Tag Archives: FBI

THE TWITTER FILES: Twitter… The FBI Subsidiary, by Matt Taibbi

The latest installment in the Twitter Files, from Matt Taibbi at zerohedge.com:

In the latest release of ‘THE TWITTER FILES,’ journalist Matt Taibbi details how Twitter acted as a ‘subsidiary’ of the FBI.

As a reminder, parts 1-3 of the series covered respectively, Twitter’s decision to interfere in the 2020 election by censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story, how the company created secret blacklists, and how they justified removing former President Donald Trump despite internally agreeing that he didn’t break any rules (parts one, two and three).

Take it away, Matt:

Continued:

3. Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary.

4. Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.

5. Some are mundane, like San Francisco agent Elvis Chan wishing Roth a Happy New Year along with a reminder to attend “our quarterly call next week.” Others are requests for information into Twitter users related to active investigations.
 
6. But a surprisingly high number are requests by the FBI for Twitter to take action on election misinformation, even involving joke tweets from low-follower accounts.

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From the Twitter Files: Twitter, The FBI Subsidiary, by Matt Taibbi

It is clear that Twitter was acting as an agent for the FBI. From Matt Taibbi at taibbi.substack.com:

The latest documents show, in bulk, the grotesque master-canine relationship between the FBI and Twitter

Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
1. THREAD: The Twitter Files, Part Six TWITTER, THE FBI SUBSIDIARY

The Twitter Files has to be the craziest story in the history of journalism. There’s new drama every three minutes, it seems. The latest development had my phone blowing up with queries from multiple outlets. These included the New York Times and the Washington Post, two papers which didn’t call after the original story (although the Post, amusingly, did take time to temporarily label me a “conservative journalist”) but are suddenly hot for comment now.

The new controversy is over the apparent banning of a series of high-profile journalists, including Middlebrow Retweet Specialist Aaron Rupar and the post-ESPN, post-MSNBC, Fangoria version of Keith Olbermann. I’m against the banning of journalists and will be happy to say so in this case once I’ve had time to look at it — I haven’t — but I’m beyond puzzled that media writers seem to think this has anything to do with me. I don’t work for Elon Musk, and I’m not his keeper. I’m just a journalist working a story, and the piece published today — “Twitter, The FBI Subsidiary” — I think moves the needle forward significantly on an unrelated, more important topic.

A few housekeeping notes. One, the weekly America This Week podcast with the incomparable Walter Kirn is coming, later tonight (we discuss the FBI story). Also, I’ll be posting today’s Twitter thread tomorrow morning (please excuse me for not having it ready tonight, I feel like I haven’t slept for a year). Lastly, I’m hoping sometime this weekend to have another story out, explaining in greater detail what we’re finding and what we think it means.

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The Seth Rich Case Gets Richer, by Lloyd Billingsley

The Seth Rich case is a story many Washington insiders would like to stay buried, but there are so many loose ends that one day the truth may emerge. From Lloyd Billingsley at amgreatness.com:

The FBI claims the second computer of the slain DNC staffer is not an “actual record.” Oh, really?

“The FBI not only has possession of a laptop computer owned by slain Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer Seth Rich,” the Epoch Times reports, “but a report detailing forensic imaging of what’s being described as Rich’s work computer.” 

The revelation came in a three-page forensic report about an “outside entity” working on imaging Rich’s work computer, also a laptop. According to the Epoch Times, that report “was among four documents that had never been disclosed by the FBI in relation to Rich’s case.” 

Seth Rich was the DNC’s voter expansion data director. On July 10, 2016, the 27-year-old was gunned down in Washington, D.C. Police called it a street robbery gone wrong, but the shooters did not take Rich’s wallet, watch, or phone. Weeks after the murder, as the BBC reported, “Wikileaks published 20,000 emails obtained from Democratic National Committee computers via an anonymous source.”

