The FBI has reportedly opened an investigation into the origins of an alleged off-the-books operation launched a decade ago by former FBI Director James Comey to use undercover &#8220;honeypot&#8221; agents to infiltrate President Donald Trump&#8217;s first presidential campaign.
The alleged scheme was disclosed by an FBI whistleblower last year in a protected disclosure to the House Judiciary Committee, The Washington Times reported.
A &#8220;honeypot&#8221; refers to an undercover operative, usually an attractive woman, who uses sexual allure to entice targets and gain information from them.
The newspaper reported that the whistleblower alleged that two women who worked at the FBI went undercover and infiltrated Trump&#8217;s campaign.
The Washington Times <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/25/fbi-looking-james-comeys-books-honeypot-operation-targeting-2016/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&amp;utm_medium=twitter&amp;utm_source=socialnetwork" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that the FBI, now under the leadership of Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, &#8220;is looking for those once-undercover employees under Mr. Comey’s direction.&#8221;
The whistleblower alleged that Comey &#8220;personally knew&#8221; and &#8220;personally directed&#8221; the operation targeting the Trump campaign in an apparent attempt to find incriminating evidence of any kind of a crime that could be used to open an official investigation.
“The case had no predicated foundation, so Comey personally directed the investigation without creating an official case file in Sentinel or any other FBI system,” the whistleblower said in their disclosure. “The FBI has multiple methods of protecting highly sensitive investigations, so Comey did not have a legitimate reason not to officially create an official investigation file or have a file number.”
Radio host Hugh Hewitt responded to the report by posting on X: &#8220;If —a very big IF— this is true or even truth-adjacent, the scandal should shake everybody of standing in the mainstream in either party and any reporter w/a passing understanding of American history and the the rule of law.&#8221;
&#8220;We would all know what such an operation would mean: an actual example of an attempt to manipulate the political process via the secret abuse [of] federal authority,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;It would be worse than the lawfare we know about. By a lot. I hesitate, not to believe that an allegation was made, but that anything so wildly irresponsible would have been ok’d or even dreamt up by Director Comey.&#8221;

James Comey

FBI Investigating James Comey’s Alleged Plan To Infiltrate Trump Campaign With ‘Honeypot’ Agents

Donald Trump

General

Politics

More than seven years after losing to former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hillary-clinton" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hillary Clinton</a> is attacking fellow women for not supporting her failed campaign.
Clinton shared her latest gripe about the 2016 contest during an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/25/us/politics/hillary-clinton-abortion.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with The New York Times as Trump runs another campaign for the White House this year.
Female voters were turned off because of how former FBI Director James Comey handled the investigation into her private email server, Clinton argued.
In the summer of 2016, Comey <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system" target="_blank" rel="noopener">held a press conference in which he said</a> showed Clinton&#8217;s handling of classified information as secretary of state was &#8220;extremely careless.&#8221;
Comey did not recommend any charges, but Clinton has begrudged him for re-opening the probe right before the election before closing it again.
&#8220;Once he did that to me, the people, the voters who left me, were women,” Clinton said.
&#8220;They left me because they just couldn’t take a risk on me, because as a woman, I’m supposed to be perfect,&#8221; she added.
Survey results <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/08/09/an-examination-of-the-2016-electorate-based-on-validated-voters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> that most women voted for Clinton, though a majority of white female voters backed Trump.
Clinton would have been the first woman to be president if she had won the 2016 election, a benchmark she claimed made it harder to win.
&#8220;They were willing to take a risk on Trump — who had a long list of, let’s call them flaws, to illustrate his imperfection,&#8221; Clinton said.
She said this was &#8220;because he was a man, and they could envision a man as president and commander in chief.&#8221;
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The interview also touched on abortion rights after the conservative-majority Supreme Court, molded under Trump, overturned Roe v. Wade.
Clinton bemoaned how people &#8220;kind of rolled their eyes at me&#8221; when she warned of a high court that could &#8220;demolish pillars of the progressive movement.&#8221;
Trump &#8220;threw his lot in with the right on abortion and was richly rewarded,&#8221; she said.
Clinton has a long history of blaming others for her 2016 defeat. The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/13-things-clinton-blames-her-loss-shes-not-one-robert-kraychik" target="_blank" rel="noopener">list also includes</a> Russia, the news media, and white people.
In a podcast released last month, Clinton <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hillary-clinton-suggests-trump-wants-to-kill-his-opposition" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggested</a> Trump wants to &#8220;kill his opposition&#8221; because of his purported affinity for &#8220;strongmen&#8221; leaders.

