On one level, I don't blame the Dynamic Duo for not wanting to show up. The trial of Laken Riley's murderer just wound up (Laken Riley's Family and Friends Give Heartbreaking Impact Statements; Judge Sentences Jose Ibarra), and I can understand why they don't want to talk about immigration. I can also understand that both of these guys know they are leaving office in the next couple of months, and they don't see any use in taking the public beating this hearing would entail.

Paradoxically, this move could boost Trump's upcoming showdown with the Department of Justice, DHS, and the FBI. They are showing themselves to be a pampered, privileged group that doesn't think they have to answer to even a senior senator in the ruling party. I predict this will not work out well when the hammer falls, and they come running to guys like Peters to make the pain go away.

The files are all exhibits to a motion filed in a defamation case in Florida related to the sex trafficking allegations levied against Gaetz - allegations the US Department of Justice investigated for 18 months before declining to pursue charges because, sources told the Washington Post, the two main witnesses weren't credible. Some of the exhibits, including deposition testimony from a woman who claims she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17, have been sealed by the judge presiding over that case. //

In reply to ABC's "story," Gaetz said:

"These allegations are invented and would constitute false testimony to Congress. This false smear following a three-year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism.". //

As I wrote back then, after Gaetz blistered Wray over the FBI's harassment of COVID whistleblower and Chinese defector Dr. Yan Li-Meng during a congressional hearing:

Is it any wonder that the entire Democrat/Media Complex is trying to destroy Matt Gaetz? Think about when the questions into his supposedly improper relationships with females started flooding the airwaves and which government organization is “investigating” Gaetz. I’m sure it’s all just a big coincidence and not an attempt to silence or intimidate Gaetz.

Gaetz was a highly effective member of Congress. Then all that changed with the publication of an anonymously sourced report accusing him of possibly being a child sex trafficker.

Early in his third presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed to establish a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to “declassify and publish all documents on Deep State spying, censorship, and abuses of power.” The phrase “Truth and Reconciliation” recalls bodies established to investigate abuses by toppled Communist regimes such as East Germany’s, or the former apartheid government of South Africa. The framing suggests that Trump views the entire past decade, from “Russiagate” to the “lawfare” cases entangling himself and his advisers, as the fruits of an illegitimate regime that threw the rule of law out the window.

This interpretation of recent history, surely viewed as partisan by Trump’s opponents, will be tested by the facts, once they become better known and documented. But the president-elect’s suggestion that the workings of the U.S. government must be more transparent is long overdue. //

It is high time for a serious overhaul of classification procedures, with the appointment of a presidential “task force” of the kind suggested in the Classification Reform for Transparency Act (which still awaits passage). President Obama’s Executive Order 13526 of 2009 limited classification times for ordinary records to 10 years and established a cap of 25 years for more sensitive files. But the nine telltale “exemptions” were left in place, allowing security agencies to continue stonewalling — while adding massively to the vault of our nation’s secrets.

If we streamline exemptions to a few simple categories such as “sources at risk,” private data of living citizens, and military-technological and trade secrets and shorten classification to a single presidential term of four years (e.g., to prevent an opposition party from mining recent presidential files for use in election campaigns), we could exponentially reduce the expense of classification going forward and restore public trust in Washington, D.C. — not least by putting a healthy fear into our public servants that they cannot abuse their powers and get away with it.

Meanwhile, why not declassify all U.S. government files more than 25 years old? If a strict exemption threshold is met, government agencies could still redact personal data or trade or military secrets — but the files themselves should be opened. Rather than require citizens and historians to pry information out of Washington via FOIA applications, the burden of classification should be placed where it belongs — on the government.

Files should be open to the public unless otherwise specified, not secret by default. We the people have a right to know what our government does in our name, and to know our own history.

The analyst claimed during a discussion with the Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) division of the FBI was using the tool to "search open-source databases about content indicative of criminal conduct."

“According to the analyst’s testimony, the FBI uses this tool to monitor social media posts by users, regardless of whether the users are American citizens or foreign actors, to search for ‘content indicative of criminal conduct,'” Jordan wrote. //

House Judiciary Committee Republicans posted a copy of the letter on X asking, "Was the FBI using a software tool to spy on you during election season?"

