Free Republic

The curiously sketchy case against six accused people in the FBI organized plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer took another hit to the case credibility on Monday, as the lead FBI Special Agent was arrested on domestic violence charges. This latest issue comes less than a week after court filings showed twelve embedded FBI operatives were involved in the suspicious plot that culminated in the arrest of six individuals {Go Deep}. (Detroit News) – […] FBI Special Agent Richard Trask, 39, of Kalamazoo [pictured left on Instagram], was charged Monday with assault with intent to do great bodily harm,...

An FBI agent who shot a fellow passenger onboard a Washington, DC, Metro train line in December was arrested on Tuesday for attempted murder, prosecutors announced. Eduardo Valdivia was indicted with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, use of a firearm and reckless endangerment charges, Montgomery County Circuit Court records show. Judge Joan Ryon ordered Valdivia to be released on personal bond, and he must turn over all his firearms and his passport. A plea was not entered. Valdivia's attorney Robert Bonsib told CNN over the phone Tuesday that the charges in the indictment are "very unfortunate and ill founded." Valdivia,...

A warrant, detailing how a dozen FBI officers ended up raiding a spa in Alaska under false pretenses, has been released. The story first came to major national attention after an interview with Paul and Marilyn Hueper, whose home and business was raided last week in an apparent case of mistaken identity. The 38 page document, below, reveals how poor a job the FBI did in identifying a woman they say was in Speaker Pelosi’s office on the afternoon of January 6th, 2021. In summary, the warrant appears to rely on Marilyn Hueper wearing a black coat and having brunette...

A congressman who was on the baseball field during the 2017 shooting that nearly killed GOP Whip Steve Scalise says the FBI privately informed lawmakers it ruled the attack a "suicide by cop," a designation he said downplayed the shooter's apparently political motivation. Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) revealed the previously undisclosed determination during a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, upbraiding FBI Director Christopher Wray and prompting several colleagues of both parties to pile on. He said FBI agents privately briefed the baseball team on Nov. 16, 2017 to deliver the controversial determination. “Much to our shock that...

The man accused of trying to extort $25 million from Rep. Matt Gaetz’s family admitted Monday that he asked the congressman’s dad for cash — but denied that it was a shakedown. Bob Kent, an ex-Air Force intelligence officer, confirmed to Sirius Radio host Michael Smerconish that he approached the Florida Republican’s dad, Don Gaetz, for money last month. The funds, Kent said, were to pay for an effort to free Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007, and is believed to be dead. Kent claimed he has video evidence that Levinson is still alive...

WASHINGTON — The Virginia National Guard has approximately 2,400 personnel on the ground in Washington, DC. As thousands more National Guard troops from around the country take up their posts in the nation's capitol, some officials have expressed concern. U.S. defense officials, including Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, have warned National Guard commanders to be on the lookout for any potential inside threats from servicemembers involved in securing President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. During the deadly Jan. 6 pro-Trump insurrection at the US Capitol, there were at least some former military members among the rioters, including a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel...

A new report claims that the Federal Bureau of Investigation knew one day prior that extremists were planning to infiltrate the Jan. 6 protests in Washington, D.C., that ended in rioting at the U.S. Capitol. According to The Washington Post, a report from the FBI office in Norfolk, Virginia, contradicts claims that there had been no warnings of the violence that seemed to take Capitol police by surprise. The FBI warning was reportedly contained in an “internal document” that was issued out the day before the Capitol incursion. “As of 5 January 2021, FBI Norfolk received information indicating calls for...

The Senate Judiciary Committee released a declassified document Friday that shows former FBI agent Peter Strzok knew that a February 2017 article in the New York Times suggesting Russia “collusion” was false in almost every respect. The document includes Strzok’s digital annotations on a Times article, “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence,” which claimed that former and current U.S. “officials” had alleged that “members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials.” Strzok added a note in the margins: “This statement is misleading and inaccurate as...

Gangland serial slayer James "Whitey" Bulger was killed shortly after being moved to a high-security federal prison in West Virginia, the Herald has confirmed. Bulger, 89, was convicted in 2013 of being complicit in 11 murders in Massachusetts, Florida and Oklahoma. His attorney, Hank Brennan, who tried to appeal Bulger's life sentence all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, declined comment pending notification by the Bureau of Prisons. Bulger arrived at USP Hazelton yesterday. He was found unresponsive at 8:20 this morning, according to a statement from the Bureau of Prisons, which provided no other details. "Life-saving measures were...

In a combative exchange at a hearing Friday in Washington, D.C., a federal judge unabashedly accused career State Department officials of lying and signing "clearly false" affidavits to derail a series of lawsuits seeking information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server and her handling of the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth said he was "shocked" and "dumbfounded" when he learned that FBI had granted immunity to former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills during its investigation into the use of Clinton's server, according to a...

US agency faces questions after records show Lulzsec leader Hector Monsegur, who was informant at time, helped attack that closed UK sites The FBI is facing questions over its role in a 2011 hacking attack on Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper in the UK after the publication of chat logs showed that a man acting as an agency informant played a substantial role in the operation. chat records show Monsegur encouraging others to break further into News International systems, claiming to have sources at the Sun, and even apparently helping to break staff’s passwords and to source files for stealing. Monsegur...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Seven current and former police officers, an FBI agent and a network of attorneys and mortgage brokers are accused of orchestrating a multimillion dollar mortgage fraud in South Florida. Thirteen were arrested Wednesday after a federal grand jury indictment was unsealed. It alleges the group falsified documents to secure $16.5 million in loans to buy and flip properties at the height of the real estate boom.

(Washington, D.C.) – The following is a statement from Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) in reaction to today’s announcement by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that it had agreed to pay former Army biowarfare expert Dr. Steven Hatfill $5.8 million in a settlement related to the FBI’s previously naming Hatfill a “person of interest” in the investigation of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks on the United States. The attacks originated from a postal box in Holt’s central New Jersey congressional district, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of many of his constituents: “As today’s settlement announcement confirms, this case was botched from...