Tag: fbi

FBI blocked probe into alleged Chinese 2020 election meddling to protect Wray from fallout, documents show

The FBI blocked an investigation into allegations that the Chinese Communist Party manufactured fake driver’s licenses and shipped them to the U.S. in a scheme to influence the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden because it would “contradict” then-FBI Director Christopher Wray’s congressional testimony, newly declassified FBI documents obtained by Fox News Digital reveal.

The records, which include communications between FBI officials ahead of the 2020 election, were recently declassified by FBI Director Kash Patel and transmitted to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

Fox News Digital reported in June that Patel located and declassified the original reporting document alleging the Chinese Communist Party sought to deliver fake driver’s licenses to Chinese sympathizers in the U.S. who would cast a vote for Biden in the 2020 election. The document did not say whether any ballots were cast as part of the scheme.

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Mystery surrounds the Jeffrey Epstein files after Bondi claims ‘tens of thousands’ of videos

It was a surprising statement from Attorney General Pam Bondi as the Trump administration promises to release more files from its sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein: The FBI, she said, was reviewing “tens of thousands of videos” of the wealthy financier “with children or child porn.”

The comment, made to reporters at the White House days after a similar remark to a stranger with a hidden camera, raised the stakes for President Donald Trump’s administration to prove it has in its possession previously unseen compelling evidence. That task is all the more pressing after an earlier document dump that Bondi hyped angered elements of Trump’s base by failing to deliver new bombshells and as administration officials who had promised to unlock supposed secrets of the so-called government “deep state” struggle to fulfill that pledge.

Yet weeks after Bondi’s remarks, it remains unclear what she was referring to.

The Associated Press spoke with lawyers and law enforcement officials in criminal cases of Epstein and socialite former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell who said they hadn’t seen and didn’t know of a trove of recordings like what Bondi described. Indictments and detention memos do not reference the existence of videos of Epstein with children, and neither was charged with possession of child sex abuse material even though that offense would have been much easier to prove than the sex trafficking counts they faced.

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Christopher Wray referred to FBI by Oversight Project for lying to congress

The Oversight Project has submitted a criminal referral to the Department of Justice and the FBI, requesting that federal authorities investigate former FBI Director Christopher Wray for allegedly making false and misleading statements to Congress during his time in office. 

The statements noted by the Oversight Project were made on September 24, 2020; March 2, 2021; July 12, 2023; and December 5, 2023. The comments were in relation to voter fraud and his agency targeting Catholic Americans. 

In a September 2020 hearing before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee,” Wray said that “we have not seen historically any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election whether it’s by mail or otherwise.” 

He said during the March 2021 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, “We are not aware of any widespread evidence of voter fraud, much less that would have affected the outcome in the Presidential election.”

This comes after current FBI Director Kash Patel handed over an FBI intelligence report dated August 2020 to Congress that raised concerns over China mass-producing fake US driver’s licenses to fraudulently cast mail-in ballots for then-candidate Joe Biden. Around 20,000 counterfeit driver’s licenses had been seized by Border Patrol on August 5, 2020.

Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said in a joint statement on Tuesday, “Based on our continued review and production of FBI documents related to the CCP’s plot to interfere in the 2020 US Presidential election, previous FBI leadership chose to play politics and withhold key information from the American people – exposing the weaponization of law enforcement for political purposes during the height of the 2020 election season.”

The Oversight Project also noted testimony from then-Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism at the FBI Nikki Floris from October 2019, in which she said, “[m]ake no mistake, China is aggressively pursuing foreign influence operations,” and said that the FBI was focusing on countering these threats. 

Floris “routinely, if not daily, briefed FBI Director Christopher Wray on threats to the integrity of the 2020 election,” the Oversight Project wrote. 

“Ultimately, Wray was the FBI Director. He was briefed constantly by Floris on this specific topic, and he was certainly aware this topic was a matter of burning national interest and would be raised in any oversight hearing,” they later added, writing that statements made in a 2020 and 2023 hearing showed that Wray was aware of the threats that China posted to the US, including in relation to elections.

The Oversight Project also highlighted the FBI’s targeting of Catholic Americans with a memo released that identified them as possible domestic terrorists.

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FBI Compromised by Cartel Hacker Who Gained Control of Cameras, Multiple Left Dead in Fallout

Unidentified computer hackers associated with the Sinaloa drug cartel were able to garner phone records from the FBI, then used Mexico City surveillance cameras to compromise key informants and witnesses so they could murder them back in 2018, a new report showed.

This information was disclosed to the Justice Department in an Inspector General audit of the FBI’s efforts to “Mitigate the Effects of Ubiquitous Technical Surveillance,” according to Fox News.

