‘Whack-a-mole’: FBI allegedly fires, rehires, then refires agents linked to Jack Smith’s anti-GOP Arctic Frost crusade
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) published damning documents last month detailing how the Biden FBI not only secretly obtained the private phone records of numerous Republican lawmakers but subpoenaed records for over 400 Republican individuals and entities as part of what the Iowa senator called a “fishing expedition.”
Grassley noted last week that Operation Arctic Frost, the “fishing expedition” in question, “was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.”
‘The road to reform is long.’
Amid the backlash over the latest insights into the Biden administration’s yearslong apparent campaign to criminalize its political opponents, the FBI began canning some of the agents involved in Arctic Frost whose names appeared in the newly released documents. While the bureau handed out numerous pink slips in recent days, it evidently had issues making them stick.
Last week, the FBI reportedly fired at least two agents who had worked on the Arctic Frost investigation.
CNN originally reported that Aaron Tapp, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Antonio office who previously had an oversight role on Arctic Frost, was among those fired, though it has since indicated that he was forced into retiring.
RELATED: Bondi exposes ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ Arctic Frost action against Trump by Biden admin
Jack Smith. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
On Monday, the bureau allegedly canned another four agents who worked on Smith’s team: Jeremy Desor; Blaire Toleman, a Chicago-based agent who once led a now-defunct public corruption squad; David Geist, a former assistant special agent in charge of the bureau’s Washington field office; and Jamie Garman, an agent who was placed on administrative leave early last month, reported Reuters.
“The public has a right to know how the government’s spending their hard-earned tax dollars, and if agents were engaged in wrongdoing they ought to be held accountable,” Sen. Grassley said in a statement. “Transparency brings accountability.”
Multiple sources told Reuters that at least two of the terminations — Toleman’s and Geist’s — were rescinded later in the day, along with a number of other terminations that allegedly took place on Monday.
Sources familiar with the matter told CNN that Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, had intervened on Monday to reverse the firings of least four fired FBI agents. One source said she weighed in on account of the agents’ involvement in the Trump administration’s crackdown on criminality in the national capital.
This last-minute rescue was, however, apparently as short-lived as the initial terminations. The FBI reportedly fired the agents again on Tuesday.
It’s presently unclear how many agents were officially canned.
The FBI and Pirro’s office did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.
The FBI Agents Association complained in a statement on Tuesday that “the actions yesterday — in which FBI Special Agents were terminated and then reinstated shortly after — highlight the chaos that occurs when long-standing policies and processes are ignored. An Agent simply being assigned to an investigation and conducting it appropriately within the law should never be grounds for termination.”
“Director Patel has disregarded the law and launched a campaign of erratic and arbitrary retribution,” added the group.
Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News, “Individual accountability for participation in or oversight of weaponized operations such as Arctic Frost should absolutely be imposed. I’m glad some have been fired for this, and I am sure they will sue and be well represented.”
“The personnel laws are very restrictive to accountability, which certainly makes accountability harder, especially when considering termination versus reassignment,” continued Howell. “That being said, you can’t have weaponized individuals still at the FBI, that just should not ever be an acceptable option. The road to reform is long.”
Howell added, “I’d like to see more thought given to systemic reform at the FBI so it can’t operate institutionally as it did during the Biden years especially. Whack-a-mole on weaponized individuals is tough work, but the FBI and government should also mitigate the potential for them to abuse power again.”
Editor’s note: Mike Howell is a contributor at Blaze News.
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Video appears to show possibly drunken man trying to grope and kiss Mexican president in public
The apparent harassment of the Mexican president by a seemingly drunken man has led to a national conversation about the harassment women face on a daily basis.
President Claudia Sheinbaum was taking a five-minute walk on her way to the Education Ministry when a man approached her from behind, grabbed her, apparently attempted to cup her breasts over her clothes, and tried to kiss her, video showed.
‘If the most powerful woman in Mexico experienced harassment, what can women who travel on public transportation or walk alone every day expect?’
The man was brushed away by someone near the president, and the bizarre incident was captured on video by bystanders. Sheinbaum said in her daily media briefing that she was pressing charges against the man in order to show other Mexican women that the harassment was not acceptable.
“I decided to file a complaint because this is something … all women in our country experience,” Sheinbaum said. “I experienced it before, when I wasn’t president. It shouldn’t happen. No one should violate our personal space. No man has the right to violate that space.”
Others jumped on the incident to call for more action against public harassment.
“If the most powerful woman in Mexico experienced harassment, what can women who travel on public transportation or walk alone every day expect?” asked Ivonne Ortega, a member of Congress. “This is the reality that millions of women and girls face daily.”
RELATED: Mexico hands over 26 high-ranking alleged drug cartel figures to US for prosecution
One survey of female transit riders from several nations found that Mexico had the worst reported rate of public harassment.
Some critics of the president speculated that the incident was orchestrated in order to draw attention away from the horrific assassination of the mayor of Uruapan, Michoácan, seemingly at the hands of the drug cartels.
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Cyclone outside PAR now a tropical storm
The tropical cyclone outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility has intensified as it moved northwestward, PAGASA said early Thursday morning.
Kalayaan Islands under Signal No. 1 as Tino exits PAR
Typhoon Tino has exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR), but the Kalayaan Islands remain under Signal No. 1, according to the state weather bureau PAGASA’s report early Thursday morning.
114 dead, 127 missing due to Tino –OCD
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Popular airport could become ‘Donald J Trump International’ under new bill
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