Hillary Clinton

‘I’m Supposed To Be Perfect’: Hillary Clinton Whines About Women Abandoning Her

'I’m Supposed To Be Perfect': Hillary Clinton Whines About Women Abandoning Her

2016 Election

Elections

Women

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypok2ieLEWk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Speaking</a> on MSNBC, former FBI Director James Comey attacked former President Donald Trump, saying that the FBI and Justice Department would be in danger if Trump is elected.
Comey said that in the current Trump court case “the rule of law in this country, especially the court system, has passed its stress test, slow on the federal side, but this is a great example for our people.”
“You say it’s passed its stress test,” MSNBC host Alex Wagner stated. “Are you concerned that it may get a test unlike any other if Donald Trump is re-elected? I mean, when you think about a second Trump administration, what do you think the implications would be for the FBI?”
“Serious,” Comey answered. “For the Justice Department and the FBI, because Trump is coming for those institutions. He knows their power and I think he has regrets that he didn’t work hard enough to corrupt them last time. So he’s coming for them and that’s a danger for all Americans. He’s gonna put people in positions in those organizations. He didn’t have All-Stars last time; he’ll have the bottom of the barrel this time &#8230; people who will want to do his will and that should worry every American. This election matters because of a reason like that. “
Comey then turned to his election pitch: “People have to participate. You cannot sit on the sidelines. I don’t care how you feel about Joe Biden, you must vote for him because the consequences on the other side are too severe.”
In June 2018, ABC News <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/doj-watchdog-finds-comey-defied-authority-fbi-director/story?id=55670834" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the Justice Department&#8217;s internal watchdog, Inspector General Michael Horowitz, concluded that when Comey served as FBI Director, he defied authority. A source informed ABC News that the draft report explicitly used the word &#8220;insubordinate.&#8221;
“The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) initiated this investigation, following a referral from the FBI, after the FBI determined that Comey may have shared memos that contained classified information with individuals outside the FBI,” the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) <a href="https://oig.justice.gov/press/2019/2019-08-29.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>, adding:
<blockquote>
The OIG determined that Comey violated applicable policies and his FBI Employment Agreement by providing one of the unclassified memos that contained official FBI information, including sensitive investigative information, to his friend with instructions for the friend to share the contents of the memo with a reporter. Additionally, the OIG determined that Comey, while FBI Director, kept copies of four of the seven memos in a personal safe at his home and, after his removal as FBI Director, violated FBI policies and his FBI Employment Agreement by failing to notify the FBI that he had retained them, or to seek authorization to retain them.
Comey likewise violated applicable policies and his FBI Employment Agreement by providing copies, following his removal as FBI Director, of the four memos he had kept in his home to his three private attorneys without FBI authorization. Comey also failed to fulfill his obligation to immediately alert the FBI about his disclosures to his private attorneys once he became aware that the FBI, after Comey’s removal, had determined that one of the memos included several words, the names of foreign countries being discussed by the President, that were classified at the CONFIDENTIAL level.
</blockquote>

Comey Attacks Trump, Says He’s ‘Coming For’ FBI, DOJ If Elected

The classified documents charges against Donald Trump warrant two questions. The first: Should he be prosecuted? The second: Did he violate the actual law?
Let’s answer the second question first, based on the allegations presented by the indictment: If Jack Smith has the evidence to back those allegations (and he appears to), then yes, Trump violated the law.
The current version of the indictment, again, points out the tape of Trump informing people with no security clearance that he is showing them classified documents — and that he could have declassified them if he had chosen to do so, but that he didn’t. Trump claimed for a few weeks that the actual document he showed them wasn’t classified, but Jack Smith now alleges they were in fact classified documents. If proved by witness testimony, Trump’s defense on that score implodes.
The current version of the indictment also alleges that another Trump aide, a maintenance person at Mar-a-Lago, worked to destroy evidence of Trump’s people moving around classified documents. It also alleges Trump ordered the security tapes be wiped. This looks like it fulfills the legal elements of obstruction, which is Smith’s accusation.
Now to the first question: Should Trump be prosecuted? The answer is, no. He shouldn’t be prosecuted. Hillary Clinton was let off the hook in 2016 for precisely the same crimes of which Trump is now accused, down to the wiping of the servers and the exposing of classified information to those without classification status. 
Remember when Clinton directed her immigrant maid to print out classified information — and even enter a SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility) to pick up classified faxes, including the <a href="https://nypost.com/2016/11/06/clinton-directed-her-maid-to-print-out-classified-materials/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Presidential Daily Brief</a>? Remember when <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2016/09/03/fbi-report-platte-river-network-employee-bleachbit-delete-clinton-e-mails/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Clinton’s tech firm used BleachBit</a> to wipe away her private server’s classified emails — and then she joked about it, asking whether the server had been wiped “like with a cloth”?
Yet Clinton wasn’t prosecuted. Why? Because, as then-FBI Director James Comey said, despite the likelihood that foreign actors may have gained access to classified materials, Clinton didn’t have intent to distribute classified materials to foreign actors. Comey rewrote the law to avoid charging her because she was a presidential candidate. 
Now, the DOJ is hitting Trump with the book. 
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1776-more-trump-charges-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
Everyone can see the legal double standard here. It’s perfectly obvious. And the double system of justice is far more of a threat to the country than Trump’s mishandling of classified information — which was not based on any nefarious security threat, but rather on Trump’s tendency to hoard materials he personally likes. 
If half the country rightly believes when Republicans commit crimes, they go to jail, but when Democrats commit crimes, they get sweetheart plea deals, the credibility of the entire justice system collapses.
New charges were dropped on Trump the day after Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal was blown up by a judge — humiliating the DOJ in the process. The irony is not lost on anyone.
So no, Trump shouldn’t be prosecuted. His handling of classified materials was likely illegal and certainly foolish. But that foolishness isn’t anywhere close to the level of national security threat of Hunter Biden picking up bags of cash in Ukraine while his daddy presides over Ukrainian foreign policy — and Hunter calls in daddy as a shadowy enforcer.
And everyone knows it.
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BSS ME