"Seems like it," they concluded. //

Americans will recognize this example of the FBI spreading its tentacles of election interference into social media and squeezing the hell out of free speech as the norm, not an exception.

They tipped the scales of the 2020 presidential election by intimidating Facebook and Twitter (now X) to censor stories regarding the New York Post's bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dropped jaws by admitting Facebook throttled information about the laptop scandal in the days leading up to that election thanks in part to the FBI coming to them with a message having all the subtleties of a mob boss meeting.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this new report involves the FBI sources who admit that they're worried about Elon Musk coming in and cleaning house as well.

Trump made a campaign promise vowing to create a government efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government. Musk would reportedly lead the effort.

One source tells the Times that cutting waste at the FBI will naturally lead to a massive reduction in staff, because the waste is everywhere in this partisan cesspool.

“When he tries to do efficiency at headquarters, the place is going to have five people … if he’s talking about a lot of dead weight,” they said, according to Picket.

“Try to find a person that’s actually working,” they continued, suggesting the FBI is clearly "bloated." //

pat
17 minutes ago
Those that agree to testify about FBI corruption, malfeasance and misfeasance and bring receipts, can stay.

According to Real Clear Investigations, which discovered the change, the new data represents a reversal from a 2.1 percent decrase to a 4.5 percent increase.

When the FBI originally released the “final” crime data for 2022 in September 2023, it reported that the nation’s violent crime rate fell by 2.1%. This quickly became, and remains, a Democratic Party talking point to counter Donald Trump’s claims of soaring crime.

But the FBI has quietly revised those numbers, releasing new data that shows violent crime increased in 2022 by 4.5%. The new data includes thousands more murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults.

For context, 2022 would be the second most recent year on record as 2024 data is not compiled yet. But if the FBI's data in that year was so off, why should anyone believe their 2023 data, which claims a three percent decrease in violent crime? Will that data be revised in the coming future as well? I think we can take a pretty guess at that one. //

It also couldn't be ignored that around 40 percent of police departments were no longer even sharing crime data with the FBI. That left the bureau increasingly relying on a questionable system of estimation to produce its published crime rates. //

The next thing someone may be wondering is if these revisions are normal. To put it simply, they aren't. Carl Moody, a professor at William and Mary College, looked into past years and found that no revisions happened between 2004 and 2015 while 2016 to 2020 saw only minute changes of less than one percent. It wasn't until Biden and Harris took office that the FBI started producing these massive revisions for 2021 and 2022 (and no doubt, eventually, 2023).

Sonia Purnell’s just released biography of Pamela Harriman, Kingmaker, attempts to be fairer to its subject than previous biographies. As the subtitle implies, Harriman led a “Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue,” and there is a lot in here about the subject’s early role as a courtesan. Whatever the details of that role, it was far in the past when I came to know and work with Ambassador Harriman on issues of international importance.

During my last four years in the FBI, I worked with dozens of U.S. ambassadors. I served as the Legal Attaché (“Legat” in Bureau jargon) at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. However, for the FBI and the DOJ, our office had wide regional responsibility. We handled the business of the Justice Department with 26 countries in Africa. So, I dealt with a wide variety of our ambassadors at posts large and small.

“Political” ambassadors are often criticized as dilettantes who buy their appointments with large campaign donations. They are contrasted with career ambassadors, who rise through the ranks of the State Department. I have quite a different impression. The political ambassadors, coming from various roles in American society, saw their mission as representing the United States as a whole, while career ambassadors narrowly protected the interests of the State Department, to the exclusion of other agencies.

When I was first assigned to the embassy in Paris, it was led by an ambassador who understood and valued what the FBI could do. Yes, she was a substantial fundraiser for President Bill Clinton, who appointed her, but she demonstrated a love for her adopted country. Pamela Churchill Harriman, a British-born aristocrat, had become the U.S. ambassador to France just months before my arrival in June 1994. //

That is how we happened to set up a luncheon for a group of federal judges.

At that luncheon, Thomas S. Ellis III, a federal district judge from the Eastern District of Virginia, discussed the World War II Normandy landings. Tom Ellis was recommending a new book. He mentioned a specific finding by the author, concerning a key Allied decision.

Ambassador Harriman responded, “No, that was Ike’s call.”

Judge Ellis persisted. “This author says …”

The ambassador: “Oh, no, Omar Bradley told me it was Ike’s call.”