The report cited the case against Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who used to lead the cartel, but who was extradited to the United States back in 2017. While federal authorities were working the case, they were alerted to the hiring of a hacker “who offered a menu of services related to exploiting mobile phones and other electronic devices.”

The hacker “had observed people going in and out of the United States Embassy in Mexico City and identified ‘people of interest’ for the cartel, including the FBI Assistant Legal Attache (ALA T), and then was able to use the ALA T’s mobile phone number to obtain calls made and received, as well as geolocation data, associated with the ALAT’s phone,” the audit read.

“According to the FBI, the hacker also used Mexico City’s camera system to follow the ALAT through the city and identify people the ALAT met with,” the report continued. “According to the case agent, the cartel used that information to intimidate and, in some instances, kill potential sources or cooperating witnesses.”

The audit also highlighted how modern technology has “made it easier than ever for less-sophisticated nations and criminal enterprises to identify and exploit vulnerabilities created by” data from everyday items like smartphones and personal computers.

Some within the U.S. intel community, including CIA officials, described the threat as being “existential.”

This should send a message to the U.S. that computers have become the new battlefield. And we are still vulnerable in this area.

Even if the federal government expanded funding and continued using all the technology at its disposal, drug cartels can still gain the upper hand.

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Kash Patel Says He Can Prove Christopher Wray Lied Under Oath About Election Interference

While many on the left insisted that President Donald Trump’s first term was illegitimate due to unfounded allegations of foreign election interference, the same sources were indignant — or simply remained silent — in the face of similar claims surrounding Joe Biden’s victory four years later.

And now, FBI Director Kash Patel is coming forward with evidence he has about his predecessor’s assurances that China didn’t play a role in the 2020 presidential election.

According to the Daily Mail:

The Daily Mail can exclusively report that Patel plans to hand over to Congress this week proof that former FBI Director Christopher Wray lied to Congress.

Specifically, he will detail to leaders how FBI headquarters ‘recalled’ a report solely because it contradicted Wray’s claims under oath to Congress that China was not conducting a foreign influence campaign in U.S. elections.

The FBI field office in Albany, New York produced an Internal Intelligence Report (IRR) that was published and then pulled back without justification, Patel reveals.

FBI bosses at the time shut down this legitimate investigation into the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to shield Wray from fallout, sources tell the Daily Mail.

The FBI was investigating at the time the existence of CCP-produced drivers licenses to obtain paper ballots and the Albany office published an IRR on the claims.

They were then told by headquarters to pull the report and pretend it didn’t exist, Patel will reveal.

The current Director will tell Congress that the reason the IRR on this investigation was never released was because they admitted that ‘the reporting will contradict Director Wray’s testimony.’

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FBI silent seven months later on nationwide racist texts sent to college students, others

The FBI will not comment on the status of its investigation into racist texts reportedly sent across the country soon after the 2024 presidential election.

“The FBI’s policy is to neither confirm nor deny if we are conducting an investigation,” a media representative told The College Fix via email.

The law enforcement agency said it has “no further information” and referenced their public statement released in November immediately following the messages.

“The FBI is aware of the offensive and racist text messages sent to individuals around the country and is in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter,” the original statement read. “As always, we encourage members of the public to report threats of physical violence to local law enforcement authorities.”

Soon after President Donald Trump’s election last November, Americans, including high school and college students, reported they had received texts targeting them on the basis of their race. Black Americans reportedly received texts saying they needed to go pick cotton, while Hispanic students reportedly were told they would be deported.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was quick to blame it on Trump.

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FBI Won’t Say If It Will Reinstate Whistleblowers Who Were Booted After Exposing Biden-Era Corruption

The FBI is refusing to say if it will reinstate whistleblowers who said they were previously retaliated against after disclosing information about the agency’s Biden-era corruption, The Federalist has learned.

The saga became public roughly two years ago, when a handful of FBI officials came forward with allegations highlighting “egregious abuse, misallocation of law-enforcement resources, and misconduct with the leadership ranks of the FBI,” as the House Judiciary Committee summarized. The list of whistleblowers included special agents Steve Friend and Garret O’Boyle, Staff Operations Specialist Marcus Allen, and Supervisory Intelligence Analyst George Hill.

As The Federalist previously reported, several of the whistleblowers testified in a House committee hearing on their experiences in May 2023, in which they “accused the FBI of engaging in a complex series of highly corrupt and partisan activities, including the manipulation of statistics, targeting of political opponents, and retaliating against whistleblowers seeking to expose the agency’s corruption.” With the exception of Hill (who had retired), Friend, O’Boyle, and Allen faced suspension in apparent retaliation after filing whistleblower complaints and raising concerns about the agency’s conduct.

Allen “voluntarily resigned under a settlement agreement with the FBI that includes full restoration of his pay and benefits for the entire 27 months of his suspension by the bureau,” according to a June 2024 Washington Times report.

