Capitol Insurrection / rebellion thread

[Breccia]

I mean...yes, it was also Enrique Tarrio too.

Came here to post the same thing.

An attorney for Enrique Tarrio, the head of the Proud Boys, said federal prosecutors were trying to make him a "scapegoat for Donald J. Trump and for those in power." A lawyer for Joe Biggs said the defendants came to Washington because their "commander-in-chief" told them it would "be wild," referring to Trump's infamous tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, that called on supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6.

“‘Be there, it’s going to be wild,’ the commander-in-chief said. And so they did,” Norm Pattis, an attorney for Biggs, told jurors, adding that “their commander-in-chief sold them a lie.”

Tarrio, Biggs and fellow Proud Boys Ethan Nordean, Dominic Pezzola and Zach Rehl each face at least nine counts, including seditious conspiracy, a rarely used Civil War era law. The trial has been underway for more than three months, and jury selection began in December 2022. The government said in closing arguments Monday that the Proud Boys wanted to be "Donald Trump's army" and were "thirsting for violence and organizing for action” ahead of the Jan. 6 attack.

Biggs' lawyer, Pattis, told jurors that "Jan. 6 was a perfect storm" and that Trump played a large role. If "the case of United States v. Donald J. Trump" is ever brought, Pattis said, the "fight like hell" quote would be "exhibit one." But Trump wasn't on trial, he said.

Defense attorney Nayib Hassan, representing Tarrio, also pointed the finger at Trump, saying his anger caused what happened on Jan. 6 and reminding jurors that Trump said “fight like hell” or his supporters weren’t “going to have a country anymore.”

Hassan even partly blamed the membership of the Proud Boys on Trump, saying Trump’s “stand back and stand by” callout to the group brought new attention to the Proud Boys and they grew so quickly that “vetting became difficult.”

First of all, their friends might literally kill them for turning on Trump. We've seen how violent they are. Just ask, you know, them.

Second of all, "I'm not guilty because XXX told me to do the crime" does not work. What does work is "XXX and I conspired to do the crime". If I were to, hypothetically, tell tehdang to go steal a car, and he gets caught doing so, "I blame Breccia, arrest him" will flat-out not work.

I've routinely talked about the issues between the same and split trials. If two different people are both accused of the same crime, and both accuse each other, why it matters if the same jury hears both of them. I think the defense is trying this.

This defense needs to absolutely fail, or "XXX told me to do the crime and I did, that means I'm not guilty" becomes legal precedent. The only way it even has a chance here is the crime is sedition.

Not stealing office supplies.

The Proud Boys are claiming it wasn't sedition, because Trump told them to, and they thought Trump had won the election (plus it wasn't Jan 20th yet). They're claiming it can't be sedition if you're working for the government.

This defense needs to fail too. It needs to fail so hard it catches fire. These Proud Boys were not working as direct government officials. They did not work for the WH. Trump was talking about his re-election, which is not WH business. A political campaign is not the government, even if the candidate is already in office.

"I'm not guilty because Trump told me to do it" should only have one avenue to success: an insanity plea. Which the Proud Boys did not enter.

Burn this defense. Burn it with flames that will warm the gods. It's vile, it's deplorable, and it needs to be made an example of.

- - - Updated - - -

So remember when Trump got caught trying to grab them by the pussy?

"Wrong thread."

Bear with me.

I don’t think you understood what was – this was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it. I apologize to my family. I apologize to the American people. Certainly I’m not proud of it. But this is locker room talk.

Yes, I’m very embarrassed by it. I hate it. But it’s locker room talk, and it’s one of those things. I will knock the hell out of ISIS. We’re going to defeat ISIS...

It was locker room talk, as I told you. That was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it. I am a person who has great respect for people, for my family, for the people of this country. And certainly, I’m not proud of it. But that was something that happened.

I can't remember the part where he said "What I did was wrong"...but, at least he apologized, and we never heard anything about his adultery ever again.