A look of recognition came over Judge Ellis’s face: He realized he was in the presence of someone with firsthand knowledge of World War II.

Pamela Churchill Harriman was truly a remarkable woman. Once married to Winston Churchill’s only son and the mother of Churchill’s only grandson, she was in the room when many of the key decisions of World War II were made. For the next half century, she would continue to meet influential men, be they from London, Washington, or Hollywood. //

Thomas J. Baker is an international law enforcement consultant. He served as a FBI Special Agent for 33 years in a variety of investigative and management positions facing the challenges of crime and terrorism. He is the author of "The Fall of the FBI: How a Once Great Agency Became a Threat to Democracy."

The hearing will examine how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has used its security clearance adjudication process to purge its ranks of conservatives and whistleblowers, and unlawfully punish those with views contrary to FBI leadership.

The witnesses included DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt, FBI Whistleblower Marcus Allen, and former Assistant US Attorney Glenn Kirschner.

Marcus Allen, some may recall, is the former FBI Staff Operations Specialist who suffered retaliation by the agency after daring to question some of the agency's actions. He testified before the subcommittee in May of 2023 and recently (in June of 2024) received some vindication regarding his claims, reaching a settlement with the agency, though it appears his awarded back pay has yet to be disbursed to him. //

Despite the stress and uncertainty, I have never once regretted standing up for truth. In fact, I am actually grateful for the experience. If you do not worship God, then you will worship something else. You can either serve God or you can serve mammon, but you cannot serve both.

While we lost material items, we gained more important things. We have stored up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Matthew 6:20). Our faith has increased, and we have seen the hand of God move in our lives in unexpected ways. What we have gained has far outweighed what was lost.

John Adams noted that the framework of our country was built for a moral and religious people and unfit for the governance of any other. James Madison notes the duty to honor God is precedent both in order of time and degree of obligation to the claims of civil society. Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the universe. //

"This is a warning — to the American people, I say: I personally have no confidence that the FBI will rein in its own conduct. I have been persecuted, along with Garret (O'Boyle), Steve (Friend) and Kyle (Seraphin), and countless other whistleblowers. It is my opinion that the Bureau used reprisal and fear to control the workforce. It has been a seemingly effective tactic.

"I personally believe that there are no current, effective checks and balances against them conducting lawless action with any type of correction in a legitimate timeframe. I welcome the work of the IG, but I think any type of lawless action, there's no legitimate timeframe to rein them back in. Their ability to over-classify information can allow them to stonewall forever.

"To the American people, you have a duty as a citizen to vote, and I strongly urge you to do so. It's how you participate in the American experience. I know people have doubts about election integrity, but you must vote — it is your claim. Stake your claim, and don't forfeit it willingly. Have your voice heard.

"My other recommendations are in the natural order: First, vote. The second is the Second Amendment — arm yourself and know how to defend yourself. Make three to four friends in your neighborhood and promise to come to each other's mutual aid in times of hardship. And during the Great Depression, people stocked up a pantry. So, I think that's a good practice, especially in our economic times, to make sure you have three to four months of food. As a person of faith, I'd say pray the rosary, go to the First Friday devotions — that's for everybody, all my brothers and sisters of all faiths, and I know I'm Catholic — and read the Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and live it every day."

“On Friday, September 20, federal authorities executed search warrants at my residences. They took materials that came into my possession approximately 20 years ago and are unrelated to my work with the New York City Police Department,” the statement said. //

So what was Donlon doing 20 years ago? Working in counterterrorism for the FBI. //

Maximus Decimus Cassius
11 hours ago edited
One gets the sense that something rather significant is afoot. For now, we're left to wonder what exactly that might be.

If I may, the answer seems simple enough considering a possible Trump victory looming: Covering tracks, tying up loose ends, burying evidence and hiding proof of criminality. You know, typical FBI stuff. //

oldgimpy&cranky
11 hours ago
I would love to think this means the feebs are doing their proper job.

I have absolutely no faith, nor evidence that is the case and - at best - I suspect this is another "op" which is supposed to make us all swoon over the "Great, Good Work" the feebs have done for us.

