Tag: fbi

Medical Marijuana Growers And Caregivers Can Own Guns, But Patients Can’t, FBI Says In Little-Noticed Memo

Being a state-registered medical marijuana caregiver or grower doesn’t automatically disqualify a person from owning a firearm, the FBI says. But merely possessing a medical cannabis card as a patient does render a person ineligible.

Amid the growing tension between federal gun policies and the ever-expanding state marijuana legalization movement, a little-noticed FBI memo from 2019 offers a lens into the byzantine legal interpretations surrounding cannabis and firearms—an issue that’s recently been raised in multiple federal court cases.

The government has several different ways it assesses firearm eligibility in the context of cannabis, according to the memo from FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division, which was briefly noted in a report from The New York Times last week. In some cases, that involves affirmatively restricting gun rights based on activities or documentation that doesn’t necessarily mean a person is an active marijuana consumer.

At their core, the federal rules say that being an “unlawful user” of a controlled substance, including marijuana, means a person cannot buy or possess a gun. Would-be gun purchasers are required to disclose such use as part of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) form before making a purchase, and lying on that form is a felony offense.

The statute behind that prohibition has been challenged in a number of federal courts over the past couple of years, with more than one judicial body determining that the restriction is unconstitutional. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has steadfastly defended the ban, however, contending that medical marijuana patients and everyday consumers pose unique dangers to society that justify withholding Second Amendment rights.

But the federal government’s interpretation of the policy is apparently more nuanced, as evidenced by the memo from CJIS’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System Section that’s gone largely unscrutinized since being published more than four years ago.

A person’s firearm eligibility is partly determined by whether their use of a controlled substance is deemed “current.” FBI says that’s “not limited to the use of drugs on a particular day, or within a matter of days or weeks before, but rather that the unlawful use has occurred recently enough to indicate the individual is actively engaged in such conduct.”

“ATF has determined that the present time is represented by the time frame of within the past 12 months,” the memo says.

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Wieambilla shooting: Arizona man arrested in the United States over ambush that killed two cops and a neighbour is identified as religious conspiracy theorist

A religious conspiracy theorist has been arrested in the US in relation to the tragic shooting a year ago of two Queensland police officers and a Good Samaritan neighbour.

The man has been identified as Donald Day, of Arizona, who had connected online with the ‘doomsday’ trio who planned the chilling pre-mediated attack at Wieambilla in western Queensland last December 12.

He is mentioned by name in a creepy final video talking about ‘devils’ and demons’ made by Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train. 

In the 41-second clip, Gareth Train says, ‘We’ll see you when we get home, Don’.

The three shot dead Constable Matthew Arnold, 26, and Constable Rachel McCrow, 29, shortly after the officers arrived at their Wieambilla property in the state’s Western Downs to inquire about Nathaniel’s whereabouts as part of a missing person’s report.

Neighbour Alan Dare was also killed in the siege before Nathan, Gareth and Stacey were all shot dead by police hours later.

In the video which sent a message to ‘Don’, Gareth Train says ‘they came to kill us, and we killed them. If you don’t defend yourself against these devils and demons, you’re a coward.’

A police investigation later found that the two slain constables were fatally ambushed by the Trains who had links to the sovereign citizen movement and subscribed to a Christian fundamentalist belief system known as premillennialism.

FBI agents on Wednesday arrested Day, 58, near Heber Overgaard, north-east of Phoenix in Arizona following an extensive investigation in partnership with Queensland Police.

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Former U.S. diplomat arrested in FBI spying probe

Former Ambassador and diplomat Manuel Rocha was arrested in Miami after a long-running counterintelligence investigation.

According to the Associated Press, Rocha is being accused of working as an agent of Cuba’s government.

While more details are expected in court on Monday, those who spoke to reporters said that Rocha was working with the Cuban government to promote its interests within the United States.

Over the past several years, the Justice Department has cracked down on individuals who have neglected to register as a foreign agent, as required by law.

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Inmate Who Shanked Derek Chauvin 22 Times Is Former FBI Informant Who Led Mexican Mafia Faction

A 52-year-old man who stabbed former police officer Derek Chauvin with an “improvised knife” is a former FBI informant, according to court documents filed on Dec. 1.

John Turscak stabbed Chauvin 22 times before being subdued by responding corrections officers. He later told them that he would have killed the man convicted for the murder of George Floyd (who had an elephant dose of fentanyl in his system and died ‘with’ Covid).

The stabbing occurred on Nov. 24 around 12:30 p.m., the day after Thanksgiving known commonly as Black Friday. Turscak waived his Miranda rights and told FBI agents that he ‘did not want to kill Chauvin, but had been thinking about attacking him for a month,’ taking the opportunity when both of them were in the law library at the Federal Correctional Institution Tucson.

“Turscak stated that his attack of [Mr. Chauvin] on Black Friday was symbolic with the Black Lives Matter Movement and the ‘black hand’ symbol associated with the Mexican Mafia criminal organization,” said prosecutors.