Good times...good times...Ex-Proud Boys chief uses ‘locker room’ defense from jail as case heads to jury

Former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio said that federal prosecutors have unfairly used “locker room talk” against Jan. 6 defendants, echoing a similar defense used by oh dear

Look, I'll spare you the "I'm the real victim here" from conspiring traitors chanting "Hang Mike Pence". Their texts were used against them to show that it was, yes, an organized insurrection, not spur-of-the-moment.

Tarrio, and I'm guessing his fellow co-conspirators, think that

What they were trying to do, what people are trying to do — and this is in general, again, I’m speaking in general — what they are trying to do is manipulate how we talk to each other in the locker room. It’s not fair, it really isn’t.

It’s just not right. It’s not the justice system that we grew up in civics class learning about.

"...which the fuck civics class taught him that, if he didn't like the results of an election, group up with other people and change it by force?"

The part about the literal definition of terrorism, but he missed the day in class where the teacher said terrorism was bad. You know, like ISIS!

Trying to handwave evidence of conspiracy and intent with "locker room talk" sounds really fucking desperate to me. Hypothetical: Endus and myself (arguably two of the least violent people here) meet up and enjoy $200/bottle brandy and smoking expensive cigars. The conversation goes

A: I hear they're making a new Hellboy movie that's going to suck more than the last one.
B: Someone should blow up that studio. It'd serve them right for souring public view of a beloved comic book character.
A: Indeed! *laughs* *smoke rings*
B: *smoke rings*

A little dark, but if nothing happens, that's pretty much the end of it. Now, add this:

A: By the way, here's the bomb I want you to use.
B: So, what do you think, make-up room?
A: No, they're just doing their job. The director's trailer, far northeast corner, by the Nuka-Cola billboard.
B: Gotcha. Keep an eye on the five-o-clock news.
A: *laughs* *smoke rings*

Yeah, that's not just locker room talk. That's specific plans to conspire to commit a really violent crime. Not only should we be arrested if we carry out the plan, we should be arrested for trying.

"Locker room talk" is not mentioned in any Constitution or law book that I know of. Hold on, lemme check the First Amendment again.

Thou shall not grabbeth thine neighbor's p--

Wrong book, but I think you get the idea.

[Edge-]

Wow, page 2! Anyways, more updates!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...azis-rcna82567

The FBI this week arrested a former bureau supervisor in connection with the Jan. 6 riot who they said called for killing officers protecting the Capitol that day.

Authorities arrested Jared L. Wise in Oregon on Monday, court records show. An FBI affidavit says he worked as a special agent and a supervisory special agent at the FBI from 2004 until 2017.

It wasn’t immediately clear what his employment status was at the time of the riot.

Wise was charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly conduct in a restricted building; disorderly conduct with an intent to impede an orderly session of Congress; and unlawfully parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

"I’m former—I’m former law enforcement. You’re disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo. You can’t see it. ... Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!” federal authorities say he told officers before he entered the Capitol. “Yeah, f--- them! Yeah, kill ’em! Kill ’em! Kill ’em! Kill ’em!”

The FBI said that security video showed Wise entered the Capitol through the Senate wing door and that cellphone data confirmed his presence. He later exited out a window, it said.

Exiting out a window, as peaceful tourists do.

Anyways, glad they got another unhinged extremist. Gonna be awkward if he gets interviewed by some former colleagues.

[Drutt]

Four convictions on seditious conspiracy for members of the Proud Boys.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-us-canada-65486602

[Shadowferal]

Maximum sentence of 20yrs I believe.

[Edge-]

Four convictions on seditious conspiracy for members of the Proud Boys.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-us-canada-65486602

I was repeatedly told it was a peaceful bunch of tourists with only a few bad apples who stole office supplies and there was no sedition or seditious conspiracy there at all.

I'm beginning to think those conservatives have been lying!

