FBI Docs Reveals Trump’s Would Be Assassin Contacted Butler Officials Before The Attack
'had two email communications' from Crooks'
The AI boom is turning public meetings into crime scenes
Big Tech companies helped censor Americans during COVID. Now many of the same interests pillaging rural America for surveillance data centers want to suppress debate over their next great project. This time, they are not merely trying to censor speech. They are helping create the pretext to criminalize it.
Federal and state law enforcement should have their hands full with real threats: jihadist networks, political assassinations, attacks against ICE, and the growing culture of left-wing violence that led to Charlie Kirk’s murder. Yet last week, Wired obtained documents showing a coordinated effort among the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, and roughly 80 regional fusion centers to monitor supposed anti-tech and anti-data-center violence.
It is disgraceful to watch law enforcement silence Americans on behalf of Big Tech.
More than 1,000 pages of internal DHS, FBI, and fusion-center reports describe “anti-technology extremism” as an emerging domestic threat based largely on a handful of unverified threats against politicians. No one should excuse genuine threats or violence. But the idea that data-center opponents have created a domestic threat requiring this level of federal coordination is absurd. It is gaslighting dressed up as intelligence work.
This is the same logic behind the Trump administration’s decision to station marshals with surveyors for data-center transmission lines in Carroll County, Maryland. The point was not to respond to credible threats. The point was to frame opposition — especially in one of Maryland’s most conservative counties — as dangerous before the debate even began.
Which brings us to Dixon, Illinois.
Last week, resident Harley Delander organized a Facebook protest outside the home of former state Rep. Tom Demmer (R), who is now promoting a 387-acre data-center site through the Lee County Industrial Development Association. People can debate the prudence of protesting at an official’s residence, though such protests have become common in local disputes. But police produced no credible evidence that Delander or his friends planned violence.
Delander was arrested outside his home 12 hours later and charged with two felonies: intimidation and stalking. Police said his communications “knowingly and willfully” caused fear for Demmer and his family’s safety. Delander recorded the arrest.
This reflects a growing trend: criminalizing sharp public debate based on how a public official claims to feel rather than what a citizen actually did.
A Massachusetts resident was sentenced to prison and spent a full year behind bars before trial for writing angry emails to a local Michigan politician. The emails were ugly — the sort of language elected officials receive every day — but they contained no personal threats or even veiled threats. He was extradited to Oakland County, Michigan, in December 2023 and charged under Michigan’s law against intimidating public officials, which hinges on whether the “victim” felt “terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested.”
RELATED:After fierce debate, Trump opts for federal controls in AI development
We have reached the point where heated political debate — a tradition as old as Adams and Jefferson — can become grounds for abridging the First Amendment. What a way to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence!
The crackdown is not limited to nasty emails or home protests. Across the country, law-abiding rural residents, many of them seniors, are getting roughed up or arrested for speaking too long or objecting too loudly at data-center hearings.
On February 17, Oklahoma farmer Darren Blanchard exceeded his three-minute speaking limit by a few seconds at a Claremore City Council town hall on “Project Mustang,” a proposed AI data center backed by Beale Infrastructure. Once his time expired, he stopped speaking and walked to the rostrum to give the city manager a written copy of his remarks. For that, police handcuffed and removed him, transported him to Rogers County Jail, and booked him on criminal trespassing charges.
In April, Imperial County, California, resident Ismael Arvizu was arrested and charged with trespassing, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, and threatening a public official. Did he attack an official? No. After speaking during his allotted time at an Imperial County Board of Supervisors meeting, Arvizu applauded when another resident threatened to start a recall petition against the supervisors. The Los Angeles Times reported that an officer led him out and arrested him, and prosecutors charged him with threatening a public official.
In Midland, Texas, video shows a resident calmly calling for a point of order under meeting rules at a data-center meeting. He was immediately grabbed and removed from the room. He does not appear to have been arrested or charged, but the point remains: Police increasingly seem prepared to remove data-center opponents before their speech, outbursts, or objections would traditionally qualify as disrupting a meeting.
RELATED: Self-driving trucks are about controlling the roads — not making them safer
This is happening in deep-red counties across America. It is disgraceful to watch law enforcement silence Americans on behalf of Big Tech.