New Charges Against Trump Added. Should He Be Prosecuted?

Ben Shapiro

classified documents

Mar-a-Lago

Readers Pass

Members of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a>&#8216;s Crossfire Hurricane team were not made aware of intelligence about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hillary-clinton" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hillary Clinton</a>&#8216;s 2016 presidential campaign allegedly cooking up a plan to tie her rival <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> to Russia, according to Special Counsel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham</a>.
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Chairman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jim-jordan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jim Jordan</a> (R-OH) got Durham to establish how the intelligence was important enough to be discussed by CIA Director John Brennan during a White House briefing with President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden (who is now president of the United States), Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director James Comey in the summer of 2016.
That information came from a Russian intelligence report and was soon placed into a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CIA</a> referral memo addressed to Comey and Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok, who was involved in opening the Crossfire Hurricane inquiry. Yet, as told by Durham, Crossfire Hurricane agents who had recently started investigating alleged links between Trump&#8217;s campaign and Russia never got the memo.
Durham said &#8220;no&#8221; when asked whether Comey shared the information with FBI agents on the case. He was then prompted to recount how a supervisory special agent who had been involved in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation became distraught when Durham&#8217;s team shared the intelligence with him during an interview.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
WATCH: Full exchange between Rep. <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Jim_Jordan</a> and Special Counsel John Durham.
The hearing continues LIVE on C-SPAN3 and online here: <a href="https://t.co/To3Po9IsyS">https://t.co/To3Po9IsyS</a> <a href="https://t.co/plHwPbxONk">pic.twitter.com/plHwPbxONk</a>
&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1671523231021551616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;We interviewed the first supervisor on the Crossfire investigation, the operational person,&#8221; Durham said. &#8220;We showed him the intelligence information. He indicated he had never seen it before. He immediately became emotional, and got up and left the room with his lawyer, spent some time in the hallway, and came back.&#8221;
He added later: &#8220;The information was kept from him.&#8221;
Durham&#8217;s <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/durhamreport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>, which the Department of Justice (DOJ) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-report-makes-sobering-findings-about-fbis-handling-of-trump-russia-probe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> last month, indicated the &#8220;Clinton Plan intelligence&#8221; could have been helpful to agents involved in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. &#8220;Most&#8221; of the individuals shown parts of the information by Durham&#8217;s team advised they had never seen it before, the special counsel&#8217;s report said.
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The report specifically points to British ex-spy Christopher Steele&#8217;s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/us/trump-russia-investigation-dossier.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">now-discredited</a> anti-Trump dossier, stemming from research funded by Clinton&#8217;s campaign and the Democratic National Committee, that the FBI was <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/doj-inspector-general-finds-17-significant-errors-or-omissions-in-carter-page-fisa-applications" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> to have improperly used to secure FISA surveillance warrants against onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. It also references the unfounded secret <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-finds-researcher-felt-threatened-by-schiff-staffer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backchannel</a> between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank that was <a href="https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/793250312119263233" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promoted</a> by Clinton and her team in the run-up to the 2016 election.
&#8220;Whether or not the Clinton Plan intelligence was based on reliable or unreliable information, or was ultimately true or false, it should have prompted FBI personnel to immediately undertake an analysis of the information and to act with far greater care and caution when receiving, analyzing, and relying upon materials of partisan origins, such as the Steele Reports and the Alfa Bank allegations,&#8221; Durham&#8217;s report said.
&#8220;The FBI also should have disseminated the Clinton Plan intelligence more widely among those responsible for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation so that they could effectively incorporate it into their analysis and decision-making, and their representations to the OI attorneys and, ultimately, the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court],&#8221; Durham&#8217;s report said.

