Tag: fbi

Who entered Epstein’s jail tier the night of his death? Newly released video logs appear to contradict official accounts.

Newly released Department of Justice documents show that investigators reviewing surveillance footage from the night of Jeffrey Epstein’s death observed an orange-colored shape moving up a staircase toward the isolated, locked tier where his cell was located at approximately 10:39 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2019.

That entry in an observation log of the video from the Metropolitan Correctional Center appears to suggest something previously unreported by authorities: “A flash of orange looks to be going up the L Tier stairs — could possibly be an inmate escorted up to that Tier.”

It also appears, according to an FBI memorandum, that reviews by investigators led to disparate conclusions by the FBI and those examining the same video from the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General. 

The FBI log describes the fuzzy image as “possibly an inmate.” 

The inspector general logs it as an officer carrying orange “linen or bedding,” noting it in their final report as “an unidentified [corrections officer].”

The DOJ Office of Inspector General’s analysis of video footage describes a fuzzy orange image on the stairs leading to Epstein’s cell tier as: “it is possible someone is carrying inmate linen or bedding up the stairs.”

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FBI and Metro Police Raid Illegal Bio Lab in Las Vegas

The FBI and Metro Police raided an illegal biological lab in Las Vegas on Saturday morning.

The bio lab in Vegas is possibly linked to another illegal lab under investigation in Fresno, California, where authorities found deadly viruses such as HIV, Covid and Ebola.

As TGP’s Brian Lupo reported back in July 2023, – An illegal bio lab was discovered in a believed-to-be vacant building in Reedley, California in Fresno County.

City code enforcement stumbled upon the building in December 2022 when they discovered a garden hose running up into the building through a hole in the wall. In March 2023, they obtained a warrant to inspect the property, and in April, the Fresno County Department of Public Health ordered an inspection of the facility.

Investigators inspected the building that contained the lab in July 2023 and found a room used to make COVID-19 tests and pregnancy tests. They also found over 35 freezers and refrigeration units that contained “thousands of bodily fluids, serums, tissues, and other medical items.”

The lab contained refrigerators full of deadly viruses and genetically engineered mice to transmit the deadly viruses to humans!

The man connected to the bio lab in Fresno is in federal custody.

KLAS reported:

A suspected biological laboratory raided by Metro police and the FBI may be connected to a similar incident in California, where officials found infectious agents such as HIV and malaria, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned.

Police and the FBI searched the home on Saturday, Jan. 31, finding a “possible biological laboratory,” including “refrigerators with vials containing unknown liquids,” police said.

Shortly before 6 a.m., a Metro SWAT team served a search warrant at the home on Sugar Springs Drive near Washington Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard to search for a possible “biological laboratory” inside the home. A second location was also searched, but no lab was located.

An LLC tied to the home’s county records matches the name of a company that is part of an ongoing federal case in California involving a biological laboratory there. In that case, a Chinese citizen faces federal charges for allegedly manufacturing and distributing misbranded medical devices, according to federal prosecutors.

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Microsoft confirms it will give the FBI your Windows PC data encryption key if asked — you can thank Windows 11’s forced online accounts for that

Microsoft has confirmed in a statement to Forbes that the company will provide the FBI access to BitLocker encryption keys if a valid legal order is requested. These keys enable the ability to decrypt and access the data on a computer running Windows, giving law enforcement the means to break into a device and access its data.

The news comes as Forbes reports that Microsoft gave the FBI the BitLocker encryption keys to access a device in Guam that law enforcement believed to have “evidence that would help prove individuals handling the island’s Covid unemployment assistance program were part of a plot to steal funds” in early 2025.

This was possible because the device in question had its BitLocker encryption key saved in the cloud. By default, Windows 11 forces the use of a Microsoft Account, and the OS will automatically tie your BitLocker encryption key to your online account so that users can easily recover their data in scenarios where they might get locked out. This can be disabled, letting you choose where to save them locally, but the default behavior is to store the key in Microsoft’s cloud when setting up a PC with a Microsoft Account.

