Levinson disappeared 13 years ago after being sent on a mission to Kish island by CIA analysts who had no authority to do so
Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007, died in Iranian custody, according to a statement from his family.
The statement said Levinson’s family received the news from US officials but did not know how or when he died, only that his death preceded the coronavirus outbreak that has ravaged Iran.
Continue reading...US lawyer Gloria Allred, who is representing several of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers has admitted arranging an American-style school bus to drive through different parts of London, including past Buckingham Palace, with a message on the side asking Prince Andrew to speak with the FBI.
Andrew has so far failed to respond to FBI approaches in the ongoing investigation into Epstein and his abuse of underaged girls
Continue reading...Andrew has said he is ‘angry and bewildered’ and denies reports that he has been contacted about the Jeffrey Epstein investigation
Claims made this week that Prince Andrew failed to respond to an FBI investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking conspiracy were likely issued by US investigators as an appeal for political support, former sex crime prosecutors say.
Earlier this week, US attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman took the extraordinary step of announcing from the steps of Epstein’s Upper East Side mansion in New York, that prosecutors and the FBI had repeatedly contacted the Duke of York’s lawyers to follow up on his previous pledge that he was “willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency”.
Continue reading...Amazon founder interviewed as FBI conducts inquiry into Israeli firm linked to malware
Jeff Bezos met federal investigators in April 2019 after they received information about the alleged hack of the billionaire’s mobile phone by Saudi Arabia, the Guardian has been told.
Bezos was interviewed by investigators at a time when the FBI was conducting an investigation into the Israeli technology company NSO Group, according to a person who was present at the meeting.
Continue reading...The white supremacist group the Base has been a target of FBI raids and its members accused of planning a race war. The Guardian can now reveal the identity of its secretive leader
The Guardian has learned the true identity of the leader and founder of the US-based neo-Nazi terror network the Base, which was recently the target of raids by the FBI after an investigation into domestic terrorism uncovered their plans to start a race war.
Members of the group stand accused of federal hate crimes, murder plots and firearms offenses, and have harbored international fugitives in recent months.
Continue reading...Trainees not involved in attack but reportedly accused of having extremist links or possessing child abuse images
The US will expel at least a dozen Saudi military students accused of extremist links and possessing child sexual abuse images, after an investigation into a shooting rampage by a Saudi officer in Florida, according to media reports.
In December Mohammed Alshamrani, who was in the US as part of a Saudi military training program, opened fire in a classroom at the Pensacola naval air station, killing three sailors and wounding eight other people before being shot dead by police.
Continue reading...James Comey, the former director of the FBI who has become a prime nemesis of Donald Trump, admitted on Sunday to being responsible for “real sloppiness” over the handling of surveillance of a Trump campaign adviser.
Related: The lies have it: Republicans abandon truth in Trump impeachment defence
Continue reading...Inspector general Michael Horowitz defends report that found FBI investigation into 2016 Trump campaign was justified – follow live
Two sources told CNN that the whistleblower whose account led to the impeachment inquiry is prepping for a potential subpoena from the Senate to testify. Donald Trump and his allies have made thinly veiled threats to the whistleblower, who is still anonymous, making some question the safety of revealing the whistleblower’s identity. Here’s more from CNN:
A subpoena would put the whistleblower in uncharted territory, and raise the risk that his or her identity could come out in the course of the trial in the Senate -- where, unlike in the Democrat-led House, some Republicans have expressed a desire to hear from the whistleblower. ...
Depending on how senators structure their likely trial, a subpoena could compel the whistleblower to cooperate with anything from written questions to a closed-door interview in a secure location to a public hearing that would expose the whistleblower’s identity.
Friendly reminder that the House judiciary committee’s debate on the two articles of impeachment will begin tonight at 7pm. Reports say that House Democrats plan to vote on each article separately.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said there will be separate House votes on each article of impeachment when they go to the floor next week, even though the articles are written into a single resolution, per @jeremyherb
Continue reading...The former MI6 officer Christopher Steele had a “personal” relationship with Ivanka Trump and gifted her a “family tartan from Scotland” as a present, the long-awaited report by US Department of Justice inspector general, Michael Horowitz, revealed on Monday.
Horowitz’s review of the FBI’s 2016 investigation into Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign and its links with Russia includes fresh details of Steele’s interactions with the FBI, and startling claims about his relationship with the Trumps dating back to the period before he wrote a controversial dossier on Trump.
