<![CDATA[FBI]]>

Turns out the FBI’s ‘Counterterrorism Investigations’ Into Parents Protesting Indoctrination Went Nowhere

March 25, 2023 by Jeff Charles Leave a Comment

Now that Republicans are in control of the House of Representatives, there have already been revelations showing how the federal government was weaponized against Americans for having the wrong political views. Earlier this week, GOP lawmakers published a report showing that the FBI had no “legitimate basis” for conducting counterterrorism operations against parents who showed up at school board meetings to protest inappropriate material being presented to children behind their backs, and onerous COVID restrictions.

Now, it has been revealed that the FBI investigated a number of these parents and came up with a whole lot of nothing. The Washington Free Beacon reported:

House Republicans revealed Tuesday that the FBI opened 25 preliminary investigations based on tips to the National Threat Operations Center. Six of the probes were assigned to the FBI’s counterterrorism division, according to the report from the Weaponization of Government Subcommittee. The report says the FBI opened just one full investigation out of the 25 preliminary investigations of school board threats and did not identify any legitimate threats against school board members.

Republicans allege that the Biden administration used counterterrorism laws to suppress parents’ criticism of school board policies regarding classroom curriculum and coronavirus mandates. These allegations stem from findings obtained through an FBI subpoena, which was the focus of a House hearing on Thursday entitled “Free Speech: The Biden Administration’s Chilling of Parents’ Fundamental Rights.”

The report from the committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), states, “The Administration’s goal seems to have been silencing the critics of its radical education policies,” adding that the “weaponization of law-enforcement powers against American parents exercising their First Amendment rights is dangerous.”

GOP lawmakers invited conservative parent groups such as Parents Defending Education and Moms for Liberty to testify as witnesses. These groups have been on the front lines combatting school mask mandates and far leftist curricula.

The FBI’s investigations followed Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memo in October 2021, which created a federal task force to investigate threats against school boards. The memo was in response to a request from the National School Boards Association, which referred to parents as potential “domestic terrorists.” Republicans have questioned the Biden administration’s coordination with the association on the letter.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that the association’s head provided a copy of the letter to the White House before releasing it to the public. The report also notes that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona appointed National School Boards Association president Viola Garcia to the National Assessment Governing Board, which tracks student progress on standardized tests, days after the letter’s release.

According to the Republican report, the FBI found no increase in legitimate threats against school boards. Nevertheless, Democrats and the administration still maintain concerns over growing threats from conservatives.

According to the report, the FBI interviewed a mother who made a statement at a school board meeting saying “we are coming for you.” A tipster filed a complaint against her, alleging that she was part of a “right wing mom’s group” and was a gun owner. The mother, a member of Moms for Liberty, told the FBI that her comments were in response to the school district’s mask mandates, and were meant as a threat to vote the school board members out of office.

Another FBI field office opened an investigation into a father who was against mask mandates. Republicans claim that a tipster said the man “fit the profile of an insurrectionist” and “has a lot of guns and threatens to use them.” However, the person who filed the complaint later admitted to the FBI that they had no specific information of any crimes or threats made by the father.

Very interesting that the “tipster” used the word “insurrectionist” to describe one of the parents in question. If I didn’t know any better, I’d be tempted to believe this person was merely a political actor trying to target people who disagree with their politics.

If this report is any indication, any proceedings from the Weaponization of Government Subcommittee should be quite revealing. If the Biden administration is wielding the power of the state against everyday Americans for espousing the wrong political views, it should be one of the greatest scandals in recent history. Based on what we already know, we can be sure that these revelations are just the beginning.

Whistleblowers sound alarm on FBI’s anti-gun effort

March 24, 2023 by Tom Knighton Leave a Comment

We’ve previously written about the FBI’s anti-gun shenanigans. In particular, how the FBI was pressuring Americans to essentially sign away their Second Amendment rights in an effort to apparently avoid prosecution.

It was particularly troubling, to say the least. Now, whistleblowers are offering warnings on the program in question.