Recently, the Intercept obtained a law-enforcement bulletin from a fusion center housed within the Philadelphia Police Department showing that federal authorities were monitoring anti-data-center social media posts for “domestic violent extremists.” The bulletin warned that “domestic violent extremists” were “likely interested in targeting artificial intelligence data centers,” posing physical and cyber threats to infrastructure in the Philadelphia region. Then it conceded that authorities lacked “specific information on plans to target AI data centers in the Philadelphia area.”
That is the whole game. Invent a vague threat, inflate it into a domestic extremism category, and use it to justify surveillance, intimidation, and arrests. Then pretend ordinary citizens are dangerous because they object to surrendering their land, power, and communities to Big Tech.
The irony is hard to miss. Governments at every level are deploying censorship, surveillance, and criminal enforcement to service an agenda built on surveillance, data extraction, and control.
Talk about paying for the rope to hang ourselves!
Mike Pence Enabled DOJ Lawfare So Of Course He Opposes Restoring Its Victims
Pence is entitled to oppose compensating victims of lawfare. What he is not entitled to do is pretend he had no role in creating them.276 arrested, 89 children rescued in massive child sex crime sweep; FBI reveals 'critical' tips for parents to keep kids safe
Nearly 100 children were rescued and almost 300 people were arrested as part of a sweeping law enforcement operation against child exploitation in Texas, according to authorities.
The FBI on Friday revealed the results of Operation Soteria Shield — a "coordinated law enforcement effort focused on rescuing children from online sexual exploitation and bringing offenders to justice."
'Every single day, this FBI is moving more aggressively than ever before to destroy child predator networks and save innocent victims all over the country.'
"Investigators, analysts, digital forensic examiners, prosecutors, victim advocates, and child advocacy partners worked together to identify offenders and protect vulnerable children," the FBI Dallas branch stated.
The joint operation included almost 200 law enforcement personnel from agencies across Texas. Key participants included the FBI's Dallas North Texas Child Exploitation Task Force, the North Texas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Dallas Police Department, the Plano Police Department, the Wylie Police Department, and the Garland Police Department.
Between March and April, Operation Soteria Shield aimed to expose "offenders who exploit children through online platforms, social media, messaging applications, and other digital environments."
The FBI said, "Investigators pursued individuals involved in the possession, distribution, production, or promotion of child sexual abuse material, online solicitation of minors, trafficking, sexual assault, and other child exploitation-related offenses."
As a result of Operation Soteria Shield, 276 people were arrested for child exploitation and 89 children were rescued.
"Investigators also worked to locate children who were being exploited, identify previously unknown victims, and connect children and families with appropriate services," the FBI said.
The FBI noted that the cases in Operation Soteria Shield remain active, and "additional charges may be filed as forensic examinations and follow-up investigations continue."
FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News, "Every single day, this FBI is moving more aggressively than ever before to destroy child predator networks and save innocent victims all over the country, and today’s brilliant numbers out of FBI Dallas and partners are the latest milestone in that righteous mission."
FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock said, "Together, we were able to make a significant impact in the ongoing battle against predators who exploit children in our communities."
Dallas Police Department Chief Daniel C. Comeaux added that these are "not victimless crimes" and that they can "leave lasting trauma on children and families."
Plano Police Department Chief Ed Drain said the operation has "changed lives."
"Every child deserves to grow up safe, protected, and free from exploitation," Drain remarked. "This operation reflects our shared commitment to defend children wherever abuse occurs, whether that is in a home, on a device, or through an online platform."
Wylie Police Department Chief Anthony Henderson proclaimed, "What is done in the dark will be brought to the light."
"Through the coordinated efforts of all participating agencies, hundreds of predators have been identified and removed from our communities," Henderson continued. "This operation reflects our collective commitment to protecting children and pursuing those who seek to exploit or harm them."
Garland Police Department Chief Jeff Bryan added, "Protecting our most precious resource, our children, from online exploitation requires vigilance, strong partnerships, and a relentless commitment to pursuing those who seek to harm them."
Operation Soteria Shield is part of Operation Iron Pursuit — the FBI's nationwide effort to locate victims of child sex abuse and detain child sex predators.
