Tag: fbi

Whistleblower: Multiple FBI Agents Called In Sick With ‘Blue Flu’ To Avoid Helping ICE Round-Up Criminal Illegals In Chicago

Multiple FBI agents assigned to assist ICE with illegal alien deportations in Chicago last weekend, called in sick with the “Blue Flu,” according to an FBI whistleblower.

On January 22, Acting Attorney General James McHenry ordered the FBI; U.S. Marshal’s Service; Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF);  and Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to assist ICE with deportations.

Former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend said Tuesday that multiple agents assigned to assist in the deportation effort in Chicago called in sick to “protest” the mission.

“I’ve been told that agents are calling in sick—”blue flu” style—to protest the directive,”  Friend posted on X.

ICE ramped up it’s deportation effort over the weekend, making nearly 1,200 arrests Sunday and nearly 1,000 on Saturday, according to the Wall Street Journal.

President Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan was in Chicago on Sunday, along with US Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, to oversee Immigration enforcements in the city, Fox News’ Matt Finn reported.

A video posted by Finn on X shows Bove saying that the the Department of Homeland Security is running the operation in lockstep with the Department of Justice and urging agents to safely implement Trump policies.

Friend,  who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America and an “American Radicals” podcaster, told American Greatness that other field offices have been asking for volunteers to help with the deportation effort, but many agents are afraid of retaliation from their superiors. 

“People know if they step forward, then leadership will identify them as MAGA,” he explained.

“The executive management at some field offices aren’t sending out any guidance for the ICE directive. Just ignoring,” he added.

The former G-man said it was important for the Senate to confirm former federal prosecutor Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to head the FBI, “to root this subterfuge out.”

“Everyone is scared of retaliation. Always. But people are coming forward with more for me recently because they think Kash [Patel] is getting in,” Friend told American Greatness.

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Phone Metadata Suddenly Not So ‘Harmless’ When It’s The FBI’s Data Being Harvested

The government’s next-best argument (after “Third Party Doctrine yo!”) in support of its bulk collection of US persons’ phone metadata via the (now partly-dead) Section 215 surveillance program was this: hey, it’s just metadata. How harmful could it be? (And if it’s of so little use to the NSA/FBI/others, how is it possible we’re using it to literally kill people?)

While trying to fend off attacks on Section 215 collections (most of which are governed [in the loosest sense of the word] by the Third Party Doctrine), the NSA and its domestic-facing remora, the FBI, insisted collecting and storing massive amounts of phone metadata was no more a constitutional violation than it was a privacy violation.

Suddenly — thanks to the ongoing, massive compromising of major US telecom firms by Chinese state-sanctioned hackers — the FBI is getting hot and bothered about the bulk collection of its own phone metadata by (gasp!) a government agency. (h/t Kevin Collier on Bluesky)

FBI leaders have warned that they believe hackers who broke into AT&T Inc.’s system last year stole months of their agents’ call and text logs, setting off a race within the bureau to protect the identities of confidential informants, a document reviewed by Bloomberg News shows.

[…]

The data was believed to include agents’ mobile phone numbers and the numbers with which they called and texted, the document shows. Records for calls and texts that weren’t on the AT&T network, such as through encrypted messaging apps, weren’t part of the stolen data.

The agency (quite correctly!) believes the metadata could be used to identify agents, as well as their contacts and confidential sources. Of course it can. That’s why the NSA liked gathering it. And that’s why the FBI liked collections it didn’t need a warrant to access. (But let’s not pretend this data was “stolen.” It was duplicated and exfiltrated, but AT&T isn’t suddenly missing thousands of records generated by FBI agents and their contacts.)

The issue, of course, is that the Intelligence Community consistently downplayed this exact aspect of the bulk collection, claiming it was no more intrusive than scanning every piece of domestic mail (!) or harvesting millions of credit card records just because the Fourth Amendment (as interpreted by the Supreme Court) doesn’t say the government can’t.

