Tag Archive for: FBI

‘About To Combust’: Republicans Have Golden Opportunity To End Spying On Americans — But It’s Tearing Them Apart

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Intelligence community abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) have gone from a niche issue for libertarian-minded politicos to a priority among the Republican Party base, thanks largely to former President Donald Trump.

Republicans have a chance to put an end to the law once and for all – or at least significantly reform it – but the party has spent months trying to reach a consensus on how to balance national security with the rights of Americans.

“It’s delicate right now. The place is about to combust,” a GOP source on Capitol Hill told the Daily Caller on Monday.

Under Section 702 of the FISA, the government has the authorization to gather foreigners’ communications who have been flagged in relation to national security matters. The communications can be gathered even if the subject was talking about, or with, Americans.

FISA was elevated from a relatively niche issue with the attention of privacy hawks in D.C. to a critical sticking point for Republicans after it was used to spy on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election season. Based on FISA-enabled surveillance, the national security state and corporate media were able to undercut Trump’s first term in office by perpetuating the “Russiagate” conspiracy theory, the former president’s allies have argued in the years since.

The surveillance bill is set to expire on April 19, and after punting negotiations in December, Republican lawmakers, including avowed Trump allies, are now forced to consider the contentious issue.

The GOP is divided into two broad camps over various proposed reforms, perhaps most notably a warrant requirement. National security hawks aligned with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence have expressed more opposition to the requirement and other privacy-minded reforms — members aligned with the Judiciary Committee are stressing that FISA must no longer be a tool that can be used to spy on Americans, like what happened with the Trump campaign.

In February, negotiations restarted on the legislation, a GOP source explained to the Daily Caller. At the time, the GOP source said, the rough agreement was that the Intelligence bill would be the base while the Judiciary would be given the opportunity to add amendments. The arrangement led to some disagreements over what the base of the bill should be, the source continued.

The battle has since gotten more heated, after Speaker Mike Johnson put forward a compromise reform bill: the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA).

“I don’t think [RISAA goes far enough] I think that these are a lot of papered over reforms that FBI was doing internally, or were claiming that they’re doing internally,” Republican Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs told the Caller.

“RISAA doesn’t go nearly far enough in protecting Americans from illegal spying by their own government. It is a sham reform, and House Republicans should not vote for any FISA reauthorization that lacks a warrant requirement. Speaker Johnson and the GOP majority have a real opportunity to end this madness, and they should take it,” Rep. Mike Lee told the Daily Caller in a statement.

Ahead of the renewal fight this week, Speaker Johnson put forward RISAA, a bill backed by Ohio Rep. Mike Turner and the intelligence committee. Privacy hawks across the political spectrum have said the legislation doesn’t go far enough.

“Speaker of the House Mike Johnson claims that RISAA reflects a compromise,” reads a joint statement from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Brennan Center for Justice and Freedomworks. “In reality, this bill is not a ‘compromise,’ and its 56 ‘reforms’ codify the unacceptable status quo.”

“Making 56 ineffective tweaks to a fundamentally broken law is not reforming it. Absent significant amendment, RISAA will do nothing to prevent the government’s repeated abuses of Section 702 to spy on Americans.”

“Any member of Congress who supports extending FISA without radical reforms should receive a ‘Deep State-approved’ logo to burnish for their reelection campaign,” longtime D.C. journalist Jim Bovard, who focused on privacy rights and civil liberties, told the Caller.

“If Congress cannot yank in the reins on the FBI and NSA after millions of confirmed violations of Americans’ rights, only a fool would expect Congress to ever give a damn about the Constitution.”

Much of the pressure that is mounting is being directed at Speaker Mike Johnson. Johnson has faced increasing criticism from the Trump wing of his conference, with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene threatening to oust him from the speakership for helping pass a government funding bill, among other complaints.

The move to put forward RISAA has invited more criticism for Johnson from within his own conference.

“FISA is tricky right now. It’s expected that Mike Johnson will just roll over on this — like everything else he’s done,” a GOP source told the Daily Caller before the Speaker indicated that he would try to bring RISAA to the floor.

“Mike Johnson is a constitutional conservative who was fighting for the judiciary committee six months ago, and now when you look at his actions, since he’s become speaker, it kind of seems that he switched teams. They’re going to deny it and say ‘well you know he’s the speaker now,’” a senior GOP aide told the Daily Caller.

Turner’s office offered an unequivocal defense of the bill, stating it is “not an expansion of warrantless surveillance on American citizens.” Turner has consistently denied that his version of FISA reform constitutes a warrantless surveillance program against Americans.

Some Republicans have gone on the record to question Johnson’s personal record on privacy issues.

“House leadership, including @SpeakerJohnson and @RepJeffries, voted for a FISA 702 warrant requirement in 2018. Now they’re both opposing a warrant requirement. Why do the Intel Bros™️ get to tell House leadership what to do?” Lee tweeted Tuesday.

A failure on the GOP’s part to properly rein in FISA could send a bad signal to Republican voters, journalist Matt Taibbi told the Caller.

“If Republicans don’t vote for extensive FISA reform, it will mean they were never serious about getting to the bottom of the abuses in the Trump/Russia investigation. It would send a devastating message to Republican voters in particular,” he said.

“When I started working on the Russiagate story, I started hearing horror stories from Hill staffers, who apparently were surprised to learn how pervasive the misuse of FISA has been since passage of the FISA Amendments Act in ’08,” he continued. “The unmasking procedure has proved to be a joke with no real safeguards, and parallel structure (i.e. using intelligence illegally obtained from programs like this in ordinary criminal investigations) is probably far more common than we think.”

Johnson did previously vote to extend FISA surveillance in 2018, despite Trump’s opposition, but has fought along Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan to push back on FISA abuses more recently.

Trump has been a vocal critic of FISA abuses, due to the law being used to surveil his campaign during the 2016 election.

“‘House votes on controversial FISA ACT today.’ This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?” the then-president tweeted in Jan. 2018.

During the 2016 election, the FBI used a document complete with opposition research on the former president to earn the approval from a secret court that oversees FISA to secretly monitor Trump aide Carter Page, according to CNN. The document, the infamous Steele Dossier, included unverified claims that the Russian government had compromising personal and financial information on the eventual president.

The former president’s White House later put out a statement undercutting Trump, clarifying that the administration believed Section 702 “is vital to keeping the nation safe” while adding that renewing the bill “is a top priority of the administration.”

It was later revealed in 2023 through court documents that the FBI had been using data obtained through FISA improperly to search Americans, including some who attended the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and Black Lives Matter protests, Newsweek reported.

As a result of Trump’s vocal opposition, and the way FISA was used against his campaign, the issue has become pressing for many of his supporters.

