436 private links
On Monday, Judge Aileen Cannon released an unredacted version of former President Trump's motion for discovery in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. The document appears to show collaboration between the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Justice Department, and the Biden administration to develop the case.
As it stands now, the law, which is set to expire April 19, allows U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on foreign nationals based overseas, but it also lets the FBI comb through the massive amounts of data the intelligence community collects and gather information about American citizens. These are known as “backdoor searches,” //
they want to require that the FBI obtain a warrant before searching Section 702 data for information about Americans — a reasonable reform. The intelligence community, and the members of the House Intelligence Committee over whom they have influence, oppose this. //
Whatever the original justification of Section 702 was — in the wake of 9/11, the intelligence community argued that massive government surveillance capabilities were necessary to keep Americans safe from terrorist attacks — the purpose of it now is to enable the FBI to surveil Americans, especially Americans who express views and opinions the government deems to be a threat. //
But the intelligence community and the lawmakers on the Intelligence Committee dug in their heels, rejecting multiple compromise reform bills. These bills, wrote Goitein, “would have passed if IC/intel committees were willing to concede that Section 702 should not be used as a means of warrantlessly accessing Americans’ communications.” //
How bad is warrantless spying by our government? Pretty bad. In April 2022, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its annual report that showed the FBI made more than 3.4 million search queries of the NSA database in 2021 on U.S. citizens. About a third of these were “non-compliant searches,” which means they fell outside the normal rules and regulations. In other words, they were illegal.
But that’s not all. As the X account @TheLastRefuge noted, from November 2015 to May 2016, the FBI and contractors for the DOJ/FBI conducted more than 1,000 illegal searches targeting Republican primary candidates.
TheLastRefuge @TheLastRefuge2
·
10) Although the number of the illegal search queries were redacted, we know the number is four digits from the size of the redacted text. More than 1,000 and less than 9,999.
6:20 PM · Apr 10, 2024. //
It’s time for ordinary Americans to wake up and realize what our government is doing to us. Under the pretext of keeping us safe from foreign terrorists, the intelligence community has erected a vast surveillance apparatus that targets American citizens — and it will not under any circumstances allow that apparatus to be reformed.
Which is why it should be dismantled completely.
The GOP-controlled House failed to add an amendment proposed by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., that would have altered Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to mandate that federal authorities obtain a warrant before surveilling American citizens. Johnson and 85 Republicans joined Democrats in killing Biggs’ proposal through a tied House vote. //
The House passed the bill 273-147 to re-authorize the government’s use of FISA for the next two years, with 126 Republicans and 147 Democrats voting in favor. The bill must clear the Senate before it hits President Joe Biden’s desk for signature. //
the White House’s Jake Sullivan and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland “call[ed] members on the Hill” this morning to pressure them into squashing Biggs’ amendment.
Jake Sherman @JakeSherman
·
VERY intense W.H. lobbying effort on the warrant issue.
- Jake Sullivan/Merrick Garland made calls
- NSC attorney Josh Geltzer and Deputy homeland security adviser Jen Daskal were right outside the floor with representatives from DOJ/CIA to talk to members
If you have a secret police force threatening people, spying on them, and working secretly the levers of political power, then you don’t have a democracy. You have no control over really anything as a voter. //
If you have the power to spy on someone and then to leak the information that you gather or manipulated and then leak it in order to control that person, that’s a major power. In fact, that’s a bigger power than any voter in this country has. And so he’s acting on their behalf when he lies to you. And so it shouldn’t surprise you that they want to keep that power.
By a vote of 212-212, the amendment failed. One hundred and twenty-eight Republicans voted for the amendment, and 86 voted against it. On the Democrat side, the vote was 84 yes and 126 no.
Thomas Massie
@RepThomasMassie
·
Follow
This is how the Constitution dies.
By a tie vote, the amendment to require a warrant to spy on Americans goes down in flames.
This is a sad day for America.