John Durham

John Durham Affirms Crossfire Hurricane Investigators Kept In Dark About Alleged Clinton Plan

Russia

Russiagate

Scandals

U.S.

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> Director <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christopher-wray" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christopher Wray</a> received a vote of confidence from one of his predecessors, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/james-comey" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Comey</a>, as Wray faces the possibility of a contempt of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Congress</a> vote.
During an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxVcvhHKJkk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview Wednesday</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cnn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a>&#8216;s Poppy Harlow asked Comey whether Wray should give lawmakers a document believed to contain allegations of a <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/comer-and-grassley-on-fbi-failing-to-comply-with-subpoena-deadline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criminal &#8220;bribery&#8221; scheme</a> involving President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> that is now the center of a subpoena fight.
Comey declined to comment on the particular document, saying that he does not &#8220;know enough&#8221; about it, and when pressed, he shifted to speaking highly of Wray.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Former FBI Director James Comey: “Director Wray is a person of principle. So, I am sure he is trying to ascertain what’s the right thing to do consistent with DOJ policy and tradition.”
 <a href="https://t.co/xOWomD1KCY">pic.twitter.com/xOWomD1KCY</a>
&mdash; The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) <a href="https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1663917267174801411?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Director Wray is a person of principle,&#8221; Comey said. &#8220;And so, I am sure he is trying to ascertain what’s the right thing to do, consistent with Department of Justice policy and tradition.&#8221;
House Oversight Chairman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/james-comer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Comer</a> (R-KY) announced Tuesday he would move forward with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/comer-says-fbi-defied-subpoena-will-move-forward-with-contempt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">holding Wray in contempt of Congress</a> because the bureau refused to provide unclassified documents subpoenaed by his panel. Comer has the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mccarthy-prepared-to-hold-fbi-director-in-contempt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backing of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)</a>, who stressed in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt that Wray is &#8220;not above the law.&#8221;
The FD-1023 form sought by lawmakers may reference some variant of &#8220;five million&#8221; and &#8220;June 30, 2020,&#8221; Comer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/comer-puts-dollar-amount-on-alleged-biden-bribery-scheme" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote in a letter to Wray last week</a>. &#8220;These terms relate to the date on the FD-1023 form and its reference to the amount of money the foreign national allegedly paid to receive the desired policy outcome,&#8221; he added.
Wray is expected to speak over the phone with Comer on Wednesday, during which the FBI director plans to offer &#8220;additional information&#8221; as an &#8220;extraordinary accommodation,&#8221; an agency official <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000188-6e83-d191-afc8-6edf85000000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Comer in a letter</a> on Tuesday. The FBI has not publicly acknowledged the existence of the document sought by lawmakers but has warned of the dangers of releasing unvetted information from confidential human sources that gets recorded by agents in FD-1023 forms.
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Comey is no stranger to controversy, as he was fired as FBI director by President Donald Trump in 2017. A new report from special counsel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-john-durhams-years-long-investigation-into-trump-russia-collusion-investigators-is-over" target="_blank" rel="noopener">heavily criticizes</a> the bureau under Comey&#8217;s watch in how it conducted the investigation into alleged links between Trump&#8217;s 2016 campaign and Russia.
Still, even as some lawmakers talk about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nothing-is-off-the-table-jim-jordan-outlines-response-to-durham-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defunding</a> or disbanding the FBI amid concerns about the agency becoming politically weaponized, Comey dismissed the current quarrel as a temporary issue.
&#8220;These are the kind of kerfuffles that blow up every so often in D.C.,&#8221; Comey said. &#8220;Now it has ensnared the FBI. It will pass.&#8221;

