Category: Bureaucraps

CNN: Deep State Bureaucrats Threaten To Sell State Secrets If Trump Isn’t Nice To Them

CNN warns that intelligence employees who get the axe are valuable — and that those same employees will sell national secrets if fired. Which is it?

Brace yourself as the propaganda press tries to stop President Donald Trump from culling corruption from the deep state. Expect “news” stories screaming about ordinary budget and staff cuts that would happen in any bloated private business but under Trump will be described as unfair or even dangerous.

Take, for example, the Feb. 24 number from CNN, “How Trump’s government-cutting moves risk exposing the CIA’s secrets.” The short report required four CNN writers, Katie Bo Lillis (who was involved in a story that led to a defamation trial in which a jury found that CNN was literally fake news), Phil Mattingly, Natasha Bertrand, and Zachary Cohen.

Exposing CIA secrets? That sounds pretty dangerous. Just how much danger are we in?

In the piece, CNN warned, “As the CIA weighs staff cuts, current and former intelligence officials say that mass firings could offer a rich recruitment opportunity for foreign intelligence services — like China or Russia — who may seek to exploit financially vulnerable or resentful former employees.”

The piece goes on.

“… on the CIA’s 7th floor — home to top leadership — some officers are also quietly discussing how mass firings and the buyouts already offered to staff risk creating a group of disgruntled former employees who might be motivated to take what they know to a foreign intelligence service.” (So “quietly,” apparently, that CNN could hear them, as Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway pointed out.)

Is that a threat from the CIA? Is CNN reporting that Trump should keep everyone employed because, if he doesn’t, former CIA agents will spill U.S. secrets to our enemies? Apparently so.

But if that’s the case, these are exactly the employees who should be fired. Those with too little integrity to exit with grace should not be employed in jobs with access to sensitive information. The CIA employees CNN describes should not be trusted with any more secrets.

Within the same piece, CNN ridiculously makes it sound as if valued, model intelligence employees will get the axe — and that those same employees have loose lips and are ripe for the picking. Which is it, CNN?

The media want you to be worried because they are worried. If Trump cleans house, it will destroy their business model. CNN and other propagandists have exploited unethical leaking of deep state sources, treating their whispers as gospel, and amplifying their aims through high-profile “news” stories.

If Trump fires their sources, it will be harder for the media to collude with the intelligence community to craft propaganda to sell to the public. The connection between CNN and the deep state has been too cozy for too long.

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What Kash Patel Should Do As Acting ATF Director

I spent the weekend with a number of Second Amendment advocates, including some names you’ll probably recognize. That’s where I first heard that Kash Patel, in addition to being director of the FBI, was named to helm the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He wasn’t who I thought would get tapped, but the general consensus was that this was a good thing.

And I agree.

But now that Patel is in charge, what is on the agenda?

He started at the FBI by getting rid of some of the dead weight in that agency as well as some who used their positions to push their own agendas. Now, he’s got a chance to do that again.

With Kash Patel now in the position of Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the agency is in for a shake-up.

One thing that Patel can do is get rid of problem employees who have gone out of their way to infringe on the rights of Americans to keep and bear arms. This purge has already started with the firing of the ATF’s Chief Council, Pam Hicks. Hicks was a rabid anti-gun attorney that chose to defend very constitutionally dubious rules. Although Hicks was a good first step, without removing other problem members, nothing will change.

The first person that Patel should remove from the Bureau is the ATF’s Deputy Director, Marvin Richardson. Mr. Richardson has been behind some of the ATF’s most controversial rules. He was the driving force behind the reclassification of pistols equipped with braces. Mr. Richardson proposed reclassifying pistols with braces and unfinished firearms frames during a 2020 meeting with the Biden transition team without President Trump’s knowledge….

Mr. Patel should look at Matthew Varisco. Mr. Varisco is the ATF Assistant Director for the Office of Field Operations. When he worked out of the Philadelphia Field Office, he pushed the targeting of companies selling firearms precursor parts, including issuing a cease-and-desist letter to JSD Supply. This action was taken before the rule change of pistol frames. He pioneered the idea of firearms “structuring.” According to Varisco, if someone buys firearms parts from multiple companies to build a working firearm, that is “structuring.” This use of the term was the first time it was used outside banking crimes. He claimed that the possibility of “structuring” meant that all 80% firearm frames needed to be treated like completed guns. Mr. Varisco’s idea of “structuring” made it into the final rule.