According to prominent Democrats, that was all part of Donald Trump’s supposed collusion with Russia. With that ploy exposed as a hoax, the people have cause to wonder. With Rich’s personal laptop, the FBI wants 66 years—a proxy for “never”—to produce data the bureau previously denied it even possessed. With Rich’s work laptop, the bureau is taking obstructionism to a new level. 

FBI records boss Michael Seidel is claiming that the computer is only a physical object, not an “actual record,” and therefore not subject to the Freedom of Information Act request from Texas resident Brian Huddleston. His attorneys want the Obama-appointed Judge Amos Mazzant to order the release of the information from the personal and work computers of murder victim Rich.

As it happens, those are not the only devices the FBI is harboring. 

On February 21, 2020, the body of Philip Haney, author of See Something Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad, was “found deceased” in Amador County, California. He was killed by a gunshot to the chest. 

 
 

 

The Amador sheriff “reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist in analyzing documents, phone records, numerous thumb drives and a laptop that were recovered from the scene and Mr. Haney’s RV. Those items and numerous other pieces of evidence were turned over to the FBI. The FBI has performed a forensic examination of these items. We expect to receive these reports within the next few weeks.”

Two years later, the Amador sheriff reported no new information on the case, and the FBI has yet to reveal what was on Haney’s laptop, thumb drives, and such. As with Seth Rich, the material could be of great interest to the public.

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Tucker Carlson Asks the Right Question: “Could It Be That Twitter Is Actually an Intelligence Gathering Apparatus and Propaganda Tool”, by Sundance

Twitter is an adjunct of the intelligence community. From Sundance at theconservativetreehouse.com:

Tucker Carlson hits the bullseye in a late show segment discussing the framework of the Twitter social media company.   Stunningly, Carlson is the first person to ask the question that we have outlined for years, it is the essence of how Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop evolved. {Direct Rumble Link}

“It’s all pretty weird. Could it be that while the rest of us imagined that Twitter was a social media site … could it be that Twitter was actually, maybe primarily, a propaganda tool and intelligence gathering apparatus for a variety of intel agencies?”  ~ Tucker Carlson

Yes. Exactly this. Yes.  It’s not that DHS had a factual portal into Twitter, now confirmed.  It’s the likelihood that DHS took over the operation of Twitter and controlled every element of it.  That would explain why profits and losses were never part of the viability equation.  DHS controlling background Twitter operations is the essential baseline for Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop.   Well done Tucker Carlson. WATCH:

Once you change your reference point and review the Twitter File release from a different perspective, things make sense. DHS doesn’t operate on the backbone of Twitter, in this scenario Twitter is operating on the backbone of DHS. The information and content on Twitter exist, or not, by the permission and authority of the national security state, DHS.

Influencing public opinion takes on the priority. Created narratives, established by media partners, can be enhanced or throttled (think Russiagate). Public perceptions can be uplifted or deemphasized. Political candidates can be boosted or dismissed.

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Elon Musk Fires Twitter General Counsel James Baker for Manipulating and Filtering Twitter File Release – “His explanation was unconvincing”, by Sundance

The FBI had a mole in plain sight at Twitter. No more. From Sundance at theconservativetreehouse.com:

Yesterday, we speculated publicly the first set of “Twitter Files” released was heavily pre-filtered by internal stakeholders connected to DHS who hold a vested interest in controlling any evidence of Twitter’s former political activity.

Knowing there are multiple executives remaining within the company who previously aligned with the intents of government, specifically DHS officials, to control the platform, the prediction was not a stretch. Indeed, it just made common sense.

Former FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker, a man of notoriously corrupt disposition, was one of those former government officials who started working for Twitter as general counsel.  James Baker (pictured below left) working as a government mechanism for filtration of damaging information was not a leap. Again, just common sense.

Today, as an outcome of internal discoveries that indeed Jim Baker did prefilter internal documents in order to mitigate sunlight and exposure [outline here], Twitter CEO Elon Musk fired legal counsel James Baker.

