Donald J. Trump / @realDonaldTrump 12/03/2025 01:21:53
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Truth Social: 115654191611621153
justthenews.com/government/sec
https://justthenews.com/government/security/biden-admin-created-exemption-hundreds-low-level-taliban-civil-servants
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/115654191611621153
Donald J. Trump / @realDonaldTrump 12/03/2025 01:22:04
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Truth Social: 115654192282416404
justthenews.com/accountability
https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/jordan-others-were-probing-doj-and-fbi-conduct-when-jack-smith
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/115654192282416404
Biden administration created exemption for many low-level Taliban ‘civil servants’ to come to U.S.
The Biden Administration implemented a terrorism exemption for Afghan refugees allowing hundreds of low-level “civil servants” from the Taliban government to resettle in the United States in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal and evacuation from the country.
The Biden-led Department of Homeland Security and State Department announced in June 2022 that it had put together new exemptions for purportedly vetted applicants who would otherwise be blocked from the United States — including some former Taliban government workers. The policy allowed hundreds of Afghans to come to the U.S. when they would have previously likely been barred due to terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds (TRIG). This reportedly allowed hundreds of former Taliban government workers to come to the U.S.
The exemptions were for Afghans who had worked as “civil servants” under the Taliban (both before 9/11 and after August 2021), as well as for Afghans who “supported U.S. military interests” such as participation in resistance movements against the Taliban or the Soviet Army and for Afghans “who provided only certain limited material support to the Taliban or other designated terrorist organizations.”
The Biden administration agencies said that the “new exemptions may apply” to “individuals employed as civil servants in Afghanistan at any time from September 27, 1996 to December 22, 2001 or after August 15, 2021.” These time periods covered both the Taliban’s first stint ruling Afghanistan — when they protected al-Qaeda before and after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and were subsequently overthrown following a U.S. invasion — and the Taliban’s current rule of the country in the wake of the disastrous and chaotic U.S. evacuation in August 2021.
The State Department and DHS added that the exemptions “could include teachers, professors, postal workers, doctors, and engineers, among others” who had worked for the Taliban government, arguing that “some civil servants held these positions prior to the Taliban announcing their so-called ‘interim government’ and continued in their roles due to pressure, intimidation, or other hardship. In other instances, individuals used their positions to mitigate the repressive actions of the Taliban, often at great personal risk.”
Connections to the Taliban not a disqualifying factor
The agencies said the exemptions did not include Afghans “who held high-level positions, worked for certain ministries, or directly assisted violent Taliban activities or activities in which the individual’s civil service was motivated by an allegiance to the Taliban” nor Afghan individuals “who share the goals or ideology of the Taliban, provided preferential treatment to them, or who intended to support the Taliban through their activities.”
The State Department and DHS under the Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they would maintain this TRIG exemption for former Taliban government workers.
“President Trump’s State Department has paused visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X on Friday. “The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people.”
Just the News previously reported that the Biden Administration’s chaotic evacuation from Kabul in August 2021 was marred by a lack of planning and significant security vetting flaws for the tens of thousands of Afghans airlifted out of the country amidst the Taliban takeover, according to multiple watchdog reviews and witness testimony.
The U.S. brought out tens of thousands of Afghan refugees in August 2021 during the chaotic non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) out of Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA). Inspectors for DHS and the Pentagon, as well as State Department employees, have all detailed serious flaws with vetting the Afghans who were airlifted out of the capital city of Kabul amidst the Taliban takeover of the country.
Fox News reported in January of this year that, according to a DHS report to Congress for the fiscal year of 2024, “there were 6,848 TRIG exemptions” last year, with the majority — 6,653 — being exemptions for refugees. The outlet noted that this 2024 figure was much higher than years past, with 2,085 such waivers issued in the 2023 fiscal year, 603 such waivers issued in 2022, 191 waivers in 2021, and 361 in 2020.
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The DHS document for 2024 reportedly said that 29 waivers had been given to Afghan allies who had supported U.S. interests in Afghanistan, while 374 were for “civil servants.” The outlet added that “3,134 were for those who provided certain limited support or insignificant material support to a Tier I or Tier II terror organization, under the 2022 exemption announced by DHS.”
