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Posts Tagged ‘Jan. 6’

The FBI just got caught in yet more massive, outrageous FISA abuses

Posted by M. C. on May 24, 2023

The FBI also routinely conducted warrantless searches on individuals listed in police homicide reports, including victims, next-of-kin, witnesses, and suspects.”

Even the Justice Department complained those searches were improper.

https://nypost.com/2023/05/21/the-fbi-just-got-caught-in-yet-more-massive-outrageous-fisa-abuses/

By James Bovard

https://nypost.com/2023/05/21/the-fbi-just-got-caught-in-yet-more-massive-outrageous-fisa-abuses/

Like the casino gambling scene in “Casablanca,” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court is “shocked, shocked” that the Federal Bureau of Investigation continues to ravage the privacy of vast numbers of Americans.

For each American the FISA court permitted the FBI to target, the bureau illicitly surveilled almost 1,000 additional Americans.

The court’s just-revealed ruling signals the FBI presumed any American suspected of supporting the Jan. 6, 2021, protests forfeited their constitutional rights.

FISA was enacted in 1978 to curb the rampant illegal political spying exposed during the Nixon administration.

After the 9/11 attacks, the George W. Bush administration decided the president was entitled to order the National Security Agency to vacuum up Americans’ and foreigners’ emails and other data without a warrant.

Federal judges disagreed, and the result was a 2008 FISA reform that authorized the feds to continue commandeering vast amounts of data.

But under Section 702 of that law, the FBI was permitted to conduct warrantless searches of that stash for Americans’ data only to seek foreign intelligence information or evidence of crime.

The FBI had conducted 278,000 improper searches of Americans in 2020 and early 2021.
The FBI had conducted 278,000 improper searches of Americans in 2020 and early 2021.

The heavily redacted 2022 opinion finally released Friday revealed the FBI conducted 278,000 improper searches of Americans in 2020 and early 2021.

Incredibly, the bureau conducted roughly 3.4 million warrantless searches of Americans in 2021 via Section 702.

The day before, Thursday, an FBI whistleblower revealed in congressional testimony that FBI headquarters pressured agents to treat anyone who attended the Jan. 6 protests as a criminal suspect.

The FISA court opinion reveals the FBI wrongfully cast a far broader net.

Roughly 2,000 protesters supporting President Donald Trump (including an unknown number of undercover agents and informants) entered the Capitol that day.

But an FBI analyst exploited FISA to unjustifiably conduct searches on 23,132 Americans citizens “to find evidence of possible foreign influence, although the analyst conducting the queries had no indications of foreign influence,” according to FISA Chief Judge Rudolph Contreras.

See the rest here

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What Did the FBI Know?

Posted by M. C. on March 4, 2022

If the feds have an eyewitness who works for them — even though his presence at the scene was unconstitutional — and whose testimony contradicts the prosecutors’ narrative, the feds have a moral and legal obligation to reveal all this to defense counsel.

By Andrew P. Napolitano

The New York Times has reported that the FBI had an undercover informant amid the protestors that entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 who had related to them his knowledge of the demonstrators’ plans beforehand and his observations of events in the building in real time. The informant was a genuine member of the Proud Boys, the group the feds have charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government.

According to the Times, the informant told the FBI in advance that there was no plan by his colleagues to disrupt the government. He also reported violence and destruction in the Capitol to his FBI handler as it was happening, and the FBI did nothing timely to stop it.

The presence of the informant as a de facto federal agent at the scene before, during and after the commission of what the government considers to be serious felonies raises serious constitutional questions about the FBI’s behavior.

The feds have not revealed the existence or identity of this informant; rather, the Times’ reporters found out about him and found another person to corroborate what they learned that he did.

Can the government insert a person into a group under criminal investigation — or “flip” a person who is already in the group — and use him for surveillance without a search warrant? And, when they do this, must prosecutors tell defense attorneys about their informant, particularly if his knowledge and observations are inconsistent with the government’s version of events?

Here is the backstory.