The Speaker doesn’t always vote in the House, but he was the tie breaker today. He voted against warrants.
12:37 PM · Apr 12, 2024 //
I'm sorry, if I know the FBI is lying about using FISA, why would I suddenly believe their sales pitch on its critical role in national security? It isn't like the FBI had a few bad actors making the occasional abuse. The data shows that abuse of FISA and lying to the FISA court are baked into the system.
Rep Andy Biggs
@RepAndyBiggsAZ
·
Follow
3.4 million warrantless searches of Americans' private communications.
278,000 improper searches on American citizens.
19,000 improper searches of donors to a congressional candidate.
There is no shortage of spying authority abuses by the weaponized FBI. Get a warrant. #FISA
1:19 PM · Apr 10, 2024. //
But the fix was in. Biden's attorney general and national security advisor called individual members of Congress, telling them Doomsday loomed if the federal government had to obey the US Constitution. //
It is abused relentlessly and there is no effort within the government to hold anyone to account for violating that law. For instance, no one involved in the abuse of FISA to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign and transition team has been punished. //
Weminuche45
6 minutes ago edited
The way this works is that if he doesn't support it, his career will be destroyed by the same "intelligence community" people and the system that has collected and stored everything he has said or done for the last 10+ yrs, and you too. That is who actually runs our country, and this is how. Welcome to Stasi American Democracy.
The House of Representatives failed to pass legislation renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a controversial provision allowing federal agencies to spy on noncitizens without a warrant.
Amid a strong push to “KILL FISA” from former President Donald Trump, more than a dozen Republican lawmakers voted against the measure, which would have renewed Section 702 for another five years. //
If Congress fails to pass legislation renewing Section 702 by the April 19 deadline, it is poised to sunset. This could signal that the tool might no longer be available for federal agencies to use for surveillance purposes.
Clive Robinson • March 28, 2024 6:04 AM
@ OldGuy, ALL,
Re : Chain of history
How we get from your,
“Then boss forgot his password, didn’t want to pay to get it unlocked, and turned me loose on it. Turned out their security consisted of XOR’ing every byte written to disk with the same hardcoded 8-bit value.”To,
https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/judge-orders-halt-to-defcon-speech-on-subway-card-hacking/
And how history is being rewritten by AI agents etc.
Your comment brings back a memory from nearly a quarter of a century ago. With ElcomSoft’s Dmitry Sklyarov being arrested and as it later turned out illegally detained and coerced by the FBI on behalf of Adobe Systems and their P155 P00r security in their e-book reader that used what sounds like exactly the same encryption system,
“Dmitry Sklyarov the 27 year old Russian programmer at the center of this case was released from U. S. custody and allowed to return to his home in Russia on December 13 2001”https://www.eff.org/cases/us-v-elcomsoft-sklyarov
Interestingly, searching around shows that slowly bit by bit write ups on,
1, What Dmitry had presented at Defcon-9 about the truly bad state of e-book software.
2, The fact he was arrested on behest of Adobe for embarrassing them publicly about the very poor security in their e-book system
3, The fact it was even Adobe Systems or their product
4, The unlawful behaviour of US authorities
5, The names of FBI and DoJ people involved
6, The fact Dmitry was a PhD researcher.
7, A jury found both Dmitry and Elcomsoft entirely innocent on all charges brought against them.
Is getting “deleted from history” or made difficult to find, via the likes of DuckDuckGo and Microsoft AI based Search engines…
The case was quite famous at the time as it showed the FBI was not just “over reaching” but actively trying to crush legitimate academic research. With even the usually non political and non feather ruffling “Nature” making comment,
https://www.nature.com/articles/35086729
And how speaking “truth unto power” can have consequences,
‘https://www.linux.com/news/sklyarovs-defcon-presentation-online-supporters-reputation-bonfire/
Much of which is what got repeated by the Massachusetts Government against the three students and the RfID “Charlie Card”.
