BUFFALO, NY- For anyone who has been paying attention to the narrative coming out of the White House, the Department of Justice, and congressional Democrats, the timing of the Buffalo mass shooting all seemed just a little too convenient.
There is also the revelation according to the New York Post that investigators are looking into whether a retired federal agent was aware of Payton Gendron’s plans to carry out the mass shooting 30 minutes before the rampage.
The Buffalo News is reporting that two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation told them a former agent, believed to be from Texas, was among several individuals who regularly communicated with Gendron online about his racist views.
Those same sources say Gendron invited some of those online connections to read his so-called “manifesto”—a hate inspired, imminent plan to carry out an attack at the Tops Friendly Markets store, where he would eventually kill 10 people and injure three in the deadly attack on May 14.
Out of those shot, eleven were black and two were white. One of the dead included a retired Buffalo police officer who was working at the store as a security guard.
According to the Buffalo News, they were unable to confirm if the retired agent had indeed accepted the invitation.
“These were like-minded people who used this chat group to talk about their shared interests in racial hatred, replacement theory, and hatred of anyone who is Jewish, a person of color, or not of European ancestry,’ one of the officials told the outlet.
“What is especially unsettling is that these six people received advance notice of the Buffalo shooting about 30 minutes before it happened,” the source said.
“The FBI has verified that none of these people called law enforcement to warn them about the shooting. The FBI database shows no advance tips from anyone that this shooting was about to happen,’ the official continued.
The FBI is in the process of trying to run down the six people who could possibly be charged as accomplices in the shooting, the source told the newspaper.
According to John Elmore, a civil rights attorney representing the family of one of the victims, Andrew Mackniel, 53, he told Fox News that if the retired agent indeed “had advance notice, he had a moral obligation to get on the phone and try to notify someone about it.”
The possible involvement of the former federal official, believed to be an FBI agent, has raised serious questions about whether or not the agency may have been involved in some manner in the operation. One question raised by Conservative Firing Line (CFL) which bears some legitimacy is why is it that all these nutjobs hell-bent on carrying out mass shootings detail them in so-called “manifesto’s?”
However the fact that a former federal agent may have had some involvement once again raises the question of possible “false flag” activity involving a federal agency. We have recently seen FBI involvement in the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, as well as the January 6 siege at the US Capitol.
Both of those events were used to further the narrative that there is an unhinged element on the right which has white supremacist roots. And conveniently, that is precisely the narrative being pushed by the Biden administration, which has claimed that white supremacy is the greatest terror threat faced by the US.
While the sources didn’t provide the name of the federal agency where they alleged insider worked, it wouldn’t be too far off the rails to believe it was a retired FBI agent. CFL also notes that the FBI’s Buffalo field office is refusing to comment on the probe.
Meanwhile Terrence M. Connors, an attorney representing the families of a number of other victims, echoed the sentiments of Elmore, alleging that law enforcement assets knew about the shooting before it occurred, yet did nothing to try to prevent it.
As outrageous as this may sound, based upon what we are finding in our investigation, it is not surprising,” Connors said.
A number of these mass shootings have been surrounded by questionable circumstances and the Buffalo shooting is no different. If indeed six people had prior notice of the shooting, including a retired law enforcement agent, that is not only a moral travesty but it is a crime. If the full circumstances of those allegations is not released by the FBI, it points to a possible coverup of governmental malfeasance.
At its worst, CFL notes, it would point to the shooter being groomed by those who are charged with protecting the country from mass murder.
“Imagine how bad the situation is, with foreign spies operating full throttle in the U.S., at numbers unheard of, while the FBI is busy proving itself incompetent, and staging coups,” someone at Natural News wrote back in 2020, as the depth and width of FBI corruption and incompetence reared its ugly head regarding the 2016 election and the so-called “Russia collusion” hoax.
The story of a man named Jerry Drake Varnell is instructive about how the FBI has allegedly used psychologically-damaged individuals to carry out (or plan to carry out) terror attacks, according to a site called FBI Corruption News.