See the rest here

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By the Numbers, a Failing President – LewRockwell LewRockwell.com

Posted by M. C. on January 21, 2022

As for the coronavirus, the Biden administration neither anticipated nor prepared for the delta and omicron variants. And no one knows where we will be next November — hopefully, in a better place.

And how Biden handles the Ukraine crisis ginned up by Russian President Vladimir Putin may come to be seen as a reflection of his mastery of foreign policy, or his ineptitude.

Ukraine could be determinant in history’s judgment of Biden’s presidency.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/01/patrick-j-buchanan/by-the-numbers-a-failing-president/

By Patrick J. Buchanan

If the left believed that draping the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, around the neck of former President Donald Trump and the party that refused to repudiate him would sink the GOP, it appears to have miscalculated.

For, as the left painted the Capitol riot as an “armed insurrection,” “domestic terrorism,” “attempted coup,” and political atrocity that stands beside Pearl Harbor and 9/11 as “a day that will live in infamy,” Republicans were displacing the Democrats as America’s first party.

Democrats began 2021 as the preferred party of 49% of the country. Only 40% identified as Republicans.

When 2022 began, the standings had been reversed.

Forty-two percent of Americans identified as Democrats, and 47% as Republicans, a turnaround of 14 points.

While President Joe Biden began 2021 with an approval rating in the mid-50s, he ended the year with an approval rating in the low 40s. One national poll showed Biden’s approval rating sinking to 33%.

On Wednesday, a Politico/Morning Consult survey came out that showed that 37% of Americans awarded Biden a grade of “F” for his first year, with another 12% giving him a “D.” School kids with grades like that risk being held back a year or expelled.

On his handling of the issues of immigration and restoring national unity, 40% of Americans flunked Biden. On the economy, 38% gave him an “F.”

Also, in that Politico survey, 68% of respondents said America is on the “wrong track,” more than twice the number who believe she is heading in the “right direction.”

In this same survey, Biden’s overall approval stands at 40%.

What is the message that the totality of these numbers conveys?

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What Did the FBI Know? – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on September 30, 2021

The Times reporters promised anonymity to their sources. But their identity is now of paramount importance to some of the folks whom the FBI has arrested and whom federal prosecutors have charged with felonies. If the feds have an eyewitness who works for them — even though his presence at the scene was unconstitutional — and whose testimony contradicts the prosecutors’ narrative, the feds have a moral and legal obligation to reveal all this to defense counsel.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/09/andrew-p-napolitano/what-did-the-fbi-know/

By Andrew P. Napolitano

The New York Times recently reported that the FBI had an undercover informant amid the protestors that entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 who had related to them his knowledge of the demonstrators’ plans beforehand and his observations of events in the building in real time. The informant was a genuine member of the Proud Boys, one of the groups the feds are trying to charge with conspiracy to overthrow the government.

According to the Times, the informant told the FBI in advance that there was no plan by his colleagues to disrupt the government. He also reported violence and destruction in the Capitol to his FBI handler as it was happening, and the FBI did nothing timely to stop it.

The presence of the informant as a de facto federal agent at the scene before, during and after the commission of what the government considers to be serious felonies raises serious constitutional questions about the FBI’s behavior. The feds have not revealed the existence or identity of this informant; rather, the Times’ reporters found out about him and found another person to corroborate what they learned that he did.

Can the government insert a person into a group under criminal investigation — or “flip” a person who is already in the group — and use him for surveillance without a search warrant? And, when they do this, must prosecutors tell defense attorneys about their informant, particularly if his knowledge and observations are inconsistent with the government’s version of events?

Here is the backstory.

See the rest here

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‘I Thought I Was Going To Die’, Says Capitol Police Officer Who Held Door Open For Protestors On Jan. 6

Posted by M. C. on July 31, 2021

https://babylonbee.com/news/i-thought-i-was-going-to-die-says-capitol-police-officer-who-held-door-open-for-protestors-on-jan-6

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In a harrowing testimony before the January 6th Committee, Capitol Police Officer Lenny Burbo revealed his paralyzing fear as MAGA terrorist insurrectionist racists stormed the Capitol.