[Milchshake]

Very serious Law Bros and independent journalists said Sedition Charges were unpossiblE!

[jonnysensible]

lol listened to one of them cry on spaces, get rekt 'im a nice guy the jury can burn in hell'



couldnt be bothered to make it 2 white hands

onwards and upwards

[postman1782]

[QUOTE=Milchshake;54107906]Very serious Law Bros and independent journalists said Sedition Charges were unpossiblE!

When did this moron post this? To think, this loser used to be a decent journalist, like Matt Taibbi, then he started getting money from the Right wing grift machine like Elon, Klandace Owens, and others.

[postman1782]

I fucking wonder how much of the hard-hitting/investigative journalism done by these that swing to grifting was because they were being paid good money to do it, then got so much more being brick-thick mouth pieces. Basically always been for-sale without scruples, just that the payments came from aligned interests until the bigger payments didn’t.

More likely I’m just jaded as fuck, though.

Yeah, Glenn isn't that smart, he just got to a point where he found out he could just make more money to post bullshit instead of being a decent journalist.

[Milchshake]

Very serious Law Bros and independent journalists said Sedition Charges were unpossiblE!

When did this moron post this? To think, this loser used to be a decent journalist, like Matt Taibbi, then he started getting money from the Right wing grift machine like Elon, Klandace Owens, and others.

They were never really decent journalists. Basically a bunch of standard Ron Paul libertarians. People confused their populism for progressivism... thanks MSNBC!

[Breccia]

Four convictions on seditious conspiracy for members of the Proud Boys.

So I know you linked and posted this yesterday, and bravo good catch, but I'm not done pointing out that these people are traitors.

It's time to quote the NYTimes.

Four members of the Proud Boys, including their former leader Enrique Tarrio, were convicted on Thursday of seditious conspiracy for plotting to keep President Donald J. Trump in power after his election defeat by leading a violent mob in attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The fifth defendant in the case, Dominic Pezzola, was found not guilty on the sedition charges, although he was convicted of other serious felonies.

We've discussed this before. Motive matters. Shooting someone because they broke into your house with a weapon isn't murder. Shooting someone who walked through the front door because you invited them is.

Speaking of that last guy:

With the exception of Mr. Pezzola, the men were also found guilty of conspiring to obstruct the certification of the election, which took place at the Capitol on Jan. 6. All five defendants were convicted of a third conspiracy count as well, which accused them of interfering with the duties of members of Congress that day.

On the conspiracy counts alone, the men could face a maximum of nearly 50 years in prison. And they were found guilty of other felonies as well.

Maximum sentence of 20yrs I believe.

20 years was obstruction. These people are lucky it's the 21st goddam century. We used to hang people for this.

The jury’s decision to acquit only Mr. Pezzola of sedition was notable: He was the sole defendant who was not a leader of the Proud Boys, but among the five men he was also the most violent during the Capitol attack.

I guess he wasn't committing sedition because...he was just following orders? I don't care for it but that's what the jury found, so, there we are.

The sedition charge, which is rarely used and harks back to the Union’s efforts to protect the federal government against secessionist rebels during the Civil War, was also used in two separate trials against nine members of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers militia. Six of those defendants — including Stewart Rhodes, the organization’s founder and leader — were convicted of sedition; each of the others was found guilty of different serious felonies.

In a brief statement on Thursday, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland noted that prosecutors had now secured sedition convictions against leaders of both the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and promised to keep the Jan. 6 investigation moving forward.

“Today’s verdicts make clear that the Justice Department will do everything in its power to defend the American people and American democracy,” he said, adding: “Our work will continue.”

Man, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers are both convicted traitors? Man. If only there was a meme for that.

couldnt be bothered to make it 2 white hands

To be fair, this is an excellent picture when talking about people biting off more than they can chew and fucking exploding.

