Tag: fbi

Texas Journalist’s Home Repeatedly Visited by ‘Corrupt’ FBI for Exposing Possible Hamas Training Camp Near US-Mexico Border – FBI Demands In-Person Meeting to Disclose ‘Sources’ 

The sanctity of a free press and the protection of journalistic sources have come under direct fire in the Lone Star State, according to Sarah Fields, Director of Advocacy for the Texas Freedom Coalition and a reporter for The Publica, after exposing the possible existence of a Hamas training camp near the US-Mexico border.

Fields recently made public a harrowing account of ‘corrupt’ FBI agents arriving unannounced at her doorstep—not once, but twice—in a brazen attempt to intimidate and extract information about her confidential sources.

It began on October 17th when, according to Fields, FBI agents appeared at her doorstep while she was away. She recounts that the agents later contacted her, insisting on a private meeting at their local office to discuss her reporting—particularly stories related to war and the border. Fields, true to the ethos of journalistic integrity, refused.

“It became harassment after I didn’t show up to their private meeting,” said Fields.

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FBI and DHS Heads Are Slammed for Pressuring Big Tech to Censor Americans

During a recent Senate Homeland Security Committee on “Threats to the Homeland,” the heads of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were blasted for their agencies’ roles in pressuring Big Tech companies to censor Americans.

In his opening statement, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) pointed to the 1976 Church Committee final report that documented decades of “widespread abuse by federal intelligence agencies against U.S. citizens” and expressed his fear that now, almost half a century after this report was published, “our federal government is still undertaking many of the same tactics that the Church Committee found to be unworthy of democracy, and occasionally reminiscent of totalitarian regimes.”

He continued by highlighting the ways the FBI, DHS, and other federal agencies operated “in a manner that is outside the scope of their authorities, wasting taxpayer dollars and infringing on the rights of Americans.” The senator from Kentucky pointed to the Fifth Circuit’s finding that the FBI and other federal agencies likely violated the First Amendment when coercing Big Tech companies to censor speech and noted that much of the speech the FBI flagged for censorship was truthful.

Paul also took aim at the FBI’s “misuse [of] its authority” under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a warrantless surveillance law that the FBI has used to spy on millions of Americans, including a senator, a state senator, and a judge.

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Former Fox Reporter Faces Contempt Charge After Refusing To Reveal FBI Source

Former Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge (now with CBS) is facing a contempt charge after refusing to comply with a court order to reveal a confidential source’s identity.

The source had provided information about an FBI investigation into a Chinese American scientist, Yanping Chen – whose lawyers asked the court to hold Herridge in contempt because she “refused to answer questions regarding the identity of her confidential source(s) and other aspects of her reporting process and editorial decision-making.”

The case stems from three reports published by Fox News starting in 2017, which revealed that the FBI had been investigationg Ms. Chen, a naturalized US citizen who founded and owned a university attended by multiple US military personnel. Chen was informed in 2016 that she wouldn’t be charged, the Epoch Times reports.

Yet in 2018, the Department of Defense moved to stop helping to pay the tuition for military members who wanted to attend Chen’s university. Chen sued the FBI, who she claimed had leaked the previously private information to Herridge.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that Chen’s “need for the requested evidence overcomes Herridge’s qualified First Amendment privilege.”

Cooper said on Oct. 27 that Herridge would likely be held in contempt unless she coughs up her source.

“With contempt proceedings now teed up, one of two outcomes appears likely: Either Herridge will be held in contempt in the near future and can immediately appeal that order, or, as sometimes occurs in these cases, the sources may release Herridge from the privilege rather than watch her undergo the consequences of contempt,” Cooper, and Obama appointee, wrote in the ruling which rejected Herridge’s request to reconsider his earlier refusal to stay proceedings pending appeal.

