FBI Whistleblowers and the politicization of the FBI and Justice Department
Introduction and Background
In the USA there is a Constitutional system of checks and balance called the “Separation of Power”. The purpose of this it to ensure that the government, which makes the laws cannot interfere with the operational enforcement of the law and neither of those can interfere or should be able to influence the interpretation and impositions of the law. This system in theory is a good one but becomes unbalanced due to one party or the other having control or undue influence over the leadership of one of the other branches.
Unfortunately, for Americans, things don’t always work the way the original writers wanted the Constitution, the Bill of Right nor the Amendments to work. The Current Supreme Court is made up of 9 judges, 5 of whom were appointed by Republican and 4 by Democratic presidents. The judges are appointees, not elected and serve for life, if they so choose. The last three judges appointed to the Bench, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch are all Trump appointees and considered conservatives. The Department of Justice (DoJ) which is responsible for law enforcement including the FBI, is headed by the Attorney General, a political appointee named Merrick Garland and the FBI is directed by another political appointment, Christopher A Wray. Wray was, ironically, appointed by President Trump after Trump had fired James Comey and is believed to be a Republican but was apparently disliked by the Trump Administration.
There are several reasons why the Trump Administration dislike the FBI, one was the Comey investigations into Hilary Clinton’s emails weren’t, in the opinion of Republicans, investigated properly, another is the FBI sought to discredit Trump in the tun up to the 2016 election by investigating his connections with Russia (Which Trump denied and have now been found to be untrue). While it appears there genuinely was a reason to prosecute Clinton, there appeared to be no reason to pursue Trump yet the FBI dropped the Clinton emails case and opened a case on the Trump “Russiagate” case. For these reasons, Trump, when he took office fired Comey, a Democrat appointment and then appointed Wray a few months later.
Part of the reason the Trump Administration dislike FBI Director Wray is the fact that Trump’s private residence in his Florida estate, Mar-a-Largo, was raided by the FBI in August 2022, looking for evidence that Trump may have committed crimes since his tenure as President. This is the first time in history that the FBI have targeted a former president and places them in the unusual position of working for the DoJ while, at the same time, against the Secret Service, the department which protects the President and former Presidents.
It is clear that the FBI, over the years since even before Trump entered the Whites House have targeted him for a variety of different offences. What is most interesting is, despite the many investigations, there has never been a single charge laid against Trump yet. Many investigations, thousands of attention grabbing and negative headlines and yet, not a single charge over many years all indicate that there is insufficient evidence to prove Trump has broken the law. Trump himself believes so much in his own innocence that he has announced he will run again in 2024, something he would not be able to do if there were any convictions recorded against him between now and November next year.
Conspiracy Theories
There are two conspiracy theories which need to be addressed in order to understand the current make-up of the Biden Administration and that of the FBI. One is the Biden Administration comprises solely of Jews. There is some element of truth in the fact that 10 members of the Biden administration are Jewish, Merrick Garland is one as are Victoria Nuland and Anthony Blinken. Biden makes literally hundreds of appointments on his inauguration and the conspiracy theorists have picked on this aspect as something sinister, it would be just as easy for me to suggest that 10 of his top picks are Catholics, or 10 are gay as it is to find 10 who are Jewish. White supremacists are of the opinion that there is some sort of Jewish Cabal which runs Washington and runs the world. This story is part of that conspiracy.
Another conspiracy theory is that the FBI is run by Mormons, or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The people are well known as a cultlike church because they have very old-fashioned, and some interesting beliefs. The fact is that Mormons have very traditional values, they don’t drink don’t swear, rarely intermarry, are considered incorruptible because of their faith in God, they also usually spend part of their youth travelling the globe in missionary roles and therefore integrate with foreigners more than most Americans do as well as learn the language of their host countries. This makes them very effective people to uphold laws. The FBI has a permanent recruiting office in the Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, Utah, which was founded by the Mormon Church and where Mormons are likely to attend. Once again, this is a conspiracy theory that is based in truth which is misunderstood due to misinterpretations and misunderstandings around their religion.
About the Whistleblower Report
The Whistleblower Report has been compiled by Republican staffers, alleges that the political appointments of Garland by the Biden Administration, have undue influence over the DoJ and the FBI and are creating an atmosphere of unfair bias against conservative policies.
The Report can therefore be considered as a partisan (Republican) effort to harm the reputation of the law enforcement efforts of their political opponents — it will undoubtably be used as a “reliable source” and referred to often in Republican circles as an important document which lays bare the problems within US law enforcement while at the same time in Democratic circles, it will be disregarded as both a political stunt and an amateurish attempt to use freedom of speech in an irresponsible manner in order to harm the Administration.