The FISA debate last reared its head in December of 2023 when Congress was considering the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). An extension of Section 702 until April was added to the bill, and nearly 150 House Republicans voted for the package.

When the package passed in December with the inclusion of FISA extension, Trump’s supporters, who blame the legislation for spying on the former president, became enraged. Trump-aligned figures like Charlie Kirk and Kash Patel blasted House Republicans.

Some in Trump’s orbit are sounding the alarm this time around too: “We know that 702 was abused to spy on Americans and specifically to spy on Donald Trump,” former Trump administration official Ric Grenell told the Caller. “The current draft doesn’t fix the abuses and therefore the bad outweighs the good.”

Lawmakers who have aligned themselves with Trump, yet voted for the NDAA with FISA extension within it, include Kentucky Rep. James Comer, Speaker Johnson, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace and Ohio Rep. Brad Wenstrup.

Mace, Comer, Boebert and Johnson’s offices explained to the Daily Caller why they chose to vote for the NDAA in 2023. All noted separate issues and funding that were folded in the NDAA that persuaded them to vote for the package, despite the inclusion of the FISA extension.

The NDAA has long been considered a “must-pass” bill by Congress for national security reasons. The urgency to pass the NDAA has resulted in controversial provisions being included before, such as in 2011, when President Barack Obama signed the 2012 NDAA into law and codified the indefinite detention of American citizens allegedly linked to terrorism.

Boebert’s office noted that she promised her voters she would get the Pueblo Jobs Act signed into law, and Comer’s office said that his district’s military base needed funding.

“Congressman Comer fully supports Representative Jim Jordan’s ongoing FISA reform efforts,” Comer’s spokesperson told the Daily Caller. “In 2023, he supported the National Defense Authorization Act because the legislation secured badly needed funding for his district military base Fort Campbell and delivered support to our men and women in uniform by repealing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and providing a boost in pay.”

Mace’s office told the Daily Caller in a statement that the congresswoman did not support the inclusion of the FISA extension in the NDAA, despite her vote for the package in December 2023. The congresswoman’s spokesperson Gabrielle Lipsky noted that the bill included a “variety of priorities important to the thousands of active-duty service members she represents.”

“Rep. Mace did not support the inclusion of a FISA extension in the NDAA and does not support a FISA extension without significant reforms to section 702 to ensure the protection of Americans’ 4th Amendment rights,” Lipsky told the Daily Caller in the statement.

Still, 73 House Republicans, about one-third of the conference, voted against the NDAA.

Stefanik, Jackson and Wenstrup did not respond to questions regarding their previous support for the NDAA and how they would handle the upcoming Congressional vote.

Meanwhile, prominent civil liberties organizations and advocates on both ends of the political spectrum have made an effort to persuade Congress to change its approach to FISA.

“Demand Progress plays a leading role advocating for and organizing civil society in support of Congressional action to rein in warrantless surveillance,” Demand Progress, a left-wing civil liberties organization with a focus on internet issues told the Daily Caller in statement. “We have further driven tens of thousands of contacts to Congress opposing FISA reauthorization absent major new privacy protections for Americans against warrantless surveillance and have conducted exhaustive research documenting FISA abuse.”

“We will go and identify and work with those members to go and reach out and branch into other members of Congress and their offices where we can so like, I’ve met with all different kinds of, you know, different committees that have interests on this topic. We’re always talking with them about what this trade off is, and why it’s so important. We’re certainly pushing very hard as often as we can,” a member of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity told the Daily Caller.

For the time being, Republicans seem likelier to take up the intel committee’s version of reforms, which Turner’s office insisted to the Caller is sufficient to protect Americans.

“It’s the largest reform to FISA and the FBI in a generation. This bill contains over 50 reforms to prevent another Carter Page/Russia Hoax abuse from happening and drastically reduces FBI querying,” Jeff Naft, the communications director for Turner, told the Daily Caller in a statement.

AUTHOR

REAGAN REESE

White House correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

FBI Shows Up To Oklahoma Woman’s House, Questions Her About Social Media Posts: REPORT

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Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents reportedly launched an investigation in Oklahoma to look into social media posts, Fox News reported Saturday.

Rolla Abdeljawad reported an unexpected visit by FBI agents concerning her social media activity, according to Fox News. The agents reportedly visited her home and inquired about her posts following alerts from Facebook. Abdeljawad, who sought to confirm the agents’ identity by asking them to display their badges on camera, shared her experience through a video uploaded by her lawyer, Hassan Shibly, on the social media platform X.

“Facebook gave us a couple of screenshots of your account,” one agent said in the video. To which Abdeljawad replied with “So we no longer live in a free country, and we can’t say what we want?” “No, we totally do,” another agent wearing a red shirt said.

“We do this every day, all day long. It’s just an effort to keep everybody safe and make sure nobody has any ill will,” one agent then told the woman.

In a caption, Shibly advised the public on what to do in these situations. “What she did right: 1. Refuse to speak to them without a lawyer. 2. Refuse to let them in her house. 3. Record the interaction,” the lawyer wrote on X. “What she did wrong: 1. Exit her house. Do not let them in your house if they do not have a warrant but do not exit your house either.”

The specific posts that caught the FBI’s eye are unknown. Yet, Abdeljawad’s outspoken posts against the Gaza conflict, criticizing Israel and showing support for Palestine, are well-documented on her Facebook, according to Fox News.

“Israhelli terrorist filth,” she said in one post, Fox News reported. “They think Ramadan is a weakness for Muslims not, realizing Ramadan is the strength. #FreePalestine May Allah destroy every single despicable zionist, their supporters and backers. Ameen [sic].”

“Don’t fall for their games. Our community is being watched & they are just waiting for any reason to round us up,” Abdeljawad wrote on March 24, according to Fox News. “If you’re Muslim and/or pro-pal consider all your media accounts, Google searches, mail, messenger, local mosques & political events monitored. #NYC #usa #PoliceState #FreePalestine.”

The Daily Caller has reached out to the FBI for comments but has yet to receive a response.

AUTHOR

MARIANE ANGELA

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

You’ve heard about weaponization of the FBI and CIA; now they’re weaponizing the internet

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With the FBI’s political censorship of social media exposed, proponents of weaponized government are using a different tool: Biden’s Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC might sound boring. But from a First Amendment perspective, it’s more dangerous than the FBI.

It is being weaponized against you.

Recovering from the spook revelations in the Twitter Files, the central government is increasingly marginalizing, censoring and silencing the free speech of Americans who express views that unaccountable bureaucrats believe should not be permitted.