Other names are, of course, mentioned, and I happen to agree. Far too many people achieved success in the ATF by supporting gun control, which would expand the agency’s authority by virtue of trampling on the rights of the American people and by reinterpreting rules as much as possible to expand it.

And a lot of names went into that.

However, there’s a lot more to be done than just clean house. Patel needs to also purge the ATF of some of the problematic interpretations of federal law, and do so in the way Brandon Herrera talked about in a video regarding what he would do as ATF director. No, the AK Guy isn’t calling the shots at the ATF, but Herrera says he came up with this after close consultation with groups like the Firearms Policy Coalition and Gun Owners of America and they happen to be smart ideas.

Whether the end goal is to merge the ATF with the FBI and get rid of the agency entirely or not, the truth is that we have a golden opportunity to preserve gun rights for the next generation. Kash Patel strikes me as the kind of guy who would be interested in doing it just this way, too, so I’m incredibly hopeful going forward.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump’s appointment of Kash Patel (and Dan Bongino at the FBI), we’ve got the opportunity to make the FBI great again and bring the ATF to heel. The two-tiered system of justice that we’ve seen from the Biden administration is a thing of the past and the bureau is on its way back to being America’s premiere law enforcement agency.

BLUF: (YAY!)
The departure of Hicks was bemoaned by anti-gun activist groups such as Brady who characterized the sacking as “chilling.”

30 Senators Tell ATF to Get With Trump 2A Agenda as Agency’s Top Lawyer Canned

A group of 30 Republican lawmakers on Thursday “strongly encouraged” the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to begin scrapping Biden-era anti-gun rules.

In a five-page letter to ATF Deputy Director Marvin G. Richardson— who has been leading the agency since the recent departure of the bureau’s avowedly anti-gun Director Steve Dettelbach– the senators urged the regulator to align its policies with “President Trump’s Second Amendment priorities” as laid out in his recent Executive Order.

Specifically, the letter calls on ATF officials to work with Attorney General Pam Bondi to quickly identify and rescind policies that allow “unlawful firearms regulations” to include the agency’s “Engaged in the Business,” “Pistol Brace,” and “Ghost Gun” rules as well as its “Zero Tolerance” policy under which ATF has revoked the licenses of FFLs over minor bookkeeping violations.

The senators said, “We urge you to immediately align ATF’s rules and policies with the President’s strong support for the Second Amendment.”

Further, the GOP lawmakers took aim at the agency’s huge cache of decades-old gun dealer records, urging ATF to destroy the reportedly hundreds of millions of ATF Form 4473 firearm transaction forms and allow FFLs to also destroy such records over 20 years old. The Biden administration had issued a rule that such records had to be maintained forever, creating what many argue is the foundation of a backdoor gun registry.

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Franklin Armory and FRAC Defeat ATF, Judge Rules Words Mean Things.

The U.S. District Court in North Dakota today issued its opinion in the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition (“FRAC”)-Franklin Armory firearms classification-related lawsuit against ATF. In his ruling, Judge Daniel M. Traynor vacated the ATF’s prior misclassifications of Franklin Armory’s Reformation and Antithesis firearms. Judge Traynor’s ruling solidifies what the firearms industry has known for years—that the ATF has been abusing its firearms technology classification powers.

Per the Court’s opinion:

Franklin Armory presented a square peg, and ATF shoved it into a round hole. If Congress wanted “shotgun” to be a catch-all category for anything that doesn’t fit “rifle,” it could have done so. . . . . It is not for ATF to redefine the terms because it thinks Congress didn’t intend a certain outcome. Therefore, ATF exceeded its authority in defining “smoothbore” as anything lacking “functional rifling.”

FRAC and Franklin Armory are reviewing the Court’s ruling and seeking further guidance from legal counsel as to the future of both Reformation and Antithesis under the law. Judge Traynor’s opinion declares that the “ATF classification of the Antithesis and reclassification of the Reformation [are] VACATED.” In response to ATF’s arguments, Judge Traynor retorted that “Administrative agencies need to remember they are in the executive branch and leave legislating to Congress.”

FRAC President & CEO, Travis White, stated that “the ATF has egregiously abused the firearms technology classification process, and this is a landmark ruling in reining in such abuses.”