There are real risks to real people who are affected by hacks like these. The same thing applies when the US government does it. It’s not just a bunch of data that’s mostly useless. Harvesting metadata in bulk allows the US government to do the same thing Chinese hackers are doing with it: identifying individuals, sussing out their personal networks, and building from that to turn numbers into adversarial actions — whether it’s the arrest of suspected terrorists or the further compromising of US government agents by hostile foreign forces.

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The FBI Wrongly Raided This Family’s Home. Now the Supreme Court Will Hear Their Case.

When asked about the evening the FBI mistakenly broke into her home, detonating a flash grenade in the house and ripping her door from its hinges, Curtrina Martin struggles to find a way to describe what that does to a person. “I don’t know if there is a proper word that I can use,” she told me last year.

The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will evaluate whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled correctly when it barred Martin from suing over that nightmare scenario—a case that has attracted bipartisan attention from Congress.

In October 2017, the FBI arrived at Martin’s house, which she shared with her then-fiancé, Hilliard Toi Cliatt, and her 7-year-old son, Gabe. The agents were searching for a man named Joseph Riley, who lived approximately one block over. After law enforcement found Martin and Cliatt hiding in the closet, police dragged Cliatt out and handcuffed him, while another officer screamed and pointed his gun at Martin, who says she fell on a rack in the chaos.

A panel for the 11th Circuit wrote that the two structures “share several conspicuous features.” For example, they are “beige in color” and have “a large tree in the front.” Since it was dark outside, the judges said, it would have been “difficult to ascertain the house numbers on the mailboxes.” Lawrence Guerra, who led the raid, thus received immunity.

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FBI’s Warrantless Search Ruled Unconstitutional in a Blow to Government Spying

A case that started a decade ago with a New York City man’s arrest at John F. Kennedy Airport for allegedly trying to join a Pakistani terrorist group has now dealt a setback to government spying powers.

In a decision that could feed into a looming fight over government surveillance, a federal court ruled last month that FBI agents violated the man’s constitutional rights when they searched National Security Agency databases for information on him dozens of times without a warrant.

The decision gives a boost to the surveillance critics who have long asked Congress to impose a warrant requirement on “backdoor” searches of NSA data collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA.

Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, has called for “major reform” of Section 702. He faces a Thursday confirmation hearing where surveillance hawks on the Senate Intelligence Committee could grill him about that position. Trump’s other nominees, however, have lined up to back the law.

The parties to the New York City case have not signaled whether they intend to appeal the ruling in the case against Agron Hasbajrami, who remains imprisoned. But if it stands, the decision could play a role in thecongressional debate over the spying law when it expires in April 2026.

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Whistleblower: FBI’s New Orleans Boss Stayed On Vacation after New Year’s Terrorist Attack

Apparently the second-deadliest foreign-inspired terrorist attack in the U.S. since 9/11 wasn’t enough for the boss of the New Orleans FBI field office to end his vacation early.

Early on New Year’s Day, 42-year-old Army veteran Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a pickup truck into a crowd in New Orleans’s famed French Quarter—killing 14 people who were celebrating the New Year. Police fatally shot Jabbar in a following firefight, and authorities later determined that the incident was inspired by the foreign terrorist organization ISIS.

Despite that, New Orleans FBI Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil took several more days to return to the office, according to a whistleblower working with the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

“Myrthil vacationed in Europe from late December to early January, which included New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and the Sugar Bowl and took multiple days to return to New Orleans after the terrorist attack on January 1,” Grassley said in a Tuesday letter to FBI Acting Director Brian Driscol and Acting Attorney General James McHenry.

“The FBI failed to note this in any of the joint briefings it provided to Congress and must provide more information.”

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Teen Jackson Reffitt Who Snitched on His Own Father to FBI Cries to CNN Over January 6th Pardons — Says He is ‘Terrified’ and Has Bought Himself a Gun 

Texas teen who ratted out his own father to the FBI is reeling from Donald Trump’s decision to pardon January 6th protesters. 

