At The FBI, The Rotten Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Tree

You can’t make this up.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Put these clichés together and you have the chilling saga of two FBI agents linked by blood whose conduct has forever stained the Bureau’s reputation.

One bad apple is former FBI Deputy Director Larry A. Potts. He was in a supervisory role during the Waco raid and demoted in the 1990s following the Ruby Ridge fallout, two of the bloodiest incidents in FBI history.

The other is Walter Giardina, who was among several senior FBI officials terminated by Director Kash Patel in August 2025. His firing came after months of Senate Oversight letters citing whistleblower allegations about his role in Trump-related investigations.

As I recount in my new book “I Went To Prison So You Won’t Have To,” Giardina was also the FBI agent who put handcuffs and leg irons on me after orchestrating my circus-style arrest at Reagan National Airport, an ambush that dragged my fiancée into the spectacle as collateral damage.

Here’s the you can’t make this up kicker: Potts is Giardina’s father-in-law.

Potts: A Study in Bad Apple FBI Culture

In the early 1990s, Larry A. Potts rose quickly at FBI headquarters, eventually becoming the Bureau’s second-in-command as deputy director. His ascent coincided with the Ruby Ridge tragedy of 1992. Potts was in the Washington oversight chain when the Bureau abandoned its standard deadly-force policy and adopted special “rules of engagement” for that operation.

Under normal FBI policy, agents were authorized to use lethal force only when facing an imminent threat of death or grievous bodily harm. At Ruby Ridge, however, the rules were rewritten. The order declared that “any armed adult male observed in the vicinity of the Weaver cabin could and should be shot.”

This was not the restrained standard of constitutional policing. It was a license to kill. Within 24 hours, Randy Weaver’’ 14-year-old son was dead, as was Vicki Weaver, killed while holding her infant daughter in her arms. Barely a year later came Waco. After a 51-day standoff, the FBI’s siege — armored vehicles, CS gas, aggressive psychological tactics — ended in a fire that killed 76 men, women, and children.

Under intense scrutiny, FBI Director Louis Freeh demoted Potts; he then retired in 1997.

But not before “Pottsgate.”

To justify billing the Bureau for Potts’ lavish retirement dinner, senior managers created paperwork for an ironically named “ethics conference” at Quantico. When exposed, letters of censure followed. Rank-and-file agents fumed: falsify records as a line agent and you’re fired; do it for a boss’s party and you get a slap on the wrist. (DOJ OIG—Potts retirement; GAO).

Potts would later sit at the family table with his daughter and son-in-law Walter Giardina. Giardina is not just the FBI thug who put me in handcuffs; he also tried, in my view, to take down Donald John Trump.

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FBI, DEA and others target international drug conspiracy affecting the Tri-State

They say it was enough fentanyl to kill 70 million people.

The feds announced in Cincinnati on Wednesday the breakup of an international drug ring. FBI Director Kash Patel was in Cincinnati for the announcement.

Operation Box Cutter yielded three arrests and the indictments of 22 foreign nationals and four companies in China. The particulars of the operation were disclosed at the FBI’s Cincinnati field office.

“We’re done playing whack-a-mole,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.

He stood with the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and the DEA, describing how the team unraveled a complex web that was an international drug ring.

“We didn’t just arrest a couple of people,” said Patel. “We charged an enterprise-wide system in mainland China to include dozens of individuals in banks and companies that are responsible for making these lethal precursors and shipping them here. And you should ask yourself this: what other country in the world has a fentanyl crisis? None. Just us.”

Because of that, Patel says the feds focused on the companies that make the drugs used to cut fentanyl. They are based in Hebei and Guangzhou, China, shipping the drugs via U.S. Mail and other standard carriers to Tipp City, just north of Dayton. The drugs are used to mix with fentanyl, increasing the yield multiple times, without losing the potency of the drugs.

“Two were arrested recently in Dayton by our FBI SWAT team. And the third is in another state, and we are coordinating their arrest. So through the investigations, we have seized multiple kilograms of cocaine, methamphetamine, metatomidine, and other drugs,” said Elena Iatarola, the Special Agent in Charge at the FBI Cincinnati Field Office.

