FBI’s Wray and Rep. Massie Battle Over 1/6 Pipe Bomb Investigation, Bank of America Providing Gun Purchase Records
Massie doesn’t tolerate nonsense.
Rep. Thomas Massie’s questions for FBI Director Christopher Wray show why the congressman is one of the few I tolerate in Congress.
Pipe Bombs
Remember how the left and a few Republicans with TDS went crazy over the January 6 Capitol Hill riot? Well, one of the situations left out in their insanity was the pipe bombs found in front of the DNC and RNC.
No one has found out who is responsible for the bombs.
Massie told Wray that FBI Assistant Director Steven D’Antuono allegedly said during an “interview some of the phone data that could have helped authorities track down who was responsible for the pipe bomb was ‘corrupted’ and ‘unusable.'”
Wray wouldn’t answer if the FBI interviewed the man who alerted authorities about the bombs:
WRAY: “Well, again, I don’t want to speculate about specific individuals. I will tell you that we have done thousands of interviews, reviewed something like 40,000 video files of which this is one, assessed 500 something tips —”
MASSIE: “Have you interviewed that person?“
WRAY: “We — we have conducted all logical investigative steps and interviewed all logical individuals at this point.“
MASSIE: “Then you need 900 days — you need to tell us what you found, because we’re finding stuff you haven’t released into the public.”
Wray claimed he couldn’t comment on an ongoing investigation:
WRAY: “Well, as to the letter, I — I will work with the department to make sure we can figure out what information we can provide. As you know, this is a very active ongoing investigation. And there are some restrictions on that. But we will –”
MASSIE: “We can handle classified information and we fund your department and so you need to provide that.”
WRAY: “It’s not — respectfully it’s not an issue of classification, it’s an issue of commenting on ongoing criminal investigations, which is something that by longstanding department policy we are restricted in doing. And in fact the last administration actually strengthen those policies partly because –”
MASSIE: “That’s not our policy, though, and we find you so let’s move on.”
Why doesn't Director Wray have answers about the January 6th pipe-bomb investigation?
🎥 : @RepThomasMassie pic.twitter.com/mBJUcMQajG
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) July 12, 2023
Bank of America and Guns
Massie wanted to know more about Bank of America handing over gun purchases to the FBI. Wray wouldn’t say the FBI asked for the information. He said the bank gave the purchases to the Boston Field Office “for information only.”
Except Massie has an email that shows “the FBI gave the search queries to BOA.”
Wray immediately tried to justify it by saying it’s lawful and “it happens all the time.”
Massie reminded Wray just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s constitutional:
MASSIE: “George Hill, former FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst in the Boston Field Office told us that the Bank of America with no legal process was gave to the FBI gun purchase records with — with no geographical boundaries for anybody that was a Bank of America customer. Is that true?”
WRAY: “Well, what I do know is that the a number of business community partners all the time, including financial institutions share information with us about possible criminal activity. And my understanding is that that’s fully lawful.”
MASSIE: “Did you –”
WRAY: “In this specific –”
MASSIE: “– did you ask for that information?”
WRAY: “– in this specific instance that you’re asking about? My understanding is that that information was shared with field offices for information only, but then recalled to avoid even the appearance of any kind of overreach. But my understanding is that that’s a fully lawful process.”
MASSIE: “Was there a warrant involved?”
WRAY: “Again, my understanding is that the institution in question shared information with us, as happens all the time.”
Rep. Thomas Massie just told FBI director Wray that something was "legal, but not constitutional." I believe the cement above his neck is hardening splendidly.
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) July 12, 2023
Thomas Massie has the receipts.
"The Bank of America, with no legal process, gave to the FBI gun purchase records with no geographical boundaries for anyone who was a customer. We've got an email where it says the FBI gave the search queries to BOA."pic.twitter.com/aXzQSWGUMG
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) July 12, 2023
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Comments
When a bank official has the FBI ‘politely’ ask for information about the company cardholders that the FBI is not willing to subpoena, the official has two options.
–Here you go, please don’t hurt us.
–No, we won’t give that information to you without a subpoena…what do you mean you’re opening up an investigation of our bank with a thousand FBI agents and auditors loudly proclaiming you’re looking for fraud until all of our customers are driven away and we’re facing bankruptcy?
