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Tag: fbi
Did Banks Hand Private Financial Data to the FBI Without Legal Process?
The House Judiciary Committee is investigating banks for sharing Americans’ financial information with the FBI without regard for privacy concerns. In fact, there’s no doubt about the threat to civil liberties posed by the government’s leverage over the financial industry; that’s long established. At question in this investigation is whether the danger to our freedom inherent in that cozy relationship is being wielded in political warfare between the country’s political factions. But the larger problem should be fixed no matter what lawmakers discover.
“Today, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) subpoenaed Citibank for documents and communications related to the Judiciary Committee’s and Weaponization Select Subcommittee’s investigation into major banks sharing Americans’ private financial data with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) without legal process for transactions made in the Washington, D.C., area around Jan. 6, 2021,” the House Judiciary Committee announced August 17.
The subpoena followed June 12 queries to Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Company, PNC Financial Services, Truist, U.S. Bankcorp, and Wells Fargo after testimony by FBI whistleblowers that Bank of America voluntarily handed the FBI records on people who had used its services in the Washington, D.C. area around the time of the January 6 Capitol riot. “Individuals who had previously purchased a firearm with a BoA product were reportedly elevated to the top of the list,” according to a May report.
FBI Data on Active Shootings Is Misleading
Americans are constantly debating policing and gun control. But to discuss these issues, we have to depend on government crime data. Unfortunately, politics has infected the data handling of agencies such as the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control.
Last year, the CDC became the center of controversy when it removed its estimates of defensive gun uses from its website at the request of gun control organizations. For nearly a decade the CDC cited a 2013 National Academies of Sciences report showing that the annual number of people using guns to stop crime ranged from about 64,000 to 3 million. The CDC website listed the upper figure at 2.5 million.
Mark Bryant, who runs the Gun Violence Archive, wrote to CDC officials after a meeting last year that the 2.5 million number “has been used so often to stop [gun control] legislation.” The CDC’s estimates were subsequently taken down and now lists no numbers.
The FBI is also susceptible to political pressure. Up until January of 2021, I worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as the senior advisor for research and statistics, and part of my job was to evaluate the FBI’s active shooting reports. I showed the bureau that many cases were missing and that others had been misidentified. Yet, the FBI continues to report that armed citizens stopped only 14 of the 302 active shooter incidents that it identified for the period 2014-2022. The correct rate is almost eight times higher. And if we limit the discussion to places where permit holders were allowed to carry, the rate is eleven times higher.
FBI HOOVERING UP DNA AT A PACE THAT RIVALS CHINA, HOLDS 21 MILLION SAMPLES AND COUNTING
THE FBI HAS amassed 21.7 million DNA profiles — equivalent to about 7 percent of the U.S. population — according to Bureau data reviewed by The Intercept.
The FBI aims to nearly double its current $56.7 million budget for dealing with its DNA catalog with an additional $53.1 million, according to its budget request for fiscal year 2024. “The requested resources will allow the FBI to process the rapidly increasing number of DNA samples collected by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” the appeal for an increase says.
In an April 2023 statement submitted to Congress to explain the budget request, FBI Director Christopher Wray cited several factors that had “significantly expanded the DNA processing requirements of the FBI.” He said the FBI collected around 90,000 samples a month — “over 10 times the historical sample volume” — and expected that number to swell to about 120,000 a month, totaling about 1.5 million new DNA samples a year. (The FBI declined to comment.)
The staggering increases are raising questions among civil liberties advocates.
Grieving Mother Desperate For Answers After FBI Busts Down Door, Fatally Shoots Her Disabled Veteran Son in Pre-Dawn Raid
A family is desperately seeking answers after FBI agents busted down the door and killed their relative in a pre-dawn raid last week.
The FBI is refusing to tell a grieving mother why they showed up in armored vehicles at 6 am last Wednesday and fatally shot her son.
According to WBBJ, FBI agents showed up at a residence in Henderson, Tennessee to serve a man named Theodore Deschler an arrest warrant when things turned deadly.
A neighbor told WBBJ he woke up at 6 am after he heard a loud bang.
FBI Arrests 10 Officers In ‘Wide Ranging’ Federal Corruption Case
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has filed charges against 10 present and former police officers from the California cities of Antioch and Pittsburg Thursday in a major federal corruption case.
“Today is a dark day in our city’s history, as people trusted to uphold the law, allegedly breached that trust and were arrested by the FBI,” Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe said in a statement.
The charges range from cheating on training courses to serious violations of civil rights, Mercury News reported. The focus of the allegations is mainly on Antioch Police Department (APD), which has reportedly faced complaints about excessive force and a scandal involving racist text messages.
Three officers, two currently serving and one former, are accused of committing civil rights violations, per Mercury News. The charges alleged they planned violence against specific people, kept “trophies” of their actions and lied in official reports to cover up their deeds.
Text messages exchanged between the officers reportedly reveal conversations discussing violent plans and sharing pictures of the people they targeted. In one instance, officers discussed a plan for violence, Mercury News noted.
APD Officer Devon Wenger wrote, “We need to get into something tonight bro!! Lets go 3 nights in a row dog bite.”