Comey Defends Embattled FBI Director Wray

Christopher Wray

Congress

contempt

Twelve retired senior FBI agents, with roughly three decades of individual service in the bureau, told The Daily Wire that entrenched partisan politics have set the federal agency on a path headed toward destruction.
Aside from the top two floors of the FBI headquarters — where, as one former agent said, all the &#8220;self-served and greedy bureaucrats&#8221; congregate inside the J. Edgar Hoover Building — a thin blue line of agents joined the bureau to protect families, businesses, and the United States.
But a dozen recently retired agents, who requested anonymity and pleaded for America to hear their voices about the alleged weaponization of the FBI, said they witnessed low morale among current agents, partly due to Americans distrusting the bureau. Recent <a href="https://www.apmresearchlab.org/motn-fbi-trust-jan-2023">polls</a> support that assessment, showing roughly half of Americans — specifically Republicans or political independents — were losing trust in the 114-year-old federal institution.
&#8220;I am writing to share what we think of the weaponization of FBI,&#8221; a former agent speaking on behalf of the dozen retirees told The Daily Wire. &#8220;What I am saying not only represents my attitudes, but also, to a larger extent, the viewpoints of the other 11 guys and dozens of current agents. We agree privately and uniformly that the FBI is heading in the wrong direction and has been too entrenched with partisan politics, starting from Director [James] Comey and intensified under Director Christopher Wray.&#8221;
The antipathy from former and current agents has grown in recent years after a number of controversies have been exposed within the FBI.
The federal agency faced heavy criticism following numerous investigations with questionable motives since 2015 when former director Comey injected himself into the 2016 presidential race between former President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
In the years that followed, Americans watched the national law enforcement agents allegedly involve themselves in political protests from George Floyd demonstrations to January 6, inflate domestic violent extremism statistics, and direct big tech companies via the Twitter Files to censor Americans.
Earlier this year, traditional Catholics in rural Northern Virginia discovered federal agents from the FBI’s Richmond Office were targeting them after an unclassified intelligence document leaked, which relied on ideologically-driven criteria from Left-wing sources like the Southern Poverty Law Center.
FBI Headquarters claimed the bureau purged the document from its system after the memo made national headlines.
In 2022, the Department of Justice coordinated with the White House and the National School Boards Association last year to vilify parents as “domestic terrorists” for objecting to the teaching of radical gender and race theories.
And over the summer federal agents conducted a historic raid on Trump&#8217;s Mar-a-Lago compound in Florida while suppressing key details related to the Hunter Biden probe as &#8220;disinformation.&#8221;
Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe under the Trump administration lashed out at FBI Director Wray after the raid on Trump&#8217;s home. Ratcliffe said Wray could be the bureau&#8217;s last top official after admitting that the agency fraudulently obtained multiple warrants to illegally spy on Trump as a candidate and during presidency.
&#8220;If yet another FBI warrant to raid Trump’s home doesn’t stand up to scrutiny,&#8221; Ratcliffe <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wray-may-be-the-last-fbi-director-former-director-of-national-intelligence">said</a>. &#8220;Wray may be the last FBI Director.”
The anonymous agents shared exclusive email threads to The Daily Wire, including stories about why three former agents left the FBI who alleged bureaucracy killed the bureau.
&#8220;The FBI is not full of corruption, but it is full of bureaucracy, which can be nearly as damaging or worse to the mission,&#8221; one email noted. &#8220;This is because we all agree corruption is evil and must be rooted out, yet bureaucracy is subtle.”
“Bureaucracy quietly strangles motivation,” the agent continued. “It slowly puts the brakes on innovation. It kills hopeful idealism. We must fight the infamous bureaucratic phrases of &#8216;it&#8217;s just too big to change,&#8217; &#8216;Nothing can be done about it,&#8217; &#8216;or &#8216;That is just the way it is.'&#8221;
Another former agent said the bureau became a politicized and weaponized arm of the &#8220;woke&#8221; Left-wing in Washington D.C. after &#8220;political hack lawyers from across the street,&#8221; beginning with former Director Robert Mueller, centralized the organization akin to the State Department and Central Intelligence Agency.
&#8220;It was the beginning of the end,&#8221; one agent said in an email exchange.
After several whistleblowers came forward, like former special agent Kyle Seraphin from the Washington Field Office, who sounded the alarm about questionable activity inside the bureau, the former colleagues-turned-friends said they sympathized with those who were sidelined, suspended, and forced to resign.
&#8220;We identified with Nicole Parker&#8217;s claim that &#8216;The FBI became politically weaponized, starting from the top in Washington trickling down to the field offices,&#8221; the agent said.
Parker, who served as a special agent in the Miami Field Office from 2011 until resigning in October 2022, wrote a Fox News op-ed in January 2023, claiming the bureau&#8217;s trajectory, priorities, and governing principles transformed during her 12-plus years of service.
Other issues causing agents to grow weary of the bureau include top officials lowering the eligibility requirements for recruitment. Parker said it has destroyed credibility, causing Americans to lose faith in the agency and &#8220;highly ethical&#8221; agents to carry the weight for some cases.
The former agents also named three other whistleblowers they hailed for their &#8220;courage, bravery, and integrity&#8221; who have all previously spoken to Republican lawmakers on the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
Those agents include former special agent for the FBI&#8217;s Daytona Beach Resident Agency Steve Friend, retired FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst from the FBI&#8217;s Boston Field Office George Hill, suspended FBI Special Agent from the Wichita Resident Agency in Kansas Garret O&#8217;Boyle.
House Democrats denied referring to Friend, Hill, and O&#8217;Boyle as whistleblowers, saying in a <a href="https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/uploadedfiles/2023-03-02_gop_witnesses_report.pdf">report</a> they pushed &#8220;conspiracy theories&#8221; without presenting evidence of wrongdoing at the Department of Justice or the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The dozen retired agents said they were &#8220;slandered and smeared by the liberal media and woke left Democrats.&#8221;
&#8220;Whistleblowers should be treated with the utmost regard and respect,&#8221; the agent said. &#8220;Not everyone has the guts to blow the whistle when witnessing abuses and misconduct in the FBI. Those who do deserve to be protected, not punished.&#8221;
Claiming the bureau no longer functioning as an &#8220;apolitical agency,&#8221; the agents urged more FBI personnel to come forward and uncover the extent of the alleged weaponization within the federal government.
&#8220;It&#8217;s time to clean house, restore public trust and start over,&#8221; the agent said. &#8220;Change only happens when we fight for it. I believe deeply that we need a reformed FBI. To address and fix the problems, we should first identify the problems.&#8221;
The FBI denied the accusation of making politically motivated decisions in a statement to The Daily Wire.
“The FBI is dedicated to protecting the American people from terrorism, violent crime, cyber threats and other dangers,&#8221; the bureau said. &#8220;Put quite simply: we follow the facts without regard for politics. While outside opinions and criticism often come with the job, we will continue to follow the facts wherever they lead, do things by the book, and speak through our work.&#8221;

Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters building

A Dozen Former FBI Agents Break Silence On The State Of The Bureau

Department of Justice

A federal judge in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Florida</a> has sanctioned former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> and one of his attorneys over a lawsuit deemed frivolous against <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hillary-clinton" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hillary Clinton</a> and 30 others.
Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-sues-hillary-clinton-dozens-of-others-over-far-reaching-russian-collusion-conspiracy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, the Democratic National Committee, and dozens of others in March 2022. The former president alleged that the defendants orchestrated a plot to spread malicious and false information about Trump regarding his ties to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The judge, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, ordered Trump, his attorney Alina Habba, and Habba’s firm, Habba Madaio &amp; Associates, to pay a $937,989.39 fine for a lawsuit that “needlessly harmed” 31 people and entities “in order to dishonestly advance a political narrative.”
“Here, we are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose,” U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks <a href="https://static.poder360.com.br/2023/01/trumop-clinton-20jan2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>. “Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer. He knew full well the impact of his actions.&#8221;
“As such, I find that sanctions should be imposed upon Mr. Trump and his lead counsel, Ms. Habba,” the judge said.
Trump’s lawsuit accused a slew of Democratic groups, operatives, public officials, and others of “nefariously” abusing federal investigative power, media ethics, and the public’s trust to promote a conspiracy about the Trump campaign’s ties to Moscow. “Indeed, their far-reaching conspiracy was designed to cripple Trump’s bid for presidency by fabricating a scandal that would be used to trigger an unfounded federal investigation and ignite a media frenzy,” Trump’s lawsuit said.
Middlebrooks <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/us/politics/trump-clinton-lawsuit-fine.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">threw out</a> the case in September, dismissing Trump’s filing as a “political manifesto” disguised as a lawsuit filled with overwrought claims and hyperbole while lacking substance. The judge fined Trump’s legal team $50,000 over the lawsuit in November.
Many of the defendants together filed a joint request for further punishment against Trump, however. Clinton and others targeted in Trump’s suit asked Middlebrooks for additional sanctions against the former president.
Middlebrooks at the time agreed to consider the additional sanctions and warned Trump’s legal team that additional action may be taken against them by “the bar and disciplinary authorities” over the Trump lawsuit.

Trump Fined Almost $1M Over Lawsuit Alleging Conspiracy To Push Russian Collusion Hoax

Democratic National Committee

Florida

Former FBI official Michael Steinbach repeatedly violated federal law and bureau policy in inappropriate interactions with members of the media while overseeing the discredited investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia.
Steinbach was named the FBI’s executive assistant director of its National Security Bureau in February 2016, five months before the FBI <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/CFH%20Timeline%20w%20Updates%2020201203%20(FINAL).pdf">launched</a> the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the Trump presidential campaign. Steinbach played a leading role in overseeing the investigation. He abruptly resigned from the bureau in February 2017.
Steinbach “had numerous unauthorized contacts with the media” beginning before his ascension to executive assistant director and continuing after, according to a Department of Justice Inspector General report obtained by the <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/06/14/fbis-michael-steinbach-had-numerous-contacts-with-media-watchdog/">New York Post</a>.
According to the official watchdog report, Steinbach leveraged his relationship with a reporter to score a $300 ticket to the White House Correspondents’ Association gala in 2016. Steinbach also received an invitation from a reporter to the 2015 Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Steinbach’s texts with reporters were relayed in the Inspector General report with some redactions. “Lots of [redacted] reporters here. May have to branch out!” Steinbach wrote to one journalist.
“Absolutely not!!! But curious to know who you’ve met so far?” the reporter responded. “[W]ell they will never be as good as me! and don’t you get the big head! ;)”
“But they are promising the WH Correspondents dinner,” Steinbach said back, according to the Post.
Steinbach’s correspondence with reporters outside of the bounds of FBI policy continued for several years.
“Steinbach had hundreds of contacts with the media for several years,” the report said, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/14/fbi-media-contacts-2016-campaign-00039383">Politico</a>. “This media contact included social engagements outside of FBI headquarters without any coordination from Office of Public Affairs (OPA), involving drinks, lunches and dinners.”
The report stated that the FBI’s policy on media was “unambiguous.” An FBI official interviewed by the inspector general said that the policy as espoused by former FBI Director James Comey was much more flexible, however.
Comey was “was trying to change the way the FBI dealt with the media,” the official told the inspector general. “I think Director Comey, more than any director I ever heard, fully understood the concept that we’re only as good as our ability to listen to information with people.”
“And when you take your credentials out, it needs to mean something. And the only way to do that is to have the trust. And the only way to get the trust is to have good will and the media is part of that, right?” the official said.
The report notes that “[p]rosecution was declined.”

