Tag: FBI

American Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan Returning to Washington as Tensions Heighten

Georgia Star News Staff
John Sullivan

United States Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said Tuesday that he was returning to Washington for “consultations” with top American officials as tensions increase between the two countries.

The former deputy secretary of state and appointee of former President Donald Trump said that “it is important for me to speak directly with my new colleagues in the Biden administration in Washington about the current state of bilateral relations between the U.S. and Russia.”

Sullivan added that he was returning to see his family, and that he would “return to Moscow in the coming weeks before any meeting” between President Joe Biden and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

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Parler Alerted Feds to Violent Content Ahead of January 6 Riot

Georgia Star News Staff

Parler, the free speech social media platform maligned by political partisans and their media associates has responded with a letter to the House Oversight Committee which is currently investigating the company for failing to “police” its content before the January 6th riot.

The social media company reports it alerted the FBI more than 50 times of posts indicating the  violent action at the Capitol posted on its site. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The social-media site referred a number of posts to law enforcement, including one on Dec. 24 from a user who called for an “armed force” of 150,000 people to “react to the congressional events of January 6,” according to the letter, which included the post and communications with FBI officials among its exhibits and has been reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

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DOJ ‘Unlikely’ to Represent FBI Officials Sued by Carter Page for Misconduct in Russia Case

Georgia Star News Staff

The Justice Department has informed current and former FBI officials sued by Russia probe target Carter Page that it is unlikely to represent them in the civil case, signaling they will need to get private lawyers, according to new court filings.

At least two defendants — fired FBI Director James Comey and current FBI intelligence analyst Brian Auten — have already hired private counsel and notified the presiding judge in the case of their representation.

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FBI Had Doubts About Russia Informant’s Allegation That Helped Prompt Mike Flynn Probe

Georgia Star News Staff

Five days before the FBI formally opened the Michael Flynn probe in summer 2016, a confidential informant alleged to agents that Donald Trump’s national security adviser had left a 2014 foreign meeting alone with a Russian woman. Agents ultimately deemed the account “not plausible” and “not accurate” but proceeded to investigate Flynn anyway, newly declassified documents show.

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Pelosi Leaves Swalwell on Intelligence Committee Despite Past Relationship with Chinese Spy

Georgia Star News Staff

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leaving Rep. Eric Swalwell on the House Intelligence Committee, she announced on Friday, despite the California Democrat’s close contacts with an alleged Chinese spy.

Swalwell for years maintained contact with Christine Fang, a Chinese national who the FBI determined was working covertly as an intelligence agent for the Chinese Ministry of State Security.

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Ex-FBI Boss Has ‘Grave Concern’ FISA Court Was ‘Defrauded Intentionally’ in Russia Probe

Georgia Star News Staff

“I have grave concern that the court was defrauded intentionally … There was some type of agenda, an inappropriate agenda beyond an objective intelligence or criminal investigation,” said Kevin Brock, a retired FBI assistant director for Intelligence who helped implement most of the intelligence and informant rules the FBI uses today.

“I struggle to find any other explanation,” Brock told the John Solomon Reports podcast. “Any other explanation just doesn’t pass the smell test. I mean, the glaring — the Steele dossier, for an experienced counterintelligence agent in the field, was blinking red lights Russian disinformation campaign, and yet you’re going to have the highest levels of the FBI executives use that to create an investigation?”

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FBI Confirms No Firearms Were Found During January 6 Capitol Protests

Georgia Star News Staff

A leading counterterrorism official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed on Wednesday that, despite frequent and baseless claims that the protests at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th was supposedly an “armed insurrection,” no firearms were recovered in the aftermath of the protests, as reported by the Epoch Times.

Jill Sanborn, the FBI’s counterrorism chief, confirmed this significant detail during sworn testimony before the Senate. When asked by Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) how many firearms were confiscated from the protesters who were arrested, Sanborn said “to my knowledge, none.” Sanborn then went on to claim, without evidence, that “we knew they would be armed, we had intelligence that they would be coming to D.C., but we did not have intelligence that they would be breaching the Capitol.”

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Durham File: A Documentary Roadmap to Special Counsel Probe of Rogue FBI Pursuit of Trump

Georgia Star News Staff

Freed from his double duty as Connecticut’s chief federal prosecutor, Special Counsel John Durham is zeroing in on the final phase of his far-reaching investigation into whether FBI officials or others committed crimes while conducting the Russia collusion probe, such as misleading federal judges or Congress.

All expectations were that Durham would wrap up his probe with final indictments and/or a report last fall after a plea deal was reached with former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted he falsified a document submitted to substantiate an application for a surveillance warrant targeting the Trump campaign.