Ms. Herridge hasn’t commented on the matter, and her deposition, taken in September, hasn’t been made public. Meanwhile, lawyers for Ms. Herridge didn’t respond to a request for comment. Fox News and CBS News also didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Ms. Herridge’s lawyers had said that the judge’s August order contained language indicating that he thought he was forced to require contempt before an appeal but that the court actually had the discretion to certify an appeal ahead of a contempt ruling. -Epoch Times

“The court should exercise its discretion to avoid forcing Ms. Herridge to suffer a contempt sanction as the price for securing review of her First Amendment rights,” said Herridge’s lawyers.

Several press freedom groups have voiced objections to Cooper’s decision.

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Senator Reveals How FBI “Improperly” Halted Investigation Into Biden Family Corruption

Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley announced Wednesday that there is evidence that the FBI and the DOJ attempted to shut down investigative activity into the Biden family and initiated a coverup of “criminal information” by labeling it “foreign disinformation.”

Grassley presented the findings in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, noting that “This letter is based on years of investigation, including the provision of information, records, and allegations from multiple Justice Department whistleblowers.”

The Senator further noted that the findings “indicate there is — and has been — an effort among certain Justice Department and FBI officials to improperly delay and stop full and complete investigative activity into the Biden family, including but not limited to FD-1023s referencing the Biden family.”

“As just one initial example, I’ve been made aware that at one point in time the FBI maintained over 40 Confidential Human Sources that provided criminal information relating to Joe Biden, James Biden, and Hunter Biden,” he continued.

“It’s been alleged that the basis for shutting the investigative activity down was an August 2020 assessment created by FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten,” Grassley added, further noting “That assessment was used by an FBI HQ team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease.”

The Senator goes on to detail how the FBI used Auten’s assessment and other briefings to discredit bribery and corruption allegations as “foreign disinformation.” 

Grassley alleges that the “partisan media” and Congressional Democrats then cited the FBI’s assertions as a way of stymying his investigation into the Bidens.

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FBI Report Says 3 In 10 Drug Arrests Are For Marijuana, But Agency’s Inconsistent Data Hinders Policy Analysis

Arrests for marijuana made up nearly a third of all drug arrests in the United States in 2022, according to a newly released report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As with last year’s report, however, inconsistencies in the data and recent changes to the agency’s methodology make it difficult to draw year-to-year comparisons or meaningful conclusions about cannabis and broader drug enforcement trends.

The data, according to FBI, comes from more than 11 million criminal offenses reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, which is submitted by 13,293 law enforcement agencies and 2,431 other agencies whose jurisdictions comprise more than 90 percent of the country’s population.

“Of the 18,884 state, county, city, university and college, and tribal agencies eligible to participate in the UCR Program, 15,724 agencies submitted data in 2022,” the bureau said in a press release about its annual 2022 Crime in the Nation statistics.

Because not all agencies provide data for the complete reporting periods, FBI explains in a methodology section of its website, the bureau calculates estimated crime numbers, essentially extrapolating “by following a standard estimation procedure using the data provided.” In terms of total reported arrests for “drug abuse violations,” for example, FBI said there were 766,595 arrests. The estimated number of arrests for drug abuse violations, by contrast, is 907,958.

Those numbers, however, aren’t consistent throughout the FBI report. In a section on arrests by region, FBI said there were 726,746 total drug arrests in 2022—nearly 40,000 fewer than its top-level number. In an analysis of  historical trends, meanwhile, FBI reported just 633,576 drug arrests in 2022. A section on racial breakdowns says there were 714,442 drug abuse violations.

Other sections list “drug/narcotic offenses” for the year at 1,459,460, the number of arrestees for drug/narcotic offenses at 787,347 and the total number of drug/narcotics offenders at 1,755,788. The agency further said there were 902,482 crimes involving a person’s suspected use of drugs other than alcohol in 2022.

FBI’s press office did not immediately respond to an email from Marijuana Moment requesting clarification on the conflicting numbers.

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FBI TARGETS MUSLIMS AND PALESTINIANS IN WAKE OF HAMAS ATTACK, CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCATES WARN

FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT agents have questioned and detained Palestinian nationals and made visits to mosques in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel, according to civil rights advocates.