We all know the pattern now. Anonymous officials brand unapproved facts, even when true, as disinformation. They dismiss unapproved opinions as conspiracy theories.Last year, a federal court issued a scathing judgment against the administration, showing that some of those supposed “conspiracy theories” were true all along. That ruling, in the Missouri v Biden case, showed that the central machine engaged in “coerced censorship” with social media companies to silence citizens with the wrong views.

“The United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’” from the novel 1984, Judge Terry Doughty said in his ruling.

Team Biden appealed in Murthy v Missouri, a case argued last week before the Supreme Court. The administration admitted it seeks to “coerce” certain forms of censorship. It complained that victims and individual states were using the courts “to audit all of the executive branch’s communications with and about social media platforms.”

Translation: The central government wants to deny American citizens the right to identify precisely who in the administrative state is responsible for censoring them. Remember that.

The case has documented a ghoulish strategy behind this. All in the name of “national security,” healthcare, and, of course, fighting “disinformation.”

At the same time, the harmless-looking FCC is making two power grabs aimed at Internet Service Providers. ISPs, as they are known – the companies that own and run the infrastructure that provides access to the Internet.

We can thank dissident FCC commissioner Brendan Carr for sounding the alarm. The FCC agenda goes far beyond the FBI’s comparatively narrow suppression of individual accounts that the Twitter Files revealed.

Carr warns that the FCC’s power grab will allow the agency to grant privileges to politically compliant ISPs, and to punish the politically noncompliant.

“President Biden gave the FCC its marching orders,” Carr explained last October. “The President called on the FCC to implement a one-page section of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Infrastructure Act) by adopting new rules of breathtaking scope, all in the name of ‘digital equity.’”

This digital equity central planning, “for the first time ever,” Carr said, “would give the federal government a roving mandate to micromanage nearly every aspect of how the Internet functions—from how ISPs allocate capital and where they build, to the services that consumers can purchase; from the profits that ISPs can realize and how they market and advertise services, to the discounts and promotions that consumers can receive.”

In the age of DEI, the Biden-FCC initiative can dictate terms to ISPs according to the racial, social and economic profiles of their customers.

As if this is not enough, the FCC is placing net neutrality regulations on ISPs to classify them as public utilities subject to rate regulation. If the government can control what you offer and how much you can charge, it all but owns you. With such a powerful government looming over their every decision, what ISP could not be made to bend to the will of the administrative state?

This massive accumulation of central government power is where the threat of lawless censorship comes in.

With such power, what could political operatives in Washington quietly coerce ISPs to do behind the scenes? What independent or conservative news and opinion platforms might be slowed, shadowbanned or deplatformed if a nameless bureaucrat or some leftist activist group falsely labels them purveyors of disinformation or hate speech?

We have seen the evidence of what the government will do in secret to censor or suppress information with the powers it already has. Just think what it would do if given vastly greater power over private communications platforms.

And since some ISPs own separate news, online media and entertainment platforms, consider what the FCC’s massive, indirect control of their platform could have on information and messaging of those subsidiaries.

The Draconian policy is all wrapped up in nice consumer-friendly language. But as Carr explained, it “was never about improving your online experience – that was just the sheep’s clothing. It was always about control.”

“The plan,” he said, “is motivated by an ideology of government control that is not compatible with the fundamental precepts of free market capitalism.”

More dangerous than the FBI’s abuses. With powers to censor us all.

AUTHOR

J. Michael Waller

J. Michael Waller is Senior Analyst for Strategy at the Center for Security Policy.

His academic and professional areas of concentration are foreign propaganda, political warfare, psychological warfare, and subversion.

He is the former Walter and Leonore Annenberg Professor of International Communication at the Institute of World Politics, a graduate school in Washington, DC.

He has been an instructor with the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg. He has guest lectured at the FBI Academy, George C. Marshall Center, Marine Corps University, National Defense University, National Intelligence University, and other military schools and combatant commands.

Dr. Waller holds a Ph.D. in international security affairs from the University Professors Program at Boston University. His award-winning doctoral dissertation, written in 1993 and published as Secret Empire: The KGB In Russia Today (Westview, 1994), foresaw the rise of a KGB officer to seize political control of Russia. He received his military training as an insurgent with the Nicaraguan contras.

He is author or editor of books relating to intelligence, political warfare, public diplomacy, terrorism, subversion, and strategy. See his page on Academia.edu. His latest book is Big Intel: How the CIA and FBI Went from Cold War Heroes to Deep State Villains (Regnery, 2024).

He has written for American Greatness, the American Mind, the Daily Beast, Daily Caller, The Federalist, Forbes, Insight, Investor’s Business Daily, Kyiv Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Real Clear Politics, USA Today, the Washington Examiner, the Washington Times, and the Wall Street Journal. See his page on Authory.

Dr. Waller is on Twitter/X at @JMichaelWaller.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Center for Security Policy column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

FBI launches urgent manhunt for Iranian agent accused of plotting to murder Trump era officials

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The jihad is multi-layered and global, involving the Islamic Republic of Iran’s state actors and expansive proxies, as well as other jihadist groups and lone wolf jihadists.

“Farahani is wanted for questioning in connection with the recruitment of individuals for various operations in the United States…” 

With Biden’s open borders, a free flow of  jihadists are enabled and welcomed into America, and Farahani has a plethora of people to choose from.

More threats and more violence will come, as the way of life for Americans changes and its freedoms decline.

Antisemitism will also continue to rise.

FBI launches urgent manhunt for Iranian secret agent, 42, accused of plotting to assassinate Trump-era officials including Mike Pompeo in revenge for killing of Qasem Soleimani

by Germania Rodriguez Poleo, Daily Mail, March 5, 2025:

The FBI has launched an urgent manhunt for an Iranian secret intelligence official accused of plotting to assassinate Trump-era officials.

Federal agents say Majid Dastjani Farahani has been trying to recruit allies to murder current and former US government officials as revenge for the US assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.

In an urgent notice on Friday, the FBI office in Miami asked for information on Farahani, who is said to speak Spanish and frequently move between Iran and Venezuela, where the ruling regime is friendly with Iran.

‘Farahani is wanted for questioning in connection with the recruitment of individuals for various operations in the United States, to include lethal targeting of current and former United States Government officials as revenge for the killing of IRGC-QF Commander Qasem Soleimani,’ the FBI said….

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

ELECTION RIGGING: Not just by the FBI, but the CIA had a hand in trying to throw the election for Clinton in 2020

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Wouldn’t it be great if Canada had a few actual journalists who could look into the RCMP and military and maybe figure out if the same was done for Trudeau etc.?

Canada is much more controlled in most ways than the U.S. though.

