Tag: fbi

Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director’s personal email, publish excerpts online

Iran-linked hackers on Friday claimed they had accessed ​FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email inbox, publishing photographs of the ‌director and other documents to the internet.

On their website, the hacker group Handala Hack Team said Patel “will now find his name among the list of ​successfully hacked victims.” The hackers published a series of personal photographs ​of Patel sniffing and smoking cigars, riding in an antique ⁠convertible, and making a face while taking a picture of ​himself in the mirror with a large bottle of rum.

A Justice Department ​official confirmed that Patel’s email had been breached and said the material published online appeared authentic. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for ​comment. The hackers did not immediately respond to messages.

Handala, which ​calls itself a group of pro-Palestinian vigilante hackers, is considered by Western researchers to ‌be ⁠one of several personas used by Iranian government cyberintelligence units. Handala recently claimed the hack of Michigan-based medical devices and services provider Stryker (SYK.N), opens new tab on March 11, claiming to have deleted a massive trove of ​company data.

Reuters was ​not able to ⁠independently authenticate the Patel emails, but the personal Gmail address that Handala claims to have broken into ​matches the address linked to Patel in previous ​data breaches ⁠preserved by the dark web intelligence firm District 4 Labs. Alphabet-owned Google, which runs Gmail, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A ⁠sample ​of the material uploaded by the hackers ​and reviewed by Reuters appears to show a mix of personal and work correspondence ​dating between 2010 and 2019.

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‘Arctic Frost’ Scandal: Biden FBI Wiretapped Trump Adviser Susie Wiles During Privileged Attorney Call, Then Hid Evidence in “Prohibited” Files

During a high-stakes hearing of the Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) dropped a series of nuclear revelations regarding the “Arctic Frost” investigation, a sweeping, clandestine operation by the Biden-era DOJ and FBI designed to spy on the political opposition.

The Gateway Pundit has been hammering this story since February, when we reported that Biden’s FBI secretly snatched the phone records of Kash Patel and Susie Wiles in 2022 and 2023 as part of deranged Special Counsel Jack Smith’s sham classified-documents probe into papers lawfully stored at Mar-a-Lago.

Joe Biden’s FBI wiretapped a privileged attorney-client call involving top Trump adviser Susie Wiles, without the consent of either party, and then attempted to bury the evidence.

Axios reporter Marc Caputo reports that the lawyer, who has not been publicly identified, denied the accusation that he approved the FBI recording.

The revelations were confirmed during the hearing titled “Arctic Frost: A Modern Watergate,” held by the Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights.

Witnesses included:

  • Will Chamberlain (Article III Project)
  • Margot Cleveland (The Federalist)
  • Christopher O’Leary (former FBI agent)

What they described was nothing short of chilling.

Cruz walked Cleveland through the scope of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, and the numbers alone are staggering:

  • Nearly 200 subpoenas issued
  • Over 400 Republican individuals and organizations targeted
  • Some targets had no connection to January 6
  • Others didn’t even exist at the time

Cruz asked about subpoenaing toll records of members of Congress. Cleveland confirmed it raises massive Speech and Debate Clause problems. When Jack Smith tried to force AT&T to cough up Ted Cruz’s own records, AT&T flat-out refused, saying it violated the Constitution. Smith backed down like a coward and never even tried to enforce it in court.

Cleveland made it crystal clear, Smith knew well what he was doing was illegal.

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Massie suggests ‘wrong person’ arrested in Jan. 6 DC pipe bomb case

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he does not believe federal authorities arrested the true culprit behind two pipe bombs planted outside the Democratic and Republican national committee offices on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

“I believe FBI arrested the wrong person in the J6 pipe bomb case,” Massie wrote on X, linking to an analysis by the conservative outlet The Blaze that he said found “stark physical differences” between Brian Cole Jr., who was arrested, and the suspect shown in videos released by federal and local law enforcement.

Cole was arrested in December after what government officials called an “aha moment” that led to a breakthrough in the nearly five-year investigation. The pipe bombs had become a lingering mystery of the days surrounding the riot.

