Posted originally on CTH on February 27, 2026 | Sundance
Many people were befuddled when I shared the statement that FBI Director Kash Patel really needs to get his arms around his FBI agency quickly, because operatives inside the FBI are currently working to attack other cabinet level national security and intelligence officials. One of those examples is outlined in this interview by Kristi Noem.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem notes how officials within the government (I’m specifically citing the FBI as the origin) have worked to conduct surveillance on her team, planted spyware on her devices and monitor the activity within the Dept of Homeland Security.
Watch this interview with DHS Secretary Noem and you will get a more comprehensive understanding of what her and all the other National Security officials (DNI, NCTC, DHS, ICE, FEMA, etc.) are having to deal with. WATCH:
Patrick Bet-David sits down with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to discuss her claim that “they spied on me,” the discovery of a secret DHS file room, the fallout surrounding El Mencho and cartel operations, and efforts to identify and remove alleged deep state actors inside the Department of Homeland Security.
TIME STAMPS: 00:00 – Show intro 04:54. – South Dakota Governor Journey 13:20 – China Threat Rising 18:09 – DHS Files & Spy Concerns
25:00 – Power & Accountability 31:02 – Immigration Breakdown 43:27 – Mexico Tensions 53:32 – Rewards for Justice Program 56:29 – Real ID Debate 59:11 – World Cup Security Risks 1:01:29 – Missing Children Crisis 1:07:22 – Preventing the Next 9/11 1:09:30 – Rapid Fire Questions
Posted originally on CTH on February 27, 2026 | Sundance
Yesterday the alarming story surfaced of Biden-era FBI officials working for Jack Smith conducting phone record surveillance on Kash Patel and Susie Wiles in 2022 and 2023 when Donald Trump was organizing his second term candidacy.
Beyond the initial element of subpoenas for Patel and Wiles phone records was an alarming assertion made inside the Reuters report stating:
“[…] In 2023, the FBI recorded a phone call between Wiles and her attorney, according to two FBI officials. Wiles’ attorney was aware that the call was being recorded, and consented to it, but Susie Wiles was not.” (source)
That statement is shocking on many levels. There is no legal mechanism for the FBI to gain wiretap authority to record a phone conversation between a lawyer and his client. Every legal cannon that underpins the American legal system forbids such an intrusion.
Any lawyer who would consent to his client being recorded by the FBI while keeping the client unaware would be disbarred and lose their license.
No judge or legal authority would even consider approving a warrant for such a wiretap, and inside the judiciary any of the content from such a violative breech would be immediately nullified in any capacity.
Reporting by Marc Caputo of Vice News now reflects the lawyer categorically denying being aware of his conversation with Susie Wiles being intercepted or recorded. “The lawyer representing Susie Wiles at the time of this incident categorically denies he allowed his client to be recorded by the FBI w/out her consent. I understand she believes him & that the Biden-era FBI may have lied about it. Here’s what the lawyer told me: “If I ever pulled a stunt like that I wouldn’t – and shouldn’t – have a license to practice law. I’m as shocked as Susie.” (source)
As the story now rests. If the FBI does indeed have a recording of a private phone call between Susie Wiles and her attorney, the recording itself could have only come from an illegal wiretap by rogue elements of the FBI working in coordination with Jack Smith. No judge would ever approve of such a violative action.
If such a recording and wiretap does factually exist, Jack Smith and the top elements of the former DOJ (Merrick Garland and Lisa Monaco) together with FBI leadership Director Christopher Wray, now have a lot to answer to. Again, that is if the predicate claim is factual; if a recording of such an intercept does factually exist.
This is certainly a story to watch closely and see who exactly is asking the right questions to get the right answers.
Posted originally on CTH on February 26, 2026 | Sundance
According to media reports and statements from FBI Director Kash Patel, both Patel and Susie Wiles had their telephone records subpoenaed by the FBI in 2022 and 2023 when both were private citizens. This is during the time when Donald Trump was being investigated by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Within the reporting by Reuters, at least one phone call between Susie Wiles and her attorney was recorded by the FBI without her knowledge. As the story is outlined Wiles’ attorney was working with the FBI and knew the conversation was being captured, Wiles did not.
FBI Director Kash Patel has reportedly fired 10 FBI agents who were involved in the process of reviewing and intercepting communications as part of their work on the Jack Smith case. Internal FBI offices are not happy with Patel’s action against those officials.
(REUTERS) – The FBI subpoenaed records of phone calls made by Kash Patel and Susie Wiles, now the FBI director and White House Chief of Staff, when they were both private citizens in 2022 and 2023 during the federal probe of Donald Trump, Patel told Reuters on Wednesday.
