Emails sent to an FBI ombudsman by anonymous employees of the Bureau offer a stunning look inside the culture of the nation’s top domestic intelligence, security, and law enforcement agency charged with investigating federal crimes.
After the FBI’s execution of a lawful search warrant on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and residence in 2022, some Bureau employees bitterly complained to the ombudsman, who forwarded their anonymous comments to the Bureau’s top brass.
“Did this really just happen? Am I dreaming? The FBI served a Search Warrant on a former president? The news is saying it’s about documents. Did this really just happen?” wrote one employee confidentially, as Bloomberg News‘ Jason Leopold reports after obtaining the emails through a rigorous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
SCOOP: 2nd edition of my weekly newsletter, FOIA Files, is out (SUBSCRIBE!), based on FBI docs related to the classified docs Trump took to MAL & how the Aug 2022 search roiled some of FBI’s rank & file
(Crossfire Hurricane was the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Russia and the Trump 2016 presidential campaign, which was designed to determine if the campaign had been knowingly or unknowingly working to support Russia’s efforts to interfere in the election to help place Trump in the White House.)
That employee apparently was unaware of the extensive efforts and negotiations the National Archives had undertaken to regain possession of what became the 13,097 items recovered during the execution of the search warrant. Those items, removed from the Trump White House, included hundreds of documents marked with various levels of classification, including top secret documents and nuclear secrets.
“If he took documents, give him a call and ask for them back. Like… Seriously? My own agency…. A bunch of democrat political hacks up top,” the employees email continued. “I don’t know how many but they may have lost one here. Is there any plan from leadership to explain these absurd actions? I no longer believe we have real PC based on Crossfire Hurricane and everything else I’ve seen to include targeting parents based on the AG’s letter.”
“They need to explain their embarrassment of the Bu. That used to be a mortal sin. Please convey this message. They owe our workforce an explanation of their overt political antics.”
That was just one of several angry and ill-informed emails published by Bloomberg News.
Another FBI employee was even harsher, characterizing the bureau as a âBanana Republicâ and an âembarrassment,â and demanding answers to a series of questions.
“Taken as a whole, the FBI documents reveal the most detailed view yet of the raw hostility erupting inside an agency that has been in a state of near-constant turmoil ever since June 2015, when Trump rode a gold escalator down to the lobby of the tower that bears his name to announce the start of his presidential campaign,” Leopold writes.
“Rumors have long swirled that FBI agents at various field offices had been sympathetic to Trump even as the bureau launched investigations into his campaign and his business dealings. The claims were always attributed to anonymous sources. An email I obtained last year after a separate FOIA lawsuit related to the Jan. 6 Capital riots backs up those assertions,” Leopold adds.
â’Thereâs no good way to say it,’ read the email to deputy director Abbate. ‘So Iâll just be direct: from my first-hand and second-hand information from conversations since January 6th there is, at best, a sizable percentage of the employee population that felt sympathetic to the group that stormed the Capitol and said it was no different than the BLM protests of last summer,’ the person wrote a week after the [Jan. 6] riots.”
That same agent continued, writing that a retired FBI senior analyst “has a Facebook page full of #StoptheSteal content.”
He “went on to summarize his view of the climate at FBI offices based on his conversations with his colleagues. Agents, especially those who work counterterrorism cases, he said, sympathized with the insurrectionistsâ ‘frustration’ and chalked it up to ‘everyone having been quarantined at home for months’ due to COVID, losing their jobs and ‘fake news,’ for example.”
The Bloomberg News report comports with revelations from one year ago that FBI agents were vehemently opposed to executing the Mar-a-Lago search warrant.
The Washington Post last March reported, “two senior FBI officials who would be in charge of leading the search resisted the plan as too combative and proposed instead to seek Trumpâs permission to search his property, according to the four people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive investigation.”
“Prosecutors ultimately prevailed in that dispute, one of several previously unreported clashes in a tense tug of war between two arms of the Justice Department over how aggressively to pursue a criminal investigation of a former president. The FBI conducted an unprecedented raid on Aug. 8, recovering more than 100 classified items, among them a document describing a foreign governmentâs military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities.”
See the social media posts with copies of the emails above or at this link.