As the Epoch Times notes, Turscak was charged with four counts, including assault with a dangerous weapon and assault with intent to commit murder. He was moved after the stabbing to an adjacent federal penitentiary in Tucson, where he remained in custody Friday, inmate records show.

Mr. Turscak did not have a lawyer listed on the court docket.

A lawyer for Mr. Chauvin did not return an inquiry about the charges.

Federal officials have said an inmate at the Tuscon facility was stabbed on Nov. 24 and that the inmate was rushed to a hospital. They said they would not identify the inmate.

“For privacy and safety reasons, we are not providing the name of the victim or their medical status,” a Bureau of Prisons (BOP) spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

Minnesota officials had said that Mr. Chauvin was the inmate and that he was expected to survive.

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Federal Judge Orders FBI to Finally Release Seth Rich’s Laptop

The murder of Seth Rich has long been one of the stones left unturned since the fall out following the 2016 presidential election. Rich, a 27-year old staffer for the Democratic National Committee was shot twice in the back on July 10th, 2016 while walking back to his home in Washington DC. He was not robbed, yet his death was ruled nothing more than a botched robbery.

Although his murder would occur months before the election of Donald Trump, Rich’s name would become inextricably tied to the build up that culminated in that populist victory.

Many suspect Rich was the source of the leaked DNC emails provided to WikiLeaks – a rumor which was fueled by the odd circumstances surrounding his death, the sudden retirement of D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier five weeks after the murder, and an email John Podesta sent to Hillary’s inner circle about ‘making an example’ of a suspected leaker, written more than a year before Rich’s death.

Troves of emails were published by Wikileaks giving insight into the corrupt inner machination of the Democratic National Committee. While Rich was never officially revealed as the source of the leaked emails, it has been heavily suggested. Julian Assange was one key figure who made that suggestion when he highlighted Rich’s murder during a 2016 interview in which he was asked about the risks that come with operating WikiLeaks. Megavideo founder and entrepeneur Kim Dotcom said in May of 2017 that he worked with Rich to connect him with Assange.

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Trump-boosted conspiracist guilty of assaulting FBI agent investigating him for sex crimes

A Maine falconer who floated a bizarre conspiracy theory boosted by Donald Trump has been convicted of assaulting a federal officer.

Alan Howell Parrot was found guilty by a jury Wednesday of kicking an FBI agent in the stomach when investigators attempted to execute a search warrant June 22 at his Hancock home to determine whether he was in possession of child sexual abuse materials, reported the Bangor Daily News.

“While the agents were trying to enter the residence, Parrot attempted to close the door and became combative, kicking one agent in the abdomen and pushing her backwards, resulting in injuries to her arm and elbow,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.

The 68-year-old Parrot faces up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, although the status of the child pornography investigation was not made clear by federal prosecutors.

Trump boosted a conspiracy theory propagated by Parrot weeks before the 2020 election that alleged Osama bin Laden had survived the raid on his compound nearly a decade earlier by using a body double, and then claimed that then-vice president Joe Biden had ordered the murder of Navy SEALs to cover up that purported failure.

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Trad Catholic Family Dragged Out of Home at Gunpoint, Locked in Van After FBI ‘Goaded’ Teen to Post Offensive Memes, Dad Says

Atraditional Catholic family was allegedly “dragged out of their home at gunpoint, handcuffed and locked in a van” earlier this year after the FBI “goaded” their 15-year-old son to post  “offensive memes” online. The teen, a volunteer firefighter and altar boy, was then hospitalized on mental health pretenses, according to his father, Jeremiah Rufini.

The FBI’s aggressive “investigation” only resulted in a misdemeanor conviction against the boy for breach of peace, but financially devastated the family with substantial legal expenses.

The FBI targeted the boy as part of a sting operation catfishing traditionalist Catholic teenagers with “extreme political content,” Rufini explained in the family’s GiveSendGo crowdfunding site. 

The family’s difficulties began early in 2023 when Rufini’s father became too ill from chemotherapy to work at the family business or care for his 93 year-old grandmother who lives in an in-law apartment at his home.

The home-schooled 15 year-old took on the responsibility of caring for his great grandmother until his father got home from work each day.

“It was a very stressful time, compounded by several unrelated deaths in the family that happened in the same time period,” Rufini explained. The long hours alone with his grandmother led the boy, equipped with a brand new cell phone, to become ensnared in an FBI scheme targeting trad Catholics.

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THE “TERRORIST,” THE RAPIST, AND ME

THE FBI STING had elements of a B-movie production. Federal agents used a car chop shop in Seattle that was an FBI front, placed a prayer rug and a copy of the Quran inside the office, and designated it the scene for the final bust. The FBI’s informant was a registered sex offender named Robert Childs, who had told agents that his friend Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif had a vague plan for a terrorist attack on a military base in Washington state. The FBI furnished Childs with weapons, including assault rifles and grenades.

At the chop shop, Childs met with Abdul-Latif and his friend Walli Mujahidh, who had a mental illness, and showed them the weapons he’d acquired for their supposed attack. The guns and grenades had been disabled, and hidden FBI cameras captured Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh holding rifles, even though neither man knew how to use them. “He didn’t even understand how to work the breech,” Childs would later tell me, referring to Abdul-Latif’s inability to load the firearm.