There are also some aspects which can clearly be differently interpreted and understood from an alternative perspective therefore, a great deal of “perceived truth” can be gleaned from the report. This is done in media circles with great effect by placing biased interpretations on what appears to be true in order to create a belief which may or may not be true. A great example of this the satellite analysis of Vocational Training and Education Centres in Xinjiang; buildings were identified as prisons where they had high walls, security manned gates, lots of small rooms with lockable doors, facilities for working and canteens. Anyone who knows China would know this is exactly what a factory looks like anywhere in China, but an American citizen who has never visited China would readily believe that this is a prison because it fits the perception of a prison in their own country. When it’s pointed out that all factories and schools have all of these features, that information is disregarded because this ill-informed reader would like to believe that China imprisons millions. Therefore, a perception of truth is sold to the public on the basis of a tiny amount of correct information and a bias interpretation.
An example inside this Report claims that statistics are manipulated to increase the amount of Domestic Terrorism and therefore to justify increases in policing powers for the Administration against what are perceived as opponents to the Administration: The report alleges that conservative Americans, specifically, right wing republicans, are being targeted as domestic terrorists. Republicans will believe this to be true and justify it because there have been a great many investigations and prosecutions into right-wing groups such as the Jane’s Revenge group; the Three Percenters; the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. These right wing groups are featured in many articles and reports and there have been convictions and imprisonments from most of the, particularly in relation to the January 6th Capitol riots.
Those people who believe the election was stolen from Trump as well as others who believe that women have the right to choose an abortion over giving birth support these right wing groups and believe some of these violent actions are justified as their legal needs are not being met.
It is to these people that the report will be considered as truth and the implication contained within it that the FBI has changed from bipartisan enforcement of the law to a Democrat tool of oppression of their rights.
What is a Whistleblower
The US government has very strong whistleblower protection laws but it also has very strong national security laws (NSL) — so many that it’s almost impossible to list them all but Global Times did a good job of listing some a few years ago. What this means is, the government can invoke National Security when they do not wish news of something illegal being brought to public attention; this will override any aspect of whistleblowing for the national good
Some famous whistleblowers include Edward Snowden and Julian Assange who are both now very high profile but as yet, unconvicted criminals. These are both completely different types of cases. In the case of Snowden, he breached his security clearance, he was employed by the government (CIA) as an analyst and, due to that position, was in possession of secrets the government wished to keep — he had a responsibility to keep those secrets but didn’t. Whilst personal opinions usually fall in favour of Snowden as “doing the right thing” he was in fact, almost certainly in breach of the law, his contract with the government, and, almost certainly, acted illegally. Assange is a different case as he had no such agreement with the government and was not in breach of any law in the USA as he was not in the country when he leaked information. National security has been invoked in order to prosecute him and his sources, Chelsea Manning was one, who was actually convicted of espionage and sentenced to 35 years imprisonment. (Later to be released by Obama)
The point being that, whistleblowers, in most western countries, are not considered safe from retaliation from the people or corporation they expose. The narrative of this Report is built on the basis of confidentiality — meaning all the sources are anonymous. In one respect, this appears to be a good thing as it protects the source of the information from retaliation which could even end up as a prison sentence, on the other hand, it provides opportunities for opponents to challenge the credibility of the Report since none of the evidence offered can be tested or even verified.
Domestic Violent Extremism
A main thrust of the Report is based on the premise that Domestic Terrorism or more accurately Domestic Violent Extremism (DVE) is being pursued by the Biden Administration as a means to enhancing its control over the Department of Justice, the FBI and, therefore, according to the report, over the population too. The report suggests that this wording is being applied to crimes which do not fit into the category and the number of DVE is being over-exaggerated in order to provide more power to authorities.
It is true that one of the first actions put into place by President Biden after his inauguration was an investigation into Domestic Terrorism and one of the results of this 100 day investigation was the enhancement of powers for the DoJ and FBI to analyse and share information.
[A side point which is off topic but important in context is that the USA has a very interesting way of wording things that occur in their own country, among their own citizens; this no exception. When a bomb is placed in London by a Muslim, it’s called an act of terrorism, when a bomb is placed in New York by a white person, it’s called violent extremism. Someone in China who is addicted to drugs is called a drug addict, someone in America with the same problem is called a substance abuser. A person who lives in poverty and on the street is called homeless everywhere in the English speaking world but a person who is homeless in America is either known as unhoused or a vehicle resident. China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela all have Regimes, the USA and Europe all have governments, except of course Russia and Hungary, where they too have regimes! These words are how they encourage people to think it’s worse outside of the USA and the USA is still the greatest country on earth.]