FBI whistleblowers are raising concerns over the bureau’s involvement in a secret plea agreement conditioned by the U.S. government that stripped a defendant of their rights to own, buy, or even use firearms.
The FBI and Secret Service worked behind closed doors with an apparent prosecutor in 2019 to condition the signing of the form, which also stripped at least 60 people of their gun rights between 2011 and 2019, according to multiple Washington Examiner reports. Two FBI whistleblowers say the bureau’s actions in connection to the forms are yet the latest revelation of the politicization of agencies, an allegation at the heart of the newly launched GOP-led weaponization of the federal government subcommittee.
…
Kyle Seraphin, an FBI whistleblower and agent until April 2022 who notably leaked information related to the Justice Department taking aim at parents on school boards, said the bureau’s internal form usage is an example of it going “rogue.”
“I think it 100% relates to that,” he told the Washington Examiner. “There’s no meaningful oversight by Congress. The FBI resists oversight whenever it wants to hide behind the guise of an ongoing investigation or national security — take your pick. And it refuses to reveal information that is necessary for oversight.”
“This happens all the time,” Seraphin added.
The FBI has continued to come under fire for obtaining signatures on the NICS forms, which were also fed to at least five hospitals and medical centers so they could use them on patients, the Washington Examiner reported on March 7. The facilities were located in New Hampshire, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma, documents show.

However, as the Examiner notes, there’s nothing in the Gun Control Act of 1968 that permits these forms in the first place. While people who are a danger to themselves or others may be adjudicated by the courts as such, there’s no provision for being listed as such on a “voluntary” basis.

Further, there doesn’t appear to be any legitimate reason for the FBI to do anything like this, much less make such documents available to other law enforcement agencies or healthcare centers.

Let’s also not pretend that anything about this was really voluntary.

If the FBI shows up on your doorstep saying you’ve been a naughty boy or girl and then sits a form down in front of you saying that if you sign this, everything goes away, is that really voluntary? I mean, they don’t have a literal gun to your head, but there is a proverbial one.

No, they were coerced, plain and simple.

It’s well past time for them to have been called out for it, too.

At least 60 people have been stripped of their Second Amendment rights due to the FBI’s intimidation. That’s not how things are supposed to work in this country. It’s well past time we made sure things happened as they’re supposed to and not how some unelected bureaucrat thinks they should work.

Frankly, I can’t help but wonder if charges for those responsible are appropriate or not, but if so, I want the book thrown at them.

Hunter and the Mole: Tipster Claims President’s Son Had FBI Insider Named ‘One-Eye’

March 23, 2023 by Susie Moore Leave a Comment

I think we can safely file this one under “You Can’t Make This…Stuff Up” — I mean, you could but at this point, the truth actually does appear stranger than fiction.

Let’s start with a brief overview: The 53-year-old son of a former U.S. senator, vice president, and sitting president, got kicked out of the Navy (at 43!) due to a failed drug test, ditched his wife of 24 years (and the mother of his three eldest children) for the widow of his recently-deceased elder brother, whom he then cheated on with an Arkansas stripper, with whom he fathered a child, before marrying a South African filmmaker a week after meeting her and fathering his fifth child (that we know of) with her, tossed an illegal gun in a dumpster, borrowed thousands of dollars from The Big Guy (a/k/a his father) to finance his drug and Russian prostitute habit, and recorded a video of himself smoking crack and drinking a White Claw in a “sensory deprivation tank” – in 2019! — and he has a penchant for recording these exploits and saving them to laptops, which he subsequently abandons.

During his father’s vice presidency (and beyond), this scandal-happy scion also found himself a party to multiple questionable business dealings with foreign persons and entities, landed a handsomely paying seat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company owned by corrupt oligarchs, and another sweet gig as a board member of Chinese private equity fund BHR Partners shortly after one of his many treks to China aboard Air Force Two with his father.

Oh, and in recent years, the notorious ne’er-do-well has taken up painting — and been paid handsomely (again/always) for his efforts, setting off ethics questions.

Paintings in last year’s show varied between $75,000 for works on paper to $500,000 for bigger canvases. He sold at least five of the $75,000 ones last year.
According to the NY Post, the most expensive work at Hunter’s new show — a mustard floral painting on Yupo Japanese paper — is priced at $225,000 — and allegedly has two interested buyers.
But we don’t know who those buyers are because of the intervention of the White House in crafting an “ethics deal” last year. The only person who is supposed to know who the buyers are is the gallerist, George Berges. This deal was nonsensical, as the very crafting of it involved the White House in Hunter’s business which was improper. Plus ultimately, all it seems to have done is keep us from knowing who the buyers were, and who might be trying to curry favor with the Bidens by buying Hunter’s artwork.