Franklin Armory President Jay Jacobson said, “we spent years trying to reason with ATF leadership as they failed to classify firearms correctly. We hope that future agency leaders will stick to the law as passed by Congress. All we ever wanted was a good referee, not someone to throw the game.”

Judge Traynor’s summary judgment ruling in FRAC v. Garland, No. 1:23-cv-00003, can be found here.

Let’s Understand What Maryland, Baltimore’s Lawsuit Against Glock is Really About

Glocks are among the most popular handguns in the country. They’re priced decently, run reliably, and just plain work. Police trust them as do numerous armed citizens. They’re everywhere.

And that bothers a lot of people. Now, though, Glock is being sued by the city of Baltimore and the State of Maryland, with the help of Everytown for Gun Safety, and let’s talk a bit about what’s really going on here.

First, let’s get into the official word.

In an attempt to keep fully automatic guns off the streets, Baltimore and Maryland authorities Wednesday sued Glock, the maker of some of the best-selling handguns in America. The lawsuit demands Glock take steps to prevent its guns from being modified into machine-gun-like weapons capable of firing 120 rounds in one minute.

Small, easily installed devices known as “auto sears” or “switches” that are growing more common have terrified law enforcement because they enable high-powered violence not seen since 1934, when Congress banned machine guns after their prominent use by mobsters.

But police statistics show the number of “modified Glock” shootings is on the rise, including an incident near a Baltimore YMCA in March in which a woman’s car was hit 18 times, and police found 41 shell casings nearby. In Philadelphia last year, eight high school students were shot in one spray, including a 16-year-old who was hit nine times. In Memphis in April, a police officer was killed and two other officers wounded in a firefight with two teenagers, one armed with a modified gun.

The lawsuit, filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court, is the first to test Maryland’s new Gun Industry Accountability Act, passed by the General Assembly last year to create liability for gun manufacturers and possibly circumvent an earlier related law. The Maryland lawsuit mirrors others filed in Chicago, Minnesota and New Jersey in recent months.

But here’s the problem: Glock doesn’t make the switches. They didn’t design them. They didn’t have anything to do with them.

Further, they’re illegal to make or possess–at least if you’re not one of the handful that has a transferable switch that was made before 1986 and is registered with the ATF. People are getting them left and right, but they’re not doing it lawfully.

What at least some are claiming is that Glock hasn’t redesigned its reliable handgun so it can’t accept a switch.

Yet they don’t punish Toyota because someone might modify one of their cars and circumvent emissions controls or something. Why would they?

But this isn’t really about full-auto switches or even Glock.

No, this is about making it as expensive as possible to be in the firearm industry and to offer products to the civilian market. Right now, this is the angle of attack they’re taking, but it will not end there.

The federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was created specifically to stop these kinds of nuisance lawsuits aimed at the gun industry, particularly when they’re being attacked for the actions of a third party. That’s what’s happening here. They’re trying to pretend it’s Glock’s fault and to get them to stop selling their guns in Maryland, but does anyone really think that would do any good?

It’s not like the people putting switches on their guns are going to suddenly decide they don’t want Glocks because they’re not sold there.

They’ll just get them from somewhere else.

But if enough states do it and enough companies get sued, they’ll either go out of business or just stop selling to private citizens.

You don’t need to control guns if there are no guns for anyone to buy, after all. That’s what this is really about. That’s the long game at work with anti-gunners, and they’re using anti-gun states to try and do it.

Make no mistake. Glock has done nothing wrong.

These two governments just don’t like the right to keep and bear arms.

Despite ATF’s Pistol Brace Ban Being Vacated, the Rogue Agency is Still Trying to Jail People Who Use Them.

Documents filed in an ongoing prosecution for illegal possession of a short-barreled rifle are raising new concerns about ATF’s enforcement policy concerning pistols with attached stabilizing braces. The government’s assertions of authority are truly breathtaking, claiming they can use the terms of an invalid rule to interpret the underlying statute and enforce it against U.S. citizens in felony prosecutions.

We have been reporting on the saga of ATF’s ill-fated 2023 administrative edict, Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached “Stabilizing Braces,” ever since the rule was proposed. The final version of that regulation reversed more than a decade of prior statements by ATF that attaching a stabilizing brace to a pistol did not create a short-barreled rifle (SBR) regulated under the National Firearms Act. Instead, ATF would use a series of vague and open-ended criteria to determine if the braced pistol was intended to be fired from the shoulder. But the rule provided no guidance to owners of such pistols how the criteria would be applied. Instead, ATF essentially claimed, “We’ll know an SBR when we see it.”

