Tag: fbi

Kash Patel Announces Investigation Into MN Anti-ICE Operations: They ‘Should Be Worried’

Benny Johnson described what he characterized as breaking news involving a federal investigation into Signal chat groups during an exchange with Kash Patel.

Johnson said, “Okay, so this is breaking news. So you are you in the FBI and perhaps other intelligence agencies are fully aware of this coordinated effort to attack federal law enforcement, to impede them and potentially insurrect And so there is now an open investigation into these into these chats and into this coordinated network.”

Johnson continued by describing the reactions of individuals involved in the chats, stating, “Some of them are fleeing. Some of them are very scared. Now you can see their chats. They’re very, very worried now that they have been exposed.”

Keep reading

Senior FBI Official Describes ‘Surreal’ Call Where Kash Patel Dictated Social Media Strategy Right After Kirk Assassination

In the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Kirk assassination in September, FBI Director Kash Patel prioritized social media strategy over the bureau’s response to the killing, according to a senior FBI official.

On Thursday, The New York Times published accounts of Patel’s tenure from 45 people who either currently work at the FBI or left during President Donald Trump’s second term.

“Beginning with Trump’s selection of Patel, our sources narrated the events that most troubled them over the last year,” the Times stated. “Many details of what we learned are reported here for the first time.”

Kirk, the conservative activist and founder of TPUSA, was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. In an unusual move for an FBI director, Patel traveled to the crime scene that day. Previously, it had been reported that Patel refused to get off the FBI plane in Provo until he was given a medium-sized raid jacket. In its report on Thursday, the Times cited an anonymous “senior executive” in the bureau who described a conference call on the day of the killing.

The official said Patel prioritized social media strategy over next steps in the investigation:

Whenever there’s a critical incident, one of the first things that happens is a conference call with everybody — all the executives, most of the field offices dial in. The director rarely speaks, because someone with situational awareness is leading the call. They’ll say: Here’s what happened. Here’s what we know. Here’s what we need. But we get on, and it’s just Kash berating the special agent in charge in Salt Lake. He’s super emotional.

And then it turns surreal. He and [then-Deputy Director Dan] Bongino start talking about their Twitter strategy. And Kash is like: I’m gonna tweet this. Salt Lake, you tweet that. Dan, you come in with this. Then I’ll come back with this. They’re literally scripting out their social media, not talking about how we’re going to respond or resources or the situation. He’s screaming that he wants to put stuff out, but it’s not even vetted yet. It’s not even accurate.

When I was an agent, I did hundreds of these cases. The initial information that comes in is always wrong. There’s too much coming in, and it takes time to vet. And it was obvious that Kash can’t understand that and doesn’t want to understand that.

Everyone on the call is just like: This guy is completely out of control. On another call, he said: When a crisis happens, the only thing you need to do is call me. The most important thing in any crisis is controlling the narrative. I was like: No, no, no. We actually have to do some work here. We’re going to have to investigate, to solve this.

Hours after Kirk’s assassination, Patel posted on X that the shooter was in custody, but later said the person had been released. The next day, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson turned himself in to authorities.

Keep reading

Magistrate Judge Blocks FBI From Accessing Devices Seized From Washington Post Reporter Who Obtained Illegally Leaked Information From Pentagon Contractor

A federal magistrate judge on Wednesday blocked the FBI from accessing devices seized from the Washington Post reporter who obtained illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor.

Among the items seized from Natanson: 2 silver MacBook Pros and a Pink iPhone.

As previously reported, the FBI raided the home of a Washington Post reporter who obtained classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor.

Feds executed a search warrant at the Alexandria, Virginia, home of WaPo reporter Hannah Natanson earlier this month as part of an investigation into a Maryland system administrator who has a top security clearance.

The FBI seized Natanson’s cell phone, two laptops (one personal and one work-related), and a Garmin watch.

Natanson is not the subject of the investigation.

According to The Washington Post, Natanson was at home at the time of the raid.

The contractor who stashed the classified documents at his home, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, is currently in jail.

FBI agents reportedly found classified intelligence reports in Perez-Lugones’ lunchbox and basement.

According to The Washington Post, Natanson was at home at the time of the raid.

The contractor who stashed the classified documents at his home, Aurelio Perez-Lugones, is currently in jail.

FBI agents reportedly found classified intelligence reports in Perez-Lugones’ lunchbox and basement.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the search was conducted at the Pentagon’s request.