I know I said “brief,” but there’s just so much to work with…

In any event, circling back to Hunter’s questionable Chinese business dealings (about which RedState has written extensively — and I do mean extensively), on Thursday, The New York Post reported on yet another fun twist to the Hunter saga: namely, that he had an FBI mole, code-named “One-Eye,” whom he used to be tipped off on probes into his Chinese business partners. This comes courtesy of Israeli energy expert, Gal Luft, who was arrested in Cyprus in February for alleged gunrunning.

We reported on Luft’s claims at the time, noting:

According to Luft’s legal team, information on Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Jim Biden was handed over to the FBI all the way back in 2019. That’s in the same timeframe that Timothy Thibault was heading up the investigation into the president’s son. Thibault was later fired for concealing evidence for partisan reasons.

Per this latest…err..eye-opening revelation from the Post:

From 2015 to 2018, Luft organized international energy conferences in partnership with Ho’s think tank, the nonprofit China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC-USA), a front organization for Ye’s CEFC.
Ye confided to Luft that Hunter had an informant in the FBI “or formerly of the bureau, extremely well placed, who they paid lots of money to [provide] sealed law enforcement information,” says Henoch.
The FBI mole was called “One-Eye.”

Whoever “One-Eye” was, his tips must not have been particularly helpful — at least not to Hunter’s Chinese business associates.

“One-Eye” told Ye that the Southern District of New York was investigating him and/or Ho in late 2017, and that “an Asian, an African, and a Jewish guy” were named on a sealed indictment, says Henoch.
Soon after that tipoff, Ye offered Hunter $1 million to be his “private counsel” and flew to China, leaving his wife, daughter, son, mother, and nanny in his $50 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West.
He was detained in Shanghai three months later and disappeared.
Before he left New York, Ye told Ho that the coast was clear for him to come back to the US.
On Nov. 18, 2017, Ho flew into JFK Airport, where he was arrested by FBI agents on bribery and money laundering charges.
“Ho was the patsy … the fall guy,” says Henoch.
Ho was convicted in December 2018, without calling a single witness, served three years in jail, and was deported. Prosecutors placed the spotlight in his case on China’s use of foreign bribery to win contracts for its Belt and Road Initiative.
Hunter was paid $1 million by CEFC to represent Ho, which entailed contacting his FBI sources on Ho’s behalf and engaging another attorney to do the legal work, according to emails on his laptop.

Those payments, by the way, were in addition to nearly $5 million paid to Hunter and Jim Biden, the president’s brother, in 2017 and 2018. Which is in addition to the $1.3 million paid to Biden family members (including Hunter, Jim, Hallie, and a fourth mystery Biden) through Rob Walker, husband to Jill Biden’s personal assistant.

Is Luft’s accusation accurate? Given what we know thus far about Hunter’s exploits, it can’t be readily dismissed. I must say, for someone who’s had so many obstacles to overcome in his life, Hunter Biden sure has managed to secure a pretty penny along the way — what exactly said pennies purchased is, of course, grounds for ample speculation. And as for his alleged friend, the mole, well, as the saying goes: “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”

The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.

Hunter and the Mole: Tipster Claims President’s Son Had FBI Insider Named ‘One-Eye’

March 23, 2023 by Susie Moore Leave a Comment

I think we can safely file this one under “You Can’t Make This…Stuff Up” — I mean, you could but at this point, the truth actually does appear stranger than fiction.

Oh, and in recent years, the notorious ne’er-do-well has taken up painting — and been paid handsomely (again/always) for his efforts, setting off ethics questions.

Paintings in last year’s show varied between $75,000 for works on paper to $500,000 for bigger canvases. He sold at least five of the $75,000 ones last year.
According to the NY Post, the most expensive work at Hunter’s new show — a mustard floral painting on Yupo Japanese paper — is priced at $225,000 — and allegedly has two interested buyers.
But we don’t know who those buyers are because of the intervention of the White House in crafting an “ethics deal” last year. The only person who is supposed to know who the buyers are is the gallerist, George Berges. This deal was nonsensical, as the very crafting of it involved the White House in Hunter’s business which was improper. Plus ultimately, all it seems to have done is keep us from knowing who the buyers were, and who might be trying to curry favor with the Bidens by buying Hunter’s artwork.