WATCH: Obama CIA EXPOSED in bombshell report

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EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column posted by Eeyore is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Department Of Justice Acknowledges Hunter Biden Laptop Content Is Legitimate For First Time

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has acknowledged the legitimacy of Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop data for the first time in a new court filing.

In a Tuesday court filing from DOJ prosecutors, which came in response to Biden’s request to have his federal firearm charges dismissed, investigators acknowledge the legitimacy of data found on Biden’s laptop prior to the 2020 election. The court filings described how IRS and FBI investigators had obtained a search warrant for tax violations on Biden, leading them to “various” backup data accounts.

The documents additionally note that investigators later came into “possession” of the laptop that Biden had previously “left at a computer store,” emphasizing that investigators had “already obtained” a large portion of the data from Apple.

“In August 2019, IRS and FBI investigators obtained a search warrant for tax violations for the defendant’s Apple iCloud account. In response to that warrant, in September 2019, Apple produced backups of data from various of the defendant’s electronic devices that he had backed up to his iCloud account,” the court documents stated.

“Investigators also later came into possession of the defendant’s Apple MacBook Pro, which he had left at a computer store. A search warrant was also obtained for his laptop and the results of the search were largely duplicative of information investigators had already obtained from Apple.”

Following the initial report on Biden’s laptop from the New York Post, backlash from Democratic officials, various media outlets and social media platforms ensued. Democratic operatives and their allies attempted to cast the findings from the laptop as “Russian disinformation” and alleged that reporting on it was a form of pro-Trump election interference.

A letter was soon released by 51 former intelligence officials who falsely claimed that the content on Biden’s laptop was a “Russian information operation.”

The “Russian disinformation” narrative pushed by officials then led to both Facebook and Twitter censoring the NY Post’s reporting, with sites like Politico claiming the story was false by using the former intel officials’ letter. President Joe Biden called the laptop contents “Russia disinformation” during his 2020 campaign, also using the intelligence officials’ letter as support.

However, while the rumors of Russia interference circled, the FBI reportedly knew that the contents within Biden’s laptop were real due to an interview with Biden’s former business associate, Tony Bobulinski. The  agency had previously interviewed Bobulinski on Oct. 23, 2020, after the report broke, in which he confirmed the authenticity of the laptop’s contents, noting that he had additional records on multiple cell phones.

The DOJ and FBI have since shied away from Biden’s laptop contents, with IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley confirming the authenticity of the laptop during testimony to Congress in June 2023, according to the New York Post.

The new filings come as a response to Biden’s investigation for gun charges which his legal team attempted to argue in December should be dismissed. Biden was indicted in September of 2023 on three federal gun charges after he had allegedly illegally purchased a revolver as he was battling a drug addiction.

While Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to the charges in October of 2023, he could potentially face up to 25 years in prison.

AUTHOR

HAILEY GOMEZ

General assignment reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

FBI Has Massive 15 Month Backlog On DNA Testing For Migrants, Unearthed Emails Show

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  • The FBI’s system for processing DNA submitted by federal border authorities to vet migrant families is overwhelmed, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) email chain reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
  • FBI Director Christopher Wray has said the bureau has seen a “dramatic increase” in DNA samples due to the migrant surges.
  • “They [FBI] don’t have enough money to run the program which is a statutory requirement. They are still delivering kits and used to turn them around in 2 months, now they are looking at a 15 month backlog,” one CBP official said in the internal chain.

The FBI has a 15 month backlog on DNA testing for migrants and is running out of money to sustain the program, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) email chain reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) uses tests from the FBI, which then analyzes and stores them for federal border authorities, to test migrants 14 years old and older, according to the emails. FBI Director Christopher Wray previously raised concerns about the FBI’s ability to handle the “dramatic increase” in DNA samples given the migration surges in April, according to Voice of America.

“They [FBI] don’t have enough money to run the program which is a statutory requirement. They are still delivering kits and used to turn them around in 2 months, now they are looking at a 15 month backlog,” one CBP official said in the internal chain regarding its response to a Washington Post reporter working on a story regarding the DNA testing.

Federal authorities have recorded record flows of migrants crossing the southern border illegally in recent years, with roughly 2.2 million encounters in fiscal year 2022 and more than 2 million in fiscal year 2023, according to federal data.

The FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is used by federal, state and local labs to connect offenders to crimes, according to the bureau.

In a proposed response to the reporter’s question, the officials admitted that migrants who aren’t wanted for crimes are always released from agency custody before the DNA testing is completed.

“Migrants remain in CBP custody for up to 72 hours. Since the FBI’s DNA analysis has always taken longer than three days, migrants have always released from CBP custody prior to the FBI completing its DNA analysis. Migrants wanted for a crime are transferred to appropriate law enforcement agencies. You may, however, wish to contact ICE to learn whether the current delay in FBI DNA analysis may have impacted ICE’s release of migrants as ICE holds migrants longer than CBP,” one portion of an email read.

When it comes to the migration flows to the U.S., federal border authorities have found significant numbers of migrants that are fraudulently making it seem like they’re legitimate families. Border Patrol has a contract for rapid DNA testing of families, according to the emails.

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pilot program previously found that 16 out of 84 families were “fraudulent” and not actually related, while a separate program discovered that out of a total of 522 migrant families, 79 were fraudulent. The Trump administration expanded the federal government’s DNA program at the border in 2020.

In May, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation found that CBP lacked the sufficient supplies of testing kits to obtain DNA samples, reporting “some individuals in CBP custody not having their DNA collected by CBP officers and agents.”

As of publication, the GAO says CBP has yet to fulfill its recommendations to resolve the issue.

In the email chain, the CBP officials noted the GAO report, saying that while the reporter “may benefit from reading” it, “it raises issues of CBP & FBI compliance with DNA testing that we may not need to introduce if the reporter has not already read this report.”

The FBI did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

JENNIE TAER

Investigative reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

FBI Raids Traditional Catholic Family’s Home over Son’s Memes

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The Biden administration’s FBI is once again targeting faithful Catholic Americans by raiding a Catholic family’s home. According to a report from American Greatness, the Rufini family were “dragged out of their home at gunpoint, handcuffed and locked in a van” by FBI agents earlier this year.

According to Jeremiah Rufini, his 15-year-old son was targeted for posting allegedly “offensive” memes online and in social media group chats, prompting the FBI’s raid. Rufini also alleges that undercover FBI agents infiltrated “right wing” social media chat groups, befriended his son there, and convinced or “goaded” him to generate content which they could then target.

