Tuesday, 05 November 2024

Trove Of Biden Docs Details How DHS Planned To Crack Down On Conservative Voices, Law Group Says


The Department of Homeland Security seal on the podium used by acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan as he announces new rules about how migrant children and families are treated in federal custody at the Ronald Reagan Building August 21, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

America First Legal (AFL) made public a trove of documents that reveal a coordinated effort within the Biden administration to crack down on the free speech of its political opponents, according to the conservative law group.

AFL obtained the documents through legal action taken against the Department of Homeland Security  (DHS) over its now-defunct Homeland Intelligence Experts Group. The group coordinated with an advisory body led by former intelligence officials John Brennan and James Clapper on ways to combat “domestic terrorism,” which includes cracking down on political dissent, according to AFL.

“The American people need to read these records and our exposé of the Biden Administration’s efforts to further weaponize the government to achieve their objectives. This ‘committee,’ stacked with the Administration’s allies, was formed in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and we were proud to have stopped its activities. Now, it is up to Congress to stop the Biden Administration from further using these same actors to advance their radical agenda at the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis,“ America First Legal Executive Director Gene Hamilton said in a statement.

AFL has released some of the documents over recent weeks as part of a “#DeepStateDiaries” series on how the DHS intelligence group planned to operate, including creating campaigns, working with local authorities to spread its message, and convincing popular podcasters to endorse its aims. The conservative legal group released dozens of pages of emails, notes, and other documents it obtained through the course of litigation over the DHS group on Thursday.

DHS disbanded the Homeland Intelligence Experts Group in May after legal action by AFL. The group was formed in September 2023 to “provide advice and perspectives on intelligence and national security efforts.”

“It was not intended to provide unbiased, expert advice to advance the Department of Homeland Security’s mission,” the AFL in a release announcing the DHS group’s fall. “Instead, it was a deeply partisan group designed to provide top cover for the Department’s radical agenda under Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas.”

The DHS group was advised by a body led by Brennan, a former head of the CIA, and Clapper, who served as Director of National Intelligence under former president Barack Obama. Both Brennan and Clapper were signatories to a 2020 letter by intelligence experts that suggested that information gained from Hunter Biden’s laptop, abandoned at a Delaware computer repair store, was likely Russian disinformation.

The laptop has since been independently authenticated numerous times over by various outlets and experts.


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