Militia informant’s spying reveals the FBI’s already vast powers to investigate right-wing extremists interc.pt/2Bq2OiX by @trevoraaronson
“Why are you having me do this instead of a federal agent who would be clearly more qualified and maybe more appropriately suited for this position?” Stevens remembered asking Stanger.
Stanger’s response was quick, Stevens recalled: “With you, we avoid a lot of red tape.”
Stanger’s response was quick, Stevens recalled: “With you, we avoid a lot of red tape.”
“To me, red tape, as I’ve learned in the government, is set up for a reason,” Stevens told The Intercept. “Why aren’t they following that red tape? Did he mean just internal regulations? Or did he mean I could do the work without a warrant?”
“So after doing that time and time again (for 6 years), there was just nothing actionable, and I would think, Why after a year or so of me doing that didn’t they stop it? It seemed to increase as time went forward, and they just weren’t getting any actionable intelligence.”
Stevens’s infiltration of militia groups appears to contradict the FBI’s persistent claims that federal law enforcement does not investigate Americans based on ideology alone. Wray, the FBI director, emphasized this in a July 23 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Our focus is on the violence. We, the FBI, do not investigate ideology, no matter how repugnant,” Wray told the senators.
FBI agents must obtain supervisory approval to enter a group or gathering using an undercover agent, and to obtain that approval, the FBI must have a “predicate,” or a factual basis to suspect criminal activity.
But neither supervisory approval nor a predicate is required if the work is done by an informant, creating a loophole that allows the FBI to investigate Americans for virtually any reason.
