Tag Archives: FBI

NBC News reports: The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee has sent a letter to the Justice Department Inspector General accusing Kash Patel, President Trump’s pick for FBI director, of secretly orchestrating the firings of FBI officials, a day after telling the committee under oath that he was not aware of any plan to do so. “If these allegations …

CNN reports: The FBI is preparing to disband a team of specialists charged with combating foreign threats to US elections. The shuttering of the FBI Foreign Influence Task Force and planned reassigning of team members follows a directive from incoming and newly sworn in US Attorney General Pam Bondi dissolving the team. “To free resources to address more pressing priorities, …

Politico reports: FBI agents who worked on cases stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — or the criminal investigations of President Donald Trump — have filed a class action lawsuit to block Justice Department leadership from assembling lists of agents they say will be used as part of a retaliation campaign. The agents, who brought the federal …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration plans to scrutinize scores of F.B.I. agents involved in Trump-related investigations, setting the stage for a possible purge targeting not only the bureau’s leaders but also rank-and-file agents, according to people familiar with the matter. On Friday, interim leaders at the Justice Department instructed the F.B.I. to notify around a half-dozen high-ranking …

CNN reports: The New Orleans attacker visited the city twice in the months prior to New Year’s, and used Meta smart glasses to film Bourbon Street and plan out the attack, FBI New Orleans Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil said Sunday. The attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, stayed at a rental home in New Orleans from October 30 for a few …

CBS News reports: In the four years since the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, federal investigators have amassed troves of evidence leading to the arrests of more than 1,500 defendants. Still, one key aspect of an event tied to that day remains a mystery: the identity of the person who planted two pipe bombs on Capitol Hill the night …

The Washington Post reports: The FBI said Thursday that it believes no one else was involved in the New Orleans attack, after previously saying investigators were looking into the possibility that others were involved. “We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack,” FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said during a news conference. …

The New York Times reports: A Virginia man was arrested this month with what federal prosecutors described in court papers on Monday as the largest cache of “finished explosive devices” ever found in the F.B.I.’s history. The man, Brad Spafford, was taken into custody at a farm outside Norfolk on Dec. 17 on the basis of a single-count criminal complaint …

The Daily Beast reports: The mother of Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man accused of killing UnitedHealth Care CEO Brian Thompson in New York City on Dec. 4, told the FBI that her son could be the person in surveillance photos circulated by police a day before he was arrested, according to reports. Mangione’s family reported him missing to the San …

Courthouse News reports: A former FBI informant agreed to plead guilty to lying to his handler in 2020 about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden receiving $5 million in bribes each from a Ukrainian energy company. Alexander Smirnov admitted to causing the creation of a false and fictitious record in a federal investigation as well as to three …

The New York Times reports: The F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, told bureau employees on Wednesday that he intends to resign in January, bowing to the reality that President-elect Donald J. Trump had publicly declared his desire to replace him. The announcement comes after Mr. Trump said in late November that he intended to nominate Kash Patel, a longtime loyalist, …

The New York Times reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition operation announced on Tuesday that it had belatedly signed an agreement with the Justice Department that will allow the F.B.I. to conduct background checks on people Mr. Trump intends to appoint as senior officials in his new administration. F.B.I. background checks have long been a routine part of transitions. Law-enforcement …

ABC News reports: Republican Sen. Mike Rounds emphasized his support for current FBI Director Christopher Wray after President-elect Donald Trump announced he intended to nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the department’s top job. “I think the president picked a very good man to be the director of the FBI when he did that in his first term,” Rounds told ABC …

The Hill reports: “Trump has nominated Kash Patel to be his Lavrentiy Beria,” Bolton said in a statement to NBC News’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday. “Fortunately, the FBI is not the NKVD. The Senate should reject this nomination 100-0.” Beria was appointed by former Soviet Union Prime Minister Joseph Stalin as deputy chief of the Soviet secret police. He …

“It’s a terrible development for the men and women of the FBI and also for the nation that depends on a highly functioning, professional, independent Federal Bureau of Investigation. The fact that Kash Patel is profoundly unqualified for this job is not even like a matter for debate. “So I think what we should really be thinking about right now …

NBC News reports: An Arizona man has been arrested after he allegedly posted videos online that showed him brandishing an AR-15-style rifle and threatening to kill President-elect Donald Trump and members of Trump’s family, authorities said. Manuel Tamayo-Torres posted videos on a “near-daily basis” in which he accused Trump and the president-elect’s family members of kidnapping and sex-trafficking his children, …

CNN reports: President-elect Donald Trump is considering shaking up the leadership at the FBI by firing the director and installing an experienced former agent and MAGA loyalist in the top two roles. Trump has planned for months to fire Christopher Wray if he was elected, but in recent days has struggled to find a compromise of selecting a new director …

CBS News reports: FBI agents have arrested a Florida man in connection with an alleged plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, according to charging documents unsealed on Wednesday. South Florida resident Harun Abdul-Malik Yener was charged with attempted use of an explosive to damage or destroy a building used in interstate commerce, according to court documents filed in …

Via press release from the FBI: The FBI is aware of the offensive and racist text messages sent to African American and Black communities around the country and is in contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter. The reports are not identical and vary in their specific language, but many say the recipient has been …

CNN reports: President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is bypassing traditional FBI background checks for at least some of his Cabinet picks while using private companies to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administration jobs, people close to the transition planning say. Trump and his allies believe the FBI system is slow and plagued with issues that could stymie the president-elect’s plan …