Clive Robinson • March 28, 2024 6:41 AM
@ OldGuy, ALL,
I forgot to add the all important,
https://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Snake_oil_(cryptography)
Which tells you,
‘One company advertised “the only software in the universe that makes your information virtually 100% burglarproof!”; their actual encryption, according to Sklyarov, was “XOR-ing each byte with every byte of the string “encrypted”, which is the same as XOR with constant byte”. Another used Rot 13 encryption, another used the same fixed key for all documents, and another stored everything needed to calculate the key in the document header.
‘You can see why your comment triggered my memory ancient memory 😉
The FBI posted a video of Director Christopher Wray testifying on March 11 and highlighting the "Bureau's compliance with Section 702 during the hearing at the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence." //
Community Notes kept it simple and blunt, "The FBI violated American citizens’ 4A rights 278,000 times with illegal, unauthorized FISA 702 searches." We reported on that in the past, so anything they say now has to be viewed through that lens.
READ: FBI Misused Surveillance Tool More Than 278,000 Times Including Against Jan. 6 People, BLM, Political Donors //
Weminuche45
2 hours ago edited
The 3 hop rule allows them to electronically surveil millions of people without even a FISA warrant against them, probably everyone.
Example:
Warrant for one person
Hop 1 - person with warrant has communicated with 136 people over the last 7 years IN ANY WAY.
137 people now
Hop 2 - those 136 people have communicated with 136 people
18,632 people now under surveillance
Hop 3 - 18,632 people x 137 people
2.5 MILLION people now under surveillance
From one FISA warrant.
No one seems to care much about this though, so it will continue.
The newly disclosed video shows a dark SUV pulling up to the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., at 9:44 a.m. on Jan. 6, 2021. It sits for several minutes until a uniformed man with a bomb-sniffing dog enters from the right and steps up to the vehicle. The driver complies with his command, the dog sniffs inside and outside the car which is soon allowed to enter the parking garage. The man and his dog exit back to the right.
This scene is unremarkable except for one detail: The uniformed man and his trained canine came within a few feet of where a plainclothes Capitol Police officer would soon discover a pipe bomb that had been planted there the night before. The bomb, which the FBI has described as viable and capable of inflicting serious injury, along with a similar one found at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee, would appear to be the most overt act of violence perpetrated on Jan. 6.
Responding to the video discovered by this reporter, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, the Georgia Republican who chairs the House Oversight Committee subcommittee now conducting a separate inquiry into Jan. 6, asked, “How could a bomb-sniffing dog miss a pipe bomb at the DNC? We’ll add this to our long list of unanswered questions and continue getting to the truth.”
The number of anomalies surrounding this still-unsolved case continues to grow. These include: ... //
The greatest mystery may be why official Washington has lost interest in this alleged act of domestic terrorism. In the three years since Jan. 6, the DOJ has conducted what Attorney General Merrick Garland describes as a criminal investigation proceeding at an “unprecedented speed and scale” into the protests. Casting a wide dragnet for Capitol protesters across the country, federal and local authorities in Washington have tracked down and prosecuted more than 1,300 defendants, almost all of whom were unarmed, including 62 individuals so far this year.
Yet the perpetrator of what could have been the only deadly attack by a civilian that day appears to have vanished without a trace. He or she also seems to have slipped down the official memory hole. Although the Washington FBI field office recently issued a statement saying the “suspect may still pose a danger to the public or themselves” and upped the reward to $500,000, Washington appears to have lost interest in the pipe bomb whodunnit. //
This represents another aspect of the congressional investigation that did not reach an edifying conclusion. A suspected Trump supporter planted a bomb that could have killed the first female and person of color to hold the office of the vice presidency — and it only merited one sentence in an 840-page report.
Apropos of nothing, I'm thinking "The Russians, the British, the Australians and the Chinese…" sounds like the beginning of one of these "…walked into a bar" jokes.