Defund, downsize and move them out of DC.

late Friday afternoon came the announcement that the Department of Justice has formally settled the claims brought against it by former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, asserting that the release of their text exchanges in relation to the investigations into Hillary Clinton's emails and the "Russia Collusion" hoax regarding former President Donald Trump violated their privacy. //

Mary Katharine Ham
@mkhammer
·
Follow
A Friday night news dump F you. Brazen stuff. These people have no privacy on government devices. Their messages belong to us. The worse you behave, the more you get paid as long as it’s in service of the correct side. Disgraceful.
(((tedfrank)))
@tedfrank
Biden administration launders $1.2M payment to Peter Strzok (and likely a similar payment to Lisa Page) through settlement of likely-doomed lawsuit.
7:56 PM · Jul 26, 2024 //

That's right — our federal government will be dispensing $2 million in taxpayer dollars to settle claims by former government employees who exchanged messages on government-issued devices that the disclosure of said messages — which went directly to the heart of investigations in which they played critical roles — violated their privacy. //

Hans Mahncke
@HansMahncke
·
Follow
Strzok had no case. So the only way the Strzok payment makes any sense is that the Biden regime has started handing out hush money on its way out. Expect a lot more of this in the coming months.
10:42 PM · Jul 26, 2024 //

Right, so the government employees who played politics with the lives of the entire country bemoan playing politics when it affects them personally. Well, that's rich. And now, so are Page and Strzok.

Jason Foster
@JsnFostr
True,
@ChuckGrassley
is not intimidated by anyone.

Trust me. The
@FBI
has tried and is better at it than the
@SecretService
.

TL;DR Summary of one example — https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2014/f140331.pdf —

FBI: Senator, just want you to know that we know you are linked to a bad guy we’re investigating. Just a heads up.

Grassley: No I’m not, and what possible legit reason would you have to tell me that? Are you trying to intimidate me?

Inspector General: Hey FBI, Grassley’s right. That was totally not legit.

FBI: Y’all can go jump in a lake. We ain’t gonna discipline anyone. But we’ll talk internally and try not to be so stupid next time.
Susan Crabtree
Quote
Susan Crabtree
@susancrabtree
·
Jul 23
😂‼️NOW THIS IS GOOD. Apparently, @ChuckGrassley is not intimidated by the social media post circulating within the Secret Service community (both CURRENT and former agents and employees) that I posted about earlier and have attached below essentially telling @SpeakerJohnson and x.com/susancrabtree/…
Show more
9:50 PM · Jul 23, 2024

On Tuesday, journalist Julie Kelly posted court documents on X showing Special Counsel Jack Smith “admitted the FBI added cover sheets to alleged classified documents found at MAL and took photos for evidence.”

“This confirms my report from last month that the FBI doctored evidence to produce stunt photos of classified documents at [Mar-a-Lago],” Kelly said. //

The FBI purchased glossy cover sheets to use in photos of authorities’ unprecedented raid of former President Donald Trump. //

Prosecutors admitted to mishandling the evidence triggering the delay demanded by the judge which now threatens the possibility for Smith’s team to go to trial before the November election.

According to Kelly on Tuesday, the FBI’s colored cover sheets were included in “classified discovery” implicating prosecutors’ desire to keep the details of the added documents concealed from the public.

“The FBI brought colored classified cover sheets to the raid under the guise of using them to substitute classified documents found within Trump’s boxes,” Kelly wrote on X. “Instead, FBI agents attached the scary looking sheets to various files and took photos.”

The images published by prosecutors became emblematic of the former president’s apparent irresponsibility illustrated from the raid.

Chris A
6 hours ago
“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle.”

They're getting you to focus on the wrong things.
Misdirection has always been the name of the Deep State's game.

The story here is not that Max Boot is disgusting (he is) or that he was targeted for marriage (my speculation because Terry is definitely out of the league of women Boot was used to playing in) by Terry because his position at the Post gave her propaganda greater reach and her more Vuitton bags. The real story is how this happened. How long has the FBI known of Terry's side gig? Did anyone at the Washington Post have any curiosity or qualms about the op-eds he was co-writing with his wife? And when did Boot, the spy-catcher of Trump's first term, discover that his wife was a foreign agent of influence?