With President Trump having returned to office and Director Kash Patel now leading the agency, The Federalist decided to reach out to the FBI to inquire about whether it is in the process of or planning to reinstate the agency whistleblowers who faced apparent retaliation under the Biden administration. The FBI did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment, however.

The agency’s refusal to answer whether it will fully reinstate officials such as Friend and O’Boyle comes shortly after both former agents marked 1,000 days since being placed on suspension. In a recent X post recognizing the latter’s anniversary, Friend called O’Boyle’s continued punishment “unconscionable.”

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What Are They Hiding? Judicial Watch Fights Pam Bondi and Kash Patel for Records on Biden Regime’s Twitter Censorship

Judicial Watch has sued the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to unseal records from meetings between Twitter executives and the Biden FBI to censor the American people. 

The lawsuit was filed in 2023 after the FBI ignored a FOIA request for the records of meetings between June 2020 and December 2022.

For some reason, Trump’s DOJ is still fighting against Biden’s censorship efforts, which specifically targeted conservatives, including The Gateway Pundit’s reporting on election fraud, being exposed.

Via Judicial Watch:

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that a hearing is ordered by U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan for June 18 at 11 a.m. ET in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for “Twitter Files” records concerning Hunter Biden’s laptop and other censorship. The only issue remaining in the lawsuit is the FBI’s continued hiding of records documenting two meetings between Twitter and the Biden FBI.

Judicial Watch filed the April 2023 lawsuit against the Justice Department, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence after the FBI failed to respond to a December 2022 FOIA request for the records of any FBI official and key Twitter employees between June 2020 and December 2022 (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice(No. 1:23-cv-01163)).

The lawsuit references Yoel Roth, Vijaya Gadde, and Jim Baker, who were prominent in internal discussions at Twitter about censoring the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story, as journalist Matt Taibbi revealed in the December 2022 release of the “Twitter Files.”

“It is frustrating beyond belief for Judicial Watch to have to go to federal court for basic information on Biden’s abuse of the FBI, using Twitter to censor and monitor Americans,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Fitton said after the hearing that the DOJ was “arguing why the American people should not be able to see what the Biden FBI was planning with Twitter.”

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Top blue city councilor is arrested by FBI over arson and fraud plot

A city councilman in a small northern California community was arrested for allegedly burning down a farmhouse he owned so he and his accomplices could fraudulently collect on the insurance money.

Live Oak Vice Mayor Aaron Pamma, 30, was taken to jail Thursday along with his brother Simren Pamma, 28, who is a Live Oak Unified School District board member.

Also arrested for the alleged scheme was Gurtej Singh, 28, the Butte County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

The fire in question happened in February of 2024, authorities say Singh purchased the property in April 2023 under a Department of Agriculture mortgage scheme.

One month after the purchase, Singh transferred half of the ownership of the land to the two brothers, the Butte County DA’s office said.

The office confirmed to CBS Sacramento that the two are brothers and are friends with Singh.

Cal Fire Investigators said they discovered that Singh had purchased insurance for the property three months before the blaze. 

After the fire, he then allegedly filed a false insurance claim on the property, officials said.

The property was sold on after the fire and the three collected an insurance payment which gave them a profit of $200,000, the DA’s office said.

The three are facing charges of arson, Aaron Pamma is facing additional charges of fraud, perjury, supporting a false insurance claim and conspiracy to destroy insured property for fraud.

Simren Pamma is facing a charge of conspiracy to destroy insured property for fraud. 

Singh meanwhile faces charges of fraud, wire fraud, destroying an insured property for fraud, presenting a false insurance claim and perjury. 

Another man, Javier Molina-Bravo, 37, was charged with felony counts of check fraud last March.

Authorities say Molina-Bravo runs Big Dog Handyman and was hired to renovate the farmhouse. 

It is alleged that he purchased thousands of dollars’ worth of goods and materials from multiple businesses using checks on a non-existent bank account.

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FBI urged to release withheld records on Hunter Biden laptop, other ‘Twitter Files’

A hearing took place Wednesday, before U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch against the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The case seeks records related to the “Twitter Files,” particularly those involving Hunter Biden’s laptop and allegations of censorship.

The only matter still pending is the FBI’s withholding of records detailing two meetings between agency officials and Twitter representatives from the Biden administration.

Judicial Watch initiated the lawsuit in April 2023, targeting the DOJ, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The legal action followed the FBI’s failure to respond to a December 2022 FOIA request for communications between FBI personnel and key Twitter figures, including Yoel Roth, Vijaya Gadde, and Jim Baker, from June 2020 to December 2022.

These individuals were involved in discussions about suppressing the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story, as disclosed in journalist Matt Taibbi’s December 2022 “Twitter Files.”

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