Mr Musk said through his Twitter account, “In light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue, he was exited from Twitter today.”  Mr. Musk followed up a question about James Baker being asked to explain himself by saying, “His explanation was …unconvincing.”

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The FBI and Zero-Click, by Andrew P. Napolitano

The FBI is bound and determined to use an Israeli device that allows it to download a target’s computer or mobile device (without a warrant, naturally) and is lying about it. From Andrew P. Napolitano at lewrockwell.com:

During the Trump administration, the FBI paid $5 million to an Israeli software company for a license to use its “zero-click” surveillance software called Pegasus. Zero-click refers to software that can download the contents of a target’s computer or mobile device without the need for tricking the target into clicking on it. The FBI operated the software from a warehouse in New Jersey.

Before revealing any of this to the two congressional intelligence committees to which the FBI reports, it experimented with the software. The experiments apparently consisted of testing Pegasus by spying — illegally and unconstitutionally since no judicially issued search warrant had authorized the use of Pegasus — on unwitting Americans by downloading data from their devices.

When congressional investigators got wind of these experiments, the Senate Intelligence Committee summoned FBI Director Christopher Wray to testify in secret about the acquisition and use of Pegasus, and he did so in December 2021. He told the mostly pliant senators that the FBI only purchased Pegasus “to be able to figure out how bad guys could use it.” Is that even believable?

In follow-up testimony in March 2022, Wray elaborated that Pegasus was used “as part of our routine responsibilities to evaluate technologies that are out there, not just from a perspective of could they be used someday legally, but also, more important, what are the security concerns raised by those products.” More FBI gibberish.

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House Republicans Offer Preview Of Upcoming Investigations In Scathing Indictment Of DOJ, FBI, by Tyler Durden

Hope springs eternal that someday somebody will conduct an honest investigation that actually leads to someone’s incarceration. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee released a massive report on Friday detailing whistleblower disclosures about the politicization of the Justice Department (DOJ) and FBI under Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

According to the report, Garland has been a “willing participant of the Biden Admin’s weaponization of law enforcement,” while the FBI has “abused its law-enforcement authorities for apparently political purposes.”

What followed was a laundry list of incidents and whistleblower reports illustrating how politicized federal law enforcement has become.

What’s more, the report shows that the FBI has been inflating domestic extremism figures to fit an agenda.

One of the most significant findings of the report showed that the FBI has been encouraging its agents to artificially inflate the number of domestic violent extremism (DVE) incidents.

For years, Democrats—including President Joe Biden—have claimed that DVE events comprise one of the largest threats to American national security. Specifically, Democrats have blamed conservatives and “white supremacists” for most such incidents.

During the 116th Congress, Democrats even went so far as to propose a bill that would substantially bolster DOJ resources to combat DVE. –Epoch Times

“White supremacists and other far-right-wing extremists are the most significant domestic terrorism threat facing the United States,” reads the bill.

According to the whistleblowers, however, “FBI leadership is pressuring line agents to reclassify cases as domestic violent extremism even if the matter does not meet the criteria.”

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New Email Reveals Answer To Establishment’s Efforts To Oust Trump, by Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke

A newly discovered email uncovers a whole host of previously unknown lies and destroying what’s left of the narrative. From Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke at The Epoch Time via zerohedge.com:

An FBI email previously not known to the public has revealed that the bureau planned to make Igor Danchenko—the primary source for British former spy Christopher Steele’s Trump dossier—a confidential human source (CHS) before it had even interviewed him. 

(L–R) Former FBI agent Peter Strzok; former FBI Director James Comey; and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. (Getty Images/Illustration by The Epoch Times)

The revelation, which was discovered as a result of special counsel John Durham’s case against Danchenko, indicates that the FBI deliberately targeted 2016 presidential candidate and later President Donald Trump with claims it already knew at the time to be false.

The email—of which only the subject line has been made public—was first uncovered by an internet sleuth who goes by the moniker “Walkafyre” and was included in hundreds of unused exhibits from Danchenko’s trial.