The pistol brace rule drew numerous legal challenges – including by the NRA – and several different courts found it defective on various grounds. A series of injunctions against its enforcement issued until, on June 13, 2024, a federal judge in Texas vacated the rule altogether. Owners of braced pistols breathed a sigh of relief as the threat of felony prosecution seemingly abated.

Last month, however, we reported on an alarming email to a gun owner sent by ATF’s Firearm Industry Programs Branch. The owner had asked ATF if attaching a stabilizing brace to a CZ Scorpion pistol would turn it into an SBR subject to the NFA. FIPB’s reply stated: “Federal law requires a pistol with an attached stabilizing brace or stock be registered as a short barreled rifle (SBR).”

The FIPB response also acknowledged that enforcement of ATF’s pistol brace rule was enjoined, and asserted, “While the appeal is pending, ATF is complying with the Court’s order.”

Yet ATF’s idea of “compliance,” according to the email, was to assert an even broader authority to treat ALL braced pistols as SBRs (not just ones fulfilling the “factoring criteria” specified in its rule), based on the agency’s reading of the underlying statutes.

After our reporting on that email, ATF quickly issued another statement, walking back the categorical statement about braced pistols. “ATF agrees that the statement ‘Federal law requires a pistol with an attached stabilizing brace or stock be registered as a short barreled rifle (SBR)’ is overbroad.” But the follow-up also continued to assert that ATF remained responsible for enforcing the underlying statutes.

“A firearm designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder that meets the statutory definition of a short-barreled rifle contained in the NFA must be made and transferred in accordance with the requirements of the NFA,” it stated. It did not, however, elaborate on how the agency would make this determination with respect to braced pistols or how owners of such guns might know whether ATF considers their firearms SBRs subject to the NFA.

Last week, however, NRA was made aware of a pending prosecution for illegal possession of a short-barreled rifle that answers this question in a shocking way. Documents the government filed in that case acknowledge ATF’s enforcement of the underlying statute continues to be informed by the terms of the agency’s illegal rule. The case is U.S. v. Taranto in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

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Scott Jennings Baits CNN Analyst Into Making a Damning Admission

Scott Jennings, aka the voice of reason on CNN, managed to extract a damning admission from one of the network’s analysts on Tuesday night. Appearing at a roundtable during Abby Phillip’s show, the conservative commentator faced off against former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman.

What was said by the latter was stunning, not insofar as it is a revelation (we already know what Democrats think of American voters) but that someone would be brazen enough to say it out loud. Here’s how Jennings set things up.

JENNINGS: Here’s what I think is a joke, that you have these partisan hack Democrat attorney generals, they get together, and the only thing they know how to do is try to nullify the results of the last election by venue-shopping these district court judges. They find the most lunatic liberals they can. They file lawsuits knowing full well they’re going to try to usurp the president’s authority, tie this up in court for years…

Akerman then responded by describing the bureaucratic state as “sacrosanct.”

AKERMAN: That stuff is sacrosanct, and you’ve got people going in there who don’t know anything about…(crosstalk)…Elon Musk doing this, he knows nothing about it.

The word “sacrosanct” means something is too important to be interfered with. In other words, a former government hanger-on believes that bureaucracies are simply above being controlled and reformed by pesky elected officials. They are, in effect, an untouchable fourth branch of government.

It only got worse from there because Akerman then said the following.

JENNINGS: What you just said is so profound. You said these people don’t know anything and they don’t know what they’re doing.

AKERMAN: That’s right. I’m talking about Elon Musk.

JENNINGS: I understand, but they are appointees of the duly elected president so your view, you’re here as our legal expert, but your view is because you don’t personally believe they know enough, that the duly-elected president who appointed a treasury secretary and who appoints special appointees like Elon Musk shouldn’t be able to act as the president because you don’t personally believe they know enough? Is that how it works? Do elections mean anything to you?

AKERMAN: It’s got nothing to do with elections.

That last line is the money quote that perfectly illustrates the left wing of democratic governance. While they love to toss around the word “democracy” while pretending they are defenders of it, they do not believe in representative government. What they believe in is an unaccountable bureaucratic system that allows them to thumb their noses at American voters. It’s a “heads I win, tails you lose” setup, and it has been the basis of Democratic Party power stretching back to the Woodrow Wilson era.