Reuters is the first to report on the FBI’s actions that took place during the Biden administration, largely when Special Counsel Jack Smith was investigating whether Trump had interfered with the 2020 election and had hidden classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, according to Patel. Smith was appointed to take over that probe in November 2022.
[…] “It is outrageous and deeply alarming that the previous FBI leadership secretly subpoenaed my own phone records – along with those of now White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles – using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight,” Patel said in a statement to Reuters.
[…] At least 10 current FBI employees have been dismissed as a result of the revelations about the targeting of Patel, Wiles and others connected to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, according to three FBI officials.
[…] In 2023, the FBI recorded a phone call between Wiles and her attorney, according to two FBI officials. Wiles’ attorney was aware that the call was being recorded, and consented to it, but Susie Wiles was not.
[…] The FBI discovered the phone records in files categorized as “Prohibited,” which makes them difficult to discover on the bureau’s computer systems. Patel said he recently ended the FBI’s ability to categorize files as “Prohibited.” (read more)
I have mixed emotions about this. On one hand it is infuriating to yet again see the audacity and clear weaponization of the DOJ and FBI under the prior administration. On the other hand, duh! Non-pretending people knew all along this malicious network of DOJ and FBI lawfare operations included surveillance of everyone around President Donald Trump.
Remember, Donald Trump was accused of criminal wrongdoing by the twisted lawfare logic of Smith and his crew. Accepting the reality of a criminal investigation, fraudulent though it was, it was entirely predictable that the DOJ and FBI would leverage all available tools to conduct continued surveillance and monitoring.
The secondary frustrating aspect to this story is how Director Patel has only just now fired those 10 FBI agents involved. This is a big part of the criticism that many of us have with Patel and his soft glove approach upon taking the position as FBI Director.
Any FBI official who was involved in the originating Crossfire Hurricane and/or Robert Mueller investigations should have been fired for cause on Day One! 40 FBI agents worked for more than two years on the Mueller probe investigating a fictitious claim about President Trump colluding with Russia in the 2016 election.
Those FBI agents should have been identified and terminated immediately, with prejudice; thereby sending a loud message that weaponized FBI activity was the immediate focus of the new leadership and would not be tolerated.
Yes, it’s good to see a few dozen being removed bit-by-bit a year later, but the lack of urgency IN IDENTIFYING THE FBI BAD ACTORS early on only makes the situation more difficult for other cabinet members who are genuinely trying to weed out the corrupt and nefarious activity. I know this, because I can see first-hand how so much of the intelligence community reform energy is being expended defending itself from silo activity fueled by these corrupt FBI embeds.
A year has been wasted on weak internal housecleaning, and Director Kash Patel still does not have his arms around the scale of corrupt activity underneath him; if he did, these stories would not be the headlines.
Patel just removed 10 agents who were investigating him. Great. Thank you.
Now, about the thousands of corrupt agents who were investigating everyone else…. Oh wait, “prohibited access files ” again. May 2025:
The FBI intentionally hid information as to ensure the public never knew about it?
Think about what that indicates about how the institution operates.
REFORM? …Try this.
#1) Send out an email to every field office, agent, division and contractor within the FBI asking every participant in Crossfire Hurricane or the Mueller investigation to report to the auditorium in DC on XXX date.
#2) Have big buffet and coffee set up. Now, with all of them seated in the audience, take their cell phones, laptops and electronic devices away, and give each of them a piece of paper and ask them to write down the names of every single person they interacted with during their investigative duty. Give them one hour to complete the task.
#3) Retrieve their notes. Send them to lunch (provided), as you review the lists. [Cell phones, laptops and electronic devices remain on side of the room where they placed them.]
#4) When they return, tell them all to stand up as you read the names from the lists. As their name is called, they can sit down.
#5) At the conclusion of reading the list, almost everyone should be seated, correct? Those who remain standing are unknown to the FBI investigators in the room. Tell those standing people to leave and assemble in an adjacent room, under watch.
#6) After the small group departs (if any), ask these questions:
A) If you were aware, or if you suspected, you were participating in a fraudulent investigation motivated by politics, please stand up.
=> Announce those people are fired for cause. Fired for violating their oath of office.
Escort them out.
Turn back to those remain seated.
A) If you *DID NOT KNOW* you were participating in a fraudulent FBI investigation, motivated by politics, please stand up.
=> Announce those people are fired for cause. Fired for not being smart enough to carry out their oath of office.
Escort them out.
The room should be empty.
#7) Wait, one more final detail. Perhaps you now have an adjacent room with a person(s) that no one in the FBI knows, nor understands exactly what they were doing there at the meeting. These people were not named on any list created by the FBI employees who conducted “Crossfire Hurricane” or the “Mueller probe.” Well, that’s the CIA plant(s) in the room.
