Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
If the FBI Asks, Do You Answer?
I was a student traveling in an airport when three men with FBI credentials stopped me and asked me about a foreign national I had just spoken to. I explained that he was a professor at my university whom I had happened to run into. I was running a personal server in the late ’90s when I received a call from an FBI agent regarding a fraud complaint related to my domain name. I provided the agent with the details of the DNS features I used to assure that responsible ISPs will block email using my domain name but originating from an unauthorized IP address. The agent took copious notes and I never heard any more about the matter. And then there was the time they called to ask me questions about a coworker who tried to blackmail me using baseless accusations.
While I have never been naive about the FBI, in each of these occasions, I was presented with natural law enforcement concerns and engaged the situation respectfully and constructively. I am not sure I could do that today. The sheer dishonesty of the FBI’s public conduct suggests any trust in the FBI pursuing its law enforcement mission is misplaced.
So, if the FBI asks, do you answer? Do you tell the truth? Do you dummy up? Do you lawyer up?
Published in Policing
And, against all sound counsel and his better judgment, he made the mistake of talking to the FBI…
There was one such conference this spring but I was already committed to another event when the announcement came out. That one is held every two years, so it will be a while before that opportunity comes back up.
It’s funny. A friend in college joked about wanting to join the FBI so he could learn all of the secrets. He said, if one day I’m found dead in a ditch, everything is true. Years later, I was the one who ended up joining the military and acquiring a security clearance.
If they gave me blanket immunity from a DOJ office for prosecution of anything I told them which also covered state officials I might. Otherwise no.
I wouldn’t trust DOJ to keep their word on immunity.
Does Jesse Kelly read Ricochet?
If he doesn’t, he should. ;-)
I recently read James Duane’s book , You Have the Right to Remain Innocent. I found it very disappointing to find that in the last 50 years, the Supreme Court (primarily under the influence of conservative justices like Scalia) has decided that citing the Fifth Amendment when declining to answer questions can be considered an indication of guilt.
Duane advises that if you are ever in a situation where you are being questioned, DO NOT to refuse to answer based on the Fifth Amendment. Instead based on your Sixth Amendment right to counsel, say that you must have counsel present before you are questioned.
The book is really eye-opening about the people who are later (sometimes years later) proven to be innocent who had innocent statements used against them or had actually confessed to a crime they did not commit. He did not trash law enforcement. But people in law enforcement are human. There are bad, good, and indifferent. And there is confirmation bias once someone thinks they have the answer.
Dont Answer, Dan Bongino interviews FBI whistleblower. Dont talk to the FBI, they’re knocking on doors of Jan 6 suspects, hoping the subject will self-incriminate or incriminate others. So Dont talk:
https://rumble.com/v1lllvz-breaking-update-from-fbi-whistleblower-ep.-1859-the-dan-bongino-show.html?mref=22lbp&mrefc=2
All government is hostile to you at all times. Cooperate with it as little as possible.
Jonah Goldberg has made the point many times that “government cannot love you,” in the context of the state replacing the family. I would extend that to point out that government doesn’t even like you.
What about if the FJB asks?
Additional information on the abuse of FBI SWAT teams:
Look, fat.
Agreed, but it can hate you. The best to hope for is that it ignores you.
It doesn’t matter if government hates you or not if it’s too small to do anything about it.
Sounds good but no government is too small not to do anything to hurt you. It can always tear you apart via all the laws it controls be it get you tossed from your house or removed from your job or take you property or lock you up.