Local 12 went to the websites of a couple of the companies indicted. They are still online selling the same drugs to anyone who will buy them. The U.S. Attorney was asked how he expected this to dent the drug distribution network if there is no way to extradite those responsible in China.

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Rep. Anna Paulina Luna Refers Radical Organizer Aisha Nizar to FBI After She Urges Palestinian Activists to Sabotage America’s F-35 Fighter Jets

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) is calling for a federal investigation into radical organizer Aisha Nizar, after Nizar openly encouraged Palestinian activists to intervene in the U.S. F-35 fighter jet supply chain.

The so-called “People’s Conference for Palestine,” held August 29 in Detroit, brought together thousands of anti-Israel agitators, leftist groups, and pro-Hamas sympathizers under one roof.

Far from a “peace” summit, the event quickly devolved into calls for sabotage, economic warfare, and even direct intervention against the United States military supply chain.

According to recently released reports, radical organizers are furious that shipments of U.S.-made F-35 components are being routed through Oakland International Airport en route to Israel.

Shipping documents reveal over 250 shipments this year alone, including bomb-release units (BRU-68s) capable of dropping 2,000-pound munitions.

Aisha Nizar, a leader of the Palestinian Youth Movement, told the crowd that activists must strategically intervene in the F-35 supply chain.

She described in detail how the program relies on a “just-in-time” logistics process, warning that disrupting even one node of the system could cripple U.S. operations.

Nizar:
“Is it true that 70% of the cost of the F-35 program actually comes from the supply chain? Seventy percent of this $2 trillion goes into the supply chain literally because they need to transport the different components of the F-35 to various locations for assembly.

What’s really important to know is that the F-35 supply chain functions on a “just-in-time” logistics process. It’s an inventory management system called just-in-time, which means that goods are delivered right before they’re needed.

It’s also noted that for an F-35, every one hour of flight requires three hours of maintenance. What I’m saying is that if even one specific node of the F-35 supply chain is disrupted, it has a huge impact on our people back home.

We’ve developed a methodology, and I hope we can get into it further during this panel. But what’s most important to understand is that the more we know, the more we can do. Knowledge truly is power here.

We need to be surgical, strategic, and bold in our actions, because there are many different points in these supply chains of death where we can—and must—intervene.”

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MASSIVE! “In the Closet” Playwright and DOJ Lawyer Drafts Motion to Dismiss Proud Boys’ $100M Lawsuit — Biden’s Star Witness Recants, Admits Feds Forced False Testimony! NAMES NAMED! VILE CORRUPTION STILL INSIDE DOJ & FBI!

Eight months into President Trump’s second term, Biden-era operatives still infest the Department of Justice.

Check out exposé on dirty DOJ bad actors still hiding out in the agency’s darkest corners:

DOJ moves to dismiss the $100M Proud Boys lawsuit

DIRTY DOJ EXPOSE!!! We name names!!

DOJ attorney Siegmund F. Fuchs just filed paperwork to kill the case brought by Enrique Tarrio and the “Seditious Five” — men who say they were politically persecuted by Biden’s DOJ… pic.twitter.com/oIjJxnvQH0

— LindellTV (@RealLindellTV) August 29, 2025

This seemingly permanent class of partisan bureaucrats — holdovers from the Obama–Biden years and deep state administrations before them — have festered in place across administrations, surviving presidents and feeding off power like leeches, draining the institution while weaponizing justice against Trump supporters.

Now, one of them — DOJ attorney and part-time playwright Siegmund F. Fuchs — has filed paperwork to dismiss the $100 million lawsuit brought by Proud Boys leaders, in yet another bid to shield the deep state from accountability for political persecution.

The lawsuit, filed by Enrique Tarrio and the so-called “Seditious Five,” charges that Biden’s DOJ engaged in “egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system” to silence political opponents. Proud Boys civil attorneys argue their clients were railroaded with inflated charges, deprived of due process, and sentenced to decades in prison before President Trump ultimately pardoned or commuted many of them earlier this year.

Yet the Department of Justice insists there was “no misconduct.”

That claim collapses under the weight of bombshell new revelations from the government’s own star witness.

