Tag: fbi

South Florida Congresswoman Charged with Stealing $5 Million in FEMA Funds and Making Illegal Campaign Contributions

A federal grand jury in Miami has returned an indictment charging Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and several co-defendants with stealing federal disaster funds, laundering the proceeds, and using the money to support her 2021 congressional campaign.

According to the indictment, Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and her brother Edwin Cherfilus, 51, both of Miramar, worked through their family health-care company on a FEMA-funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract in 2021. In July 2021, the company received an overpayment of $5 million in FEMA funds.

The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to steal that $5 million and routed it through multiple accounts to disguise its source. Prosecutors allege that a substantial portion of the misappropriated funds was used as candidate contributions to Cherfilus-McCormick’s 2021 congressional campaign and for the personal benefit of the defendants.

The indictment further alleges that Cherfilus-McCormick and Nadege Leblanc, 46, of Miramar, arranged additional contributions using straw donors, funneling other monies from the FEMA-funded Covid-19 contract to friends and relatives who then donated to the campaign as if using their own money.

The indictment also charges Cherfilus-McCormick and her 2021 tax preparer David K. Spencer, 41, of Davie, with conspiring to file a false federal tax return. According to the indictment, they falsely claimed political spending and other personal expenses as business deductions and inflated charitable contributions in order to reduce her tax obligations.

“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain. We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.”

U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida stated, “Today’s indictment shows no one is above the law. This indictment reflects our Office’s commitment to follow the facts, apply the law, and protect the American taxpayer. Public money belongs to the American people. When FEMA funds are diverted for personal or political gain, it erodes trust and harms us all. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to ensure that American taxpayer dollars are used as intended and that the public’s trust is safeguarded.”

If convicted, Cherfilus-McCormick faces up to 53 years in prison. Edwin Cherfilus faces up to 35 years, Leblanc up to 10 years, and Spencer up to 33 years.
U.S. Attorney Reding Quiñones; Special Agent in Charge Brett D. Skiles of the FBI, Miami Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Ronald A. Loecker of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Florida Field Office, made the announcement.

FBI Miami and the IRS-CI Florida Field Office are investigating the case.

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Attorney Clevenger Calls Out FBI – Demands Jim Comey and Andrew McCabe Turn Over “Any and All Efforts to Hide Records on Seth Rich”

Attorney Ty Clevenger fired off a blistering letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel back in April, accusing the FBI of flagrantly concealing critical records about the late DNC staffer Seth Rich and the now-discredited Russia collusion narrative.

Seth Rich was murdered in the summer of 2016 before the release of the Hillary Clinton emails. His death has never been explained. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange suggested it was Rich who provided the Hillary-DNC emails to his organization and NOT Russia.

In February 2024, Clevenger demanded that the FBI hand over the Seth Rich documents that they continue to conceal from the public.

The FBI’s refusal follows a pattern of obfuscation. For years, the agency denied even possessing Seth Rich’s laptop—until Clevenger’s legal efforts forced the FBI to admit they had it all along. Yet, the agency still refuses to disclose any metadata from Seth Rich’s electronic devices.

Even more damning, Clevenger has already uncovered proof that the FBI improperly withheld pages from the CrowdStrike report related to the alleged 2016 DNC hack—an event that conveniently became a political weapon against President Donald Trump.

In April, Attorney Ty Clevenger filed a motion in federal court to hold the FBI in contempt for what he calls a “deliberate and willful defiance” of a court order mandating the release of key information related to murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich.

The letter obtained by The Gateway Pundit implicated former DOJ and intelligence officials in what Clevenger describes as a systemic cover-up designed to protect the Obama-era deep state operatives and their media allies.

Clevenger, representing plaintiff Brian Huddleston in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the FBI (Huddleston v. Federal Bureau of Investigation), claims the agency is withholding documents that could unravel the official narrative surrounding Rich’s 2016 murder and the so-called ‘Russian hacking’ of DNC emails.