Rufini explained that his son, an altar boy and volunteer firefighter, stepped up to take care of his 93-year-old great-grandmother. The boy was not “raised with cell phones or unrestricted internet access” but his responsibility taking care of his great-grandmother necessitated cell phone use. “He spent a lot of time alone with nothing to do but wait and think and the cell phone became a welcome distraction,” Rufini explained. He added that his son’s “interests in history and theology led him down a rabbit hole where he was recruited into group chats targeting teenage traditionalist Catholics with extreme political content.” Rufini said he later found that the group chats his son was involved in were “closely monitored, and possibly operated by, FBI agents as part of an effort to investigate Traditional Catholics…”

He further noted, “Ironically, our legal troubles began when he had an attack of conscience and abruptly deleted all of his chat apps. He later told us that he felt using social media was a coping mechanism and it had been affecting his mood and ability to sleep.” The FBI’s investigation against the teenager, which his father categorized as “very disproportionate,” reportedly yielded a misdemeanor conviction for breach of peace, but cost the Rufini family over $20,000 in legal fees spent combating the U.S. Justice Department.

Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, commented to The Washington Stand, “From the way the Rufini family describes it, the FBI targeted their son on social media and undercover agents might have encouraged him to commit some sort of offense for which they could arrest him.” She explained, “This is unspeakably cruel to a minor, and it creates problems that were not naturally there. Federal authorities should never foment illicit activity just to confirm their own bias against Christians.” Del Turco added, “This is yet another example of the FBI’s bizarre series of attempts to catch traditional Catholics in some kind of wrongdoing.”

This follows a series of instances in which FBI agents and the Biden Justice Department have aggressively targeted conservative Catholic individuals or communities for harassment or investigation over the past two years. In September of 2022, for example, around two dozen heavily-armed FBI agents equipped with riot gear raided the home of Catholic pro-life advocate and father of seven Mark Houck, handcuffing him in front of his wife and children. Houck was accused of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act by physically assaulting a Planned Parenthood employee. At trial, Houck’s defense team demonstrated that the Planned Parenthood employee had actually violated the abortion business’s policies, left his post, and crossed the street to where Houck and his son were peacefully praying. After the Planned Parenthood employee began following the two and verbally harassing Houck’s son, Houck shoved the man. Houck was acquitted earlier this year.

In February 2023, a memo was leaked from the FBI’s field office in Richmond, Virginia, detailing plans for infiltrating and spying on Catholic parishes which celebrate the Tridentine Mass, sometimes called the Traditional Latin Mass. The memo labeled Tridentine Mass-goers potential “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” and relied heavily on information from the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC classifies “radical traditional Catholics” as a hate group and places them on par with neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Despite initial claims that the memo was the misguided product of only one FBI field office, later documents and testimony revealed that multiple FBI field offices had contributed to the creation of the memo, including FBI field offices on the West Coast which had already infiltrated and spied on traditional Catholic communities.

When asked, months later, if he considered “traditional” American Catholics to be extremists, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland responded in a Congressional hearing, “I have no idea what ‘traditional’ means here.” After being pressed repeatedly to clarify his position on traditional Catholics and repeatedly refusing to answer directly, Garland finally admitted, “Catholics are not extremists, no.” When asked if anyone in the FBI or Justice Department had been disciplined over the creation of the memo, Garland replied, “I don’t know.”

Additionally, the FBI and Justice Department have done little to investigate or prosecute hundreds of attacks against Catholic churches in the U.S. According to a report by advocacy group CatholicVote, nearly 400 Catholic churches have been attacked over the past three years, including 99 in 2023 alone. The attacks have ranged from vandalism and spray-painting to destruction of property and desecration of Catholic statues to firebombing and attempted arson. Attacks have taken place in 42 states and Washington, D.C. A fresh spate of attacks took place in Ohio in late September and early November, ahead of the referendum vote on Issue 1, which enshrined a “right” to abortion in the Buckeye State’s constitution. According to CatholicVote, arrests have been made in less than 25% of attacks on Catholic churches.

Del Turco commented, “The FBI’s resources could be more effectively allocated if they would stop pursing imaginary terrorist threats among Catholics. One would think there is enough crime in America to keep the FBI busy.” She added, “When the FBI’s hyper-fixation on Catholics is inexplicable in the natural, that may just mean it’s spiritual. Spiritual warfare is real, and it affects human events.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Newly released video from Jan 6 shows protestors LED THROUGH BUILDING by POLICE!

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WHO started the “insurrection?

Release all of the J6 political prisoners, now!

 

EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column posted by Eeyore is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

FBI Records Show Top Officials Rushing to Craft a Response to Leaked Memo Revealing its Targeting of Catholics

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Washington, D.C. – Judicial Watch announced today that it, along with CatholicVote Civic Action,  received 131 heavily redacted pages of records from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) showing top officials rushing to craft a public response to the leaked FBI intelligence memo that revealed its targeting of Catholics who adhere to traditional beliefs on church issues.

Judicial Watch received the records in response to an April 2023 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit it filed along with CatholicVote Civic Action against the FBI and the Department of Justice after their failure to respond to  March 2023 requests for records about an FBI intelligence memo targeting “radical traditionalist” Catholics (CatholicVote Civic Action and Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Federal Bureau of Investigations and Department of Justice (No. 1:23-cv-01166)).

In February 2023, an FBI intelligence document was leaked that revealed FBI targeting of Catholics who adhere to traditional beliefs on abortion and other cultural issues. The Catholic News Agency reported: “The leaked document has been condemned by several federal and state officials, as well as clergy, including Bishop Barry Knestout of the Diocese of Richmond, who recently called the memo a ‘threat to religious liberty.’”

The newly obtained records include a February 8, 2023, email with the subject line “Media Request: FBI Richmond Document cites SPLC” from the FBI’s National Press Office alerting FBI officials regarding media inquiries:

We have inquiries from the Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal (Heritage Foundation) about an article written by [redacted]. It references a January intelligence product from the Richmond Field office. After speaking with SC Goodwater, I am alerting all of you so we can get a copy of the actual document and hear any recommendations on how to respond. I am attaching a cut and paste of the [redacted] article.

Miriam Coakley of the Office of General Counsel then forwards the email on to other FBI officials, noting, “Adding InTo [Insider Threat Office], SecD [Security Division] and OPR [Office of Professional Responsibility]. The date of the leaked domain perspective appears to be 23 Jan. 2023.”

Further along the chain, an official in the Office of Public Affairs forwards the chain to more people, saying, “Adding Pamela Bryon from the DI. [Deputy Asst. Director of Intelligence Pamela Byron.] Any info on how this product came about would be appreciated.”

In a heavily redacted reply, Byron responds:

As mentioned on FBINET, the type of product leaked is a Domain Perspective (DP) – the purpose of DPs is to offer information and/or highlight how a shift or new development in an AOR (domain) related to an environmental variable could impact the threat. Environmental variables include demographic shifts, technology development, economic conditions, special events, social/cultural conditions, etc. In particular the analysis in DPs (as in FBI products in general) is focused on the activity of identified or potential threat actors, not on the environmental variables themselves, and how those threat actors react to shifts in the environment, and the subsequent impact on the threat posed by those actors.