Bad things happen to people who obstruct the State.
Vito C. was once heard to say, “Nice little business have here. Be a shame should something happen to it.”
“Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?”
Thsi is so sick. This is America we’re talking about,
Is it America anymore?
No!
The simplest solution for all the data collection, acquisition, aggregation, selling or sharing is to pass a statute that makes clear all customer data belongs to the customer. Whether that data is an uploaded photo, text, meme, letter, email, statement anything about the customer to include data about purchases online or brick/mortar IRL, items browsed in an online store, websites visited and any content accessed.
Require specific consent for each instance of every specific identifiable piece of data from the consumer prior to anything being done with the data. Eliminate implied consent or opt out provision by requiring opt in and making clear that service isn’t dependent upon agreement to share data.
Yes that will upend the paradigm of ‘free’ online resources as the revenue lost from data broker transactions will have to be made up from somewhere and that’s likely to be from a nominal monthly fee for currently ‘free’ resources. For financial transactions the data reporting thresholds should be raised to $50K in a single transaction or in an aggregate of small transactions over a short period (ten days seems fair). In no event should a company escape liability for false reporting or overzealous reporting to govt. There must be clear bright line tests otherwise the grey areas will be abused as they are now.
Was BoA compelled in a formal manner to release customer information?
Was BoA not compelled in a formal manner – yet compelled by implicit threat – with retaliation in kind for not complying to a “informal” request for customer data?
Or did Bank of America release customer data willingly – in the sense that a culture of anti-firearm activists operate at Bank of America? And if so, is Wray acting to protect both the bank and its activist culture and the FBI?
More to the point, why is it not illegal for a company like BoA to release private records EVEN TO THE FBI without a warrant?
For that matter, why isn’t someone at the FBI going to prison over this?
It’s nice to have congress people who ask pointed questions. But if that’s all they do, who needs them?
At least Rep Massie who is mostly libertarian in outlook FWIW is doing the work preparing for and asking the hard questions. IMO it is a bit unfair to put all the responsibility for passing legislation onto one of the few members working to rein in govt conduct.
As voters we could, collectively, certainly do a better job in better selecting the folks we choose to send to DC to get reform legislation over the hump. Then we must be willing to overwatch and make sure the politicians we send do the things we sent them to do. Casting a ballot every two years is only the beginning of civic duty.
Do you think activists are concerned about legalities? Wray certainly isn’t. The democrat party isn’t. DoJ isn’t. Nor are the majority of republicans.
So my question remains:
Did Bank of America release customer data willingly – in the sense that a culture of anti-firearm activists operate at Bank of America? And if so, is Wray acting to protect both the bank and its activist culture and the FBI?
Were you directing that question to me b/c I thought it was rhetorical? Here’s my take, thjough I have no proof either way.
I strongly suspect that BoA and/or ideological elements within BoA are more than happy to provide customer data to the FBI or whatever other govt agency request it either explicitly or implicitly.
Likewise I strongly suspect that members of the FBI, DoJ and other govt agencies would have no issues with applying varying degrees of pressure necessary to acquire customer data from corporations without a warrant.
Obviously it would be in the interest of the agencies which engage in these sort of shenanigans as well as the corporations who participate to CYA from public or Congressional scrutiny.
It was a little of both rhetorical and serious. The fact of the matter being we currently live in a lawless culture where outlaws control the application of justice. So why bother with prescriptions on how to fix anything when outlaws control process.
While it’s fools game trying to guess what’s in Wray’s head, he’s obviously stonewalling-protecting his anti-firearm activist pals at Bank of America.
It’s the prime point here and secondary to none.
It’s also worth noting that the majority of republicans are willing accomplices. Massie is the latest in a series of house and senate frontmen – like trey gowdy – acting out a drama for pleb consumption.
Tiki,
Seems a little harsh on Massie but you may be proven correct. IMO, he is one of the few principled members so expecting him to do all heavy lifting to round up votes from less principled members or worse unprincipled sell outs may be asking too much of a single member who isn’t even the Chair of this committee.
why is it not illegal for a company like BoA to release private records EVEN TO THE FBI without a warrant?
