(Ken Silva, Headline USA) When it was revealed earlier this month that the inmate who stabbed Derek Chauvin was previously an FBI informant, numerous conservative pundits jumped to the conclusion that the U.S. government was purposely trying to Chauvin—the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder after George Floyd died of an overdose in his custody.
It turns out, some on the political left are also questioning the bizarre circumstances around Chauvin’s stabbing.
The Antifa-friendly outlet Unicorn Riot interviewed a former Minneapolis police officer who believes that FBI informant John Turscak—who’s serving a 30-year sentence for racketeering and conspiring to kill a rival in the prison-based gang—was working for the feds when he stabbed Chauvin 22 times in a prison law library.
The former police officer, Sarah Saarela—who also reportedly worked as a correctional officer at Minnesota’s only women’s prison in the 1990s—told Unicorn Riot that it first struck her as odd when Chauvin was sent to prison in Tuscon.
“It’s one of the more dangerous ones. And it being only medium security makes it even less safe,” she said.
Saarela further said it’s weird that “the COs looked away just long enough for Turscak to stab Chauvin 22 times in that law library … the prison in Tucson is not very big.”
According to the U.S. government, Turscak attacked on Black Friday “as a symbolic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement.”
But Tursak was imprisoned for more than a decade before Black Lives Matter even existed. Moreover, a 2008 book about the Mexican mafia reported that Tursak carried out roughly 10 stabbings in prison at the direction of the La Erne prison gang—another reason to believe he wasn’t motivated by a desire for social justice.
Saarela reportedly told Unicorn Riot that she thinks Turscak was working for the FBI when he tried to kill Chauvin.
“I think he was a paid mole,” she said. “And he was paid with federal money to commit his crimes, including the attempt on Chauvin’s life, I believe. But the question is why.”
According to a 2001 article from the Los Angeles Times, Tursack admitted to committing numerous crimes while working as an undercover FBI informant.
“I didn’t commit those crimes for kicks. I did them because I had to if I wanted to stay alive. I told that to the [FBI] agents and they just said, ‘Do what you have to do,’” he said at the time.
LA Times reported that Turscak became an informant in an investigation that resulted in the indictment of more than 40 alleged Mexican Mafia members and associates.
“Midway through the probe, however, prosecutors dropped him as an informer after he admitted dealing drugs, extorting money and authorizing assaults while on the government payroll,” the LA Times reported in 2001.
Chauvin continues to recover from the attack, but his lawyer has numerous questions about the incident.
“Why was Derek allowed into the law library without a guard in close enough proximity to stop a possible attack?” his lawyer, Gregory Erickson, told the Associated Press this week. “His family continues to wonder.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