Posted originally on CTH on February 7, 2026 | Sundance
The attempted framing of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard continues with senate intelligence committee Mark Warner and/or his collaborating whistleblower attorney Andrew Bakaj (also Ciaramella’s attorney) leaking details to the British intelligence services and their preferred media outlet The Guardian.
DNI Tulsi Gabbard has responded to the ongoing nonsense but first let’s review the newly disclosed details for some interesting information.
The UK Guardian now shares the agency for the “whistleblower” as the NSA, likely an NSA contractor, and the basic details of an intercepted phone call which the contractor deemed “unusual”. I’ll pull citations from the article.
SUMMARY VERSION: In/around March of 2025 an NSA contractor “detected evidence of an unusual phone call between an individual associated with foreign intelligence and a person close to Donald Trump, according to Whistleblower attorney, Andrew Bakaj.” The NSA contractor then wrote up a report and gave it to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. DNI Gabbard then took the report to Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
One day after meeting Wiles, Gabbard told the NSA not to publish the intelligence report. Instead, she instructed NSA officials to transmit the highly classified details directly to her office. (Guardian citation)
The NSA whistleblower was upset that DNI Gabbard didn’t share the report with others and filed a whistleblower complaint on April 17, 2025, with the Intelligence Community Inspector General. Within the complaint the NSA whistleblower included the details of the phone call leading to the complaint being labeled Top Secret Compartmented Information (TSCI classification). This format of including TSCI material complicates how the complaint can be reviewed. This looks like it was done on purpose.
Because the complaint contained TSCI material, it could not follow ordinary whistleblower pathways toward congress.
(Guardian) […] Acting inspector general Tamara A Johnson dismissed the complaint at the end of a 14-day review period, writing in a 6 June letter addressed to the whistleblower that “the Inspector General could not determine if the allegations appear credible”. The letter stipulated that the whistleblower could take their concerns to Congress, only after receiving DNI guidance on how to proceed, given the highly sensitive nature of the complaint. (citation)
The inclusion of the TSCI material, the ‘highly sensitive‘ part, creates a conflict within the process. [The TSCI material is the name of the individual associated with foreign intelligence, and the name of the person close to President Trump.]
The NSA whistleblower complaint is against DNI Gabbard, but any complaint containing TSCI material must carry guidance from DNI Gabbard for further sharing. The NSA whistleblower likely intended to create this problem as part of the scheme to set up the events.
(Guardian) […] The contents of the whistleblower complaint are still largely unknown. Bakaj, the whistleblower’s attorney, said that Gabbard’s office had redacted much of the complaint that was released to intelligence committee members on Tuesday, citing executive privilege.
“I don’t know the contents of the complaint, but by exercising executive privilege they are flagging that it involves presidential action,” he said.
On 3 February, Bakaj again requested guidance from Gabbard’s office about how to share the whistleblower’s full report while taking appropriate precautions.
“As you are well aware, our client’s disclosure directly impacts our national security and the American people,” Bakaj wrote. “This means that our client’s complete whistleblower disclosure must be transmitted to Congress, and that we, as their counsel, speak with members and cleared staff.”
Bakaj said that the DNI’s office did not respond to his letter by its Friday deadline. He plans to contact members of the Senate and House intelligence committees on Monday to schedule an unclassified briefing on Gabbard’s conduct and the “underlying intelligence concerns”.
Members of the gang of eight have contacted the NSA to request the underlying intelligence that the whistleblower says Gabbard blocked, according to staff in Warner’s office. (more)
NOTE: At this point I’m more interested in the name of this NSA contractor who is listening to the phone calls of foreign intelligence and the Trump administration. Much like the heavily protected Eric Ciaramella (2019 effort), this NSA contractor likely carries similar motivations. Both Ciaramella and this “whistleblower” are using the same lawyer, Andrew Bakaj.
Regardless, DNI Tulsi Gabbard responded today via her X account:
“Senator Mark Warner and his friends in the Propaganda Media have repeatedly lied to the American people that I or the ODNI “hid” a whistleblower complaint in a safe for eight months. This is a blatant lie.
The truth:
– I am not now, nor have I ever been, in possession or control of the Whistleblower’s complaint, so I obviously could not have “hidden” it in a safe. Biden-era IC Inspector General Tamara Johnson was in possession of and responsible for securing the complaint for months.
– The first time I saw the whistleblower complaint was 2 weeks ago when I had to review it to provide guidance on how it should be securely shared with Congress.