Because the courts have decided that information actually belongs to the bank. After all, the money is in their “vault”, the transaction was between them and the vendor at your direction, and they’re the ones who track things like where you spent the money.
It makes sense up to a point, but it leaves out the contractual status between you and the bank. Which really should drive the privacy to your interests.
BTW, take a look at your bank agreement. I’m betting it says they won’t disclose any information except “for law enforcement purposes.” (Well, there’s other exceptions, but this one applies here.) Note that it likely does not say “except in the case of a valid search warrant” but “for LE purposes.” I think most people assume the two are equivalent, but we can see they most assuredly are not.
Gun activists who track these things will tell you that BoA has a well-established history of opposition to Second Amendment issues.
Bankers load a $20 thumb drive with all past customer data related to firearms – and sundry related items – and hand it off to some guy named feddy. And Wray is protecting the banking activists by way of ordinary looking stonewalling.
By the way. Whatever you said to Internet Archive folks worked wonders. Bravo to you, truly. Oh, no, they didn’t retreat from their past censorious behavior. They alerted like an angry anthill removing account functionality and other petty retaliation on my account and across their whole system.
Jason Scott changed the ‘about’ description on his ‘outsider and offcenter” tab for his penal colony server front page – he literally paraphrased words from my “woke cancel culture” page. So he knows that I know and alerted others about his behavior. Hilarious.
Scott displays the Woke Ikon “turtles all the way down” on that same Tab front page. The Ikon is part of the Woke inner circle joke – vicious infinite regress – to stymie outsiders. The symbol looks like elephants supporting a flat earth supported by the world turtle. It’s the nerd cool kids secret symbol on a dungeon door. Truly. It is.
So. YOU made a change. I’m just a lazy bystander. It’s not really my hobbyhorse. I don’t even rate as knight errant in the whole thing. ARK seems to have pulled another stunt. ARK seems to have made public the INDEX to the penal colony archives. I searched known banned books and penal colony addresses showed up on google search pages. Again. Whatever YOU did paid huge dividends.
I hate to say this but, “Well, duh!”
Of course they tracked gun purchases and got B0A to do it. We’ve got cops, without a warrant, able to look at your cell phone and all the searches you did, all the pictures you took, etc.
This latest bunch doesn’t respect the Constitution. To them, it doesn’t exist. They are already serving other masters. If you want to fight this in court, then DO SO. But don’t act so shocked.
And of course the FBI can’t tell you about the pipe bombs. If forced to under oath, some local agent would be pleading the 5th.
Even if the bombs weren’t placed by an FBI-affiliated agent provocateur, the FBI still can’t tell you what they don’t know.
They don’t know because they didn’t bother to investigate. They were too busy identifying and arresting “deplorables” for the “crime” of exercising their 1st Amendment rights, to investigate a potential bomber.
But it’s still ostensibly on their case list, so Wray can hide behind “we don’t comment on active investigations”.
This repulsive hack Wray is either lying or could even be playing word games. Perhaps the individual was affiliated with another agency or a civilian contractor of some other corrupt federal entity, not technically “FBI affiliated,” This guy will never answer honestly because well, he’s not honest. He needs to be questioned, seriously, by someone who knows what they’re doing. Oh and zero out his salary.
Ray Epps has been traced to David Brock. Epps is now suing Fox news. This may simply be a twisted way to “clear” Epps of claims that he is FBI. He may simply be an Antifa activist type acquired by the bureau to be the agent provocateur on this. Either way, J6 was deliberately infiltrated and the requisite scalps were collected.
Personally, I don’t believe it. Epps is too long in the tooth and too short in the hair to be Antifa. He’s got the military buzzcut mien.
Wray should not be referring to businesses with a history of repeatedly violating federal law or banking regulations as “partners” of the FBI. BofA frequently forks over hundreds of millions in fines to the federal government. Just do a quick Google of “Bank of America fines”.
A business that repeatedly violates federal law or banking regulations may be susceptible to engaging in questionable conduct if asked to do so by the FBI in exchange for leniency on the fines it pays.
BTW, all of those billions in fines these corporations kick back to the federal government get passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
Maybe the FBI needs to open more investigations into its “partners” to get them to stop screwing over customers. Send some corrupt bankers to jail rather than partner with them.