In that context, there are a couple of things to note with this situation: [redacted].

We stand by to assist on any other questions.

The records include a February 9 email with the subject line “Coordination of Draft statement regarding leaked RH intel document” from Office of Public Affairs official Douglas Goodwater to top FBI officials, including FBI Chief of Staff Johathan Lenzner, Asst. Dir. for Intelligence Tonya Ugoretz, Asst. Dir. for Counterterrorism Robert Wells and others:

Draft/pre decision, Coordination for media statement – DI/CTD/OGC [Directorate of Intelligence/Counterterrorism Division/Office of General Counsel]

Potential statement for review/edits-: [Redacted].

Asst. Director for Public Affairs Catherine Milhoan then responds:

All, we have received two new inquiries in addition to the three last night and are making the decision to respond in the next hour. We want to get our statement out before this picks up any steam.

DI/CTD/OCG,

Please review the draft and let us know if you have any edits or concerns.

Later in the email chain, Stanley Meador, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Richmond Field Office, replies, “Looks good. One small suggestion in yellow. I would send it out. It is migrating onto Fox. https://www.foxnews.com/media/purported-fbi-document-suggests-agency-targeting-catholics-attend-latin-mass.”

On February 10, 2023, FBI Chief of Staff Jonathan Lenzner emails FBI colleagues with the subject “intel piece that has been withdrawn,” saying, “I don’t know if we are there yet, [redacted].”

Lenzner then follows up on February 13, writing, “Looks like at least one religious organization is speaking out publicly: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/catholic-league-condemns-fbi-internal-memo-targeting-catholics.”

Ryan T. Young, the Executive Assistant Director of the Intelligence Branch replies to Lenzner, “Not a good look … Real frustrating when it is self-inflicted. I’ll be back in town Wednesday. We can look into next best steps.”

“After seven months of delay and more to come, Joe Biden’s FBI remains committed to one thing: covering up their un-American spying on Catholic citizens,” said former Congressman Huelskamp, Ph.D., Senior Advisor to CatholicVote. “By fully withholding more than 200 pages of public documents, the Biden administration is more interested in hiding the truth than ending this unconstitutional witch hunt of Catholics and other faithful Americans.”

“The FBI launched a vicious spy effort against Catholics and sought to spy on parishioners as they sat in church pews,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These records show top FBI officials were panicked in response about their domestic spying abuse leaking out.”

CatholicVote.org is a community of patriotic Americans who believe that the timeless truths of the Catholic faith are good for America. It makes its mission “to inspire every Catholic in America to live out the truths of our faith in public life.”

EDITORS NOTE: This Judicial Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

After falsely claiming ‘white supremacists’ were top terror threat, FBI top dog Wray now warns of Hamas attacks in U.S.

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This malignant clown is just covering his tracks. For years he has been lying, claiming that “white supremacists” constituted the nation’s chief terror threat. This was a thinly veiled attempt to criminalize and destroy all political opposition to the Biden regime in the U.S. But now he can’t ignore the jihad threat any longer, and with attacks likely in the U.S., he has to pretend he is on top of the situation. In reality, the FBI has been in denial about the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat for years, and almost certainly will not be able to stop future jihad attacks in the U.S., because it is still so ideologically blinkered and politicized that it doesn’t even know what to look for.

FBI Director Wray warns terror threat to Americans at ‘whole other level’ amid Hamas-Israel conflict

by Adam Shaw and Brooke Singman, Fox News, October 31, 2023:

…”The reality is that the terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole other level,” Wray told lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security Committee….

“We assess that the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration, the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate several years ago,” Wray said. “In just the past few weeks, multiple foreign terrorist organizations have called for attacks against Americans and the West.”…

“We also cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas or another foreign terrorist organization may exploit the current conflict to conduct attacks here on our own soil,” he said.

He also pointed to concerns about threats posed by Hezbollah as well as Iran – which supports both Hamas and Hezbollah – and noted their histories of support of terror and criminal operations.

“Given that disturbing history, we are keeping a close eye on what impact recent events may have on those groups’ intentions here in the United States and how those intentions might evolve,” he said, citing cyber-targeting of American interests by Iran and other foes….

A DHS spokesperson said this week that the U.S. remains in a heightened threat environment and recent events reinforce that.

“As the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, we have seen an increase in reports of threats against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities and institutions. Lone offenders, motivated by a range of violent ideologies, pose the most likely threat. We urge the public to stay vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activity to local law enforcement,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

RELATED VIDEO: This Week in Jihad with David Wood and Robert Spencer

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Smuggler with ties to the Islamic State helped migrants get into U.S.

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What could possibly go wrong? It’s a religion of peace!

FBI investigating immigrants inside U.S. after smuggler with ISIS ties helped them get past border

by Nicholas Ballasy, Just The News, September 2, 2023:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is ramping up investigations of more than 12 immigrants inside the U.S. after a smuggler with ISIS ties helped them travel to the U.S. border and seek asylum to gain entry to the country.

“There was no indication—and remains no indication—that any of the individuals facilitated by this network have a connection to a foreign terrorist organization or are engaged in plotting a terrorist attack in the United States,” said National Security Council spokesman Adrienne Watson on Wednesday….

According to CNN’s report, immigrants from Uzbekistan had requested asylum at the border and and there was “no information in any of the intelligence community’s databases that raised any red flags and the people were all released into the US pending a court date. ”

Later on, the FBI identified a human smuggling network that assisted foreigners to travel to U.S. and that included “at least one individual” had ties to ISIS.

Watson explained that Department of Homeland security officials started detaining, vetting and speeding up the removal of other immigrants encountered at the southern border who “fit the profile associated with individuals who were facilitated by this network.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the situation on Wednesday at the White House press briefing….

Jean-Pierre said there is currently “no sign that anyone moved by the smuggling network has terrorism connections.”…

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has still not informed the House Judiciary Committee about the status or location of those immigrants encountered at the border who may suspected terrorist ties….

Read more.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Biden Regime Tells Families of Victims that 9/11 Jihad Plotters Could be Spared Death Penalty

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No surprise here. Biden’s handlers likely want this whole thing to go away, as does everyone else, which is why it has gone on so long without these jihadis being tried or sentenced. No one wants to deal with jihadis; they’d rather pretend they don’t exist.