I know I said “brief,” but there’s just so much to work with…

We reported on Luft’s claims at the time, noting:

According to Luft’s legal team, information on Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Jim Biden was handed over to the FBI all the way back in 2019. That’s in the same timeframe that Timothy Thibault was heading up the investigation into the president’s son. Thibault was later fired for concealing evidence for partisan reasons.

Per this latest…err..eye-opening revelation from the Post:

From 2015 to 2018, Luft organized international energy conferences in partnership with Ho’s think tank, the nonprofit China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC-USA), a front organization for Ye’s CEFC.
Ye confided to Luft that Hunter had an informant in the FBI “or formerly of the bureau, extremely well placed, who they paid lots of money to [provide] sealed law enforcement information,” says Henoch.
The FBI mole was called “One-Eye.”

Whoever “One-Eye” was, his tips must not have been particularly helpful — at least not to Hunter’s Chinese business associates.

“One-Eye” told Ye that the Southern District of New York was investigating him and/or Ho in late 2017, and that “an Asian, an African, and a Jewish guy” were named on a sealed indictment, says Henoch.
Soon after that tipoff, Ye offered Hunter $1 million to be his “private counsel” and flew to China, leaving his wife, daughter, son, mother, and nanny in his $50 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West.
He was detained in Shanghai three months later and disappeared.
Before he left New York, Ye told Ho that the coast was clear for him to come back to the US.
On Nov. 18, 2017, Ho flew into JFK Airport, where he was arrested by FBI agents on bribery and money laundering charges.
“Ho was the patsy … the fall guy,” says Henoch.
Ho was convicted in December 2018, without calling a single witness, served three years in jail, and was deported. Prosecutors placed the spotlight in his case on China’s use of foreign bribery to win contracts for its Belt and Road Initiative.
Hunter was paid $1 million by CEFC to represent Ho, which entailed contacting his FBI sources on Ho’s behalf and engaging another attorney to do the legal work, according to emails on his laptop.

The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.

DOJ Informants ‘Invaded’ and ‘Interfered’ in Proud Boys Defense Strategy, Attorneys Claim

March 23, 2023 by Joe Cunningham Leave a Comment

In yet another accusation of the FBI and Department of Justice crossing some severe ethical lines, a new motion has been filed related to the DOJ’s prosecution of the Proud Boys.

The instant motion, filed by attorneys for the five Proud Boys members on trial, claims that one of the witnesses the defense had prepped and was going to call as a witness is a Justice Department informant. The revelation calls into question whether or not DOJ informants have been informing on the defense team and their strategy to the DOJ – a serious violation in the court system.

Via POLITICO:

In the three-page filing, Hernandez expressed frustration that the Justice Department had not shared more details with the defense team about the informants used in the investigation.
The information about the newly disclosed confidential source, she noted, came a day before one of the defendants was prepared to call this witness to the stand.
Prosecutors have bristled at claims of impropriety, noting that they have made nearly 10 confidential sources available to testify as part of the defense case who could discuss their contacts with the bureau. But the Justice Department is resisting efforts by the Proud Boys defense team to demand testimony from FBI agents who handled those informants and were in touch with them in the days and weeks leading to Jan. 6.

The judge in the case had asked prosecutors for a response, which was due at 9 a.m. Thursday morning.

The trial has subsequently been delayed as the judge has called a hearing on the new evidence of the confidential human source (CHS).

UPDATE: The Proud Boys trial is canceled for today and instead there will be a hearing this afternoon on the new evidence of informants disclosed to the defense yesterday. https://t.co/TK4cwXAwuw pic.twitter.com/YWkpqTasuQ
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 23, 2023

Attorneys for the Proud Boys have called the latest revelation a case of “governmental misconduct surrounding the surreptitious invasion and interference of the defense team by the government” through its informant, which “has been in contact via telephone, text messaging and other electronic means, with one or more of the counsel for the defense and at least one defendant.”

That informant also “participated in prayer meetings with members of one or more of the defendants’ families.”