Continue reading...Giuliani says of 2016 remarks implying he spoke to ‘active’ FBI agents: ‘I mean they are not old men, they can still do things’
Rudy Giuliani offered the FBI an extraordinary – and seemingly implausible – explanation for “misleading” remarks he made on television just a month before the 2016 election about a “surprise” that could derail the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Related: Rudy Giuliani says Trump will stay loyal to him but jokes that he has 'insurance'
Continue reading...The former FBI director James Comey joked he would move to New Zealand if Donald Trump was re-elected in 2020. Comey worked for the Obama administration, caused a storm over Hillary Clinton's emails in 2016 and was fired by Trump in May 2017. He also said US leaders 'can't be people who lie all the time'
Continue reading...Investigators have confirmed 50 of the homicides to which Samuel Little has confessed
The FBI is asking for the public’s help in identifying dozens of victims of the man who has confessed to strangling 93 people, claims the agency says are credible and make him the most prolific serial killer in US history.
Investigators who have interviewed Samuel Little at a Los Angeles-area prison say they have confirmed 50 of the homicides he admitted to carrying out between 1970 and 2005 and have released videotapes of his jailhouse confessions as they investigate the remaining killings.
Continue reading...A member of the US military has been arrested after he allegedly discussed plans to bomb a news network, suggested targeting the Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke and explained how to make an improvised explosive device, or IED.
The FBI charged Jarrett William Smith, a soldier stationed in Kansas, with distributing information related to explosives and weapons of mass destruction.
Continue reading...Josh Campbell worked for James Comey – his book is a must-read indictment of the ‘mob boss’ in the White House
Few people had better seats than Josh Campbell for the drama that has shaped the Trump presidency. A supervisory special agent at the FBI, he was special assistant to James Comey and stayed on into Robert Mueller’s first year as special counsel.
Related: Whistleblower's mysterious complaint over Trump sparks feverish speculation
Continue reading...Expert says financier’s death may reduce legal issues with evidence as search begins
The FBI has raided Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, in a further sign the death of the financier will not halt scrutiny of his alleged sex trafficking crimes.
Mobile phone footage broadcast by NBC news showed agents arriving on Little Saint James, in the US Virgin Islands, on Monday morning.
Continue reading...Court filing says Trump and Hope Hicks spoke to Michael Cohen often as Daniels in 2016 threatened to go public with story of affair
Donald Trump and his press secretary were directly involved in discussions that led to an illegal hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign, according to the FBI.
Related: Senior Democrats voice fears over Ilhan Omar's safety – live
Continue reading...Prosecutors allege Inzerillo clan was seeking to rebuild power base in Palermo with help from allied New York-based Gambino family
Italian and US police have launched a coordinated crackdown on a Sicilian mafia family that was seeking to rebuild its power base after years of exile in the United States, Italian investigators said on Wednesday.
More than 200 police, including officers from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), arrested 18 people in Sicily as part of their investigation into the Inzerillo clan in the island’s capital Palermo and the allied New York-based Gambino family.
Continue reading...President claims he would have no obligation to call the FBI, contradicting bureau director he appointed
Donald Trump has said he would be open to accepting damaging information on a 2020 election opponent from another country, adding that he would feel no obligation to inform the FBI.
“I think you might want to listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening,” Trump said in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday. “If somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said] ‘we have information on your opponent’ oh, I think I’d want to hear it.”
Continue reading...The US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has questioned the FBI over a potential double standard for perpetrators of violent extremism. She said Muslim mass killers tended to be charged with terrorism while massacres by white supremacists were considered only to be hate crimes. ‘Doesn’t it seem that because the perpetrator was Muslim that the designation would say it’s a foreign organisation?’ Ocasio-Cortez asked the assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division Michael McGarrity, to which he responded: 'That’s not correct.' Ocasio-Cortez then asked him if white supremacy was not a global issue. 'It is a global issue,' the FBI official responded. 'So why are they not charged with foreign terror?'
Continue reading...Bannon, then Trump’s closest adviser, told FBI officials to put their past differences with the White House ‘behind them’
Steve Bannon urged two senior FBI officials to put their differences with the White House “behind them” at a meeting in 2017, on the day after Donald Trump asked James Comey, the then head of the FBI, to pledge his loyalty to the president.
The exchange, which occurred on 28 January 2017 and has never been publicly disclosed, offers new insights into the ways in which senior White House officials, including Bannon, Trump’s closest adviser at the time, sought to ensure the FBI saw itself as an ally of the White House.
Continue reading...