The attorney argues that the FBI’s refusal to release records, including those from Rich’s work laptop, is not only a violation of FOIA but also an attempt to shield evidence that could exonerate Russia and point to an inside job at the DNC.

Earlier this week, Attorney Ty Clevenger sent a scathing letter to James Gillingham, the attorney representing the FBI in the Seth Rich FOIA case.

Clevenger added information on how former FBI Director James Comey would deliberately misspell names (e.g., for Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, and Anthony Weiner) so that his emails would not be discovered during keyword searches.

James Comey was using a private email account under a fake name in order to hide his communications, and the recipient of Comey’s emails was using a non-FBI account even though he was an FBI special employee.

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Report: Biden Admin Hid Online Footprint Of Trump’s Would-Be Assassin

The Biden administration hid critical information about Thomas Matthew Crooks — the person who shot President Donald Trump and three others in Butler, Pennsylvania — throughout the 2024 election, according to a report from the New York Post.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under Biden appears to have knowingly lied to Congress, misled the American people, and, at best, was negligent in its duty to track Crooks after he reportedly made numerous statements about committing political violence and assassinations.

The NYP received information from a source showing that Crooks did have a history of significant online activity, despite then-Biden FBI Director Christopher Wray testifying that Crooks had no “online history that pointed to motive or political ideology.” Wray also attempted to downplay Trump’s being shot by suggesting he may have been hit with a piece of shrapnel from his podium, despite no evidence of that whatsoever.

Paul Abbate, former FBI deputy director under Wray, seemed to muddy the water even more, telling Congress that some social media accounts connected to Crooks “appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature.”

That is true, but the posts Abbate was referring to — which appear to paint Crooks in some sort of right-wing extremism light — were quite a bit older than posts showing a left-wing, anti-Trump ideology Crooks seems to have adopted over time.

Crooks’ online footprint appears to show someone who has always been interested in political and mass violence, who grew to openly hate Trump and called for “terrorism style attacks” and assassinations. He also seemingly became involved with “furry” fetish platforms — often a sexual deviancy associated closely with gender ideology. Furry fetishes and transgender ideology are more and more common among those who commit left-wing violence, and the person who allegedly assassinated Charlie Kirk in September was apparently immersed in both.

In light of Crooks’ online threats, it seems impossible that he was not known to the FBI before he attempted to assassinate Trump, and yet his online footprint was completely omitted from the final report about the shooting released in December 2024.

It is important that the American people get answers about Crooks and his attempted assassination of a former president who, by all serious accounts at the time, was the leader in the presidential race. But it is also important to keep in mind that, in addition to nearly killing Trump, Crooks’ bullets took the life of rallygoer Corey Comperatore and wounded rallygoers David Dutch and James Copenhaver. They and their families deserve answers too.

Crooks was 20 years old when he tried to assassinate Trump. He was shot dead by the Secret Service on the scene, but not before he was able to fire eight bullets.

His online history goes back at least to when he was 15, showing a political evolution from Trump supporter (though violent) to left-wing terrorist. The source cited by the NYP found 17 online accounts on platforms YouTube, Snapchat, Venmo, Zelle, GroupMe, Discord, Google Play, Quizlet, Chess.com, and Quora.

Crooks’ “radicalization, violent rhetoric and obsession with political violence were all documented under his real name,” the NYP source stated. “The threat wasn’t hidden.”

And, far from the all-too-common “lone wolf with no discernible motive” narrative peddled by officials after acts of mass violence or political violence, Crooks’ political development was out in the open for anyone to see — and for the FBI to monitor.

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FBI Director Kash Patel Issues Response After Tucker Carlson Drops Explosive Allegations and Footage Regarding Would-Be Trump Assassin Thomas Crooks

Tucker Carlson has rekindled the fuse surrounding the mystery of Thomas Crooks, the man who tried to take out President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania last year.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Carlson stated on Thursday that the FBI lied about Thomas Crooks and was engaged in a massive cover-up, which would be revealed in a documentary the next day.

