FBI Reportedly Opens Formal Investigation Into Letitia James Over Mortgage Fraud Allegations
'Mortgage fraud allegations'
President Donald Trump's Department of Justice announced Wednesday the results of a nationwide sting led by the FBI.
Operation Restore Justice was a five-day joint effort between 55 FBI field offices, the DOJ's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, and United States Attorney's Offices across the country.
'In Washington, D.C., a former Metropolitan Police Department police officer was arrested for allegedly trafficking minor victims.'
The operation resulted in the rescue of 115 children and the arrest of 205 alleged child sexual abuse offenders.
The suspects were charged with a number of crimes against children, including the production, distribution, and possession of child sexual abuse material, the DOJ stated.
"In Minneapolis, for example, a state trooper and Army reservist was arrested for allegedly producing child sexual abuse material while wearing his uniforms. In Norfolk, VA, an illegal alien from Mexico is accused of transporting a minor across state lines for sex. In Washington, D.C., a former Metropolitan Police Department police officer was arrested for allegedly trafficking minor victims," the department said.
The FBI's Charlotte field office reported that it nabbed six people across North Carolina. One arrested individual, previously convicted of sexual battery and a registered sex offender, was charged with sex trafficking of a minor. If convicted on all counts, the suspect could face up to life in prison.
FBI Cleveland arrested 11 individuals, Boston arrested seven, Newark arrested five, and Baltimore arrested three.
FBI Director Kash Patel explained that some of the alleged offenders included teachers and law enforcement personnel.
Patel said, "Every child deserves to grow up free from fear and exploitation, and the FBI will continue to be relentless in our pursuit of those who exploit the most vulnerable among us."
"Operation Restore Justice proves that no predator is out of reach and no child will be forgotten. By leveraging the strength of all our field offices and our federal, state and local partners, we're sending a clear message: There is no place to hide for those who prey on children," he added.
The DOJ credited "parental vigilance and community outreach" for the successful sting operation.
Attorney General Pam Bondi called the operation "historic" and "unprecedented."
"The Department of Justice will never stop fighting to protect victims — especially child victims — and we will not rest until we hunt down, arrest, and prosecute every child predator who preys on the most vulnerable among us," Bondi stated. "I am grateful to the FBI and their state and local partners for their incredible work in Operation Restore Justice and have directed my prosecutors not to negotiate."
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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced last month the formation of the Director's Initiatives Group, a new task force dedicated to ending the weaponization of the federal government.
In addition to declassifying and releasing the John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. assassination files, Gabbard indicated that the DIG had set about reviewing other documents for potential declassification, including information related to "the Biden administration's domestic surveillance and censorship actions against Americans."
One of the documents declassified under this initiative has provided critical insights into how the stage was set in 2021 for the Biden administration's subsequent treatment of traditional Catholics and concerned parents who spoke out at school board meetings as potential terrorists.
A memo titled "Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism" assigned the FBI, the Department of Justice, and other agencies various tasks with the overarching aim of countering perceived domestic terrorism and violent extremism. The memo was reportedly developed by the FBI, the DOJ, and Biden's National Security Council.
The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Counterterrorism Center were directed, for example, to provide state and local law enforcement agencies with resources "that cover relevant iconography, symbology, and phraseology used by many domestic terrorists, as well as data-driven guidance on how to recognize potential indicators of DT-related mobilization."
One such "resource" appears to have been the FBI's "Domestic Terrorism Symbols Guide," which associated the Betsy Ross flag, the Gadsden flag, the Gonzales cannon with accompanying "Come and Take It" caption, Revolutionary War imagery, and Second Amendment-related imagery with "Militia Violent Extremism."
'A broad brush to start spying on Americans.'
The declassified memo also tasked the Domestic Policy Council with driving "executive and legislative action, including banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines"; reining in the "proliferation of 'ghost guns'"; mitigating "xenophobia and bias" in COVID-19 responses; and supporting "interventions to foster resiliency to disinformation."
Lawmakers and legal experts suggested to Just the News that the more concerning element of the memo was its apparent loosening of the requirements for opening criminal and national security investigations — a drop in standards that may have helped pave the way for fishing expeditions into groups disfavored and/or critical of the Biden administration.
Whereas for decades FBI agents needed "an articulable factual basis" that "reasonably indicates" a crime or a threat has or will occur in order to launch an investigation, experts told Just the News that the memo substantially lowered that standard such that behavior deemed "concerning" was sufficient to begin probing.
The memo tasked the DOJ and the FBI with DHS to "enhance public understanding of the role of federal law enforcement in responding to incidents of concerning non-criminal behavior."
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) told Just the News that the memo amounted to "merely a broad brush to start spying on Americans."
'The types of tools and responses that they have been making for people who are engaged in some type of violence actually applied to non-violent individuals.'