This is a great day for justice. Fuck, this was yesterday. Um, this was a great week for justice. There was sufficient enough evidence that the Proud Boys/Oath Keepers weren't just looking to obstruct justice -- convictions all around -- but to actually overthrow the rightful government of the United States, on purpose.

I hope the sentence ruins their lives. They ruined my country. And I hope what's left of their now proven criminal organizations disperses like smoke from a backfiring F-150 -- a black ugly smudge that draws a lot of attention, creates a bad smell that lingers briefly, but fades forever.

- - - Updated - - -

Peter Schwartz, 49-year-old boomer, given longest sentence yet. 14 years and change for stealing office supplies, namely a folding chair, and throwing it at on-duty police to begin the "murderous" part of the murderous insurrection.

By throwing that chair, Schwartz directly contributed to the fall of the police line that enabled rioters to flood forward and take over the entire terrace

-- prosecutors, in their sentencing request

Schwartz, out of office supplies, then resorted to pepper spray and a wooden club he brought with him on purpose.

By the way:

In their own memo, Schwartz’s lawyers wrote that his actions “were not motivated by any desire for personal financial gain or any other type of benefit” but rather “by a misunderstanding as to the facts surrounding the 2020 election,” and that Schwartz “knew next to nothing about the 2020 election and listened to sources of information that were clearly false.”

Let that sink in, Carlson. Schwartz was one of the first to intentionally commit violence with weapons he brought with him on purpose, because (according to his lawyers saying this under oath) he was misled by the sources of (mis)information he used for election news.

Alternative factly, you could focus on the "knew next to nothing" his lawyers said under oath, and say this man engaged in violence with weapons he brought on purpose for a cause he knew nothing about. If that defense sounds inadequate, it should. But at least it knocked the fine from $75,000 down to $2,000 while he spends 14 years in a federal prison.

Schwartz's other defense options probably would not have worked. Loving, peaceful tourist Schwartz has been convicted 38 times before this. Based on how assuredly he went all-in on "club and pepper spray" I'm going to assume a sizeable proportion of those convictions were violent crimes. Also, Schwartz tried to say he was sorry but the judge specifically and directly said he didn't believe the violent felon.

- - - Updated - - -

DOJ seeks 25-year prison sentence for convicted Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes

Prosecutors said in court papers filed Friday that Rhodes "exploited his vast public influence" as leader of the right-wing militia group to persuade others to attack the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.

"(Rhodes) used his talents for manipulation to goad more than twenty other American citizens into using force, intimidation, and violence to seek to impose their preferred result on a U.S. presidential election," the filing reads. "This conduct created a grave risk to our democratic system of government and must be met with swift and severe punishment."

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who oversaw the Oath Keepers trials, will ultimately decide each defendant's sentence. His sentencings could exceed or fall short of prosecutors' requests.

In the filing, prosecutors warned that the mainstreaming of political violence is an impulse that "threatens our democracy" if left unchecked.

"The justice system's reaction to January 6 bears the weighty responsibility of impacting whether January 6 becomes an outlier or a watershed moment," the filing read.

While Rhodes was convicted of sedition, and labeled a direct threat to democracy itself, there's oddly no word about the office supplies he stole.

[gondrin]

20 years was obstruction. These people are lucky it's the 21st goddam century. We used to hang people for this.

Speaking of this. While I know they won't get the death penalty for this, it would be highly ironic as Trump brought back the death penalty for federal crimes whereas before, they stopped going after capital punishment outside of things like the Oklahoma City bomber, people who orchestrated 9/11 and other mass crimes against humanity.

[Edge-]

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news...r/70201826007/

Related given Wendy Rogers support of all this shit.

She got a restraining order against a journalist recently. It was just tossed out.

Why?

Because Wendy Rogers is a dishonest fraud. Her basis for the restraining order was that the journalist asked her questions on the Senate floor and at her house, which she claimed was harassment and managed to find a judge to agree to.

