John M Patarini says in letter to New York Times he is ‘disgusted with the president’s actions’ after Trump pardons
The mass shooting in Baghdad for which Donald Trump pardoned four American mercenaries was “a massacre along the lines of My Lai in Vietnam”, the lead FBI investigator in the case said, pronouncing himself “disgusted with the president’s actions”.
Related: 'Our blood is cheaper than water': anger in Iraq over Trump pardons
Continue reading...Mystery surrounds the motivation behind the detonation of an apparent bomb on the streets of downtown Nashville that rocked Tennessee’s biggest city on Christmas morning as investigators continued to comb the wreckage for clues.
Three people were lightly injured in the blast and some possible human remains have been found near the site of the RV that exploded and caused serious damage to Nashville’s historic core. But it is not clear if or how the remains are linked to the incident.
Continue reading...‘Significant and ongoing’ cyber attack, suspected to be the work of Russia, poses a grave risk to ‘critical infrastructure entities’ as well
The US government continues to reel from a large and sophisticated hacking campaign that affected top federal agencies, including the energy department, the treasury and commerce departments, and is even said to have targeted the agency responsible for the country’s nuclear weapons stockpile.
Authorities expressed increasing alarm over the hack, suspected to be the work of Russia, warning that it poses “a grave risk” to federal, state and local governments, as well as “critical infrastructure entities”.
Continue reading...Eight people have been charged with conspiring to work on behalf of China’s government in a plot to coerce a Chinese family in the US to return to their home country to face charges.
Five of the individuals charged, including an American private investigator, were arrested on Wednesday in New Jersey, New York and California. The rest are believed to be in China, top justice department officials said in a news conference.
Continue reading...In rare news conference, the director of national security says Iran has sent spoofed emails to intimidate voters
Russia and Iran have obtained some US voting registration information and are attempting to sow unrest in the upcoming election, the government’s national intelligence director said in a rare news conference Wednesday night.
“We have already seen Iran sending spoofed emails, designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest and damage President Trump,” said John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence.
Continue reading...Members of anti-government paramilitary groups discussed kidnapping Virginia governor Ralph Northam during a June meeting in Ohio, an FBI agent testified on Tuesday during a court hearing for a group of men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor.
Related: How the domestic terror plot to kidnap Michigan's governor unravelled
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When a reporter asked Trump about his comments on the Proud Boys last night, the president asked for a “definition” of the extremist far-right group.
Trump says he does "not know who the Proud Boys are," but they should "stand down and let law enforcement do their work."
(He said they should "stand by" last night.) pic.twitter.com/kgi2R8DgN9
Trump just spoke to reporters on the South Lawn before leaving for Minnesota, where he will hold campaign events this evening.
Addressing his comments last night on the Proud Boys, Trump claimed he did not know who the extremist far-right group was.
Related: Trump's refusal to condemn white supremacy fits pattern of extremist rhetoric
Continue reading...Donald Trump’s original draft statement justifying his firing of the former FBI director James Comey was “tinfoil helmet material”, according to a top prosecutor who worked for the special counsel Robert Mueller, and who in a new book calls the draft “excruciatingly juvenile, disorganized and brimming with spite, incoherent and narcissistic”.
Related: Mueller too timid in Trump-Russia investigation, top prosecutor claims
Continue reading...Peter Strzok was removed from Russia investigation and fired by the FBI over text messages critical of Trump
Donald Trump is “compromised by the Russians”, a former member of Robert Mueller’s investigation insisted on Sunday, contending that the president is “incapable of placing the national interest ahead of his own”.
Related: Trump attacks Robert Mueller's 'hit squad' in row over 'wiped' phones
Continue reading...US diplomat David Hale calls for a thorough and transparent investigation into the blast
A team of FBI investigators is due to arrive in Lebanon this weekend to take part in the investigation into Beirut’s explosion, a senior US official has said, after visiting the location of the blast.
David Hale, the US undersecretary of state for political affairs, called on Saturday for a thorough and transparent investigation. He said the FBI team was taking part at the invitation of Lebanese authorities in order to figure out what caused the 4 August explosion that killed nearly 180 people and wounded thousands.
