Federal Prosecutors Spied on Congress in Search for Leaks, Now DOJ Is Being Investigated for It

Several current and former congressional oversight staff have been recently informed that the U.S. Justice Department seized their phone and email records back in 2017 as part of leak investigations, belated revelations that have touched off an inquiry by DOJ’s internal watchdog and raised serious concerns about the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.

Over the last week, several current and former Senate and House staff from both political parties have alerted Congress that they received belated notifications from Apple, Google or other Big Tech firms that their email or phone records were obtained from their personal devices via a grand jury subpoena.

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DOJ Inspector General Has No Answer to How Many in Government Can Spy on Americans Through ‘Backdoor’ Searches

Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz could not answer how many people in the federal government can use the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on Americans through backdoor searches when Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz asked him at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Thursday.

FISA Section 702 enables intelligence agencies to carry out targeted surveillance of foreigners outside the U.S., but they have improperly used it on Americans. There were 3.4 million backdoor searches in 2021, according to an Office of the Director of National Intelligence 2022 Transparency report.

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TikTok CEO Dodges on Whether Company Will Cease ‘Spying’ on Americans

TikTok CEO Shou Chew dodged questions Thursday about whether tactics by parent company ByteDance used to “spy” on American journalists could be used to target more Americans.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington questioned Chew on reporting by Forbes that staff at ByteDance used TikTok data last year to surveil journalists who were covering the company, gaining access to their IP addresses to track whether they had been in proximity to ByteDance employees.

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Pro-Life Group Alleges the FBI Is Spying on Its Operations

Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy and Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for answers about the FBI’s alleged spying on a pro-life group.

Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) alleges that an FBI informant infiltrated and recorded their meeting on Jan. 19 at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. The individual believed to be an informant, who goes by the name Eric Mike Santos, wasn’t personally known to other attendees, the group said in its Feb. 22 press release.

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Michigan Supreme Court Could Decide Warrantless Government Drone Spying Lawsuit

An appeal filed with the Michigan Supreme Court says the government must get a warrant before it can surveil private property for evidence.

The Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, says the government violated the Fourth Amendment when it used warrantless drone surveillance to snap pictures of Todd Maxon’s 5-acre property in Long Lake Township where he repairs cars, as proof of zoning violations.

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Arizona AG Brnovich Discusses Settlement with Google over Deceptively Obtaining Users’ Location Data for Profit

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has sued numerous big players throughout his two terms, including the Biden administration, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, Arizona State University, and the City of Tucson. Perhaps the biggest entity he sued was Google in 2020, for “deceiving consumers” by tracking their location on smartphones without their knowledge and then selling the information. After over two years of litigation, the tech giant capitulated, settling for $85 million, more than the country of Australia snagged in a similar settlement with Google, $60 million. 

The first attorney general in the country to sue Google over the practice, Brnovich told The Arizona Sun Times that what prompted him in part to file the complaint was the shocking extent of how much personal information was obtained. “Google knew more about where you were going and who you hung out with, more than your travel agent or spouse,” he said. He found out about the practice after a news article revealed that Google was tracking users through its app preloaded on Android smartphones even after they’d disabled their “Location History” setting. Google was told to stop and did not.

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‘Coordinated Campaign on a Grand Scale’: US, UK Spymasters Issue Dire Warning on Chinese Espionage

by Micaela Burrow   Heads of intelligence agencies in the U.S. and UK warned against a widespread Chinese espionage campaign in a unique joint statement Wednesday. FBI Director Christopher Wray and MI5 Director General Ken McCallum addressed an audience of leaders in business and academia outside of the MI5 headquarters to rally against what McCallum called a “coordinated campaign on a grand scale.” The two warned of escalating Chinese attempts to steal data and technology from UK and U.S. innovators and disrupt the nations’ economies. “The most game-changing challenge we face comes from the Chinese Communist Party,” said McCallum. “The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology—whatever it is that makes your industry tick—and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market,” said Wray, according to The Wall Street Journal. “They’re set on using every tool at their disposal to do it.” Wray said in February that the FBI opens a new investigation into alleged Chinese espionage every 12 hours, according to NBC News. China represents the “biggest long-term threat” to security for the U.S. and its western allies, Wray said, according to Fox News. #FBI, @CISAgov, and @NSAGov issued a #CybersecurityAdvisory about the ways in which People’s Republic of China state-sponsored #cyber…

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Lesko Joins Letter Demanding Info on CDC’s Location-Tracking of Americans During Lockdown

A U.S. congresswoman from Arizona has signed onto a letter with her House of Representatives colleagues demanding information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding the organization’s data collection during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I joined [Rep. Kelly Armstong (R-ND)]’s letter to CDC Director Walensky to demand answers about the CDC’s legal authority to obtain Americans’ location data. This violates the rights of Americans!” Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08) said. 