– As Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Warner knows very well that whistleblower complaints that contain highly classified and compartmented intelligence—even if they contain baseless allegations like this one—must be secured in a safe, which the Biden-era Inspector General Tamara Johnson did and her successor, Inspector General Chris Fox, continued to do. After IC Inspector General Fox hand-delivered the complaint to the Gang of 8, the complaint was returned to a safe where it remains, consistent with any information of such sensitivity.
– Either Senator Warner knows these facts and is intentionally lying to the American people, or he doesn’t have a clue how these things work and is therefore not qualified to be in the U.S. Senate—and certainly not the Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Here is a detailed chronology of the situation:
– June 2025, I became aware that a whistleblower made a complaint against me that after further investigation, neither Biden-era IC Inspector General Tamara Johnson nor current IC Inspector General Chris Fox found the complaint to be credible.
– The complaint required special handling and storage in a safe because the complainant chose to include highly sensitive information within the complaint itself rather than referencing the sensitive reporting and leaving the complaint at a lower level of classification.
– Security standards for complaints that include such sensitive intelligence required the Inspector General to keep the complaint and the intelligence referenced secured in a safe from the time the complaint was made, until now.
– In June 2025 after Biden-era Inspector General Tamara Johnson completed her review of the complaint, no further oversight or investigative activity took place.
– Biden-era Inspector General Johnson had communicated with me directly throughout the course of her investigation into this complaint, yet neither she nor anyone from her office informed me that the Whistleblower chose to send the complaint to Congress which would require me to issue security instructions.
– When a complaint is not found to be credible, there is no timeline under the law for the provision of security guidance. The “21 day” requirement that Senator Warner alleges I did not comply with, only applies when a complaint is determined by the Inspector General to be both urgent AND apparently credible. That was NOT the case here.
– I was made aware of the need to provide security guidance by IC Inspector General Chris Fox on December 4, 2025, which he detailed in his letter to Congress.
– I took immediate action to provide the security guidance to the Intelligence Community Inspector General who then shared the complaint and referenced intelligence with relevant members of Congress last week.
Senator Warner’s decision to spread lies and baseless accusations over the months for political gain, undermines our national security and is a disservice to the American people and the Intelligence Community.” {source}
This multi-layered IC operation against Tulsi Gabbard is transparent in its political motivations. However, at the end of the day the dynamic is really remarkable when you cut through the fog and see it for what it is. The Intelligence Community (Fourth Branch) is listening to the conversations of the Trump administration, conducting full spectrum surveillance and looking for anything the IC can exploit to retain their status and power.
For additional perspective, put this IC effort into context looking at it through the separation of powers.
Every element of the Executive Branch is President Donald Trump:
An NSA contractor working for Donald Trump intercepted a phone call between a foreign intelligence person and a person working for Donald Trump. That contractor, working for Trump, then shared the intercept with the ODNI, who also works for Trump. The DNI, working for Trump, then informed the chief of staff to Donald Trump, and later secured the intercept.
The NSA contractor, who works for Trump, was angered by the DNI who works for Trump, and filed a complaint against the DNI because she didn’t share their intercept with other people who do not work for Trump.
That’s the current state of the Intelligence Community within the U.S. govt.
Again, I will repeat…. Until the Trump administration puts full sunlight on the intelligence community operations; which includes retrieving, declassifying and sharing the sealed secret transcript of former ICIG Michael Atkinson; the various intelligence officials who are comfortable weaponizing their positions will continue trying to manipulate American politics. They are continually using the same playbook.
Posted originally on CTH on February 5, 2026 | Sundance | 93
This is funny, not because the narrative is so obvious, but because the well-used script is so transparent.
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), a misnomer if there is one, Vice Chairman Mark Warner, finds out that Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, had previously (May ’25) retrieved voting machines from Puerto Rico for analytical review. Of course, he needs immediate camera time to clutch his pearls, but it gets better.
For those who walk the deep weeds, you will remember when the Warner operation in 2017 needed to promote the intel script about the first discussion of the Christopher Steele “dossier”, they enlisted CNN’s Manu Raju, Jim Scuitto, Jake Tapper and Carl Bernstein. That ‘breaking news’ was the original trigger for the Daily Beast to then publish the “dossier.” Senator Mark Warner then came in for the close with the leak of the Carter Page FISA. That was the script in 2017. We watched it in real time.
So, now Mark Warner finds out Tulsi Gabbard is on the trail of the intelligence manipulation of election machines. In this video below, Mark Warner appears for an entirely scripted segment with… wait for it… Manu Raju. How do you know this was pre-scripted for TV? Because: (a) that’s what they do, and (b) Raju is the only one who asks questions – while Warner doesn’t even look at him because he knows the narrative in advance. Seriously, watch it. It’s funny:
[A completely unrelated side note: Notice how the U.K, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have refused to join the Board of Peace? You know what they all have in common…. 5-eyes.]
