(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) As demands grow for the FBI to explain why it’s reportedly pressuring agents to improperly reclassify cases to inflate the number of alleged incidents of “domestic terrorism,” it now appears that the same FBI has been creating and facilitating undercover ops to that same end.
One of the most high-profile examples came under fire when Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., demanded answers and accountability for the role that internal scheming by the FBI and Justice Department played in the alleged kidnapping plots of two governors.
Calling it “one of the biggest domestic terror ops in decades” that looks increasingly like a hoax facilitated by government agents, Bishop during an oversight hearing asked Justice officials if that case was “representative of the DOJ’s domestic terrorism efforts?”
The government’s case against so-called “domestic terrorists” who allegedly tried to kidnap Michigan leftist Gov. Gretchen Whitmer crumbled when a jury found two of the defendants innocent and couldn’t reach a verdict for the other two.
Justice Department officials announced the Whitmer case during the height of the 2020 presidential campaign. Trump opponents and a leftist media were quick to use it to scare voters with smear warnings of right-wing militias, domestic terrorists, tied to Trump.
It was a blatant case of weaponizing the DOJ for political purposes, critics claimed, and the not-guilty verdict a jury delivered has amplified those concerns, along with the Biden administration’s emphasis of linking domestic terrorism to Republicans and conservative movements with warnings of white nationalists and Nazis.
That same narrative was used to drive the Whitmer case, which subsequent evidence showed was being steered by the FBI and DOJ.
“The FBI did not discover an existing scheme and collect evidence and take down plotters,” Bishop said during the Congressional hearing.
“Instead, the FBI appears to have contrived the plot, used its informants to draw people into the plot and provided logistical and financial support to what was in effect was a FBI operation.”
More FBI election interference against Trump to help Biden. https://t.co/g3bAMx4kPQ
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) July 29, 2022
The FBI followed a similar pattern involving an alleged plot to kidnap Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.
“Is that the kind of conduct the DOJ and FBI are engaged in pursuing domestic terrorism matters?” Bishop asked.
Matthew Olsen, an assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s National Security Division, dodged an answer, claiming he couldn’t discuss ongoing investigations.
Bishop could and did, blistering a DOJ run amok.
“Every step of the way, the Whitmer plot was directed and encouraged by government agents,” Bishop informed. “It required approval at the highest levels of the DOJ.
“What we still don’t know – Who approved this op? Who oversaw it?”
The cost of the operations is still another major unknown, with Bishop presenting an incomplete list of what the FBI used for the Whitmer op that included “a $54k payday for informant; $20k payday for 2nd informant; New electronics & tires for informant; Travel, food, alcohol expenses; 12+ informants, 2 undercover agents; A how-to bombmaking video; Gov’t drones & planes.”
When Bishop asked about the politically-charged timing of the case, which was used in large part to benefit the Biden presidential campaign, the DOJ’s Olsen again refused to comment.