In some respects, this enhancement of information gathering goes against the spirit of both the First and Second Amendments. The First Amendment being the guarantee of freedom of speech and right to petition or assemble peacefully. This right means a person can speak freely about wishing the government would make changes and discusses how to bring about those changes, in doing so, they are invoking their First amendment right, but, according to this Report, at the same time as they invoke their right to speak and gather freely, they could be breaching one of the several NSL if the Administration of the day, currently Democrat, believe they are attempting to overthrow the government.
The Second Amendment is the right to bear arms and form militia. This was designed to prevent a government becoming too powerful and providing the people a way in which such a government could be overthrown — there are many interpretations of this and legal scholars have debated for many years whether the framers of this amendment meant for it to be used to allow unfettered gun ownership. Many books and legal papers have been written about this from both sides of the argument and the only way to know what a particular opinion is, would be to test it in the Supreme Court which is currently Republican leaning.
One of the findings of Biden’s 100-day investigation is that several anti-government or anti-authority militia extremists currently exist in the USA. Those militia sincerely believe they have the right to organise themselves, form into disciplined groups and bear arms which can be used to prevent the government taking or keeping power illegally.
One very interesting point of contradiction is that any “anti-government militia” constitutes a threat to the incumbent government, so, despite there being an Amendment to the Constitution allowing such a militia to form and exist, the moment the militia appears to be in opposition to the government, that government will impose NSL to both prevent them from doing so and criminalise their activities.
This is how some of the people during the January 6th incident in Capitol Hill, view what is happening now. They were attempting to prevent, and sincerely believed they were right in attempting to prevent, an illegal transfer of power. This was partially caused by Donald Trump, and his supporting media, asserting that votes were stolen from him to prevent his continuation as the President. Those people, over the past two years, have been investigated by the FBI, charged and many prosecuted for breaching NSL which were designed to protect the government from people who felt they had a First and Second Amendment right to do exactly what they did on the 6th January.
Some modern history examples can be found in China: during the early 1900’s anyone associated with Dr Sun Yat Sen would have fallen into the category of “anti-government” and during the 1930’s. into the 1940’s those associated with the Communist Army and/or Mao Zedong would have been likewise identified, prosecuted and almost certainly executed, as many were, if they were caught by the government of the day.
The original purpose of enacting the First Amendment was to ensure that “revolutionaries” could organise and be used if the government overreaches their authority. Republicans may very well believe that situation already exists while Democrats believe the situation doesn’t exist and they are now fighting to keep democracy alive.
There are some who interpret it in this way:
The (Democratic) government has unlawfully taken power through an illegal voting process and the people now have the right to form into militias to take back the power and restore democracy. This caused the Jan 6th storming of Congress which was supported by a great number of Republicans.
At the same time, a number of people interpret it as follows:
An inability to peacefully transfer power in 2021, following the 2020 election, was caused by misunderstandings and misinformation. That environment caused (Republican) people to believe that democracy had been eroded and therefore act illegally to overthrow the newly elected (Democrat) government.
Whilst this topic will be the source of many academic investigations in the future, it is clear that the USA is a divided nation along the lines of one large group believing the election was stolen and an equally large group believing the election was legal. An even bigger problem in the USA is that almost two-thirds of the population, encompassing both sides still believe democracy has failed.
What is known is that Biden’s investigation into DVE, starting on his first day in office, sought to limit the ability of people to form militia, it involved the Department of Homeland Security to identify, “prevent, detect against and respond” to DVE. It also involved the Department of Defence incorporating training for “service members separating or retiring from the military” to prevent them becoming targets of extremist actors. It is apparent that those in power at this moment in time in the USA believe there is a very real threat from both individuals and groups in the USA right now.
It is considered, according to a White House statement, by the DoJ and Homeland Security, that Domestic Terrorism (now renamed Domestic Violent Extremism) is the greatest threat facing the US at this moment in time. Whilst at the same time, it is considered by the Republican Party that those departments, along with the FBI are working together with the government to erode the rights and freedoms of common people.
The Report opens with the words: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the stewardship of Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, is broken”. Whether this is true or not, what is certainly true, and reflected very clearly in this Whistleblower Report, is that Republicans believe the systems of law, law enforcement, administration, democracy and governance are broken.
In an interesting side turn, it appears that a large proportion of the population on both sides of the political arena also perceive the systems to be broken. Attempts to fix this by the incumbent government are met with reports such as these criticising their overreach. Failure to address the issues are met with aggressive headlines and questions in the Senate or the House, from the same people alleging the overreach, about lack of action.
US political divisions are such that no matter what gets done by the sitting government, it is deemed the wrong thing by the opposing side.