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Mueller Family Statement on Robert Mueller’s Health Decline Comes Into Question After Insiders Refute Claims

A statement provided to The New York Times about Robert Mueller’s declining health is now in question after attorneys and people with insider knowledge refute the claims.

As TGP reported earlier this month, Robert Mueller, former FBI Director who was tapped as special counsel to investigate President Trump’s 2016 ‘collusion’ with Russia is reportedly in a memory-care facility.

Earlier this month RealClearInvestigations reporter Paul Sperry revealed Robert Mueller, 80, has been living in a memory-care facility for the past few years.

“House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Robert Mueller to appear for a Sept. 2 deposition to provide details from an FBI investigation of Jeffrey Epstein from decades ago — even though sources tell me Mueller has been living in a memory-care facility for the past few years,” Paul Sperry said.

Mueller will not be able to testify to Congress this week.

On Sunday evening The New York Times reported that Mueller got diagnosed with Parkinson’s four years ago and has had difficulty speaking in the last few months.

The Mueller family statement also claimed that Robert Mueller taught at his law school during fall of 2021 and 2022.

“Bob was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the summer of 2021. He retired from the practice of law at the end of that year. He taught at his law school alma mater during the fall of both 2021 and 2022, and he retired at the end of 2022,” Mueller’s family said in a statement to The New York Times.

However, lawyers and insiders have refuted the Mueller family’s claims. Mueller allegedly did not teach at his law school in 2021 and 2022 because he was too mentally incapacitated to teach.

Mueller was reportedly in such bad shape that his star prosecutor from the Russia witch hunt had to step in and teach the classes.

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CIA and Mossad-linked Surveillance System Quietly Being Installed Throughout the US

Launched in 2016 in response to a Tel Aviv shooting and the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, Gabriel offers a suite of surveillance products for “security and safety” incidents at “so-called soft targets and communal spaces, including schools, community centers, synagogues and churches.” The company makes the lofty promise that its products “stop mass shootings.” According to a 2018 report on Gabriel published in the Jerusalem Post, there were an estimated 475,000 such “soft targets” across the U.S., meaning that “the potential market for Gabriel is huge.”

Gabriel, since its founding, has been backed by “an impressive group of leaders,” mainly “former leaders of Mossad, Shin Bet [Israel’s domestic intelligence agency], FBI and CIA.” In recent years, even more former leaders of Israeli and American intelligence agencies have found their way onto Gabriel’s advisory board and have promoted the company’s products.

While the adoption of its surveillance technology was slower than expected in the United States, that dramatically changed last year, when an “anonymous philanthropist” gave the company $1 million to begin installing its products throughout schools, houses of worship and community centers throughout the country. That same “philanthropist” has promised to recruit others to match his donation, with the ultimate goal of installing Gabriel’s system in “every single synagogue, school and campus community in the country.”

With this CIA, FBI and Mossad-backed system now being installed throughout the United States for “free,” it is worth taking a critical look at Gabriel and its products, particularly the company’s future vision for its surveillance system. Perhaps unsurprisingly, much of the company’s future vision coincides with the vision of the intelligence agencies backing it – pre-crime, robotic policing and biometric surveillance.

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DOJ Settles With Ten FBI Whistleblowers Targeted By Biden Administration

Ten FBI whistleblowers who say the Biden administration punished them for their “political beliefs” and for disclosing misconduct in the bureau will have their security clearances reinstated and collect back pay, according to a settlement announced Tuesday.

“These ten (whistleblowers) collectively suffered 12-years-worth of unjustified suspension time,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, posted on X after getting word of the settlement. “They were punished (because) of their disclosures/political beliefs. In other words, they were treated like skunks at a picnic. Now they receive justice.”

Sen. Grassley has long advocated for the whistleblowers and has helped navigate the settlements to their retaliation complaints. According to the Senator’s office, under the Biden administration the ten whistleblowers received retaliation that included demotions, loss of pay, and revocation of security clearances.

The legal nonprofit Empower Oversight represented the ten FBI employees. The organization detailed in a 12-page, March 5 letter to the FBI’s general counsel the improper “retaliatory targeting” of the men and women it represented.