The Department of Justice said in a statement last month that "more than 200 child victims were located and over 350 child sexual abuse offenders were arrested" as a result of Operation Iron Pursuit.
The DOJ highlighted the rescue of a 10-year-old in Utah with a transgender parent and partner during Operation Iron Pursuit.
The child was supposed to be on a camping trip with a transgender parent, partner, and another child. The group instead flew from Canada to Mexico and then to Cuba; concerns existed that the 10-year-old child was taken to Cuba for gender reassignment surgery. FBI Victim Services Division assisted with the recovery of the children, providing crisis support and stabilization.
Law enforcement officials are advocating for parents and guardians to remain vigilant by talking openly with children about online dangers.
Authorities stress that caregivers should "monitor digital activities" and "report suspicious communications."
"Online child exploitation often begins with seemingly ordinary digital contact, and early reporting can be critical to stopping abuse and identifying victims," the FBI declared.
Anyone with information about child exploitation is urged to contact local law enforcement, contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov, or contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at cybertipline.org.
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Foreign 'Fauci acolyte' and his African crony charged with smuggling monkeypox onto American soil
A pair of foreigners employed at a controversial U.S. biolab were charged on Tuesday with conspiracy to smuggle monkeypox onto American soil and giving false statements to federal law enforcement.
Vincent Munster — a 53-year-old Dutch citizen who is the chief of the virus ecology section at Rocky Mountain Laboratories, a National Institutes of Health Biosafety Level 4 research facility in Hamilton, Montana — and one of his underlings, a 38-year-old Cameroonian national named Claude Kwe, were caught by Customs and Border Patrol officials with a black case allegedly full of viral materials at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Jan. 25.
'This is bigger than a customs charge.'
The duo allegedly told CBP agents that the case — which they had traveled with from the Congo, where a major monkeypox outbreak was underway — contained diagnostics and testing equipment. Federal agents discovered, however, that the case actually contained 113 vials in Styrofoam containers, the Justice Department said in a release.
According to the DOJ, an FBI analysis of 20 of the 113 vials showed that 17 contained deactivated monkeypox virus, one contained the chickenpox virus, and two contained human DNA.
Monkeypox is a disease caused by a virus in the same genus as the virus that causes smallpox. While endemic in various African regions, monkeypox made a global play in early 2022. In nearly all Western cases, the disease affects and is spread by homosexuals.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine noted that of the 528 infections diagnosed between April 27 and June 24, 2022, 98% of those infected were homosexuals and that "transmission was suspected to have occurred through sexual activity in 95% of the persons with infection."
Individuals infected with monkeypox often experience a painful rash that can look like pimples or blisters, respiratory problems, exhaustion, fever, swollen lymph nodes, and chills. The disease can be spread via respiratory droplets, through "direct contact with a rash or sores of someone who has the virus," and through "contact with clothing, bedding, and other items used by a person" with the virus.
RELATED: Gain-of-function experiments on hantaviruses? Yes, but virus threat is still MASSIVELY overblown.
Emily Hilliard, a senior Health and Human Services press secretary, told Blaze News that the NIH, which owns Rocky Mountain Laboratories, is cooperating fully with law enforcement and the relevant authorities regarding the case against Munster and Kwe.
Hilliard noted further that the NIH was made aware of the incident at the Detroit airport in January, and agency leaders "immediately activated established agency protocols to safeguard related laboratory facilities, research materials, and biological samples."
These measures apparently included "securing relevant laboratory spaces, restricting access to affected areas, and conducting a comprehensive audit and inventory assessment to verify that all materials were appropriately accounted for, documented, and maintained in accordance with all relevant biosafety policies, requirements, and procedures."
U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. of the Eastern District of Michigan said of the alleged monkeypox smuggling attempt, "These NIH experts apparently broke our laws by smuggling viral pathogens on a packed commercial airplane from an outbreak in the Republic of Congo. Let that sink in."
"Any deliberate effort to conceal and smuggle biological materials into the United States without proper authorization is a breach of the public’s trust and could have placed the public at risk," stated Marcus Sykes, special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
Munster and Kwe each face a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Neither the researchers nor the HHS responded to a request for comment from Blaze News.
Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University alleged of the suspect, "Munster exemplifies the dishonesty, the disregard for biosafety, the disdain for law, and the contempt for the public interest that — after four decades of Anthony Fauci having treated virology as his personal fief and power base — have become pervasive in virology."
Dr. Robert Malone, a biochemist who recently served on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, emphasized that "this is bigger than a customs charge."
"Why does Munster's name matter? In April 2024, Sen. Rand Paul released documents showing Rocky Mountain Laboratories — Munster's facility — was listed as a participant in EcoHealth Alliance's DEFUSE proposal. The same proposal DARPA rejected for posing unacceptable biosafety risks," wrote Malone. "DEFUSE contemplated experiments on novel bat coronaviruses, spike protein manipulation, and insertion of furin cleavage sites. DARPA said no. But NIAID kept funding the same research ecosystem — EcoHealth, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the same scientific objectives. Then COVID emerged in Wuhan."
Munster is currently listed as a senior investigator with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' virus ecology section. In recent years, he has worked on and researched numerous viruses, including SARS-COV-2, the virus behind COVID-19.
Kwe is a research fellow with the NIH's intramural research program.
The two of them have worked together on monkeypox research and are listed as co-authors of a February 2026 study assessing "the risk of clade Ib mpox and our preparedness."
They concluded in their study that "the emergence and current co-circulation of clade Ia, Ib, and clade IIb in Africa, and recent spread of clade Ib mpox in the U.S, Europe, and Asia is a reminder that emerging infectious diseases are global issues that require timely coordinated response."
The foreign researchers noted further that "the global spread of clade IIb and Ib should also be recognized as sentinel events, highlighting essential gaps in pandemic preparedness."
The criminal charges against Munster and Kwe come just weeks after White Coat Waste Project — a watchdog that helped expose EcoHealth Alliance's and former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci's ties to the gain-of-function experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology — obtained and published a damning whistleblower report detailing Munster and Kwe's alleged attempt to smuggle foreign viruses onto American soil.
The whistleblower characterized Munster as a "Fauci acolyte and all around egotistical, arrogant foreigner that joined his research project (to aerosolize covid virus) to Ralph Baric's project (to weaponize it)."
Baric, a professor in the departments of epidemiology and microbiology at the University of North Carolina, is a leading proponent of gain-of-function research who successfully fought for an exemption from the Obama administration's moratorium on the dangerous practice in order to keep manufacturing artificial SARS-like viruses.
In response to a request for comment, Baric directed Blaze News to UNC, which did not immediately respond.
The whistleblower went on to claim that after Detroit authorities "found dozens of vials" in Munster's baggage in January, the NIH "went into full cover-up mode."
Rocky Mountain Laboratories has also been home to additional scandals in recent months.
The NIH recently confirmed to the Ravalli Republic that in November 2025, the facility was exposed to Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, which has a fatality rate of 30% or higher.
"At no time was there any evidence of disease transmission or infection, nor was there ever any risk to staff, caregivers, or the public," said the NIH.
According to the whistleblower, that "exposure" was the result of an infected monkey "that was being tortured (infected and sickened with no pain mitigation) as an experiment for Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic fever."
The NIH did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for comment about the whistleblower's allegations.
On Feb. 18, RML also filed a federal "release/loss/theft" form. An NIH spokesman said it was done "in response to a potential exposure to Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus due to a hole in a glove that occurred while changing cages of laboratory mice."
"There was no release outside of the lab and at no time was there any risk to the public," said the spokesman.
Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana, citing the whistleblower complaint, asked HHS Inspector General March Bell in a May 26 letter to launch a formal investigation "into the safety, security, and personnel practices at RML" and raised alarm about Munster's souvenirs from the Congo.
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Democrats Used The DOJ To Destroy Their Enemies. Restitution For Victims Is The Least We Should Do
The $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund is the first serious attempt in a generation to put a price tag on what the weaponization of justice has cost real people.CIA official allegedly stole $40 million in gold bars for 'work-related expenses' after lying on resume
The FBI arrested a high-level spook last week who was sitting on a veritable treasure trove of allegedly purloined gold bars and cash, altogether worth tens of millions of dollars.