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Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson: Trump ‘Endured Eternal Coup’ During Presidency

Ron Johnson

On the heels of massive news proving that former President Donald Trump was intentionally and falsely maligned as a Russian asset and that he was spied upon by intelligence agencies during his 2016 election campaign and his subsequent presidency, one senator took to Fox News in an attempt to set the record straight. 

“For many years now, as I’ve investigated this, I’ve always thought the Russian Hoax was just one intelligence community diversionary operation to basically cover up what they had done during the 2016 campaign,” Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) told host Jesse Watters on Fox News.

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Tucker Carlson: A Whistleblower Warned Me That the NSA Has Been Spying on My Communications

Fox News host Tucker Carlson Monday night accused the Biden administration of spying on him in an attempt to find something scandalous to leak that could get him taken off the air.

Carlson told his audience that the “War on Terror” under the Biden Regime had pivoted, and was now “being waged against American citizens—opponents of the Regime.”

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Commentary: TikTok is Just the First Chinese App the Trump Admin is Eyeing for Crackdown Over Spying

TikTok Social Media

Two days after President Trump told reporters that he plans to ban TikTok from the United States, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested in an interview with Fox News that executive action may soon be taken against many other apps owned by Chinese firms.

Trump remarked to journalists aboard Air Force One on Friday that he could ban TikTok “with an executive order,” suggesting that the president has made up his mind about the popular short video platform. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDance, has been at the center of a months-long debate over whether the data that it collects from American users could be exploited by China’s government.

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American Paul Whelan Convicted of Spying in Russia, Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison

A Russian court convicted an American corporate security executive Monday of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in prison after a closed trial that the U.S. denounced as a “mockery of justice,” and it angrily said his treatment in jail was “appalling.”

Paul Whelan, a former Marine from Novi, Michigan (pictured above), has insisted he was innocent, saying he was set up when he was arrested in Moscow in December 2018 while he was visiting Russia to attend a friend’s wedding.

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Commentary: The FBI’s Darkest Hour

by Adam Mill   One can imagine the unspoken question hanging in the darkness during the January 2017 ride back to the airport. A small gaggle1 of FBI agents had just concluded their long-overdue interview with Christopher Steele’s primary sub-source. The silence must have been deafening. Steele had tried to conceal2 his source from the FBI. But the FBI knew his identity and set up an interview behind Steele’s back, and the interview contradicted several Steele assertions. The downcast agents waited for somebody to ask the question on all of their minds: “Now what?” The right answer would have been to admit to the court that Steele was an unreliable source who exaggerates and lies and put an end to spying on Americans in pursuit of the mirage of Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia. When presented one last opportunity to do the right thing, the FBI instead pushed harder for their now-discredited hypothesis justifying the investigation. Peter Strzok had promised his lover, Lisa Page, he would “save” the country from Donald Trump. Given a choice between bringing the FBI back into the light of the Constitution or the darkness of blind hatred of Donald Trump, the conspirators choose darkness. It was at…

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UCLA Professor Found Guilty of Conspiring to Steal US Missile Guidance Technology for China

by Ethan Cai   A jury found an electrical engineer and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) professor guilty of exporting stolen U.S. military technology to China. UCLA adjunct professor Yi-Chi Shih was convicted June 26 on 18 federal charges, Newsweek reported, and could now lose hundreds of thousands of dollars, while also facing up to 219 years behind bars for numerous violations of the law. These include conspiracy to break  the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), committing mail and wire fraud, lying to a government agency, subscribing to a false tax return, and conspiring to gain unauthorized access to information on a protected computer, according to a Department of Justice news release. Shih and co-defendant Kiet Ahn Mai tried to access illegally a protected computer owned by a U.S. company that manufactured semiconductor chips called monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). MMICs are used by the Air Force and Navy in fighter jets, missiles and missile guidance technology, and electronic military defense systems. The chips were exported to Chengdu GaStone Technology Company (CGTC), a Chinese company, without a required Department of Commerce license. Shih previously served as the president of CGTC, which made the Commerce Department’s Entity List in 2014 “due to its involvement…

