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Textbook Case of FBI Grooming a Troubled Young Man to Commit Violent Crime

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By John Leake

Schizophrenic Jerry Drake Varnell was encouraged and assisted by an undercover FBI agent in “foiled” plot to blow up BancFirst building in Oklahoma City

In researching the strange cases ofĀ Thomas Matthew CrooksĀ andĀ Luigi Mangione, I have wondered with whom they were in contact, and if they were possibly groomed, by an undercover FBI whoā€”for reasons that are unclearā€”wished to incite these young men to participate in violent crimes.

I first started wondering about FBI grooming when I learned about an undercover FBI agentā€™s involvement in the 2015 plot to attack a convention at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas (see my postĀ “Tear Up Texas”: FBI Encouraged a 2015 Shooting & Did Nothing to Stop It).

This morning I learned about the remarkable case of a 23-year-old diagnosed schizophrenic named Jerry Drake Varnell whoā€”with the encouragement and assistance of an undercover FBI agent in 2017ā€”participated in what he believed was a plot to blow up the BancFirst building in downtown Oklahoma City. He was found guilty in 2019. In 2020 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison ā€œfor attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction at BancFirst in downtown Oklahoma City.ā€

According to the US Attorneyā€™s OfficeĀ press releaseĀ on the conviction:

At trial, the jury heard testimony from an informant who made recordings of his conversations with Varnell. It also heard from the undercover FBI agent who helped Varnell build what he thought was a bomb, an FBI bomb technician, and others. It listened to numerous recordings in which Varnell planned the attack and reviewed numerous written electronic communications that corroborated his intent. Furthermore, it heard the testimony of a defense expert concerning Varnellā€™s mental health. Through its verdicts, the jury concluded any mental health problems did not prevent Varnell from forming the intent required for conviction.Ā It also determined the FBI did not entrap him.

To me, what is most striking about this caseā€”apart from the fact that the offender was a diagnosed schizophrenicā€”is how he drew the attention of federal law enforcement. AsĀ reported by KGOUĀ (an Oklahoma NPR station):

Government witnesses said they deemed Varnell a threatĀ based on his online activity such as ā€œlikingā€ anti-government groups on Facebook and messages referencing Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Tyler Durden, a split personality character from the 1999 film ā€œFight Club.ā€Ā Agents also said Varnell claimed he had built homemade explosives during conversations with undercover FBI agent Williams and an FBI informant named Brent Elisens.

As was repeatedly pointed out by Varnellā€™s defense attorney:

Varnell isĀ a diagnosed schizophrenic. He told federal agents that his anti-government sentiments started around age 16, the same age his parents say his schizophrenic episodes began.

Defense attorneys asked FBI agents if they knew of Varnellā€™s paranoid schizophrenia.Ā Retired FBI agent Jennifer Schmidtz, who testified Wednesday, said she knew of ā€œallegationsā€Ā in a Custer County case involving Varnell and self-reported mental health issues in Varnellā€™s college transcripts. In a 2017 statement, Varnell’s parents claimed he has been institutionalized on multiple occasions.

The defense has team also focused on anĀ FBI report from Dec. 2016 that stated, ā€œVarnell does not have a job or a vehicle. The threat has not been repeated. Varnell does not have the means to commit the act at this time.ā€

By August 2017, the defense pointed out, Varnell was still unemployed and without a car.Ā ā€¦

Varnellā€™s property was searched the day of his arrest, andĀ Schmidtz, who supervised the search, testified there was no physical evidence showing Varnell experimented with chemicals capable of causing an explosion. The search did uncover a speech written by Varnell laiden with conspiracy theories about developing psychotropic drugs, the Clintons and Timothy McVeigh.

During cross examinations the defense continued to point out that Varnell never followed through on pieces of the plan he was responsible for, like choosing a time and place and supplying barrels.Ā Varnell came up with a list of locations after encouragement from undercover agent Williams,Ā and he settled on the on the BancFirst location after Williams took him to scout the location on July 13. He suggested Nov. 5 as an attack date, butĀ Williams said it was too far away. And Varnell never supplied barrels, so Williams provided them.

In other words, ā€œundercover agent Williamsā€ was the chief planner and executor of the apparent plot. Jerry Varnell participated in this plot with the encouragement of undercover agent Williams and under the direction of undercover agent Williams.

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The NSAā€™s Secret Sex Chats

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Ā 

Intelligence officials maintained a chatroom to discuss polyamory and transgender surgeries, internal documents reveal.

The ā€œintelligence communityā€ is one of the most powerful parts of the American national security apparatus. In theory, it works tirelessly to keep the nation safe. But according to internal documents that we obtained, some intelligence agency employees have another on-the-job priority: sex chats.

We have cultivated sources within the National Security Agencyā€”one current employee and one former employeeā€”who have provided chat logs from the NSAā€™s Intelink messaging program. According to an NSA press official, ā€œAll NSA employees sign agreements stating that publishing non-mission related material on Intelink is a usage violation and will result in disciplinary action.ā€ Nonetheless, these logs, dating back two years, are lurid, featuring wide-ranging discussions of sex, kink, polyamory, and castration.