History of the FBI
The FBI is often believed to have been formed under J Edgar Hoover, but this is not true, the formation of the FBI was by the Great nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles Bonaparte. He was an appointee of President Theodore Roosevelt and in 1908 appointed a team he called the Bureau of Investigations. It was not until 1924 that Hoover was appointed the head and changed the direction of the department.
Another interesting aspect of the FBI which history seems to forget is that the first years of its existence it was bogged down in complaints regarding abuses of civil liberties. Something the US has been doing consistently throughout its history while pointing fingers at other countries where they disagree with the ideology of the government.
There is a long history of abuses of power, including the surveillance and harassment of civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcom X through to counter-intelligence programs in the Cold War which moved from legitimate national security interests to investigations of anyone dissenting in the political arena. The US Council for Civil Liberties has a very extensive paper which is worth considering here.
The PATRIOT Act, (Providing appropriate Tools required to intercept and obstruct Terrorism) was signed by George W Bush in 2001 and gave the FBI enormous powers to investigate Americans in America when they were “of interest” this does not mean they were criminals or even suspected of being criminals, it means the FBI linked them to some investigation and were then able to examine details of highly confidential matters without oversight — it has been found that the FBI has abused this in the past and there are some suggestions that this Report is highlighting which indicate that is happening again.
The American Council for Civil Liberties Union clearly lays out ongoing and systemic incidents of civil rights abuses by the FBI on its pages.
Explanation of CRT, Woke and the Pro-life Vs Pro-Choice (Abortion) Dilemmas: what divides Americans
Before moving to the report, there are three issues which must be explained in more depth. These three issues divide the USA and need to be understood in context of the Report. They are: CRT; Woke and Abortion.
One further divisive issue is Anti-War, and this is currently the big factor with US pouring money into Ukraine while ignoring social needs at home but this is not covered by the report so will not be addressed here.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is fundamentally a history and genetics matter. Proponents of CRT suggest that racism is a human condition created by society and completely unnecessary (they are critical of it) it basically says that whatever colour, shape or ethnicity we are, we are the same. Part of it is the acceptance of slavery as a bad thing and the acceptance that the US was built on slavery which is now regrettable. Biden’s Administration is in favour of this, Trump’s Administration was not. Republicans believe that racism is personal and not systemic, while surveys suggest Democrats believe that racism is systemic and education can reduce and therefore prevent it — Republican parents do not want CRT taught in schools and many Republican States, starting with Florida (where the most likely candidate for Republican presidency, Ron DeSantis is Governor) have banned it as well as any materials which include it.
CRT, particularly in schools, has caused many disputes and protests, people who are against it and who are either vocally loud, threatening or violently opposed to it, are being designated by the FBI as domestic violence extremists, most, probably all, certainly most of these would be Republicans.
Woke is possible the most divisive matter in Western politics today. To be Woke, is to be alert to social injustice caused by racism, social discrimination, prejudice and injustice — as in being woken up to the facts. Part of Wokeism relates to CRT but much of it relates to gender issues. In recent years new genders are being created at an alarming rate, some people are woke to it and others are vehemently opposed to it. In China it isn’t an issue as yet but, in the US particularly, as well as in many other countries to a lesser extent, it is causing some serious social problems.
What would happen, for example, if a male teacher in China decided to wear a female’s dress and use the ladies’ toilets because that male teacher identified as a female for that day? The teacher would probably be fired and the school would have nothing more to do with the matter. In the USA this teacher is, in Democratic States, encouraged to explore their gender issues, discuss them with students, even young primary school students and expose those students to Wokeism too. The teacher can’t be fired and if the school acts against the teacher, they would be successfully sued in a civil court and perhaps even prosecuted in a criminal court.
Part of Wokeism is the LGBTQIA+ movement which has taken over left-wing politics and is being used by the US State Department among others to denounce countries such as China which haven’t legislated to protect these people (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer, or questioning, Intersex, Asexual and more). For the record, according to academic reports, there are 81 different genders. Generally speaking, Republicans would prefer there were two, male and female and Democrats are ok with people identifying as something different.
Where schools in Republican areas appoint teachers who may identify as something other than male or female, then the school board meetings become very heated. This is causing some parents to make threats and, according to the FBI, those parents, after making threats against school administrators or teachers, in what they think is a reasonable attempt to protect their child, are being designated (by the FBI) as domestic violence extremists. Again, most probably all, or most of these, would be Republicans.