The FBI used Danchenko—who was acquitted last week on all charges of lying to the FBI—in its investigation of Trump, despite knowing that Danchenko had helped fabricate the dossier.

With the benefit of this new information, a renewed examination of the timeline between the Nov. 8, 2016, presidential election and the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller on May 17, 2017, reveals that the FBI—with the help of the Obama administration and Washington establishment figures—executed a concerted campaign to oust a sitting president.

Email Reveals FBI’s Plan for Danchenko

The newly discovered email was sent by FBI agent Kevin Helson to unknown recipients on Jan. 12, 2017. The email’s heading reads “Plan to Convert Danchenko into CHS.”

This email is critical for several reasons. It shows that the FBI intended to hide Steele’s main source behind CHS status after they had previously discovered Steele couldn’t back up the claims in his dossier despite their offer of $1 million to him for any corroboration. As a CHS, Danchenko also would be shielded from any external investigations—including those of Congress.

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The Case for Dismantling the FBI, by Charles C. W. Cooke

The FBI was a bad idea from the start. From Charles C. W. Cooke of The National Review at archive.ph:

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) delivers an opening statement in Washington, D.C., December 11, 2019. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

The bureau is a violent, expansionist, self-aggrandizing, and careless outfit that sits awkwardly within the American constitutional order.

In the New York Times this week, Bret Stephens complained that, in unholy conjunction with the Department of Justice, the FBI had disgraced itself yet again with its public smear of Representative Matt Gaetz. “I don’t like Gaetz’s politics or persona any more than you do,” Stephens told a characteristically bewildered Gail Collins. “But what we seem to have here is a high-profile politician being convicted in the court of public opinion of some of the most heinous behavior imaginable—trafficking a minor for sex—until the Justice Department realizes two years late that its case has fallen apart.”

Which . . . well, yeah. That’s what the FBI is for. Last week, a whistleblower named Kyle Seraphin told the Washington Times that the FBI had adopted “an entirely ridiculous internal process for determining every single national priority.” One must ask: “ridiculous” from whose perspective? Relative to the FBI’s stated mission, its behavior does indeed look “ridiculous.” Relative to its historical conduct, its behavior seems pretty standard. What the FBI did to Matt Gaetz is precisely what it did to Donald Trump. And what it did to Donald Trump is what it’s been doing since it was founded: namely, spying on, or attempting to discredit, anyone who irritates the powers that be.

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Federal Bureau of Intimidation, The Government’s War on Political Freedom, by John and Nisha Whitehead

The FBI has evolved into an American Gestapo. From John and Nisha Whitehead at rutherford.org:

“In so many of the little places of everyday life in which life is lived out, somehow democracy doesn’t exist. And one of the creeping hands of totalitarianism running through the democracy is the Federal Bureau of Investigation… Because why does the FBI do all this? To scare the hell out of people… They work for the establishment and the corporations and the politicos to keep things as they are. And they want to frighten and chill the people who are trying to change things.”—Howard Zinn, historian

Discredit, disrupt, and destroy.

That is how the government plans to get rid of activists and dissidents who stand in its way.

This has always been the modus operandi of the FBI (more aptly referred to as the Federal Bureau of Intimidation): muzzle anti-government sentiment, harass activists, and terrorize Americans into compliance.

Indeed, the FBI has a long history of persecuting, prosecuting and generally harassing activists, politicians, and cultural figures.

Back in the 1950s and ‘60s, the FBI’s targets were civil rights activists, those suspected of having Communist ties, and anti-war activists. In more recent decades, the FBI has expanded its reach to target so-called domestic extremists, environmental activists, and those who oppose the police state.

Back in 2019, President Trump promised to give the FBI “whatever they need” to investigate and disrupt hate crimes and domestic terrorism, without any apparent thought for the Constitution’s prohibitions on such overreach.

That misguided pledge sheds a curious light on the FBI’s latest nationwide spree of SWAT team raids, surveillance, disinformation campaigns, fear-mongering, paranoia, and strong-arm tactics.

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