The letter also stated:

While it is our belief that new leadership of the FBI has the authority to remedy the wrongs suffered by our clients through management directives and should do so immediately, we are willing to work cooperatively on each of the fronts outlined above in order to explore amicable resolutions in each case.

The New York Post highlighted several whistleblowers and some of their conduct that spawned the reprisals.

One special agent was suspended indefinitely and lost his security clearance after he objected to a SWAT team being used to arrest a January 6 riot defendant on a misdemeanor charge.

Another was suspended without pay and lost his security clearance after being wrongly accused of leaking information to Project Veritas, a conservative undercover journalism operation.

Another agent in New Orleans lost his security clearance when he reported prosecutorial misconduct related to a sweetheart plea deal given to a district attorney charged with sex crimes.

A female FBI staffer was punished for reporting mismanagement and a “gross waste of funds” in connection with how criminal background checks were being processed.

“The actions taken against our clients were in reprisal for protected whistleblowing and/or improper targeting because of their political beliefs,” the March 5 letter by their attorneys stated.

Four of the whistleblowers remained anonymous.

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Convicted NZ mosque murderer Brenton Tarrant was an intelligence operative

FBI Director Kash Patel travelled to New Zealand July 31, 2025 to open a dedicated law enforcement attaché office in Wellington. While the FBI has stationed personnel in New Zealand for several years, establishing a full legat position in the country will strengthen and enhance the longstanding cooperation with a key Five Eyes partner in the southwestern Pacific region. 

“The FBI has had a strong relationship and collaborated closely with our counterparts in New Zealand for years,” said Director Patel.

“Expanding the Wellington office demonstrates the strength and evolution of our partnership as we continue to work together to address our shared security objectives in the region.”

Although Kash Patel’s recent visit has not heralded any major incident in New Zealand there was an occasion when visiting US officials did precede an alleged mass shooting.

John Podesta, Hilary Clinton’s campaign manager and Obama counsel, arrived in New Zealand five days before the mosque massacre March 15, 2019 along with two members of the National Security Council. The number 14 emblazoned on the receiver of the rifle used by Tarrant coincides with ’14’ on Podesta’s right hand. The Christian fish symbol, known as an Ichthys, is an ancient symbol representing Jesus Christ

Now disgraced FBI Director James Comey flew into Queenstown on April 23, 2017 preceding a visit by suspected satanist John “mangled fingers” Podesta, who was Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager and Obama counsel, who coincidentally visited New Zealand March 10, 2019, five days before the infamous mosque shootings in Christchurch.

Podesta was attending a Global Progressives conference, heaping praise on Ardern while warning of a potential major online hack against her coming election?

The New Zealand Herald reported two members of the United States National Security Council visited New Zealand days before a media conference on March 10, 2019 where PM Ardern confirmed the Americans had visited, just five days before the massacre.

Ardern said the visitors were Asia defence experts—Matt Pottinger and Alexander Gray, but did not elaborate why they were in New Zealand.

At the media briefing a reporter asked Ardern, “Yesterday Podesta told us that New Zealand being a member of the Five Eyes network, New Zealand is a juicy target for cyber-attacks that could undermine our democracy. Do you agree with that?”

Ardern replied: “Oh, look, we’re not complacent, and certainly you will have heard me say that many, many times. We do need to make sure that we have the protection in place in NewZealand, either for direct attacks but also where New Zealand may be caught up indirectly.

“And so, regardless of what anyone else thinks or what any other member of Five Eyes thinks, we actually need to make sure that we’re prepared and vigilant.”

New Zealand’s mosque shooting happened on March 15, 2019, five days after the Podesta and two National Security members’ visit, and was allegedly carried out by an Australian shooter who has proven to be an Israei-trained assassin on a watch list since 2012. The assassin presented a real threat to then Iraqi President Bashar Assad according to Veterans Today.

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DOJ Investigating Whether FBI Under Joe Biden Secretly Destroyed Damaging Classified Documents to Protect Comey and Brennan

The DOJ is investigating whether the FBI during Joe Biden’s presidency secretly destroyed documents to protect James Comey and John Brennan, according to a leak to The New York Times.