Michael Steinbach

FBI Senior Official Had ‘Numerous’ Improper Contacts With Reporters, Inspector General Finds

Crime

Washington D.C.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) asserted that former FBI director James Comey should be imprisoned for abusing his power as the head of the federal investigative agency.
Paul appeared on Fox News on Wednesday during coverage of President Joe Biden’s inauguration. After a question from Fox anchor Bill Hemmer, Paul tore into Comey for saying that the Republican Party needed to be “burned down or changed” after President Trump left the White House.
“When we start taking advice from Comey, a notorious liar, a guy who ruined the FBI, a guy -who used the enormous power of government to go after his political opponent, Donald Trump, I think when we started taking his advice, we’re taking the wrong advice,” Paul <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/20/rand-paul-im-not-going-to-listen-to-comey-he-should-be-in-prison/">said</a>. “And so I don’t plan on listening to anything from Comey. In fact, I think Comey should be in prison for the things that he did.”
On Tuesday, The Guardian published an interview with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/comey-the-republican-party-needs-to-be-burned-down-or-changed">Comey</a> in which the former FBI head called for the GOP to reform itself, and placed blame for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol on then-President Trump. Comey called for the creation of a “9/11-type commission” to investigate the riot.
“I was sickened to watch an attack on the literal and symbolic heart of our democracy, and, as a law enforcement person, I was angered. I am mystified and angry that Capitol Hill wasn’t defended,” Comey said. “It’s a hill! If you wanted to defend it, you could defend it, and for some reason it was not defended. I think that’s a 9/11-size failure and we’re going to need a 9/11-type commission to understand it so that we don’t repeat it.”
The former FBI head said that the Republican Party is “built on lies and racism and know-nothingism.”
“The Republican Party needs to be burned down or changed. Something is shifting and I’m hoping it’s the fault breaking apart, a break between the Trumpists and those people who want to try and build a responsible conservative party, because everybody should know that we need one,” Comey said. “Who would want to be part of an organization that at its core is built on lies and racism and know-nothingism? It’s just not a healthy political organization.”
Last week, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-leadership-destroy-republican-party-trigger-mass-exodus-vote-convict-trump">Paul</a> advised Republicans against siding with the ongoing push to impeach and convict Trump for allegedly inciting the riot at the Capitol, even after he has left office. House Democrats and a handful of Republicans impeached Trump last week, and the article has been sent to the Senate for trial.
“I just don’t understand how they can be moving forward with this,” Paul said on Fox News last week. “And look, I’m not just saying I’m for everything President Trump has done. I was for seating the electors because I think Congress shouldn’t overturn the state electors. But at the same time, the thing they are doing is an overreaction, and if they think they’re going to have a positive feeling from the public when they’re going to go through a partisan impeachment again, I think that’s absolutely insane and wrongheaded.”

Rand Paul

Rand Paul Responds To James Comey’s Attack On GOP: Comey ‘Should Be In Prison’

