruption, independently and out of their own budgets. Many field offices can be shut down for good.
Unnecessary secrecy
FBI abuses of power, and threats to the Constitution, have been possible because of excessive secrecy. This unnecessary secrecy must be undone and exposed.
FBI abuses of power, and threats to the Constitution, have been possible because of excessive secrecy. This unnecessary secrecy must be undone and exposed. All citizens should have the right to any FBI files - unredacted - on them, with pending criminal or national security investigations, reviewed by judges, as the sole exceptions.
Conclusion
With these steps, the FBI is dismembered, its essential components scattered, in an orderly fashion without disruption to legitimate federal investigations, law enforcement, and national security functions.
Abolish all Special Agent in Charge and SES-level FBI positions prior to dismemberment. Sell FBI headquarters at the J. Edgar Hoover Building to developers and demolish it. Surplus and sell the planned FBI campus in Prince George's County, Maryland, that is twice the size of the Pentagon building.
Complexities in the dismantling of the FBI, especially concerning the Bureau's colossal and extremely sensitive data systems, are to be expected. But these complexities are unacceptable excuses for not dismembering the Bureau quickly.
After this, we can proceed to dismantle the Department of Homeland Security.
https://x.com/jmichaelwaller/status/1857617933536542991?s=61
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https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1863012951684186471
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https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1863024685157437667
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https://www.racket.news/p/note-on-the-fbi
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https://dailycaller.com/2024/12/03/cnn-harry-enten-stunned-by-plunge-in-american-trust-in-fbi/
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https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/fbi-surveilling-americans-financial-data-without-warrants-house
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TOPLINE:
With Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the FBI, an independent watchdog may soon bring needed transparency to allegations of government overreach targeting GOP congressional investigators, including Patel, probing the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe, “Crossfire Hurricane.”
The findings may tell us a lot about the power of Washington’s unelected bureaucracy.
DEEP DIVE:
There are some stories you don’t forget because of the pressure that is brought to bear on you by the government bureaucracy to walk away from the reporting.
One of those stories came in 2018, when a review of congressional emails revealed a senior justice department official Rod Rosenstein had allegedly threatened staffers on the House intelligence committee, among them Kash Patel.
Context matters: At the time, Patel and his team were systematically dismantling the premise for the FBI’s 2016 “Crossfire Hurricane” probe that investigated alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Because Patel had deep experience at the Justice Department, he understood and could expose defects in the surveillance (FISA) warrants for Trump campaign aide Carter Page, among other irregularities in the FBI/DOJ case.
At the time, I was the chief intelligence correspondent for Fox News based in Washington D.C. The Fox story was headlined “(Rod) Rosenstein threatened to ‘subpoena’ GOP-led committee in ‘chilling’ clash over records, emails show”
It was straightforward, document driven reporting, but the response from the DOJ was severe and, in my experience, disproportionate. We had reviewed emails that memorialized a January 2018 closed-door meeting between senior FBI and DOJ officials and members of the House Intelligence committee.
The 2018 report read, “The DAG [Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein] criticized the Committee for sending our requests in writing and was further critical of the Committee’s request to have DOJ/FBI do the same when responding,” the committee's then-senior counsel for counterterrorism Kash Patel wrote to the House Office of General Counsel.”
The report continued, “Going so far as to say that if the Committee likes being litigators, then ‘we [DOJ] too [are] litigators, and we will subpoena your records and your emails,’ referring to HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] and Congress overall.”
The pushback to the story was swift and severe. Reps for the FBI and DOJ disputed the email account. “The FBI disagrees with a number of characterizations of the meeting as described in the excerpts of a staffer’s emails provided to us by Fox News.”
“A DOJ official insisted Rosenstein ‘never threatened anyone in the room with a criminal investigation.’ The official added that department and bureau officials in the room ‘are all quite clear that the characterization of events laid out here is false,” adding that Rosenstein was responding to a threat of contempt.’’”
My understanding of the 2018 meeting would change when new claims were made public in a 2023 lawsuit brought by Patel against FBI Director Wray and former Justice Department officials.
At the time, I was working as a senior investigative correspondent for CBS News in Washington D.C. According to the 2023 lawsuit, a subpoena for Patel’s “personal information” had already been obtained before the confrontational 2018 meeting.
According to court records, “On November 20, 2017, while Mr. Patel was still in his role as Senior Counsel and Chief Investigator for the HPSCI (House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence), the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) secretly sought a grand jury subpoena to compel Google to turn over Mr. Patel’s private email account data. They did so in complete contravention of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees against unreasonable search and seizure.”
The lawsuit continued, “DOJ sought the subpoena for Mr. Patel’s private accounts without a legitimate basis in a chilling attempt to surveil the person leading the Legislative Branch’s investigation into the Department of Justice’s conduct during the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. This was a blatant abuse and violation of the separation of powers by DOJ, a violation of Mr. Patel’s constitutional rights, and an attempt to find a way to silence an investigation into DOJ’s questionable conduct, as detailed below. DOJ couldn’t subpoena Mr. Patel’s official accounts without sparking a public, political and legal battle; thus, they went for his personal accounts, in a non-public and unconstitutional manner, seeking dirt on Mr. Patel.”
Timing matters: Based on the lawsuit, the DOJ sought Patel’s records BEFORE the 2018 meeting. The lawsuit described it as a “politically motivated investigation.”
According to the 2023 lawsuit, Patel learned about the subpoena several years later, in 2022, when Google notified him the DOJ had sought information related to his personal accounts.
The court records state, “Mr. Patel was wholly unaware of this subpoena until December 12, 2022, when, in line with its policy, Google notified Mr. Patel that DOJ issued it a subpoena for information related to his personal accounts.”
In September this year, a Memorandum Opinion from the court, said the defendants motion to dismiss the complaint was granted. Among the arguments, that these officials are “entitled to qualified immunity…”
A separate watchdog report may soon bring needed transparency to these allegations of government overreach. In this case, claims that some senior FBI and DOJ officials abused their authority to gather information on congressional investigators scrutinizing the origins of the FBI Russia collusion probe.
I will have more to say, in the future, about my experience reporting the story and the personal blowback from government officials.
While this content is free, consider becoming a monthly member to support independent journalism and access future content.
Thank you for the consideration and, most of all, for supporting our work!
Best, Catheri
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"DOJ sought the subpoena for Mr. Patel’s private accounts without a legitimate basis in a chilling attempt to surveil the person leading the Legislative Branch’s investigation into the Department of Justice’s conduct during the Crossfire Hurricane investigation."
- This is not the America we think we live in or that we want to live in.
The other proposal was to close the FBI. We need a federal law enforcement agency to look at real, interstate crime. I hope they can clear out all the evil and keep all the good workers in this large federal agency.
We know a young man who works major crimes at a major FBI office and has nothing to do, I presume, with the rot at the top. The partisan, criminal, unconstitutional behavior of these people is a distraction and a hindrance to the real work that needs to be done at the agency.
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https://revolver.news/2024/12/dei-fbi-agent-convicted-of-robbing-people-blind-during-j6-home-raid/
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https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4283976/posts
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https://x.com/julie_kelly2/status/1867269071365943683
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This goes deeper into the weeds than I can comprehend:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1867600933116318092.html
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https://revolver.news/2024/12/jonathan-turley-asks-the-million-dollar-question-about-all-those-j6-fbi-informants/
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ex-fbi-official-raises-alarm-over-nominee-rooting-through-trump-files-seeking-informants/ar-AA1vRIsO?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=b2b0045f975344daa712e9fbf857a93d&ei=19
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https://thefederalist.com/2024/12/17/three-russia-hoax-bombshells-hidden-in-ig-report-on-doj-surveillance-of-congress/
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Perhaps misfiled, but an interesting dive into the FBI's management structure, its current DEI-based dysfunction, and what Patel will have to do to change course:
What Will Kash Patel Face When He Arrives At FBI HQ On January 20, 2025?
