Tag Archives: FBI

The New York Times reports: Attorney General William P. Barr sharply criticized on Monday the F.B.I.’s decision to open the Russia investigation, undercutting a major finding in a long-awaited watchdog report and at the same time showing his willingness to act as President Trump’s vocal defender. The report, by the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, found that the …

CNBC reports: The Department of Justice’s internal watchdog on Monday released its long-awaited report on the FBI’s decision to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, including its surveillance of a then-Trump campaign aide. Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that there was a proper legal basis for the FBI to seek a surveillance warrant against Carter Page, a former …

“It’s like being punched in the gut. My heart drops to my stomach when I realize he has tweeted about me again. The president of the United States is calling me names to the entire world. He’s demeaning me and my career. It’s sickening. But it’s also very intimidating because he’s still the president of the United States. “And when …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department’s inspector general found no evidence that the F.B.I. attempted to place undercover agents or informants inside Donald J. Trump’s campaign in 2016 as agents investigated whether his associates conspired with Russia’s election interference operation, people familiar with a draft of the inspector general’s report said. The determination by the inspector general, Michael …

The New York Times reports: A highly anticipated report by the Justice Department’s inspector general is expected to sharply criticize lower-level F.B.I. officials as well as bureau leaders involved in the early stages of the Trump-Russia investigation, but to absolve the top ranks of abusing their powers out of bias against President Trump, according to people briefed on a draft. …

Mediaite reports:  President Donald Trump attacked the “absolute scum” in the FBI and “embarrassment” Jeff Sessions in a new interview with former White House assistant Sebastian Gorka. The friendly interview, which appears in Gorka’s new book, The War For America’s Soul — released this week — was also published by the Daily Caller on Thursday. “How are we doing, Mr. …

ABC News reports: The FBI has arrested a U.S. soldier who allegedly discussed plans to bomb a major American news network, planned to travel to Ukraine to fight with violent far-right group Azov Battalion and allegedly distributed information online on how to build bombs. He also allegedly suggested targeting Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. According to charging documents in the …

Recode reports: Federal investigators are probing the conduct and practices of Mithril Capital, a venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, Recode has learned. US officials — including the FBI — have in recent months questioned some people close to Mithril regarding concerns of possible financial misconduct at the firm, according to people familiar with the matter who insisted on …

CNN reports: When authorities arrived Friday to arrest a 15-year-old in Florida after threats to commit a school shooting showed up on a video game platform, he told them he was joking, they said. “I Dalton Barnhart vow to bring my fathers m15 to school and kill 7 people at a minimum,” the boy wrote using a fake name. The …

The Miami News Times reports: Washington state resident Eric Lin was not shy about his love for Adolf Hitler. According to a criminal complaint filed Friday, Lin enjoyed referencing the Third Reich in writing: He apparently sent a litany of Hitler-referencing death threats to a Hispanic woman in Miami and got himself arrested last week after he planned to wire …

The Associated Press reports: A truck driver has been arrested after saying he would commit a mass shooting at a church in Memphis, Tennessee, authorities say in newly filed court records. Thomas Matthew McVicker was apprehended in Indianapolis before the plan could be carried out, according to court papers filed Monday. It’s the most recent case in a string of …

The Washington Post reports: When federal agents arrived at Farhan Sheikh’s Chicago residence last week with a search warrant in hand, the 19-year-old suspected they were there because of a “joke” he had posted on a popular meme sharing platform, according to a complaint unsealed Monday. The allegedly humorous post? A threat to “slaughter and murder any doctor, patient, or …

NBC News reports: FBI agents on Monday were searching accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s residence in the Virgin Islands, a bureau spokesman told NBC News. The search on Epstein’s private island of Little St. James comes two days after the wealthy financier died from an apparent suicide while in jail in Manhattan. Sources have said that Epstein hanged himself. …

ABC News reports: An unidentified man is in federal custody after he asked about buying grenades and discussed possibly detonating them in Times Square, according to law enforcement sources. The man was intercepted by federal and local officials, and he posed no imminent threat. He was detected both inquiring about obtaining grenades and discussing using them in Times Square, the …

CNN reports: FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate panel Tuesday that the bureau is “working to help” Attorney General William Barr as he reviews the origins of the Russia investigation, but distanced himself from Barr’s use of the phrase “spying” at a separate hearing last month. “Well, that’s not the term I would use,” Wray said. “Lots of people …

Newsweek reports: A man has been found guilty of threatening to record himself beheading Vermont senator and 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in the style of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS). Robert Francis Pratersch, 57, of Kissimmee, Florida, has been convicted of threatening a federal official and interstate transmission of a threat to injure after leaving at least three …

Slate reports: The FBI arrested on Saturday the head of a right-wing militia that had been detaining migrant families at gunpoint. Law enforcement officers arrested Larry Mitchell Hopkins, who went by the alias Johnny Horton Jr., in New Mexico on charges of firearms possession by a felon. Hopkins had previously been arrested in 2006 on charges of impersonating an officer …

The Week reports: Former FBI Director James Comey is extremely confused about Attorney General William Barr’s spying comments. Comey spoke at a conference in California Thursday, one day after Barr told Congress that he believes spying on President Trump’s 2016 campaign “did occur.” “I don’t know what the heck he’s talking about,” Comey said. He added that Barr’s language was …

The Huffington Post reports: FBI agents arrested a 22-year-old white supremacist who managed an extremist Facebook group and was evidently plotting a terrorist attack against Muslims with his cousin. Federal authorities have charged New York resident Thomas Alonzo Bolin with lying to the FBI about possessing a weapon. He appears to have first come under federal scrutiny after his cousin …

CNN reports: FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday that white supremacy presents a “persistent” and “pervasive” threat to the United States, breaking from President Donald Trump, who has sidestepped questions of whether white nationalists present a growing problem. “The danger. I think, of white supremacists, violent extremism or another kind of extremism is of course significant,” Wray said at a …