Later that day, APD Officer Morteza Amiri texted Wenger pictures of an injured person they allegedly pulled out of a car and threw to the ground, Mercury News reported.
Federal officials also charged Wenger and former APD Officer Daniel Harris with possession of and conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids, according to Mercury News. Authorities charged former APD Officer Timothy Manly Williams with obstruction for allegedly interfering with an ongoing homicide and attempted murder investigation.
Family of Man Killed During FBI Raid Speaks Out for First Time
Family members of the man killed during an FBI operation this week are decrying what happened.
“We, the family of Craig Deeluew Robertson, are shocked and devastated by the senseless and tragic killing of our beloved father and brother, and we fervently mourn the loss of a good and decent man,” the family said in a statement after Mr. Robertson was fatally shot during the Aug. 9 operation in Provo, Utah.
FBI agents and other law enforcement officers were trying to serve arrest and search warrants at the home after reviewing social media posts in which Mr. Robertson, 74, threatened President Joe Biden and other politicians, according to court documents and officials.
Video footage from the scene showed heavily armed officers outside of Mr. Robertson’s home before dawn shouting at him to open the door.
Jon Michael Ossola, who recorded the video, told The Epoch Times that about 20 officers were present and that they told Mr. Robertson to exit the home.
Mr. Robertson, said, responded by saying “I haven’t broken any federal laws.”
After gunshots rang out, Mr. Robertson, a U.S. Air Force veteran, was taken outside and declared dead.
The video did not capture the shooting and Mr. Ossola said he could not see exactly what unfolded.
The FBI has described what happened as an “agent-involved shooting” that took place around 6:15 a.m. local time. The shooting is being reviewed by the bureau’s Inspection Division, according to a spokesperson, who declined to provide more details.
Truth Social Tipped FBI to *Armed* Utah Man Killed in Pre-Dawn Raid
Truth Social, the social media company owned by Trump, reportedly contacted the FBI back in March to tip them off about threats against Joe Biden made by a Utah man killed in a pre-dawn raid.
Craig Robertson, 75, was shot and killed by Salt Lake City FBI agents early Wednesday morning.
According to reports, Robertson was facing 3 counts after posting threats to Joe Biden: Interstate threats, threats against the president, and influencing, impeding and retaliating against federal law enforcement officers by threat.
Robertson allegedly threatened to kill Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and other officials prosecuting Trump in a series of social media posts.
“I hear Biden is coming to Utah. Digging out my old ghillie suit and cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle,” Robertson allegedly said in a social media post according to the complaint.
According to CNBC, Truth Social contacted the FBI after Robertson threatened to kill Alvin Bragg.
Robertson was reportedly armed when FBI agents attempted to arrest him Wednesday morning and had his weapon pointed at the agents.
Agents fatally shot Robertson after he reportedly refused to obey their commands.
A neighbor captured the raid.
Qualified Immunity May Shield FBI Agents Who Abused the No-Fly List
Any inconvenience governments can impose will eventually be abused as a tool of arbitrary punishment. Take, for example, the no-fly list and related watchlists, which are supposed to contain the names of known and suspected terrorists so they can be monitored and their movements restricted. From day one, placement on the list has been misused to punish innocent people who won’t do what federal agents command. Now FBI agents caught abusing the system want qualified immunity to shield them from consequences as people they mistreated seek justice through the courts.
“Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, FBI agents unsuccessfully attempted to pressure a group of innocent Muslims, including Muhammad Tanvir, to become informants for the Bureau,” notes the Institute for Justice (I.J.), which filed an amicus brief in Tanvir v. Tanzin. “Tanvir and the others—who were all either American citizens or lawful permanent residents—declined to become informants, because doing so goes against their sincerely held religious beliefs. FBI agents then harassed the group and placed them all on the No-Fly List.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights acts as co-counsels for the plaintiffs alongside the CUNY School of Law’s CLEAR Clinic. They sued under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) on the grounds that the plaintiffs’ Muslim faith forbids them to inform on coreligionists. The defendants—FBI agents who put Tanvir and the other plaintiffs on the no-fly list—protested that the RFRA doesn’t provide for monetary damages against government officials who violate rights, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled otherwise in an important 2020 decision written by Justice Clarence Thomas.
FBI Official Involved In Trump-Russia Hoax To Plead Guilty To — Conspiring With Russia
An ex-FBI agent who led the agency’s New York counterintelligence division and played a key role in the Trump-Russia collusion probe – will plead guilty to charges of colluding with Russia himself, a federal judge suggested in a Monday order reported by the Washington Times.
Charles McGonigal was arrested in January and charged with violating US sanctions on Russia by taking secret payments from a Russian oligarch, Oleg V. Deripaska, to investigate a rival oligarch.
“The court has been informed that defendant Charles McGonigal may wish to enter a change of plea,” wrote Judge Jennifer Reardon in a brief order in which she also scheduled a hearing for Aug. 15.
McGonigal initially pleaded not guilty on four corruption charges – including conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions, money laundering, conspiring to commit money laundering and conspiring to violate federal law against doing business with sanctioned individuals. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Hellbound and Down 
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