Restructuring The Bureau To Remedy What Ails It Or Turning It Into A Vehicle To Pursue The Malfactors Inside It And Other Aligned Agencies?
The FBI where Kash Patel is set to become Director is an agency that in many respects is unlike any other agency of the federal government. Some of what I explain below has been the subject of commentary by me on X, Spaces, podcasts, and other areas where I have written or commented. But I’ve never put it down in writing all in one place.
But the way the Bureau is structured and operates is largely unknown to the public at large, and the unique qualities that apply to it make understanding the structure and operation important in seeing what it is that Kash Patel will be facing.
Sometimes I’m reluctant to go too deep into the internal mechanics of the FBI because I never worked there. I was never part of the culture no matter how many Special Agents I worked with over 20+ years, or how many I remain in contact with to this day. Occasionally I’m the recipient of communications telling me I got something a little bit wrong, but generally I think I’ve stayed within the bumpers in describing the inner workings of the Bureau as an outsider with a front-row seat for 30+ years.
Because nearly all of my interactions while at DOJ were with squad agents, my views of the Bureau tend to be SA-centric — and that means “anti-management” to a significant degree. There is — and always has been — a division between squad agents and FBI managers. An Agent’s job is an either-or proposition — you remain a working agent assigned to a “squad” with a particular area of enforcement as its priority, or you move into management and your day-to-day job involves overseeing and coordinating work done by Agents - while do almost none of that work yourself. The farther up the management ladder you climb, the farther away you get from the squads where the agents are doing the work, and the management work is “managing lower level managers.”
Over the past 11 years, after leaving DOJ, I’ve met and developed friendships with a few retired FBI senior managers. Included in the group are retired SACs — Special-Agents-In-Charge — all of whom occupied various management positions as they advanced in their careers, mostly in the 1990s and 2000s. Just about every one of them was out of the Bureau by 2012-2015, and each has similar recollections about what they saw happening in the way the Bureau changed internally in the two decades since 2000. All of them, without exception, lament what the Bureau has become — with the same refrain of “It wasn’t like that when I started.”
What happened is what Kash Patel is going to need to confront and fix. The daunting task in front of him stems from the fact that the changes in the Bureau have become nearly universal. It worked like a underground weed that spread far and wide before sprouting up through the soil to start taking over separate parts of the organization.
How did that happen? Nowhere in the Government is the phrase “personnel is policy” more true than in the FBI.
The FBI has always had a policy that Special Agent applicants must have a four year college degree and at least two years of work experience after graduation in order to apply. It is quite common for Agents to have both two and three year post-graduate degrees, and not apply to be Special Agents until their late 20s or early 30s.
The FBI does “recruit” applicants to become new agents. In the not-too-distant- past that was unnecessary as the Bureau had more than enough high quality applicants to choose from without going in search of more. But now it goes out into specific fields and makes known its interest in hiring certain kinds of individuals with specific backgrounds.
During my time in DOJ in the 1990s, the majority of new agent hires seemed to be either former military — officers — or state/local police who wanted to move into federal law enforcement. The reason I know this is because FBI Special Agents — especially new hires — rotate in and out of their first office with some regularlity. During my tenures of 10+ years each in two different DOJ offices, I met and worked with a few dozen fresh-out-of-the-Academy first office agents. In the 1990s, as Bill Clinton hollowed out the active duty military following the collapse of the Soviet Union, young officers in their late 20s who had their military careers cut short often turned to other federal employment. Many found the FBI, ATF, and DEA as comfortable landing spots.
Because the 1990s era military officers corps was a male-dominated field, as late as the mid-1990s the recruiting classes entering the FBI Academy at Quantico were 85% or more men. Because state and local law enforcement has also been a male-dominated field historically, applicants seeking to move to federal agencies also tend to be overwhelmingly men.
Here is what is unusual about the FBI Special Agent work force — the entire contingent of Special Agents turns over completely about every 25 years. Sometime in 2026-27 will come the retirement of the last Special Agents who joined the Bureau before 9/11. After that, the entire Special Agent work force will consist of people who were hired after that event. By 2030, nearly every Special Agent will have been hired after the end of the Iraq War.
This is because the FBI has retirement eligibility with immediate payment of benefits starting at age 50 if you have 25 years of service time. Also significant is the fact that retirement comes with lifetime medical benefits, and there is no reduction in the benefits for continuing to work in a private sector job. So most Agents who retire in their early 50s go on to other a second career while getting paid their full FBI retirement pay at the same time.
How is this relevant to Kash Patel? Patel is going to be taking over an organization where a large percentage of its work force, maybe approaching 75%, were hired in the past 15 years — since 2009, the first year of the first term of President Obama.
Not too far into that year the hiring priorities of most federal agencies changed, including at the FBI. Rather than continue the influx of former military, state and local law enforcement, and holders of graduate degrees in engineering, accounting, law, etc., the FBI’s recruiting was adjusted to fit the goal of achieving a work force that “looked like the population at large.” That goal supplanted other priorities that focused on recruiting the “best and brightest” as had for decades been the foundation for FBI hiring. It was sometime around 2010 that the new agents arriving in Field Offices across the country started to take on a completely different look and feel. I know — I worked with them for 3+ years and the change was clearly noticable. I also know that this change in hiring continued unabated for many years based on conversations I had with friends who were still in the FBI, many of whom retired in the ensuing years after I left. Without exception, those FBI retirees had the same view upon leaving — the Bureau they joined in the 1990s was not the same Bureau that they were leaving in the 2010s.
The problem Patel will face with the FBI work force is that the most significant component of that work force — the Special Agents — are almost entirely careerists, meaning they started with the plan of working until their retirement, and there is a huge financial incentive for them to see that plan through. They enjoy civil service protections and it is not a work force — unlike DOJ attorneys — prone to simply quitting when there is a new boss they don’t like.
The won’t quit and it is hard to fire them.
So Patel is going to have to bend them to his will in order to make the changes that need to be made.
The Special Agent work force that began to be created in 2009 was recruited more from college campuses than at any time in FBI history. That’s where a work force that “looked like the population at large” could be most easily found. Since academia has been the breeding ground for 40+ years of crusading social justice warriors — dedicated to recognizing and correcting social injustices of yesteryear more than addressing criminal conduct of yesterday and today — the new agents coming into the Bureau starting in 2010 arrived with that mindset.
But, as was explained to me by FBI Agents in a position to know, many of the new agents had post-college “work experience” with groups such as Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund, Southern Poverty Law Center, Innocence Project, Justice Policy Institute, National Women’s Law Center, Human Rights Campaign, NARAL, etc. They came in trained already in how to seek out offenses involving “injustice” rather than focusing on crime.
This remained the hiring paradigm for more than a decade. But maybe even more importantly, those hires from the first few years advanced quickly through the ranks of FBI management. That’s because — for those who don’t know — the mechanism for the move to FBI management and promotion up the chain, at the lower levels, based almost entirely on “volunteerism.” For the most part, “merit” plays only a minor role. DEI hiring leads inextricably to DEI promoting. After the work force needed to mirror the community, FBI management needed to mirror the community.
Shifting into FBI management is a deliberate career choice that takes an Agent out of most of what they were taught to do at the Academy. An Agent moving to management is sent to FBI HQ for an 18 month program to learn to be a supervisor — meaning being a supervisor in the FBI isn’t just being a really good Agent.
In fact, quite the opposite is too often true. If you are an FBI Agent, and you don’t shoot that well, or you don’t really like sitting and doing surveillance for long periods of time, or you don’t like going on search warrants and spending hours cataloguing evidence, or you don’t like going through thousands of pages of financial records trying to figure out a fraud — the one way to escape all those things you don’t like is to raise your hand and volunteer to become a supervisor. The outcome is just what you expect — Agents who are not great at the actual work of being an Agent tend to move into management to escape the parts of being an Agent they didn’t like or weren’t good at.