Keep reading

Biden’s FBI paid anti-Trump ‘Sedition Hunters’ as informants in J6, Arctic Frost probes, memos show

he Biden-era FBI made more than $100,000 in payments to informants who were members of an anonymous group of tech sleuths known as the “Sedition Hunters” to gather and analyze video evidence in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and Arctic Frost probes despite the group’s significant anti-Trump fervor and known ties to foreigners, according to memos reviewed by Just the News.

The payments are due to be disclosed by FBI Director Kash Patel to Congress along with acknowledged concerns that the Christopher Wray-run bureau’s approval of certain members of the Sedition Hunters as confidential human sources may have violated bureau policies in the Domestic Investigation and Operations Guide (DIOG) concerning informant bias, informant secrecy, foreign influence, and contracting transparency, officials said.

Government officials said group members were first engaged in January 2021, just days after the Capitol riot, to assist making arrests in the January 6 case by identifying potential defendants using facial recognition software. The group members received at least $150,000 in payments for that work and other work related to the Arctic Frost probe into whether Trump supporters violated the law by promoting alternate electors to be considered for the certification of the 2020 election.

Biden-era FBI knew paid foreigners were using spyware to identify J6 arrestees

One of the earliest emails from the FBI’s Washington field office that oversaw that work showed the FBI was clearly aware the group had foreign connections and may actually be using software from overseas to identify American citizens for arrest, according to a copy of the email reviewed by Just the News.

The late January 2021 email from the FBI’s Washington field office stated that “we have a sedition hunter from the United Kingdom running facial recognition software” with the tipster telling the bureau that this UK-based so-called sedition hunter “just found this possible match” to an alleged January 6 suspect a few minutes prior, sharing the picture with the FBI.

FBI Director Kash Patel told Just the News on Tuesday night he is concerned that the paid informant relationship with Sedition Hunters members was inappropriate, and he was committed to working with Congress to develop rules to avoid such entanglements in the future.

“The American people deserve the truth about how the FBI was weaponized against them. Paying openly anti-Trump activists to identify Americans using questionable technology is a stunning abuse of bureau authorities and a clear violation of longstanding informant rules,” Patel said in a statement to Just the News.

“Under my leadership, the FBI will fully disclose these actions to Congress and ensure the bureau never again serves partisan or political ends instead of the Constitution,” he added.

Officials said the FBI believes it has fired all supervisors who were involved in the informant relationship, but is doing an audit to make sure he didn’t overlook any players.

Officials said a Sedition Hunter member also was engaged as an FBI confidential human source in summer 2023, receiving $20,000 in payments in the Arctic Frost probe. The source was specifically tasked with looking for video evidence tying Trump supporters who attended the president’s Jan. 6, 2021 speech on the Ellipse to the subsequent riot at the Capitol.

That footage was being sought as the FBI and prosecutors sought to tie Trump in a criminal conspiracy to the violence that happened at the Capitol even though the president never went there himself, officials said.

Keep reading

FBI offering $100K reward to find items taken from federal vehicles after ICE shooting

The FBI is offering a reward of $100,000 to recover items it says were taken from federal vehicles in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.

FBI Director Kash Patel issued the reward offer on Thursday afternoon “for information leading to the recovery of stolen government property and/or the arrest of individuals responsible for the destruction and theft of government property in Minneapolis.”

Several federal vehicles were left unattended as protesters and law enforcement clashed following the shooting, with videos showing moments where the vehicles were ransacked and vandalized.

In one video, documents purportedly showing details of federal operations in the Twin Cities were found, while video uploaded by Brendan Gutenschwager showed a group of people using a vehicle to pull what appeared to be a safe from a vehicle.

“If you harm law enforcement or destroy/steal federal property this FBI will not hesitate to pursue you, find you, and bring you to the fullest extent of justice,” Patel said.

Keep reading

H*LL ON EARTH: Minneapolis Rioters DESTROY and LOOT ICE and FBI Vehicles, STEAL Sensitive Documents and Ammunition While Local Cops Do NOTHING

President Trump is at his wits’ end over the complete lawlessness in what was once one of America’s greatest cities, following the latest riot, and is threatening to declare martial law, essentially.

Perhaps the worst violence and anarchy in Minneapolis occurred last night as radical leftists continue to tear the city apart over the presence of ICE and in response to last week’s self-defense shooting of a left-wing protester. Rioters terrorized ICE and FBI agents in just about every way imaginable short of assaulting them, while local cops unsurprisingly let it happen.