Suddenly, FBI agents, dressed in tactical uniforms, tossed in a smoke grenade and charged toward the men; they handcuffed Childs as part of the show.

“When the feds rushed in, I knew it was Robert Childs,” Abdul-Latif later told me. “I knew he’d set us up.” As Abdul-Latif saw it, Childs had manipulated and betrayed him for money. The FBI, meanwhile, described Childs as valiant. “But for the courage of the cooperating witness, and the efforts of multiple agencies working long and intense hours, the subjects might have been able to carry out their brutal plan,” Laura Laughlin, then the FBI’s special agent-in-charge in Seattle, said in a 2011 press release. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer later described Childs as “the unlikely hero” of the bust.

After years of talking to both men and sorting through conflicting claims, I can finally explain the origins of this high-profile case that the FBI and the Justice Department have misrepresented to the public and the courts. The FBI hired a convicted sex offender as an informant, even as a rape kit with his DNA sat untested on a shelf. They paid him $90,000 to set up his friend and his friend’s mentally ill buddy in a terrorism plot concocted from nothing more than an over-the-top statement by Abdul-Latif, landing both Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh in prison. A decade later, Childs is in prison as well, serving a life sentence for the crime documented by the rape kit that the Seattle Police Department left untested for 13 years.

Last winter, with nothing left to lose, Childs contacted Abdul-Latif and me to come clean about the FBI terrorism sting he’d helped engineer.

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Texas A&M University Employee Arrested on Child Pornography Charges, FBI Uncovers Use of “PIZZA” as Code Word in Chats

A Texas A&M University (TAMU) employee, Clinton Harnden, has been arrested by the FBI on charges related to child pornography.

The arrest came after agents executed a search warrant at Harnden’s residence and found evidence of his involvement in receiving and possessing child pornography materials, KBTX reported.

Harnden held the position of Senior Administrative Coordinator at Texas A&M University. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he had been employed at the university for more than a decade, but only took on the senior administrative role in July 2020.

Harnden’s profile is still available on TAMU’s website.

According to the FBI affidavit obtained by Current Revolt, the investigation began following the arrest of Sarah Chadwick in Michigan on November 8 for possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

During her post-arrest interview, Chadwick revealed her communication with Harnden via WhatsApp, where they exchanged significant amounts of CSAM.

Further analysis of the chat between Chadwick and Harnden revealed that Harnden used the term “pizza” as a code word to discuss CSAM.

According to FBI Special Agent Dimitri Willis, “CHADWICK and HARNDEN used the term “pizza” to talk about CSAM during this interaction. I know from my training and experience that “pizza” and/or “cheese pizza” is a known slang/code-word used by individuals to discuss CSAM in public forums without detection. After sharing the CSAM, CHADWICK asked HARNDEN if he thought she was horrible because of all the “pizza.” HARNDEN replied that “Pizza is one of my favorite foods.””

The investigation further revealed Harnden’s involvement in online communities dedicated to sharing CSAM, including groups on Tumblr and Wickr.

“Agents reviewed HARNDEN’s “ATXAGGIE2007” Tumblr page. The page was filled with posts and responses about pornographic material, including CSAM. One post by HARNDEN on Tumblr asked “Anyone give out free pizza today.” As stated before, I know from my training and experience that “pizza” and/or “cheese pizza” is a known slang/code- word used by individuals to refer to CSAM,” the affidavit read.

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FBI Arrests Miami Police Officer Accused Of Stealing Cash, Drugs During Traffic Stops

A Miami cop was arrested by the FBI after being accused of stealing drugs and money from suspects during traffic stops – some of whom turned out to be undercover agents, according to NBC Miami.

Frenel Cenat, 40, was arrested on Thursday on charges which include attempted Hobbs Act extortion, theft of government funds, and attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine, according to the report, citing jail and court records.

Cenat, a Miami Police officer since September 2008, had worked for the property and evidence unit since 2020. After a confidential source tipped off the FBI to Cenat’s behavior – conducting traffic stops of people known to have just engaged in drug transactions, and then stealing the money or drugs they were transporting, they launched an investigation.

Cenat would use his official police vehicle to conduct the traffic stops and would be in his police uniform, the affidavit said.

Cenat was recorded on video and audio “coordinating schemes and conducting traffic stops of two individuals who he was told had just engaged in drug transactions, with the intention of stealing the money and/or drugs involved in those illegal transactions,” the affidavit said. –NBC Miami

 According to the affidavit, Cenat admitted that he would pull the schemes while off duty and outside his jurisdiction.

“On duty they (MPD) got computers on and can track you and s— like that…you know what I mean…ping your phone… what you are doing in this area,” he said, according to the affidavit. “You don’t wanna do that s— bro while you are on duty…If I work down there I will never f— down there bro.”

Cenat also described several prior incidents involving drug transactions in which he coerced individuals to give up their stash, money, or both in order to avoid going to jail.

In October, he discussed stopping a person who had just done a drug deal, from whom he stole $50,000 – saying “I just need bread now.”

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