This was a SHOCK to my system about 4 years into my job as an AUSA when a particularly bad FBI supervisor kept meddling in the decision-making in a couple of my investigations. I asked one of the Agents, “How did that guy become a supervisor, he’s an idiot.” The answer was “He raised his hand and volunteered. That’s the way they all start.” I was gobsmacked that that truism. But once I knew it, it was easy to spot.
For Patel, the problem this presents is that such supervisors tend to rise up the ranks of management until their manifest shortcomings are fully revealed. This has happened with many of that first — and even second — generation of agents who joined in the aftermath of Obama’s election. That first generation are now Agents in the middle of their careers — about 12-14 years experience — and they exist throughout middle management across the entirety of the FBI’s operations around the country. Some have gone beyond the first couple of levels of management — Squad Supervisors and ASACs — and have begun to move into more senior management positions. These are the social justice warriors committed to what you have seen the FBI become over the past 8-10 years.
One issue the lower level supervisors have tremendous direct influence over is the first level of contact in recruiting. As one agent now retired said to me about recruting from 2014 until the agent’s retirement in 2020 — “Beta males tend to recruit other Beta males because the Alphas intimidate them. And LBGTQ recruit LBGTQ because it makes them feel less out of place among the work force. That’s what the FBI work force became once members of those groups settled into positions that gave them influence over recruiting.”
Patel needs to bring an end to this and reverse course in two ways — the enforcement priorities need to change completely, and the work force needs to return to being based on the “best and brightest” the FBI can attract to do THAT job.
Changing the enforcement priorities is the easy part. Those are policy driven and will come to the FBI from both the White House and DOJ. We won’t be seeing any more surveillance of school board meetings or criminal prosecutions of abortion protesters who pray outside the entrance to clinics. The Civil Rights Division of DOJ is going to be turned around 180 degrees and the FBI investigations on civil rights issues that do not comport with the new Civil Rights Division priorities will be closed.
The abuses in the intelligence gathering by the FBI and other parts of the IC community over the past 10 years will likely result in Patel — himself a victim of such efforts — taking steps to severely limit what will be allowed to continue. At the same time a comprehensive analysis will likely be done as to whether intelligence gathering domestically — to the extent it is allowed at all — should be moved to an agency without law enforcement responsibility. Intelligence is to inform decision-making by policy makers — not as a directional device to steer law enforcement in the direction of suspected law breakers. When the latter is allowed, the temptation to abuse that power is simply too great to resist. That is how we find ourselves where we are today.
“Domestic terrorism” — meaning by citizens and not foreign invaders — has always been a police responsibility. It is nothing more than violent crime. Most domestic terrorism “crimes” are violations of state laws at the same time. Using the massive intelligence gathering capacity of the federal government — often leveraging Big Tech to assist — all for the purpose of interdicting the commission of state crimes, has come with a price to liberty I don’t think the majority of citizens are willing to continue to pay.
The way Patel addresses the work force problem is more complicated and will take more time.
Without question, in my opinion he should push out pretty much every member of the “Senior Executive Service” — the very top of FBI management — who don’t retire ahead of his arrival. These are the individuals who have had final decision-making authority on everything the past 8 years, and no one gets to SES without FBI and DOJ approval at the very top. None can be trusted because simply getting to where they are makes them suspect.
The next line of forced retirements should be any Assistant Directors who are not yet SES. The general line of authority in an FBI Field Office is:
Assistant Director (ADIC)→ Special Agent in Charge (SAC) →Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) → Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) → Squad Agents.
Not every office has an ADIC, and some offices have more than one SAC. It all depends on the Office’s size and the nature of the enforcement responsibilities given to the Office.
FBI HQ has different titles for these various positions — it has Assistant Directors, but after that the titles change — Unit Chiefs, Section Chiefs, etc.
SACs have always been hand-picked by the Director, with input and recommendations coming from his immeidate subordinates. So every SAC sitting in a Field Office was put there by Wray, and they were selected because of upper management’s satisfaction with that individual’s performance at lower levels.
Turning over all those positions will take more time because replacements need to be identified before you decapitate a Field Office by ushering the SAC into early retirement. But this is the level where Patel needs to build loyalty, and demand fidelity to the new enforcement priorities. In addition, it will be the SACs who will be responsible for uncovering the problems in the Special Agent work force — Agents who might be resisters but will likely be keeping their heads down and trying to wait out the storm. Wrong choices for SAC positions is a mistake that will entrench a resistance to changes and provide cover to those parts of the work force that need to go.
As for the Special Agent work force, two changes will lead to some early departures — before having to go to the step of pushing people to leave.
First, some will simply not be on board with new enforcement priorities and will will be early enough in his/her career that leaving to take a job more in line with their personal beliefs will be seen as a positive move. They will resign voluntarily.
Others who are viewed as being likely internal dissenters can simply be subject to the oldest FBI management trick in the book — put them on a squad doing work that is absolutely the last thing they want to do. Make is so they loath coming to work every day because of that. That will likely impact their job performance and chances for advancement. Eventually, a large portion of those individuals will depart.
What is not going to be possible is simply firing people for having political views different from the new management. But the enforcement of internal policies and Hatch Act limitations on overt displays of political bias — like kneeling for BLM protesters — will be the kind of things that land an Agent in a disciplinary review. Elimination of all the DEI nonsense as part of the day-to-day working environment will focus attention back on performance metrics geared to law enforcement and the “non-hackers” will stand out. There will be no administrative safe haven for “protected classes” from being bad at their jobs — everyone must be measured by the same standards. It’s really not hard to spot ineffective Special Agents — they keep asking the same questions and you keep giving the same answers, yet they never seem to finish their investigations.
But, where the real struggle is going to come, and the part of changing the workforce culture that will take the longest time, is to create a whole new class of those first level supervisors — the Supervisory Special Agents who manage the individual squads in each field office. They are the main points of contact for management with the squad agents doing the work, and they are most capable of mischief and derailing the careers of the best agents — which bad SSAs are prone to do. This is the level where the worst managers are typically found.
There are hundreds of such SSAs throughout the 54 Field Offices and smaller branch offices that are part of each Field Office. Not only will it take much time to root out the worst ones, that is only half the battle. Convincing more competent squad agents to apply to take those positions, after all that has happened internally over the past 15 years, is going to be Patel’s biggest challenge if he is going to remake the workforce and change the culture. Those first level supervisors are the FBI’s upper management 6-10 years from now.
It’s a daunting task. Taking a wrecking ball to the current internal structure is only half the solution. Fixing what is broken by introducing hundreds of new management personnel into the ranks, while at the same time working to cull the resistance from among the Special Agent work force will be the more lasting legacy of what Patel leaves behind when his time is done.
https://shipwreckedcrew.substack.com/p/what-will-kash-patel-face-when-he?r=1qo1e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2y55S2nH91YONuaS_0v_eJlKTauIysMl2Uq3f9MirPAyjB4f8Gx7yrnA0_aem_rwsTs4ZvxnGCknGt-YpO5w&triedRedirect=true
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Very good article and a good thread for it.
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Let me get this straight... a white FBI Director (Chris Wray) gets fired and replaced by a brown minority Director (Kash Patel) and members of the FBI's DEI office are now protesting and threatening to resign? 🤡
The irony is ALMOST too good to be true. 😂
(photo of Kash Patel)
https://twitter.com/DschlopesIsBack/status/1874281356504818098
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https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/4287811/posts
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A barricade stopped Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s vehicle after a deadly rampage down Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Wednesday. Despite New Year’s revelry and a major college football game, the FBI special agent in charge was out of town. ASSOCIATED PRESS
INTELLIGENCE
FBI agents eager for new leadership after terror attack
Decorum, procedures breached
By Kerry Picket THE WASHINGTON TIMES
FBI agents say the bureau’s initial response to the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans’ French Quarter was disastrous and another reason the Senate can’t move fast enough to confirm President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the agency.
Several agents who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the FBI failed to execute a comprehensive counterterrorism plan when Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Texas, an Army veteran, rammed a pickup truck carrying an ISIS flag into revelers, killing 14 and wounding dozens.
