March 31, 2021, 6:29 AM CDT / Source: Associated Press
By The Associated Press
FBI agents recruited a P***d B**s leader to provide them with information about a****a networks months before he was charged with storming the U.S. Capitol with other members of the far-right extremist group, a defense attorney says.
P***d B**s “thought leader” and organizer Joseph Biggs agreed to provide the FBI with information about anti-f*****t activists in Florida and elsewhere after an agent contacted him in late July 2020 and arranged to meet at a restaurant, Biggs’ lawyer, J. Daniel Hull, wrote Monday in a court filing.
The two agents who met with Biggs wanted to know what he was “seeing on the ground," Hull said. Over the next few weeks, Biggs answered an agent's follow-up questions in a series of phone calls.
"They spoke often," added Hull, who is petitioning a judge to keep Biggs out of jail pending trial.
MARCH 24, 2021
The defense lawyer's claims buttress a widely held view among left-leaning ideological opponents of the P***d B**s that law enforcement has coddled them, condoned their violence and even protected them during their frequent street brawls with anti-f*****ts. The P***d B**s even have counted some law enforcement officers among their ranks, including a Connecticut police officer and a Louisiana sheriff's deputy.
Biggs also received “cautionary” phone calls from FBI agents and routinely spoke with local and federal law enforcement officials in Portland, Oregon, about rallies he was planning there in 2019 and 2020, according to Hull.
“These talks were intended both to inform law enforcement about Proud Boy activities in Portland on a courtesy basis but also to ask for advice on planned marches or demonstrations, i.e., what march routes to take on Portland streets, where to go, where not to go,” Hull wrote.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said there was no evidence that a****a was to blame for the J*** 6 violence. But that hasn’t stopped some on the right from making the claims.
A****a was the Trump administration's villainous scapegoat for much of last year's social unrest following the death of G****e F***d. Trump and then-Attorney General William Barr blamed a****a activists for some of the violence at protests over police k*****gs of Black people across the U.S.
The FBI and the Justice Department had launched a number of investigations into extremist groups around that time. They were focused on whether people were violating federal law by crossing state lines to commit violence or whether anyone was paying to send a****a followers to commit violence, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official could not discuss the investigations publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
FBI agents responded to police stations in several cities, including New York, to question suspects arrested during protests and focused on those who self-identified as followers of the movement, the official said.
But investigators struggled to make any cases, in part because there is no hierarchical structure to a****a; it's not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-N**is and w***e s*********ts at demonstrations, according to the official.
The FBI would not comment on why agents were meeting with Biggs or why the bureau was trying to solicit information about a****a through the P***d B**s.
Biggs, 37, of Ormond Beach, Florida, wouldn't be the first P***d B**s informant. The group's chairman and top leader, Enrique Tarrio, previously worked undercover and cooperated with investigators after he was accused of fraud in 2012, court documents show.
Eric Ward, executive director of the Portland-based Western States Center, which tracks h**e groups, said it was “deeply concerning” to learn that Biggs had worked with the FBI, particularly because law enforcement has “frequently maintained inappropriately close relations with far-right groups." The P***d B**s actively promoted violence and street brawling at the rallies in Portland, he said, and Biggs “called for violence in the streets.”
“Law enforcement has no credible reason for working with someone like Biggs. It’s long past time for a clear accounting of institutional and professional law enforcement relationships with groups espousing political violence at home and abroad,” Ward wrote in an email.
Biggs and three other P***d B**s leaders were indicted March 10 on charges that they planned and carried out a coordinated attack on the Capitol on J*** 6 to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s e*******l victory. At least 20 others in the group have been charged in federal court with offenses related to the r**ts out of about 350 people charged so far in the deadly r**t.
P***d B**s members describe themselves as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.” Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the P***d B**s in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it as a h**e group. In response, the law center said P***d B**s members often spread “outright bigotry” over the internet and have posted social media pictures of themselves with prominent Holocaust deniers, white nationalists and “known neo-N**is.”
