Ken Silva | The Libertarian Institute

Man Entrapped by FBI in Dubious Plot to Build ‘X-Ray Gun’ is Now in Supermax Prison

by Ken Silva | Feb 1, 2024 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

The plot would be comical if not for its disturbing outcome: A man entrapped by FBI undercover agents and informants in a dubious plan to build a so-called X-ray gun is now housed in one of the most notorious prisons in the world. The inmate, Glendon Crawford, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, was initially charged by the Justice Department in 2013 for conspiring to build a “lethal radiation-emitting device.” It turned out, Crawford’s plans were almost entirely facilitated by FBI undercover informants, undercover agents and a cooperating witness from the KKK—as the DOJ admitted in its...

Even American Neo-Nazis Have Abandoned Ukraine

by Ken Silva | Jan 17, 2024 | Blog, Foreign Policy

Editor's Note: The activities of Christopher Pohlhaus were previously reported on by the Libertarian Institute's Kyle Anzalone. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, neo-Nazis in the U.S. expressed widespread support for their Ukrainian counterparts. One of the more prominent U.S. neo-Nazis, Blood Tribe leader Christopher Pohlhaus, went as far as planning a compound in Maine to train American extremists to fight for Ukraine against Russia. Pohlhaus and his colleagues also made headlines last September for their endorsement of Joe Biden for the 2024 presidential election....

Militia Leader Targeted by FBI is out of Prison, Still Fighting Conviction

by Ken Silva | Dec 18, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

About a decade before the FBI infiltrated Midwest militias and fomented a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the bureau targeted Alaska’s militias as part of an apparent attempt to disrupt what was once a thriving Tea Party movement in that state. The FBI’s main target in Alaska was militia leader Shaeffer Cox, a liberty activist who was making waves in mainstream politics at the time—as evidenced by the fact that the upstart won 37% of the vote in a Republican primary for Congress in 2010. Using at least two undercover informants, the FBI concocted a case that Cox had plotted to...

‘Hitman’ Recruited to Target John Bolton Was an FBI Informant

by Ken Silva | Nov 15, 2023 | Featured Articles

In August 2022, the Justice Department announced that the FBI had foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate former national security adviser John Bolton in retaliation for the U.S. killing Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani. But the “hitman” hired to target Bolton was an FBI informant. This was reported Sunday night by 60 Minutes, which glossed over that fact and treated the Bolton-assassination plot as legitimate. “Lucky for Bolton, the assassin was an FBI informant,” the news show reported, painting the assassination plot as a legitimate threat. However, DOJ...

FBI Agent Reveals Smoking-Gun Evidence of Right-Wing Entrapment Operation

by Ken Silva | Oct 23, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles, OKC

In the 1990s, the FBI ran an operation entailing undercover agents and informants posing as right-wing extremists. Code-named Patriot Conspiracy, or PATCON, the operation was kept secret until well into the 2000s. After being made public, FBI informant John Matthews, who was involved in PATCON, claimed in 2011 that the operation was designed to provoke right-wing groups to violence. For their part, the Justice Department and FBI vehemently denied Matthews’s allegations, and court records about his claims are still sealed to this day. However, an obscure book written by FBI informant Dave...

U.S. Counter-Terror Operator Vanishes after Claiming to Identify January 6 Pipe Bomber

by Ken Silva | Oct 12, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

On June 8, 2022, a Twitter account linked to U.S. counterterrorism operator Jade Parker claimed to have identified the suspect who placed pipe bombs outside the RNC and DNC headquarters ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill protest-turned-riot. “I have a very good idea who the unidentified Jan 6 bomber & affiliated network [are],” stated the account linked to Parker—a credentialed terrorism analyst, who’s worked with numerous government agencies, including U.S. Joint Special Operations Command. “I haven’t given the name to anyone. I want Upchurch & her red cell to run it down &...

How an FBI Informant Created One of Largest Nazi Groups in U.S. History

by Ken Silva | Sep 25, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

An FBI informant cofounded one of the largest and oldest neo-Nazi organizations in U.S. history: the National Socialist Movement, a group connected to numerous crimes and violent events, including the deadly 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, according to previously unpublicized records reviewed by Headline USA. The documents—a trove of FBI memos, affidavits and court records that this publication has dubbed the “Fed Files”—further indicate that the NSM allegedly had informants in prominent positions throughout much of its nearly 50-year history. Once known as the “Hollywood...

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...