TV News LIES

The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta field office was reportedly removed from his post after questioning the Trump administration’s renewed interest in investigating the role of Fulton county, Georgia, in the 2020 election.

The agent, Paul W Brown, had expressed concerns around the unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in Fulton county, which have been perpetuated by Donald Trump since he was defeated by Joe Biden in the 2020 election, according to an MS NOW report on Friday. Citing sources, MS NOW also reported that Brown refused to carry out searches and seizures of records connected to the election that Trump lost four years before winning a second presidency in 2024.

News of Brown’s ouster came after the justice department on Thursday executed a search warrant and seized records from the Fulton county elections office in the Atlanta area. Authorities seized 700 boxes related to 2020 election results in the county, which Biden won.

Trump’s national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, was also seen at the county’s election office that day, drawing concern from Democratic lawmakers about partisan overreach.

Brown was replaced the week before the service of the search warrant at the elections office, as first reported by the Associated Press. The personnel decision was not publicized by the FBI, and the AP said the reason for Brown’s removal was not immediately clear.

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Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) urged President Trump’s MAGA base to “take off their political blinders” as she expressed skepticism about the use of force deployed during the latest shooting in Minnesota involving a federal immigration agent.

In a post on the social platform X, Greene touted her support for law enforcement and immigration enforcement, but she also defended the right to legally carry firearms, indirectly pushing back on claims that 37-year-old Alex Pretti posed a threat to federal officers because he was armed.

In a post on the social platform X, Greene touted her support for law enforcement and immigration enforcement, but she also defended the right to legally carry firearms, indirectly pushing back on claims that 37-year-old Alex Pretti posed a threat to federal officers because he was armed. 

“I unapologetically believe in border security and deporting criminal illegal aliens and I support law enforcement. However, I also unapologetically support the 2nd amendment,” Greene wrote. “Legally carrying a firearm is not the same as brandishing a firearm.”

“I support American’s 1st and 4th amendment rights,” she continued. “There is nothing wrong with legally peacefully protesting and videoing.”

The Trump administration has defended the shooting, saying the agent fired “defensive shots” at Pretti, who had a gun that was recovered by federal authorities. Others have accused the agent of acting with excessive force, pointing to video footage showing Pretti recording Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers with his phone before the incident escalated.

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Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen, who were arrested and charged for their role in an anti-ICE demonstration that disrupted Sunday church services in St Paul, Minnesota, have been released.

Video of the two women posted online showed them emerging from detention on Friday, raising their fists and embracing their loved ones. “Thank you all for being here,” Levy Armstrong said. “Glory to God!”

A federal judge ordered their release earlier in the day, ruling that the government had failed “to meet its burden to demonstrate that a detention hearing is warranted, or that detention is otherwise appropriate”.

A judge has also ordered the released of a third activist involved in the church protest, William Kelly, saying he was not a danger to the public, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

On Thursday, the White House was caught posting a digitally altered image of Armstrong’s arrest on social media, which had been manipulated to falsely portray her as crying, and to darken her skin.

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The decision by Donald Trump’s justice department to conduct no investigation into the deadly use of force by Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good, a Minneapolis resident who was moving her car out of the way of federal agents when he opened fire, reportedly distressed federal prosecutors and a leader of the FBI’s Minneapolis field office, according to reporting from MSNOW and the New York Times.

A report for MSNOW (formerly MSNBC) by Carol Leonnig, a four-time Pulitzer prize winning investigative reporter, and Ken Dilanian begins:

Aides to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche directed the U.S. Attorney’s office and FBI agents based in Minnesota to shut down a civil rights investigation into an officer’s fatal shooting of Renee Good and instead alter it to probe Good for possible criminal liability, according to three people briefed on the discussions.

After Good was killed on Jan. 7, FBI agents drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an ICE officer shot into the vehicle. But they were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of the investigation from a civil rights probe to an investigation into a suspected assault on an officer, the people said. A federal magistrate judge rejected that warrant, noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant.

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President Donald Trump has suddenly stepped back from threats to annex Greenland while in Europe.

For weeks, Trump has declined to rule out using military force for a U.S. takeover of the icy island, which is a self-governing territory of NATO member Denmark. He has emphasized the U.S. needs control of the island for national security.

But at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21, Trump said, "I don't have to use force. I don't want to use force. I won't use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland."

Later that day, he announced he reached a "framework of a future deal" with NATO on Greenland and would not be imposing the 10% tariffs on eight European countries he had previously threatened.

The whiplash on tariffs calls back to the early months of his return to office, when the status of tariffs on imports from countries, ranging from our biggest trade partners to an uninhabited island, was dizzying. It garnered the nickname "TACO trade," which some social media users quickly brought back this week.

What does it mean?

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The Justice Department has issued grand jury subpoenas to multiple government officials in Minnesota, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, expanding the agency's probe alleging that Minnesota officials conspired to impede law enforcement amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her have also been subpoenaed. NPR has not yet confirmed reports that other state and local leaders have also been issued subpoenas.

Frey's subpoena requires him to appear in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Feb. 3. The mayor accused the federal government of weaponizing its power to intimidate local leaders.

"We shouldn't have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with," he said in a statement.

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