When it was revealed last week that the Trump Department of Justice targeted Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell for information obtained through Apple, leftists used a common rightwing argument that the “Deep State” was out to get us, except it was Trump who was benefitting. That narrative sank today when it was revealed through the same whistleblower that the DoJ also targeted Trump attorney Don McGahn.
First, here’s a recap of last week’s story from Yahoo:
During the Trump administration, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into leaks of classified information, and subpoenaed Apple for data from accounts belonging to members of the House Intelligence Committee, their aides, and family members, The New York Times reports. One of the people involved was Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), then the top Democrat on the committee and a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump.
In 2017 and 2018, the records of 12 people with connections to the committee — including a minor — were seized, several people with knowledge of the matter told the Times. The investigation began under then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, with prosecutors tasked with figuring out who was leaking information about contacts Trump associates had with Russian officials.
They looked at national security officials who were part of the Obama administration, five people familiar with the matter told the Times, and while most were ruled out, the DOJ opened cases focusing on then-FBI Director James Comey and his deputy, Andrew McCabe. Apple only passed along metadata and account information, the Times reports, and was put under a gag order, which expired this year. In May, the company notified lawmakers to tell them about the leak investigation, the Times reports.
Admittedly, it did appear based on this early information that the DoJ was working on behalf of the Trump administration. But Trump allies have said the DoJ was working alone in these operations and without the knowledge nor consent of the White House. Today’s revelation seems to vindicate the Trump administration and verify its claims as the same method used against Democrats was also used against Republicans, include President Trump’s closest personal attorney at the time.
According to Fox News:
Apple informed former Trump administration White House counsel Don McGahn that the Justice Department subpoenaed information about an email account of his in 2018, and forbade Apple from letting him know, according to a New York Times report.
McGahn’s wife also received a notice of the same kind, the report said, with one source telling the newspaper that Apple received the subpoena on Feb. 23 and another saying it came from a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Fox News reached out to Apple and the Justice Department for comment but they did not immediately respond.
The report was light on details about the DOJ’s investigation, noting that it was unknown what federal investigators were looking into, or whether McGahn himself was their primary focus or someone with whom he had been in contact. A Times source told the publication that Apple did not tell McGahn what they had turned over.
The Times report did note that Apple received the McGahn subpoena weeks after another subpoena related to an investigation of leaked information related to the Russia probe. That subpoena, reported by the Times last week, covered information including records belonging to California Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, both fierce critics of Trump while he was in office.
What does this mean? In the smaller frame it means that there was at least one operation and potentially several operations within the Department of Justice that targeted DC political figures in order to gather information. It’s unclear what was being investigated or why. It isn’t even clear if the “investigations” were manufactured for the sake of collecting dirt, a practice known to have been developed by J. Edgar Hoover and that is quietly still used today by the Deep State.
In the bigger picture, this tells us there are no Deep State “allies,” at least not as it pertains to one party or the other. There are only targets and those targets can be from either side of the political aisle.
The more we learn about the Department of Justice, the clearer it becomes that they’re working for themselves regardless of who is in the White House. When Deep State controls both elected officials and the bureaucracy, they’re untouchable.
YouTube, Spotify, and other Big Tech platforms are taking Freedom First Network down
It’s no secret we speak our minds and bring on guests who do the same. That’s one of the biggest reasons we put together the Freedom First Network in the first place. There are far too many news outlets, including so-called “conservative” media companies, who are so beholden to Big Tech that they temper their perspectives at best and outright coverup the truth at worst. Many, as you all know, will blatantly lie in order to maintain the narrative that supports the radical agenda taking over much of the United States.
We have had our YouTube channel taken down. Many of our shows have been suppressed or removed by Facebook and Twitter. Spotify banned one of our shows completely from their platform. Google hates us. We’ve even been censored by some of the smaller players like Medium, Transistor, and Captivate. But we stand behind our reporting and perspectives and we refuse to bow down to Big Tech tyranny for the sake of pageviews or video plays.
This isn’t the easiest road to travel, especially for a media company that is so new. We launched Freedom First Network in 2020 to fight against the very censorship that we’re seeing so widespread today. We have found great homes for our content on freer speech platforms like Rumble and we’re putting our best efforts forward into building our presence on Locals. Nevertheless, we cannot do it alone. We need help.
One of the things cofounders Jeff Dornik and JD Rucker agreed to from the start was to never be the pawns of companies that do not embrace our worldview. Finding advertisers and affiliates is easy; we receive requests by companies wanting to be pushed on our shows every day. But it’s important to us that we’re promoting companies, services, and products that are beneficial to maintaining a Freedom First stance in America. As a result, we do not take on sponsors easily. We would rather rely on our own products like Freedom First Coffee and the support of our wonderful viewers, listeners, and readers.
Those who want to support us and help keep the fight for America’s future moving forward can do so by donating through our Locals page. There, you can donate monthly or one-time. Some have told us to use Patreon or GoFundMe, but both of those platforms have demonstrated a hatred for free speech. Locals does not. They embrace it. We encourage everyone to join us on Locals, but donations are greatly appreciated as well. We do not have day jobs. Our fight for freedom is a full-time gig.
Please feel free to reach out to us through our contact form. It goes directly to our founders, so if you’re interested in getting involved, investing, sponsoring, or even bringing a show to our network, let us know. May God Bless the United States of America!