The bureau characterized David Rush in a May 20 federal court filing as a "former Senior Executive Service level employee at a United States government agency" with top secret compartmented information clearance and access to classified information. Sources familiar with the investigation spelled it out further, telling the New York Times that he was, up until recently, a senior CIA official.
'A C.I.A. internal investigation identified potential violations of the law.'
According to the affidavit, there is probable cause to believe that between 2009 and this month, David Rush "knowingly embezzled, stole, purloined, or knowingly converted a thing of value of the United States or received, concealed, or retained the same with intent to convert it to his use or gain, knowing it to have been embezzled, stolen, purloined, or converted, including by obtaining a fraudulently inflated salary and fraudulently obtaining military leave, the value of which exceeded $1,000."
Rush allegedly made several requests to the federal government between November 2025 and March 2026 to obtain a boatload of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for "work-related expenses." The affidavit claims that Rush successfully obtained the gold and cash.
A review of the storage space at the government site where Rush had an office turned up only some of the riches the spy had acquired, according to the affidavit. The government apparently was unable to locate the remainder of the cash and bullion or any record of Rush "providing information to his employer regarding the disposition of the currency or gold bars."
The mystery of the missing treasure was apparently solved on May 18, when the FBI raided Rush's home in the Eastern District of Virginia.
RELATED: DOJ mysteriously drops case against Israeli linked to Chinese fraudster's creepy alleged biolab
Federal agents reportedly seized roughly 303 gold bars, each weighing a kilogram. At the time of writing, a kilo of gold was valued at around $144,900 — meaning that Rush was allegedly sitting on over $43 million in gold alone. Agents also reportedly seized roughly $2 million in U.S. currency and 35 luxury watches, many of which were Rolexes.
Besides allegedly purloining a galleon-load of treasure, Rush has been accused of lying about his credentials and fudging military leave information on his official time sheet.
Citing findings in the FBI's investigation, the affidavit claims that Rush submitted multiple applications for government jobs "containing false information about his education background and work with the United States military." Contrary to his statements, Rush allegedly never attended Clemson University or the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; wasn't a pilot for the Navy; and does not have a Federal Aviation Administration certificate or pilot's license.
"After a C.I.A. internal investigation identified potential violations of the law, C.I.A. Director John Ratcliffe referred the information to the F.B.I. for a law enforcement investigation," the CIA and FBI said in a joint statement.
The FBI arrested Rush on May 19.
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United Airlines pilot allegedly threatens passengers with FBI intervention over Wi-Fi hot spot name
A pilot allegedly threatened to call authorities this month over a Wi-Fi name that was determined to be a potential security threat.
The story came from a person who claimed to have been a passenger on a United Airlines flight that featured an awkward moment when the pilot addressed the travelers and issued a warning.
'You could feel everyone looking around.'
The alleged passenger said the pilot came over the speaker "sounding extremely serious" and said the name of the Wi-Fi hot spot was being interpreted as a potential threat and security issue, Simply Flying reported.
According to the witness, the pilot warned whoever was hosting the network labeled "Free Palestine, F Zionists" had "30 seconds" to disable it or remove it from public view or he was going to have the FBI meet the aircraft when it landed.
"FBI will meet the plane," the passenger recalled hearing.
"The entire cabin got dead silent," the witness alleged in a post on Reddit. "You could feel everyone looking around, trying to figure out who it was."
RELATED: Dear airlines, please stop pitching your credit cards at 33,000 feet
The social media user also claimed that while some of the passengers looked nervous, others were laughing because they thought it was an absurd situation.
The storyteller said it felt like an example of hyper-political-polarization, where regular people are bringing political messaging into almost any situation, causing institutions to react with full force rather than risk missing a warning sign.
The quick escalation is what the storyteller found most startling, noting that there was no request from a flight attendant, but rather a serious public announcement that turned an "edgy hot spot name" into a security issue.
However, it is not irregular for pilots or flight crews to raise the alarm over Wi-Fi names out of an abundance of caution.
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In February, Hungarian airline Wizz Air had fighter jets scrambled during a flight from London to Tel Aviv over a Wi-Fi network labeled "Terrorist" written in Arabic. According to PYOK, security forces were waiting to meet the plane at Ben Gurion Airport.