Abed Ayoub, executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, or ADC, said that his organization has fielded multiple reports of individuals and mosques being visited by the FBI this week. The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a police accountability group, also said it had received reports of federal agents intimidating Palestinians and their supporters. 

The interactions are reminiscent of surveillance and targeting of Muslim and Arab communities in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and Ayoub told The Intercept that they are contributing to a resurgence of fear among Muslim communities. “Like, ‘Oh my god, this is happening again, how are we going to protect ourselves?’”

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Top government official bought prostitutes, schmoozed with foreign national: Investigation

A federal investigation has confirmed that a top-level FBI official associated with a foreign national and massage parlor owner paid for prostitutes “multiple” times before resigning and apparently ducking criminal charges.

The Department of Justice inspector general said that the former “senior level” official received “sexual favors” at a number of massage parlors while employed by the agency.

What’s more, the official did not tell the FBI of their relationship with the “foreign national” as required.

The investigation did not identify the former official or even the city the affair took place in.

Despite facing a long list of potential crimes, the inspector general said that since the suspect retired before the audit confirmed the charges, “federal and state criminal prosecution was declined.”

Senior-level federal officials earn as much as $203,000 a year. It is unclear why no charges were ever filed.

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‘You just broke my neck’ — Man accuses jailer of assault, FBI investigating

When Jeff Fry walked into the Lorain County jail on May 12, he was facing a misdemeanor bench warrant. He had no idea he’d leave the facility on a stretcher with permanent injuries.

“My head snapped back and that was it,” said Fry as he sat with his left arm in a sling, outside a friend’s home.

Fry said he spent two weeks in the hospital and another four months in a nursing facility recovering from what happened inside the jail that day.

His lawyer said Fry’s injuries included a broken neck and permanent spinal cord damage.

Now the FBI is investigating, and Fry’s lawyer is preparing a lawsuit, but as far as News 5 investigators could tell, no discipline was ever meted out, and the officer responsible is still on the job.

The 58-year-old Fry said he doesn’t remember much of the incident with a corrections officer that led to the injuries, but said he didn’t deserve what happened that day.

The emotions it brings up were evidenced by the tears that welled up in his eyes when asked about it.

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FBI Form Reveals They Knew New York Post’s Hunter Biden Laptop Story Was Real Ahead of 2020 Election

The FBI knew the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop featured in the New York Post’s reporting ahead of the 2020 presidential election were real, according to a newly released FBI FD-302 form summarizing the bureau’s interview with Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Tony Bobulinski.

The FBI interviewed Bobulinski on Oct. 23, 2020 after the New York Post’s story contained emails from the Hunter Biden laptop archive Bobulinski was copied on, the FD-302 form states. Bobulinski told the FBI he knew the emails were legitimate and had records of the emails on multiple cell phones, the form asserts.

“In addition, the New York Post recently published HUNTER BIDEN emails in which BOBULINSKI was copied. BOBULINSKI’s name was not redacted from the published emails, which put his name in the public domain and caused significant concern for his family’s safety,” the document reads. The FD-302 form’s contents were first reported by the New York Post.

“Nonetheless, BOBULINSKI was aware that the emails published by the New York Post were legitimate because BOBULINSKI was copied on them and had records of the emails on his own cellular devices,” the document adds.

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FBI Denies Targeting Trump Supporters Ahead of 2024 Election

On Thursday, the FBI denied reports that it is targeting Trump supporters ahead of the 2024 presidential elections. 

Newsweek reported Wednesday that the FBI had created a category to evaluate threats known as anti-government and anti-authority violent extremism, which encompasses individuals who are deemed as threats, but don’t fall under anarchist, militia or sovereign citizen groups. 

According to the outlet, more than a dozen current and former anonymous government officials said that the program primarily targets supporters of former President Donald Trump.

In a statement, the FBI denied the existence of this new designation, contesting the report and claiming it was false.  

“Any allegation that the FBI targets individuals solely for their political beliefs is categorically false,” an FBI spokesperson said. “The FBI investigates those who commit acts of violence or threaten violence, and we do not take action based on political belief or any First Amendment protected activity.”

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