Fox News said that “most of the remaining exemptions (2,946) were given under a 2007 exercise of authority for support given under duress.”
The outlet had first reported in October 2021 that this exemptions policy was going to be implemented, saying it had originally been considered in January 2017 during the Obama administration but hadn’t been put into action then.
Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken and then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas released statements in June 2022 defending the move.
Mayorkas said that “doctors, teachers, engineers, and other Afghans, including those who bravely and loyally supported U.S. forces on the ground in Afghanistan at great risk to their safety, should not be denied humanitarian protection and other immigration benefits due to their inescapable proximity to war or their work as civil servants.” He argued that “these exemptions will allow eligible individuals who pose no national security or public safety risk to receive asylum, refugee status, or other legal immigration status, demonstrating the United States’ continued commitment to our Afghan allies and their family members.”
"We remain committed to our Afghan allies and processing Special Immigrant Visa applications as expeditiously as possible, while always protecting our national security. We are working closely with our interagency partners to do so, and today's announcement is an important step forward in that endeavor,” Blinken said.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released guidance memorandum in August 2022 which sought to justify the Taliban civil servant exemption, arguing that “many individuals who worked in civil service positions in Afghanistan prior to September 27, 1996, continued to do so thereafter” and that “many did so under duress or other situations of hardship. In other instances, individuals used their positions in humanitarian capacities to mitigate the repressive actions of the Taliban regime, often at great personal risk.”
“Some of these civil servants subsequently worked for, or gave assistance to, the International Security Assistance Force, the United States government, or the [Taliban-led] Afghan government that was established after December 22, 2001,” USCIS said. “Some of these individuals continued providing essential government services even after the collapse of the Kabul government on August 15, 2021. This exemption allows the use of discretion to address these and related issues in individual adjudications, and to fulfill the United States’ humanitarian obligations while ensuring the security and integrity of the U.S. immigration system.”
USCIS said that “adjudicators” inside the U.S. government “will review benefit or protection applications, supporting documentation, testimony, and any other relevant information for indications that an individual’s employment as a civil servant may have occurred within the time frame and geographic area under the control of the Taliban.”
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A group of then Republican senators — including Rubio — sent an August 2022 letter to Blinken and Mayorkas raising questions about the exemptions' policy.
“We write because the American people deserve an explanation regarding the broad, open-ended nature of this authority for exempting individuals who would otherwise be barred from immigration to the United States for supporting a terrorist organization,” the GOP members of Congress said.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the Afghan national who has been charged with shooting two members of the West Virginia National Guard last week, was reportedly a member of the elite Afghan “Zero Unit” forces backed by the CIA — with the U.S. spy agency apparently having struck a 2021 deal with these Afghan commandos to bring thousands of the fighters and their families to the United States.
A number of top Trump administration officials have argued that Lakanwal was not properly vetted, while anonymously sourced reports have said he did receive vetting before being brought to the United States.
Lakanwal, a former member of the National Strike Unit (NSU) forces, which were tied to the CIA and to the former Afghan government’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), reportedly assisted in securing HKIA during the NEO and arrived in the U.S. with his family in September 2021. The Taliban took over in Afghanistan in August 2021 following then-President Joe Biden’s April 2021 go-to-zero directive ordering the full withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Years later, the Afghan fighter drove thousands of miles from the West Coast of the U.S. and is accused of attacking two members of the West Virginia National Guard the day before Thanksgiving last week, killing one and critically wounding the other in what President Donald Trump called "a monstrous, ambush-style attack just steps away from the White House."
Lakanwal has been arrested, and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro charged him with first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
https://justthenews.com/government/security/biden-admin-created-exemption-hundreds-low-level-taliban-civil-servants
Jordan, other lawmakers were probing DOJ conduct when J6 prosecutors seized their phone records
House and Senate Republicans targeted by former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s subpoenas were gearing up for significant oversight of both the Justice Department and the FBI when their phone records were seized.
This raises questions about whether the subpoenas served a dual purpose—to investigate Jan. 6, as Smith was appointed to do, and to keep tabs on the oversight probes into agency conduct, one former representative whose phone records were seized by Smith suggested.
“They were trying to spy on us to see what we were doing,” former Rep. Louie Gohmert told the John Solomon Reports podcast. “And also, I think they were looking for anything that they could use to come after us, or hold over our heads, because, you know, you can intimidate the people that are coming after you.”
