Free Republic

The following letter by Bill Donohue is in response to the Inspector General’s report on the FBI probe of Catholics: April 24, 2024 Hon. Jim Jordan Chairman House Committee on the Judiciary 2056 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515-3504 Dear Chairman Jordan: After issuing a news release on April 19, the day after news stories broke on the FBI’s internal probe of Analysts involved in the investigation of Catholics, I had a chance to read Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on this issue. While he satisfied some of our concerns, serious issues remain. Horowitz begins by noting that the...

The U.S. Department of Justice's Inspector General Michael Horowitz maintains that the FBI did not commit any wrongdoing or demonstrate hostility toward religion by circulating an internal document warning about connections between "racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists" and "radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology." Horowitz submitted a report to several committees of U.S. Congress Thursday. The document looks into the "actions and events, including any underlying policy direction" that served as the basis for the FBI Richmond Field Office circulating a memo in January 2023 addressing a purported link between "Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVEs) and 'Radical Traditionalist Catholic (RTC)'...

The FBI trained personnel on countering extremism with material from the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), according to former special agent turned whistleblower Steve Friend. In an interview with the Tennessee Informer last month, Friend recalled his experience at the FBI Academy in 2014: “We were shown a video that was produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center.” The film, Friend said, “ranked people who oppose abortion, pro-life activists, as a greater threat than Islamists.” “I don’t know if they still show that,” Friend added, “but that’s what we were shown.” The FBI still relies on SPLC material a...

The FBI is attempting to rehabilitate the public image of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as Congress has until April 19 to reauthorize it. The bureau recently posted a video to X that features FBI Director Christopher Wray attempting to put a gloss on Section 702 as part of this monthslong campaign. The bureau's timely propaganda did not escape the attention of critics on X, where the post received a community note that read, "The FBI violated American citizens' 4A rights 278,000 times with illegal, unauthorized FISA 702 searches." Among the critics was Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah),...

"It's just an effort to keep everybody safe and make sure nobody has any ill will," he claimed.The FBI spends "every day, all day long" interrogating people over their Facebook posts. At least, that's what agents told Stillwater, Oklahoma, resident Rolla Abdeljawad when they showed up at her house to ask her about her social media activity. Three FBI agents came to Abdeljawad's house and said that they had been given "screenshots" of her posts by Facebook. Her lawyer Hassan Shibly posted a video of the incident online on Wednesday. Abdeljawad told agents that she didn't want to talk and...

Anyone else enjoy watching their taxpayer dollars be set on fire? THAT RATIO! These three "fugitives" were charged with "impeding certain officers" and "aiding and abetting" and "theft of government property"... ...along with disorderly conduct and unlawful entry charges. The three had skipped town and failed to appear for their court dates. I'm not saying that's the best idea, but if you're watching a systematic witch hunt where the regime is giving people 10-year sentences for shaking fences and other such nonsense (or else they throw you into a dark hole for 3 years without trial), you might be prone...

New bodycam video shows arrest of Trump 2020 aide and Georgia co-defendant Harrison Floyd

FBI Director Christopher Wray delivered a full-throated defense of a powerful spy authority on Tuesday, invoking the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and warning lawmakers that a watered-down surveillance program could leave the agency paralyzed to respond to threats. “What could anybody possibly say to victims’ families if there was another attack that we could have prevented if we hadn’t given away the ability to effectively use a tool,” Wray told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Because let’s not fool ourselves. That’s what’s at stake with the reauthorization,” he said. Wray escalated his rhetoric as Congress this week considers...

The Biden administration has chosen a location for a new FBI headquarters in Maryland, the General Services Administration confirmed Wednesday, as the suburban Washington location was selected over nearby Virginia following a sharp competition between the two states. The site is planned for Greenbelt, about 13 miles (20 kilometers) northeast of Washington. "GSA looks forward to building the FBI a state-of-the-art headquarters campus in Greenbelt to advance their critical mission for years to come," Robin Carnahan, the GSA administrator, said. "Thank you to everyone at GSA, DOJ, FBI, Congress, and others who helped reach this important milestone after a comprehensive,...