“I stood there, paralyzed by fear as I held the door open so people could enter,” said Burbo. “As boomer after boomer entered the facility in an orderly line and began to take selfies, I saw my life flash before my eyes. I literally thought I was going to die.”

When asked why he had politely held the door open for everyone to enter the building unimpeded, he replied that he feared for his life and that one of the larger rioters had come up to him and said “step aside cupcake” in an intimidating voice.

“I knew my only option was to step aside or be drawn and quartered by a throng of evil bad people who voted for Trump and are also racist,” he said as tears welled up in his eyes.

Officer Burbo has been awarded a medal of bravery since even though he opened the door for rioters, he really didn’t want to do it, and his heart was in the right place.

The FBI has issued a warrant for the man who called Officer Burbo a “cupcake” and is asking anyone with information to call Nancy Pelosi’s office immediately.

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Why the Left Can’t Let Go of Jan. 6 – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on July 27, 2021

As of today, Jan. 6 is the biggest and last best stick the Democrats have for retaining control of Congress in 2022.

For if that election is not about the worst day for the GOP of the Trump years, it is going to be about the successes and failures of the first two Biden years.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/07/patrick-j-buchanan/why-the-left-cant-let-go-of-jan-6/

By Patrick J. Buchanan

To understand what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s select committee investigation of the Capitol Hill events of Jan. 6 is all about, a good place to begin is with the sentencing hearing last week of Paul Hodgkins.

A crane operator from Tampa, Florida, Hodgkins, 38, pleaded guilty to a single count of obstructing a joint session of Congress called to confirm Joe Biden as the next president.

Hodgkins entered the Senate chamber carrying a Trump 2020 flag. He committed no assault, no act of destruction, no act of violence. Yet, he was sentenced to eight months in prison by U.S. Judge Randolph Moss.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Sedky argued for a sentence of twice that length, a year and a half, because, as she told the judge, “Jan. 6 was genuinely an act of terrorism.”

But is that true? Was Jan. 6 “an act of terrorism” — of the character if not the magnitude, say, of the Oklahoma City bombing?

Hodgkins’ attorney vigorously rejected that depiction. To call Jan. 6 “domestic terrorism,” said Patrick Leduc, is “offensive and gaslighting the country … It was a protest that became a riot, period, full stop.”

Leduc is correct: Jan. 6th was a riot. Had it truly been “domestic terrorism,” as the U.S. attorney claimed, why would she have accepted a guilty plea for a single nonviolent offense?

Why did she not throw the book at the terrorist?

Looking back, what was Jan. 6 in reality?

A huge pro-Trump demonstration of tens of thousands, out of which a mob of hundreds moved on the Capitol, broke police lines, assaulted cops, rampaged and disrupted an official proceeding.

All in all, a shameful disgrace. But 1/6 was not 9/11 or Oklahoma City or Pearl Harbor or the Pulse nightclub or the Las Vegas massacre.

Why is it being hyped like this? Why will the establishment not let go of Jan. 6? Why, half a year on, does it remain an obsession of regime media?

The hype never ends. Daily, we hear establishment politicians and press paint it up as the most awful day in America’s history.

It was, we are told, an “armed insurrection,” “domestic terrorism,” an attempted “coup,” “an act of treason,” “the worst attack on American democracy since the British burned the Capitol in 1814.”

Why did Pelosi recoil from and reject two of House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s picks for her select committee — Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio?

Because the deck is stacked, the fix is in. Pelosi’s committee has been crafted to bring in a third impeachment of Donald Trump and the GOP for posing the greatest threat to American democracy since Fort Sumter.

Issues, arguments and questions Banks and Jordan would have raised would have been off-script and interrupted the agreed-upon narrative.

Indeed, of whom does the select committee consist as it opens its hearings today?

Every Democrat of the committee has voted to impeach Trump for Jan. 6. Both of the Republicans Pelosi put on the committee to provide bipartisan balance — Wyoming’s Liz Cheney and Illinois’ Adam Kinzinger — voted to impeach Trump last January and are the two ranking anti-Trump Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Pelosi has impaneled a jury to try Trump and the GOP for insurrection, every one of whose members has already indicated they believe that Jan. 6 is a historic crime and Trump is guilty.

