The FBI for the first time has identified fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat, according to a previously unpublicized document obtained by Yahoo News. (Read the document below.)

The FBI intelligence bulletin from the bureau’s Phoenix field office, dated May 30, 2019, describes “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists,” as a growing threat, and notes that it is the first such report to do so. It lists a number of arrests, including some that haven’t been publicized, related to violent incidents motivated by fringe beliefs.

The document specifically mentions QAnon, a shadowy network that believes in a deep state conspiracy against President Trump, and Pizzagate, the theory that a pedophile ring including Clinton associates was being run out of the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant (which didn’t actually have a basement).

“The FBI assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts,” the document states. It also goes on to say the FBI believes conspiracy theory-driven extremists are likely to increase during the 2020 presidential election cycle.

The FBI said another factor driving the intensity of this threat is “the uncovering of real conspiracies or cover-ups involving illegal, harmful, or unconstitutional activities by government officials or leading political figures.” The FBI does not specify which political leaders or which cover-ups it was referring to.

President Trump is mentioned by name briefly in the latest FBI document, which notes that the origins of QAnon is the conspiratorial belief that “Q,” allegedly a government official, “posts classified information online to reveal a covert effort, led by President Trump, to dismantle a conspiracy involving ‘deep state’ actors and global elites allegedly engaged in an international child sex trafficking ring.”

This recent intelligence bulletin comes as the FBI is facing pressure to explain who it considers an extremist, and how the government prosecutes domestic terrorists. In recent weeks the FBI director has addressed domestic terrorism multiple times but did not publicly mention this new conspiracy theorist threat.

The FBI is already under fire for its approach to domestic extremism. In a contentious hearing last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray faced criticism from Democrats who said the bureau was not focusing enough on white supremacist violence. “The term ‘white supremacist,’ ‘white nationalist’ is not included in your statement to the committee when you talk about threats to America,” Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said. “There is a reference to racism, which I think probably was meant to include that, but nothing more specific.”

More Here:

https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-documents-conspiracy-theories-terrorism-160000507.html?.tsrc=bell-brknews

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https://www.scribd.com/document/420379775/FBI-Conspiracy-Theory-Redacted#from_embed

Former acting Attorney General and Donald Trump loyalist Matt Whitaker will join a political consulting firm organized by allies of Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Whitaker, 49, will be managing director of Clout Public Affairs, a division of Axiom Strategies, the company said. He will assist with public affairs, business development and strategic vision, according to its president, David Polyansky. Whitaker won’t be a registered lobbyist.

Axiom was founded by Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign manager Jeff Roe, and is looking to expand beyond the Republican senator’s circle. Whitaker stepped out of the public eye when he left the Justice Department on March 2, where Democrats had raised concern he would interfere in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the election.

Democrats had also called his appointment as acting attorney general illegal because he wasn’t in a Senate-confirmed position. He had been chief of staff to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions; Trump elevated him over Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after Sessions resigned.

There had been speculation Trump would appoint Whitaker to another administration job but the president so far hasn’t made any moves to do so, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Whitaker is also working with Graves Garrett, a law firm he previously worked with after his time as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-01/trump-s-former-acting-attorney-general-lands-consulting-job?cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-politics&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=politics&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic

Roger Stone, a sometimes political adviser to President Donald Trump, lost his motion to dismiss an indictment charging him with lying to Congress about his contacts with WikiLeaks, witness tampering and obstructing an investigation.

The ruling was issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington.

The last man indicted during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Stone now must face a Washington federal court trial in November.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-01/donald-trump-gets-his-wall-at-last-but-it-s-in-zimbabwe

Donald Trump directed his followers to a straight-up QAnon account on Tuesday, and invited some of his Reddit meme-makers to the White House in July. But if you want the ultimate sign of the Trump administration’s merger with the right-wing fringe, you need look no further than the next round of the American Priority Conference, where at least one former top Trump administration official will mingle with the pro-Trump internet’s craziest characters at a Trump hotel.

American Priority Conference was a confab started last year by pro-Trump Internet personalities who felt snubbed by the more establishment and higher profile Conservative Political Action Conference. Its 2018 outing in D.C. was, to put it mildly, a disaster. One speaker refused to even take the stage because the crowd was so small.

This year, they’re giving the conference another shot, this time at Trump’s Miami hotel with a surprisingly robust line-up of top speakers. The list includes former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Florida congressman and Trump favorite Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Turning Point USA chief and frequent White House visitor Charlie Kirk.

Sanders and the other bigwigs will be joined by the usual crew of more marginal right-wing characters, including Trump pardon recipient Dinesh D’Souza, Pizzagate promoter Jack Posobiec, and “media personality” Joshua Feuerstein, whose claim to fame is that he starred in a viral rant four years ago about Starbucks offering generic red holiday cups instead of Christmas-themed ones.

So far, the 2019 conference looks basically like an alternative CPAC. Once you start going down the list of speakers, however, things start getting weirder.

QAnon booster Tracy Beanz is on the agenda, a year after she organized hundred QAnon believers to march around downtown D.C. chanting: “Where we go one, we go all.” Proposed conference topics include curiously phrased items like “Voter Fraud, What’s the deal?” and “Artificial Intelligence, why I should be concerned about it?”

The most interesting speaker might be David “Avocado” Wolfe, an alternative medicine guru who’s offering three days of yoga classes for attendees. But Wolfe isn’t just a yoga instructor. He also believes the earth is flat, that vaccines are harmful, and that the air is being poisoned with chemtrails delivered by airplanes. Wolfe’s ideas somehow get even more esoteric from there. According to The Outline, Wolfe has claimed that “mushrooms arrived on our planet via the cosmic wind.”

When you find out the Earth really is flat. https://t.co/7ddjFjVLNE #FlatEarth pic.twitter.com/a6gwnFrBlj

— David Wolfe (@DavidWolfe) December 3, 2015

Wolfe’s ideas, in other words, are a melange of some of the craziest ideas the internet has to offer. That he’s one of the top speakers at a conference that also features a former White House official and a sitting congressman gives you a sense of the bizarre moment the pro-Trump right is living in, in which the conspiracy theory internet has been legitimized by the office of the president.

Believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory will head to Washington on September 11th for a rally at the foot of the Washington Monument under the ominous tagline “Q Sent Us.” While the rally’s agenda is thin so far, you can expect QAnon believers to call for Trump to make QAnon’s prophecies come true and carry out the arrest and execution of top Democrats.

The Q Rally is officially scheduled for 9/11/19 in DC. Get organized. Be heard. #QANON #QRALLY #WWG1WGA pic.twitter.com/2uKTjMcDbG

— An0n66 (@An0n661) July 21, 2019

The rally organizers say they’ve obtained a permit from the Park Service, and two major QAnon promoters are on board: Jordan Sather, who advocates for drinking bleach, among other things, and a pro-Trump rapper named “Educating Liberals,” because he’s constantly educating liberals.

But all is not well with the rally. The problem with holding a QAnon event in Washington is that many QAnon believers are convinced that the entire capital is riddled with Masonic symbols, especially on the Mall. That makes it difficult for organizers to find a place that has both patriotic significance and isn’t considered a symbol of a demonic cabal, and they haven’t succeeded this time.

Much of the reaction to the rally’s location near the Washington Monument within the QAnon community has focused on concern about any satanic power inherent in the landmark. One QAnon supporter on Twitter fumed that the event was being held in one of the “most dangerous” locations in the country.

“9/11 at Baal’s shaft?” wrote another. “No thanks.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-ultimate-fringe-trumpworld-conference