Akerman and those like him truly think their grip on power has “nothing to do with elections.” They want to be able to dictate their policy wants regardless of who wins. It is a tyrannical mindset wrapped up in a high-minded facade. It’s also abject nonsense in a technical sense. How efficient has the government been while being run by those Akerman would call qualified? How effective has it been at managing your taxpayer money? Meaningless credentialism is how the nation ended up with a nightmarish bureaucratic system that wouldn’t last five minutes in the private sector without major reforms or outright dismissal.

Democrats can continue their lawfare games if they’d like (and they’ll eventually lose), but all it’s doing is postponing the inevitable while continuing to turn Americans against them.

Ending the ATF Not So Fringe an Idea Anymore

There are a lot of people who want to end the ATF, but for a long time, all of them were gun rights advocates who had seen how the bureau abused its authority. For most Americans, it was just another federal law enforcement agency trying to do the right thing and catch criminals.

They had it in their heads that what happened in Ruby Ridge and in Waco were really just the result of lawless behavior rather than law enforcement screwing the pooch royally.

But as time marches on, things change.

Now, you can talk about ending the ATF and it’s not nearly as fringe of an idea as it once was. In fact, now it’s a fairly normal idea in politics.

The 119th Congress providesgun owners a unique chance to go on offense and advance pro-gun legislation. Donald Trump’s victory in November, coupled with Republicans’ retaking of the Senate and their continued control of the House, puts gun owners in a good position to get on the legislative scorecard, at least on paper.

On Jan. 7, 2025, Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) took the initiative byintroducingH.R. 221, the “Abolish the ATF Act’’, a succinct, one-page bill that aims to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Burlison’s bill already has 27 co-sponsors, with Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and Andy Biggs (R-AZ).

In a statement to The National News Desk earlier in January, Burlisondeclared, “The ATF is emblematic of the deep-state bureaucracy that believes it can infringe on constitutional liberties without consequence. If this agency cannot uphold its duty to serve the people within the framework of the Constitution, it has no place in our government.”

Burlison previouslyindicatedthat state governments should handle firearms issues without having the Feds butt in. He accused the ATF of “co-opting or commandeering [local] law enforcement to enforce laws” which elected officials in state legislation did not pass. The congressman suggested that states should be allowed to handle matters themselves, without federal interference.

Burlison’s bill is just the latest in congressional attempts to rein in the ATF’s power. Since the ATF’s infamous Waco siege of 1993, where nearly80 peoplewere killed, gun owners’ attitudes towards the ATF have hardened to the point where several elected officials have stepped up to introduce their respective ATF abolition bills. Members of Congress such Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene(R-GA) Rep. Matt Gaetz(R-FL) have introduced their respective ATF abolition bills over the last decade.

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And With That Receipt, We Learn That USAID Paid for a Terrorist’s College Tuition

You cannot make this stuff up? USAID, which blessedly is no more, paid for a radical Islamic terrorist’s college tuition. Past receipts show that the former agency footed the bill for Anwar Awlaki’s higher education. Awlaki lied about the country of his birth to obtain funds for college through the State Department. Awlaki later became the point of the lance for al-Qaeda’s digital jihad arm. Investigative Catherine Herridge has more:

Looks like USAID supported college tuition for Anwar Aulaqi (Awlaki) who later became a high level al Qaeda terrorist. Aulaqi falsely claimed he was born in Yemen to secure the financial help via the State Dept. when he was actually a US citizen, born in Las Cruces New Mexico.

Aulaqi would later develop close ties with several 9/11 hijackers and attain leadership status in AQ’s Yemen affiliate. Aulaqi was the godfather of the digital jihad that leveraged his writings and the web to radicalize Americans to AQ’s cause. Aulaqi became the first American targeted for death by the CIA.

In 2011, he was killed in a US drone strike.

 

And yet, some media figures claim they cannot find any waste or abuse at USAID.

Yeah, again, the legacy media is a joke.

What’s that one about the road to Hell being paved with “good intentions”?

How a Novel and JFK’s Good Intentions Became This USAID Mess

Almost 70 years ago, the U.S. State Department dispatched a new ambassador to a Southeast Asian nation. As often seemed to happen, the new U.S. official was no expert on the nation, its economy, or its culture. He did not speak the language. And his concerns were more geopolitical and career-oriented.