Biden administration tells 9/11 families that attack mastermind, 4 others could be spared death penalty

by Victor Nava, New York Post, August 16, 2023:

The Pentagon and FBI have notified some of the families of victims of the 9/11 attacks that suspected terrorist mastermind Kalid [sic] Sheikh Mohammed and four other defendants could be spared the death penalty under plea agreements being considered by the Biden administration.

The notice came in the form of a letter, obtained by the Associated Press, that was sent to 9/11 families as the government explores how to resolve the more than decade-long prosecution of the alleged terrorists.

“The Office of the Chief Prosecutor has been negotiating and is considering entering into pre-trial agreements,” the letter informs families, adding that while no plea agreement “has been finalized, and may never be finalized, it is possible that a [pre-trial agreement] in this case would remove the possibility of the death penalty.”

The Associated Press reports that in the letter, dated Aug. 1, military prosecutors pledge to consider the views of the 9/11 families before accepting any plea deals, and the note asks recipients to respond to the FBI’s victim services division by Monday with any comments or questions about the potential agreements.

The case involving Mohammed and the four others currently being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been mired in legal disputes and delays, particularly concerning the “enhanced interrogation techniques” used by CIA operatives after the men were apprehended….

No trial date has been set for the five suspected 9/11 conspirators.

The Trump administration had previously ruled out any plea bargains with the suspected terrorists, who have been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp since 2006….

Read more.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Delusional Sycophants of the FBI Retired Agents’ Association: A ‘Fire in the Attic?’

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An April 11, 2023 written report by the Executive Director  of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI (SOFSA), Nancy Savage, reflected that on that date, several Society Chapter Chairs from around the country visited the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia. Savage and SOFSA President Dennis Lormel were also present. They attended a New Agents Graduating class and also met with FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Wray claimed that much of what was being written about the Bureau were opinions and not facts. He asserted that “the FBI brand is strong around the country,” that it is important to do the job with honesty and integrity, and “acknowledged that the FBI receives political fallout from Congress at times.”

The takeaway from the written report of the event was that all is A-OK with the FBI. This is, however, contrary to fact. There were evidently no hard questions posed to Wray from this “diverse” group. It was not evident that any of these subject were discussed: FBI whistleblowers; the Crossfire Hurricane corruption hoax; the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Inspector General (OIG) report; the Democrat Party/DOJ/FBI Reichstag Fire-style railroading of patriotic American citizens known as the J6 “insurrection”; the FBI collusion with Twitter to affect a Presidential election; the successful social engineering of the Bureau; or anything concerning Hunter Biden. Are we, then, to conclude that SOFSA is all in with the FBI being used as the enforcement arm of an anti-American political party?

The FBI is the “tip of the spear,” as one might conclude here, for government wide corruption. An apparently oblivious or delusional FBI Director meets with apparently equally oblivious or delusional retired agents and delivers the usual pablum to these gullible agents, who willingly lapped it up. But hey, they each received a Training Division Challenge Coin.

The SOFSA website states here that the organization was founded in 1937 to “preserve the mutuality of interests of the Agents, the memories of pleasures enjoyed and adversities shared. It was formed as a fraternal, educational, and community minded organization composed of former FBI Special Agents who had served with fidelity, bravery, and integrity in the defense of America.” They would also like you to know that they are “inclusive.” Forgive me if I suspect that the word “inclusive” was not in the original founding document(s).

It became evident to me over the last ten years or so that many of my retired colleagues took an oath to an agency instead of to the U. S. Constitution. The motto “protect the Bureau at all costs” is apparently alive and well.

Except for a handful of retired agents, no organization of FBI agents has come out in support of the recent FBI whistleblowers, three of whom have testified before Congress. SOFSA is crickets, which tells me that they apparently are O.K. with the Stasi/KGB tactics that the Bureau is employing against them, as is highlighted here.

Yet further evidence has surfaced of the FBI targeting Catholics, as reported here. Communism and other evil forces target religion. “Satan will deceive nations; he will viciously persecute believers.” Here is an article published at the New English Review, in which I allege that Communism has indeed affected and influenced the FBI.

More evidence of subversion can be found here and here. These Bureau agents are obliviously joining in solidarity with Communism, a Communist cop killer, the Defund the Police effort, and jihadis, including the kidnappers of one of their own. I set forth the following to a separate group of retired agents last year to make the aforementioned point:

  1. Black Lives Matter (BLM) has Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ties. Its leaders are self-professed Marxists. Co-founder Patrisse Cullors has praised cop killer Joanne Chesimard, aka Assata Shakur, of Black Liberation Army (BLA) 1970’s fame. Being Marxists, they are behind the Defund the Police effort.
  2. The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation FBI case, and is an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood, a self-proclaimed enemy of Western civilization. CAIR stands with BLM. “Black Lives Matter is our campaign.”
  3. In 2015, the Iranian mullahs voiced support for BLM to Mandela Barnes, Democrat candidate for U. S. Senate in Wisconsin. This would be the same regime that is suspected of the kidnapping of former FBI Agent Robert Levinson.

Likewise, the FBI Agents Association (FBIAA), an organization of active-duty agents, of which incidentally I was once a Chapter Chair, reportedly rewarded the agents $100.00 each for their alleged “professional judgement.”

Here and here is more of that strong FBI brand that Wray must be talking about, and below is the same FBI executive, then a Special Agent in Charge (SAC), aiding and abetting jihadis and jihad sympathizers.

Apparently SOFSA is A-OK with all of this, too?

I recall as a young agent reading several items that circulated among the agent ranks comparing the Bureau to the KGB. I recall them being tongue-in-cheek write-ups; at least that is the way I took them. Maybe the FBI agent author(s) knew more then than I and others had ever imagined. And just maybe I was delusional about what I thought the FBI was or was supposed to be.

After that April meeting with Wray, I feel confident that there will be a smiling photograph of the attendees with Wray in their monthly publication, the Grapevine. Why not? After all, James Comey, an admitted Communist, had his smiling picture on the cover after he was rightly fired by Donald Trump.

A Max Frisch play entitled The Firebugs (Herr Biedermann und die Brandstifter) here, is about arsonists who disguise themselves as traveling salesmen, gain entry to homes from unsuspecting homeowners, and proceed to burn the houses down. Biedermann reads about them in a local paper, and just then his doorbell rings; two traveling salesmen are at his door asking if they can spend the night. He has just read about the ploy, but allows them in anyway, and gives them a place to stay in his attic. Of course, they proceed to set fire to his attic and the whole town burns down.  The evidence was right there staring Biedermann in the face, yet he failed to see it.

Both the FBI’s attic and SOFSA’s attics are on fire, but they apparently choose to look the other way and ignore the flames.

Does the “enemy within” now include by their silence the FBI retired Agents Association? Maybe Lormel will consider this another one of those “unfounded and reckless” attacks on the FBI?