“The FBI told us Thomas Crooks tried to kill Donald Trump last summer but somehow had no online footprint,” Carlson alleged. “The FBI lied, and we can prove it … Story tomorrow.”

He then released a 34-minute video on Friday morning.

“Thomas Crooks came within a quarter inch of destroying this country, and yet, a year and a half later, we still know almost nothing about him or why he did it. That’s because, for some reason, the FBI, even the current FBI, doesn’t want us to know,” Carlson said.

In the video, Carlson goes on to claim that Biden’s and Trump’s FBI have hidden critical details not only regarding Crooks’ motivations behind the attack, but also his supposed sudden political shift detailed in his social media history.

Carlson said an anonymous user obtained access to Crooks’ alleged YouTube account, showing he went from being a die-hard Trump fan to a deranged Never-Trumper. The posts were from 2019 to 2020.

In 2019, Crooks called Trump the “literal definition of Patriotism” and called for anti-Trump congresswomen to be killed. He also called for the beheading of “Trump-hating Democrats.”

“Illhan Omar and others are invaders and should honestly be killed and their dead bodies sent back,” he allegedly said in one post.

But by 2020, he called Trump supporters “brainwashed, “dumb, and “racist, while mocking the idea of a deep state.

“It was an amazing transformation,” Carlson remarked.

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Carlson Exposes Cover-Up Surrounding Would Be Trump Assassin

Tucker Carlson has dropped a bombshell investigation into Thomas Crooks, the would-be Trump assassin, revealing explosive details that point to FBI deception, a mysterious terrorist-linked contact, and a hasty body cremation—fueling suspicions of a deep state plot to eliminate the U.S. President.

Carlson’s probe posits that  Crooks was no lone wolf but a volatile figure ripe for manipulation.

Carlson slammed the FBI for claiming Crooks had “no online footprint,” stating, “The FBI told us Thomas Crooks tried to kill Donald Trump last summer but somehow had no online footprint. The FBI lied, and we can prove it.” 

He detailed Crooks’ disturbing searches: over 700 for Trump, plus queries like “craziest chemical reactions,” “mass shooting El Paso,” “Trump civil war,” “how to make napalm,” “Oklahoma bombing,” and “Hitler speeches with subtitles.” 

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The Governor, the CEO & the FBI: Scandal Threatens New York Hospital

After taking the helm at New York’s financially troubled Nassau University Medical Center late last year, Megan C. Ryan stumbled upon something baffling in the books: a two-decade-long series of transactions engineered by New York State that may have shortchanged the hospital by a staggering $1 billion in matching funds.

As a hospital primarily serving patients on Medicare, Medicaid, or who are uninsured, the medical center qualified for federal matching grants tied to state contributions. Ryan’s discovery indicated that the state was having the medical center itself post its share of the match – for around 20 years at $50 million per year – essentially cheating it out of the state’s matching dollars. “We just couldn’t wrap our heads around how a hospital that serves the poor would be forced to put up tens of millions of dollars” in place of state funds, Ryan told RealClearInvestigations.

Ryan says she called James Dering, previously general counsel of the New York Department of Health, for a legal opinion about the financial arrangement. That opinion indicated it was improper.

What seems like a local tussle over health care has all the trappings of a bigger partisan political fight in the run-up to one of the more important races for governor next year in New York. 

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Calling It ‘Biden’s FBI’ Diminishes The Real Threat Of A Bureaucracy Gone Wild

Sen. Chuck Grassley’s latest revelations regarding Operation Arctic Frost demonstrate that the weaponization of our government is far more dangerous than previously understood. However, what is truly infuriating is the Republican reflex to attach Biden’s name to abuses carried out by the FBI, CIA, or any one of our endless alphabet agencies. Framing it as “Biden’s FBI” or “Biden’s CIA” misses the point entirely and diminishes the severity of the structural threat.