Obviously that's his literal job, and failing any evidence that she told him to leave an he refused to do so he has every right to show up to her house and knock on the door to ask questions. Just as Rogers admitted she's done tens of thousands of times while campaigning.

Gee, what snowflakes some of these election deniers are.

[Breccia]

Speaking of insurrection, did you know Kari Lake is still trying to overturn 2020?

Lake, who ran the race with Donald Trump's endorsement, was defeated by Democrat Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes but refused to concede to her rival. She filed a legal challenge against the election results, claiming that alleged irregularities in Maricopa County stopped her from winning in the state's most populous county.

Talking with Steve Bannon on Real America's Voice, Lake said Thursday that while "nobody talks about it in the fake news"

Hold on. I have to quote that again.

Talking with Steve Bannon on Real America's Voice, Lake said Thursday that while "nobody talks about it in the fake news"

And one more time.

Talking with Steve Bannon on Real America's Voice, Lake said Thursday that while "nobody talks about it in the fake news"

You know...it takes the fun out of writing jokes when fucking Newsweek decides to go full sarcasm.

"our case is very much alive," adding that she has a hearing in court at 9 a.m. Arizona time on Friday.

The defeated Republican candidate teased that her attorneys will present "evidence" over the alleged misconduct of Maricopa County's officials while verifying signatures on ballot affidavit envelopes. "That's why we're asking the judge, we want to actually open up some other areas of this trial, of this case, because new information has come to light since the earlier time that we were in the lower courts, so we'll see what happens," Lake told Bannon.

"Tomorrow is the other side trying to dismiss the case," Lake said, responding to Bannon's request to clarify what the hearing was about. "But we'll be dropping a lot of evidence and truth bombs that I think will be a little earth-shattering for people tomorrow," she said, encouraging people to tune in to the hearing.

"We are going to be shocking the world with some of the things that we are going to expose in this case. Next week. It's going to be eye-opening for everyone."

Oh, guys, you know what? That article was from yesterday. The court hearing was today, you guys! She presented her earth-shattering truth bombs, you guys! Oh, the evidence, there was a lot of evidence and I missed it!

(searches news sites)

And so did everyone else!

Kari Lake's latest Arizona election bombshell looks like (yet another) dud

"Hey, that's an opinion piece!"

That contains factual information. Besides, if Newsweek can go sarcastic, I think all bets are off.

“The sabotage was worse than we thought,” she tweeted on Thursday. “We have some bombshells to share with you …”

This particular “bombshell” — as opposed to her previous duds — involves devious Maricopa County elections officials who conducted “secret testing” of tabulators and knew, weeks before the election, that 260 of the county’s 446 vote counting machines would fail.

It was a “shocking revelation,” her attorney, Kurt Olsen, told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson on Friday.

It comes courtesy of “new and compelling evidence” from Lake’s IT expert, who pored over tabulator logs for hours to uncover the incendiary device.

Lake is now claiming the county didn’t really test its tabulators for logic and accuracy, as required by law, on Oct. 11.

Instead, as the BOMBSHELL goes, the county secretly tested the machines on three days the following week, wherein they learned that 260 of the tabulators produced error codes when ballots were inserted.

This could only happen, Olsen told the judge, due either to malware installed on the tabulators or “some other nefarious act of remote access.”

“Not only did Maricopa officials knowingly violate the law mandating logic and accuracy testing,” Olsen wrote in his motion to reopen the matter, “but that they knew about and planned the Election Day debacle” -- one that he claims resulted in more than 8,000 ballots not being counted.

Oh no! Nefarious acts, you guys! 8000 ballots not counted maybe, you guys! Election Day was rigged, you guys! Who could have seen this coming!

If only the secret meeting had been livestreamed, you guys! Oh, wait, it was.

The required tabulator testing not only happened on Oct. 11, they say, but was observed and certified by state and county officials and even representatives of the state Republican and Democratic parties.

