Looks like the FBI is going to great lengths to track down anyone who was near the Capitol on Jan. 6.
How do we know this? Because apparently anyone who had a cell phone in the vicinity of the Capitol on that date is getting a visit from the FBI if their cellphones pinged off a cell tower around that time on that date, according to WUSA9.
Bree Stevens explained how they questioned her.
“Extremely creepy, because he explained that they have everyone’s phone number from pinging off the cell phone towers, and they know basically exactly where you were, within the vicinity of the Capitol,” Stevens said. “And they can actually pinpoint on Google Maps exactly where you were standing. Like, he knew where I was standing on the sidewalk, like specifically, based on my cell phone ping.”
Stevens said the agent told her she wasn’t a suspect, but said he wanted pictures of things she might have seen.
WUSA notes that some “civil rights advocates” are concerned about the surveillance powers being employed, but that the FBI refused to discuss how they came about their information.
What likely happened is they got an order that is allowing them to pick up anyone in the area and yes, that should be concerning, because it’s not specifically tailored to suspects, it’s a broad dragnet. This is also largely over misdemeanor charges of illegal entry although obviously there were other charges potentially, such as those involving assault.
It appears some of the folks who may have been nailed because of their cellphones didn’t pay attention to the advice of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) who advised ‘protesters’ during the summer either not to carry their cellphones or to turn them to airplane mode and disabling the data.
— Dr. Nickarama (@nickaramaOG) January 23, 2021
So from a legal point of view, some of the illegal entry charges may have difficulty because some of the people who entered appear to have been allowed in by the Capitol Police, although obviously others were not.
It also stands to reason that the FBI is going to concentrate on the more serious cases, the ones that actually involved violence or damage, which may explain why they’re saying they may not charge some 800 people who were not involved in that, according to The Washington Post.
But it is also interesting to note, where was all this investigatory ability when there were violent riots across the country, with BLM/Antifa folks attacking the state/federal governments with explosives, trying to burn things down and attacking law enforcement officers? Did they not employ any of those techniques to track down the Antifa crew who did some pretty violent things? What about tracking down those that moved from state to state and were involved in multiple riots/actions across the country?
HT: Twitchy
Join the conversation as a VIP Member