Nor should any corporate entity be regarded as a govt ‘partner’. That implies a corporatocracy or an oligarchy instead of a Constitutional Republic. Wray seems to be admitting to bigger problems than he realizes.
+1000
Why yes, Commo Chief, that would, And it does.
The “public/private partnership” is the defining characteristic of classical fascism.
Not the “fascism” of which antifa/BLM accuses conservatives. Real Italian Mussolini-style fascism.
I refuse to accept banks as anything other than arms of the gov’t due to the high level of regulation and the requirement to be chartered by said gov’t.
If something is un-Constitutional, then it’s unlawful (illegal), as the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the land.
What the FBI did asking for the gun records without a warrant was illegal. It was a crime. A serious crime of the worst sort.
It is one thing to ask a suspect if you can search his house without a warrant. It’s another if you ask a landlord if you can search a tenant’s apartment without a warrant. The apartment (information) is not the landlord’s to submit without the requisite legal process.
All of this overt criminality in the Executive agencies – rampant abuses and treasonous acts … and not a single one of them has even suffered a school-time detention, let alone actually being held liable for the very, very serious nature of their crimes and acts against the nation and the citizenry.
I think the apartment thing has been litigated to different results. What is the highest level of court that question has reached?
1) The FBI now knows “who” bought firearms
2) The IRS now knows who bought firearms in Montana
3) The ATF knows who bought firearms with illegal database,
4) The NSA knows who discussed firearms or does searches.
5) What does FEMA know going forward in case they put out a “work will make you free:” sign?
This sounds like The Coup is planning ahead for further solidifying their Party. Every agent that handled any of this is tainted. Once upon a time only the ATF was considered “dirty”.
They know a lot of stuff, but they don’t know who crossed the border.
And they don’t care!
I started using MBNA back in the 90s, when BofA took over I dropped from 4 cards over some time to one card, They were high limit accounts with high purchase volumes.
When I heard about their conduct I opened PenFed accounts and dropped BofA to zero transactions. There should be organized boycotts over their conduct.
Ray Epps claims he is being criminally charged
https://twitter.com/15poundstogo/status/1679257792052330496
This is an interesting sleight of hand. Epps was not supposed to be ID’d as the provocateur but was. Now the FBI is in a hole because they can’t charge him for real and they can’t just clear him. Too many eyes on. So they get Fox to run some false info (Epps is FBI), the Fed says it will charge Epps (but doesn’t–not yet.) Epps sues Fox for defamation–Epps is not technically FBI (probably Antifa–he’s connected to David Brock). Epps gets “charged”, Fox settles out of court, the settlement provides cover to pay Epps (for his part in the plot) and Epps is now always “:the guy who was cleared of J6”. That’s how the FBI gets him to go away so they can continue to punish the innocent without the interference of this Epps story.
I find it interesting that Epps, or anyone for that matter, considers it defamatory to be affiliated with the FBI
And because Epps is now “the guy who was cleared of J6”, it shows that somebody was cleared of charges, and so the fact nobody else has been cleared makes their charges look (to the untrained eye) more legitimate.
If their charges were bogus, they would have been cleared like Epps, right? [wink wink]
House gave up control of the budget to pedo joe. Who are they kidding with this tough guy talk?
Put up or shut up.
The House Republicans will do neither
Sounds like another good reason to limit one’s personal gun purchases to cash and/or trade. Naturally the Left will try to outlaw that but ha, good luck.
No one has found out who is responsible for the bombs.
No one has admitted to finding out. I’m betting someone in the FBI/DoJ knows.
I’m betting that someone in the FBI/DoJ is the perp.
Wray and the FBI have reached the point where nothing they say or do is credible. There are so many issues that they have not only screwed up, but many where they have been caught outright lying. Like the proverbial broken clock being correct twice a day, the public trust in it is gone and only a massive top-down flushing will fix it. Their involvement in the
Russian hoax alone is the biggest attempted coup in American history with no arrest or convictions.
It’s rather difficult to put the screws to a guy who has a fat 3-ring binder for every congressman, documenting every crime, grift, perversion or embarrassment in his entire life.
Wray cannot release information on an ongoing
investigationcoverup.