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Blue-State Governors Are Rolling Over for Trump’s FBI


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from The New Republic.

In a survey of every Democratic governor in America, not a single state leader told The New Republic that they would move to dismantle state and local police participation in the FBI task forces carrying out investigations into political speech and organizing. Of 24 governors contacted, only two gave The New Republic extensive answers about Trump’s executive order criminalizing speech and protest, and the FBI entities carrying out these orders. 

In 2025, Donald Trump released National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7, a sweeping directive instructing the departments of State, Treasury, Justice, and Homeland Security to pursue a dramatic effort to counter “domestic terrorism and organized political violence.” The memorandum also instructs the attorney general to submit a list of groups and entities deemed to be domestic terrorists to the president. 

Among the many indicators of the new violent domestic threat in NSPM-7 are “anti-fascism, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”

The mechanism for investigating and prosecuting these new thought crimes is a post-9/11 invention that fuses the FBI with state police, local police, the National Guard, DHS, military intelligence components, and sometimes even the CIA into a Joint Terrorism Task Force, or  JTTF. A national network of over 200 JTTFs was expanded through the justification of preventing the intelligence-sharing gaps that allowed hijackers to attack the twin towers on 9/11. 

In the intervening years, JTTFs have been used to deputize state and local police into federal agents, injecting federal directives like NSPM-7 directly into local communities. A study of 14 JTTFs conducted by the Brennan Center described their functioning as “organized chaos,” writing that the network functions as “a sprawling, federally subsidized, and loosely coordinated system designed to share information that is collected according to varying local standards.” 

The Brennan Center report also found that JTTFs’ headlong rush into intelligence work has “created risks that hurt counterterrorism efforts and undermine police work” and that the “lack of oversight, accountability, and quality control over how police collect and share personal information about law-abiding Americans not only violates the civil liberties of Americans, but creates a mountain of data with little to no counterterrorism value.”

That sprawling chaos is now being weaponized by the Justice Department to pursue investigations and intimidation of activists across the country. The FBI has even stood up a NSPM-7 Joint Mission Center composed of 10 federal agencies to organize the JTTFs’ NSPM-7 investigations. According to internal FBI documents first obtained by the nonprofit Property of the People, NSPM-7 investigations began in dozens of blue states, including New York, California, and Illinois.

But the governors from all three of those states equivocated in response to The New Republic’s inquiry about whether they were taking any action to stop the implementation of NSPM-7. 

Gavin Newsom of California shirked the question, telling The New Republic in a written statement only that “California’s security efforts operate wholly under state law and appropriate safeguards.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s office attempted a more acrobatic maneuver, claiming that “New York State Police assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force focus only on genuine criminal or terrorism investigations, follow New York’s laws, and do not participate in civil immigration enforcement or the NSPM-7 Joint Mission Center.” That answer is misleading. The FBI Joint Mission Center is the central hub for administering NSPM-7, but its participants are only a few dozen federal employees based in Washington, D.C.

As the map of NSPM-7 investigations makes clear, the New York JTTF—which is chock-full of NYPD intelligence officers—is actively pursuing NSPM-7 investigations. The governor’s office also acknowledged that New York State Police members and command staff are assigned to the New York JTTF and that those members work in partnership with the FBI and the other agencies represented on the JTTF under the supervision and oversight of state police command staff.

This map was obtained independently by TNR via the Freedom of Information Act, after it was obtained by the nonprofit Property of the People.

“Governor Hochul’s top priority is public safety, and she expects all law enforcement agencies to utilize resources responsibly to fight crime and keep communities safe, while respecting New Yorkers’ right to exercise their First Amendment right to freedom of speech and assembly,” her office said in a statement. 

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker also demurred on the question of how exactly local and state police are participating in the FBI’s ongoing Illinois NSPM-7 investigations, telling The New Republic, “Regardless of any actions taken by federal officials under the direction of the Trump administration, Illinois remains committed to maintaining the integrity of its own processes and will continue to ensure law enforcement information is handled appropriately and focused on legitimate public safety purposes, not political agendas.” 

The Illinois State Police, or ISP, who also provided a statement, wrote that the JTTF information process is a critical state asset but that the current gubernatorial administration does not tolerate abuse of the process. “The State of Illinois is committed to protecting free speech and ISP officers do not participate in the potential targeting of First Amendment rights. ISP personnel assigned to JTTFs remain under the authority of ISP, are subject to Illinois law, and are bound by the U.S. and Illinois constitutions. Any violation of the ISP rules of conduct is subject to discipline, up to and including termination, under the independent ISP Merit Board process.”