AUTHOR

DAVID J. BALDOVIN

David J. Baldovin is a retired FBI agent who served from 1969 to 2000, including 25 years in SWAT.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Under Investigation for Partisan Behavior, DOJ Commits More Partisan Behavior

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House Republicans have threatened to initiate contempt proceedings against FBI Director Christopher Wray over his defiance of a House Oversight Committee subpoena, which demands an unclassified document it suspects will expose Joe Biden’s complicity in his family influence-peddling scheme. Wray reportedly agreed to turn over the document on Friday. At the same time that it has seemingly stonewalled Congress to protect Democrats, the Department of Justice (DOJ) — of which the FBI is a part — is unashamedly pursuing other legal battles that are widely perceived as partisan.

In a May 3 subpoena, the House Oversight Committee directed Wray to turn over all FD-1023 forms containing the word “Biden” produced during June 2020 by Tuesday, May 30. An FD-1023 form is a standard form for internal FBI communications. The highly specific request was based on “whistleblower disclosures” alerting them to the existence of “an unclassified FD-1023 form that describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions,” wrote House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in an accompanying letter. “It has been alleged that the document includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose.”

However, the FBI refused to comply with the subpoena or even acknowledge the existence of the document. “They are not above the law,” said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who called Wray and told him to send the document on Tuesday, the deadline. “We have jurisdiction over the FBI, which they seem to act like we do not.”

In a Tuesday press release, Chairman Comer announced, “Today, the FBI informed the Committee that it will not provide the unclassified documents subpoenaed by the Committee. The FBI’s decision to stiff-arm Congress and hide this information from the American people is obstructionist and unacceptable.” He stated his intention of “taking steps to hold the FBI Director in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a lawful subpoena.”

After talking to Wray, Comer issued another press release on Wednesday, “Today, FBI Director Wray confirmed the existence of the FD-1023 form alleging then-Vice President Biden engaged in a criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national. However, Director Wray did not commit to producing the documents subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee.” Wray “offered to allow us to see the documents in person at FBI headquarters,” but Comer made “clear that anything short of producing these documents … is not in compliance with the subpoena” and would result in contempt proceedings.

In response to mounting pressure and possible contempt charges, Wray agreed to turn over the document on Friday.

Wray’s pretense for withholding the document was that it might reveal a confidential human source. But Grassley responded, “The FBI has apparently leaked classified information to the news media in recent weeks, jeopardizing its own human sources,” yet refuses “to provide a specific unclassified record” to Congress.

Wray’s action (or inaction) constitutes “defiance of a legitimate congressional subpoena,” Grassley warned. Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy agreed, writing that Wray is “about to be held in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena that he has no lawful basis to defy.” He explained that “the executive branch can legitimately defy congressional subpoenas” in circumstances where the legislature attempts “to usurp or undermine the constitutional authority of the president,” but that those circumstances are irrelevant to the FBI, which Congress created.

The only plausible reason for Wray’s stonewalling tactics is to shield President Biden by withholding information that is at best embarrassing and at worst criminal. The House Oversight Committee is conducting a widespread investigation into the Biden family, which has begun to unearth what appears to be a sordid web of foreign influence-peddling. From a partial review of bank records, the committee has already tracked over $10 million in foreign cash — from places like China, Ukraine, and Romania — through 21 shell corporations to at least nine members of the Biden family — for no discernable reason other than Biden’s influential position as vice president under Barack Obama.

Oddly enough, the DOJ’s protection of the Biden family seems to do less with his position as president and more with his affiliation as a Democrat. Earlier this month, news broke that a former federal prosecutor had reported bribery allegations to the DOJ as early as October 2018 — while Biden held no governmental office, and while Trump was in the White House — but was ignored.

Meanwhile, political figures who are not Democrats can expect the DOJ to target them and their family members just as zealously as they shield the Bidens. On Wednesday, May 31 — the same day Wray told Comer he would not deliver the subpoenaed document — the DOJ announced it had filed a civil action against 13 coal companies owned or operated by Jim Justice III, son of West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, Jr. (R), to collect $7.6 million in penalties. The press release alleged the companies had committed 130 violations of federal law over a five-year period (2018-2022) and had received “over 50 cessation orders.”

The timing of this announcement raised suspicions. A poll conducted last week of the West Virginia Senate race showed Governor Justice leading incumbent Senator Joe Manchin (D) by 22 points. It’s too much to ask anyone to believe that, after 50 cessation orders over five years, the DOJ just happened to file suit a week after a poll showed Justice III’s father with a massive lead over an incumbent Democratic senator. “Utterly brazen,” responded Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas). “When I said the Biden DOJ is the most political & partisan DOJ in history, I wasn’t kidding…” It’s also noteworthy that the alleged violations began in 2018, the year after Governor Justice switched to the Republican party.

The DOJ’s political interference was also on display in its refusal to prosecute Rachael Rollins. As U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Rollins leaked “non-public, sensitive” information acquired in her official capacity in an attempt to help Boston City Councilman Ricardo Arroyo in the Democratic primary for Suffolk district attorney against Kevin Hayden, then the interim D.A., according to a 161-page report published in May by the DOJ’s internal watchdog agency, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Rollins, who resigned in May, then “falsely testified under oath” by denying she had leaked non-public information. Although the OIG recommended prosecution, the DOJ declined to prosecute Rollins.

It’s not that the DOJ is too busy to investigate alleged wrongdoing by those on the political Left. No, they’re working hard not to investigate. An IRS whistleblower who participated in the DOJ’s investigation into Hunter Biden, the president’s son — which has dragged on since at least 2018 without charges — said last week, “There were multiple steps that were slow-walked — were just completely not done — at the direction of the Department of Justice.” He added that the “deviations from the normal process” were “way outside the norm.” Instead of correcting the discrepancies or speeding up the investigation, the DOJ (not knowing the whistleblower’s identity) got the IRS to remove the entire team from the investigation.

To the uninitiated, the notion that America’s premier federal law enforcement agency has hopelessly prostituted the integrity of its mission for the short-term benefit of left-wing politicians sounds far-fetched, even conspiratorial. But when one monitors their actual behavior, evidence of politicization soon becomes overwhelming. The question, “is the DOJ politically biased?” becomes such a foregone conclusion that it seems to belong in a TV advertisement, right after the question, “Can Geico really save you 15% or more on car insurance?”

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis said last week, “I think the DOJ and FBI have lost their way. I think that they’ve been weaponized against Americans who think like me and you, and I think they’ve become very partisan.” He said he would replace Wray on Day One and “[clear] out people who are not doing the job.” He isn’t the only one who thinks that should be done.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a staff writer at The Washington Stand.

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