Sen. Johnson slams FBI's apparent indifference to threat of illegal aliens thumbing scale in election

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) penned an op-ed Friday blasting the FBI and other federal intelligence agencies over their apparent disinterest regarding threats to the integrity of American elections posed by illegal aliens, Democratic "smurfing" operations, and political actors inside the intelligence community.

During a classified meeting for members of the U.S. Senate on Sept. 25, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, and CISA Director Jen Easterly reportedly discussed the efforts of foreign actors to meddle in the upcoming election.

Johnson indicated that, barring a few details, he heard nothing new about foreign threats — "certainly nothing that should be considered or kept classified."

The senator noted further that while forthcoming about supposed foreign threats, the intel leaders said "absolutely nothing about the most egregious examples of election interference in our lifetime, or the most significant threats to the integrity of the 2024 election."

'We already have plenty of evidence that illegal immigrants are registering.'

They were reportedly mum, for instance, on the matter of alleged Democratic campaign contribution fraud.

Smurfing

Johnson indicated that he asked Wray what the FBI was doing to investigate Democratic smurfing — a money laundering technique whereby large sums of money are fragmented into smaller portions for distribution with the aim of avoiding reporting thresholds and detection by regulatory authorities.

Chronicles noted that in the context of elections, smurfing is used to launder illegal contributions to political campaigns, sometimes through identity theft, avoiding campaign limits.

"This clear violation of campaign finance law was first revealed in March 2023 by investigative journalist, James O'Keefe. Using ActBlue, the Democrats' donation platform, thousands of low-dollar donations are attributed to individuals allegedly without their knowledge — in one instance 5,776 donations totaling $754,124," wrote Johnson.

In late August, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson (R) raised similar concerns about ActBlue in a letter to the organization's CEO, Regina Wallace-Jones.

The South Carolina Daily Gazette reported that in his letter, Wilson referenced specific examples of donors in the state making an "implausible and highly suspicious" number of smaller donations.

"Alarmingly, some of these individuals list their occupations as 'unemployed' or report jobs that could not be reasonably commensurate to the total amount of financial contributions made by others in similar positions," wrote Wilson. "The allegations also raise the question of whether contributions were made without the reported donors' consent or awareness, which is equally troubling."

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares also raised concerns about fraud with ActBlue in August, noting that his office "has become aware of multiple serious allegations that ActBlue, ActBlue Civics, Inc., and ActBlue Charities, Inc. ... have engaged in fraudulent, deceptive, and/or otherwise illegal activities in the Commonwealth of Virginia and/or have aided and abetted others in doing so. This includes hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions through individual donors in the Commonwealth in volumes that are facially implausible and appear suspicious."

ActBlue responded in the first case with a statement claiming, "These false so-called 'allegations' are intentionally designed to mislead the public."

According to Sen. Johnson, Wray "seemed clueless on the issue" during the classified briefing and provided no indication that the FBI was looking into the matter.

Illegal voters

The meeting was terminated before Johnson could ask about illegal aliens registering voting, but he nevertheless made his concerns known in the op-ed, writing, "Don't be under the illusion that just because noncitizens are ineligible to vote, Democrats aren't willing to overlook that legal technicality to win an election. We already have plenty of evidence that illegal immigrants are registering, sometimes without their knowledge."

The senator referred to the cancellation of nearly 500 noncitizen voter registrations in Ohio. Other states have similarly found noncitizens on voter rolls.

In August, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) issued an executive order in early August removing over 6,000 noncitizens who had "accidentally or maliciously attempted to register" to vote.

'Federal law enforcement won't have any interest in investigating those crimes.'

"Call me crazy, but I think American elections should be decided by American citizens and Virginia elections should be decided by Virginians," Youngkin said in an interview.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced weeks later that his state had removed over 1 million ineligible voters from the voter rolls, including 6,500 noncitizens.

Oregon officials admitted last month to registering over 1,200 noncitizens to vote, nine of whom were found to have already voted.

The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project published troubling footage in July showing a handful of noncitizens in Georgia admitting they were registered to vote.

"Systems are being taken advantage of, and the outcome of the 2024 election will be difficult to determine given the near-impossibility of auditing in a short period of time," said the Oversight Project.

"President Biden threw open the borders and directed federal departments to register voters," Johnson wrote, apparently referring to Biden's Executive Order 14019. "Does anyone believe that registration effort will be non-partisan, or that some percentage of the millions of illegal immigrants won’t vote in November? Based on last Wednesday's briefing, I'm confident federal law enforcement won't have any interest in investigating those crimes either."

No accountability for the intel letter

Extra to highlighting "egregious examples" of election interference he figures will impact the 2024 election, Johnson reflected on an instance that proved consequential in the 2020 presidential election.

Johnson noted that he raised what he regards as the most egregious example of election interference in recent memory: "the letter solicited by current Secretary of State Antony Blinken, engineered by former Deputy CIA Director Mike Morrell and fast-tracked by then-CIA Director Gina Haspel."

Less than a month ahead of the 2020 election, the New York Post reported about the incriminating contents of Hunter Biden's laptop and raised various questions about then-candidate Joe Biden, especially about his shady ties to Ukraine.

This report easily had the potential to sink Biden and his campaign. However, elements of the intelligence community hostile to President Donald Trump swooped into action, releasing a public letter on Oct. 19, 2020, asserting that the Hunter Biden laptop story had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation" intended to hurt the Democrat's candidacy.

Michael Morell, one of the former CIA directors Biden referred to, later testified to Congress that he organized the letter to "help Vice President Biden" but more specifically to help "him to win the election."

The House Committee on the Judiciary, its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence revealed in a June report that former CIA acting Director Michael Morell and ex-CIA Inspector General David Buckley were both active contractors with top-secret clearances for the agency when they signed the letter.

Blaze News previously reported that none of the intelligence officials had apparently seen the evidence of which they spoke before signing the letter, and no signatory has since expressed regret.

Biden repeatedly used the misleading letter, including in his Oct. 22 debate with Trump, where he said, "Look, there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what this, he's accusing me of, is a Russian plan. They have said that this has all the characteristics — four — five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he's saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani."

Johnson stressed in his op-ed that the FBI had seized Hunter Biden's laptop roughly a year earlier and "knew full well it was authentic."

"That letter itself was a 'U.S. intelligence information operation,'" wrote Johnson. "And it worked exceedingly well. Because of that letter, the Hunter Biden laptop story was effectively suppressed as Russian disinformation, and Joe Biden became president."

The ODNI and FBI did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

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