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Watchdog alleges Netflix coordinated with FBI to promote left-wing narratives

A new report alleges that the streaming giant Netflix has worked closely with federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies in ways that amount to government-assisted propaganda.

The report released Tuesday by the Oversight Project, a government watchdog group, contends that the FBI, the CIA, and the Defense Department (now the War Department) exercised influence over film and television productions—particularly those distributed by Netflix.

“Based on all publicly available evidence and analysis, Netflix appears to have an outsized role in socially engineering millions of Americans into a predisposition to accept preferred left-wing ideological dogma,” the Oversight Project report states.

“Netflix did so with the help of the federal government, especially the FBI, and intelligence community. In fact, the FBI plays an outsized active role in content moderation for projects it is involved in.”

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Sen. Mark Warner’s Attack On DNI Election Raid Falls Flat

Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner slammed Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard over her presence during the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) execution of a search warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub in Georgia on Wednesday.

Warner claimed Gabbard “has got no business interfering in elections” and warned that her actions should “concern the heck out of every American.” His attack is yet another example of Democrats ignoring clear federal statutes in an attempt to control the narrative.

Federal law explicitly assigns the DNI a leadership role in safeguarding elections from foreign exploitation. Under 50 U.S.C. § 3371d, the DNI oversees counterintelligence matters related to election security, including assessing risks to voting systems, software, voter registration databases, and other infrastructure. Warner’s claim that Gabbard has “no business” in elections also ignores 50 U.S.C. § 3024, which requires all Intelligence Community (IC) elements to provide the DNI access to necessary intelligence for oversight and integration.

Warner’s attack frames the DNI investigation as domestic meddling, but it’s central to the DNI’s counterintelligence duties. Gabbard’s presence at the Fulton County raid falls within her authority as DNI. In fact, it would arguably be negligent of her office if she chose not to participate in the investigation into potential voting system and election security vulnerabilities.

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Atlanta Field Office Special Agent in Charge Allegedly Removed For Slow-Walking Election Fraud Investigation

Reports are emerging on social media that Paul Brown, the FBI Special Agent in Charge at the Atlanta Field Office, was “forced out of that job earlier this month,” according to MSNOW’s Ken Dilanian.

According to MSNOW, Brown “was forced out this month after questioning the Justice Department’s renewed push to probe Fulton County’s role in the 2020 election” after “expressing concern” about “unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud” in Fulton County.

On Thursday, The Gateway Pundit published a 26-count report that was shared with the Department of Justice.  The document allegedly details extensive acts of maladministration and evidence destruction in Fulton County related to the 2020 election. The publication maintains that the claims are supported by citations and corroborating materials, countering Dilanian’s characterization of them as “unsubstantiated.”

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FBI Takes Over Investigation of Alex Pretti Shooting

The FBI is now leading the probe into the shooting of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis resident killed Saturday by Border Patrol officers, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem first disclosed the shift during a Fox News interview Thursday evening. Her department said earlier this week that Homeland Security Investigations, a unit within the department, would be heading the investigation.

“We will continue to follow the investigation that the FBI is leading and giving them all the information that they need to bring that to conclusion, and make sure that the American people know the truth of the situation and how we can go forward and continue to protect the American people,” Noem said, speaking to Fox host Sean Hannity.

Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Friday that the FBI will lead the Pretti probe and that HSI will support them. Separately, Customs and Border Protection, which is part of DHS, is doing its own internal investigation into the shooting, during which two officers opened fire on Pretti.

DHS did not immediately respond to questions about when the change was made or why. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was also not immediately clear whether the FBI would now share information and evidence with Minnesota state investigators, who have thus far been frozen out of the federal probe.

In the same interview, Noem appeared to distance herself from statements she made shortly after the shooting, claiming Pretti had brandished a handgun and aggressively approached officers.

Multiple videos that emerged of the shooting contradicted that claim, showing the intensive care nurse had only his mobile phone in his hand as officers tackled him to the ground, with one removing a handgun from the back of Pretti’s pants as another officer began firing shots into his back.

Pretti had a state permit to legally carry a concealed firearm. At no point did he appear to reach for it, the videos showed.