Prosecutors have said that Cole gave a “detailed confession” after he was arrested, allegedly telling investigators he became “bewildered” by claims the 2020 election was stolen from President Trump and thought someone needed to “speak up” for people who believed the allegations of election fraud. He was the first suspect publicly identified by law enforcement. 

However, Cole has pleaded not guilty to two federal charges, and his attorneys have also suggested the government apprehended the wrong man. They have pointed to his diagnoses for autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder as reason for any suspicious behavior.

The Hill requested comment from the FBI and Justice Department.

The analysis by The Blaze claimed to show that Cole’s physical dimensions, gait, posture and mannerisms are at odds with the hoodie-clad suspect seen in videos released by law enforcement, though the outlet acknowledges that “poor video quality” complicated its efforts to review the footage.

Cole faces counts of transporting an explosive device in interstate commerce and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials. The first count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, while the second count carries a five-year minimum sentence and up to 20 years.  

A judge ordered him to remain detained ahead of trial, after finding that there are “no conditions of release” the court could impose that would “reasonably assure the safety of the community.” His lawyers are seeking further review.

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‘They Are Shredding Everything’: Prison Officer Alerts FBI After Massive Bags of Documents Shredded at Epstein’s Jail Days After His Death

A new investigative report has exposed how a corrections officer told the FBI that massive bags of documents were being shredded at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan in the days after Jeffrey Epstein’s death there on August 10, 2019.

The Miami Herald published the bombshell story on Friday, after analyzing thousands of pages from the Epstein files.

An inmate identified as Steven Lopez was directed to haul multiple bags of shredded material, described as “bales,” to a dumpster at the jail’s rear gate on August 15 and again on August 16.

Lopez told a veteran corrections officer, Michael Kearins, “They are shredding everything back there,” according to the report.

Kearins, who said he had “never seen this amount of bags of shredded documents coming out to be put in the dumpster,” contacted the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center on August 16 at 6:28 p.m. to report the unusual shredding.

In a follow-up memo dated August 19, he wrote that the shredding appeared inappropriate and urged an investigation: “I believe that this conduct may be inappropriate for an investigative team to be shredding paperwork related to the investigation, and you may want to investigate why BOP employees are destroying records.”

The Herald reports:

An inmate at the jail was ordered to take the bags of shredded material to MCC’s rear gate and throw them in a dumpster on Thursday, Aug. 15, and again on Friday, Aug. 16, days after Epstein’s Aug. 10 death, records show. The sheer volume of material seemed unusual, the inmate noted.

“They are shredding everything,” the inmate told one of the guards, adding that he was asked to give the officials, whom he did not recognize, a hand with the shredding.

“Make sure you get that box too,” one of the men allegedly told him.

The inmate wasn’t the only one who found it out of the ordinary. A corrections officer at the detention facility called the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center that same night, a Friday, at 6:28 p.m. to report that he had “never seen this amount of bags of shredded documents coming out to be put in the dumpster at the rear gate of MCC.”

A back gate corrections officer was also troubled by what he witnessed as the inmate brought down “bales” of shredded paper, according to a memo he wrote to investigators three days later, on Monday, Aug. 19.

“I believe that this conduct may be inappropriate for [an] investigative team to be shredding paperwork related to the investigation and you may want to investigate why BOP employees are destroying records,” the correctional officer wrote on Aug. 19 around 11 a.m.

“Can we take a look at the Dumpster ASAP to see if the paper is still there? Possible they didn’t dump it yet,” replied one of the federal agents whose name is redacted in the memo.

But it was already too late. The trash was picked up that very morning.

The timing coincided with federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York requesting institutional count slips for dates prior to Epstein’s death.

Those records were later reported missing, the Herald noted.

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‘WHO HAS THE BOXES?!’ Fulton County numbers don’t match after FBI seizure

Officials from Fulton County, Georgia, wanted to quash a subpoena from the Georgia State Board of Elections because providing “approximately 750 boxes” of material would be too burdensome.

Yet, when the FBI came knocking in a Jan. 28 raid, federal agents left with 656 boxes (653 by one count), prompting a top Georgia election official to wonder about the gap in the number.

“That’s almost 100 boxes of evidence,” Janice Johnston, vice chair of the Georgia State Election Board, told The Daily Signal.