According to Varnell’s parents, he had developed a plan to bomb a bank in Oklahoma City. Varnell was a self-described believer in the “Three Percenter” ideology, which attempts to expose corruption and injustice from the standpoint of someone on the right wing.
When it was time to carry out the scheme, Varnell drove a stolen van purported to be carrying a 1,000 pound ammonium nitrate bomb. However it all turned out being a gigantic FBI sting operation, with the feds being well aware that Varnell had psychological issues.
“The FBI knew he was a schizophrenic,” Varnell’s parents said in an open letter. “Underneath his condition, he is a sweet-hearted person and we are extremely shocked that this event has happened. However, what has us flabbergasted is the fact that the FBI knew he was a schizophrenic.”
They further related that the state of Oklahoma had certified Jerry Varnell as being mentally incompetent, and ordered his parents would have legal guardianship over him.
“These documents are sealed from the public, which is why no news media outlet has been able to obtain them. The FBI clearly knew that he was schizophrenic because they have gathered every ounce of information on him.”
Varnell’s parents claim there is no way their son could have either committed or attempted to commit such a heinous act without significant input from the FBI.
The parents say he was unfit to do pretty much anything prior to the FBI pursuing him, and, they claim, mind-controlling him. He had no job, no money, no vehicle, and no driver’s license His parents took care of him pretty much at all times.
“He has suffered through countless serious, full-blown schizophrenic, delusional episodes and he has been put in numerous mental hospitals since he was 16 years old. The FBI came and picked him up from our home, they gave him a vehicle, gave him a fake bomb, and every means to make this happen, none of which he had access to on his own.”
The Varnell’s claim an FBI informant kept working on their son, despite the fact they had ordered him to stay away. He was caught sneaking onto their property and into their residence on numerous occasions, they say.
“The FBI paid him to continue this operation and I believe they have cleared his criminal record,” the Varnell’s claim.
According to David Steele, a 20-year US Marine Corps intelligence officer, and the second-highest ranking civilian in US Marine Corps Intelligence, he claims most domestic terrorists are, in fact, false flag terrorists.
“Most terrorists are false flag terrorists, or are created by our own security service,” Steele said.
“In the United States, every single terrorist incident we have had has been a false flag, or has been an informant pushed on by the FBI. IN fact, we now have citizens taking out restraining orders against FBI informants that are trying to incite terrorism. We’ve become a lunatic asylum.”
We are not trying to sound like conspiracy theorists but the two recent shootings, one to further the “white supremacist” narrative and the other, the Uvalde school shooting to further the gun control narrative all seem a little too convenient. Especially when one considers the relative pass given to the black nationalist who attacked a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin last November 21, ignored because it didn’t further a narrative being pushed by leftists and the mainstream media.
For more on FBI-facilitated schemes going awry, we invite you to read our prior piece on Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s bogus kidnapping scheme.
DIG DEEPER
GRAND RAPIDS, MI- Many people have long suspected that the alleged “plot” to “kidnap” Michigan Gov. Dictator Gretchen Whitmer was questionable at best, especially after it was revealed that the FBI was more than a mere bystander in the case.
Law Enforcement Today has previously reported on the numerous “holes” in the case. Now, a federal jury appears to agree, having acquitted two defendants outright in the case, while failing to reach a verdict against the other two suspects. The trial judge declared a mistrial against those two defendants, Yahoo News reports.
At the trial in Grand Rapids, four men—Daniel Harris, 24; Adam Fox, 38; Barry Croft Jr., 46; and Brandon Caserta, 33, were all charged with conspiracy. All but Caserta were additionally charged with knowingly conspiring to use weapons of mass destructions against persons or property, which was ostensibly designed to slow responding authorities.
In addition, Croft and Harris were charged with possession of an unregistered destructive device, while Harris was charged with possession of a semi-automatic rifle that wasn’t registered to him.
In the case of Harris, he was found not guilty on all four charges, while Caserta was found not guilty of conspiracy. The jury was unable to reach verdicts in the cases against Fox and Croft, which led to the mistrial declaration.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed in the outcome,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge told reporters outside the courtroom Friday afternoon. “We thought that the jury would convict beyond [a] reasonable doubt based on the evidence we put forward.”