One popular chat topic was male-to-female transgender surgery, which involves surgically removing the penis and turning it into an artificial vagina. ā€œ[M]ine is everything,ā€ said one male who claimed to have had gender reconstruction surgery. ā€œ[I]ā€™ve found that i like being penetrated (never liked it before GRS), but all the rest is just as important as well.ā€ Another intelligence official boasted that genital surgery allowed him ā€œto wear leggings or bikinis without having to wear a gaff under it.ā€

These employees discussed hair removal, estrogen injections, and the experience of sexual pleasure post-castration. ā€œ[G]etting my butthole zapped by a laser was . . . shocking,ā€ said one transgender-identifying intel employee who spent thousands on hair removal. ā€œLook, I just enjoy helping other people experience boobs,ā€ said another about estrogen treatments. ā€œ[O]ne of the weirdest things that gives me euphoria is when i pee, i donā€™t have to push anything down to make sure it aims right,ā€ a Defense Intelligence Agency employee added.

These revelations come at a moment of heightened scrutiny for the intelligence community. President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard have each made the case that the intelligence agencies have gone ā€œwoke,ā€ prioritizing left-wing activism over national security. These chat logs confirm their suspicions and raise fundamental questions about competence and professionalism.

According to our sources, the sex chats were legitimized as part of the NSAā€™s commitment to ā€œdiversity, equity and inclusion.ā€ Activists within the agency used LGBTQ+ ā€œemployee resource groupsā€ to turn their kinks and pathologies into official work duties. According to the current NSA employee, these groups ā€œspent all day” recruiting activists and holding meetings with titles such as ā€œPrivilege,ā€ ā€œAlly Awareness,ā€ ā€œPride,ā€ and ā€œTransgender Community Inclusion.ā€ And they did so with the full support of NSA leadership, which declared that DEI was ā€œnot only mission critical, but mission imperative.ā€

In this case, ā€œdiversityā€ was not a byword for racialism, but rather a euphemism for sex talk. Last January, chatroom members discussed their practice of polyamory, or ā€œethical non-monogamy.ā€ ā€œ[A] polycule is a polyamorous group,ā€ one employee explained. ā€œA is my [girlfriend], and B-G are her partners. . . . then B&C are dating but not C&D, nor E, F, or G with any of the others, though there are several MWB (metas-with-benefits) connections.ā€ Another employee claimed to be part of a nine-member ā€œpolycule,ā€ adding that ā€œsome of our friends are practically poly-mers, with all the connected compounds.ā€

At other times, the conversations became explicit. The active source at the NSA claimed to have witnessed hundreds of sexually provocative discussions, which, he added, occurred mostly on taxpayer time. The former NSA source who was familiar with the chats recalled being ā€œdisgustedā€ by a particularly shocking thread discussing weekend ā€œgangbangs.ā€

The NSA sources also raised the question of some staffersā€™ mental fitness for the job. In one chat, an NSA employee insists on using ā€œitā€ pronouns in lieu of the human ā€œheā€ or ā€œsheā€ pronouns. ā€œ[I]t/its user here. While I understand we can make some people uncomfortable, keep in mind that the dehumanizing aspect either a) doesnā€™t apply or b) is a positive effect when weā€™re requesting it.ā€ A commenter who disagreed was quickly dismissed by employees of the NSA and CIA, who claimed that refusing to use ā€œit/itsā€ pronouns amounted to ā€œerasingā€ a transgender identity.

ā€œThese are folks with top secret clearances believing they are an IT!ā€ said the NSA source.

With the Trump administration taking over, we may see changes. The NSA source said that staffers involved in employee resource groups fear the end of DEI. ā€œ[T]here are legal restrictions in place, but this admin has shown they donā€™t give a f**k about legality,ā€ a staffer in space intelligence remarked about DEI staffers being placed on leave. Others have expressed opposition to Trumpā€™s cabinet nominees.

A conflict is coming. These NSA chat logs suggest the presence of at least hundreds of gender activists within the intelligence services who cannot distinguish between male and female, and who believe that discussing castration, polyamory, and ā€œgangbangsā€ is an appropriate use of public resources. For psychological and ideological reasons, these kinds of people will not be easily sidelined. The Trump administration should not only dismantle the structure of DEI but also terminate the employees who use it to advance gender activism at the expense of national security.

A guest post by
Hannah Grossman

Hannah is a Member of the World Jewish Congress Diplomatic Corps where she focuses on Holocaust research and education.