(I must have it on my brain. Half an hour ago, i watched a video on the "Sumerian dog walks into a bar…" world's-oldest-joke meme. I didn't even know it was a thing, an honest-to-God 4,000 year old joke written in cuneiform, on a clay tablet. And nobody understands the punchline. Archaeological mystery).
Imagine my disappointment 🙂
In compensation for that, Here's a paranoid thought (of my own devising), for the enjoyment of budding conspiracy theorists…
The idea that the moon landing was faked, did not originate with some guy fond of tinfoil headgear.
Stay with me…
Instead, the US Government has a secret Conspiracy Theory Facilitation Program… tasked with devising the most floridly paranoid and deliberately wackdoodle "theories" possible, and then setting them free… (which are almost guaranteed to flourish, in the wild, among the nut-jobs roaming the streets of America).
These wacky ideas are planted and nurtured to create a default public perception, a conditioned herd-reflex, so that when the shadowy powers really DO need to "conspire" for nefarious purposes (maybe blow up some buildings to create a useful massive shift in public opinion, idk) …it's just that much easier to discredit the troublesome skeptic who happened to notice some really glaring loose ends …
But when he tries to tell a fellow citizen, they think "crazy dude living under a freeway overpass"
Skeptic is quite aware of this, and clams up.
Hmmm…
We used to shut away our mentally ill fellow citizens in asylums, keeping these tortured souls hidden from view. And medicating them with drugs to reduce the intensity and craziness of their hallucinations.
But then we had a top-down policy shift, taking away their thorazine, shutting down their treatment facilities, and casting the frightened inmates out into the streets. Supposedly because this is more humane and dignified. It also happens to be cheaper. They now live under freeway overpasses. And they panhandle. They are in our faces at stoplights and outside store entrances.
This doesn't make sense, unless… unless…
OMG
That's why the skeptic clammed up. I didn't actually call him a nut-job, but I looked at him like he was like a homeless crazydude and excused myself to supposedly refresh my drink. I acted like he had an infectious disease…
It's almost like i was conditioned to react that way…
And they've taken 1984 off of the recommended reading list for highschool students. Orwell who?
Nahhh….
[DISCLAIMER: The above is just sarcasm or humor or an exercise in creative writing. I promise, swear and affirm that I one-hundred-percent disavow all of the crazy Un-American thoughts therein. Keep this bag away from small children, it is not a toy. This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer or other reproductive harm. The government is always our friend. I pledge allegiance to the flag! Groupthink is my Co-pilot]
Apropos of nothing, I'm thinking "The Russians, the British, the Australians and the Chinese…" sounds like the beginning of one of these "…walked into a bar" jokes.
(I must have it on my brain. Half an hour ago, i watched a video on the "Sumerian dog walks into a bar…" world's-oldest-joke meme. I didn't even know it was a thing, an honest-to-God 4,000 year old joke written in cuneiform, on a clay tablet. And nobody understands the punchline. Archaeological mystery).
Imagine my disappointment 🙂
In compensation for that, Here's a paranoid thought (of my own devising), for the enjoyment of budding conspiracy theorists…
The idea that the moon landing was faked, did not originate with some guy fond of tinfoil headgear.
Stay with me…
Instead, the US Government has a secret Conspiracy Theory Facilitation Program… tasked with devising the most floridly paranoid and deliberately wackdoodle "theories" possible, and then setting them free… (which are almost guaranteed to flourish, in the wild, among the nut-jobs roaming the streets of America).
These wacky ideas are planted and nurtured to create a default public perception, a conditioned herd-reflex, so that when the shadowy powers really DO need to "conspire" for nefarious purposes (maybe blow up some buildings to create a useful massive shift in public opinion, idk) …it's just that much easier to discredit the troublesome skeptic who happened to notice some really glaring loose ends …
But when he tries to tell a fellow citizen, they think "crazy dude living under a freeway overpass"
Skeptic is quite aware of this, and clams up.