PYOK also reported on an incident from January when fighter jets from both France and Spain were scrambled over a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Barcelona. This incident related to a network named "I HAVE A BOMB. EVERYONE WILL DIE."
United Airlines did not respond to a request for comment about the recent alleged incident.
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Trump’s anti-weaponization fund puts GOP cowards on trial
Eleven months ago in these pages, I argued that task forces would not cut it. President Trump needed a truth and reconciliation commission.
I noted at the time that the Biden administration oversaw one of the most sweeping campaigns of federal abuse in modern American history. Nearly every major department played a role. A truth and reconciliation commission on political persecution would give Americans what they had long been denied: justice, reconciliation, and a full accounting of the truth.
Trump has created an opportunity to help real victims in a real way. Republicans should not kill it. They should make it work.
In November, Senate Republicans tried the opposite. Rather than compensate everyday victims of federal weaponization, they tried to pay themselves.
The scheme emerged from the Arctic Frost scandal. Senators quietly inserted legislative text into a funding bill to end the government shutdown. The provision would have created a $500,000 cause of action for individual senators for each instance in which investigators seized their data. Some senators could have become millionaires many times over.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) drove the effort and repeatedly went on television to defend it.
I argued then that the surveillance of senators was wrong. It should never have happened. But senators did not face what ordinary Americans endured.
Senators have large campaign accounts to hire top lawyers. They operate from official offices, protected by constitutional safeguards such as the Speech and Debate Clause. They did not lose their homes, jobs, savings, or businesses. But thousands of Americans did. Many still face legal bills, ruined livelihoods, and ongoing cases. They deserve restitution — not the politicians who failed them.
The Oversight Project, my organization, joined the fight. We called out Graham and made the legal, prudential, and political case for compensating the real victims of weaponization. The Senate’s self-dealing provision was eventually pulled, much to Graham’s chagrin.
But the victims remained ignored.
Trump created a better path
That began to change last week. President Trump stepped up in his own unique and unmistakable way.
In January, Trump sued the Internal Revenue Service over a political leak of his tax returns. Those returns, after years of left-wing fixation, revealed nothing especially interesting. Trump sought $10 billion in damages. He recently settled for a far lower amount: $1.776 billion.
RELATED: The anti-weaponization fund is not just for J6. It is for the rest of us too.
But rather than pocket the money himself, Trump directed it toward the creation of an Anti-Weaponization Fund. The fund would be governed by five members empowered to issue monetary settlements to victims of government weaponization.
That act deserves applause. It also deserves protection.
Trump is redirecting money that could have gone to him toward Americans harmed by the government. Conservatives should encourage that kind of selflessness, especially from a president who suffered more than anyone from the weaponization he now seeks to address.
The fund must work
I instantly recognized the historic opportunity the fund presents. I have spent years defending victims of weaponization, investigating government abuse, and advocating restitution. The fund needs to work, and it needs to work well.
For that reason, I threw my hat in the ring to serve as one of its five members. But this column is not about my campaign for that position. It is about the Anti-Weaponization Fund and the bad-faith attacks now aimed at destroying it.
January 6, 2021, became the fulcrum for the left’s assault on civil rights, legal norms, and basic rule-of-law principles. Prosecutors, courts, media outlets, members of Congress, and left-wing activists turned their power against ideological, political, and religious enemies.
In their minds, January 6 gave them moral and political permission to go all the way. They used it to hurt thousands of Americans, including people who had nothing to do with the Capitol riot. Once they saw what their unleashed machinery could do, they lost all shame and restraint.
These victims were my friends, colleagues, and fellow patriots. Some had to sell their homes. Some lost jobs. Some saw their reputations destroyed. Many incurred crushing legal bills.
The so-called conservative legal movement and legacy conservative institutions were largely absent. Too many viewed the targets as a lower-class problem — or worse, as an opportunity to purge the Republican Party of the deplorable MAGA voters they detested.
Republicans funded the machine
The FBI sent agents to question parents at school board meetings. The government pressured social media companies to censor lawful speech on a massive scale. Senators had their phone records secretly subpoenaed. Churchgoers were surveilled. Americans who did nothing more than hold the wrong political opinion found themselves under the microscope of a weaponized federal government.