(REUTERS) – WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) – A team working for President Donald Trump’s spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, last spring led an investigation into Puerto Rico’s voting machines, said Gabbard’s office and three sources familiar with the previously unreported events.
The sources said the goal was to work with the FBI to investigate claims that Venezuela had hacked voting machines in Puerto Rico, but added the probe did not produce any clear evidence of Venezuelan interference in the U.S. territory’s elections. Reuters first reported the investigation.
Gabbard’s office, in a statement to Reuters, confirmed the May investigation but denied a link to Venezuela, saying its focus was on vulnerabilities in the island’s electronic voting systems. Her team took an unspecified number of Puerto Rico’s voting machines and additional copies of data from the machines as part of its investigation, a spokesperson for Gabbard’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence said.
Her office said the taking of voting machines and data was “standard practice in forensics analysis.”
Noting similar voting infrastructure elsewhere in the United States, it added: “ODNI found extremely concerning cyber security and operational deployment practices that pose a significant risk to U.S. elections.”
Jorge Rivera Rueda, head of Puerto Rico’s State Elections Commission, said he could not comment on any ongoing investigations. He added in a statement, “the Commission will fully cooperate with any investigative process conducted by the appropriate authorities, whether at the state or federal level.”
Venezuela’s government did not respond to a request for comment.
ODNI said some security gaps in voting machines used in Puerto Rico stemmed from their use of vulnerable cellular technology and that software flaws existed that could give hackers access deep into vital electoral systems. (more)
Warner is super nervous.
DNI Tulsi Gabbard is off the range of control.
The next play is obvious. Warner et al will attempt to put DNI Gabbard into a position where an answer to a Senate question will need some kind of classified response. The weaponized IC elements, of which Warner is a key participant, need to get Tulsi Gabbard removed from her position.
Posted originally on CTH on February 4, 2026 | Sundance
As background for this interview, I’m going to say something that generally will not be received well by many. I have it on very good authority that FBI Director Kash Patel’s organization is currently one of the biggest impediments to successful execution of Trump administration domestic policy goals.
Specifically stated, DC operatives within the FBI are creating, manufacturing and leaking information against the goals and objectives of the White House, DOJ and other administration executive offices. In short, Kash Patel does not have his arms around the agency and subversive operatives are actively successful because of his incompetence. Accept it or disregard it, but that is the honest expressed sentiment from officials who are having to deal with the consequence.
All of that said, here is FBI Director Kash Patel appearing on Fox News to again emphasize that the agency is working in a supportive role on various domestic issues of concern. Not “lead“, “support.” WATCH:
Director Gabbard: “Contrary to the blatantly false and slanderous accusations being made against me by Members of Congress and their friends in the propaganda media, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has and will continue to take action under my statutory authorities to secure our nation and ensure the integrity of our elections. My response to Congress:”
Within the letter DNI Gabbard notes, President Trump “specifically directed” her to be present for the execution of a search warrant in Fulton County, Georgia last week as part of the probe. Director Gabbard announced in April 2025 that ODNI was investigating electronic voting systems in order to protect election integrity.
“As I publicly stated on 10 April 2025, there is information and intelligence reporting suggesting that electronic voting systems being used in the United States have long been vulnerable to exploitation that could result in enabling determined actors to manipulate the results of the votes being cast with the intent of changing the outcome of an election,” she writes. “ODNI and the IC continue to collect and assess all available intelligence concerning this threat to ensure the security and integrity of our elections,” she said.
Director Gabbard explained that the process of assessing the intelligence “ensures that the IC’s finished intelligence products are objective, independent of political considerations, and based on all available sources.” … “I will share our intelligence assessments with Congress once they are complete,” she said.
Posted originally on CTH on January 1, 2026 | Sundance
The tenuous legal theory permitting the U.S. government to conduct surveillance on U.S. citizen data (emails, texts, phone calls, messages etc.) rests on the unconstitutional ability of the government to intercept your “private papers” with the use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, specifically FISA-702. The “702” aspect is the term for U.S. citizen intercepted.
The authority for the United States government to capture the electronic records of all Americans without warrant falls under the auspices of FISA-702. The current authority expires in April of 2026. The 702 authorities have been abused to conduct political surveillance for just about everything in Washington DC. Millions of unauthorized searches have been identified; it is unconstitutional.
Politico, an outlet for the concerns of the administrative state, begins the new year by noting there is increased resistance to the reauthorization. However, in order to carry out the domestic national security agenda of the Trump administration, the Deep State considers JD Vance, Marco Rubio and others as likely supporters for reauthorization.