“I know you realize that situation was very chaotic, and that we were being relayed information from on the ground from CBP agents and officers that were there,” Noem said during the interview with Hannity on Thursday. “We were using the best information we had at the time, seeking to be transparent with the American people and get them what we knew to be true on the ground.”

The change comes after two other videos emerged Wednesday of an earlier altercation between Pretti and federal immigration officers 11 days before his death.

The Jan. 13 videos show Pretti in a winter coat, yelling at federal vehicles and at one point appearing to spit before kicking out the taillight of one vehicle. A struggle ensues between Pretti and several officers, during which he is forced to the ground. Pretti’s winter coat comes off, and he either breaks free or the officers let him go and he scurries away.

When he turns his back to the camera, what appears to be a handgun is visible in his waistband. At no point do the videos show Pretti reaching for the gun, and it is not clear whether federal agents saw it.

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Group Chats About ICE Whereabouts Are Protected Speech. The FBI Is Investigating Anyway.

Group chats about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents aren’t illegal. But FBI Director Kash Patel doesn’t seem to care.

On Monday, Patel told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that the FBI was investigating a Signal group in which people had been chatting about ICE agents’ whereabouts.

The Trump administration has said that people are doxing federal agents, employing a term once reserved for the act of publishing private information about someone’s identity or address online. “Doxing” generally implies that this sharing is done with ill intent.

But there are all sorts of perfectly benign reasons why Americans—whether in the country legally or not—might want to keep tabs on where immigration authorities are going. Sharing this information allows people to protest, observe, or document ICE activity, or avoid run ins with ICE agents.

Chatting about ICE agent whereabouts is unambiguously speech that’s protected by the First Amendment. So the idea that the FBI would investigate on these grounds is worrying.

“There does not appear to be any lawful basis for this investigation,” said Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). “The First Amendment generally protects the publication of legally-obtained information, including much of what the Trump administration has labeled ‘doxxing.’ That protection extends to using an app to share information about ICE activity.”

In his interview with Johnson, Patel paid lip service to the First Amendment. Yet he also framed Signal chats pertaining to ICE whereabouts as inherently suspect and/or likely to lead to criminal actions. “You cannot create a scenario that illegally entraps and puts law enforcement in harm’s way,” he said, drawing a direct link between constitutionally protected activity and criminality.

Of course, trapping ICE agents and harming them would indeed be illegal. But the illegal part of that is the trapping, the plotting harm, and the harming, not merely the knowing where the agents are or chatting about where they are. And even if some individual ultimately uses the location information to inflict harm, it still would not make the mere sharing of that information illegal.

“The First Amendment has narrow exceptions for true threats and speech intended and likely to provoke imminent unlawful action, but the government cannot trigger those exceptions simply by claiming that speech puts officials in harm’s way,” notes Terr. “The First Amendment also does not protect criminal conspiracy, but that requires evidence of an agreement to commit a specific crime and a substantial step toward carrying it out. No such evidence appears in the Signal messages that have been made public.”

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FBI Raids Fulton County Elections Center

FBI agents descended Wednesday on Fulton County’s election operations hub in Georgia, the same county that became the epicenter of voter fraud complaints following the 2020 election.

Agents were seen entering the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, a facility opened in 2023 and billed by state officials as a way to streamline election administration.

Authorities would not say exactly what prompted the search, but Fox News Digital was told the matter is tied to the 2020 election. The FBI declined further comment, and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for clarification.

FBI Atlanta confirmed it was “executing a court authorized law enforcement action” at the address of the county’s elections hub on Wednesday afternoon.

In an email to 11Alive, the FBI’s Atlanta office said agents were operating at 5600 Campbellton Fairburn Road in Union City, which serves as Fulton County’s main election operations center.

“Our investigation into this matter is ongoing so there are no details that I can provide at the moment,” a spokesperson said in the email.

An 11Alive crew was dispatched to Union City to gather additional information.

The federal activity comes weeks after the Justice Department sued Fulton County over access to election materials from the 2020 presidential race, keeping scrutiny on a county long at the center of election integrity battles.

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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.”

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