They said the top FBI official on the scene broke with decorum and that the bureau failed to follow basic procedures.
Agents wondered why Lyonel Myrthil, the special agent in charge of the New Orleans FBI office, did not appear to be on duty at the time of the attack despite what should have been a heightened alert for New Year’s Eve celebrations and a college football playoff game scheduled at the city’s Superdome on New Year’s Day.
The agents blamed poor leadership by outgoing FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and Deputy
▶ Truck attacker visited New Orleans twice prior. A7
Exclusive
Director Paul Abbate.
Mr. Abbate is poised to become acting director after Mr. Wray resigns, which he said he will do before Mr. Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
“They need to go right now, not only Wray, but Abbate needs to go. This is awful. This is embarrassing. Kash Patel is the person to have in there,” said an agent, referring to Mr. Trump’s nominee for FBI director. “He needs to come right now, right away, because these people have to leave.”
The New Orleans FBI office sent Alethea Duncan, assistant special agent in charge, to the first press conference after the attack.
Wearing khakis, a blue polo shirt and a nose ring, Ms. Duncan immediately contradicted New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who said at the press conference that her city was “impacted by a terrorist attack.”
Ms. Duncan stepped forward after the city’s police chief spoke and said, “This is not a terrorist event. What it is right now is there were improvised explosive devices that were found, and we are working on confirming if it is viable or not.”
Hours later, the FBI declared that the attack was being investigated as a terrorist incident.
Rank-and-file FBI agents were taken aback by Ms. Duncan’s presentation and comments.
“The new FBI management has to put in basic decorum rules because the bureau should look like the ‘Men in Black,’ that they’re all uniform — that they’re transparent,” an FBI agent said.
He said the public should “see the bureau, not somebody with a ring in their nose. Who the hell would go on TV with a ring in their nose?” another agent said. “Who the hell would ever say it’s not a terrorist event when there’s an ISIS flag flying on the back of a truck? They call that a clue.”
“You have two major events going on — the Sugar Bowl and New Year’s Eve — and the SAC is out of town. That’s why she is out there,” said another FBI agent. “They left nobody in charge.”
Another agent expressed no surprise at Ms. Duncan’s assessment because the attack didn’t fit the FBI leadership’s current definition of terrorism.
“It ain’t terrorism unless they have a MAGA hat on. For the last three years, all of the new agents, that’s all they know. It’s going after the right-wing or Trump supporters,” the agent said. “This is endemic with the headquarters.”
The agent added, “This is what happens when all you do are Jan. 6 cases.”
Other agents were perplexed as to why Jabbar’s Texas residence was left accessible to the public, including reporters from the New York Post and ABC News 13, after an FBI search.
The FBI and Harris County Sheriff’s Office searched Jabbar’s home on Wednesday. Officers arrived at about 3 p.m., and the FBI said agents left at 7:50 a.m. on Thursday.
Law enforcement reportedly found precursor chemicals that could be used in explosives.
ABC News 13 reported on Thursday that the front door to his mobile home was left open and the frame was barely connected to the structure.
“You can’t search a house and then just leave it open. You have to secure it to protect the things from third parties. They didn’t do that,” one of the FBI agents said.
“They went and did a search warrant, they left inventory, and then it looks like they let the reporter in, but what it appears to be is that the FBI didn’t secure the residence after the search warrant as they’re supposed to,” he said. “They failed basic parts of a search warrant.”
The Washington Times reached out to the FBI headquarters for comment.
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https://www.racket.news/p/why-is-russiagates-origin-story-redacted
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2025/01/06/fbi_is_still_hiding_details_of_russiagate_newly_released_document_shows_1082631.html
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https://headlineusa.com/whistleblower-fbis-new-orleans-boss-stayed-on-vacation-after-new-years-terrorist-attack/
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https://amgreatness.com/2025/01/28/whistleblower-multiple-fbi-agents-called-in-sick-with-the-blue-flu-to-avoid-helping-ice-round-up-criminal-illegal-aliens-in-chicago/
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Cut throat prosecutions sans accountability. What could go wrong?
How DOJ Helps Federal Prosecutors Escape Accountability & Evade Public Scrutiny
Cato @ Liberty / by Mike Fox / Jan 29, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Mike Fox
In March 2020, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York descended into chaos as one of its cases collapsed. Widely regarded as the most prestigious office in the nation, these “esteemed” prosecutors admitted in an internal email to lying to a federal judge and seeking to conceal evidence from the defense during an ongoing trial. This win-at-all-costs mentality doesn’t instill confidence, much less respect and admiration.
Unfortunately, it gets worse. The tainted prosecution of Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad demonstrates not only the lengths to which some prosecutors will go to secure a conviction, but also how the most powerful actors in our criminal justice system are the least accountable.
Federal prosecutors accused Nejad of violating US sanctions against Iran. In the middle of the trial, prosecutors sought to introduce a new exhibit that had not previously been disclosed to the defense. An Assistant United States Attorney suggested they bury the new exhibit in a stack of papers the prosecution was obligated to disclose, hoping defense attorneys wouldn’t notice.
Incredibly, prosecutors continued to turn over new evidence to the defense after the jury voted to convict Nejad, including a recording of an FBI interview with a witness that cast doubt on Nejad’s culpability. Belatedly realizing the gravity of their failure to timely disclose critical evidence, prosecutors moved to dismiss. But US District Judge Alison Nathan insisted on a full accounting of the prosecution team’s misconduct. She ordered prosecutors to provide a full list of exculpatory material and identify all the prosecutors and supervisors implicated in the misconduct and subsequent coverup—which almost never happens. Judge Nathan vacated the tainted verdict, dismissed the charges with prejudice, and urged an investigation by the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
In the half-century since its inception, the Office of Professional Responsibility has become a veritable graveyard where allegations of prosecutorial misconduct go to die. OPR was established in 1975 by a directive from then-Attorney General Edward Levi in response to the fallout from the Watergate scandal. Levi tasked OPR with “[r]eceiving and reviewing any information concerning conduct by department employees that may be in violation of law, regulations or orders, or applicable standards of conduct.” But OPR has operated in a shroud of self-imposed secrecy and anonymity—too often sweeping egregious allegations of prosecutorial misconduct under the rug.
The Office of Professional Responsibility not only fails to hold prosecutors accountable but refuses as a matter of official policy to even identify the lawyers involved or publicize the circumstances surrounding the misconduct. Each fiscal year, OPR publishes an annual report. These reports expose a substantial number of instances of prosecutorial misconduct and lapses of professional judgment by Justice Department attorneys. The reports summarize the investigations and inquiries undertaken by OPR, but they deliberately omit the names of the prosecutors involved and other identifying details, such that it is impossible to tell what actually happened. Findings rarely lead to discipline and without transparency, Justice Department attorneys are not subject to public scrutiny.
The Justice Department is the only federal agency whose inspector general lacks the authority to investigate allegations of professional misconduct by agency lawyers. The Inspector General Act of 1978 created an arbitrary carveout for Justice Department lawyers. For years, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have tried to close this loophole, which shields Justice Department lawyers with the power to deprive us of our liberty from independent oversight and accountability. This double standard exists even within the Justice Department, where all other employees are subject to inspector general investigations. If reintroduced and enacted, the Inspector General Access Act would transfer the responsibility to investigate allegations of misconduct relating to an attorney’s authority to investigate, litigate, and provide legal advice from the OPR to the Office of the Inspector General. Meaningful oversight by the Inspector General would bring needed independence and accountability to a workforce known for its opacity and lack of candor.
The botched 2018 prosecution of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy further illustrates the need for independent oversight of federal prosecutors. Rampant prosecutorial misconduct deprived not only the defendants but also the public of a fair trial and resolution. Whistleblower Larry Wooten, who led the investigation for the Bureau of Land Management, unearthed a widespread pattern of misconduct, contending that supervisory agents had failed to turn over required discovery to the prosecution team that would likely have helped the defense, including by supporting its factual theories and impeaching key government witnesses.