(Politico) – […] During the last reauthorization debate in 2024, then-candidate Trump urged Congress to “kill” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the larger spy law that Section 702 is nested under. Trump’s decision frustrated supporters of the program — in part because they believe he conflated the foreign-target spy program with the broader surveillance law that was not up for reauthorization.
A crucial Biggs-sponsored House amendment that would have added a warrant requirement for any communications involving Americans failed on a 212-212 tie, with Speaker Mike Johnson casting a rare and decisive vote to kill it.
Now the spy powers fight is a major headache for Johnson, who infuriated privacy hawks with his 2024 amendment vote after having advocated for more surveillance guardrails as a former member of the Judiciary Committee.
Judiciary Committee Republicans — led by Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a close Trump ally — have started discussing how to approach the reauthorization during their weekly meetings. Jordan said in an interview he is again hoping to impose a warrant requirement for searches involving Americans as well as a ban on data brokers selling consumer information to law enforcement.
He said he has “had some discussions over this past year with some members of the administration” on this issue and plans to meet alongside House Intelligence Committee Chair Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) with White House officials on the matter early next year.
Lawmakers on both sides of the debate are carefully watching Crawford, who opposed the warrant requirement in 2024 — along with every other House Intelligence Committee Republican. But Johnson has since added five Republicans to the panel who each voted for the Biggs amendment.
A committee spokesperson said Crawford is working with House leadership, Jordan, the Senate and the administration “to determine the best way forward to extend 702 authority.”
There are still, however, a majority of Intelligence Committee Republicans who are working to extend the program without adding a warrant requirement — and they are hoping administration officials whom they view as allies, including Vice President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will be able to sway Trump. (read more)
Some administrative state defenders will argue this issue with me. However, having researched almost every aspect to the construct, and the argument, I am confident FISA-702 authority underpins the much bigger, quasi-constitutional justification for the wholesale collection of U.S. citizen metadata. Without the 702 authority, the legal justification for the apparatus of surveillance no longer exists. It really is that simple.
The only way the government can justify the capture of U.S. Citizen data is if there is some quasi-constitutional or national security reason for it. That’s where FISA-702 comes in.
Take away “702” search authority, and the data collection argument collapses; ANY “incidental” search of the database then loses any plausible legal justification. 702 is the camel’s nose under the tent that forms the baseline for all data records to be intercepted, stored and ultimately available for review.
This is a very key component to fully understand. Most practical applications of surveillance are contingent upon the capture of electronic records for tracking. Ex. – if domestic travel records are considered private papers (never argued yet), then government agencies have no right to exploit them without a valid search warrant underpinned by a national security justification. The government, not private sector – government, tracking people becomes more difficult if privacy rules are applied.
The legal aspect runs through the 4th Amendment, which -while historically undefined in the modern era- likely stirs in the background of the recent TSA decision to provide a $45 opt-out, for the use of REAL ID in domestic transit (interstate commerce application notwithstanding).
The Fourth Amendment aspect to the ‘warrantless’ government capture of American citizen records has never been fully argued in court; the modern definitions are opaque, and the govt has a vested interest in retaining the untested status quo.
The Intelligence Community (IC) has told Congress, particularly the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, that all hell will break loose if they don’t reauthorize full electronic surveillance of Americans.
Congress has historically been scared of the “seven ways from Sunday” IC. However, now Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is attempting to change things; specifically change things as they pertain to the domestic use of the intelligence agencies.
As the counterargument is made, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and all of the key participants, are siloed from understanding that 702 has nothing to do with incidental collection of American data, whilst the honorable IC were doing foreign intercepts.
According to intelligence experts, Speaker Johnson and most Republicans believe the IC justification, and perhaps many of them pretend not to know the alternatives. I do not buy this argument, because too much recent evidence exists to sell the story that Congress is unknowing of how this metadata capture is being continually exploited.
The only way to really test congressional knowledge is to question them. No one is questioning them.
In my opinion, the politicians and their key staff pretend they cannot fathom how the FBI, DOJ, NSD, DHS and contractors use this database to conduct political and “other” (think corporate espionage for sale) surveillance. When you engage with them, you realize they really do put on a great show proclaiming the IC is full of honorable rank-and-file, trying to walk a fine line between the 4th Amendment and exploitation. The counter position is akin to them living in a DC bubble.
The IC argument is now something akin to how we have let thousands of terrorists into the country through the southern border crisis. They say: “My god, we need to monitor the terrorists, and if you take away the 702, the foreign terror cells will activate and start killing us all. Do you want that blood on your hands?” You cannot take away surveillance tools.