Abortion is the other divisive factor. Appendix A of the report is an 8-page list of attacks on pro-life facilities: Pro-life means anti-abortion. This is one of the issues that has torn US society apart with large numbers of people supporting pro-life and equally large supporting pro-choice, meaning a mother’s right to have a baby terminated — this is fundamentally a “Conservative Vs Liberal” issue with many of Trump’s supporters being pro-life and therefore anti-abortion.
Even though groups from both sides of this issue have been violent, these pro-life groups are being designated domestic violence extremists and referred to as radicals. The Report on page 8 accuses the FBI of double standards in that it has used its great powers to protect Pro-abortion facilities but has failed to protect pro-choice facilities. Although there are divisions inside of each party on this topic, pro-life centres would generally be more likely to be Republican leaning and pro-choice are more likely to be Democrat.
There are two kinds of premises which come under attack, one is a place where people are encouraged to have their babies and helped to avoid going through terminations which their families or their peers might encourage, these are called pro-life institutions and often include churches or community centres which offer pregnancy advice. These places are targeted by pro-choicers such as “Jane’s Revenge” which are often referred to as domestic terrorists and radicals. The other is a clinic where mothers can go to have the baby terminated and the largest chain of these is a group called “Planned Parenthood”. Pro-lifers attack and damage clinics
Both this Report and, According to Fox News (a Republican supporting outlet), data show that there have been many more attacks on pro-life than there have on pro-choice premises but it is the pro-life people who are being designated as domestic extremists while the pro-choice issues are dealt with as local crimes. Other news outlets seem to contradict this stance with both parties being equally labeled in media, despite what the Republican Party feels the FBI is doing.
The Report
The Report itself consists of only 50 pages divided into two sections:
I. The FBI is Abusing its Law Enforcement Authorities for Political Reasons
II. The FBI is Purging Conservative Employees and helping Censor Conservative Viewpoints Online
The 50-page report is then followed by 1000 pages of Appendices.
The Report Part I — The FBI is Abusing its Law Enforcement Authorities for Political Reasons
There are many words in the first 8 pages of the Report but not much of any importance is said until page 8. Where the report makes three very serious allegations:
That the FBI have targeted mums and dads who speak out at school board meetings;
That the FBI have exercised their vast powers to enforce federal laws to protect abortion clinics while failing to enforce the same laws when clinics which support pregnancy and dissuade seeking abortions are attacked;
That the FBI, under the direction of the DoJ, has prioritised the protection, investigation and prosecution of people involved in the January 6th Storming of the Capitol, and has virtually ignored the offences committed in what the Report calls the “left-wing riots in the Summer of 2020 — these protests are known throughout the world as the BLM riots.
The Report Part II — The FBI is Purging Conservative Employees and helping Censor Conservative Viewpoints Online
Biden, his Attorney General Garland, and FBI Director Wray have all publicly stated that DVE is increasing. As a result of this, the FBI has doubled the number of investigations. News headlines, if they are to be believed, appear to indicate that this is true. There are more people involved in acts of violence in the United States now than at any time in its history.
The Report suggests that this is not true but that re-classification on normal crimes is causing the number of DVE reports to increase. Some of the whistleblowers mentioned in the report are FBI agents who, the Report claims, are encouraged, even forced to reclassify normal FBI investigations as DVE so that they can meet “self-created metrics”. In other words, the FBI wants to present a big DVE problem and is changing normal crime statistic to suggest they are part of a different and more serious problem of DVE.
The report does not make clear why the FBI would do so but the inference is that DVE is more likely to come from right-wing conservative, or ultra conservatives, than it is to come from left wing liberals. Much of Donald Trump’s support comes from the extreme right wing and Jim Jordan the report’s writer, is a strong Trump supporter.
This manipulation of statistics is expanded to create the impression the situation is USA wide. What happens, according to the Report, is that the Washington Field Office (WFO) will open an investigation into an incident related to January 6th, if part of the investigation is of a person who lives in another State, the investigation office passes an “information packet” to the field office of the other State and an investigation is opened there. One investigating officer in WFO does no more while the investigating officer in the other field office has a record of a DVE case in their region. Hence, the number of people who came from other States into Washington and took part in or are under investigation about the January 6th incident are many and widespread — the one incident is therefore recorded as a massive wave of DVE around the country.
This method of classifying and opening investigations will cause anyone uninformed of the real situation to think there are thousands of cases related to DVE around the US when, according to the Report, there is in fact only one case, opened and registered in the WFO, with thousands of investigations related to that one case.
