Tag: fbi

Trump DOJ charges James Comey with transmission of national defense information in third case

The Trump administration charged former FBI Director James Comey for the third time on Monday, with the latest accusing him of transmitting national defense information and conspiring to transmit national defense information.

A grand jury has not indicted Comey on the latest charges, but the case has been playing out under seal since Oct. 5, according to NBC News. Comey’s defense attorneys sought to have the charges dismissed last week.

Comey was charged with making a threat against the president earlier this year and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, after he posted a photo of shells on a beach last year in the formation of “86-47,” which prosecutors alleged was a threat against the president.

Comey was also charged last year with obstruction of justice and making a false statement to Congress in 2020, though those charges were dismissed.

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FBI Arrests CIA Contractor Accused of Leaking TOP-SECRET Intelligence to His ‘Journalist’ Girlfriend — Classified Information Allegedly Published on Substack

The FBI has arrested a CIA contractor accused of systematically pulling TOP SECRET national defense information outside the scope of his duties and feeding it to his romantic partner, a left-leaning independent journalist who published matching material on her Substack newsletter.

Ian A. Brinksman, 42, of Washington, D.C., was taken into custody Friday following a search of his residence and charged by criminal complaint with unlawfully transmitting national defense information in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 793(d). The case was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, Newsmax reported.

An Original Classification Authority has confirmed that five Substack articles contained classified information reflecting the contents of TOP SECRET reports Brinksman accessed, some carrying TS/SCI banners that by definition could cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if disclosed without authorization.

According to the sworn FBI affidavit by Special Agent John W. Althen, Brinksman held a TS/SCI clearance and worked inside a SCIF for a U.S. government agency (identified in public reporting and by CIA Director John Ratcliffe as the CIA) beginning around 2020 before shifting in September 2022 to a systems integration developer role for a third-party contractor supporting the same agency.

His duties included data transfers between classified and unclassified systems. None of the five reports he accessed were within the scope of his work.

The affidavit details a repeating pattern across 2026: contact with “Individual 1” (identified in contemporaneous reporting as Aída Chávez, founder of the Capital & Empire Substack), followed by Brinksman accessing a TOP SECRET report in the classified database, additional calls, and then a Substack post with overlapping content.

Phone records show more than 800 calls or attempted calls between the pair this year. Badge-swipe data, facility entry/exit logs, and short windows outside the secure facility (where personal cell phones are not permitted) align with the communications.

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Two Former Senior FBI Officials Arrested For Lying to Congress About Hunter Biden Investigation

Two former senior FBI officials were arrested and charged with lying to Congress about their involvement in the Hunter Biden investigation.

Nikki Cole Floris, 46, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Bradley Benavides, 56, of Aiken, South Carolina, were taken into custody and charged with making false statements about the Hunter Biden laptop investigation.

“Evidence shows that Floris discussed the FBI’s investigations into Hunter Biden routinely for more than a year both within the FITF and with others in the FBI. Contrary to his assertion that he learned of the Hunter Biden laptop from Wikipedia, Benavides regularly discussed the laptop with FBI officials in the leadup to the 2020 election,” the DOJ said.

Full statement from Kash Patel:

Two former senior FBI officials, Nikki Cole Floris and Bradley Benavides, were taken into custody today on charges of allegedly lying to Congress about their involvement in the FBI’s investigations into Hunter Biden.

The charges stem from an ongoing investigation into the since-dissolved FBI Foreign Influence Task Force.

Floris led the FITF as a Deputy Assistant Director from mid-2019 through mid-2022. Benavides was the FITF Section Chief from mid-2019 through the 2020 election. Both testified that the FITF was not involved in the Hunter Biden investigations. Documentary evidence, contemporaneous communications, and witness accounts contradict their testimony.

Floris is also on record privately claiming to be “running a shadow government” during the 2020 election in her role on the FITF.

Lying to Congress by senior FBI officials strikes at the heart of our system. No one is above the law.

The FBI has already dismantled the corrupt CR-15 squad that engaged in political weaponization targeting their opponents, including President Trump.

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AOC Claims the FBI and DOJ That Democrats Used to Investigate Trump Are Now Corrupt and Must be Investigated

AOC of New York was recently in Maine campaigning for Troy Jackson.

During her remarks, she went off on a tangent about the FBI and the DOJ, suggesting that both agencies are corrupt and must be investigated.

Why? Because they’re going after her good friend Ilhan Omar.

AOC had no problem with the FBI or the DOJ when Democrats were using them to investigate Donald Trump, because that was just different.

Transcript via Real Clear Politics:

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): First and foremost, everything that we are seeing unfold right now is an absolute weaponization of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, point blank period. And I want to zoom out, you know, if you’re having a conversation with someone that isn’t sure about the details of what’s happening in the news and whatnot, just know that it has been standing practice in order to protect the integrity of our elections that the FBI and the DOJ do not take actions like these within a certain time frame of an election, regardless of what is happening in any circumstance of an investigation.