Then you overlay the FISA 702 reauthorization argument, as used as a bargaining chip by the same people who don’t want to get caught up in the surveillance.
The DC conversations end up like, “Ok, we’ll reauthorize it, but you cannot use it against us – and all the sex parties and perverted stuff we do when no one is around; you must promise to keep our secrets hidden“… Then, just like the 2024 reauthorization change, they exempt themselves.
The IC agree to accept a reauthorization that exempts Congress. The IC keep the process – just promise not to use it against Congress. This outlook is what we see visible in the CR bill extension that included forbidding the FBI from seeking search warrants against Senator’s telecommunications, and this outlook is highlighted by Elise Stefanik demanding that Congress be notified if any federal candidate for office is under investigation. The Big Club protects the Big Club.
Unfortunately, ‘We The People’ do not have many friends in DC on this issue, other than a very small group in/around Tulsi Gabbard’s office, and they are constantly under attack.
After spending several years asking every representative of consequence why they support the FISA-702 process, I can tell you every one of them says they believe it is needed, because the IC tells them there are just too many domestic terror threats that need to be monitored.
It is almost impossible to find a person in DC who will forcefully try to stop FISA-702 reauthorization.
If you ask me why in hindsight, I now take the position that FISA-702 is the gateway to the massive surveillance system currently being put into place using Real ID and the AI facial recognition software provided by Palantir (CIA exploit). In essence, the gateway that allows the full-scale surveillance state, is opened by the prior authorization of FISA-702 that negates any 4th Amendment protection.
BIG Why? Because all of the surveillance mechanisms within the network being updated and enhanced by AI search and capture, comes from the IC being allowed to exploit the NSA database. That same database access allowance is the targeting mechanism for FISA-702. If warrantless searches of the NSA database were stopped, the Palantir/IC and Tech Bro collaboration could hit a brick wall.
The significance of this FISA-702 issue is much bigger than most can appreciate.
This surveillance underpinning also reconciles many of the puzzled faces when it comes to who is permitted nomination and who is not. The DC Deep State confirmed both Kash Patel to be Donald Trump’s FBI Director (SSCI), and Pam Bondi to be U.S. Attorney General (SJC). Both Bondi and Patel are expressed believers in the value of FISA-702.
You might even remember this odd question from October of 2025 that came out of nowhere. Attorney General Bondi literally read a script on the issue that was prepared for her. WATCH:
Additionally, the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be Director of National Intelligence was initially opposed by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), until she acquiesced and agreed there was value in the FISA-702 process.
We have a few weeks before things get really ugly, but they will get ugly.
Deals will be cut. Offers will be made. Corruption throughout this argument will run amok.
In the background of every headline, that will surface over the next two months, this issue will enmesh.
We need to watch closely how National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Vice President JD Vance respond to the surfacing issues.
All of the modern surveillance mechanisms, within the U.S. government network currently being updated and enhanced by AI search and capture, come from the gateway of 702; ie. govt being allowed to exploit the NSA database against Americans.
If warrantless searches of the NSA database are legally stopped, or no longer authorized, the gate closes and the DHS, Palantir/IC and Tech Bro surveillance collaboration hit a brick wall.
Posted originally on CTH on December 24, 2025 | Sundance
As we noted yesterday, lawyers representing former CIA Director John Brennan are sending proactive letters to the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida {SEE HERE}. However, some of the information included in the letters intended to be exculpatory is actually damning against their defense position.
You have to go deep in the weeds to see it, but if you understand the details of the events, the information being revealed by Brennan’s lawyers is the opposite of helpful to his case. As an example, there is a citation included in a footnote of the December 22, 2025, [fn #20 page 6] letter that links to a March 31, 2022, letter sent to John Durham.
In 2025, Brennan is telling the Florida court the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) conclusion was confirmed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in a “very serious review.” However, in 2022 Brennan told John Durham that Robert Mueller never interviewed him or offered an assessment of the ICA; Mueller just regurgitated it.
So, which is it?
These contradictions are throughout both of the letters when you compare them side-by-side. In 2022, former CIA Director John Brennan was trying to escape the Durham review. In 2025, Brennan is trying to escape a grand jury review.
[We are aware that the U.S Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jason Reding Quiñones, has access to the CTH public library of research into all of these historic events.]
There are other citations in the 2022 letter that are certainly worth reviewing, because the legally binding statements made by John Brennan at the time have been shown to be false in 2025.
Another of the claims, in the 2022 letter to John Durham, highlights why it was critical for the CIA to assist in the capture and arrest of Julian Assange in 2019.