In 2018, District Judge Gloria Navarro found that federal prosecutors “[v]iolated the universal sense of justice.” Citing flagrant prosecutorial misconduct, she dismissed with prejudice the charges against Cliven Bundy, his two sons, and an alleged co-conspirator. Judge Navarro was particularly concerned with how prosecutors failed to disclose video that documented the presence of snipers around the Bundy Ranch prior to the 2014 standoff. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit—in affirming the dismissal—noted “[t]hat the deliberate choices to withhold those documents were not cases of simple misjudgment.” The panel explained how the “[f]acially exculpatory evidence directly negated the government’s theory that the defendants lied about fearing snipers.”
Cliven Bundy’s experience is far from alone. In U.S. v. Chapman, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of an indictment upon finding that prosecutors “[f]ailed to meet their obligations to disclose over 650 pages of documents to the defense.” Both cases happened under the leadership of longtime First Assistant and then Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre. When Myhre’s tumultuous tenure finally came to an end—without explanation—he became “senior litigation counsel” and was tasked with mentoring and training young prosecutors. It is both troubling and telling that a federal prosecutor with a record of persistent misconduct would be entrusted to mold future generations of federal prosecutors.
Oftentimes, evidence of prosecutorial misconduct only comes to light when cases go to trial. Yet, due in great part to often highly coercive plea bargaining, only about 2.3 percent of federal cases go to trial. This makes it all the more important to hold prosecutors accountable when they are caught engaging in misconduct. If a doctor were to amputate the wrong limb you can rest assured that they would be identified, subject to personal liability, and barred from practicing medicine. Yet when federal prosecutors fail to live up to their ethical obligations, the public is kept in the dark. Shifting the Office of Professional Responsibility’s function to the Office of the Inspector General would put federal prosecutors in line with the rest of the federal workforce and help to expose and address pervasive prosecutorial misconduct.
https://www.cato.org/blog/how-doj-helps-federal-prosecutors-escape-accountability-evade-public-scrutiny
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The unseen scandal that demands FBI reform
As a nation, we must separate personal opinions about individual defendants from the principles of justice
By Alan Dershowitz
What happens when the government doesn’t just bend the rules but breaks them entirely? This question lies at the heart of a high-profile prosecution that began as a #MeToo case involving adult accusers but took a dramatic and troubling turn. Just nine weeks before trial — and 11 months after the seizure of evidence — a Canon camera and an external hard drive were suddenly “accidentally discovered” to contain evidence of alleged child pornography. This late “discovery” not only added new charges but also pressured several co-defendants into pleading guilty.
However, according to experts, the evidence wasn’t discovered; it was invented. Seven experts, including four former FBI forensic examiners, concluded in a joint report submitted to the court: “Photos were planted and staged … with timestamps and folder names manipulated, apparently to simulate a 2005 timeframe. This conclusion is critical because the government depended entirely on these photos’ timestamps and folder names being authentic to argue that 22 of the photos were … illegal, based on the subject’s age being fifteen in 2005. This tampering … involved the manipulation of hundreds of files and time stamps.”
What makes this case even more alarming is how the judge and prosecution have shielded the alleged misconduct from proper scrutiny. Requests to access withheld evidence have been denied, and the defense has been prevented from obtaining records essential to understanding the full scope of the misconduct. It has also been denied an evidentiary hearing at which the evidence can be tested by cross-examination. If the justice system cannot hold the government accountable in such a case with such extensive proof of malfeasance, what hope is there for fairness in cases where the misconduct is less obvious?
Even those who served within the FBI are raising alarms. Dr. James Richard Kiper, a retired FBI agent whose work contributed to the FBI Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2016, personally reached out to FBI Director Christopher Wray about the misconduct in this case. In his email, he warned: “After my 20 years of faithful service to the FBI … I was extremely disappointed — actually, outraged — at how the FBI handled the digital evidence in this case. You should feel the same way. The difference is that you can do something about it before it becomes the biggest FBI evidence scandal since the FBI Laboratory trace evidence fiasco in the 1990s.”
This is not a partisan case. The defendant, Keith Raniere, is not a political figure, yet the systemic failures in his case echo many of the concerns raised in today’s national debate over FBI and Justice Department reform. This case offers a stark reminder that unchecked power and unaccountable institutions pose a threat to every American.
As a nation, we must separate personal opinions about individual defendants from the principles of justice. If the government can fabricate evidence against someone like Raniere, who will hold it accountable when it turns that power against the rest of us?
What we seek at this time is an evidentiary hearing at which we can present our evidence, subject to cross-examination, so the judge and the public can determine, based on facts, whether our serious allegations are true. There is no reason for the government to oppose such an inquiry, yet they did so from the beginning of the case and continue to do so now.
The time has come, indeed it is long past, for the government to end the cover-up of what experienced experts regard as a major scandal.
If they did nothing wrong, they should have nothing to hide. If they are refusing to let the truth come out, the public has the right to conclude that they do apparently have something to hide. The public has the right to know what they are afraid will come out at a hearing.
Sunlight is a good disinfectant, and blocking the sun will make the infection — if there is one, as the experts have concluded — fester. So, it’s in the interest of all Americans for there to be a hearing on this important issue.
Alan Dershowitz is a consultant to the attorneys of Keith Raniere on constitutional issues
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Perhaps misfiled, but as senior abuses by FBI senior officials is the proximate cause, I’ll drop it here. Note the nameless off-the-record FBI agents making the “Good German” argument; they were just following orders, eh? CNN on the other hand authoritatively states Mar al Lago raid abuses Trump claims are “false.” They still can’t help but allow veiled opinion to worm its way into a news story:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/30/politics/senior-fbi-leaders-demoted-wray
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Right thread for it.
This caught my attention:
"The senior officials are at the executive assistant director level or special agent in charge level and include those who oversee cyber, national security and criminal investigations, the sources told CNN. , , , The leadership changes have drawn internal consternation, in part because these officials didn’t have anything to do with prosecutions of Donald Trump, which have been the focus of the president’s ire."
Sure hope Patel gets the gig!!!
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/fbi-is-still-stalling-refuses-turn-seth-rich/
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This info I have got to see!!
One can smell the rottens fish for DC to NJ.
Hope records do not disappear.
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https://m3.gab.com/media_attachments/42/94/0a/42940a09490d5c9908c0807ee94d7f7e.png?width=568
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Hat tip BBG
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/02/04/fbi-sues-trump-doj-to-block-list-of-staffers-who-worked-on-j6-prosecutions-n2651648
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Whoa, this piece cuts straight to the core of why they want to hold Gabbard’s confirmation vote in secret, and indeed connects some Bolshevik dots:
Why some senators are so afraid of confirming Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard
J. MICHAEL WALLER
FEBRUARY 03, 2025
The FBI and CIA have operated above the law for decades, but Donald Trump’s nominations of Gabbard and Patel signal an end to their unchecked power.
For years, the FBI and CIA have run Congress like an op. Forget the “secret squirrel” stuff. Many of their top officials have committed felonies in broad daylight with no accountability. By nominating Kash Patel as FBI director and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, President Donald Trump intends to change all that.
The shrill opposition to having tough, contrarian leaders clean out the intelligence community’s litter box has betrayed the secret. Some senators are afraid.
Congress has allowed the FBI and the rest of the intelligence community to become a state within a state that neither Congress nor the president can control.
For nearly half a century, Congress has shrugged off its duty to oversee the ever-growing central investigative and spy apparatus that it funded.
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Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) famously admitted in 2017 that any elected leader who challenges the intelligence community will be destroyed and that Trump, first assuming the presidency that month, was a fool even to try.
"Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” Schumer told MSNBC. “So even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this.”
Gabbard last week reminded the Senate of Schumer’s warning.
More than anyone in Washington, Schumer would know. He was elected to Congress before Tulsi Gabbard was born.