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Barr Says Official Explanation for Trump Surveillance Isn’t Adding Up

by Chuck Ross   Attorney General William Barr says that official statements about the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation “are just not jiving” with information he has learned during his short stint in office. “I assumed I’d get answers when I went in and I have not gotten answers that are well satisfactory, and in fact probably have more questions,” Barr said in an interview with CBS News, adding that “some of the facts that…I’ve learned don’t hang together with the official explanations of what happened.” “[T]here’s some questions that I think have to be answered, and I have a basis for feeling there has to be a review of this,” he told CBS. Barr is investigating government agencies’ surveillance activities against the Trump campaign, as well as the FBI’s rationale for opening a counterintelligence investigation against Trump associates in July 2016. Barr caused a stir during a Senate hearing on April 9 when he said that he believed that “spying did occur” against the Trump campaign. He has since defended using the term “spying,” saying that there is nothing wrong with intelligence agencies spying. But he said he wants to find out whether there was a proper predicate for…

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One America News Network’s Neil McCabe Joins The Tennessee Star Report to Talk About the Consequences of the Mueller Report

  On Tuesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Gill and Leahy talked to One America News Network’s Neil McCabe about how the tide is about to turn on the Democrats as the Mueller Report conveniently leaves out incriminating information begging for investigations. Towards the middle of the show, McCabe advised that Attorney General William Barr is appointing a US attorney to look into the origins of the FBI probe. Gill: A guy that keeps his eyes on the stories here in and nationally is Neil McCabe with One America News Network. You can find it I know on DirectTV because I’ve got it on mine. If you don’t have it on yours, demand that they add it to your cable network. Or just call Neil and he’ll tell you whatever story it is. We’ll give you his cell number. Is that ok Neil? We’ll just give people your cell number and they just call you directly and get the news. McCabe: Yeah, whatever. (Gill chuckles) Call just to say whatever’s on their mind or talk about whatever’s gong on. Gill: Then…

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Commentary: The Real Reason Democrats Went Nuts Over AG Barr’s Testimony

by George Ralsey   Democrats and their allies in the Leftwing media went nuts after Attorney General William Barr testified that the government did indeed spy on the Trump campaign. “I think spying did occur,” Barr said during an explosive hearing before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. “The question is whether it was adequately predicated. …Spying on a political campaign is a big deal.” Barr later clarified in the hearing: “I am not saying that improper surveillance occurred; I’m saying that I am concerned about it and looking into it, that’s all,” reported Gregg Re and Brooke Singman of Fox News. These reactions, cited by James S. Robbins in an opinion column for USA Today, are exemplary of the Democrats’ panicked effort to quash any investigation by the Attorney General: Democratic Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, took immediate issue with Barr’s word choice, saying “the word ‘spying’ could cause everybody in the cable news ecosystem to freak out.” NBC News’ Chuck Todd said this was a “conspiracy theory” for which there was “zero factual basis.” Furious Democrats on Capitol Hill denounced Barr for even raising the issue. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, (D-NY), tweeted that Barr should “retract his statement immediately…

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Barr: ‘I Think Spying Did Occur’ Against Trump Campaign

by Chuck Ross   Attorney General William Barr dropped a bombshell Wednesday, telling a group of senators that he believes spying against the Trump campaign did take place in 2016. “I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” Barr said during an exchange with Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Shaheen asked in a follow-up whether Barr believed the FBI spied on the Trump team. “You’re not suggesting, though, that spying occurred?” Shaheen asked. “I think spying did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur. But the question is whether it was predicated, adequately predicated,” Barr said. “I’m not suggesting it wasn’t adequately predicted, but I need to explore that.” Barr was discussing his plans to investigate the FBI’s decision to open a counterintelligence investigation against Trump campaign associates. The bureau used confidential informants and relied heavily on the Democrat-funded Steele dossier as part of the investigation, which was code-named Crossfire Hurricane. President Donald Trump and other Republicans have dubbed the counterintelligence probe “Spygate,” especially regarding the FBI’s use of an informant named Stefan Halper. Halper, a former Cambridge professor, made contact with at least three Trump campaign advisers, Carter…

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