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FBI Director Wray Refuses to Disclose Brian Sicknick’s Cause of Death

Georgia Star News Staff

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday refused to disclose the cause of death of police officer Brian Sicknick during the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, citing an ongoing investigation.

“There is an ongoing investigation into his death. I have to be careful at this stage, because it’s ongoing, not to get out in front of it,” Wray said in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when asked about Sicknick’s death.

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Once-Secret FBI Informant Reports Reveal Wider-Ranging Operation to Spy on Trump Campaign

Admin

Once-secret reports show the FBI effort to spy on the Trump campaign was far wider than previously disclosed, as agents directed an undercover informant to make secret recordings, pressed for intelligence on numerous GOP figures, and sought to find “anyone in the Trump campaign” with ties to Russia who could acquire dirt “damaging to Hillary Clinton.”

The now-declassified operational handling reports for FBI confidential human source Stefan Halper — codenamed “Mitch” — provide an unprecedented window both into the tactics used by the bureau to probe the Trump campaign and the wide dragnet that was cast to target numerous high-level officials inside the GOP campaign just weeks before Americans chose their next president in the November 2016 election.

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FBI Investigating Andrew Cuomo over Nursing Home Deaths: Report

Georgia Star News Staff

The FBI and a U.S. attorney in New York are investigating Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his administration over their handling of data on coronavirus cases in state nursing home facilities, according to multiple reports.

Prosecutors have issued subpoenas in the investigation, which is in its early stages, two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

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Twenty Days of Infamy: The January 2017 Red Flags the FBI Blew Past on Russia Collusion

Georgia Star News Staff

From its earliest moments, the FBI’s Russia collusion probe was always fraught with warning signs.

Agents were told Christopher Steele provided faulty information, had likely been compromised by Russian intel disinformation, wanted to defeat Donald Trump, had leaked to the media and was being paid by Hillary Clinton, who herself might be carrying out an epic dirty political trick to vilify Trump with false information to distract from her own scandals.

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FBI Spokesman Says Nationwide Billboards Targeting January 6 Protestors Likely an Agency First

Chris Butler

FBI officials have erected billboards seeking tips on possible suspects who breached the U.S. Capitol January 6 and, according to one agency spokesman, this is likely the first time the FBI has done this nationwide. But Joel Siskovic, speaking for the FBI’s Memphis Field Office, said members of his agency have used billboards before to find suspects — but only in limited regions of the United States.

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FBI Billboards Nationwide Demand Tips on Suspects Who Allegedly Breached U.S. Capitol on January 6

Chris Butler

FBI officials have erected several billboards throughout the United States seeking information about anyone at large who helped breach the U.S. Capitol on January 6. According to witnesses, FBI officials have placed many of these billboards along the nation’s interstates. The billboards ask for tips and inform people that they may submit information about suspects through either a website or a toll-free telephone number.

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Commentary: Does Anyone Really Think Impeachment Take Two is About Upholding the Constitution?

Georgia Star News Staff

How precious it is to witness the same party that rejects the United States Constitution on a daily basis, now genuflects to and contorts the Constitution when it is convenient for their Democrat agenda.  The truth is the second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump has nothing to do with upholding the Constitution.

President Trump’s attorneys have clearly responded to the absurd Article of Impeachment.  Their answer on Trump’s behalf is clear and straightforward.

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FBI’s Desperate Pretext to Keep Spying on Carter Page: He Might Write a Book!

Georgia Star News Staff

Nine months into a relentless effort to spy on Carter Page with the most awesome surveillance tools the U.S. possesses, the FBI had no proof the former Trump adviser had colluded with Russia to hijack the 2016 election.

In fact, the bureau hid from the FISA court the fact that it knew Page was actually a U.S. asset who had helped the CIA and that in a secret recording with an informant he had denied all the core allegations against him with significant proof.

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Two Weeks After Trump Declassified Russia Memos, Most Aren’t Released

Georgia Star News Staff

More than two weeks after Donald Trump officially declassified the evidence, the vast majority of documents detailing FBI and Justice Department failures in the now-discredited Russia collusion investigation remain out of public view in a delay that has thwarted the former president’s goal of sweeping transparency.

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FBI Knew DOJ Was Preparing to Fire Comey Long Before Trump Ordered It

Georgia Star News Staff

Newly declassified FBI memos provide startling new details that undercut the frenzied 2017 effort to investigate Donald Trump for obstruction, revealing the FBI knew Director James Comey’s firing had been conceived by Justice Department leadership long before the president pulled the trigger during a key moment in the Russia probe.