Hmmm…
We used to shut away our mentally ill fellow citizens in asylums, keeping these tortured souls hidden from view. And medicating them with drugs to reduce the intensity and craziness of their hallucinations.
But then we had a top-down policy shift, taking away their thorazine, shutting down their treatment facilities, and casting the frightened inmates out into the streets. Supposedly because this is more humane and dignified. It also happens to be cheaper. They now live under freeway overpasses. And they panhandle. They are in our faces at stoplights and outside store entrances.
This doesn't make sense, unless… unless…
OMG
That's why the skeptic clammed up. I didn't actually call him a nut-job, but I looked at him like he was like a homeless crazydude and excused myself to supposedly refresh my drink. I acted like he had an infectious disease…
It's almost like i was conditioned to react that way…
And they've taken 1984 off of the recommended reading list for highschool students. Orwell who?
Nahhh….
[DISCLAIMER: The above is just sarcasm or humor or an exercise in creative writing. I promise, swear and affirm that I one-hundred-percent disavow all of the crazy Un-American thoughts therein. Keep this bag away from small children, it is not a toy. This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer or other reproductive harm. The government is always our friend. I pledge allegiance to the flag! Groupthink is my Co-pilot]
World Economic Forum Poohbah Klaus Schwab is fond of paraphrasing the Joseph Goebbels quote, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear," as "If you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't be afraid." Fortunately, that dark day in America has been kicked down the road by no less a body than a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Tuesday, the court struck down the FBI and Department of Justice in what looks to be a precedent-setting case called Snitko v. United States, dealing a significant blow to the government's expansive search and seizure practices known as "inventory searches."
The case started out with a 2021 raid on a company called US Private Vaults, a California company offering secure safe deposit boxes with minimal personal identification requirements. Though apparently some specific boxes were targeted, the FBI elected to break open some 700 boxes and rummaged through their contents to the extent of bringing drug dogs in to sniff for traces of drugs as an excuse for invoking civil asset forfeiture. //
The central problem was that the FBI's warrant did not authorize "criminal search or seizure" of the safety deposit boxes. The FBI claimed it was just an "inventory search" that would allow box contents to be inventoried and returned to their owners. This requires following a specific set of rules that the FBI didn't bother to use.
If there remained any doubt regarding whether the government conducted a ‘criminal search or seizure, that doubt is put to rest by the fact the government has already used some of the information from inside the boxes to obtain additional warrants to further its investigation and begin new ones.”
The judges grilled the FBI and Department of Justice on how their actions didn't violate the very purpose of the Fourth Amendment.
This raid, targeting hundreds of boxes, opened a Pandora's box of legal and ethical questions regarding privacy rights and the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches; "It was those very abuses of power, after all, that led to adoption of the Fourth Amendment in the first place." //
Many moons ago, when I was an IG investigator for the Army's Recruiting Command, my boss gave me this sage advice on how to read a crowd if you were giving a training session: " If all the recruiters suddenly start writing," he said, "you've just closed a door they've been using or opened a door they didn't know existed."
The government's correct answer at the original trial was, "My bad, we did something wrong, and we'll do the right thing." The fact that they fought this tooth and nail and then tried to get out from under the ruling shows that they routinely use the "inventory search" masquerade to develop evidence in criminal cases and raise cash at your expense.
Though this was a victory, it was also a tragedy. No one was prosecuted. No one was fired. No one cared. "Deprivation of Right Under Color of Law" is a felony. There is a division of the Justice Department that prosecutes these cases. The DOJ IG didn't open a case to see how widespread this problem is, probably because they already know. What about other people who didn't have a high-profile case to attract free legal care? How do they get their property back? And what about the criminal cases launched, cases that helped move someone's career forward, based on patently unconstitutional searches?