These labels make Operation Arctic Frost and other abuses sound like political controversies. They ignore the grave reality that it is the product of a permanent bureaucracy that is so powerful, it operates as an unelected “fourth branch of government” that seems to be unencumbered by the Constitution.

It also demonstrates a judiciary gone rogue, where some judges like James Boasberg elevate ideology over the Constitution. These judges shield a bureaucracy that routinely violates the rights of the American people with impunity. Calling it “Biden’s FBI” implies that if Republicans are in power, the problem will fix itself. The hard truth is it won’t, and we can see it hasn’t. The corruption didn’t begin under Biden, and it won’t end under a Republican administration.

There is clear evidence that the bureaucracy operates independently of the administration regardless of which party controls the White House. For Republicans to think that President Trump’s return to office will make the bureaucracy suddenly obey constitutional limits is dangerously naïve.

Just look at President Trump’s first term. Not only did the bureaucracy target him, but it also went after his allies and millions of ordinary Americans, including Catholics and parents concerned about their children’s education. Operation Crossfire Hurricane was an “insurance policy” in case Donald Trump won the presidency. When the Russian collusion narrative collapsed, the bureaucracy pivoted to a new front. A leaked phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky became the next weapon. They were determined to remove a duly elected president by any means necessary.

Even while Trump was still president, the permanent bureaucracy pivoted to censorship and information warfare to target him and his supporters. Several federal agencies pressured tech companies to censor Americans on a wide variety of topics, including Covid and elections. In addition, the FBI sought to suppress and discredit the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, even though it had been authenticated and in their possession for more than a year. Subsequently, 51 intelligence officials colluded to mislead the American public and falsely claimed it was Russian disinformation.

And it wasn’t just the law enforcement and intelligence community engaging in these abuses. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS), responsible for delivering mail, not surveilling Americans, got into the mix through its ICOP program to monitor Americans’ online activity. The Stanford Election Integrity Partnership was nothing more than a DHS-run operation to silence millions of Americans online under the pretense of combating “misinformation.”

A plethora of other examples exist, and while the abuses escalated under the Biden administration, we cannot ignore that this weaponization has unfolded over decades. It’s rooted in a bureaucracy that has amassed so much power and operates with impunity because of a feckless legislative branch that refuses to exercise meaningful oversight. The entrenched bureaucracy is also aided and abetted by ideological judges who legitimize actions that blatantly violate both the Constitution and the public trust.

I have watched the endless parade of Republican lawmakers express outrage over the latest revelations. They call for more investigations and demand accountability, but accountability without reform is meaningless. Congress has the power to rein these agencies in, yet little has been done in the way of meaningful legislation.

Firing a few bad actors, holding another round of hearings, or implementing internal reforms that can be easily undone by the next administration, won’t stop the bureaucracy that has come to view itself outside of constitutional constraints. Congress must also impeach and remove Judge James Boasberg. The rule of law collapses when the judiciary abandons its role as a neutral arbiter and check on executive power. It seems that the very institutions designed to protect liberty have become the greatest threat to it.

This isn’t about who sits in the Oval Office. It’s about a permanent government that disregards the separation of powers and our system of checks and balances.

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Rep. Massie Still Investigating Jan. 6 Provocateur Ray Epps

Remember Ray Epps, the J6er who encouraged others to go into the Capitol and committed violence against police officers, only to receive a year of probation for his crimes?

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., hasn’t forgotten. Massie announced on Friday that he wrote a letter to the FBI about Epps last month, seeking answers about its investigation into him.

Massie asked why the FBI initially closed its investigation into Epps by July 2021, despite having an abundance of evidence about him.

According to FBI records, agents had “photographic/and or video evidence that James Ray Epps conspired to and/or recruited others to storm the United States Capitol Building.”

However, a July 29, 2021, FBI report said that its “investigation did not reveal sufficient evidence that Epps … engaged in acts of violence or committed any other criminal violations.” That’s despite the fact that video had already surfaced showing him pushing a sign into a group of police officers, and that Epps had admitted to trespassing on Capitol grounds.