Schumer sat on the House Judiciary Committee with oversight of the FBI from 1981 to 1999. He has been on the Senate Judiciary Committee, also with FBI oversight, since 1999 and is now the panel’s ranking member. Since becoming his party’s leader, whether in the majority or minority, he has been an ex officio member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Schumer knows that by neglecting its constitutional authority, Congress has allowed the FBI and the intelligence community to become a fearful master — a state within a state beyond the control of both Congress and the president.
Everything the FBI and CIA did to Trump and his allies would fill lesser politicians with fear.
Escape from accountability
Some senators show backbone. One is Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), who made two big revelations. He was first to confirm the report that some of his colleagues wanted to vote on Gabbard’s nomination in secret.
It wasn’t about a closed hearing to discuss classified matters, but to have the vote itself, including its final tally, a secret. The purpose, one can only presume, is to allow senators to escape any accountability for their vote.
Precedent for this does exist. Following the jihadist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted in secret, and concealed the tallies, on confirmation of nominees. It did this as a security measure because of fears that some would be targeted by terrorists.
The terrorism worry magically vanished in 2013, after the committee voted to confirm deep-stater John Brennan as director of the CIA. For some reason, establishmentarians were incensed that Brennan had any opposition at all. The committee released the tally, which was 12-3. But, as Roll Call reported, “the public had no official way of knowing which panel members voted against Brennan.”
Those three had to be exposed. One of them is still in office: Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho).
Since then, the tallies of Senate Intelligence Committee votes have been public information.
Who, whom?
Now, with the push to hold the Gabbard confirmation vote in secret, who is afraid of whom? It isn’t Gabbard’s supporters who want a secret vote.
Real intelligence professionals will recall the Bolshevik question, “Kto kogo?” or “Who whom?”
It’s a slogan from Lenin’s 1921 musing, “The whole question is, who will overtake whom?”
Washington has become its own zero-sum power-and-money game. The uniparty members who tax and spend on the permanent bureaucracy, who issue the contracts to the industrial complexes, consider themselves “us.”
In true kto kogo spirit, everyone else — in other words, you and me — is actually “them.” The late great scholar of Russia Richard Pipes once said in a conversation with colleagues, “The FBI learned its worst lessons from the KGB.”
The uniparty loves the FBI as it has become. Retired FBI man Thomas J. Baker observed, “Big Brother is family now.”
Trump and his populist peasant movement want to hold Big Brother and his family accountable. Gabbard and Patel are the tip of the pitchfork.
So the secrecy of a vote on Gabbard — even to those who believe that reforms are overdue — appears driven by some senators’ primal fear of what will happen to them if they are caught helping to hold Big Brother accountable.
Ending the impunity
If Gabbard is confirmed, impunity is over.
“Every FBI director I’ve questioned has lied to me” in his 14 years on the Judiciary Committee, Senator Mike Lee told Kash Patel during his confirmation hearings last week.
Making any false statement to Congress is a felony. Lying under oath is another felony. Five years maximum for each. Four successive FBI directors committed federal felonies, by Lee’s account. They should have gotten 10 years in the slammer for each time they lied to Congress.
But they routinely got away with it.
So have the leakers throughout the intelligence community, who committed felonies every time they passed classified information. Many of those leaks were calculated to manipulate the Senate on who it would and would not confirm.
President Trump is ending the impunity. That’s why the fight against Gabbard and Patel is so vicious. The demons are howling at the exorcist. Some senators feel caught in the middle. That’s why they are so afraid.
https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/why-some-senators-are-so-afraid-of-confirming-kash-patel-and-tulsi-gabbard?xrs=RebelMouse_fb&ts=1738616725
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"The demons are howling at the exorcist."
- Hard to put it any better than that.
What they don't get is that the disruption and the reform is saving the fbi. A short time ago there were serious calls to end it.
Same with the budget, social security, the border, the dollar and the republic, the disruption and reforms will save it, not end it.
As John Fetterman advised, stop freaking out at everything Trump says and does.
And no, we're not going to have the debate in public and the confirmation vote in secret. Good grief.
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https://headlineusa.com/fbi-has-produced-just-2-new-records-per-month-in-long-running-okc-bomb-lawsuit/
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Ooh, just encountered this clip as part of another piece I’m clicking through the links of. As some may recall, something I’ve mentioned a couple times is the number of FBI television shows out there, speculating it is no accident: there must be some unit in the bowels of the FBI edifice underwriting and providing “technical” assistance for ‘em. Danes speaks to something similar where spooks are concerned, at least until Colbert (now outed as a deep state tool, I imagine) sees where things are going and changes the topic:
https://x.com/TheChiefNerd/status/1871600142203412849
ETA: From the piece I’m reading (bold added):
According to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and research by scholars like David L. Robb (Operation Hollywood) and Tom Secker & Matthew Alford (National Security Cinema), the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has influenced at least eight hundred major films and over 1,000 TV shows, providing military resources (like aircraft, personnel, and bases) in exchange for script approval.
But wait, there’s more:
https://youtu.be/ww1Ik2WlW1s?feature=shared
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Off the top of my head, why should someone/anyone not use whatever leverage they have in return for their cooperation. Should the Pentagon facilitate anti-American/anti-military propaganda of the left? Of a Chinese financed film?
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We are all old enough to remember war movies from the 40's, 50's and later when at the end credits
there is a message
"we thank the US Navy) (or Marines, etc) for their help in making this film
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And old westerns too!
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Off the top of my head, why should someone/anyone not use whatever leverage they have in return for their cooperation. Should the Pentagon facilitate anti-American/anti-military propaganda of the left? Of a Chinese financed film?
Well no, but given the sheer scale of this effort as demonstrated in these pieces shouldn’t we be asking when a line is crossed and we the people are underwriting propaganda … aimed at ourselves? Is there a qualitative difference between these demands for script control and what the Soviets or CCP demands or demanded of their media? How does an authentic movie about military or FBI failures get made without the cooperation of those resource gatekeepers? Don’t we have enough examples of the sorts of issues that DO arise in these orgs (hey, let’s make a movie about Joe Biden’s retreat from Afghanistan!) to understand there are some perplexing lines being drawn, and financed, and controlled here?
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"How does an authentic movie about military or FBI failures get made without the cooperation of those resource gatekeepers?"
I agree there are complexities here, but at the risk of sounding glib, do it the way Hillsdtale College does-- without federal money/help.
Worth noting too is that with computer generated effects as are used all over the place now, the Pentagon help in providing props becomes decreasingly important.
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"How does an authentic movie about military or FBI failures get made without the cooperation of those resource gatekeepers?"
I agree there are complexities here, but at the risk of sounding glib, do it the way Hillsdtale College does-- without federal money/help.
Worth noting too is that with computer generated effects as are used all over the place now, the Pentagon help in providing props becomes decreasingly important.
I was not aware Hillsdale college produces TV shows and movies. What would those titles be [/glib]?
The fact so many producers of TV shows and movies believe availing themselves upon these resources help them sell their product seems to suggest they find the resource to be a valuable, and perhaps critical, one, so much so that they are willing to cede script control which, as I understand it, is considered a Big Deal in those circles.
And though we’ve been learning of a lot of ridiculous spending these days, one presumes the formerly woke DoD and the Deep State organs like the FBI has become wouldn’t spend money on these sorts of liaisons if they didn’t anticipate commensurate returns.
Indeed as I noted elsewhere, while recovering from a Whipple procedure, chemo, titanium plate inserted in foot, et al, I perused a lot of TV, noting a TON of FBI-themed shows like these:
https://www.imdb.com/find/?q=fbi&s=tt&ttype=tv&ref_=fn_ttl_pop
The few I watched—all were pretty bad IMO—presented the FBI heroically. Money well spent, I guess.
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Dox DOGE whiz kids? Why not? Hound those that walked through doors help open by Capitol Police on Jan. 6? Just following orders. Have their names exposed so their friends, family, neighbors, and peers know they were part of this unequally applied putative law enforcement effort? Hell no:
Trump admin agrees not to publicly release names of FBI agents on Jan. 6 probes
FBI agents seek job protection
•The Hill News / by Ella Lee / Feb 7, 2025 at 1:27 PM
The Trump administration agreed Friday not to publicly release the names of FBI agents who played a role in investigations tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack without providing two days' notice.
