WASHINGTON, D.C. – America First Legal (AFL) has released the third tranche of internal meeting notes from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) “Homeland Intelligence Experts Group,” obtained through litigation. This release is part of #DeepStateDiaries, a series detailing newly acquired documents.
The latest installment reveals discussions among Biden administration allies on the Brennan-Clapper committee about using January 6 and the raid at Mar-a-Lago to justify expanded monitoring of political dissent.
One group member noted that “prior to January 6th” analysts found it inappropriate to collect intelligence on Americans. However, post-January 6, there was an observable change in collection and reporting methods. The documents indicate that under the Biden Administration, efforts have been made to expand intelligence collection on what they term “Domestic Violent Extremists” (DVE), which includes individuals who are “religious,” “in the military,” or support President Trump.
The group discussed monitoring sites viewed as domestic extremism threats and deliberated over how to discern serious speech from political hyperbole online. The historical approach of the Biden Administration suggests that conservative speech online is taken more seriously, evidenced by the Department of Justice sentencing Douglass Mackey to seven months in prison for posting memes ahead of the 2016 election.
A participant noted a shift in support for their mission post-January 6 at a departmental level, indicating an increased push within DHS’ Office of Intelligence and Analysis to extend its activities beyond traditional limits using January 6 as justification.
A Group member encouraged I&A to adopt practices even the FBI claims it lacks authority for, which Senate has refused law enforcement agencies and Congress generally opposes. The group urged ramping up intelligence collection on U.S. Persons without a foreign nexus while trading authorities for civil liberties.
Further discussions revealed that around January 6, although limited by social media restrictions per FBI testimony, there might have been changes in action reporting post-January 6 suggesting potential advisement for DHS to increase monitoring of political dissent on social media.
The group also considered using the raid at Mar-a-Lago as another catalyst for expanding activity. One member expressed concern about potential violent reactions following the raid where staged photographs were used by FBI agents to manufacture evidence against President Trump.
The documents show ongoing deliberations over whether actions are politically driven or mission-related and emphasize public optics awareness. They also explored hypothetical violence scenarios requiring national responses from DHS under domestic violent extremism categories but seemingly overlooked rising crime rates in American cities unless politically oppositional violence was involved.
These documents suggest significant changes in I&A operations before and after January 6 compared with standards upheld during the Trump administration concerning Constitutional rights and civil liberties.
Stay tuned for further releases in #DeepStateDiaries...
###