The Justice Department apparently reopened the Epps case after Massie, Revolver News and other conservatives began to question whether he was being protected by government. The DOJ eventually slapped him with a lone misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct, and he received one year of probation in January 2024.

“This disparate treatment is particularly troubling when contrasted with the cases of most January 6 defendants,” Massie said in his recent letter to FBI Director Kashyap Patel. “Moreover, it raises the broader question of whether other defendants were similarly spared prosecution under comparable circumstances.”

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FBI Seeks To Unmask Anonymous Web Archiving Service Owner

The subpoena, dated last Tuesday and posted publicly on Archive.today’s X account, states it relates to a federal criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI, as The Verge reported. However, the document provides no specific details about what alleged crime is under investigation.

The FBI is requesting comprehensive identifying information from Tucows, including customer or subscriber name, address of service, and billing address associated with Archive.today, per The Verge report.

Beyond basic contact details, the subpoena demands an extensive array of data such as telephone connection records, including incoming and outgoing calls and SMS or MMS records, payment information like credit card or bank account numbers, internet connectivity session times and durations, device identifiers, IP addresses, and details about services used such as email, cloud computing, and gaming services.

The subpoena instructs Tucows not to disclose its existence indefinitely, as any such disclosure could interfere with an ongoing investigation and enforcement of the law, as recounted by Gizmodo. 

That request became moot when Archive.today publicly posted the document. Journalist Max Blumenthal, editor of The Grayzone, drew attention to the subpoena on X, emphasizing that Archive.today is used by journalists and researchers to “document edits to articles, bypass subscription walls and avoid giving traffic to the failing corporate media.”

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Kash Patel’s GF files $5 million lawsuit against podcaster for ‘insinuation’ she’s Mossad honeypot

Mired in scandal over his leadership, the FBI director is lashing out against MAGA influencers for mocking his girlfriend as a Mossad honeypot — and activating his legal network to slap them with frivolous multi-million dollar lawsuits.

The wind seemed to be at Kash Patel’s back in early 2023. It was during these months that the Trump-allied legal activist met Alexis Wilkins, then a 24-year-old wannabe country music star who would become his girlfriend, and launched his foundation, “Fight With Kash,” which pledged to unite “America First patriots” to “fight the Deep State.”

With the telegenic Wilkins by his side, Patel seemed to living out the quixotic storyline of the children’s book he had co-authored a year earlier, “The Plot Against The King,” in which a fairytale hero named “Knight Kash” embarks on a spree of revenge against the enemies of “King Donald.”

But almost three years later, Patel’s tenure as FBI director appears to be unraveling in a series of embarrassing congressional testimonies and public meltdowns related to his suppression of Jeffrey Epstein’s client list.

Patel recently activated his legal network to fire back against his most voracious critics. However, the targets of his wrath are not “Deep State” liberals, or anyone resembling the “Hillary Queentown” villain from his children’s book, but the most ideologically zealous voices of the America First movement, whom he’s accused of slandering his girlfriend.

“The disgustingly baseless attacks against Alexis — a true patriot and the woman I’m proud to call my partner in life — are beyond pathetic…” Patel complained on Twitter/X on November 2, 2025. “Attacking her isn’t just wrong — it’s cowardly and jeopardizes our safety.”

Five days earlier, the law firm of Jesse Binnall – Patel’s personal lawyer and chair of his foundation – filed a bizarre lawsuit accusing right-wing podcaster Elijah Schaffer of having “perpetuated a malicious lie about Alexis Wilkins, falsely claiming that she – an American-born country singer – is an agent of a foreign government, assigned to manipulate and compromise the Director.”

The suit also took aim at Schaffer because he “frequently posts anti-Israel rhetoric, accusing Israel of controlling the United States and its politicians.” (Binnall did not respond to a request for comment from The Grayzone).

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