Sixteen FBI agents who worked on the probes sued the government soon after the agency’s Tuesday deadline to turn over responses to a survey about employees’ work on the more than 1,500 cases stemming from the riot. They claimed the review laid the groundwork for retaliation following President Trump’s vows for retribution against his perceived political enemies.
“Once this happens, if this happens, the damage is irreparable,” Margaret Donovan, an attorney for the FBI agents, said during a hearing Thursday.
As part of the agreement, the Justice Department (DOJ) said the government would not disseminate the list of names to the public “directly or indirectly” pending the outcome of the lawsuits without giving two days' notice, at which point attorneys for the FBI agents could argue for a temporary block on its ability to do so.
The deal was not easily reached.
Justice Department lawyers on Thursday insisted that the DOJ itself had not authorized the public release of the names and had no plan to, nor had it given a formal go-ahead to share the list of names with other government entities.
But when asked to represent that other government entities — like the White House or the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — would not publicly share the names if they gained access, the government lawyers demurred.
“I’m not in a position to make representations,” DOJ lawyer Jeremy Simon said.
“Why?” pressed U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb. “You’re the attorney for the U.S. government.”
The agreement, which Cobb approved Friday afternoon, would not stop the Justice Department from disseminating the list to other government entities, though it appears those entities would also be bound not to publicly release the names without notice.
The FBI agents will file their motions for a preliminary injunction by Feb. 24 and the government will file its opposition by March 14. A hearing on the preliminary injunction was set for March 27.
Lawyers for the FBI agents sought to bar any government entity from releasing the names, noting that Trump and acolytes like billionaire Elon Musk, who spearheads DOGE, had already publicly shunned government employees in recent weeks.
They also said that pardoned Jan. 6 defendants have expressed excitement on social media about the release of the FBI agents’ names, suggesting “horrendous” risk would follow the publication of the agents’ information.
“Do we really want to wait until one person gets injured when someone shows up at their house? Is that the way we really want to go?” said Mark Zaid, another attorney for the agents.
The government said any such risk is “entirely speculative.” Simon noted that the Justice Department officials collecting agents’ information were following the president’s executive order to weed out “weaponization” in the federal government.
“I understand they don’t agree with that executive order, but that is not something they’ve contended is unlawful,” Simon said.
FBI agents were directed to fill out a 13-question survey about their roles in the Capitol riot cases by Monday, asking them to define their roles in the Jan. 6 cases and whether they conducted surveillance, collected evidence, arrested individuals or testified in court. That information was due to be turned over to DOJ by Tuesday at noon.
In an apparent act of defiance, acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll returned the survey with only agents’ unique identifier codes, instead of their names.
Zaid said that decision marked the “last roadblock” in place to protect the employees’ physical safety and reputations. DOJ leadership called the move “insubordination” in an email to all FBI agents.
In court filings Friday, the parties notified the court that the FBI had given the DOJ a record pairing the unique identifiers with corresponding names. However, the terms of the agreement encompass that list, as well.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, a former personal attorney for President Trump, said Wednesday that the DOJ would not target FBI employees who “simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner” on Jan. 6 cases.
The lawsuits followed a purge of dozens of DOJ and FBI officials, including the five highest career positions at the FBI, agents who worked on Trump’s two criminal cases and approximately two dozen prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases.
Chris Mattei, an attorney representing the FBI Agents Association, said the order ensures FBI agents can “continue to do their jobs without fear of public exposure or retaliation.”
Updated at 1:05 p.m. EST
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5133075-trump-fbi-names-jan-6/
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https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/02/09/fbi-officials-tipped-off-criminal-aliens-leaked-details-of-pending-los-angeles-ice-deportation-operation-to-media/
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second
https://nypost.com/2025/02/10/us-news/fbi-unearths-2400-more-jfk-assassination-files-after-trumps-order/
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It’s difficult to feel much sympathy for malign weasels such as these FBI supervisors:
One big issue with the FBI
TOM KNIGHTON
FEB 17, 2025
Photo by Jack Young on Unsplash
President Donald Trump isn’t playing around with the FBI. Many have claimed that he’s engaging in retribution for him being prosecuted, for his supporters being prosecuted over January 6th, and so on.
Tilting At Windmills is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
To be fair, they may have a point. I just don’t care about it all that much after years of Democrats doing the same thing to anyone who disagreed with them.
And it seems that many of those “purged” from the FBI were just the kind of people who liked to do that sort of thing.
Democrats have cast the Trump administration’s ouster of eight senior FBI leaders as a “purge” and act of “retribution” from a weaponized Justice Department, some likening it to President Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre.”
But former colleagues of the terminated “G-men” say this narrative is backward. FBI officials, past and present, have marshaled significant evidence via whistleblower complaints and testimony indicating that several terminated leaders routinely used their offices for partisan purposes.
These include allegations that at least two of the fired officials, Jeffrey Veltri and Dena Perkins, manipulated the security clearance review process to personally and professionally punish conservatives, COVID-19 vaccine skeptics, and Jan. 6 whistleblowers who reported suspected bureau malfeasance, and retaliated against those who came to the whistleblowers’ defense.
A third, Timothy Dunham, is also alleged to have improperly suspended security clearances.
And let’s understand, these accusations weren’t just fabricated by Republicans, though I know some morons would likely claim they were.
No, these are based on real people with real experiences being the victim of such things.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) read numerous accounts of alleged misconduct perpetrated by these and other officials into the record this morning as the committee considered the nomination of Kash Patel for FBI Director.
One subordinate of the three terminated individuals, a former supervisory special agent in the Security Division, “SecD,” from which Veltri and Perkins hailed, and whom Dunham oversaw, told the committee:
I witnessed abuses committed against multiple employees by FBI senior leaders, particularly by Jeff Veltri and Dena Perkins. I also saw SecD retaliate against five of its own employees for protesting these unlawful practices. Because I spoke out against these abuses, Perkins and Timothy Dunham suspended my security clearance, costing me my job and continuing employment, totaling approximately $700,000 in lost wages and retirement benefits.
Another former FBI official, Marcus Allen, told the committee that Veltri and Perkins “caused the suspension of my security clearance because I questioned whether the FBI Director was truthful to Congress and whether the FBI was obeying the law and Constitution in the January 6, 2021 investigations.” What followed left “financial and emotional damage to me and my family will never be completely restored.”
A third, Special Agent Garret O’Boyle, who has been indefinitely suspended without pay for well over two years in alleged retaliation for whistleblowing, told the committee that Veltri, Perkins, Dunham, “and other leadership up to Christopher Wray, are responsible for what happened to me and my family.”
“Ensuring that they no longer work at the FBI is not retribution; it’s responsible leadership.”
This is absolutely vile.
It’s not like they were sympathetic to terrorist groups. I suspect this bunch would have been fine with that, so long as they were the right terrorist groups.
No, they held different opinions about domestic politics and how the bureau should operate.
What’s more, this is just this one little part of the bureau. What else are we going to find down the road? What else have they managed to hide from the world where we’ll never see it?
The ATF was already a big issue so far as federal law enforcement went, but the FBI is probably even worse when you look at all the ways they can hurt the average American.
I’d like to believe that they wouldn’t go quite that far, but look at all the people they prosecuted for January 6th. They didn’t just go after people who got destructive or violent. They went after anyone who set foot inside the Capitol that day, including journalists reporting on the incident.
If you run afoul of the FBI, as it currently sits, they can and will destroy your life. The process is the punishment. They can and will ruin you if they decide it’s worth it. Just paying attorney fees is more than enough to accomplish that, but the hit your reputation will take is also at play here.
They don’t have to convict you to ruin your relationships, your standing in the community, or anything of that sort.
At least some will figure you just got lucky rather than that you were innocent, and just how many will likely depend on the charges.