“There’s literally been no explanation,” Pearsons said. “I think you have to assume that it’s the simplest explanation, and I think, unfortunately, the simplest explanation is they took it or lost it.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The nonprofit law firm Institute for Justice has filed two lawsuits on behalf of clients who allege that the FBI failed to return valuable rare coins and other property it took during a March 2021 FBI raid on the Beverly Hills–based U.S. Private Vaults. “We don’t know for sure how the property disappeared, we just know it disappeared,” Joe Gay, an attorney with the Institute for Justice,...

An FBI special agent involved in the Hunter Biden probe told the House Judiciary Committee that they did not believe politics were involved in decision-making during the federal investigation into President Biden’s son, according to testimony reviewed by Fox News Digital. The FBI agent participated in a transcribed interview behind closed doors Monday. Fox News Digital has reviewed a copy of the transcript of that testimony and agreed not to identify the agent. The interview comes amid the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into the probe after IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley alleged that prosecutorial decisions throughout the Hunter Biden probe were...

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States-led coalition, the United States Department of Defense released a set of playing cards with the names and faces of the most-wanted Iraqi members of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s government, including high-ranking members of his Baath Party and family members including his two sons. (snip) Jim Hoft: That’s really big, Eric. I hadn’t heard. Okay. But these cards, it’s reminiscent of the Iraq playing cards that the FBI created during the Iraq War, and those were, of course, the enemies of America at the time, and they put out all these...

Emails obtained by the Heritage Foundation following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, and shared exclusively with The Federalist, reveal that lies leaked to The New York Times about the origins of damning evidence implicating Hunter and Joe Biden in a bribery scandal were fed to Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss. As I previously detailed, The New York Times reported those lies in its Dec. 11, 2020, article, “Material from Giuliani Spurred a Separate Justice Depart. Pursuit of Hunter Biden” — just a week after Americans first learned of the investigation of the now-president’s son. The Times’ reporting was...

Sworn FBI testimony in the trial of the men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer has revealed that the FBI played such an integral role in hatching the alleged plot that they even trained the men to kidnap the Governor. An undercover FBI informant trained men to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, according to the sworn testimony of FBI agent Henrick Impola, which came as part of the ongoing trial of three men who are accused, along with eleven others, of plotting to kidnap the Michigan Governor. The alleged plot to kidnap Whitmer was “busted” less than a...

A decision over the future FBI headquarters could be announced in coming weeks, the News4 I-Team has learned, capping off years of discussions over the fate of the dilapidated J. Edgar Hoover building in downtown D.C. A three-member voting panel, comprised of two General Services Administration employees and one FBI employee whose identities are secret, are evaluating three suburban sites: Greenbelt and Landover in Maryland, and Springfield, Virginia

We are seeing a pattern here. Here is the timeline after the 2017 KSU election hacks in Georgia. A FOIA document revealed the FBI never investigated the hacks and turned on the whistleblowers instead. One of the most detailed examples of the FBI’s failure to investigate election fraud involves Georgia and KSU. Until a few years ago, Kennesaw State University ran the election servers for the State of Georgia. In early 2017 they were hacked, and the FBI was brought in. The FBI purposely shelved their investigation shortly after they opened it.

U.S. is sending FBI to Ecuador to help probe presidential candidate’s killing

On Tuesday, the FBI handed over requested documents on its efforts to target Catholic Americans after another threat from Congress to hold director Christopher Wray in contempt. As reported by the New York Post, Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, had subpoenaed the files in question and threatened to hold Wray in contempt of Congress if the documents were not delivered by the deadline of July 25th. The documents that are now in the possession of the Judiciary Committee also deal with the FBI’s plans to crack down on the grassroots protest movement led by conservative...

FBI officials improperly searched a foreign intelligence database for information on a U.S. Senator, a state senator and a state judge, according to an unsealed court opinion released Friday. The improper queries of the surveillance collection tool, which allegedly occurred last year -- could further roil an ongoing push by the Biden Administration to have the Section 702 program reauthorized before it is set to expire by the end of this year. The disclosures come even as the FBI said it has reported significant improvements in oversight to help curb further abuse of what intelligence officials argue is an essential...

@RepThomasMassie According to FBI whistleblowers, Bank of America shared private financial information of its customers (such as who had made purchases at gun stores) with the FBI, without a warrant or legal process. @Jim_Jordan and I are now demanding to know if other banks are doing the same.