FBI Caught Spying on Signal Group Chat of Immigration Activists

The FBI spied on the private group chat of an immigrants rights group that was monitoring immigration court proceedings in New York City.

The Guardian reports that the bureau gained access to a “courtwatch” Signal group coordinating volunteers to attend proceedings at three immigration courts in the city. A joint report between the FBI and the New York Police Department from August quoted from the group chat and called them “anarchist violent extremist actors.”

That report was distributed to other law enforcement agencies around the country, and the FBI called it a warning about “extremist actors targeting law enforcement officers and federal facilities.” The Guardian got the report after Property of the People, a nonprofit organization dedicated to government transparency, obtained it via public records requests.

Signal chats have end-to-end encryption, so law enforcement could have only accessed the group chat if an agent was part of the chat, had access to a member’s phone, or was sent copies of the conversation. According to the FBI, a “sensitive source with excellent access” provided the information, dodging the requirement for a warrant.

The FBI also claims that the person who created the chat advocated violence against law enforcement, but it has not responded to questions about the identity of the person or given more details on why it called the group “anarchist violent extremist actors.”

Violent detention and arrests in immigration court buildings, sometimes just after rulings, have become the norm in the last year. In one case, an ICE agent tackled a woman to the ground right after her husband was arrested in a New York City immigration court. For some reason, the government considers that legal but has a problem with citizens monitoring what’s going on in and around the courts.

On Thursday, President Trump decided to renege on his 40 percent tariffs on Brazilian goods, ending a problem he created. The agricultural products tariffed—beef, fruit, coffee, cocoa—were getting more and more expensive for Americans everywhere.  

“After considering the information and recommendations these officials have provided to me and the status of negotiations with the Government of Brazil, among other things, I have determined that it is necessary and appropriate to modify the scope of products subject to the additional ad valorem rate of duty imposed under Executive Order 14323,” Trump wrote in an executive order. “Specifically, I have determined that certain agricultural products shall not be subject to the additional ad valorem rate of duty imposed under Executive Order 14323.”

Trump initially levied the tariffs against Brazil on the grounds that it was unfairly prosecuting former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro—who was recently sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting to stage a coup in 2023, which some compare to the January 6, 2021 insurrection in the U.S. Bolsonaro had his supporters raid Brazil’s presidential palace, the Supreme Court, and Congress, all because he’d lost the election to leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. 

Now, with Bolsonaro in jail and grocery prices in the U.S. skyrocketing, Trump is backtracking. The Brazilian president made it clear early on that he wouldn’t cave to Trump, stating over the summer that “at no point will Brazil negotiate as if it were a small country up against a big country.” It appears he meant it.

“Trump’s decision to remove many tariffs on Brazilian products is a significant political victory for the Lula administration ahead of next year’s presidential elections,” Brazilian professor Oliver Stuenkel wrote on X. “And a vindication of Brazil’s choice to pursue a calm and pragmatic negotiation strategy vis-à-vis Trump.” 

The Trump administration is going rogue—and MAGA is not happy about it.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee held a private meeting in July with Jonathan Pollard, an Israeli spy who spent 30 years in prison for selling U.S. secrets to Israel during the Cold War.

The news caught the rest of the administration off guard, including the CIA and the president, according to three U.S. officials that spoke with The New York Times.

The “friendly” off-the-books encounter took place at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, according to Pollard, who spoke with the Times by phone on Wednesday.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that the White House was not informed of the meeting beforehand but that, regardless, “the president stands by our ambassador.”

It was unclear if the State Department had given the go-ahead for the meeting, and still more confusing as to why Huckabee and his senior adviser David Milstein believed it prudent to meet with one of the most notorious spies from the Cold War.

MAGA conservatives were outraged by the meeting, arguing online that Huckabee should be removed from his post for meeting with a “traitor.”

“Immediately Recall Ambassador Huckabee, He is Out of Control,” posted Grace Chong, the chief financial officer and chief operating officer for Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast.

“There is no universe where it’s appropriate for Mike Huckabee, who is supposed to be OUR AMBASSADOR and serve our country’s interest, is meeting with Jonathan Pollard, who to this day encourages spying on the U.S.,” wrote right-wing influencer Mike Cernovich, calling for an investigation into the meeting.

Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for passing thousands of classified documents pertaining to U.S. nuclear, military, and technical matters along to Israel. Still, some people viewed him as a hero—including Huckabee and some Israelis—spending years lobbying for his early release, which came in 2015.

When he moved to Israel, Pollard was met with a “hero’s welcome on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Times.

“Pollard said he did not regret spying for Israel, claiming the United States had cut Israel out of intelligence sharing. And he castigated [Donald] Trump, calling him a ‘madman who has literally sold us down the drain, for Saudi gold,’” the Times reported.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is reportedly “encouraging” a federal grand jury investigation into Justice Department official Ed Martin and Federal Housing Finance Director Bill Pulte for potential misconduct in pursuing criminal charges against prominent Democrats.

The new investigation, led by the Maryland U.S. attorney’s office, is focused on whether the mortgage fraud charges against California Senator Adam Schiff and possibly New York Attorney General Letitia James were tainted by the methods of Martin and Pulte, who allegedly shared sensitive information with individuals who were not authorized to be part of the investigation.

Two sources told MS Now that Blanche had grown concerned over unforced errors in their cases, and was helping to oversee the investigation into the potential misconduct.

Appearing on MS NOW Thursday night, reporter Carol Leonnig said that Blanche and other top DOJ lawyers had grown “very frustrated” with Martin’s and Pulte’s methods. Blanche was not only well aware of the probe into their conduct, he also was “not in any way interfering with it, and possibly even encouraging” it, Leonnig said.

“In this case, it is a problem, according to our sources, for Todd Blanche, to have cases that aren’t being handled very properly. And as we saw, there were some unforced errors,” Leonnig said. “In another case in the Eastern District of Virginia yesterday. We’re told Blanche is a little bit embarrassed about all of that.”

Christine Bish, a California realtor who helped compile evidence to support allegations of mortgage fraud against Schiff, said she was specifically subpoenaed to discuss her communications with Martin and Pulte.

“They’re investigating each other,” Bish told CNN. “It’s stupid.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham believes that the government owes him restitution for accessing his phone records while investigating Donald Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021.

As part of the budget bill passed to fund the government earlier this month, a provision was passed allowing senators who had their phone records accessed by the government without their knowledge to sue the Justice Department. Senators would be able to win $500,000 of taxpayer money per violation. Many members of Congress found this abhorrent, and this week the House voted to repeal the provision. Graham was incensed and blocked the repeal when it came to the Senate.

“I’m going to sue Biden’s DOJ and Jack Smith, I’m going to sue Verizon, it’s going to be a hell of a lot more than $500,000,” Graham said on the Senate floor Friday, referring to the special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

It’s petty, corrupt, and vindictive for Graham to demand that the government pay him for being one of eight Republican senators whose phone records were subpoenaed by Smith’s team. The bill is specifically written to be retroactive to 2022 to help them out. Even Republicans in the House see the whole thing as corrupt.

“What they did is wrong,” said Republican Representative Austin Scott about the provision. “This should not be in this piece of legislation, and they can say it’s about good governance all they want to. When they made it retroactive, all of a sudden it was no longer about good governance. There’s actually a list of people that know they will get paid as soon as this thing is signed.”