An FBI Agent Refused To Go Along With The Biden Admin’s Anti-‘Extremism’ Agenda — It Cost Him His Career
When Zach Schoffstall, a former supervisory senior resident agent in the FBI’s Salt Lake City Division, heard his bosses wanted to focus more on “domestic terrorism” and “hate crimes,” he tried to work with them. He brought the U.S. Attorney in Idaho two hate crime cases.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) declined to prosecute both. Instead, Schoffstall told the Daily Caller, the Attorney for the District of Idaho, Josh Hurwit, said he was more interested in appeasing the Biden administration by hosting seminars to talk about hate crimes. Later on, when the FBI pushed Schoffstall to execute a search warrant against a “domestic extremist” group protesting LGBTQ activists, he refused. It eventually cost him his career.
“I had been told I brought embarrassment to the bureau because of all the pressure that DOJ placed on the bureau to get that warrant,” Schoffstall told the Caller.
In June of 2022, 31 Patriot Front members were arrested and charged with conspiracy to riot after they were found carrying poles and shields in a U-Haul at a Coeur d’Alene “Pride in the Park” event. Schoffstall said the group is known to protest BLM, LGBTQ, and anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) events.
Pride in the Park generated outrage after it was revealed that Idaho’s Satanic Temple chapter and sexualized drag queens would be present at the “family-friendly” event. Christian pastors, however, were removed for allegedly trespassing. The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said that month that it was investigating whether a performer’s genitals were potentially exposed, according to the Idaho Dispatch.
At least one member of Antifa was also arrested at the pride event, Andy Ngo reported.
“It would appear from our investigation, [Patriot Font] went to great lengths to prevent anyone from committing an act of violence,” Schoffstall said. “They would suspend people for talking about it. They’d kick them out.”
While he said the group’s message was “pretty stupid,” Schoffstall emphasized that he never saw any calls for violence.
Still, the USAO and executive management at the FBI were determined to execute a federal search warrant, even pushing Schoffstall to give the warrant to an agent “with no knowledge of the investigation.”
After he refused, Schoffstall was removed and transferred to West Virginia to work in the Criminal Justice Information Services Division. Despite receiving feedback that he performed at an “exemplary level,” Schoffstall was dismissed in 2024 because of how he handled the 2022 investigation, he said.
The Patriot Front case was transferred to an LGBTQ FBI supervisor in Boise, according to Schoffstall. Additionally, Coeur d’Alene’s USAO branch manager had a child who was “transitioning” at the time of the Boise Pride event, Schoffstall said. He speculated there was a combination of “personal and political agendas.”
“You had obviously an [assistant U.S. attorney] with a personal interest in the LGBTQ movement,” Schoffstall said. “And you had a brand new U.S. attorney who stated he was looking to appease DOJ.”
Josh Hurwit was “looking to appear to be in the good graces of [DOJ],” Schoffstall told the Caller. Hurwit was nominated by President Joe Biden, and FEC filings show he donated to Biden and Harris’s presidential campaigns. He is also a supporter of the LGBTQ movement and attended a Boise Pride event in December 2022.
The Biden administration made advancing “racial equity,” a euphemism for discarding merit to judge individuals based on their race, a key tenet of its executive brand policy. At the DOJ, this manifested in the form of an annual “equity action plan.”
Had an awesome time kicking off the holiday week at @BoisePride night at the @IdahoBotanicalG Winter Garden a Glow. Happy holidays everyone! 🏳️🌈⛄️🎄 pic.twitter.com/5CnWYzm4VT
— U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit (@USAttyHurwit) December 21, 2022
Hurwit reportedly told Schoffstall that one of his priorities as attorney for the District of Idaho would be combating hate crimes.
Schoffstall told the Caller he notified the USAO of two potential hate crimes. In one instance, a white male allegedly assaulted a black man with a knife and used racial slurs. In another, a Hispanic man was allegedly punched by a white man using racial slurs.
The USAO declined to prosecute both cases. Schoffstall later informed Hurwit about the potential hate crimes.
“He said, ‘Oh, I wasn’t aware, but I was more thinking we would do some conferences and so forth on the hate crime issues,’” Schoffstall stated.
“I think my takeaway from that was Mr. Hurwit, as the new U.S. Attorney, was very much just looking to appear to be in the good graces of main justice and parrot whatever they wanted him to parrot, but they weren’t necessarily looking for basic criminal prosecutions.”
The Caller reached out to Hurwit’s office for comment on the above but has not yet heard back.
Hurwit did establish a COVID-19 Fraud Task Force in 2023 to prosecute individuals who exploited various pandemic-related programs for fraud purposes. (RELATED: Kamala’s Last-Ditch Pitch To Black Men Is A Dream For Scammers, Fraudsters)
The DOJ launched a “United Against Hate” (UAH) initiative under Biden in 2022 to combat hate crimes. The program partnered nonprofits and USAOs with the DOJ and FBI to “combat hate.”
#ThisWeekatJustice Justice Department Launches Nationwide Initiative to Combat Unlawful Acts of Hate; Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco Delivers Remarks on Corporate Criminal Enforcement; and more pic.twitter.com/mkgKD9nrCJ
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) September 16, 2022
“UAH shares resources to combat hate and encourages discussion between representatives from law enforcement, community organizations, and members of the public,” a DOJ press release stated.
Rather than prosecute hate crimes, Hurwit cosponsored a UAH event with Idaho State University in 2023 which included presentations about how to report them. He also participated in an event with the DOJ, FBI, and the Idaho nonprofit “Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations,” in 2022.
The City of Coeur d’Alene passed an anti-hate crime ordinance in July 2024. One of the city’s councilmembers, Christie Wood, is on the board of the Task Force involved in the DOJ’s UAH program.
The @CDAgov City Council just passed a “Hate Speech” law in Coeur d’Alene.
This is the same exact City Council that passed Mask Mandates for the Plandemic of 2020.
Ralph Ginnorio spoke brilliantly against it at tonight’s meeting. WATCH: pic.twitter.com/Znxl0cOn1Q
— Idaho Tribune (@IdahoTribune) July 3, 2024
“The new U.S. attorney, you know, told me that he was wanting to parrot the priorities of DOJ main, and that included having conferences and at least making the appearance they were trying to do something about hate crimes,” Schoffstall said.
Hurwit spoke at the Task Force’s banquet in 2024. The group is based in Coeur d’Alene and worked with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to bankrupt the white-nationalist Aryan Nations, according to The Spokesman Review. Idaho’s USAO also co-sponsored a 2023 UAH event at Boise State University with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of the Pacific Northwest.
“I think this goes back to the Patriot Front issue,” Schoffstall told the Caller.
“They quickly realized they couldn’t charge these guys with a federal crime, right? But I think the facts would indicate that they wanted to make the appearance that they were leaning heavily into this and they were going to do something about it.”
In the end, the Patriot Front case amounted to almost nothing — the group’s leader walked free, and a handful were convicted of “conspiracy to riot,” bringing jail sentences of a few days and modest fines. The others pled guilty and received even softer punishments.
AUTHOR
General assignment reporter.
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