And so the very fact that this is happening in October and September tells you, period, that these agencies have been weaponized and compromised. So what we have to do, whether it’s this, whether it’s the corruption that we’ve seen with crypto and the ballroom and all of these things, is that we’ve known that Kash Patel has purged the FBI of many serious investigators. We’ve known that the Department of Justice has also been weaponized in its absolute groundless indictments of everyone from Tish James to Jerome Powell and so on and so forth.

Day one, we need to be opening investigations into the heads of every single one of these agencies, and we need to hold them accountable. I’m talking subpoenas. I’m talking investigations.

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FBI Arrests 17-Year-Old Texas Teen Accused of Plotting to ASSASSINATE Anti-Sharia Congressman Keith Self and Carry Out ISIS Terror Attack in North Texas

The FBI has arrested and charged a 17-year-old from McKinney, Texas, for allegedly planning to assassinate U.S. Representative Keith Self and carry out an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in North Texas.

The juvenile was taken into custody on October 5 after acquiring a firearm, according to federal sources. He remains in federal custody; his name has not been released, according to WFAA.

Federal investigators said the recently radicalized teen, who was already under monitoring, planned to target Self at an event last Saturday and conduct a broader attack in the region on behalf of ISIS.

Self, a House Freedom Caucus member and co-founder of the Sharia-Free America Caucus, has been one of Congress’s most vocal opponents of political Islam and Sharia law.

In a statement to WFAA, Self said:

“Protecting our Constitutional Republic from radical Islam is getting messy. I served in the military for 25 years with the mindset that defending freedom was worth the sacrifice. Our elected leaders should govern with that same mindset.” When asked whether his positions on radical Islam may have made him a target, he replied that “if it’s ISIS related, you kind of have to believe that… if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.”

Self later posted on X that he is grateful to the FBI for stopping the threat, that he and his family are safe, and that the incident only strengthens his resolve:

“I am grateful to the FBI and law enforcement for stopping this threat. My family and I are safe, and I remain focused on serving the people of Texas’ 3rd District.

Preserving our constitutional republic from radical Islam means accepting the costs that come with it—name-calling, threats, and worse.

Our Founders believed this country was worth the sacrifice. I served 25 years in the military because defending freedom was worth the sacrifice. This only strengthens my resolve. I will not back down.”

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SHOCKING REVELATION: Unearthed Video Shows Soros-Funded Candidate Jocelyn Benson Explaining How She Worked Undercover for SPLC—Was an Informant for The FBI

In an unearthed video, Michigan Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson can be seen campaigning for her first run for secretary of state in Michigan in 2010. The event was held in Houghton, Michigan, at a Democratic Party office. At the time, Benson was new to politics, but somehow caught the attention of George Soros, who apparently saw someone he aligned with in his quest to destroy everything good and decent about America and helped fund her campaign. To date, 4 members of the Soros family, including George Soros, have contributed a whopping $33,120 to Jocelyn Benson’s current 2026 Michigan gubernatorial campaign.

Jocelyn Benson is seen standing in front of what appears to be a kitchen, addressing a crowd of fellow Democrats. During her introduction, Benson said she was raised in Pennsylvania and that, after graduating from Harvard Law School in 2004, she worked for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama. Although their stated mission is to root out “hate groups,” many believe the SPLC is in and of itself a “hate group,” used to target conservative groups by mislabeling and mischaracterizing them in an effort to destroy their credibility.

Benson doesn’t explain exactly how she became an FBI informant through her undercover work for the SPLC, but she makes sure to include this little tidbit in her resume when addressing potential voters.

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Former Hollywood Executive Added to FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters List

Former Hollywood executive Mary Carole McDonnell has been added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters list.

McDonnell, who was also the CEO of Bellum Entertainment — which suddenly shut down in 2017 after its payroll collapsed — is accused of fraudulently obtaining nearly $30 million from California banks, according to multiple reports.

The 75-year-old, who has been facing a federal arrest warrant since 2018, is believed to currently be living in Dubai. She also falsely claimed to be an heiress to the McDonnell aircraft family, faking her inheritance and background.

McDonnell is wanted on charges of bank fraud involving millions of dollars and aggravated identity theft in connection with an alleged scheme in Los Angeles and Orange Counties that defrauded banks of millions of dollars.

A former Bellum Entertainment employee told NBC News, “There would be a mad dash out the door to get them to the banks before the banks would close so you could cash them, because they would move money around.”

“I had a lot of bounced checks,” he added.

Another ex-employee told the outlet, “It was always some issue with the bank or the money that they were supposed to be getting wasn’t released to them yet, or they had to change banks, or they were getting a loan.”

The FBI is offering a reward of $150,000 for information leading to her arrest and conviction.

“It’s just a matter of time before McDonnell is caught as we work with our international partners to locate her,” Patrick Grandy, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said, according to a report by KTLA.

“A generous reward is being offered in exchange for information leading to her apprehension and conviction, and a tip from the public might break the case,” Grandy added.

