Category Archives: FBI

LA superintendent placed on leave after FBI raid on home and district office

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Trustees unanimously voted to place Alberto Carvalho on leave and appointed Andres Chait in the interim

Two days after the FBI searched the headquarters of the Los Angeles unified school district and the home of its superintendent, the district board of education placed Alberto Carvalho on administrative leave.

The board met in closed session meetings for several hours on Thursday and Friday to discuss Carvalho’s employment with the nation’s second largest school district. The trustees unanimously voted Friday to place Carvalho on paid leave, and appointed another high ranking district official, Andres Chait, to serve as interim superintendent.

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Kash Patel fires FBI officials linked to Trump documents case, reports say

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Dismissals follow revelations that FBI subpoenaed records of Patel and Susie Wiles before Trump returned to office

At least 10 FBI employees connected to an investigation of Donald Trump have reportedly been dismissed following revelations that the agency subpoenaed personal records of current FBI director Kash Patel and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in the years before Trump returned to office.

The ousters, reported by CBS News and CNN, were linked to the federal investigation led by former justice department special counsel Jack Smith into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents that were found at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort after his first term.

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Family speaks out after stepbrother emerges as suspect in death of Florida teen on cruise

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Anna Kepner, 18, from Titusville, was found dead of asphyxiation under a bed on a Carnival cruise ship

The grandparents of a high school senior found dead on a cruise ship earlier in November say they fear they have lost two grandchildren after her stepbrother has emerged as a suspect in the case.

“No matter what we find out, no matter what they tell us, it’s not going to bring either one of these children back,” Barbara Kepner, the grandmother of the late 18-year-old cheerleader Anna Kepner told ABC News on Monday.

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Third Michigan man arrested over alleged Halloween terror plot

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Ayob Nasser, 19, accused of participating in planning of potential attack on LGBTQ+ bars in suburban Detroit

Investigators say a third Michigan man is now facing charges in a plot to stage a terror attack on Halloween. He traveled to an amusement park in the midwest to scout the location, they said.

Ayob Nasser, 19, was arrested on Wednesday. He is accused of participating in the planning of a possible attack on LGBTQ+ bars in suburban Detroit that was inspired by the Islamic State, federal authorities have said.

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FBI fires top official amid Kash Patel’s outrage over reports of agency jet use

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Patel reportedly became furious after stories revealed he flew to visit girlfriend and fired official who oversees fleet

A top FBI official with 27 years standing has reportedly been fired by the bureau after its director, Kash Patel, became enraged by press stories revealing he had used a government jet to travel to see his girlfriend sing the national anthem at a wrestling match.

Steven Palmer, who had worked at the bureau since 1998, was fired as head of the FBI’s critical incident response group which is responsible for handling major security threats as well as overseeing the agency’s fleet of jets. He was the third head of the unit to be dismissed since Patel became the second Trump administration’s FBI director in February.

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Trump ally Stephen Miller at heart of FBI agent purge, new book reveals

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Miller urged firings of those who had investigated president to satisfy Trump’s desire for revenge, Injustice authors write

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, was the driving force behind a purge of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents who had investigated Donald Trump, a new book reveals.

Miller trampled the independence of the FBI by demanding firings that would satisfy the US president’s desire for retribution, journalists Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis write in Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department.

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Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton indicted on charges of mishandling classified information

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Eighteen-count indictment handed down by federal grand jury in Maryland as US president calls former ally a ‘bad guy’

The justice department filed federal charges against John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump who turned into one of his biggest critics, accusing him of transmitting and retaining highly classified information under the Espionage Act.

The 18-count indictment was handed up by a grand jury in federal district court in Maryland on Thursday. Bolton has been charged with sending diary entries to two unnamed individuals about his day-to-day activities when he was national security adviser, many of which contained highly classified information.

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Kash Patel allegedly gives New Zealand officials guns illegal to possess under local laws

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New Zealand destroyed pistols the FBI director gifted to security chiefs after finding the guns potentially operable

On a visit to New Zealand, Kash Patel gave the country’s police and spy bosses gifts of inoperable pistols that were illegal to possess under local gun laws and had to be destroyed, New Zealand law enforcement agencies told the Associated Press.

The plastic 3D-printed replica pistols formed part of display stands the FBI director presented to at least three senior New Zealand security officials in July. Patel, the most senior Trump administration official to visit the country so far, was in Wellington to open the FBI’s first standalone office in New Zealand.

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Former FBI director James Comey indicted for making false statement to Congress and obstruction of justice

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Indictment comes after Trump instructed US attorney general to prosecute Comey and others he considers political foes

James Comey, the former FBI director and one of Donald Trump’s most frequent targets, was indicted on Thursday on one count of making a false statement to Congress and one count of obstruction of justice, according to a person familiar with the matter, in the latest move in the president’s expansive retribution campaign against his political adversaries.

“No one is above the law. Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case,” Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, tweeted on Thursday.

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Trump stirs far-right rage despite FBI deprioritizing extremist threat

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Experts say white supremacists have benefited from president’s policies but anger remains among neo-Nazis

Donald Trump has faced an onslaught of criticism from opponents and Maga diehards alike, on issues such as Jeffrey Epstein, the war with Iran, and his steadfast alliance with Israel in the face of genocide. But among the ever dangerous far right, which has generally applauded Trump’s efforts to deport thousands of people a day, his actions of late have stirred rage among a group experts say has benefited greatly from his administration’s law-enforcement pivots.