As for the so-called “secret testing” the following week, it was livestreamed.

Maricopa Deputy County Attorney Joseph La Rue told Thompson the county was installing new memory cards containing an already certified security feature designed to prevent votes from being counted twice.

A small number of ballots were then run to make sure the memory cards were installed properly and some of the ballots were spit out, usually because they weren’t inserted properly, he said.

Here’s how Arizona is making sure your ballot isn’t tampered with is a local news article from Oct 10, 2020.

All ballots eventually end up in a tabulation center. These ballots are required by law to be under public view. Not only are they monitored by security, but you can see them as well by going here.

"Here" is a link to the video feed of the tabluation room. Obviously, it's quiet now, but, just in case,

https://recorder.maricopa.gov/multim...tcgallery.aspx

Knock yourself out.

The big truth bombshell was....something you knew if you watched the fucking news.

"Also Lake lost by 17,000 votes and claimed only 8,000 were lost."

You again! And, yes, if you start bringing logic, sense, facts and reason into it, Kari Lake's claims just don't work at all.

The claims haven't been thrown out yet. This is supposed to be a three-day hearing and ran today, and somehow I missed it, because "the fake news" wasn't covering it. Such a shame, you guys. We should have known that Kari Lake, through exhaustive investigation, found out the government was working normally and correctly.

There's a writer's strike, isn't there? I think Kari Lake would feel right at home crossing the picket line and working for Velma.

[Paranoid Android]

A DC metro police officer is accused of misleading investigators about communications with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and tipping him off about his arrest

https://twitter.com/cnnbrk/status/16...Wc0j1f-Cw&s=19

Remember how conservatives always project they are the victims of the jack booted thugs off the law. A story about the authoritarian police helping white supremacists and insurrectionists should not be a surprise.

[Deus Mortis]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fbi-says-...173001202.html
FBI broke rules in scouring foreign intelligence on Jan. 6 riot, racial justice protests, court says

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when they searched a vast repository of foreign intelligence for information related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and racial justice protests in 2020, according to a heavily blacked-out court order released Friday.

FBI officials said the thousands of violations, which also include improper searches of donors to a congressional campaign, predated a series of corrective measures that started in the summer of 2021 and continued last year. But the problems could nonetheless complicate FBI and Justice Department efforts to receive congressional reauthorization of a warrantless surveillance program that law enforcement officials say is needed to counter terrorism, espionage and international cybercrime.

The violations were detailed in a secret court order issued last year by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has legal oversight of the U.S. government's spy powers. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a redacted version on Friday in what officials said was the interest of transparency. Members of Congress received the order when it was issued last year.

“Today’s disclosures underscore the need for Congress to rein in the FBI’s egregious abuses of this law, including warrantless searches using the names of people who donated to a congressional candidate,” said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the ACLU's National Security Project. "These unlawful searches undermine our core constitutional rights and threaten the bedrock of our democracy. It’s clear the FBI can’t be left to police itself.”

Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and member of the Senate intelligence committee, called the findings “shocking” and said statutory reforms to “ensure that the checks and balances are in place to put an end to these abuses” were needed if the surveillance program is to be renewed.

At issue are improper queries of foreign intelligence information collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which enables the government to gather the communications of targeted foreigners outside the U.S. without a warrant That program expires at the end of the year unless it is renewed.

The program creates a database of intelligence that U.S. agencies can search under limited circumstances. FBI queries must have a foreign intelligence purpose or be aimed at finding evidence of a crime. But congressional critics of the program have long raised alarm about what they say are unjustified searches for information about Americans, along with more general concerns about perceived surveillance abuse.

Concerns about the program have aligned staunch liberal defenders of civil liberties with supporters of former President Donald Trump who have seized on FBI surveillance errors during an investigation into potential ties between Russia and his 2016 campaign. The issue has flared as the Republican-led House has been targeting the FBI, creating a committee to investigate the “weaponization” of government, and as a special counsel report released this week has documented FBI mistakes in the Trump-Russia probe.