Journalist Nick Sortor was on scene covering all of the mayhem.

The evening started badly enough with rioters looting and destroying FBI and ICE vehicles, forcing agents to abandon them.

Keep reading

FBI Raids WaPo Reporter’s Home In Classified Docs Case

The FBI executed a search warrant on the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson as part of a probe into “a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials,” the paper announced Wednesday. 

Natanson, was at her Virginia home when the agency showed up with a warrant. According to the outlet, “law enforcement was investigating Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator in Maryland who has a top secret security clearance and has been accused of accessing and taking home classified intelligence reports that were found in his lunchbox and his basement.” The journalist’s home and devices were search. 

According to her X bio, Natanson covers “the Trump administration’s reshaping of the government and its effects.”

Perez-Lugones is a US citizen who was born in Miami and now resides in Laurel, Maryland according to the FBI’s criminal complaint. He has been a government contractor since 2002 and holds top secret security clearance. 

According to the complaint, at least one document found in Pererz-Lugones’ basement was related to national defense. WaPo reports that Natanson has been part of its most sensitive coverage in the 2nd Trump administration. She told WaPo that the FBI seized a phone and a Garmin watch. 

According to AG Pam Bondi: “his past week, at the request of the Department of War, the Department of Justice and FBI executed a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post journalist who was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information from a Pentagon contractor. ” 

Keep reading

FBI investigating Two by Twos for historical child sexual abuse claims, including in Australia

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched an international investigation into child sexual abuse within a secretive Christian sect that has followers throughout Australia.

The global fundamentalist sect does not have an official name. It is referred to by believers as The Truth or The Way, or by non-believers as the Two by Twos, or the Church with No Name.

WARNING: This story contains details that may be distressing to some readers.

Believers of the church meet in people’s homes for prayer sessions, with the group’s ministers moving between the different cities and countries where followers are based.

In February in the United States, the FBI launched a probe into the group after widescale reports of abuse were publicised by the BBC earlier this year.

A hotline for former members who have experienced sexual abuse within the sect in Australia and New Zealand has received allegations involving about 130 separate people.

Keep reading

SHOCKING: DOJ and FBI Still Have Several Top Positions Filled by Deep State Actors Involved in Arctic Frost, Jan 6, and Russia Collusion Crimes

As the year comes to an end, the DOJ and FBI still have top positions filled by Deep State operatives. 

The reason that the DOJ and FBI are failing is that known key participants in the illicit Russia Collusion, Jan 6, and Arctic Frost Operations are still in power.

Why is Kash Patel keeping around Deep State actors who supported Jack Smith in his targeted spying against conservative politicians and leaders?

Here is what we shared about five current FBI leaders still working at the FBI, as reported by the Oversight Project.

We learned that one of the five dirty cops at the FBI involved in Arctic Frost was removed.

Far-left reporter Ken Dilanian at MSNBC reported on the firing of the FBI Head in San Antonio.

New: Two people familiar with the matter tell @CarolLeonnig and me that FBI Director Kash Patel is forcing out the special agent in charge in San Antonio, whose name appeared in documents recently released by Senate Republicans detailing the “Arctic Frost” investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Aaron Tapp had been named to the post last year. He is a 22 year FBI veteran who specialized in fraud, financial crimes and cyber, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Keep reading

Patel says FBI investigating anti-ICE protest organizers and funders

FBI Director Kash Patel told Just the News on Thursday that his agents are investigating the organizers and funders of anti-immigration enforcement protests for impeding law enforcement activities and endangering public safety.

“The FBI is investigating paid protest campaigns throughout the country including organizers, protesters and funding sources that drive illicit activities,” Patel said.

His announcement came one day after a woman trying to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minneapolis struck an ICE agent with her car and was fatally shot while trying to flee arrest.

Patel’s announcement follows Just the News reporting in recent days about Chinese state-run propaganda outlets promoting left-wing-leaning protests in the U.S. against the Trump administration’s capture Friday night of Venezuelan strongman President Nicolas Maduro. 

The protests appear to be organized by a Chinese Communist Party-linked financial network in the United States.

Media outlets such as Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, China Global Television Network (CGTN), and the Global Times — all directly run by the CCP – in turn promoted the pro-Maduro protests organized by these same groups, as the Chinese government repeatedly denounced the actions taken by President Donald Trump against the close Chinese ally in Latin America.

Keep reading