James Comey served as the Director of the FBI from 2013 to May 2017, when Trump fired him.

John Brennan served as the Director of the CIA from 2013 to 2017.

According to The Times, the investigation is related to a report that revealed that Kash Patel found thousands of Russia Hoax documents in “burn bags” in a secret room at the FBI.

Last month, Fox News reported that FBI Director Kash Patel found thousands of Russia collusion hoax documents in “burn bags” in a secret room at the FBI.

One of the documents in the burn bags included the classified annex to the John Durham report that includes the underlying intelligence he investigated.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe recently declassified the annex to Durham’s final report and sent it to Senator Grassley, who released it to the public.

Fox News also reported that Kash Patel and his team of investigators discovered a “previously undisclosed” SCIF at the FBI headquarters.

The Times reported that senior FBI officials who worked at the headquarters are also being investigated.

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The Oklahoma City Bombing: A Lesson in Government Lawlessness

On the morning of April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children at a day care center in the building, and injuring hundreds more. As the FBI website tells readers, a single ex-soldier named Timothy McVeigh acted alone, being motivated by anti-government sentiment that came in the aftermath of the Waco massacre two years earlier.

The FBI version, of course, is the official version and the one repeated in history books and in The New York Times. McVeigh was aided by Terry Nichols, who helped him build a large fertilizer bomb that they placed in a rented Ryder truck that was destroyed in the explosion. Michael Fortier gave McVeigh some logistic help, but no one else was involved, just the “lone wolf” McVeigh and a couple of friends.

Using the organization’s vast investigative resources, the FBI quickly solved the case in the style of a Dick Wolf production. McVeigh had already been arrested when an alert policeman 90 miles away from Oklahoma City saw his getaway car had no license plate, so the FBI was able to get their man in custody. The original investigation also had McVeigh accompanied by a man called John Doe #2 when he rented the Ryder truck in Kansas, but soon afterward, the FBI insisted there had been no JD2, that he was a figment of the imaginations of everyone who said they saw him with McVeigh.

We know the rest of the story. McVeigh was convicted in federal court and executed at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 2001. Nichols was convicted both in federal court and Oklahoma state court, but juries deadlocked on the death penalty, so he is serving a life sentence at the fed’s so-called supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. Fortier, who provided valuable information to the FBI, pleaded to lesser charges and served a short prison sentence before he and his wife were whisked away in the government’s witness protection program. Case closed.

The FBI’s narrative was useful on two fronts. First, the organization was able to regain prestige after the disaster at Waco by supposedly solving this horrendous crime quickly. Second, by being able to frame the bombing as the result of anti-government rhetoric that had spread following Waco and the 1992 FBI killings at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, the Bill Clinton administration, the Democratic Party, and their allies in the legacy media were able to use the bombing to claim that Republicans and other critics of the administration were responsible for the mayhem.

But what if the FBI’s narrative is untrue and that several people were involved in the bombing, some of whom being either government informers or FBI agents who infiltrated right-wing paramilitary groups? Furthermore, what if federal agents lied about the existence of the so-called John Doe #2, and what if they lied about many other things tied to the bombing and subsequent investigation?

Margaret Roberts—the former news director of “America’s Most Wanted” and a celebrated journalist—has published a new book, Blowback, which successfully challenges the FBI and establishment media narratives about the case. Through interviews with people involved in the case and working with citizen journalists that didn’t buy the official line, Roberts has successfully presented alternative storylines that, frankly, are much more believable than what the FBI has given us, and presents her case in a book that is logical and easy to follow—no mean feat, given just how complicated the story really is.

Blowback involves two related events. The first, of course, is the Oklahoma City bombing. The second is the murder of Kenneth Trentadue in his cell at the Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center August 21, 1995—a death the FBI to this day insists was a suicide. Thanks to a dogged investigation by Kenneth’s brother, Jesse—a former collegiate track star and respected attorney living in Salt Lake City—the FBI’s narratives on Kenneth’s death and the Oklahoma City bombing were exposed as lies, although that investigation came at great cost to Jesse.

(I have corresponded with Jesse Trentadue for many years and was familiar with his investigation, but until I read Blowback, I had not realized just how extensive that investigation has been.)

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