To be honest, the ambassador’s most important job had nothing to do with representing the U.S. there or helping that nation. It was instead bolstering that country against the advancing threat of Communism.

At that time in the 1950s, the subversive threat of that evil ideology had gripped the American psyche throughout government and entertainment all the way down to elementary schools, where even kindergartners practiced air-raid drills.

Government reactions, over-reactions, and some stupidity caused a cascading array of official decisions over decades, each one seemingly reasonable at the time, that collectively led to the need for this overdue federal housecleaning.

Now, the results of those potent fears and shortsighted decisions are culminating in an explosive Washington scandal and unfolding crisis over USAID under the new aggressive Trump Administration. The impacts run through thousands of employees, likely millions of beneficiaries in 177 countries, and affect the U.S. image around the world.

This explains why the developing details of outrageous abuse of taxpayer money by Woke USAID officials are resonating so profoundly in this country and, indeed, globally. This crisis reckoning is far from over.

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I Meme Therefore I Am 

Here, Samantha Power, the former administrator of the USAID proudly highlights the agency’s role in influencing “strategically important elections” by using the “Democratic Elections Fund.” She also discusses how USAID funds journalists—not only to report the news but also to “fact-check” incoming information.

USAID has directed nearly $500 million into the secretive, U.S. government-funded NGO Internews Network. This organization has collaborated with 4,291 media outlets, produced 4,799 hours of broadcasts in a single year—reaching up to 778 million people—and trained over 9,000 journalists as of 2023. IN has also supported social media censorship initiatives.

Furthermore, USAID has funded and trained thousands of lawyers, judges, and election workers, conducted polls questioning election legitimacy, published reports alleging fraud, and played a role in overseeing new elections—both domestically and abroad—among other activities.

USAID Helped Fund Hamas Tunnel System

If you’ve seen all those videos of Hamas’ underground cities in which they plan and prepare for their urban warfare against Israelis, you will notice a lot of interesting things.

One of them is that they are all lined with massive amounts of concrete. There are miles and miles of these tunnels and bunkers, and most of the destruction in Northern Gaza is the result of Israel systematically destroying the UNDERGROUND city that Hamas built. The bombs fall to destroy those bunker-like tunnels, and the result is that the buildings above also get flattened.

So where did all that concrete come from, you might ask… It turns out that USAID helped build the cement factory with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid money and pays the company for whom we built the factory for the products, giving them a steady source of funds.

So yes, USAID helped build the Hamas tunnels in Gaza from which the planning and preparation for October 7th happened, and from which Hamas has conducted the war that has destroyed Gaza.

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Bondi Orders ATF to Shift Resources Away from Alcohol, Tobacco

In one of her first acts as Attorney General, Pam Bondi ordered an apparent reshuffling of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

As part of a memo outlining the Trump Administration’s approach to charging and sentencing, Bondi ordered the ATF to deprioritize some enforcement efforts. Instead, she told the agency to focus resources on areas ranging from immigration enforcement to human trafficking and transnational gangs. However, she also told them not to deprioritize firearms regulations.

“To free resources to address more pressing priorities, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) shall shift resources from its Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement Programs to focus on matters relating to the other priorities set forth herein,” Bondi said in the memo. “No resources shall be diverted from the ATF’s regulatory responsibilities, such as federal firearms licenses and background checks.”

The move comes after Trump reportedly expanded ATF agents’s authority to enforce immigration law. It shows the Trump Administration’s willingness to fundamentally change the makeup and mission of federal law enforcement agencies. It is also the first indication of how Bondi may approach gun policy as AG and another indication that the priorities of gun-rights activists are secondary to other interests in the new administration, such as an immigration crackdown.

Bondi, who faced opposition from some gun-rights activists over her history of backing stricter gun laws, such as “Red Flag” laws and broader age restrictions for gun purchases, was confirmed as AG with full Republican support on Wednesday. She described herself as “pro-Second Amendment” during her confirmation. However, she also qualified her position on gun policy by pointing to her experience responding to mass shootings.

“I am pro-Second Amendment. I have always been pro-Second Amendment,” she said. “I will follow the laws of my state of Florida and our country, of course. Regarding any gun laws, I worked that shooting, meaning I was there when 17 family members were notified–I was there–that their children were murdered. Also, Pulse Nightclub. I also went to Nevada to help with the MGM shooting. The Attorney General at the time asked me to come out there. I believe over 60 people were murdered there.”