There are a variety of other claims made in relation to how the FBI investigates, they are summarised as follows:
· Normal mum’s and dads are being targeted by the Bureau because they have made threats in schools over political disagreements and because they “have a lot of guns”
· People who fail to accept or acknowledge CRT are being targeted
· Trump supporters are being investigated purely because they are Trump supporters
· People who don’t accept gender issues (woke) are being dismissed or “purged” from the Bureau
· The real job of investigating federal crime is being diminished because officers are being taken from those jobs to focus on investigating Biden’s political opponents
· An opportunity to “clean-up” the FBI was given to Director Wray but he has failed to do so
Particular attention is paid to one Agent, Timothy Thibault who was critical of Trump in the lead up to the election. Thibault is now retired as far as I can ascertain has faced no further problems related to this incident — he is also alleged to have interfered in the “Hunter Biden laptop” case.
There will be books written on this case as it is so convoluted and confusing but the case relates to a laptop, allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden being taken to a repair shop and the repair shop finding many incriminating photographs and documents which would have caused great embarrassment and potentially criminal prosecutions for both Hunter and his father. The FBI claimed this was a fake and not Hunter’s laptop, they apparently colluded with social media platforms to suppress the information in the lead up to the election and after the election, it has been alleged the information was genuine and the suppression of it amounted to election fraud. Obviously there are two sides to this story and the truth may never be known.
Thibault is also connected to DoJ’s Richard Pilger who in 2020 opened an enquiry into Trumps election. Thibault apparently encouraged other FBI agents to become involved in pursuing Trump and, from his supervisory position as Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) of the WFO, he marginalised Agents who did not wish to pursue the same agenda.
For the record, Pilger stood down from the DoJ when Trump’s Attorney General Barr, required his department to investigate election fraud, only to return in the early days of the Biden Administration. He has since retired.
Thibault has refused to appear before the House to answer questions in an interview and the matter seems now to be at a dead end.
There is more related to Hunter Biden later in the Report where it is alleged the FBI has given him favourable status and not investigated his links to China and Russia, both of which would place his father in a compromising position.
One Chinese name mentioned several times and constantly linked in Western media to Hunter Biden is Dong Gongwen, or Gongwen Dong. This person appears to be a very wealthy Chinese businessman who is connected through banking arrangements and property deals to Hunter Biden. Under normal circumstances, there would be nothing wrong at all with a US businessman being involved with a Chinese businessman, but, as the son of the president of the USA there should be some form of disclosure and that appears to be missing.
It’s also alleged in the report that Hunter Biden received $3.5 million from the wife of the Mayor of Moscow. Again, many organisations and individuals in America have done business in Russia and received payments from prominent Russians, the issue isn’t about crimes that have committed it’s about why Hunter Biden has not disclosed and that non-disclosure is what worries the Republicans.
There are also connections mentioned to Ye Jianming, who, like Dong Gongwen was associated with China Energy, Ye being the Founder and CEO, Dong being the Chief Financial Officer. Ye is in prison, under investigation for Bribery in China and, as far as I can ascertain, Dong is living in Manhattan in one of several luxury apartments he owns. The company they represented in working with Hunter Biden, CEFC, no longer exists.
What is really interesting is that all the media reports related to CEFC, linking Biden to corruption, state that CEFC has links to the Communist Party of China. And yet the CPC has prosecuted and imprisoned the CEO without this information ever reaching the US public.
Ye jianming is also convicted in the USA for payment of bribes in Uganda but he will never serve the time as he is unlikely to ever set foot in the US again. This is also interesting because the payment was probably made over a payment made by a US firm and when the US firm lost the contract, investigations by DoJ found Ye to be responsible and prosecuted him in absentia, and his US staff. IT also raises interesting questions such as: why doe the US justice system convict a Chinese businessman for an offence in an African country? The only apparent answer is protectionism of the US business system.
The next section is a serious allegation of enticement, or inducement to commit a crime. But more importantly it categorises the FBI as being the people responsible for the crime. In 2020 the FBI arrested 13 men for allegedly plotting to kidnap Democratic governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. The case fell apart with none of the defendants who pleaded not guilty being convicted, some were convicted of lesser offences after a deal to give evidence.
According to the report, the FBI infiltrated the group and either encouraged or organised the plan which is not legal in a criminal case, hence the acquittals. A great deal of FBI money was spent and Confidential Human Sources (CHS) were employed at great expense by the FBI — what the Report suggests is that, if the FBI had not been involved in this case, then the people arrested would have done nothing more than talk about how they disliked the government how they should kidnap people within it, how they might damage infrastructure, none of this would be illegal under the First Amendment, but they would have actually done nothing at all to follow up as they had no leadership skills, no transportation, no finances and no abilities to do so until FBI CHSs provided the means to plot the crime which was then thwarted by the FBI making arrests and claiming a great result over a DVE criminal gang. The courts seemed to agree with the Report, this was a bunch of unemployed ill-educated and impoverished people, looking for excuses to do something and the FBI gave them a sense of purpose.