In an interview published on Tuesday in The Guardian, former FBI Director James Comey <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/19/the-capitol-riot-was-our-chernobyl-james-comey-on-trump-the-pee-tape-and-clintons-emails">stated</a> that &#8220;the Republican party needs to be burned down or changed.&#8221; Comey added, “Donald Trump conveys a menace, a meanness in private that is not evident in most public views of him.”
Referencing the breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, Comey told The Guardian that the occurrence was so dire it required a 9/11 commission to examine it:
<blockquote>I was sickened to watch an attack on the literal and symbolic heart of our democracy, and, as a law enforcement person, I was angered. I am mystified and angry that Capitol Hill wasn’t defended. It’s a hill! If you wanted to defend it, you could defend it, and for some reason it was not defended. I think that’s a 9/11-size failure and we’re going to need a 9/11-type commission to understand it so that we don’t repeat it.</blockquote>
Comey blamed Trump for the Capitol riot, accusing him of having &#8220;attack[ed] the building from the outside to weaken its foundation&#8221; over the last five years. The Capitol Hill riot was ultimately Trump&#8217;s fault. The Republican Party, he said, needs to be &#8220;burned down or changed&#8221;:
<blockquote>The Republican party needs to be burned down or changed. Something is shifting and I’m hoping it’s the fault breaking apart, a break between the Trumpists and those people who want to try and build a responsible conservative party, because everybody should know that we need one. Who would want to be part of an organization that at its core is built on lies and racism and know-nothingism? It’s just not a healthy political organization.</blockquote>
Comey said of Trump as a person that he &#8220;rarely stops talking in a way that not only is filled with constant lying, but draws those to whom he’s speaking into an involuntary circle of assent.&#8221; Along with his revered role as president, said Comey, this quality allows Trump to &#8220;bend people.&#8221;
<blockquote>It’s a really hard thing to resist. I bent in small ways that I convinced myself were tactical. I gave silence in response to a request for loyalty and I said: “I’ll be honest,” and then when I got “honest loyalty” I agreed to that to get out of that conversation.</blockquote>
Comey championed the idea of the Senate convicting Trump after he’s out of office and then &#8220;letting local prosecutors in New York pursue him&#8221;:
<blockquote>At the end of the day, I still come down in the place that the best interests of the country would not be served by giving him that Donald Trump daily drama in our nation’s capital for three years as part of the United States versus Trump. That would give him the oxygen and the attention that he so craves and make it so much harder for a new president to heal the country both spiritually and physically, and to get some people out of the fog of lies that they’re trapped in.
I just think, on balance, the country is better served by impeaching him, convicting him in the Senate and letting local prosecutors in New York pursue him for the fraudster he was before he took office. That mixture accommodates the important public interest of the rule of law being asserted, but doesn’t do it in a way that makes it impossible for a new president to move the country on.</blockquote>

Comey: ‘The Republican Party Needs To Be Burned Down Or Changed’

It doesn’t matter what wrongs a person has committed, so long as those wrongs hurt a Republican &#8212; particularly, President Donald Trump &#8212; that person will be rewarded.
Columbia University’s law school <a href="https://reuben-mark.law.columbia.edu/content/reuben-mark-initiative-announces-spring-2021-leaders-residence">announced</a> this week that fired FBI director James Comey will become a senior research scholar and distinguished fellow of the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership at Columbia Law School starting in January 2021. Comey will be teaching a seminar called “Lawyers and Leaders,” the school announced.
&#8220;Comey’s experience represents a broadening of the Mark Initiative’s focus to include leadership of major public institutions, complementing existing offerings relating to corporations and law firms,&#8221; the announcement said.
The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/news/528315-comey-to-teach-at-columbia-law-school">reported</a> that “Comey will take on a role as one of two ‘Leaders-in-Residence’ through the Mark Initiative’s Leader-in-Residence Program, which invites executives from government agencies, corporations and top law firms to teach classes at Columbia and share their professional experience with students through advising and engaging in other programing at the school.”
Comey has a history of high-profile, controversial decisions while in power. While there is currently an investigation into individuals who sought to bribe the White House in exchange for a pardon (there is no current information to suggest the White House was aware of the scheme), Comey back in the early 2000s took over an investigation into Clinton’s pardoning of Marc Rich, a trader whose wife donated more than $1 million to the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton’s senate campaign, and the Clinton Library foundation before the pardon. Comey found no illegality on Clinton’s part.
Comey also was in charge of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails during the 2016 election and gave a notorious press conference that twisted the law in order to avoid charging Hillary with a crime. During that press conference, Comey <a href="https://observer.com/2016/07/james-comey-sells-out/">laid out extensive evidence</a> of Hillary mishandling classified national security information, yet Comey refused to indict Hillary, deciding she needed to have “intent” in order to be indicted, something that was not required by the particular statute she violated.
Days before the 2016 election, Comey made the surprise move to reopen the investigation into Hillary’s emails, which many election experts suggested may have helped Trump win that election.
As FBI director in 2016, Comey oversaw the bureau’s Russia probe, which spied on the Trump campaign as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the election. Even though the FBI had no evidence to suggest the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia to steal the election, the bureau continued to investigate, relying on unverified opposition research paid for by Hillary’s campaign. Comey is one of several FBI agents who is being sued by Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide who was spied on using dubious FISA warrants that violated numerous FBI procedures.
With this controversial history, Comey’s final act against Trump has earned him media praise, book deals, and speaking engagement &#8212; and now a college teaching position.

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