Why are Pelosi and the regime media doing everything to keep Jan. 6 alive? What are the stakes involved?

As of today, Jan. 6 is the biggest and last best stick the Democrats have for retaining control of Congress in 2022.

For if that election is not about the worst day for the GOP of the Trump years, it is going to be about the successes and failures of the first two Biden years.

And what, as of today, look to be the issues of 2022?

That election will be about the worst outbreak of inflation in a quarter-century to hit the U.S. economy. It will be about Biden’s having presided over a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, after having declared on July 4, 2021, our independence of the virus.

It will be about the largest invasion of illegals across America’s southern border in the history of the republic — 2 million a year in 2021 and again in 2022, with 300,000 of these “gotaways” who evaded any contact with the Border Patrol.

Among the 4 million anticipated illegals in Biden’s first two years are child molesters, drug dealers and unvaccinated carriers of COVID-19.

The election of 2022 will also be about a wave of shootings, woundings, killings and gun crimes in our greatest cities that have long been governed by liberal Democrats.

The Democratic establishment and its media arm have a vital interest in hyping Jan. 6 and not letting go of it. For Jan. 6, 2021, is their last best hope for holding power after Nov. 8, 2022.

Patrick J. Buchanan is co-founder and editor of The American Conservative. He is also the author of Where the Right Went Wrong, and Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War. His latest book is Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever See his website.

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The Antifa/FBI Coalition – American Thinker

Posted by M. C. on July 24, 2021

The New York Times has reported there have been twenty terrorist plots against the U.S.  Three of those plots were real; the other 17 were created — and then stopped — by the FBI.  

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/07/the_antifafbi_coalition.html

By John Dietrich

Over two dozen people were killed during the Antifa and BLM protests in 2020.  It is routinely reported that “five people died as a result” of the Jan. 6 disturbance.  This is a totally accurate statement, however, it is still misleading.  Only one of the deceased died as a result of violence.  She was actually murdered by a government official. Relating these deaths allows the media to routinely describe Jan. 6 as a “deadly insurrection” as opposed to the “mostly peaceful” protests by Antifa and BLM.  Prior to Jan. 6, Trump supporters had held dozens of mass rallies without burning cities or murdering people.  This was a major embarrassment for the Deep State.  Media coverage of the Jan. 6 event has been largely successful in minimizing that embarrassment.  This was a major Deep State coup and the planning and execution of this “insurrection” reveal a disturbing relationship between the government and radical groups. The FBI did not only fail to adequately prevent the disturbance, they appear to have actively facilitated it. The FBI and radical leftists are branches of the Deep State.

FBI agents “taking a knee” in homage to BLM

Large group of FBI agents (25) take a knee with protestors near the national archive. pic.twitter.com/Trl9ARY9cs — Jim Manico (@manicode) June 4, 2020

The FBI has a history of instigating terrorist plots that they thwart with great fanfare. This is not a conspiracy theory. 

The New York Times has reported there have been twenty terrorist plots against the U.S.  Three of those plots were real; the other 17 were created — and then stopped — by the FBI.  

The Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping case is based on evidence provided by two FBI informants and two undercover agents according to the FBI’s affidavit.  As many as twelve informants were used in this case.  Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, was at one time an FBI informant.  Several sizable right-wing organizations were involved in the Jan. 6 disturbance.  The FBI had infiltrated every one of them and therefore knew exactly what they had planned.  

The DC Metropolitan Police also had at least one undercover employee embedded within the pro-Trump crowd.  This is not speculation.  It is based on court records.  

It is preposterous to contend that the FBI did not have operatives in this disturbance as Christopher Wray contends.   Journalist Glenn Greenwald commented, “What would be shocking and strange is not if the FBI had embedded informants and other infiltrators in the groups planning the January 6 Capitol riot.  What would be shocking and strange—bizarre and inexplicable—is if the FBI did not have those groups under tight control.”