She referenced one county affidavit that only estimated “over 700 boxes” at the county elections hub. She said, “Even 50 [extra] boxes would be a lot of evidence.”

In a post on X, Johnston posed the questions, “WHERE ARE 100 BOXES OF ELECTION DOCUMENTS?!! … WHO HAS THE BOXES?!!”

A rough estimate does not excuse such a large numerical disparity in an affidavit or court filings, Johnston said.

The State Election Board has since made a records request to the Fulton County Board of Elections to provide information about materials delivered or removed from storage in the four weeks preceding the FBI raid.

“Fulton County is effectively the person of interest in this case,” Johnston said. “We are not assured that everything was available.”

The FBI seized materials from the 2020 election that included ballots, tabulator tapes, and ballot images from a recount, Georgia Public Broadcasting reported, citing court documents that supported the search warrant. About 370,000 ballot images are missing, Johnston noted.

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FBI Resumes Buying Americans’ Location Data Without Warrants

The FBI is buying Americans’ location data again. Director Kash Patel confirmed it to lawmakers on Wednesday, confirming what we already knew: that it has resumed purchasing commercial surveillance data, including detailed location histories, from data brokers.

The brokers feeding that data pipeline source much of it from phone apps and games that people use daily without realizing they’re being tracked.

By the time a precise location record reaches a federal agency, it may have originated from a weather app or a mobile game, passed through an advertising middleman, and been packaged for resale, with the person who generated it never consulted or notified.

Senator Ron Wyden asked Patel directly whether the FBI would commit to not buying Americans’ location data without a warrant. Patel declined. The agency “uses all tools…to do our mission,” he told the committee.

He followed up by confirming that “we do purchase commercially available information that is consistent with the Constitution and the laws under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act,” adding that it “has led to some valuable intelligence for us.”

Wyden called that arrangement exactly what it is: the government buying what it cannot legally seize. Purchasing information on Americans without a warrant is “an outrageous end-run around the Fourth Amendment,” he said, referring to the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The workaround is not unique to the FBI. Federal agencies are generally required to convince a judge that probable cause exists before demanding private records from a tech or phone company.

The commercial data market offers a way around that requirement entirely. Agencies simply purchase what they would otherwise need a warrant to obtain, creating a market for data grabbing and exploiting a legal gap that courts have not yet addressed.

Wyden and other lawmakers introduced the Government Surveillance Reform Act last week, which would require a court-authorized warrant before any federal agency can purchase Americans’ data from brokers. The bill is bipartisan and bicameral. Without it, the gap that lets agencies buy their way around the Fourth Amendment remains open.

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Joe Kent Under FBI Investigation For Leaking Classified Information: Semafor

According to Semafor, Joe Kent, the top counterterrorism official who just resigned in protest of the Iran war, is under FBI investigation for leaking classified information.

The investigation predates Kent’s departure, Semafor’s White House correspondent reported.

Joe Kent resigned on Tuesday and said the US started the war against Iran due to pressure from Israel.

“After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today,” Joe Kent said.

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” he said.

“Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” he said.

“As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives,” he added.

On Tuesday, Fox News’ White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich said Joe Kent was a “known leaker” and was cut out of President Trump’s intel briefings months ago.

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Bombshell Whistleblower Report: Mueller’s Anti-Trump Witch Hunters Drank on the Job, Tried to Doctor Records, Violated Security Rules

Well, well, well.

Looks like all those people mocked for wearing tinfoil hats were right about deep state — again.

Despite the fervent complaints from the left that the deep state doesn’t exist, President Donald Trump and his administration are painfully aware that it does.

And Trump has a very good reason to be furious with the deep state, especially if a new, bombshell whistleblower report contains even a kernel of truth.

In a New York Post exclusive, an FBI agent who was a part of then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into claims that Trump and members of his campaign colluded with Russia to affect the 2016 election came out with some damning allegations directed at how that investigation unfolded.

The New York Post dug up details on these December 2020 allegations after GOP Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel Sunday, referencing some of these disturbing claims.

Grassley said that the allegations confirm “long-standing concerns that political bias rotted the decision-making process within the Mueller team.”

And “rot” might be an understatement.