In repeated episodes disclosed Friday, the FBI's own standards were not followed.

The April 2022 order, for instance, details how the FBI queried the Section 702 repository using the name of someone who was then believed to have been at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. But the information that was obtained was not used for any “analytical, investigative or evidentiary purpose,” the order said.

The order also says that an FBI analyst ran 13 queries of people suspected of being involved in the Capitol riot to assess whether they had any foreign ties, but the Justice Department later determined that the searches were not likely to find foreign intelligence information or evidence of a crime.

Other violations occurred when FBI officials in June 2020 ran searches related to more than 100 people arrested in connection with civil unrest and racial justice protests that had occurred in the U.S. over the preceding weeks following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. The query was run to determine if the FBI had any “counter-terrorism derogatory information” on the arrestees, according to the order. The FBI had maintained that the searches were likely to return foreign intelligence information, though the reasons for that assessment are redacted in part.

In addition, the FBI conducted what's known as a batch query for 19,000 donors to an unnamed congressional campaign. An analyst doing the search cited concern that the campaign was a target of foreign influence, but the Justice Department said only “eight identifiers used in the query had sufficient ties to foreign influence activities to comply with the querying standard.”

Officials said the case involved a candidate who ran unsuccessfully for office and is not a sitting member of Congress. It is unrelated to an episode described in March by Rep. Darin LaHood, an Illinois Republican, who accused the FBI of wrongly searching for his name in foreign surveillance data.

Senior FBI officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity to reporters under ground rules set by the government, attributed the majority of the violations to confusion among the workforce and a lack of common understanding about the querying standards.

They said the bureau has made significant changes since then, including mandating training and overhauling its computer system so that FBI officials must now enter a justification for the search in their own words than relying on a drop-down menu with pre-populated choices.

The FBI said an internal audit of a representative sample of searches showed an increased compliance rate from 82% before the reforms were implemented to 96% afterward.

In the order, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, the presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, said he was encouraged by the reforms and said some appear to be having the “desired effect.”

“Nonetheless,” he noted, “compliance problems with the FBI's querying of Section 702 information have proven to be persistent and widespread. If they are not substantially mitigated by these recent measures, it may become necessary to consider other responses, such as substantially limiting the number of FBI personnel with access to unminimized Section 702 information.”

[Edge-]

I remember there being a lot of criticism from liberals/leftists on this after the racial justice protests and all, but not really getting much traction outside liberal circles. I wonder if finding out that law enforcement is doing this more broadly will actually generate some motivation for Congress to do something about it.

[Deus Mortis]

I remember there being a lot of criticism from liberals/leftists on this after the racial justice protests and all, but not really getting much traction outside liberal circles. I wonder if finding out that law enforcement is doing this more broadly will actually generate some motivation for Congress to do something about it.

I sure hope so, seems throughout the years we always hear about the FBI breaking some type of rule and none of their agents ever seem to get punished, which I would imagine only bolsters them to not care and so they will continue to break rules/laws. I won't hold my breath though on Congress doing something right for us peons though, now if it impacted them I could see them actually care.

[Edge-]

I sure hope so, seems throughout the years we always hear about the FBI breaking some type of rule and none of their agents ever seem to get punished, which I would imagine only bolsters them to not care and so they will continue to break rules/laws. I won't hold my breath though on Congress doing something right for us peons though, now if it impacted them I could see them actually care.

It's not just the FBI/feds even, this is pervasive through law enforcement at all levels.

[Edge-]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...n/70245853007/

Did you know if you attended a violent insurrection where people died, and you trespassed on federal property by entering the Capitol building along with a mob of rioters, that you can get a job in the state of Florida as a state regulator?

You can! Just Sandra Atikinson, who was hired months after her participation in an attempted insurrection!