 What happened on Sunday goes beyond protesting. This, and not moms going to school board meetings to demand that they be included in decisions about their children's education, is domestic terrorism, as defined by the FBI:

"Domestic Terrorism for the FBI’s purposes is referenced in U.S. Code at 18 U.S.C. 2331(5), and is defined as activities: Involving acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; Appearing to be intended to: Intimidate or coerce a civilian population; Influence the policy of government by intimidation or coercion; or Affect the conduct of a government ... //

What occurred Sunday is also not an isolated incident; since the November 2023 murder of a Jewish man, Paul Kessler, in nearby Thousand Oaks by pro-Hamas agitator Loay Alnaji during a so-called protest there have been violent demonstrations throughout Southern California by a coordinated group of terroristic, antisemitic thugs. Alnaji's Muslim Student Association group at Moorpark College proudly attends some of these intimidation rallies around Los Angeles, and we know that there is coordination going on nationwide. That makes this a federal issue that should be vigorously investigated by the US Department of Justice, but they're instead worrying about prosecuting pro-life grandmas who protest outside abortion clinics and doubling down on political intimidation by continuing to work to identify and indict Americans who were exercising their First Amendment rights on January 6. //

The public must know who has been calling the shots and who's been telling law enforcement officers to stand down and allow domestic terrorism to flourish. If it's been politicians calling the shots, that practice must end. Police chiefs need to know that they have the authority to do their jobs without political interference, and the Jewish community needs the reassurance that they will be protected.

Yet, the Bureau’s involvement in concocting terrorist plots and other violent schemes only to arrest those involved has been an open secret over recent decades. This practice, which appears aimed more at justifying the agency’s existence and funding than protecting the public, raises serious ethical and legal questions – especially since such practice typically results in the violation of rights. //

Mongoose
5 hours ago
There's actually a really simple legislative fix for this, which Mr. Friend sort of mentions. And it might be popular, even in both parties. I could see both sides getting on board.
Entrapment is an affirmative defense - you have to admit you did the act, but you're saying there's a legitimate excuse; you were entrapped by the government. There are two kinds of entrapment defenses, subjective and objective. Subjective, which is the one federal law and court decisions recognize at the federal level and in most states, relies on the mindset of the defendant, particularly his "predisposition to commit the offense." ...
...
Objective entrapment is wholly focused on the government's conduct and answering a basic question: Did law enforcement use tactics that would induce a reasonable, law-abiding person to commit the crime? Not the defendant, a "reasonable, law-abiding person." The classic example is an undercover drug agent who goes up to a known heroin dealer and offers to buy a bag for $100. The dealer says no. The undercover says, "How about $100,000?" That's objective entrapment because even a reasonable, law-abiding person might go for a deal like that. His predisposition is irrelevant.
So, go to Congress and have them legislate the objective standard into federal law, and all this FBI entrapment (which it is) crap goes away. I worked undercover at the federal level and in a state that used the objective standard and believe me, you have to be a lot more careful about what you say and do under the objective standard. I didn't mind; I wanted to make a good, solid case, so I didn't cross the line. But it would definitely slow the FBI way down.

Kristi Hamrick, vice president of Media and Policy for Students for Life of America, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the government is “not prosecuting the crime, they’re just prosecuting the point of view.”

The message is clear: If you are against abortion, then the government is against you – at least under the Biden administration.

The communications between Plaintiff and the Government Attorney took place, not on personal devices, but on Department-issued mobile devices, which contained clear banner warnings that inform users of the lack of any reasonable expectation of privacy. Id. //

(I've often wondered about that — Strzok and Page had to know their carrying-on was on department-issued devices. Perhaps they were so confident in their righteousness that they assumed they'd never be questioned or called to account — which is troubling in its own right.) //

jtt888
6 hours ago
I can't imagine using my company device and believe I had privacy. This was a payoff. They did their job and now they get paid.

anon-td49
8 hours ago
And the deal includes a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Perfect.

It’s a dry heat
9 hours ago edited
Just to be clear, including a provision in the direction for conducting the search warrant specifically authorizing heavily armed men to use deadly force is not deemed by Smith as creating "a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger" to a former President and his family is perfectly okay; but for Trump to recite verbatim this authorization to use deadly force against him and his family somehow creates an intolerable risk to Smith and his goons? That's the argument? Oh please, someone play some tiny violin music while Smith cowers against the possibility that the FBI threat to kill Trump might make some people mad.

Smith should include in his request that Trump not make mention of the fact the FBI staged that infamous photo of the so-called classified material that it recovered. When I read that it made me really mad.