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FBI Feared Foreign Power Was Targeting Money to Clinton Before 2016 Campaign, Memos Show

Georgia Star News Staff

FBI agents opened an investigation in late 2014 into a foreign power’s effort to curry influence with Hillary Clinton’s prospective presidential campaign through donations, but the bureau’s leadership slow-walked a surveillance warrant and instead arranged for the candidate to get a defensive briefing, newly declassified memos show.

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DOJ Officials Walk-Back Assertion That MAGA Rioters Wanted to ‘Capture and Assassinate Lawmakers’

Georgia Star News Staff

Justice Department officials have formally walked back the outlandish assertion that claimed protesters sought to “capture and assassinate elected officials” during the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Michael Sherwin, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters during a press conference on Friday that there is no “direct evidence of efforts to capture or assassinate lawmakers” during the riot.

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Exclusive: Retired Senior FBI Agent Robyn Gritz: Shot That Killed Ashli Babbitt ‘Not Justified’

Neil W. McCabe

A retired FBI supervisory special agent told the Star News Network that the Capitol Hill police officer, who shot unarmed Ashli E. Babbitt at close range Jan. 6, was not justified to use deadly force.

“Yes, it was chaotic, but that is why you wear a badge,” said Robyn Gritz, who was part of the FBI team that responded to the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. “That’s why you carry a gun – you’re supposed to know that you can handle a crisis.”

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Trump Declassifying Trove of FBI Memos Exposing Steele’s Motivations, Ties to Impeachment Witness

Georgia Star News Staff

Delivering in his final days on one of his last unfulfilled promises, President Trump is declassifying a massive trove of FBI documents showing the Russia collusion story was leaked in the final weeks of the 2016 election in an effort to counteract Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.

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Multiple Agencies Will Participate in Inauguration Security Including the FBI and CBP

Georgia Star News Staff

Several agencies are participating in the U.S. Secret Service’s security protections around the inauguration in Washington, D.C., including the FBI and Customs and Border Protection.

The Metropolitan Police Department and the National Guard will join the FBI and Customs and Border Protection to participate in security efforts surrounding President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. FBI officials are investigating a substantial number of “concerning” comments online about potential events on and leading up to inauguration day, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a briefing on Thursday.

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FBI Raids Locations Tied to Former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, Plus Additional Lawmakers and Staff

Jason M. Reynolds

The FBI on Friday reportedly raided locations tied to former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada (R-Franklin) and Republican allies over allegations of possible public corruption.

Current Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) issued a statement about the raid that took place at the Cordell Hull Building in Nashville.

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Nashville Bomber Anthony Warner Reportedly Wrote to Acquaintances About Lizard People

Jason M. Reynolds

Nashville bomber Anthony Warner reportedly mailed packages to people he knew before the attack with pages containing nonsensical rambling statements about lizard people and UFOs.

NewsChannel 5 reported on the development in the Christmas Day bombing case.

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Nashville Police Confirm Anthony Quinn Warner ‘Is Under Investigation’ for Christmas Day Bombing

Peter D'Abrosca

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Sunday morning confirmed to The Tennessee Star that Anthony Quinn Warner is officially under investigation in the Christmas morning explosion that rocked downtown Nashville, injuring three people.

“That person is under investigation,” Don Aaron, MNPD Public Affairs Manager said by email. 

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Emails Obtained by FBI Detail How Hunter Biden Landed Ukrainian Gas Gig in 2014

Admin

In the weeks before he landed a deal with a Ukrainian gas company in 2014, Hunter Biden strategized with his business partner on how to leverage an upcoming official trip to Kiev by his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to clinch the lucrative arrangement, according to emails obtained a year ago by the FBI.

The communications reviewed by Just the News show that the younger Biden referred to his father as “my guy” and took credit for “adding value” because the vice president made comments to Ukrainian leaders about natural gas production that might benefit his new client.

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Nunes Plans Criminal Referrals to DOJ Following Release of Strzok’s Internal FBI Messages

Georgia Star News Staff

Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday he plans to make new criminal referrals to the Justice Department following the release of internal FBI messages from the account of Peter Strzok, the top FBI investigator on Crossfire Hurricane.

In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Nunes said the messages, which the Justice Department and FBI declassified earlier this month, should have been provided to Congress years ago when Republicans began investigating whether the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in order to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

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Strzok Messages Refer to Audio Recording of Trump Aide’s Phone Call with Fox Executive

Georgia Star News Staff

Internal FBI messages declassified this month make a cryptic reference to an audio recording of a conversation between a Fox News executive and George Papadopoulos, a revelation that the former Trump campaign aide calls “disturbing.”