Birge, in a brief statement, indicated his office will retry the defendants on the hung counts.
“We have two defendants that are awaiting trial and we’ll get to work on that,” he told reporters before walking away without taking questions.
Meanwhile, Caserta’s defense lawyer praised the jury’s decision while blaming the FBI’s involvement in the case.
“I think what the FBI did is unconscionable,” attorney Mike Hills said outside the courtroom. “And I think the jury just sent them a message loud and clear.”
The verdict did not set will with Whitmer’s office, with her chief of staff complaining about the “normalization of political violence.”
“Today, Michiganders and Americans—especially our children—are living through the normalization of political violence,” said chief of staff JoAnne Huls.
“The plot to kidnap and kill a governor may seem like an anomaly. But we must be honest about what it really is: the result of violent, divisive rhetoric that is all too common across our country. There must be accountability and consequences for those who commit heinous crimes. Without accountability, extremists will be emboldened.”
Huls’ invocation about children being exposed to violence is an interesting dichotomy, given Whitmer’s support for abortion up until the 9th month of pregnancy. Apparently it all depends what type of “violence” one is talking about.
According to the Boston Herald, the acquittals came on the fifth day of deliberations in the case, only hours after the jury told the trial judge they were struggling to find a unanimous verdict against Fox and Croft. The judge instructed the jurors to continue working, however shortly after lunch, they told the judge thy were still deadlocked on some of the counts.
Meanwhile, Hill said the defendants in the case were doing nothing more than “rough talk.”
“We have the freedom to say that. If I don’t like the governor and it’s rough talk, I can do that in our country,” Hill said. “That’s what’s beautiful about this country. That’s what’s great about it.”
Meanwhile, Fox’s attorney, Chris Gibbons said that while his client hoped for an acquittal instead of a hung jury, he holds out hope for better results in a subsequent trial.
“Adam is disappointed that he’s going to be detained a bit longer,” Gibbons said, “but we’re waiting for a second trial and we’ll eventually get where we want to get which is the truth and the justice I think Adam is entitled to.”
Meanwhile two other men who had been arrested in the scheme, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks pleaded guilty in the case and testified in the failed trial.
After the verdicts for Harris and Caserta were announced, they embraced their lawyers, finally freed by U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker after being locked up for 18 months while awaiting trial, the Herald said.
The case came about in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and draconian emergency orders put in place primarily by Democrat governors such as Whitmer. At one point, armed protesters took to the streets of Michigan’s state capital, Lansing, to protest Whitmer’s orders.
The case, however, was marked by controversy, with the lead FBI investigator in the case being arrested for domestic violence after his wife refused to participate in a “swingers” event. He was eventually dismissed from the FBI.
There were also allegations that the FBI not only had informants (and possibly agents) embedded in the plot, but were more than observers, actually facilitating much of the scheme, including the supply of explosives, as previously reported by Law Enforcement Today.
According to BuzzFeed, the FBI had at least 12 informants and undercover agents embedded in the plot, which amounted to almost more than the actual participants in the scheme.
It is alleged that FBI-connected persons had encouraged militia members to organize the plot, while also facilitating some of the interactions behind it. The defendants claimed that undercover agents and informants were a crucial component of the alleged plot, while maintaining that without FBI involvement and influence, there may never have even been a conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer.
For example according to The Daily Caller, one of the informants, a man who came from Wisconsin planned meetups for the far-right militia members, which included paying for hotel rooms and foods as a cudgel to encourage those militia members. BuzzFeed reported that the initial plans to kidnap Whitmer took place at those meetings.
One other informant, an Iraq war veteran named “Dan” became so embedded in the operation that he became second-in-command of the group.
“Dan” was instrumental in the plot, encouraging the so-called “mastermind” behind the plan to kidnap Whitmer to move the scheme forward while then being instrumental in setting the trap which eventually ensnared some of the defendants.