Sooner or later, we have to arrive at a point where we admit that the FBI and most of the Department of Justice are much more of a danger to civil liberties than traditional Catholics, pro-life demonstrators, J6 defendants, Donald Trump, and even China. //
anon-goox
2 hours ago
The fact that Klaus is quoting Josef Goebbels as an authority SHOULD tell everyone---including Klaus himself---that he is on the wrong track.
Thomas Massie
@RepThomasMassie
·
Follow
Replying to @RepThomasMassie
A one hour kitchen timer on a bomb allegedly placed 17 hours earlier. How could that be operable?
Could the detonator even function?
Did it contain explosives?
Remarkable timing of discovery.
6:32 AM · Jan 24, 2024 //
pinkunicorns
4 hours ago
We don't know who left the Coke in the White House, who planted the bomb, or who the Supreme Court leaker was! What do all of these things have in common? //
St. Joseph, Terror of Demons
6 hours ago
So the cell phone data is corrupted, the video quality isn’t great, the pipe bomb was conveniently found immediately after the RNC bomb was found after supposedly laying in the park overnight, and it had a one-hour kitchen timer on it.
There are so many holes in this story that it reminds me of all the “coincidental” things that occurred with Jeffrey Epstein’s “suicide.” //
anon-9s7n
5 hours ago
Secret Service protecting a VP "elect" casually walking over to a "pipe bomb", having a look and doing nothing. Allowing civilians to walk right by. The reaction says it all. They new it wasn't a live pipe bomb. They knew it wasn't dangerous. They knew it was a plant and part of the day's plan.
There is no way anyone can convince me otherwise. We need to have a public hearing where each of those police officers and secret service agents must account for the reactions (or lack thereof) to what we have all been told was an imminent mortal threat. //
Native Phoenician
6 hours ago
The transcript is amazing! I would love to see the video. Man, that seemed so squirmy, squirmy, squirmy. He was answering questions not asked, interrupting the questions, apologizing and rambling on and on. Exactly the type of interview I would expect from someone hiding lots of things.
FBI @FBI
·
This #MLKDay, the #FBI honors one of the most prominent leaders of the Civil Rights movement and reaffirms its commitment to Dr. King’s legacy of fairness and equal justice for all.
Readers added context
The FBI engaged in surveillance of King, attempted to discredit him, and used manipulation tactics to influence him to stop organizing. King’s family believe the FBI was responsible for his death.
-
cbsnews.com/news/mlks-fami…
-
npr.org/2021/01/18/956…
Context is written by people who use X, and appears when rated helpful by others. Find out more.
10:01 AM · Jan 15, 2024 //
The FBI not only surveilled MLK, they tried to get him to commit suicide with things like this disgusting letter. They told him he had "34 days" left and that there was "only one way out for you."
Libertarian Party @LPNational
·
You dropped something.
It's your 1964 letter that tried to convince King to commit suicide.
https://twitter.com/LPNational/status/1746911441918087483/photo/1
It was 34 days before he was due to accept the Nobel Peace Prize that he'd won. They wanted him "done" before then.
MAZE @mazemoore
·
The FBI had the nerve to “honor” MLK today.
The FBI spied on MLK and sent him letters encouraging him to kill himself.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1747013821074444673 [video of Church Committee hearings]
4:52 PM · Jan 15, 2024 //
Jim Geraghty @jimgeraghty
·
Maybe they should have tried, "You can check the historical records. Nobody listened to Dr. Martin Luther King more than the FBI."
There seems to be no end to warrantless surveillance... //
PaulBart • November 27, 2023 7:14 AM
Yawn. Wikileaks Assange still in jail. Snowden still fugitive in Russia. Hillary and the “missing” emails still not “found”.
Lets have state-sponsored health care. Nothing says government boot tastes delicious like having your medical records and health issues handled by the state. Mmm-mmm good. //
Aaron • November 27, 2023 10:19 AM
A government should know next to nothing about its people.
A people should know almost everything about their government.
The world is upside-down
For those who jumped all over @PaulBlart, you’re missing his point.