The message in question is from the Lync account of Peter Strzok, who was the FBI’s lead investigator on Crossfire Hurricane, the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign.

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Peter Strzok’s Declassified Messages Give Insider View of FBI’s Trump Campaign Probe

Georgia Star News Staff

The Justice Department declassified a batch of internal FBI messages from Peter Strzok, the former counterintelligence official who oversaw the bureau’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia.

The messages, which Senate Republicans released Thursday, provide new insights into the thinking of investigators who worked on Crossfire Hurricane, the code name for the investigation into the Trump campaign.

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John Durham Sought Christopher Steele’s Notes from a Meeting with The FBI in Which an Agent Said the Ex-Spy ‘Wasn’t Truthful’

Georgia Star News Staff

John Durham, the U.S. attorney investigating aspects of the Trump-Russia probe, has sought notes that former British spy Christopher Steele took during his interviews in 2016 with the FBI regarding a since-debunked dossier he penned that accused the Trump campaign of colluding with the Russian government.

An FBI agent who took part in one of the interviews with Steele told Justice Department investigators that the ex-spy “clearly … wasn’t truthful” regarding his contacts with members of the media.

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FBI Senior Officials Accused of Sexual Misconduct in at Least 6 Instances, AP Investigation Reveals

Georgia Star News Staff

Several high-ranking male FBI officials were accused of sexual misconduct against employees, an Associated Press reported Wednesday.

At least six allegations of sexual misconduct, including assault, over the last five years have been levied against senior FBI officials, the AP investigation found. The officials at least appear to have dodged discipline, the AP reported.

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Judge Dismisses Case Against Michael Flynn, But Refuses to Say He’s Innocent

Georgia Star News Staff

A federal judge dismissed a criminal case against Michael Flynn on Tuesday, weeks after President Donald Trump pardoned his former national security adviser on charges stemming from the special counsel’s investigation.

The ruling from Judge Emmet Sullivan formally ends Flynn’s three-year legal saga, which began with a plea deal the retired Army general entered on Dec. 1, 2017 in the special counsel’s probe of foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election.

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Commentary: Faith in Fairness Is Shattered Beyond Recovery

Georgia Star News Staff

Many people, including some good friends, believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election fair and square. 

Many others – and I place myself among them – believe that something is rotten in the state of Denmark, or, to be more specific, in the cities of Milwaukee, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, not to mention Maricopa County, Arizona. I think what happened was so rotten that I regard the election as illegitimate. 

What proof, you might ask, do I have? 

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Intel Chief Urges John Durham to Release Interim Report in Order to Protect Investigation

Georgia Star News Staff

John Ratcliffe, the Director of National Intelligence, urged U.S. Attorney John Durham on Sunday to release an interim report on his investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, saying that the American public should have record of the investigation in case the Biden administration shuts it down.

“I think the American people should know what’s happening in a two-year investigation into this and I hope that that report will be forthcoming,” Ratcliffe said in an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

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New Georgia Lawsuit Claims Over 20K Ballots Were Cast by Voters Who Don’t Meet Residency Requirements

Corinne Murdock

A new lawsuit claimed that over 20,000 ballots were cast in Georgia by voters who don’t meet residency requirements. The suit included data analysis from the Voter Integrity Project (VIP) and an affidavit from the Census Bureau Deputy Director for Data Benjamin Overholt.

Democratic candidate Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by over 12,600 votes – less than the number of votes that the lawsuit flagged as potentially fraudulent. 

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FBI Requests Voter Integrity Project Data on Absentee Ballots for Investigation

Corinne Murdock

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has requested the Voter Integrity Project’s (VIP) findings indicating illegal ballots in Georgia and other contested states. VIP was started by Matt Braynard immediately following this most recent general election. VIP has claimed to discover significant evidence of voter fraud that would impact the election’s outcome.

Braynard is the Executive Director of Look Ahead America, a voting registration and informational nonprofit, and former Data Chief and Strategist for Trump for President.

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Trump Praises Carter Page’s Lawsuit Against FBI and DOJ, Asks ‘Where’s Durham?’

Georgia Star News Staff

Trump was lamenting that the Justice Department was not investigating allegations of voter fraud in various swing states. He brought up an investigation led by U.S. Attorney John Durham into FBI and CIA intelligence-gathering activities related to the Trump campaign in 2016.

Republicans had high hopes for Durham’s investigation when it started in April 2019, but have recently grown frustrated at a lack of public revelations from the probe.

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Carter Page Is Suing the People Who Spied on Him for $75 Million

Georgia Star News Staff

Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page sued the Justice Department, the FBI and multiple officials involved in Crossfire Hurricane on Friday for $75 million, saying that he was the victim of “unlawful spying” as part of the government’s investigation of the Trump campaign.