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So even if Trump is motivated by revenge, I really can’t feel that bad about it. I watched Obama use the IRS to punish conservatives by holding up non-profit status for groups on the right and I watched Biden (or whoever used him as their own personal Bernie) use the FBI to crack down on his opponents, including the raid of Donald Trump’s home.
Turnabout is fair play, in this case, and if it’s going to happen no matter how much one tries to take the high ground and the media won’t acknowledge that’s happening, then why play nice?
Getting rid of the problem children who are screwing with anyone who won’t toe the line, though, isn’t remotely the same thing as what all we’ve seen from the left over the years.
So no, I’m not upset over it. I just wish it wasn’t warranted.
https://tomknighton.substack.com/p/one-big-issue-with-the-fbi?r=2k0c5&triedRedirect=true
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Perhaps misfiled, but some parades a gonna be rained on even harder still:
#BREAKING: Dan Bongino named deputy FBI director by Trump.
Bongino joins Kash Patel.
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/whistleblower-drops-bombshell-fbi-employees-actively-destroying-evidence/
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https://danconiajournal.substack.com/p/false-idols-of-the-bureaucratic-class?r=1ngvbg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&fbclid=IwY2xjawIsbGdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSlL6-IOvGB1ebbWD3xDKTlNi66lIkOW6ooaRCA24lsEeFdN9MyPih79rw_aem_WTq1vNEOmkDCpTKGjyxUQQ&triedRedirect=true
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A bit of a tangent, General Mike Flynn tells Comey the axe is about to fall, among other bon mots:
https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1894866523379941604
https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1894871947152105563
https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1894883035268444616
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Is the "Kelly" of the subject line an error?
Anyway, though a bit of a loose cannon sometimes IMHO Flynn was head of the DIA if I remember correctly, so he would not be unfamiliar with how skullduggery games are played , , ,
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https://www.zerohedge.com/political/anti-trump-fbi-official-leaked-sensitive-investigative-info-emailed-nude-photo-girlfriend
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Just Facts
1h ·
An informant has told Attorney General Pam Bondi that FBI officials in New York have failed to disclose “thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation” of Jeffrey Epstein, despite orders to release them.
Here are disturbing facts about what FBI officials in NY did in this case:
Two days after Epstein’s arrest in 2019, the Department of Justice sent a letter to a judge arguing that he should be denied bail. The letter, co-signed by Maurene Comey (daughter of Jim Comey), reveals that a search of Epstein’s New York residence on the night of his arrest found:
• “an extraordinary volume of photographs of nude and partially-nude young women or girls.”
• “compact discs” in “a locked safe” with “hand-written labels” like “Girl pics nude” and “Young [Name] + [Name].”
Maria Farmer, a victim of Epstein who reported him to the FBI in 1996, told CBS News that Epstein’s mansion in New York was loaded with hidden cameras. Describing a surveillance room with a large number of monitors, she said, “I looked on the cameras, and I saw toilet, toilet, bed, bed, toilet, bed.” She also said the house was “videoed, all the time,” and when she asked Epstein “What do you do with this?” he replied, “I keep it. I keep everything in my safe.”
Incredibly, after the feds cut open Epstein’s safe, they abandoned its contents and left the home unguarded. When they came back four days later, the contents of the safe were gone. These facts only came to light in 2021 during the sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, not because the Department of Justice disclosed them to the public.
The official transcript of the sixth day of the trial—obtained exclusively by Just Facts—shows that the search team leader of Epstein’s home, FBI Special Agent Kelly Maguire, testified under oath to the following:
• The FBI executed a search warrant of Epstein’s mansion on the day of his arrest (July 6, 2019), but the warrant limited what could be searched and seized, so the agents obtained a broader warrant on July 7, which they executed that day.
• Under those two warrants, agents located Epstein’s safe, cut it open, and found in it “binders that contained CDs,” “external hard drives,” “jewelry,” “loose diamonds,” and “large amounts of U.S. currency and passports.”
• Instead of seizing all of this evidence, the FBI agents placed it on the top and side of the safe, took a picture of it, and left it completely unguarded.
• The alleged reason why they didn’t seize the contents of the safe is that they didn’t “have legal authority to seize all of the CDs that day”—even though they had already obtained a second broader warrant.
• Evidencing that the warrant didn’t exclude all CDs, Maguire was asked, “Now, at the time you observed these CDs on the safe, did you have legal authority to seize all of the CDs that day?” and she replied, “No, not all of them.”
• When Maguire returned to Epstein’s house on July 11 with a search warrant that gave her “legal authority” to seize what they left behind, she “observed that all of the items” shown in the “photograph that I had previously seen were missing.”
• Maguire then had a 3-way phone call with an “associate of Mr. Epstein named Richard Kahn and his legal counsel named Andrew Tomback.”
• Within 30 minutes of “that telephone conversation, Richard Kahn came to the residence of Jeffrey Epstein” and “brought all of those items” back to Maguire “in two suitcases.”
• Maguire said that the contents of the suitcases “appeared to be all of the items that had been previously located in the safe,” but she “didn’t look at what was on any of these CDs” before Epstein’s associates took them.
Just Facts shared the facts above with a veteran police detective and asked for his thoughts. The detective, who has been involved in the execution of more 100 search warrants, replied:
• “This is unprecedented in my experience and violates basic protocols.”
• “There is no apparent reason why a warrant in a child sex trafficking case would prohibit a search team from seizing items from a safe, especially CDs labeled with the names of potential victims.”
• “Even if the warrant was so oddly restrictive, law enforcement has a duty to guard the evidence until another warrant is obtained to seize it.
• “FBI agents, who are highly trained and heavily resourced to handle such matters, undoubtedly know that you don’t abandon evidence.”
Adding to the stench of a cover up, the person who took the contents of the safe (Richard Kahn) is not merely an “associate” of Epstein but is heavily implicated in his crimes. A 2021 civil complaint filed by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands states that Kahn and another person named Darren Indyke:
• were “the indispensable captains of Epstein’s criminal enterprise, roles for which they were richly rewarded.”
• “organized, controlled, and directed almost every aspect” of Epstein’s dealings.
• were “officers in virtually every corporate entity that Epstein created to fund and conceal his activities.”
• “directed, approved, enabled, and justified millions of dollars in payments that fueled the Epstein Enterprise’s sex trafficking.”
• helped create “a steady supply of vulnerable female children”—including “numerous girls between the age of 12 and 17 years old”—who were placed “into sexual servitude in service of Epstein’s desires, and those of his associates.”
• are the co-executors of Epstein’s estate and continue to “engage in a course of conduct aimed at concealing the criminal activities of the Epstein Enterprise.”
• have “approved the release” of funds from Epstein’s estate to “pay for the legal fees and costs of persons” who allegedly “participated in the criminal activity of the Epstein Enterprise.”
To this day, the federal government hasn’t revealed the names of the people that were written beside the “young” females on the CDs in Epstein’s safe. Again, this is where Epstein kept the footage from his hidden cameras, according to Maria Farmer.
The FBI is also keeping other information under wraps. After Epstein died, Farmer told CBS News that the FBI “failed” her by not acting on the complaint she filed in 1996 and added, “They are trying to pretend I do not exist. I want my report and I want it printed out so I can show everyone how much they failed. I don’t know if I’ll ever get it. We’ve been requesting it forever.”
Bondi’s Letter
https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1895195194947183047
Hyperlinks to the primary sources of all the facts above are available at https://www.justfactsdaily.com/federal-report-on-the...
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/top-fbi-official-forced-out-after-criticizing-trump-pursuit-of-agents-who-investigated-jan-6/ar-AA1AaXQC?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=106b5e92883b487e805a8a0976d6c6a7&ei=7
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https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2025-03-03/fbi-refuses-produce-evidence-seth-rich-laptop
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:x :x
Either deep staters were onvolved Epstein's prostitution ring or they are taking bribes.
or something to do with rumors Espstein was an FBI informant.
possible ala Edgar Hoover digging dirt on important people.
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Or the Mossad.