Continue reading...Christopher Wray condemns campaign against ex-pats and says Beijing espionage is ‘greatest threat to US economic vitality’
Chinese agents have been pursuing hundreds of Chinese nationals living in the US in an effort to force their return, as part of a global campaign against the country’s diaspora, known as Operation Fox Hunt, the FBI director has said.
Related: Apple under pressure to act after TikTok pulls out of Hong Kong
Continue reading...Ghislaine Maxwell, the close friend of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has been charged over her 'critical role' in helping the now late billionaire groom underage victims and for lying under oath.
Maxwell was accused by many women of recruiting them to give Epstein massages, during which they were pressured into sex.
Continue reading...Maxwell had kept a low profile and her whereabouts were unknown since Epstein’s arrest last July on sex trafficking charges
Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and close friend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has been arrested, an FBI spokesman has said.
Maxwell was accused by many women of recruiting them to give Epstein massages, during which they were pressured into sex. Those accusations, until now, never resulted in criminal charges.
Continue reading...A top FBI lawyer who was criticised on Fox News for his role in the investigation of Michael Flynn has resigned after being asked to do so by senior figures at the Department of Justice, NBC News reported on Saturday.
Related: What is 'Obamagate' and why is Trump so worked up about it?
Continue reading...Attorney for family of black jogger shot by white men says federal authorities are looking into prosecutors and police in case
The FBI is investigating the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a black jogger, by two white men as a possible hate crime, the Arbery family’s attorney said Monday, claiming that federal authorities had launched a criminal inquiry into two district attorneys and the police department involved in the case.
Lee Martin, who represents the family of Arbery, 25, whose 23 February killing in Brunswick, Georgia, was captured on a graphic video recording that sparked national outrage, said he met with officials from the Department of Justice last Thursday.
Continue reading...The FBI has offered a $1m reward for the arrest and prosecution for those responsible for the kidnapping of US citizen Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle, eight years ago in Afghanistan.
The offer of a reward for their captors is the latest twist in the protracted saga of Coleman and Boyle, who were the subject of intense media scrutiny following their dramatic rescue in 2017 – and a subsequent trial over allegations of abuse by Boyle.
Continue reading...Donald Trump continued to fume over the Russia investigation on Sunday, more than a year after special counsel Robert Mueller filed his report without recommending charges against the president but only three days after the justice department said it would drop its case against Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser.
Related: Kayleigh McEnany - the 'acceptable' face of Trumpism who infuriates liberals
Continue reading...Christopher Wray defended encryption in 2015 as a lawyer, contradicting his current opposition to the practice
Christopher Wray, the FBI director who has been one of the fiercest critics of encryption under the Trump administration, previously worked as a lawyer for WhatsApp, where he defended the practice, according to new court filings.
The documents, which were released late on Wednesday night as part of an unrelated matter, show Wray worked for WhatsApp in 2015 while he was an attorney for the Washington law firm of King & Spalding.
Continue reading...Not a day has been spent in jail nor a penny paid in compensation for the brutal murder of a 14-year-old boy in Mississippi that helped spark the civil rights movement
Thelma Wright Edwards knows this is the last chance for justice for Emmett Till. The next few weeks and months will determine whether there will ever be closure for her beloved cousin “Bobo”, as the family affectionately call the child.
The Guardian has learned that a reinvestigation of the boy’s murder that has been carried out by the FBI over the past three years could be wrapped up in weeks. For Thelma and the rest of the Till family, a decades-long struggle for justice is fast approaching its conclusion.
Continue reading...Attorney general asserts that investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia was ‘without basis’, despite evidence
William Barr has said without evidence that he believes the Russia investigation that shadowed Donald Trump for the first two years of his administration was started without any basis and amounted to an effort to “sabotage the presidency”, he said in an interview with Fox News Channel that aired on Thursday.
The attorney general offered no support for his assertion that the FBI lacked a basis for opening the investigation and made no mention of the fact that the bureau began its investigation after a Trump campaign adviser purported to have early knowledge that Russia had dirt on his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
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