Authorities say that between July 2017 and May 2018, McDonnell obtained $14.7 million from the bank despite knowing she was not entitled to the funds, and she has not repaid the money. She is also accused of defrauding other financial institutions in a similar manner.

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FBI Agents Fired Over Their Roles For Targeting Trump in Classified Documents Case Sue to Get Their Jobs Back

The nine former FBI agents fired for their roles in Jack Smith’s classified documents case are suing the FBI and Director Kash Patel for their jobs back.

The disgruntled agents said they were fired without cause.

FBI Director Kash Patel fired the agents in February 2026.

The former agents argued that they never volunteered to work on the “Plasmic Echo” case, but rather were assigned to it because of their roles in counterintelligence.

NBC News reported:

Nine former FBI employees involved in the classified documents case against President Donald Trump filed suit Thursday against FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Todd Blanche, alleging their firings were “unlawful.”

The group’s suit says they were fired without cause for their work on the case involving Trump, and that the firings appeared to be politically motivated. It noted they were booted while FBI Patel was being criticized by the administration for partying with the U.S. Olympic hockey team.

FBI Special Agent Miles Starr, who was working in a unit called the “Director’s Advisory Team” that was apparently formed to look into Trump’s perceived political enemies, had demanded urgent access to the “Plasmic Echo” case file — the code name for the investigation into the classified documents case — on Feb. 23, the lawsuit says.

That was after video of Patel chugging a beer and “flinging alcohol around the U.S. men’s hockey team’s locker room at the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, began circulating widely on social media and news sites,” the suit says.

The file had the names of the agents who’d worked on the investigation, and they were summarily fired over the next few days without any of the required due process, the suit says.

“Each Plaintiff was provided with a termination letter signed by Director Patel” that falsely claimed that they had exercised “poor judgment and a lack of impartiality in carrying out their duties, leading to the political weaponization of the government,” the suit says.

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FBI shuts down over 40 North Korean laptop farms used by fake remote workers — over 200 devices seized in Texas, although no arrests were made so far

The FBI has dismantled a major North Korean laptop farm operation in the U.S. with the help of CrowdStrike, which assisted in the identification and disruption of these networks. According to The New York Times, the agency shut down over 40 laptop farms in Texas, resulting in the seizure of over 200 devices. No arrests have been made so far, as the authorities wanted to take down the operations as soon as possible and did not wait for prosecutors to file charges against those involved, although they also warned that they could face criminal penalties if they continue to be involved with remote fraud.

North Korea has been using fake remote workers to earn income despite the economic sanctions placed against the hermit kingdom. It has been reported that it earns around $500 million a year under this scheme, which affects both startups and Fortune 500 companies. Amazon’s IT department actually caught one North Korean infiltrator after it noticed a 110ms keyboard input lag, betraying their distant location.

The U.S. has been clamping down on this scheme since last year, after it shut down 29 North Korean laptop farms across 16 states that were facilitating the employment of North Korean IT workers across over a hundred U.S. companies. Four U.S. citizens and a Ukrainian national were convicted over scams like this in November 2025, with the Justice Department unsealing indictments against two U.S. citizens and 10 China-based North Koreans recently. Prosecutors said that the last group defrauded more than $3 million from 70 companies over a span of six years from 2019, and that the identities of two more individuals involved in the case remain under seal.

Despite the number of networks that U.S. authorities have been able to shut down since last year, CrowdStrike’s Adam Meyers, who’s in charge of the company’s counter adversary operations, says that this scheme is “increasing both in prevalence and complexity.” He noted that it’s difficult to know how truly widespread the problem is and that even though CrowdStrike has identified an average of two new cases daily last month, it was most probably just the tip of the iceberg.

Facilitators are the one crucial aspect that North Korea’s operations rely on. These are people based in the United States who help bypass security measures by hosting the work laptops that companies send to the fraudulent North Korean IT workers to make it appear as if they’re based in the country. While the job looks like easy money from that start, it would eventually become more complicated as the operation progresses. “They get kind of hooked on it initially, and then more gets asked of them, and they’re kind of in too deep at that point,” Meyers told the publication.

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SPLC, FBI, TSA and ANTIFA Colluded Against Illinois Parent After He Fought Porn in Schools — New DOJ Report Ties It to Garland Memo

Biden DoJ sent the FBI to Terry Newsomes home March of 2023 under the false pretense of an investigation of ANTIFA targeting parents. At the time, Newsome didn’t know he was under an FBI investigation.

A Downers Grove, Illinois father who stood up at a school board meeting against the graphic book “Gender Queer” became the target of a tightly timed campaign that moved from an SPLC Hatewatch article written by a Chicago ANTIFA-linked researcher straight into federal action.

FOIA records, TSA documents obtained by Congress, and the sequence of events show that the pattern is not a coincidence. His case fits the broader pattern documented in the Department of Justice’s October 5, 2026 Weaponization Working Group report on the Garland Memorandum, which traced how the Biden Administration pressured DOJ to treat parents objecting to school policies—including explicit materials, CRT, and transgender policies—as potential domestic terrorists

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