Ken Silva | The Libertarian Institute

Whitmer Kidnap Judge: Defense Can’t Cite FBI Entrapment Efforts

by Ken Silva | Aug 28, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

During Tuesday’s opening statements at the trial of three men accused of aiding the 2020 alleged militia plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, defense attorney Bill Barnett made accurate statements about an FBI informant involved in the case—describing how the informant, Dan Chappel, became the second in command of a militia, trained his fellow members and encouraged them to commit crimes. State prosecutor Bill Rollstin objected to Barnett’s factual statements, accusing him of trying to “poison the jury” by arguing that the FBI entrapped his client. Barnett responded to Rollstin’s...

Mom Accuses FBI of Entrapping Her ‘Neurodiverse’ Teenager in Terrorism Scheme

by Ken Silva | Jul 26, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

In June 2022, Colorado woman Deanna Meyer contacted her local sheriff’s office about violent and terroristic statements that her mentally ill 17-year-old son, Davin Meyer, was making at the time. The local sheriff, in turn, contacted the FBI, which then began communicating with the teenager online. Months later, the FBI arrested Davin as he was about to board an airplane, ostensibly to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS. But Davin’s mother says he is no ISIS fighter. Instead, he’s an 18-year-old with no friends, who suffers from numerous mental health issues, including autism,...

January 6th Journalist Headed to Trial in Landmark Press Freedom Case

by Ken Silva | Jun 19, 2023 | Featured Articles

“Journalism is not a crime,” President Joe Biden declared at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner just over a month ago. Meanwhile, Biden’s DOJ is prosecuting North Carolina-based independent reporter Stephen Horn, who entered Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021. Horn, by all accounts, was engaging in purely journalistic activities on January 6. The FBI received a tip from someone that identified Horn as a journalist, and charging documents describe him as acting entirely peacefully. Nevertheless, he faces four misdemeanors, including disorderly and disruptive conduct, and parading, demonstrating...

They Called Him America’s First ‘Right Wing Domestic Terrorist,’ But What’s the Real Story?

by Ken Silva | Jun 6, 2023 | Featured Articles

Forty years ago, the FBI and U.S. Marshals were encircling fugitive Gordon Kahl in rural Lawrence County, Arkansas. A tax protestor who killed two U.S. Marshals in a shootout, Kahl would purportedly be classified as America’s first right-wing domestic terrorist by the FBI. The bureau certainly treated him as such on June 3, 1983, when agents poured thousands of rounds of ammunition into Kahl’s “safe house” before burning it to the ground with him inside. But records and witnesses in the Kahl case tell a story that runs counter to the U.S. government’s narrative. Far from being a legitimate...

Andreas Strassmeir Responds to TV Miniseries Depicting Him as OKC Terrorist

by Ken Silva | May 22, 2023 | Featured Articles, OKC

Andreas Carl Strassmeir is a Hebrew-speaking, ex-military German who lived in a Nazi-infested religious compound during the 1990s, had dealings with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and is rumored to have been involved in that attack—with some researchers going as far as to suggest that he was an agent provocateur. The real-life version of Showtime’s “Andy the German” character. Photo: WIKIPEDIA If those details sound like they belong in a Hollywood drama, now they are. Showtime released a series earlier this year that directly implicates Strassmeir in the OKC bombing, which remains the...

Did the NSA Spy on Devin Nunes?

by Ken Silva | May 15, 2023 | Featured Articles

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently said that the “head” of the House Intelligence Committee once told him that the National Security Agency was reading the congressman’s texts. Evidence suggests that Carlson was speaking of former congressman Devin Nunes, who chaired the committee at the start of former President Donald Trump’s term and played an integral role in investigating—and ultimately exposing—the FBI’s Russia-collusion hoax. After his California district was redrawn to force him into a primary, Nunes left Congress to accept a role as CEO of Trump’s Truth Social platform....

40 Years After Shooting U.S. Marshals, Scott Faul Is Seeking Release

by Ken Silva | May 2, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

The 1983 shootout between outspoken IRS critic Gordon Kahl and U.S. Marshals was a flashpoint for the populist anti-government movement. Some 40 years later, a man involved in the 1983 shootout seeks his release from prison. That man is Scott Faul, who was with Kahl when U.S. Marshals attempted to execute a warrant for a misdemeanor parole violation, which stemmed from charges against Kahl for refusing to file his tax returns. Kahl did not “owe” any taxes, and his supporters say the federal government was targeting him due to his outspoken belief that the income tax was unconstitutional and...

A Middle American Town is Being Sacrificed to the Cold War

by Ken Silva | Apr 25, 2023 | Featured Articles

The Department of Energy uses words such as “remediation,” “decommission,” and “deactivation” to describe what’s going on in the tiny Appalachian town of Piketon, Ohio—the home of a facility that was used to enrich uranium for nuclear bombs during the Cold War. But Piketon residents say that the DOE is actively poisoning them. That’s because the DOE is conducting open-air demolitions of buildings tainted with enriched uranium, plutonium and other radioactive material, according to the residents. Vina Colley, the president of Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety, or PRESS,...