Gun Owners of America, which backed Trump in the 2024 election alongside most other gun-rights groups, said it hoped to work with Bondi in her new role. However, it also warned it would be watching how she performs.

“Gun owners have seen firsthand how an anti-gun Attorney General can abuse their power to undermine the Constitution,” Erich Pratt, the group’s senior vice president, said in a statement. “Pam Bondi’s confirmation is a stark reminder that we must stay vigilant to ensure she defends, rather than dismantles, our God-given rights.”

The memo, first published by Politico, lays out the administration’s basic logic for how it plans to pursue law enforcement over the next four years. It focuses on a few key areas. Those include immigration, drug enforcement, and violence against law enforcement–even though Donald Trump pardoned a slew of January 6th rioters who were convicted of assaulting police as one of his first acts in office.

“The Nation faces historic threats from widespread illegal immigration, dangerous cartels, transnational organized crime, gangs, human trafficking and smuggling, fentanyl and opioids, violence against law enforcement, terrorism, hostile nation states, and other sources,” Bondi said in the memo. “This section describes the Department’s priorities and guidance in addressing these threats, including by revising previous priorities to make additional resources available.”

However, the memo doesn’t give a detailed rundown of how much of the plan will be implemented. It doesn’t outline how the ATF is meant to shift its resources away from its traditional operations to these new priorities. Nor does it address what, if anything, will be done to enforce federal laws governing alcohol and tobacco moving forward or who will be responsible for those tasks.

The ATF is also still operating without a director, even an acting one. President Trump has not yet named a nominee for a permanent director and may not ever do so. The agency appears to currently be run by deputy director Marvin Richardson, who was previously the acting director during the early years of the Biden Administration, but the agency hasn’t responded to requests from The Reload to confirm that.

However, the memo promises to flush out the administration’s plan down the line.

“Further detailed guidance regarding these priorities, and others, will follow,” Bondi said.

Leak Shows ATF Continues to Disregard Court Orders on FRTs

The ATF is still informing law enforcement agencies that FRTs are machineguns.

In a recent Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) leak released by AmmoLand News and Gun Owners of America (GOA), the government agency shared its fears about 3D-printed machinegun conversion devices (MCD), but not everything the ATF listed is an MCD.

The ATF included the Super Safe AK in its documents, claiming it was in a drop-in auto-sear (DIAS). The issue with that designation is that the Super Safety is not a machinegun or an MCD. It is a forced reset trigger (FRT), and the Bureau might be violating a court order by designating the device as a machinegun in its January 15, 2025, documentation.

Each time a shooter uses the AK Super Safe, they must pull the trigger. The statute definition of a machinegun is a firearm that expels more than one round per function of the trigger. For each function of the trigger, the Super Safety only expels a single round. It does not fit the definition of a machinegun as defined under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA). The Supreme Court has already ruled that the ATF cannot change the statutory definition of a machinegun in the Cargill case.

The Cargill case involved a bump stock. SCOTUS found that since a shooter must pull the trigger between each round, a bump stock is not a machinegun. The Cargill case has been referenced in NAGR v. Garland, which challenged the ATF’s definition of FRTs as machineguns. In that case, the judge found that only one round is expelled per trigger function. The judge issued an injunction against the ATF from taking enforcement actions against the owners and manufacturers of FRTs. Yet, the ATF is still informing law enforcement agencies that FRTs are machineguns.

The ATF also refers to the AK Super Safe as the AK-DIAS. The AK-DIAS is not the same as the AK Super Safe. The AK-DIAS is a separate project and is a machinegun conversion device. It does convert a semi-automatic AK into a fully automatic firearm. The AK Super Safe engages the safety between every round making it impossible to fire automatically. It appears that the ATF is trying to conflate the two different devices which could lead to confusion amongst law enforcement, and the false arrest of Americans for possessing something that is completely legal.

This situation isn’t the first time the ATF rebelled against the courts or the White House. The ATF was criticized for disregarding an executive order demanding that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) positions be eliminated. The order explicitly stated that those employees should be placed on administrative leave, and agencies should not try to hide them. The ATF did the opposite of the order. Lisa T. Boykin was the ATF’s “Chief Diversity Officer” responsible for implementing DEI at the Bureau. After President Trump issued the order, her title was changed to “Senior Executive.”