The lawyers representing John Brennan in the above 2022 letter apparently did not know the DNC emails were provably not hacked by Russia, unless they are claiming that Seth Rich (DNC staff) and Julian Assange (Wikileaks) were working for the Russian government.
John Brennan asserts a “definitive determination” that Russia was involved in the theft of the DNC emails, and across the intelligence community that determination was “unanimous.” That assertion, by Brennan, underpinning the “Russian interference narrative”, opens up the entire DNC email issue for Jason Quiñones to explore.
The DNC hired Crowdstrike to investigate the leak/hack; the James Comey FBI never looked at the DNC servers; and Crowdstrike told the Senate there was no evidence of a hack or outside intrusion. Perhaps Quiñones will finally highlight these contradictions and get to the bottom of it? Because, after all, this is part of Brennan’s ICA defense.
What Brennan did not realize we would discover when he wrote the letter in 2022:
In December of 2016, President Obama turned to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan with a request to change the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) and blame the Russians for election interference in the prior presidential election. Brennan gave the task of assembling the fraudulent intel to a CIA analyst named Julia Gurganus.
Subsequently, inside the CIA the National Intelligence Council (NIC) and the Directorate of Analysis began working on a pretext that would create the impression for the misleading Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), as demanded by Obama, Clapper and Brennan – ultimately constructed by Julia Gurganus.
Inside the National Intelligence Council, one of the key figures who helped create the ICA fabrication was a CIA analyst named Eric Ciaramella.
You might remember the name Eric Ciaramella from the 2019 impeachment effort against President Trump. However, in 2016/2017 Eric Ciaramella was a CIA deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia on the CIA’s National Intelligence Council, at the time the fraudulent Intelligence Community Assessment was created.
Oh look, there’s another trail for U.S Attorney Jason Quiñones to follow.
What would Julia Gurganus and Eric Ciaramella have to say about putting the ICA together?
Posted originally on CTH on December 23, 2025 | Sundance
Lawfare lawyer Kenneth Wainstein representing former CIA Director John Brennan confirmed in a proactive litigation letter to Chief Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, their client is a “target” of a grand jury investigation.
The word “target” is important here, because the letter specifically outlines how Brennan has received subpoenas for documents and information surrounding his construct of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment.
The letter notes that prosecutors from the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jason Reding Quiñones, have advised Mr. Brennan that he is “a target” of a grand jury investigation.
The letter by is by Mr. Kenneth Wainstein, a partner in Mayer/Brown law firm, Washington DC, who served in the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Joseph R. Biden Jr., and he describes a “concocted case” and “politically motivated and fact-free criminal investigation.”
Wainstein is seeking proactive intervention by Chief Judge Altonaga to block U.S. Attorney Quinones from seeking jurisdiction in the Fort Pierce Division, the court with jurisdiction over the Mar-a-Lago raid, led by Judge Aileen Cannon.
I strongly urge everyone interested to READ THE ENTIRE LETTER to understand why I shared prior warnings about the nonsense ramblings of perhaps well-intentioned voices who will create problems for this case against Brennan if it is to continue.
Pay attention to the footnotes being cited by Brennan’s lawyers as they begin to pull in some of the commentary by voices who have publicly given opinion about the overall Trump targeting operation. Mike Davis name appears frequently in this letter, as the Brennan defense team begins to frame the conspiratorial nature of some claims against their client.
In essence, the Brennan legal team are attempting to refute the evidence by pointing to the blanket of some crazy commentary that covers it. This is exactly what I have been cautioning about {SEE HERE}.
U.S Attorney Quinones already faces an uphill battle, because John Durham already reviewed the ICA origination as part of his investigation – but Durham never prosecuted anyone inside government.
What the evidence shows is a focused targeting operation intended to fabricate a false premise by the United States Intelligence Community, centered around a fraudulent CIA analysis (ICA) led by John Brennan, and organized through the Office of former DNI James Clapper. The op was green-lighted by Barack Obama as a way to impede the agenda of incoming President Donald Trump. All three branches of government eventually collaborated on the scheme.
Lawyers for John Brennan are now seeking to proactively undermine the grand jury proceedings and influence the venue where any investigation and review might be taking place. [pdf, Page 9]
In addition to sending the letter to the Southern District of Florida, John Brennan also sent the letter to the New York Times to help him frame a media defense.
[…] Pursuing the case in Fort Pierce, Fla., would draw jurors from a more conservative area than the District of Columbia and put it under Judge Cannon, who showed Mr. Trump unusual favor during the documents investigation. In particular, Mike Davis, an influential former Republican Senate staff aide and friend of Mr. Reding Quiñones, has pushed the idea of a Fort Pierce grand jury, warning Mr. Trump’s adversaries to “lawyer up.” (read more)
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This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
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