From the outset, if this agent’s claims are true, it was clear that this wasn’t an unbiased investigation interested in the truth, so much as it was a biased witch hunt interested in taking down Trump.

After all, how can anyone expect a fair investigation when agents were drinking on the job and plastering anti-Trump cartoons on the walls? That’s not exactly befitting of an arbiter of justice. And yet, somehow, it gets worse.

Not only was this investigation biased from the get-go, it also tried to cover up this fact by ordering people to doctor records.

In one glaring example of this, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe spoke of Trump “in a derogatory manner” while on record for an official interview. The agent claimed that Justice Department prosecutors tried to pressure a female FBI agent to “change the tone of the [document] to reflect that McCabe spoke about [Trump] without the negative connotation.”

The female FBI agent refused to do so, and left the agency shortly after her time with the Mueller probe was over.

Compounding matters, some of these anti-Trump witch hunters held a flagrant disregard for security protocol.

The FBI agent alleged that Zainad Ahmad, the prosecutor for the Mueller probe and a protege of former Barack Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch, was constantly breaking security protocols.

“For example, she brought classified documents to a meeting at WFO [Washington Field Office] without adherence to FBI security policy by bringing her classified notebook to the meeting without a proper carrying bag,” the agent alleged. “What was worse, she came to WFO from her residence, meaning she kept her notebook at the residence.”

The security protocol issue should infuriate you, as an American, regardless of whether you love or detest Trump. If the FBI can be this biased, destructive, and flippant when it comes to investigating Trump, the FBI can be this biased, destructive, and flippant when it comes to anyone.

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Comey Releases Bizarre Video Message Revealing He Started Singing a Beyoncé Song to a Table Full of Agents During an Important Briefing

This guy ran the US’s premier federal law enforcement agency…

Fired FBI Director James Comey released a bizarre video message on his Substack on Sunday, recalling the good old days at the bureau.

Comey recounted a time in which he sang a Beyoncé song to a table full of agents during an important briefing.

“The briefer started by saying the operation was codenamed Sandcastles…” Comey said.

“So I said, ‘Oh, like the Beyoncé song.’ Blank stares all around the FBI conference room. So I did the natural thing, I sang,” Comey said.

Comey actually began singing a Beyoncé song in his Substack video message.

A grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted former FBI Director James Comey in September. He was indicted on two counts – false statements and obstruction of a congressional proceeding.

The charges were related to Comey’s testimony to Senate investigators in September 2020 about whether he authorized leaks to the media.

Newly released November 2016 emails revealed that James Comey was guiding his media mole, Daniel Richman, and authorized leaks to the media.

Comey’s case was thrown out after a Clinton judge dismissed the case based on the Appointments Clause.

James Comey also created a media firestorm last May after he posted a cryptic message to his Instagram account and spelled out in seashells: “86 47”

“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey said in his caption.

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FBI Arrests 10 Indians for Allegedly Staging Armed Robberies in Visa Fraud Scheme

Nearly a dozen Indian nationals face charges after they were accused of taking part in a visa fraud scheme that included fake robberies.

The convenience store robberies were staged so that clerks could falsely claim on immigration applications that they were crime victims, according to a Department of Justice news release.

Six defendants live in Massachusetts, two live in Ohio, one lives in Mississippi, and one lives in Kentucky. Another who lived in Massachusetts has already been deported.

All were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud:

The release said that the fake robberies began in 2023.

The alleged purpose of the staged robberies “was to allow the clerks present to claim falsely that they were victims of a violent crime on an application for U non-immigration status (U Visa),” the release said.

“A U Visa is available to victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and who have been helpful to law enforcement in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity,” the release added.

The fake robber would allegedly threaten a clerk with what appeared to be a gun before taking cash from a register and fleeing — with store video recording the entire staged incident.

After five minutes, the supposed victims would call police.

The release said that those charged participated in the scheme by working with the scheme’s organizer or paying for a fake robbery to take place.

In August, Rambhai Patel, 38, was sentenced to 20 months and eight days in prison, followed by two years of supervised release and eventual deportation for his role in the scheme, according to a Department of Justice news release.

The release said Patel was paid by the clerks so that he could participate in the scheme.

Patel was alleged to be the fake robber.

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