Neither Director Wray nor the Assistant Attorney General, when asked about this incident have been willing to answer questions on the matter.
School Board meetings are an important part of the structure of American society, parents are allowed to ask questions of the school board and address problems that have arisen related tot heir children. One of the biggest problems in recent years was the imposition by some schools of masks, to prevent the spread of Covid-19. This caused a great many parents to become aggressive in school board meetings. Other aspects were Wokeism and CRT, which, as earlier described have created division inside the country (Wokeism has created as many divisions in other countries too, this is not specific to the USA).
Attorney General Garland created a memorandum to pass to the National School Boards Association (NSBA) where it was stressed that the FBI would deal with these matters which the NSBA presumed would mean invoking the PATRIOT Act and would mean angry parents are treated as DVE offenders. Garland later, in a Senate hearing stated this was not the case.
Despite Garland’s denials, there are incidents reported through what the Report calls a “snitch line” this is a direct line of communications set up between NSBA sites and the FBI to report and create investigations. Angry parents have been reported through these lines and identified as potential threats, despite being nothing more than “angry moms”. One lady was interviewed because she apparently said to a board member, “we’re coming for you” and she is a member of a right-wing group called Mom’s for Liberty, she is also a gun owner (there are over 400 million privately owned guns in the USA, this is not unusual). When interviewed she said she meant the administrators would lose their job at the next election. She was, of course, a Republican.
Three are other examples given but all relate to incidents of comments made in anger, usually by people who own guns and are Republicans.
The memorandum and the National Threat Operations Centre, which the Report calls the Snitch line, have never been rescinded and according to the report still operate. What this means is that incidents of anger, which erupt into violence could be treated by the FBI as terrorism, rather than by the local police as disturbances or assaults. It also means that simple incidents where a person overreacts in a given situation could mean that person acquire a tag of “potential domestic Violence extremist” or domestic terrorist.
The next section reports on how the FBI is using its approved rights to observe foreign national who are suspect by surveilling American citizens. Something similar to what Edward Snowden exposed. In this case, it’s less widespread but many thousands of emails accounts mobile phones and other communications have been targeted and, according to the report, many of them illegally.
It also alleges the FBI is in possession of an Israeli designed system called Pegasus. This system allows the users to infiltrate the mobile phones of any user around the world but has apparently been created as unable to access American phone numbers. The NY Times released a report suggesting that the creators, NSO Group, had overcome that issue and were able to monitor American phones. The FBI admits to owning a Pegasus system but denies its use in monitoring American citizens.
Many more pages are devoted to the raid on Mar-a-Largo, President Trump’s personal residence. Many documents were seized and a great deal of negative publicity was raised. The Report suggest that this was not only unprecedented, it was unnecessary, Trump was, according to the report, cooperating fully, had already returned many more document than was previously believed and was surprised by the action taken of executing a search warrant on the residence of the former Commander in Chief.
What the report then does is a classic act of deflection and spends a considerable amount of effort criticising the FBI for the lack of a similar response over the Hillary Clinton email scandal. Where Clinton was allowed to delete emails which may have implicated her in a crime. Trump was given no such opportunity and that seems to be the basis of the problem that the Report holds with the FBI.
FBI abusing its power to target Biden’s opponents is the next topic and the Report seems to think people who read it have no knowledge of current events. Scott Perry is a congressman and big Trump supporter, he worked with groups to overturn the 2020 election meaning he was working against the democratic process. Investigations into people who were attempting to usurp the government have been ongoing for over two years and Scott Perry was a subject of that investigation.
The Report alleges that the FBI are over-zealous and oppressive in pursuing Biden opponents but common sense indicates that anyone working to overturn the results of a democratic process would be viewed by the winner of that election as suspicious.
Abortion rights dominate the next few pages, with allegations of heavy handed tactics by the FBI against the people who are pro-life while they “ignore” assaults by pro-choice people. Several examples are given but they all relate to FBI incidents of actions against pro-life. This is an example of selective reporting, there have been many documented incidents of attacks by both sides of this debate.
Section 2 of the report
The opening of Section two is a simple case of what one group believes is right, another believes in wrong. The Report suggests that people with conservative views are being purged from the FBI. And, to a degree, this is true, the Report gives examples of FBI employees who attended the Capitol on 6th January and took part in protests, or verbally, supported the protests. Those employees have been suspended and remain unpaid to this day.