Jackson Reffitt, whose father Guy Reffitt was sentenced to over seven years in prison for his role in the protests against the 2020 presidential election, spoke to CNN after Donald Trump announced that he would be pardoning all of those involved.

“I’ve taken as many precautions as I could recently,” Jackson said.

“I’ve picked up a gun, I’ve moved, and I’ve gotten myself away from what I thought would be a dangerous situation and staying where I thought my dad could find me or other people.”

However, Jackson is at least showing remorse for his actions, which included wiretapping conversations that would be used to incriminate his father.

He has admitted that doing so was “disgusting” and says he feels guilt about it to this day.

“My father’s actions coming from the Trump presidency and what he thought he was doing was right just destroyed it [my family].”

”I made a very, very disgusting decision to inform authorities about what he was doing, and I still feel horrible about it every day.”

“My sisters are out there right now, and they’re rooting for him. I understand that.”

“I come from a place of love toward them. I want to be there for them, but I can’t. It just isn’t safe for people like me who have done what I did to protect my family… I cannot feel safe around him [father].”

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Ousted Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao indicted by federal grand jury following FBI corruption probe

The former Mayor of Oakland, Sheng Thao, has reportedly been indicted by a federal grand jury following a corruption investigation headed by the FBI, sources familiar with the matter told the San Francisco Chronicle. On Thursday, federal officials announced that they intended to disclose the outcome of a “significant law enforcement operation” on Friday morning. However, they did not provide any additional information.

The official charges against the former mayor have not yet been announced, but come after her home was raided by the FBI in June 2024 as part of a corruption probe. Thao was recently recalled in the November election.

The FBI conducted a raid at Thao’s home and three properties that were associated with members of the Duong family, who were awarded a curbside recycling contract by the city of Oakland. The raids occurred last June, and federal agents seized phones belonging to Thao and her boyfriend, Andre Jones.

Days after the raids, a federal grand jury subpoenaed all “documents and communications related to Andre Jones” and “calendar entries or records” of meetings involving Thao or Jones dating back to June 2022.

The subpoena sought documents concerning the Oakland Army Base and Evolutionary Homes, a project to construct container homes that involved the Duongs and Mario Juarez, a man who is accused of violating the law in an attempt to assist Thao in winning the 2022 election, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Additionally, Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission has been conducting an inquiry into the Duong family. They have been accused of using straw donors to provide financial support to Thao and other politicians.

The city of Oakland released hundreds of documents in November, revealing that Evolutionary Homes representatives lobbied for $90 million in city funding to construct 300 tiny homes using shipping containers. Thao directly supported the venture, as evidenced by emails. On September 7, 2022, Evolutionary Homes was established in California. Juarez was listed as the organizer and a member of the Duong family as its agent. However, the company fell through.

Records indicate that Juarez established and exclusively funded an independent expenditure campaign during Thao’s 2022 mayoral campaign. This campaign spent over $100,000 on leaflets that targeted Thao’s opponents. Earlier this year, he entered a not-guilty plea to a charge that he had disbursed over $50,000 in fraudulent checks that were intended to cover the postage costs of the leaflets, the outlet reported.

The ousted mayor has maintained her innocence since the FBI home raid.

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Dirty Democrat Dick Durbin Demands U.S. Agencies Dig Up Kompromat on Trump’s FBI Nominee Kash Patel

Senator Dick Durbin is going all out to try and derail the nomination of Kash Patel as director of the FBI.

In letters to the Justice Department, Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Durbin accuses Patel of working to undermine the transition process between Donald Trump and Joe Biden following the widespread fraud that tainted the 2020 presidential election.

He wrote:

Mr. Patel was appointed Chief of Staff [for the Secretary of Defense] on November 10, 2020, after then-President Trump lost the 2020 election.

During his tenure, Mr. Patel was accused of impeding the incoming Biden Administration’s transition work with the Defense Department, injecting himself and another political appointee into processes normally handled by nonpartisan career civilian and military officials, and ignoring requests from the Biden Administration’s transition.