People who exposed illegal government actions are still prosecuted as criminals.
Government individuals who perform illegal actions are still in government.
The world is upside-down
The 4th Amendment of the US Constitution prohibits programs like this.
Yet it persists and gains funding
The world is upside-down. //
JonKnowsNothing • November 27, 2023 11:50 AM
@Aaron
re: You missed the memo – along with millions of others
The 4th Amendment of the US Constitution prohibits programs like this
No, No, No it doesn’t – anymore.
A good number of years back, before the NSA lost control of the narrative, they used to claim they did everything according to the “commonly understood meaning” of the 4th amendment: Get a Warrant.
Once they began to lose control, they were confronted by their real usage of this amendment. There are videos of the debate with Gen Michael Hayden on this topic along with a laugh track at what he said. He said it plain and clear.
Gen Hayden is one smart guy and you never want to enter a debate with him.
-
The 4th states that “unreasonable” searches require a warrant
-
It does not say ALL searches require a warrant, only “unreasonable” ones
So, it was quite simple logic shift -
All searches are now “reasonable” and not “unreasonable”
-
All searches include “everything” the new definition of “relevant”
So the NSA, CIA, All USA Leas do not need a warrant unless they want to.
If they want to arrest someone and charge them with some crime, they will get a warrant via parallel construction for the courts. //
Aaron • November 27, 2023 6:29 PM
@JonKnowsNothing
I didn’t miss the memo
I served under Gen. “Porky the Pig” Hayden
The memo is an illegitimate power grab from a long line of 3 letter agencies that no longer serve the purpose in which they were commissioned for.
Expanded Homicide Data Table 8
Murder Victims
by Weapon, 2015–2019
The roadblocks detailed by Scott Brady were so outrageous that at one point a lawyer for the minority party asked whether he was speaking in hyperbole. He wasn’t. //
The situation Brady faced was also much worse than the media have reported to date, as the full transcript of the interview, reviewed by The Federalist, establishes. Here are the seven most shocking details revealed during Monday’s hearing.
Closed door testimony by former Pittsburgh US Attorney Scott Brady to the Judiciary Committee last week is a chilling case study of how credible corruption allegations against Joe Biden and his family were covered up by the FBI and DOJ — before and after the 2020 election.
Brady’s testimony fits a pattern revealed by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley last week, in which over 40 confidential human sources gave information to the FBI, over several years, about potential criminal activity involving the president, his brother James and son Hunter. //
On Jan. 3, 2020, Brady was tasked by then-AG Bill Barr to vet allegations about Biden corruption that had been pouring into the FBI and US attorney’s offices around the country, including from then-President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Since it was an election year, Barr thought it prudent to treat such information skeptically, so Brady’s job was to weed out the credible from the garbage before it reached the existing Hunter Biden investigation being run by the Delaware US attorney since 2018. //
But Brady’s team kept hitting obstruction from the FBI, and from prosecutors in Delaware.
For instance, Brady testified that the FBI required 17 higher-ups to sign off on requests, “mostly at the headquarters level” where there always was a “choke point” that caused delays.
The FBI didn’t even open the assessment until March 2020, and the process had to be renewed every 30 days, via this unprecedented 17-person signoff.
FBI agents “had to go pens down sometimes for two or three weeks at a time before they could re-engage and take additional steps because they were still waiting on, again, someone within the 17-chain signoff to approve,” Brady said.
He was forced to go to the deputy attorney general’s office repeatedly to clear the logjams — at least five or six times in nine months.
FBI HQ also refused Brady’s request for a copy of their Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, so he could pinpoint the deviations from procedure, and he was forced to scrounge a redacted copy from a public website.
In Delaware, Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf resisted all cooperation. Brady’s team’s requests for a briefing of what they had found were refused multiple times. //
When The Post broke the story of Hunter’s laptop, Brady said he was “surprised” that he had never been told that the FBI had the laptop in its possession.