While the Report suggests that these people were exercising their First Amendment rights, they are also subject to the Hatch Act and are therefore, while allowed to express partisan sentiments, are not allowed to take part in partisan activities. To a great many people the events of 6th January are seen as more than just a protest and exercise of First Amendment rights, they are seen as an illegitimate attempt to overthrow the elected government. As such, any federal employee involved must surely be suspected of some degree of disloyalty. The Report disagrees.
Part B is related to how the FBI colludes with big tech, specifically Mark Zukerberg’s Facebook.
It is abundantly clear that Facebook suppressed information, Zukerberg admitted as much on Joe Rogan’s channel. What is not clear is why that was done. The Report suggests it was done at the request of the FBI because they were concerned about Russian misinformation. If this is true, it would be a gross overreach by the FBI and would definitely constitute a breach of US citizen’s First Amendment rights — unless of course, the FBI were able to clearly demonstrate that they knew and could provide evidence that the information was Russian disinformation — they did not know, they could not provide evidence and yet, according to the Report, they asked for the information to be suppressed — if this is true, this is election interference and in breach of several laws, not just the First Amendment.
The Report goes on to say that Facebook voluntarily provides the FBI with information which is in breach of US constitutional rights. There is no evidence to support this other than an anonymous whistleblower. Furthermore, the whistleblower points out that the information provided is from “one side of the political spectrum”. In other words, right-wingers.
Part C relates to how the Report suggests that the Biden government is using the Attorney General’s office and the FBI in an attempt to suppress voters rights. It quotes an ongoing case in Georgia and another in in Texas, both strong Republican states where laws are being enacted to ensure voter ID is accurate. In Texas there is a further lawsuit related to new boundaries inside two new congressional seats and the allegations are that the boundaries have been drawn to favour Republican voters and minimise opportunities for ethnic minorities such as Hispanics and Latinos.
What the Report also points out is that the Democrats are doing the same thing in Baltimore but the Attorney General office have no interest in pursuing the governor there. This is considered further evidence of Biden using the DoJ to pursue his political agenda.
In its conclusion the Report stresses that this is only the beginning of the process. There will be much more to cover and further reports will be forthcoming. The entire idea od this Report is to highlight the partisan nature of the FBI but reading between the lines it is not that the writers want the FBI to be bipartisan, it is that the FBI is not partisan on their side.
The Report — Appendices
The first Appendix, Appendix A is a list of 69 attacks on premises or facilities that are Pro-life. This report has no appendix related to the number of attacks on Abortion clinics, which number far more and include at least 11 deaths in 2021.
Appendix B is a list of 77 letters written in relation to the politicization of the DoJ and FBI of which 57 are signed, or co-signed by Representative Jim Jordan, and 21 are signed by the House Committee on the Judiciary, of which Jim Jordan is the Chair. In other words, this entire report, all the letters listed in this appendix as well as the views held in the Report and all of the letters, belong to Jim Jordan. More details of Jordan follow
Pages 68 to 1050 are copies of correspondence sent from the House Committee on the Judiciary to the Attorney General and Christopher Wray the Director of the FBI
Conclusion
The entire reports is based on the fact that the writers think the FBI have overstepped their authority and are acting outside their jurisdiction but, like many American reports, it is not a critically well thought out submission.
It uses “whataboutisms” as arguments by saying: “even though we do something wrong, you do something wrong too and you’re policing our problems while not investigating your own”. This is a classic low level academic argument and, quite honestly, shouldn’t be submitted in a report which could end up on a President’s desk.
The report also indicates clearly the amount of divide there is in the country. Democrats in power will try to pass legislation to keep Republicans out of power and Republicans, when they get back into power will try to do the same to Democrats. The two-party system only works when there is an “honourable opposition”, the USA does not have that honourable opposition. In other words, both parties are working for the good of their party (or their financial donors) and not for the good of the people they represent.
Problems such as CRT, Wokeism are distractions, they keep people focused on unimportant or issues related to exceedingly small numbers of the population, while the real issues of poverty, crime, murder rates, gun laws, declining health, homelessness, drug abuse and the collapse of their democracy remain unattended. Another distraction is the War in Ukraine and the “threat of China”. As long as these distractions exist, the lawmakers need not deal with the real problems and, to be honest, they are unable to deal with real problems because whenever one party puts up a suggestion to improve the lives of the millions of people suffering in their poor health, education or criminal systems, will be met with opposition from the other party.
Part of the reason for this is because, if some bill, such as Build Back Better, or Medicare for all was passed, it would reflect well on the party which passed it — meaning they would probably do well at the next election.
Due to this problem, the sitting government can’t help the people because the opposition will never help them to do so. If they did, they would undermine their own election prospects. Therefore, the opposition creates distractions such as these in an effort to discredit their opposition.