How this firewall squares with the FBI’s ongoing Illinois investigation remains unclear. 

The office of Hawaii’s Governor Josh Green simply responded to questions about NSPM-7 with: “This is not relevant to Hawai’i state law enforcement or National Guard personnel.” The office of New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill told The New Republic, “I’d refer you to the NJ Office of the Attorney General on this.” The office of Delaware Governor Matt Meyer said they’d respond, then never did. 

The universal support for FBI JTTFs makes sense given the fear most elected officials have around the scaling down of the national security establishment. Should an attack take place under their watch after a downsizing or reduction in budget and scope, they could end up catching the blame. 

But earlier this year, there was one democratic gubernatorial candidate who broke with the ranks of the Democratic herd to proffer that the FBI’s JTTFs scouring the country for dissidents should and could be kicked out of Wisconsin—the home state of the progenitor of the Red Scare, Senator Joseph McCarthy. 

“Because of the seriousness of the Trump threat, I would use my authority over state police forces to cease any cooperation with a federal joint operation task force that is designed to target American citizens exercising their civil liberties,” Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong told KLIP News in July. She also said that the memorandums of understanding that authorize state and local police to work with the FBI “are a loophole to essentially federalize local police forces. I do not wish to see Wisconsin become a patchwork of communities where people are unsure if they are safe depending on which side of the county line they may find themselves.”

Wisconsin’s current governor, Tony Evers, did not respond to The New Republic’s request for comment. 

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Garry Kasparov and Ilya Ponomaryov Targeted in Alleged Assassination Plot in U.S., Report Says – The Moscow Times


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A Russian intelligence network planned to assassinate exiled opposition figures Garry Kasparov and Ilya Ponomaryov in the United States this summer, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported Tuesday.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed an indictment charging five men over alleged plots involving surveillance, recruitment and targeted killings against two opposition figures, who were not identified by name.

El Mundo said it had obtained information that the alleged plot organizers were in contact with people assigned to track and kill Kasparov and Ponomaryov around the time when both were alerted to the assassination threat.

Ponomaryov declined to confirm or deny whether he had been tipped off, but told The Moscow Times that the allegations mark “a new level of escalation” by Russia.

“America was previously considered safe, especially compared to the EU, Turkey and Ukraine. The Kremlin is now destroying that framework as well, which had been in place since World War II,” he said.

Kasparov did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to El Mundo, a recruited operative had allegedly taken photos and videos of the Washington house and office linked to Ponomaryov, whom the U.S. Justice Department indictment identifies only as “Victim-1.” The operative refused to carry out the assassination, according to the indictment.

Kasparov, a chess grandmaster, was reportedly provided special protection for the first time since he moved to New York in 2013. El Mundo did not indicate whether Ponomaryov, who lives between Kyiv and Washington, was offered the same protection.

The Spanish newspaper reported that Vladimir Kara-Murza, another exiled anti-Kremlin figure who was released from Russian prison in 2024 in a landmark East-West prisoner swap, is also viewed as a potential target of assassination. 

Two of the indicted Russian nationals also reportedly targeted Ivan Tyutrin, who founded the Free Russia Forum conference in Lithuania with Kasparov, as well as Bashkir independence activist Ruslan Gabbasov, who previously discovered a tracking device inside his car in Lithuania.

The Kremlin and the Russian Embassy in Washington have not commented on the U.S. allegations, though Moscow has previously denied carrying out targeted killings abroad.

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Putin Humiliated as Irreplaceable Nuclear Bomber Crashes


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from The Daily Beast Latest Articles.

A large number of Putin’s losses have been self-inflicted.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an annual meeting

Contributor/Getty Images

A nuclear-capable Russian bomber has crashed during a training flight, handing Vladimir Putin another stinging loss from his irreplaceable strategic fleet.

The Tu-95 “Bear” went down in the Far Eastern Amur region while flying without ammunition during a training flight on Tuesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. Only one of the seven crew members survived the crash.

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Bombshell Drops in FBI’s Stephen Miller Phone Call Meltdown


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Prosecutors are expected to charge a man soon for allegedly threatening Katie Miller, the wife of top White House official Stephen Miller, despite FBI fears that no federal crime was committed, according to a report.

Justice Department prosecutors in Boston are being encouraged to bring charges even though there are internal concerns about the strength of the evidence, Bloomberg reported Monday.