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Trump and fentanylā€”what Canada should do next

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From the Fraser Institute

By Ross McKitrick

During the Superbowl, Doug Ford ran a campaign ad about fearlessly protecting Ontario workers against Trump. I suppose itā€™s effective as election theatre; itā€™s intended to make Ontarians feel lucky weā€™ve got a tough leader like Ford standing up to the Bad Orange Man. But my reaction was that Ford is lucky to have the Bad Orange Man creating a distraction so he doesnā€™t have to talk about Ontarioā€™s high taxes, declining investment, stagnant real wages, lengthening health-care wait times and all the other problems that have gotten worse on his watch.

President Trumpā€™s obnoxious and erratic rhetoric also seems to have put his own advisors on the defensive. Peter Navarro, Kevin Hassett and Howard Lutnick have taken pains to clarify that what we are dealing with is a ā€œdrug war not a trade war.ā€ This is confusing sinceĀ many sourcesĀ say that Canada is responsible for less than one per cent of fentanyl entering the United States. But if we are going to de-escalate matters and resolve the dispute, we should start by trying to understand why they think weā€™re the problem.

Suppose in 2024 Trump and his team had asked for a Homeland Security briefing on fentanyl. What would they have learned? They already knew about Mexico. But they would also have learned that while Canada doesnā€™t rival Mexico for the volume of pills being sent into the U.S., we have become a transnational money laundering hub that keeps the Chinese and Mexican drug cartels in business. And we have ignored previous U.S. demands to deal with the problem.

Over a decade ago, Vancouver-based investigative journalistĀ Sam CooperĀ unearthed shocking details of how Asian drug cartels backed by the Chinese Communist Party turned British Columbiaā€™s casinos into billion-dollar money laundering operations, then scaled up from there through illicit real estate schemes in Vancouver andĀ Toronto. This eventually triggered the 2022Ā Cullen Commission, which concluded, bluntly, that a massive amount of drug money was being laundered in B.C., that ā€œthe federal antiā€“money laundering [AML] regime is not effective,ā€ that the RCMP had shut down what little AML capacity it had in 2012 just as the problem was exploding in scale, and that government officials have long known about the problem but ignored it.

In 2023 the Biden State Department under Anthony Blinken toldĀ CanadaĀ our fentanyl and money laundering control efforts were inadequate. Since then Canadaā€™s border security forces have been shown to be soĀ compromisedĀ and corrupt that U.S. intelligence agencies sidelined us and stopped sharing information. The corruption went to the top. A year ago Cameron Ortis, the former head of domestic intelligence at the RCMP, wasĀ sentencedĀ to 14 years in prison after being convicted of selling top secret U.S. intelligence to money launderers tied to drugs and terrorism to help them avoid capture.

In September 2024 the Biden Justice Department hit the Toronto-Dominion Bank with aĀ $3 billionĀ fine for facilitating $670 million in money laundering for groups tied to transnational drug trafficking and terrorism. Then-attorney general Merrick GarlandĀ saidĀ ā€œTD Bank created an environment that allowed financial crime to flourish. By making its services convenient for criminals, it became one.ā€

Imagine the outcry if Trump had called one of our chartered banks a criminal organization.

We are making some progress in cleaning up the mess, but in the process learning that we are now a major fentanyl manufacturer. In October the RCMP raided massive fentanyl factories inĀ B.C.Ā andĀ Alberta. Unfortunately there remain many gaps in our enforcement capabilities. For instance, the RCMP, which is responsible for border patrols between ports of entry, hasĀ admittedĀ it has no airborne surveillance operations after 4 p.m. on weekdays or on weekends.

The fact that the prime ministerā€™sĀ promiseĀ of a new $1.3-billion border security and anti-drug plan convinced Trump to suspend the tariff threat indicates that the fentanyl angle wasnā€™t entirely a pretext. And we should have done these things sooner, even if Trump hadnā€™t made it an issue. We can only hope Ottawa now follows through on its promises. I fear, though, that if Fordā€™s Captain Canada act proves a hit with voters, the Liberals may distract voters with a flag-waving campaign against the Bad Orange Man rather than confront the deep economic problems we have imposed on ourselves.

A trade dispute appears inevitable now that Trump has signaled the 25 percent tariffs are back on. The problem is knowing whom to listen to since Trump is openly contradicting his own economic team. Trumpā€™s top trade advisor, Peter Navarro, hasĀ writtenĀ that the U.S. needs to pursue ā€œreciprocity,ā€ which he defines as other countries not charging tariffs on U.S. imports any higher than the U.S. charges. In the Americansā€™ view, U.S. trade barriers are very low and everyone elseā€™s should be, tooā€”a stance completely at odds with Trumpā€™s most recent moves.

Whichever way this plays out Canada has no choice but to go all-in on lowering the cost of doing business here, especially in trade-exposed sectors such as steel, autos, manufacturing and technology. That starts with cutting taxes including carbon-pricing and rolling back our costly net-zero anti-energy regulatory regime. In the coming election campaign, thatā€™s the agenda we need to see spelled out.

How much easier it will be instead for Canadian politicians to play the populist hero with vague anti-Trump posturing. But that would be poor substitute for a long overdue pro-Canadian economic growth agenda.

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