Republicans in power did worse than nothing. They confirmed Merrick Garland, an obvious case of a scorned partisan with revenge on his mind, as attorney general. As weaponization accelerated, Republicans funded it without restraint.
They also poured billions into the Department of Homeland Security, helping finance a vast network of left-wing nonprofits that moved illegal immigrants into and around the country while providing them with every service imaginable. USAID and other federal agencies served as Democratic patronage networks, funneling money to left-wing projects and make-work jobs.
House Republicans even launched a so-called Weaponization Committee. It barely scratched the surface of its $20 million budget and achieved little.
What did Republican leaders do well? Fundraise and appear on cable television to denounce the very abuses they kept funding.
RELATED: If Congress can’t oversee the FBI, who can?
Now they want to kill restitution
Then, despite the private and public misgivings of much of the establishment, Trump won the presidency again. Much of his campaign rested on addressing the harms inflicted not only on him but on all the Americans targeted by the same regime. On his Agenda 47 promise list, he vowed to “end the weaponization of government against the American people.”
The politicians fell in line. They did not contest the promise then.
Now some Republicans have joined Democrats in threatening to destroy the Anti-Weaponization Fund. Some have even floated refusing to fund central elements of Trump’s presidency, including Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, if that is what it takes to stop the fund.
They are willing to reopen the border rather than let Trump compensate victims of federal abuse. That crosses a line no Republican should approach.
When the government harms people, the government should do what it can to make them whole. Critics may object to the form of the fund. I object to four years of destruction visited upon my friends and allies.
Trump has created an opportunity to help real victims in a real way.
Republicans should not kill it. They should make it work.
The anti-weaponization fund is not just for J6. It is for the rest of us too.
If you think the new $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund is merely a slush fund for January 6 defendants, you are missing the bigger story. And if you are tempted to roll your eyes because of your politics, let me introduce you to my family — and to many other American families whose names you have never heard.
The truth is this: Department of Justice weaponization is rarely about politics. It is almost never about a president. It is about power — who has it, who lacks it, and which private citizens have built warm enough relationships with federal prosecutors to pick up the phone and ask for a favor.
The very existence of a publicly funded process that acknowledges the government can ruin innocent Americans marks a step the country has needed for a very long time.
I learned that the hard way.
In 2020, a former federal prosecutor then working for Amazon Web Services called his old colleagues at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia and asked them to criminally investigate my husband, a former Amazon employee. He did not pitch a murder case. He did not allege a Ponzi scheme. He claimed my husband had violated the terms of his Amazon employment agreement.
Read that again. A private company hired a lawyer to ask the federal government to put my husband in prison over an alleged breach of a corporate HR document.
The Eastern District of Virginia opened an investigation. FBI agents pounded on my door one pandemic morning while my baby sat on my hip in a diaper. Federal prosecutors used civil forfeiture to seize every dollar in our bank accounts. We sold our house, sold our car, and emptied my husband’s retirement account to pay lawyers.
My husband was never charged with a crime. A federal judge later ruled that he had complied with the “explicit terms” of his Amazon contract. The government eventually returned 85% of what it had taken, with no apology and no explanation.
Why did this happen?
The answer has nothing to do with Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Federal prosecutors almost all leave the Justice Department for private practice. The value they bring to big firms lies in their relationships and their institutional know-how. To make partner, you need a book of business. To build that book, you cultivate corporate relationships before you leave government service. Future clients need to know you can call your old colleagues and get movement. That is the currency. That is the game.
RELATED: Conservative lawyer John Eastman punished AGAIN for representing Trump
The lawyer who pushed for the investigation of my husband had spent years as a line prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia. He called the sitting U.S. attorney, his former colleague. The U.S. attorney looped in the criminal chief, who had also worked with Amazon’s lawyer in that same office. In later civil discovery, we obtained an email in which the criminal chief reassured Amazon’s lawyer that she had “specifically selected” her “two best prosecutors” for his client’s “important matter.”
The important matter was a private employment dispute.
Two of the best prosecutors in a major federal district were assigned by name to a corporate HR grievance because the corporation’s lawyer used to work down the hall. Bill Barr once warned that the investigation itself is the punishment: “People facing federal investigations incur ruinous legal costs and often see their lives reduced to rubble before a charge is even filed.” He was right.