Justice Department prosecutors want to jail Biggs while he and the others await trial because he “presents a danger not only based on his own potential violence, but violence by others who undoubtedly still support him."
But Biggs' lawyer said the incarceration bid hinges on evidence that is speculative at best.
“Importantly, the FBI has known about his political commentary and role in planning events and counter-protests in Portland and other cities since at least July 2020 and arguably benefitted from that knowledge in efforts to gather intelligence about A****a in Florida and A****a networks operating across the United States,” Hull wrote.
The disclosures are reminiscent of an earlier collaboration between law enforcement and a right-wing group in Portland during repeated clashes between left- and right-wing demonstrators. The far-right group Patriot Prayer staged multiple rallies and marches in the liberal city, drawing out hundreds of residents to oppose its message in standoffs that sometimes ended in violence.
In 2019, Portland opened an internal investigation after more than 11,500 text messages between Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson and police Lt. Jeff Niiya became public. Niiya was cleared in the investigation, but the episode led to training and changes in the way liaison officers communicate with groups before and during planned protests.
thebigp wrote:
March 31, 2021, 6:29 AM CDT / Source: Associated Press
By The Associated Press
FBI agents recruited a P***d B**s leader to provide them with information about a****a networks months before he was charged with storming the U.S. Capitol with other members of the far-right extremist group, a defense attorney says.
P***d B**s “thought leader” and organizer Joseph Biggs agreed to provide the FBI with information about anti-f*****t activists in Florida and elsewhere after an agent contacted him in late July 2020 and arranged to meet at a restaurant, Biggs’ lawyer, J. Daniel Hull, wrote Monday in a court filing.
The two agents who met with Biggs wanted to know what he was “seeing on the ground," Hull said. Over the next few weeks, Biggs answered an agent's follow-up questions in a series of phone calls.
"They spoke often," added Hull, who is petitioning a judge to keep Biggs out of jail pending trial.
MARCH 24, 2021
The defense lawyer's claims buttress a widely held view among left-leaning ideological opponents of the P***d B**s that law enforcement has coddled them, condoned their violence and even protected them during their frequent street brawls with anti-f*****ts. The P***d B**s even have counted some law enforcement officers among their ranks, including a Connecticut police officer and a Louisiana sheriff's deputy.
Biggs also received “cautionary” phone calls from FBI agents and routinely spoke with local and federal law enforcement officials in Portland, Oregon, about rallies he was planning there in 2019 and 2020, according to Hull.
“These talks were intended both to inform law enforcement about Proud Boy activities in Portland on a courtesy basis but also to ask for advice on planned marches or demonstrations, i.e., what march routes to take on Portland streets, where to go, where not to go,” Hull wrote.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said there was no evidence that a****a was to blame for the J*** 6 violence. But that hasn’t stopped some on the right from making the claims.
A****a was the Trump administration's villainous scapegoat for much of last year's social unrest following the death of G****e F***d. Trump and then-Attorney General William Barr blamed a****a activists for some of the violence at protests over police k*****gs of Black people across the U.S.
The FBI and the Justice Department had launched a number of investigations into extremist groups around that time. They were focused on whether people were violating federal law by crossing state lines to commit violence or whether anyone was paying to send a****a followers to commit violence, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official could not discuss the investigations publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
FBI agents responded to police stations in several cities, including New York, to question suspects arrested during protests and focused on those who self-identified as followers of the movement, the official said.
But investigators struggled to make any cases, in part because there is no hierarchical structure to a****a; it's not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-N**is and w***e s*********ts at demonstrations, according to the official.
The FBI would not comment on why agents were meeting with Biggs or why the bureau was trying to solicit information about a****a through the P***d B**s.
Biggs, 37, of Ormond Beach, Florida, wouldn't be the first P***d B**s informant. The group's chairman and top leader, Enrique Tarrio, previously worked undercover and cooperated with investigators after he was accused of fraud in 2012, court documents show.