…

As you know, the FBI is the principal federal law enforcement investigative agency, tasked with protecting all Americans.

The Director must be able to execute the FBI’s mission in a nonpartisan, impartial manner that is above reproach.

The credible allegations against Mr. Patel outlined above are deeply troubling, and the Committee is unable to properly consider his nomination without more information on his underlying conduct.

Lawmakers such as Durbin are particularly troubled by Patel’s nomination because of his longstanding record of working to hold Democrats and deep state actors accountable for their countless crimes and misdemeanors.

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Pentagon Contractor Fired After Undercover DoD “Stop Trump” Exposé

A top advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon has been fired after an undercover investigation caught him on camera admitting he’s working with generals on a ‘stop-Trump’ effort.

Former FBI Special Agent Jamie Mannina – an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton, was confirmed as having been let go following an undercover exposé by James O’Keefe’s OMG Media.

Via James O’Keefe:

“I’ve been in conversation with a couple of retired generals to explore what we can do,” Jamie Mannina, advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, former FBI Special Agent, and self-proclaimed “spy hunter,” disclosed to an undercover OMG Journalist his plans to utilize irregular strategies to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency.

Mannina also described his “ghost writing” with a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization, National Security Leaders for America, saying, “What we were doing was we were trying to explain to the American people the national security consequences of another Trump presidency.” He elaborated on his recent activities, saying, “Since the spring, I was working with these retired generals, retired ambassadors,” adding, “They’re like one, two, or three-star generals and admirals. You probably know maybe four stars.” He acknowledged the organization’s ultimate goal, emphasizing, “This organization tried to defeat Donald Trump.”

Mannina further revealed that he was participating in a “huge meeting with military leaders; in a very secure room called ‘The Tank.’” The Tank is a nickname for the Joint Chiefs of Staff Conference room which is a (SCIF), a Compartmentalized Information Facility. Discussing the focus of these meetings, Mannina shared that “the United States has specialized in artificial intelligence and emerging technology, quantum, [and] cybersecurity.” He elaborated on the potential of quantum technology, stating, “Quantum is incredibly fast, super-computing. That doesn’t yet exist, but will soon exist, and when it does, it will change everything.”

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Former FBI Agent and Pentagon Senior Advisor Outed by O’Keefe Media Group was Allegedly Filmed by ‘Predator DC’ in November 2021 at a 15 Year-old Girl’s ‘Home’

Yesterday, The Gateway Pundit’s Jordan Conradson reported on a new exposé from James O’Keefe’s OMG that showed Jamie Mannina, a former FBI agent, Hillary Clinton campaign staffer and a just-fired Senior Advisor to the Joint Staff of the Department of Defense spilling the beans on high-level efforts to subvert President Trump’s next term in the Oval Office.

Mannina mentioned he worked for a “top consulting firm”, which the video states is Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), one of the largest contractors for the United States government.  In 2022, BAH was the 6th largest government contractor with $5.9 billion in government contracts.

In November 2021, a Predator DC video allegedly shows “Jamie” arriving at a house where he believed a 15 year-old girl was going to engage in sexual acts with him.  The video starts out with the cameraman and hosts hiding in a closet.  You can hear the girl making small talk with “Jamie” when he arrives.

Eventually, she tells “Jamie” that she is going to go put her “school-girl outfit on” and requests that he is already naked when she returns.  “Jamie” responds with reluctance saying that he’d “be happy to” but “we’re just five minutes in.”

Shortly after, “Jamie” is confronted by the camera crew and hosts who tell him, “Jamie, go ahead and have a seat right there on that stool for me.”

“Jamie” says he doesn’t want to be on camera and makes a bee line for the door.  At this point, the hosts, Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl introduce themselves.  He responds, “I know who you are” as he begins to leave.

“We’re doing a story on adults who come to have sex with underage teens.  You’ve come here today to have sex with an underage girl.”

“No, I said no, sir,” he responded.  “I said ‘no, I didn’t want to do it.'”

“Jamie” then leaves the home in a black Camaro.

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