Page asserts in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington D.C. on Friday, that investigators violated “his Constitutional and other legal rights in connection with unlawful surveillance and investigation of him by the United States Government.”

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Joe Biden’s Transition Officials Received Intelligence on Michael Flynn Before Donald Trump Took Office

Georgia Star News Staff

At least five former government officials who are either on President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team or reportedly in contention for a position in his cabinet were involved to varying degrees in handling intelligence related to former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a Daily Caller News Foundation review has found.

Two potential cabinet picks — Sarah Bloom Raskin and Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall — and a Biden transition team official — Stephanie L. O’Sullivan — submitted so-called unmasking requests for intelligence about Flynn weeks before the start of the Trump administration, according to a document declassified earlier this year.

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UVA Fellow, Former George Mason Professor: Overthrow the Government if Trump Wins

Corinne Murdock

University of Virginia (UVA) postdoctoral fellow and former George Mason University (GMU) professor David Walsh called for government overthrow if Democratic challenger Joe Biden loses the election.

“Here’s the thing: if the worst-case scenario happens next week, Americans don’t need to just ‘protest.’ They need to actively try to topple the government,” wrote Walsh. “Also worth nothing that the military has already made it clear that in such a scenario, they’re not going to back Trump.”

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UVA Fellow, Former George Mason Professor: Overthrow the Government if Trump Wins

Corinne Murdock

University of Virginia (UVA) postdoctoral fellow and former George Mason University (GMU) professor David Walsh called for government overthrow if Democratic challenger Joe Biden loses the election.

“Here’s the thing: if the worst-case scenario happens next week, Americans don’t need to just ‘protest.’ They need to actively try to topple the government,” wrote Walsh. “Also worth nothing that the military has already made it clear that in such a scenario, they’re not going to back Trump.”

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Tony Bobulinski Says FBI Interviewed Him for Five Hours About Bidens, Chinese Business Deal

Georgia Star News Staff
Bobulinski

Former Biden family business partner Tony Bobulinski said on Thursday that the FBI interviewed him for five hours last week about his business dealings with Hunter Biden in a proposed joint venture with a Chinese energy company.

Bobulinski said in an interview with Sinclair Broadcasting that FBI agents told him in an Oct. 23 interview that he was a material witness in their investigation.

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Zuckerberg: FBI Warned Us to Be on the Lookout For a ‘Hack and Leak’ Op with ‘Trove of Docs’ Before the Election

Georgia Star News Staff

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress Wednesday that the FBI warned him months ago that Facebook should be on “heightened alert” about “hack and leak operations” that could be part of a foreign disinformation campaign in the final weeks before the 2020 election.

The Facebook honcho made the remarks during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing where he testified alongside Google’s Sundar Pichai and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey.

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Top Al-Qaida Leader on FBI Most Wanted List Killed in Afghanistan According to Report

Georgia Star News Staff

Afghanistan on Sunday claimed to have killed a top al-Qaida terror leader and propagandist who is on the FBI’s most wanted list.

Husam Abd al-Rauf, who was wanted by the FBI for providing support to terrorist organizations and conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, was reportedly killed in firefight in a Taliban-controlled area, according to the Associated Press. A total of six other suspected Islamic militants were dispatched in the raid and one Afghan authority was killed, the AP reported.

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Federal Agency Secretly Offered FBI Documents on Trump Officials, Senate Report Says

Georgia Star News Staff

The federal agency that stores records for presidential transition teams volunteered to provide documents to the FBI regarding the Trump presidential transition team in early 2017, in possible violation of an agreement with the Trump campaign to destroy the records, according to a Senate report released on Friday.

The report from Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee says that officials at the General Services Administration (GSA) contacted the FBI on Feb. 15, 2017 to inquire whether they should preserve documents related to Michael Flynn.

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Commentary: Your FBI Will Entrap You

Georgia Star News Staff

The FBI-generated indictment of six men on charges of terrorism for planning to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has all the earmarks of what has become that corrupt agency’s standard operating procedure. Their lawyers are sure to claim they were victims of entrapment. If the case comes to trial, I doubt a jury will convict them.

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Report: DOJ Closes ‘Unmasking’ Investigation

Georgia Star News Staff

The Justice Department has closed its investigation into whether Obama administration officials improperly unmasked the identities of Trump associates mentioned in intelligence reports, according to a report.

According to The Washington Post, the investigation was recently closed and is unlikely to lead to criminal charges. A report of the investigation will also not be released, according to the newspaper, which cited government sources familiar with the matter.

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