The ATF also recently came under fire for disregarding multiple court orders blocking the pistol brace rule. In that case, the ATF told a Gun Owners of America (GOA) member that their CZ Scorpion equipped with a brace would have to be registered with the NFA division of the ATF and pay a $200 stamp fee, or they could be charged with a federal felony. The ATF said that even though the rule was blocked, they could interpret the statute however they wanted. GOA forced the issue, and the ATF finally issued a retraction.

The situation is similar in this case. Even though the courts have barred the ATF from taking action against FRTs by a permanent injunction, they seem to be doing just that. Many view the Bureau as an out-of-control rogue government agency that ignores the law and does what it wants to do. This situation doesn’t instill confidence in those running the ATF, including the default head of the Bureau, Marvin Richardson.

Some have campaigned for Richardson to become the permanent head of the ATF, but this situation is the third time in a month that the ATF has disregarded a Presidential or court order. It leads many to wonder if Richardson is complacent or incompetent.

Former Federal Reserve Adviser Indicted on Espionage Charges

Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin announced Friday that the Department of Justice has indicted a former senior adviser for the Federal Reserve on espionage charges.

Sixty-three-year-old John Harold Rogers of Virginia was arrested Friday and charged with conspiracy to commit economic espionage and with making false statements. Rogers allegedly conspired to steal FRB trade secrets in order to aid China.

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Observation O’ The Day:
We still don’t know exactly what caused Wednesday night’s fatal collision. But making it a priority to hire people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities for life-and-death positions is going to result in tragedy sooner rather than later.

FLASHBACK:
FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities.

Published January 14, ⇒2024⇐

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is actively recruiting workers who suffer “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.

“Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,” the FAA’s website states. “They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”

The initiative is part of the FAA’s “Diversity and Inclusion” hiring plan, which says “diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond.” The FAA’s website shows the agency’s guidelines on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23, 2022.

The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation, is a government agency charged with regulating civil aviation and employs roughly 45,000 people.

All eyes have been on the FAA and airline industry in recent days after a plug door on a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5. The FAA grounded all 737 MAX 9 planes after the incident and is carrying out “extensive inspection” and maintenance work.

The FAA added it would increase its oversight of Boeing in the wake of the incident, including auditing Boeing’s 737 Max 9 jetliner production line and companies that supply parts to the airline manufacturer.

Following the incident, social media commenters and public figures have said that airlines and airline manufacturers’ emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives has made flying less safe.

“Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety?” tech billionaire Elon Musk wrote on X last week. “That is actually happening.”

Critics of such commentary have pushed back on the argument that prioritizing DEI has made traveling less safe, with civil rights groups slamming Musk, for example, for the “abhorrent and pathetic” tweet.

On the FAA’s website, the agency states that people with “severe” mental and physical disabilities are the most underrepresented segment of the federal workforce.

FAA hiring page

“Because diversity is so critical, FAA actively supports and engages in a variety of associations, programs, coalitions and initiatives to support and accommodate employees from diverse communities and backgrounds. Our people are our strength, and we take great care in investing in and valuing them as such,” the FAA reads.

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We Finally Get Some Answers About the Wild New Jersey Drones Thanks to Trump

Dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of mysterious drones—some the size of refrigerators and compact cars—filled the skies over New Jersey and then they were everywhere. They hovered over homes, freaked out local elected officials, and caused mass panic. The Biden Administration offered no answers.

We heard they were prompted by Iran from a “mothership” off the coast. We were told they were Chinese spy drones. Were they hobbyists or malefactors, friend or foe? Nobody knew.

And then, suddenly, the drones stopped, Christmas came and went, and America turned the page.

But when he was running for president, Donald Trump promised to find out what the hell was going on and report back.

He reiterated the promise last week while signing executive orders when a reporter brought it up.

On Tuesday, during the first White House press briefing, we got some answers. But the answers prompt even more questions.

Trump spokesman Karoline Leavitt opened the first White House press briefing with the update on the drones.

Here’s what Leavitt said Trump dictated to her from the Oval Office mere minutes before the briefing:

After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons.

Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones. In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.

In other words, if they were nothing and “not the enemy,” why couldn’t the Biden Administration have told Americans this information at the height of the frenzy? Instead, the Biden Administration chose to lie to the American people about the drones—failing to allay fears that some malevolent force was filling the skies with drones to provoke and frighten the American people.

Who was the target of the research, exactly? It appears that the American people were the focus of the Biden Administration’s research project.

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