By Diana Glebova
The FBI never managed to thwart the NYC subway shooting suspect, who allegedly posted hours of extremist black nationalist and violent rhetoric on YouTube, but has repeatedly allocated resources to chasing hoaxes and false leads.
The FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) have spent their efforts plotting an operation to kidnap a governor, busting out a team of 15 agents to investigate a rope in a NASCAR garage and investigating parents at school boards meetings as domestic terrorists, among other failed operations. The FBI has also denied knowing about the whereabouts of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
The man responsible for allegedly opening fire in a New York City subway car Tuesday walked away from the scene of the crime and, after waiting for the authorities to do something, decided to turn himself in, reportedly sitting on a bench relaxing before the NYPD nabbed him.
“I’m Frank, I’m the person you’re looking for. I’m surprised it took so long,” Frank James, the alleged shooter, told police as they arrested him, according to the New York Post. James evaded arrest for over 24 hours despite hundreds of NYPD officers working to find him. The NYPD also reportedly relied on a bystander spotting James on a security camera and authorities were looking at a different suspect first, according to Newsweek.
The shooting left 10 people with bullet holes and at least 13 more injured in the worst crime committed in NYC’s subway system in decades. Police found three extended magazines, four smoke grenades, a hatchet and keys to a U-Haul he allegedly rented prior to the shooting, according to Fox 29.
James now faces terror-related charges, which could send him to prison for life. He was previously arrested three times in New Jersey, including two charges of making terroristic threats, and nine times in New York, according to the New York Times.
Frank James, the wanted person of interest in the #Brooklyn subway mass shooting, has a Twitter account where he posted support for black nationalist group Nation of Islam. He also shared video of Tariq Nasheed. pic.twitter.com/dNZjJNxYxh
— Andy Ngô ?️? (@MrAndyNgo) April 13, 2022
NYC subway shooter in a drunk rant he posted on YouTube almost a month ago talking about how white people and black people should have no contact with each other and that white people are angry that black people are no longer slaves pic.twitter.com/JmUOQS5JBk
— Nuance Bro (@NuanceBro) April 13, 2022
Instead of capturing alleged extremists like James, the FBI has decided to turn its efforts to hoaxes over the years.
The FBI said in October of 2020 it had foiled a violent plan to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, spending months working with informants and sending undercover agents to monitor meetings, chats and training exercises, eventually stopping the operation and arresting those involved, Buzzfeed reported.
The DOJ labeled the men “violent extremists” for the planned kidnapping and plan to use explosives in the operation.
“Federal and state law enforcement are committed to working together to make sure violent extremists never succeed with their plans, particularly when they target our duly elected leaders,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Byerly Birge said. The DOJ elevated the case to include terror-related charges months later for allegedly conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction.
Defense attorneys claimed throughout the trials that the men could never have planned the operation themselves, and the FBI had entrapped them in the undercover operation, often offering the men money, Buzzfeed reported.
The defense said the FBI “conceived and controlled every aspect” of the kidnapping operation, according to the Washington Examiner.
In a blow to the FBI’s case, two men were acquitted of all charges related to the kidnapping by the jury on Friday. The jury also was unable to reach a verdict on two more men that had already been charged, leading to a possible re-trial.
In June of 2020, the FBI conducted an investigation into an alleged noose hung in NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace’s garage at Talladega Superspeedway.
Wallace called the alleged noose a “despicable act of racism” and reportedly cried after a walk of solidarity prior to his race. NASCAR said it was “angry and outraged.”
The FBI sent 15 agents to do the investigation and “conducted numerous interviews,” before ultimately determining the noose was a rope used to pull down the garage door since October of 2019 and no hate crime had been committed.
The FBI has been dealt several blows by John Durham, the U.S. attorney hired to investigate the mistakes the FBI made with the alleged then-presidential candidate Donald Trump-Russia collusion during the 2016 election.
Durham has indicted Brookings Institution researcher Igor Danchenko and Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann on counts of lying to the FBI. Danchenko was the primary source used to create the Steele Dossier, one of the documents used to get a warrant on Trump’s campaign aide. (RELATED: DURHAM ARRESTS STEELE’S TOP SOURCE)
The Trump-Russia collusion narrative played out for years before the Justice Department’s independent inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz released a report saying there was zero evidence of the collusion. Instead, he found the FBI’s investigation had been severely flawed by “so many basic and fundamental errors.”
“That so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate, handpicked teams on one of the most sensitive F.B.I. investigations that was briefed to the highest levels within the F.B.I., and that F.B.I. officials expected would eventually be subjected to close scrutiny, raised significant questions regarding the F.B.I. chain of command’s management and supervision of the FISA process,” the report said.
The FBI and DOJ was called upon by the National School Board Association (NSBA) in a letter to investigate unruly parents speaking out at school board meetings against mask mandates and critical race theory. The NSBA said the actions of the parents “could be equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism,” and claimed, without evidence, “extremist hate organizations” were showing up at the school board meetings.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland responded to the NSBA’s letter, saying he would direct the FBI to investigate the “rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel.”
“I am directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation, working with each United States Attorney, to convene meetings with federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial leaders in each federal judicial district within 30 days of the issuance of this memorandum,” he said.
Garland later admitted, amid backlash, that his evidence of threats was solely based on the letter from the NSBA and “newspapers reports of threats of violence.”
Garland also claimed in 2021 the largest domestic threat facing the U.S. comes from “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists,” “specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) concealed black nationalist violence while emphasizing white supremacy in a March report about “extremism and murder in the United States” in 2021.
“White supremacists killed more people in 2021 than any other type of extremist, though not an outright majority, as is often the case,” the ADL stated. The report cited 13 white supremacist killings in 2021 and two by black nationalists.
However, the report did not include black nationalist Darrell Brooks who allegedly struck more than 60 people and killed six at a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in November of 2021. Brooks reportedly shared social media posts calling for violence against white people and claiming Hitler was right to kill Jews.