Eric Ward, executive director of the Portland-based Western States Center, which tracks h**e groups, said it was “deeply concerning” to learn that Biggs had worked with the FBI, particularly because law enforcement has “frequently maintained inappropriately close relations with far-right groups." The P***d B**s actively promoted violence and street brawling at the rallies in Portland, he said, and Biggs “called for violence in the streets.”
“Law enforcement has no credible reason for working with someone like Biggs. It’s long past time for a clear accounting of institutional and professional law enforcement relationships with groups espousing political violence at home and abroad,” Ward wrote in an email.
Biggs and three other P***d B**s leaders were indicted March 10 on charges that they planned and carried out a coordinated attack on the Capitol on J*** 6 to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s e*******l victory. At least 20 others in the group have been charged in federal court with offenses related to the r**ts out of about 350 people charged so far in the deadly r**t.
P***d B**s members describe themselves as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.” Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the P***d B**s in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it as a h**e group. In response, the law center said P***d B**s members often spread “outright bigotry” over the internet and have posted social media pictures of themselves with prominent Holocaust deniers, white nationalists and “known neo-N**is.”
Justice Department prosecutors want to jail Biggs while he and the others await trial because he “presents a danger not only based on his own potential violence, but violence by others who undoubtedly still support him."
But Biggs' lawyer said the incarceration bid hinges on evidence that is speculative at best.
“Importantly, the FBI has known about his political commentary and role in planning events and counter-protests in Portland and other cities since at least July 2020 and arguably benefitted from that knowledge in efforts to gather intelligence about A****a in Florida and A****a networks operating across the United States,” Hull wrote.
The disclosures are reminiscent of an earlier collaboration between law enforcement and a right-wing group in Portland during repeated clashes between left- and right-wing demonstrators. The far-right group Patriot Prayer staged multiple rallies and marches in the liberal city, drawing out hundreds of residents to oppose its message in standoffs that sometimes ended in violence.
In 2019, Portland opened an internal investigation after more than 11,500 text messages between Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson and police Lt. Jeff Niiya became public. Niiya was cleared in the investigation, but the episode led to training and changes in the way liaison officers communicate with groups before and during planned protests.
March 31, 2021, 6:29 AM CDT / Source: Associated P... (
show quote)
FBI lives to number informants…..how Agents are evaluated….. reported that in 2020 FBI paid 45 million directly to informants. I guess the Counter intelligence arm has nothing to do but set up American citizens! Wrye has outdone J Edgar…..
They only recruit rich kids mostly political lazy worthless kids that aren't fit for there own parents business I've read. Maybe that's why they they never catch the right guys you think ?
Army wrote:
They only recruit rich kids mostly political lazy worthless kids that aren't fit for there own parents business I've read. Maybe that's why they they never catch the right guys you think ?
FBI is a very top down controlling organization….. not much field agents can do without DC approval…. So really not an Agent problem. Did you read where a female FBI Manager is suing in Federal Court for sexual harassment? Now these are the people who are supposed to protect the public but can’t protect themselves…..
The Ms. wrote:
FBI is a very top down controlling organization….. not much field agents can do without DC approval…. So really not an Agent problem. Did you read where a female FBI Manager is suing in Federal Court for sexual harassment? Now these are the people who are supposed to protect the public but can’t protect themselves…..
No but have heard a Lawyer tell that all the main stream media has had millions & millions in law suits over sexual crap that's not told so frequent it's a joke so pathetic . It's normal for them so called professionals ( not ) lot them are CIA to playing parts . Operation Mocking Bird . God help us are government is a big joke .
Bigger joke then most can imagine….if public knew what really goes on…. Would call it lies…. Had to live it to believe….
The Ms. wrote:
What did you want me to see?
Well I stated Dr. Carrie Madej video scrow down almost bottom of first link sent you . There's other info to check out . 2nd link speaks for itself before gone here
If you want to reply, then
register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.