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Less than one week after being pummeled for praising college students mocking a Black woman by making monkey sounds, a sitting U.S. Congressman is once again being criticized, this time for “joking” about the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, amid news about presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, Republican of Georgia, last week posted a video on the social media site X, which appeared to show college students at the University of Mississippi, “Old Miss,” taunting a Black woman protestor by making money sounds, a longtime racist trope. They also called her “Lizzo,” and chanted, “lock her up.”
Congressman Collins commented on the video, writing: “Ole Miss taking care of business.”
Outrage was strong, coming from social media users and even the White House. The NAACP called for Collins to be investigated by the House Ethics Committee.
âWhich part is your favorite, Mike?â asked Fred Wellman, the former executive director of The Lincoln Project. âIs it the white kid acting like a monkey at the black woman or the white security guy acting like sheâs a threat? Iâm trying to figure out which flavor of racism has you all excited the most?â
Collins finally issued a statement on his remarks, but neither apologized nor removed his post, as Popular Information reported.
On Wednesday, the Georgia GOP lawmaker, responded to news that RFK Jr., as The Washington Post reported, had “contracted a parasitic worm that got into his brain years ago and ate a portion of it before dying.”
“You either die a Kennedy with a hole in the brain or live long enough to become a Kennedy with a hole in the brain,” Collins posted to his official government account on X.
You either die a Kennedy with a hole in the brain or live long enough to become a Kennedy with a hole in the brain.
â Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) May 8, 2024
Former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), now running for the U.S. Senate, scolded Collins: “TIL [Today I Learned] this is an actual congressman, not a parody account. Iâd seen some of the posts and honestly thought it was trying to portray an exaggerated version of an awful congressman.”
David Simon, the well-known author, journalist, screenwriter, and producer, observed, “There is a vast universe in which we can joke robustly about RFK Jr. asserting a brainworm problem without ever going anywhere near the sick, soulless void where this gutter trash wants to enjoy a laugh.”
Retired Naval Intelligence Officer Travis Akers said, “This is the most disgraceful post I have ever seen from a sitting member of Congress. Absolutely ghoulish and repugnant.”`
Author and well-known political commentator Charlie Sykes wrote simply, “You, sir, are really a sick fuq.”
Journalist Ron Fournier wrote: “Cruelty is the brand.”
Political strategist and mass shooting survivor Parker Krex responded, “Gun violence is never, and should never, be a punchline. Embarrassing.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is promoting new legislation to make it illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections, despite an existing law that does just that.
After his joint press conference last month with ex-president Donald Trump on “election integrity,” the embattled Speaker is teaming up with former top Trump official Stephen Miller, the architect of the previous administration’s family separation policy that led to thousands of immigrant children being ripped apart from their parents and siblings. Other Trump orbit guests present included Cleta Mitchell, Ken Cuccinelli, and Hogan Gidley (full video below).
.@SpeakerJohnson appearing on steps of the Capitol with conservatives including Stephen Miller, Cleta Mitchell and Ken Cuccinelli on their election bill to prevent non-citizens from voting â something already illegal. pic.twitter.com/sqBOuJGzBn
Johnson, now fending off a small but loud faction of his conference threatening to oust him, on Wednesday held a press event on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to promote his Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
“We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections. But it’s not been something that’s easily provable. We don’t have that number,” Johnson falsely told reporters.
Speaker Mike Johnson: “We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections. But it’s not been something that’s easily provable. We don’t have that number.”
Commenting on Johnson’s remarks that  “intuitively” we know that “a lot of illegals are voting,” Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, wrote: “It’s already very, very illegal. Many systems in place. Punishment including jail or deportation. That Cleta Mitchell, a conspirator (on ‘find 11,000 votes’ call) & Stephen Miller stood there says it all. It’s the Big Lie in legislative form.”
“There isnât any indication that noncitizens vote in significant numbers in federal elections or that they will in the future. Itâs already a crime for them to do so. And we know itâs not a danger because various states have examined their rolls and found very few noncitizen voters.”
Calling “cases of noncitizens casting ballots…extremely rare,” the AP added: “Those who have looked into these cases say they often involve legal immigrants who mistakenly believe they have the right to vote.”
“If a nefarious actor wants to intervene in our elections all they have to do is check a box on a form and sign their name, that’s it, that’s all that’s required,” Johnson continued, while not disclosing known facts.