And this does not happen once in a blue moon. It happens every day in the 93 U.S. attorney’s offices across the country. It has almost nothing to do with who occupies the White House.
We are not the only ones.
If prosecutors now face some real consequence for promising their ‘best’ people as a favor to old work friends ... maybe a few of them will pause before making the call.
Ask Nevin Shetty, the former chief financial officer of a Seattle start-up. His company hired a former federal prosecutor to bring a criminal case over an investment that lost money. Shetty had moved corporate cash into a stablecoin platform he believed was safe enough to entrust with his own life savings. Then the stablecoin collapsed, erasing $60 billion in four days, and the platform’s founder later pleaded guilty to fraud.
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers called Shetty’s prosecution an “improper attempt ... to stretch the wire-fraud statute beyond its breaking point.” Shetty was convicted anyway and sentenced to two years in federal prison. At bottom, his “crime” was violating company investment policy. The start-up, by the way, had billionaire investors on its board.
Ask Michael Kail, the former Netflix executive. Netflix hired another firm thick with former federal prosecutors to pursue criminal charges over a violation of its “culture deck,” which barred outside advisory work for vendors. He is in federal prison today, separated from his wife and two teenage sons. The start-up founders who supposedly paid him were never prosecuted. Netflix, of course, was founded and run by a billionaire.
Ask Ryan Bloom, the former construction company CEO charged with bank fraud over allegedly false bank invoices. Agents arrested Bloom in front of his young child, who was left alone when they hauled his father away in handcuffs. Later, the judge learned that the prosecutor’s wife worked for the University of Oklahoma, whose president founded and sat on the board of the alleged victim bank. Under that president, her salary had doubled to $310,000, with a $100,000 raise arriving two months before the superseding indictment, even as the university cut costs elsewhere. The court disqualified the prosecutor.
After 18 months of hell, the charges were dismissed. No billionaire required. Just a prosecutor with a personal stake and enough power to wreck a family before anyone checked his work.
Now flip it.
Take billionaire Robert Smith. After a four-year investigation, the government’s top tax prosecutor was prepared to indict him in one of the largest individual tax-fraud cases in American history. Smith had allegedly hidden more than $200 million in income through offshore structures. Instead, he got a non-prosecution agreement. He paid $139 million, admitted to “an illegal scheme,” and walked away a free man, still running his firm, still worth billions.
Compare those ledgers and tell me what you see.
I see a justice system weaponized not mainly by presidents, but by access — by titans of business, by corporations rich enough to hire the right former prosecutors, and sometimes by prosecutors themselves. It is a quiet, daily message to the rest of us: Get in line, or we can ruin you.
And while we are being honest, ask yourself why federal prosecutors did not exactly race to take down Larry Nassar before Olympic gymnasts forced the issue. Or why Jeffrey Epstein secured a sweetheart non-prosecution deal in 2008, even as dozens of women came forward. My theory is simple. No future law firm partnership is built on prosecuting a gymnastics doctor or a sex trafficker. No lucrative book of business waits on the other side. Prosecutors are human. They respond to incentives. Regular American families pay the price.
So no, the anti-weaponization fund is not just for railroaded January 6 defendants. Read the government’s announcement. It contains no partisan requirement for filing a claim. The fund exists, in Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s words, to redress “victims of lawfare and weaponization.” That category includes far more Americans than cable news will admit.
It includes the family that lost their home to civil forfeiture even though no charges were ever filed. It includes the CEO arrested in front of his child over a case later dismissed. It includes all of us who do not have a billionaire’s lawyer on speed dial.
I do not know yet whether this fund will be administered fairly. But the very existence of a publicly funded process that acknowledges the government can ruin innocent Americans marks a step the country has needed for a very long time.
And here is the part that gives me hope. If prosecutors now face some real consequence for promising their “best” people as a favor to old work friends, or for running a case while their own families cash in, maybe a few of them will pause before making the call. Maybe the next family will get to keep their house.
That is worth $1.776 billion of the federal budget. It is worth much more than that.
Ask anyone who has lived it.
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