"It doesn't have to be criminal, for sure. But it doesn't have to be heterodox," said Biggs. "It just has to be something that some agent, or some local agent, says, 'Oh, we got a beef about this. We're going to check it out.'"
"It's spying on Americans," added Biggs, "violating the Fourth Amendment."
John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, told "John Solomon Reports" that "back in June 2021, the Biden administration put out its plan for dealing with domestic terrorists. The one that they put out at that time talked about how they were going after criminal activity. And of course, everybody, anybody who's espousing violence or trying to or committing violence, one wants the government to get a handle on that."
"What Tulsi Gabbard declassified was the rest of the document that was there," continued Lott. "What was shocking to me is that the types of tools and responses that they have been making for people who are engaged in some type of violence actually applied to non-violent individuals, non-criminal activity."
The FBI's scrutiny of conservative Catholics appears to have been prompted not by past or anticipated crimes but by "concerns" regarding "non-criminal behavior."
The House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government revealed in a 2023 report titled "The FBI's Breach of Religious Freedom: The Weaponization of Law Enforcement Against Catholic Americans" that the FBI field office circulated an internal memo in January 2023 warning that violent extremists are attracted to "radical traditionalist Catholic ideology."
The committee report stated, "Under the guise of tackling the threat of domestic terrorism, the memorandum painted certain 'radical-traditionalist Catholics' (RTCs) as violent extremists and proposed opportunities for the FBI to infiltrate Catholic churches as a form of 'threat mitigation.'"
"There was no legitimate basis for the memorandum to insert federal law enforcement into Catholic houses of worship," said the committee's report. Nevertheless, "this single investigation became the basis for an FBI-wide memorandum warning about the dangers of 'radical' Catholics."
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Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and several other Republican lawmakers were practicing for a charity baseball game on June 14, 2017, when a leftist terrorist took aim at them and opened fire. Alexandria police officers and U.S. Capitol police officers were able to permanently neutralize the shooter, a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — but not before he hit Scalise and three others.
Days after the shooting, the FBI acknowledged that the shooter, James Hodgkinson, had repeatedly espoused "anti-Republican views"; identified six members of Congress as targets; prepared for months; and ensured that the individuals on the field were Republicans before his attack. However, the FBI concluded there was "no nexus to terrorism" and ultimately spun the attack as suicide by cop.
A newly released congressional report claims that the bureau "used false statements, manipulation of known facts, and biased and butchered analysis to support a narrative that Hodgkinson committed suicide by cop without any nexus to domestic terrorism."
The majority staff report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released Tuesday noted that years after this mischaracterization, "based upon no new information or evidence gathering, the FBI changed its previous decision that this case was a purely criminal matter involving suicide by cop," and recognized the attack as a "domestic terrorism event."
'This report definitively shows the FBI completely mishandled the investigation.'
"The FBI arrived at the obvious conclusion four years too late," continued the report. "Unfortunately, the timing of the changed position indicates politics rather than Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity by an agency that should be guided by an apolitical commitment to uphold the Constitution."
Scalise, who took a bullet to the hip and suffered fractured bones, damaged organs, and severe bleeding, said in a statement, "This report definitively shows the FBI completely mishandled the investigation into the Congressional baseball shooting of 2017 — ignoring crucial and obvious facts in order to sell a false narrative that the shooting was not politically motivated."
Scalise thanked FBI Director Kash Patel and the committee "for finally getting to the truth of the matter: this was a deliberate and planned act of domestic terrorism toward Republican Members of Congress."
Patel enabled the committee to review the FBI case file, which congressional investigators received in two tranches, altogether amounting to roughly 4,400 pages.
Congressional investigators determined on the basis of the case file that the FBI investigation failed to substantively interview eyewitnesses to the shooting, failed to develop a comprehensive timeline of events, and improperly classified the file at the Secret level, "which may have assisted the FBI in obfuscating its substandard investigative efforts and analysis."
'Based upon one erroneous factual conclusion and two false premises.'
The House report also picked apart the FBI's preferred narrative as well as some of the bureau's public statements, noting for instance that:
The committee recommended that Patel figure out how the FBI arrived at its 2017 decision to frame the attack as suicide by cop — as well as whether then-acting Director Andrew McCabe or another senior leader pushed for that conclusion.
The committee also suggested the possibility of pursuing legislation that "establishes criminal liability for the politicization of intelligence analysis."
Democrats on the committee agreed with the majority's finding that the shooting was a "domestic terror attack motivated at least in part by political animus" and suggested the FBI should have made that determination sooner. However, the Democratic members cast doubt on whether political considerations factored into the FBI's failure to immediately recognize the attack as domestic terrorism and advocated against considering criminal charges against intelligence analysts.
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