The FBI and the Capitol Police knew in advance that the demonstration would turn violent. 

The New York Times reported: 

The Capitol Police had clearer advance warnings about the Jan. 6 attack than were previously known, including the potential for violence in which “Congress itself is the target.” But officers were instructed by their leaders not to use their most aggressive tactics to hold off the mob, according to a scathing new report by the agency’s internal investigator.

 Yet the head of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Steven D’Antuono, told reporters that the agency did not have any intelligence suggesting the Trump rally would not be peaceful.  

During Senate testimony, Senator Amy Klobuchar suggested that the FBI had not infiltrated these groups.  She asked Christopher Wray, “There must be moments where you think if we would have known, if we could have infiltrated this group or found out what they were doing, and that — you have those moments?”  Wray did not correct her.  The knowledge that there would be violence was based partially on a document acquired by the Norfolk FBI.  It asserted, “Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their BLM and Pantifa slave soldiers being spilled. Get violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die. NOTHING else will achieve this goal.”  

The FBI does not reveal the source of this document.  Was it really the work of a Trump supporter?  Still, the violence could have been prevented.  

According to Kash Patel, Chief of Staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, “We had offered the Capitol Police, and Mayor Bowser of Washington, D.C., thousands of National Guardsmen and women, two days before Jan. 6. And they turned us down.”

Defenders of left-wing radical groups stress the fact that they are “decentralized.”  Wikipedia‘s description of Antifa mentions its “decentralized” nature numerous times.  Yet, the left is capable of acting in unison, as if under the command of a single director.  Mike Podhorzer, senior adviser to the president of the AFL-CIO, is mentioned in a Time magazine article giving a reason why left-wing groups were not visible on Jan. 6. He credits the activists for their restraint: “They had spent so much time getting ready to hit the streets on Wednesday. But they did it.  Wednesday through Friday, there was not a single Antifa vs. Proud Boys incident like everyone was expecting. And when that didn’t materialize, I don’t think the Trump campaign had a backup plan.”  Podhorzer continued, “To preserve safety and ensure they couldn’t be blamed for any mayhem, the activist left was ‘strenuously discouraging counter activity.’” All these “independent” groups decided in unison to stay home that day.  Or did they?

Antifa activist John Sullivan’s brother James claims that there were 265 disguised Antifa members at the disturbance.  The FBI will investigate this just as they are investigating child sex crimes.  (Unfortunately, David Harris, who was in charge of investigating crimes against children, was arrested for numerous child sex crimes.)

Part of the reason for the feds not releasing the government videos is that there are literally tens of thousands of researchers who plan on viewing the tapes. They may reveal FBI informants taking part in the violence.  The left has an extensive network of training facilities for agents provocateurs.  

Scott Foval, former National Field Director at Americans United for Change claimed, “We have to have people prepared to go wherever these events are, which means we have to have a central kind of agitator training.”  He continued, “I’m saying we have mentally ill people that we pay to do sh—, make no mistake.”  Robert Creamer, founder of Democracy Advocates and husband of Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky, stated, “Wherever Trump and Pence are going to be, we have events, we have a whole team across the country that does that.”

According to Rep. James Comer, the Republican leader of the U.S. House Oversight Committee, protestors are kept in deplorable conditions.  Yet, John Sullivan, who is recorded on tape saying “Let’s burn this shit down” was released without bail and placed on house arrest.  Many of the “unindicted co-conspirators” appear to have been more violent than those placed in solitary confinement.  This is possibly why the Department of Justice refuses to release to the public over 14,000 hours of video taken at the Capitol during the “insurrection.”  Selected clips are presented in court as evidence against Jan. 6 defendants.  Capitol Police argue that making all the tapes available to defense attorneys —let alone to the American public—could provoke future violence.

John Dietrich is a freelance writer and the author of The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy (Algora Publishing).  He has a Master of Arts Degree in International Relations from St. Mary’s University.  He is retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.  He is featured on the BBC’s program “Things We Forgot to Remember:” Morgenthau Plan and Post-War Germany.

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