“Itâs a federal crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections,” the Brennan Center for Justice reported last month. “Itâs also a crime under every stateâs laws. In fact, under federal law, you could face up to five years in prison simply for registering to vote. Itâs also a deportable offense for noncitizens to register or vote. And sure, people make bad decisions and commit crimes all the time. But this one is different: by committing the crime, you create a government record of your having committed it. In fact, itâs the creation of the government record â the registration form or the ballot cast â that is the crime. So, youâve not only exposed yourself to prison time and deportation, youâve put yourself on the governmentâs radar, and youâve handed the government the evidence it needs to put you in prison or deport you. All so you could cast one vote. Who would do such a thing?”
Johnson went on to falsely claim that “Joe Biden has welcomed millions and millions of illegal aliens â we think the number, I believe the number is probably close to at this point 16 million illegals who have come into this country since Joe Biden walked into the Oval Office.”
Claiming there are “sophisticated criminal syndicates and agents of adversarial governments, here, in our borders, and even on humanitarian parole,” Johnson said:Â “And that means the millions that have been paroled can simply go to their local welfare office or the DMV, and register to vote here.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson claims non US citizens voting in elections is a âclear and present dangerâ to integrity of election system pic.twitter.com/V68oTERUgL
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, the policy director for the American Immigration Council, noted, “multiple state governments have engaged in large-scale efforts in recent years to find evidence of noncitizen voting, and in every single case haven’t been able to find more than a tiny handful of cases, usually a few dozen or less, spread out over years.”
Watch the full video of Speaker Johnson’s event below and clips above, or all at this link.
The Georgia Court of Appeals has agreed to take up Donald Trump’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case in her RICO prosecution of the ex-president for election interference.
Legal experts were quick to declare this will delay the trial so far that it’s likely it will not take place before the November election. The news comes less than one day after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, announced she was postponing the Espionage Act/classified documents trial indefinitely.
Professor of law, MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst Joyce Vance posted the Georgia court’s order and her initial response.
The Georgia Court of Appeals has agreed to hear an appeal from defendants over whether the judge erred when he ruled that Fani Willis could remain on the Trump RICO prosecution in Fulton County. This pushes that trial further off, likely beyond the election. pic.twitter.com/F1gXIfwI5E
“It is entirely possible that the Manhattan case is the only one that makes it to verdict before the election,” Moss added, pointing to the current falsification of business records, hush money, and election interference case prosecuted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“Georgia and the MAL docs cases are almost certainly delayed at this point,” he continued, referring to the Mar-a-Lago Espionage Act/classified documents case. “The DC election fraud case hinges on how and when SCOTUS rules. It is possible but by no means certain that the Fall campaign could see that trial take place. Or it could remain bogged down in legal fights too.”
Georgia State University College of Law constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis put it bluntly: “There will be no Georgia trial before 2025. Period. Full stop.”
But he also offered more insight.
“Itâll be a summer of Willis and Wade,” wrote Kreis, referring to Willis’ special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who had a romantic relationship with Willis and resigned after a judge ruled Willis could remain on the case if she corrected certain issues. “Whether the appeals court is more interested in the relationship and the underlying conflict claim or the issue of forensic misconduct over the church speech Willis made in response to the disqualification motionâ or bothâ remains to be seen.”
But Kreis also attempted to tamp down negative reaction to the Georgia Appeals Court’s decision.
“For everyone complaining about the Fulton County case appeal, let me just say that our Georgia Court of Appeals has incredibly smart, hard-working, and serious judges. They are good and decent folks by and large. So cool it on your hot takes and conspiracy theories there.”
Meanwhile, former federal prosecutor of 30 years, Glenn Kirschner offers some small hope to those wanting to see the trial move forward.
“Judge McAfee said the case will keep moving forward EVEN IF the appeals court grants review,” Kirschner wrote.
Judge McAfee vowed to “continue addressing the many other unrelated pending pretrial motions, regardless of whether the petition is granted within 45 days of filing, and even if any subsequent appeal is expedited by the appellate court.”
Yes, the Georgia Court of Appeals has agreed to review Judge McAfeeâs ruling that DA Willis is not disqualified from the RICO prosecution of Trump & his co-conspirators. But recall, Judge McAfee said the case will keep moving forward EVEN IF the appeals court grants review.âŹïž pic.twitter.com/eLaYv2QMUV
â Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) May 8, 2024