Gohmert, who left Congress in 2023, was deeply involved with probes of the FBI and Justice Department from his role on the House Judiciary Committee.
Earlier this fall, the FBI transferred documents to Congress showing that then-Special Counsel Smith had subpoenaed the phone records of eight GOP U.S. senators and one House member related to his probe into the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, dubbed Arctic Frost.
The document was located in a prohibited access file at the bureau in response to oversight requests from one of the targets, Republican Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Grassley is probing Smith’s tenure as special counsel.
Smith’s targeting of Republican officials was only part of the wide dragnet his investigative team cast over the Trump-aligned movement in the wake of his appointment by the Biden Justice Department. In late October, Grassley made public nearly 200 subpoenas issued by Smith’s team seeking records on more than 400 Republican personalities and groups, Just the News previously reported.
Since the initial revelation, both the FBI and Congress have uncovered more subpoenas targeting then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Gohmert, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.
The subpoena for Jordan’s phone records is unique in that it covered an expansive two-year period, long after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot took place. The subpoena, issued on April 25, 2022, called for all phone communications from Jan. 1, 2020 to that present day, sweeping up data that fell far outside the incident and surrounding events that Smith was allegedly investigating.
You can read the subpoena, released by Jordan, below:
File
verizon-wireless-production-11.20.25.pdf
Strikingly, Smith’s team issued the subpoena for Jordan’s phone records as his committee was receiving whistleblower accounts of politicization across the FBI under the Biden administration and Director Christopher Wray, ranging from alleged manipulation of domestic extremism statistics to purging employees who held conservative political views.
In November 2022, the Judiciary Committee released a report that shared the concerns from FBI whistleblowers that had approached the panel within the past year, beginning before Smith’s appointment as special counsel by the Justice Department.
Based on the committee’s materials, it is clear that the panel was ramping up investigations of both the FBI and the Justice Department at the time when Smith’s team issued the subpoena for Jordan’s records.
On April 26, 2022, just one day after the subpoena, Jordan wrote Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz asking him to look into a whistleblower complaint that the FBI had improperly suspended several employees’ security clearances for constitutionally protected political activity on Jan. 6.
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Jordan questions whether FBI was engaging in retaliatory actions
According to Jordan, the employees who attended a public event on Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C., have not been charged with any crimes, and “did not enter the United States Capitol.” Yet, the FBI used these facts to question these employees’ allegiance to the country, citing “Adjudicative Guideline A — Allegiance to the United States” in FBI regulations.
“The FBI’s personnel actions against these employees therefore raise concerns that the Bureau may be taking significant steps toward firing these employees as retaliation for disfavored political speech,” Jordan wrote in that letter to Horowitz.
The Judiciary Committee report detailed further whistleblower complaints in the same period, including allegations that the FBI inflated its domestic violent extremism data, the Justice Department used counterterrorism resources to investigate parents protesting school policies, and concerns about the “the FBI’s lackluster investigation” into the Jan. 6 pipe bombs.
Former Rep. Gohmert said that the seizure of Jordan’s phone records at a time when he was overseeing substantial investigations into the FBI and Justice Department raises constitutional concerns. It also endangers Congress’ oversight by undermining confidence that potential whistleblowers’ information and identities will be kept secret.
“There's a constitutional privilege beyond the Fourth Amendment, a congressional privilege because we have whistleblowers that contact us,” Gohmert told Just the News.
“The DOJ, they can't just come in and seize everything in our office. They have to go through an intermediary, like House counsel, that sees all the information, and then make sure that those things that are privileged, like whistleblowers who contact us from the DOJ and FBI, that their information doesn't fall into the hands of the FBI,” Gohmert explained.
He added, “Can you imagine being an FBI agent that just summons up the courage to contact one of us, and then you find out, oh my gosh, they're grabbing all their cell phone data?”
However, despite the constitutional concerns, Smith’s team asked the court to order phone companies to keep secret the subpoenas for Jordan’s and the senators’ phone records.
On April 29, the court ordered “Verizon Wireless […] not to notify any other person of the existence of subpoena number GJ2022042589990 issued by the United States on behalf of a federal Grand Jury,” according to a sealed court document released by Jordan last month.