The FBI, headed by Trump acolyte Kash Patel, has reassigned the jobs of thousands of agents and eviscerated parts of the bureau tasked with investigating rightwing extremists that are considered the most dangerous domestic security threat facing the US today. Those same types, which includes a locus of fascist street-fighting gangs known as active clubs and accelerationist neo-Nazis, increasingly view Trump as an enemy, but are freer than ever to organize – almost entirely due to changes instituted in his latest presidency.

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Neo-Nazi leader sentenced to 20 years for plot to attack Maryland’s power grid

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Brandon Russell, founder of neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, was convicted of plotting to blow up Baltimore power grid

The founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for conspiring with his girlfriend to plan an attack on Maryland’s power grid in furtherance of their shared racist beliefs.

Brandon Russell, 30, was convicted by a jury earlier this year. Prosecutors presented evidence detailing his longstanding affiliation with white supremacist causes and his recent efforts to organize “sniper attacks” on electrical substations around Baltimore.

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Trump officials release FBI records on MLK Jr despite his family’s opposition

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About 200,000 pages of surveillance records released despite objection from slain civil rights leader’s family

The Trump administration has released records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr, despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate’s family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination.

The release involves an estimated 200,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

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Neo-Nazi group ‘actively seeking to grow in US’ with planned paramilitary training event

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The Base is emerging from shadows and ramping up its ranks as White House turns blind eye to the far right

An international neo-Nazi terrorist organization is boldly continuing to build in the US and planning a new paramilitary training event without fear of local authorities or the FBI, which once dismantled it in a nationwide effort.

The Base, founded in 2018 by a former Pentagon contractor living in Russia and now suspected of Kremlin-sponsored espionage, once boasted close to 50 stateside members before the bureau made more than a dozen arrests in a years-long counter-terrorism operation.

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British businessman accused of plotting to smuggle US military technology to China

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John Miller and Chinese national Cui Guanghai are facing extradition in connection with an FBI investigation

A British businessman has been indicted in the US with attempting to traffic sensitive American military technology to China and silence a critic of the Chinese president.

John Miller, 63, was named by US authorities at the weekend after his arrest in Serbia, where he is facing extradition in connection with an FBI investigation. The Mail on Sunday reported that he was from Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

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FBI to reinvestigate 2023 White House cocaine find and leak of supreme court Dobbs draft

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Agency also announced new inquiry into pipe bombs found outside Democratic and Republican offices in 2021

The FBI will launch new investigations into the 2023 discovery of a bag of cocaine at the White House during Joe Biden’s term, as well as into pipe bombs discovered at Democratic and Republican party headquarters before the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot by supporters of Donald Trump, and the leak of the supreme court’s draft opinion before the historic overturning of national abortion rights with the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.

Dan Bongino, a rightwing podcaster turned deputy director of the FBI, made the announcement on X, where he said he had requested weekly briefings on any progress in looking into the old cases. The incidents have been popular talking points on America’s political right wing and among conspiracy theorists.

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Comey says ‘8647’ post that caused Trump firestorm was totally innocent

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Former FBI director describes as ‘crazy’ claim that seashell photo on Instagram signified assassination call

James Comey went for a walk on the beach with his wife when they stumbled on a message in the sand: 8647.

According to the former FBI director, his wife wondered if it was an address. They stood over the seashells, trying to decipher meaning. His wife, according to Comey’s account, recalled her days as a server, and said 86 was the term used to remove an item from the menu. Comey chimed in that when he was a kid, “86” meant “to ditch a place”.

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FBI using polygraph tests to identify sources of internal leaks

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Trump administration has been cracking down on people who leak information to the media since January

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Monday it has started using polygraph tests to aid investigations aimed at identifying the source of leaks emanating from within the law enforcement agency.

“We can confirm the FBI has begun administering polygraph tests to identify the source of information leaks within the bureau,” the bureau’s public affairs office told Reuters in a statement.

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Democrats decry Wisconsin judge’s arrest as Republicans call to remove her

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Governor Tony Evers takes aim at White House’s ‘dangerous rhetoric’ as Republican Tony Wied demands Dugan resign

The FBI’s arrest of Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan has triggered strong reactions from Republican and Democratic politicians, as the Trump administration veered closer to direct confrontation with the judiciary over its crackdown on immigration.

Following the Milwaukee county circuit judge’s arrest on Friday, over allegations that she helped a man evade US immigration officers at her courthouse, Republicans have called for her removal while Democrats regard her arrest as a reflection of the administration’s increasing disregard of judicial independence amid its push to deport immigrants on an enormous scale.

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Doge breaks into US Institute of Peace building after White House guts board

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Remaining members of board – Pete Hegeth, Marco Rubio and Peter Garvin – fire president of independent non-profit

The Trump administration fired most of the board of the US Institute of Peace (USIP) and sent its new leader into the Washington DC headquarters of the independent organization on Monday, in its latest effort targeting agencies tied to foreign assistance work.

The remaining three members of the group’s board – defense secretary Pete Hegseth, secretary of state Marco Rubio and national defense university president Peter Garvin – fired president and CEO, George Moose, on Friday, according to a document obtained by the Associated Press.

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Neo-Nazi group plots rebuild as Trump’s FBI chief takes helm, audio reveals

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Exclusive: Terrorist group the Base appears defiant as new administration aims to deprioritize threat from far right

An international neo-Nazi terrorist group with origins in the US appears to be quickly rebuilding its global and stateside ranks, according to information obtained by the Guardian from its digital accounts.

Founded in 2018, the Base has been the intense focus of a years-long FBI counter-terrorism investigation that has resulted in more than a dozen of its members arrested. It has plotted an assassination, mass shootings and other actions in Europe, which made it a proscribed terrorist organization in several countries.

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