“Dan” also arranged for an undercover FBI agent named “Red” to become part of the scheme. “Red” was alleged to be an “explosives expert” who would arrange for the group to obtain the explosives needed to blow up a bridge which would inhibit law enforcement’s response to Whitmer’s “kidnapping.” “Red” told the conspirators that it would require $4,000 to purchase enough C-4 to blow up the Elk River bridge, whereby the men agreed to raise enough funds to purchase the explosives.
During the trial which spanned thirteen days, prosecutors produced evidence from undercover agents, a crucial informant, as well as Garbin and Franks. Jurors also heard secretly recorded conversations, as well as read violent social media posts and chat messages.
Garbin alleged that the plan was to kidnap Whitmer and “cause enough chaos to trigger a civil war before the election,” the Herald reported, with the hope being to prevent Biden from winning the White House.
BuzzFeed meanwhile said that at least some of the defendants allege the investigation was a premeditated effort by the government to undermine their militia movement, with one accusing the government of entrapment based on the involvement of the FBI’s undercover agents and informants.
For more on our previous reporting on this case, we invite you to:
DIG DEEPER
LANSING, MI – An interesting development has come regarding the criminal case revolving around the alleged kidnapping plot of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, as federal prosecutors reportedly dropped the testimony of an FBI special agent involved in the investigation.
Apparently, the FBI agent’s testimony was dropped in the case after it was discovered the agent engaged in an anti-Trump rant online where he wished former President Trump supporters would “burn in hell”.
However, it’s unclear if the discovery of the social media posts led to the actions taken by the prosecutors, as this FBI agent has also stirred up controversy in recent months over an arrest regarding alleged domestic violence against his spouse.
Prosecutors gave defense teams access to Agent Richard Trask’s social media posts this week, with at least one taking aim at Trump and his supporters.
“If you still support our piece of s*** president you can f*** off.”
His testimony was dropped.https://t.co/g5bwhNm0tn
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) September 3, 2021
Attorney Michael Harris, who is representing one of the six defendants in case revolving around the alleged kidnapping plot of Governor Whitmer, said that during a September 2nd court hearing, prosecutors decided to drop FBI Agent Richard Trask’s testimony during a pending October trial.
Prosecutors had recently given access to Trask’s social media posts to the defense teams, which Hills found that Trask had made the following post back in late March of 2020:
“If you still support our piece of shit president you can fuck off. As someone whose wife works in the hospital I hope you burn in hell along with your douchebag fucking reality tv star. His ego is going to kill a lot of people and anyone who supports that is a dumbass. This is what you get when you elect an egotistica/narcissistic (sic) maniac to the top office. He needs people to be nice to him or he won’t help. Fuck you douche.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office hasn’t come forward with any specific reason as to why Tark’s testimony would no longer be used, but this recent development could be linked to not only the social media post – but Trask’s July arrest for allegedly beating his wife.
https://twitter.com/robertsnellnews/status/1433446292672466946
Trask was charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm and is facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Andy Arena, who formerly ran the FBI’s Detroit field office, noted at the time of Trask’s arrest that his credibility as a witness in the Whitmer case could be called into question:
“It’s the last thing you want for a major case like this. Any time you give the defense any ammunition, it’s not good.”
With the trial slated to begin in October, there are also challenges associated with finding potential jurors due to the highly political nature of the case.
A 32-page proposed questionnaire filed in federal court on September 3rd shows that prospective jurors will be presented with questions on whether “have experience or training with explosive devices,” or if they, a family member, “or any close friend ever belonged to a militia.”
There are even questions proposed on whether jurors “have any strong feelings about masks.”
https://twitter.com/robertsnellnews/status/1433862066193014800
Another matter complicating the case is that the defense for those charged have continued to allege that the cases against their clients are rife with overreaching charges due to the FBI agents who were working undercover in the case being alleged of furthering the alleged kidnapping plot themselves.
And a July report by none other than Buzzfeed News went into great detail regarding how deeply embedded the FBI were in this investigation – noting that at least 12 confidential informants were involved and some of those FBI agents served as key players in this alleged kidnapping plot.