More than a year later, Justice Department employees assessed that constitutional concerns about subpoenas for sitting lawmakers’ phone data were outweighed by the fact that the agency believed the seizures would remain secret, according to a document released by Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson, whose phone records were also targeted.
The emails show “John Keller, principal deputy chief of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, informed one of Jack Smith’s aides on May 17, 2023, that his office agreed with issuing subpoenas for lawmakers’ phone records. He added, however, that forcing the disclosure of those materials might run afoul of the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause.
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Nevertheless, Keller believed the likelihood that the Justice Department would face litigation would be minimal, since the subpoenas were likely to remain secret since no member of Congress was expected to face any charges.
Blatant disregard for constitutional practice and balance of powers
“Even putting aside the government’s potentially meritorious argument that the calls over the relevant period — especially unsolicited incoming calls — would not constitute protected legislative acts, given my understanding of the low likelihood that any of the Members listed below would be charged, the litigation risk should be minimal here,” Keller wrote.
The Justice Department’s reasoning shows a blatant disregard for constitutional practice and balance of powers, Mike Howell, head of the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, told the John Solomon Reports podcast.
“Speaking in terms of, what's the litigation risk? What could they even do, even if we violate this constitutional practice here, what's the penalty? They'll never be able to do anything to us. It speaks to a blatant disrespect for an independent branch of government, one that they probably rightfully recognize as atrophied over time, and being able to assert itself and hold the executive accountable,” Howell said.
“It was not a problem whatsoever, because in the mindset of the FBI, [the members of Congress] defined Maga, and you know, Republicans as a domestic terrorist problem and threat, and treated them under the powers that we give the federal government to deal with things such as Islamic terrorism, and that's the world in which they were operating,” Howell continued.
https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/jordan-others-were-probing-doj-and-fbi-conduct-when-jack-smith
>You can read the subpoena, released by Jordan, below:
https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2025-12/verizon-wireless-production-11.20.25.pdf
Donald J. Trump / @realDonaldTrump 12/03/2025 10:25:10
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Truth Social: 115656327877659916
Such a terrific Victory for Matt Van Epps, and his wonderful family, last night. He will be a fantastic Representative for the Great State of Tennessee for many years to come!
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/115656327877659916
Donald J. Trump / @realDonaldTrump 12/03/2025 10:29:13
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Truth Social: 115656343773820545
Donald J. Trump / @realDonaldTrump 05/05/2024 21:41:42
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Truth Social: 112391599093927612
Biden just Indicted Henry Cuellar because the Respected Democrat Congressman wouldn’t play Crooked Joe’s Open Border game. He was for Border Control, so they said, “Let’s use the FBI and DOJ to take him out!” This is the way they operate. They’re a bunch of D.C. Thugs, and at some point they will be paying a very big price for what they have done to our Country. CROOKED JOE BIDEN IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!
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For years, the Biden Administration weaponized the Justice System against their Political Opponents, and anyone who disagreed with them. One of the clearest examples of this was when Crooked Joe used the FBI and DOJ to “take out” a member of his own Party after Highly Respected Congressman Henry Cuellar bravely spoke out against Open Borders, and the Biden Border “Catastrophe.” Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH. It is unAmerican and, as I previously stated, the Radical Left Democrats are a complete and total threat to Democracy! They will attack, rob, lie, cheat, destroy, and decimate anyone who dares to oppose their Far Left Agenda, an Agenda that, if left unchecked, will obliterate our magnificent Country. Because of these facts, and others, I am hereby announcing my full and unconditional PARDON of beloved Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar, and Imelda. Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/115656343773820545
>>>23935506 (You) @realDonaldTrump Biden just Indicted Henry Cuellar because the Respected Democrat Congressman wouldn’t play Crooked Joe’s Open Border game. He was for Border Control, so they said, “Let’s use the FBI and DOJ to take him out!” This is the way they operate. They’re a bunch of D.C. Thugs, and at some point they will be paying a very big price for what they have done to our Country. CROOKED JOE BIDEN IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!
Should be:
>>23935506 @realDonaldTrump - I am hereby announcing my full and unconditional PARDON of beloved Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar, and Imelda. Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!
o7