We at Law Enforcement Today provided a deep dive back in July detailing the case analysis that showed just how deeply embedded the FBI and informants were in the case, and the concerns this matter has brought up over whether this alleged plot would have even existed without the FBI’s insertion into the matter.
Here’s that previous report.
_
MICHIGAN- A shocking new revelation has come about in the case of five defendants arrested in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Dictator Gretchen Whitmer (D).
According to BuzzFeed, the federal government in the form of the FBI used at least a dozen confidential informants to infiltrate the group involved in the scheme, according to a federal court filing on Monday.
In the filing from the attorney of one of the five defendants in the case, prosecutors are being asked to release information about those twelve informants, including their relationship with the FBI as well as what role if any they played in developing the case.
The filing was among some 15 new defense motions filed by defense attorneys. Other requests are for a change in venue, motions to suppress evidence gathered in a search warrant, and a request to try at least one of the defendants separately.
Taken in totality, the filings indicate the course defense attorneys may be pursuing in the case, with at least some of them indicating they plan to pursue a defense that the FBI had “induced or persuaded” the defendants to go along with the plot.
Last October, the plot to allegedly kidnap Whitmer, one of the most dictatorial of US governors during the COVID-19 pandemic, was revealed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
The announcement that six men had been charged in an alleged kidnapping conspiracy involving Whitmer went viral. Five of the men charged—Barry Croft, Adam Fox, Daniel Harris, Kaleb Franks, and Brandon Caserta—have all pleaded not guilty and are currently being held without bail.
The sixth suspect, Ty Garbin pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in the case last January. It is unknown if prosecutors made a plea deal with him to gain his cooperation.
The DOJ said the defendants had met over a six-month period last year, where they had developed the scheme to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home, then removing her out of state where she would be put on “trial” for being a “tyrant.” The plot was derailed before it was executed when the DOJ arrested the alleged plotters.
In addition to the six, eight other men were charged under the state’s anti-terrorism laws for providing material support to the defendants. All but two of the defendants live in Michigan, and at least half of the defendants are members of the militant Wolverine Watchmen, a militant group which has been associated with the Three Percenters, a militia group, BuzzFeed said.
The flurry of defense motions came Monday since it was the deadline for such motions in the case.
Federal prosecutors have admitted to using informants in the case, however thus far their activities and identities have been closely held, with the exception of one who testified in March.
Thus far, the DOJ has provided ID numbers connected to 12 confidential informants, however with only one exception has refused to provide background on how they were recruited, what compensation if any they received from the FBI, where they are based or their names, according to Franks’ attorney.
The attorney, Scott Graham said that such information is vital in “preparation of a defense to the charges.”
Franks has asked for his case to be moved out of the Western District of Michigan, claiming “press coverage of (and participation in) this matter has corrupted the potential trial atmosphere to the point that Mr. Franks will be denied a fair trial in Michigan.”
In claiming media involvement in the case, Graham specifically identified a motion filed by BuzzFeed seeking to obtain access to exhibits revealed at a hearing relative to the case in January and cited the risk of “prejudice in this case based on the extensive, negative pervasive press coverage of the allegations.”
In addition to the change of venue, Graham has also requested that Franks be tried separately, primarily because he isn’t facing a bomb charge that was added to the case earlier this year.
That particular count, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, was applied to three of the other defendants in the case, who allegedly attempted to build explosive devices or procure bomb-making materials.
Graham noted that by combining the cases, potential commentary by the government in court about that particular charge “will certainly go far in frightening jurors and eliciting emotional decisions from them.”
An attorney for Croft on Sunday filed a motion, claiming the government had provided over 5,000 duplicate files as it shared evidence, with at least 15 copies of the same audio recording. That, he said significantly increases the burden on the defense.
Croft’s attorney, Joshua Blanchard, also asked the court to exclude evidence that was secured from Croft’s Delaware home during an October search, claiming they were outside the scope of the warrant. Included in those items included a 1-kilogram silver bar, a handwritten note cipher, and “Mr. Croft’s hat.”
Apparently, Croft is allegedly known among Three Percenters of wearing a tri-corner hat much like those worn during the American Revolution.
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Author: Jim Patrick
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