The news comes after the resignation of FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey, who reportedly disagreed with how the bureau demoted two counterterrorism agents who pushed back on the probe into Miller’s caller.

The Justice Department is preparing to file an indictment or a criminal complaint potentially this week, people familiar with the matter told the publication. The specific charge hasn’t been decided upon. Yet prosecutors in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office, like some in the FBI, are wary about whether they have enough proof to secure a conviction, they added.

Former Justice Department officials familiar with the case told Bloomberg that the criteria for a federal threats case don’t appear to have been met. Instead, they said, the case was more of a matter for local police.

MAGA podcaster Katie Miller doesn't think

MAGA podcaster Katie Miller doesn’t think

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast, nor did the FBI. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston declined to comment to Bloomberg.

Last Friday, Michael Burgwald, the FBI’s Washington Field Office counterterrorism chief, and his deputy, Courtland Rae, were removed from their positions and transferred to FBI headquarters.

The decision came amid the Millers’ frustration that investigators were moving too slowly, Bloomberg Law reported.

“Senior leadership at the FBI determined they were stifling investigations into very serious threats and made a unilateral decision to remove them,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told the outlet last week.

Miller is an architect of the Trump administration's immigration policy. / Evelyn Hockstein / REUTERS

Miller is an architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy. / Evelyn Hockstein / REUTERS

Burgwald and Rae led the FBI Washington field office’s counterterrorism division. They reportedly questioned the directive to look into Miller’s allegations.

“Harassing phone calls aren’t even in the ballpark of terrorism unless an actual terrorist is doing the dialing,” as one ex-FBI official briefed on the matter told MS NOW.

The FBI said the two agents were demoted by Washington bureau chief Darren Cox, not FBI Director Kash Patel, though MS NOW reported Patel was displeased with them regarding the Miller matter.

More to explore

“This was a personnel decision made at the Washington field office level alone based on our constant evaluation of mission needs. Any suggestion otherwise is false,” Cox said. “Director Patel did not order this decision.”

Katie Miller, 34, was an assistant press secretary in the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration. She later joined then-Vice President Mike Pence’s communications staff. For the first half of 2025, she was the communications director for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

Miller is now a podcast host, and occasionally appears on Fox News. In May, she said on that network that a viral post by the Democrats’ official X account telling her husband to “shut up” was “violent.”

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Dutch ‘reformed hacker’ arrested in ShinyHunters investigation, police and ex-boss say


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Man types on a computer keyboard in front of the displayed cyber code in this illustration picture

A man types on a computer keyboard in front of the displayed cyber code in this illustration picture taken on March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

  • Summary
  • Dutch police say suspect, 24, to appear in Rotterdam court
  • Former boss identifies suspect as ex-hacker Pepijn van der Stap
  • Memo says FBI presumes hackers have stolen data on all employees

AMSTERDAM, Sept 28 (Reuters) – A Dutch man ​whose journey from cybercriminal to reformed security professional was widely covered in the international media has been arrested as part ‌of an investigation into the hacker group ShinyHunters, Dutch police and the man’s boss said on Monday.

In a statement, opens new tab

posted to social media site X, Dutch police said a 24-year-old man had been arrested in connection with the inquiry and would appear in court in Rotterdam on Tuesday.

The Misinformation Monitor newsletter rounds up international misinformation narratives, with a “Real or Fake?” quiz in every edition. Sign up here.

The statement did not name the man. But ​Benjamin Korper of Amsterdam-based cybersecurity company Neo Security said it was Pepijn van der Stap, the company’s offensive security lead.

In a ​telephone interview with Reuters, Korper said Dutch forensic investigators visited his office on September 15, the night Van der ⁠Stap was arrested in a dramatic police raid that

involved flash bang grenades, opens new tab

.

The arrest comes amid escalating concern over ShinyHunters, a hacking group known ​for large-scale data breaches and extortion, and its recent theft of what it said was terabytes of sensitive personnel data from US FBI servers. ​At least some of the data includes employees’ intelligence assignments and medical records, Reuters has reported. Some compared this to the disastrous 2015 hack of the US Office of Personnel Management.

An internal memo circulated to staffers said the FBI was operating under the presumption that hackers stole data pertaining to all bureau employees, according to a person briefed on ​the matter. In a statement, the FBI said it was “working around the clock” to investigate the hack and was “in regular communication with anyone ​who may be impacted.” The memo’s existence was earlier reported by MS Now.

In a statement, ShinyHunters said Van der Stap had “no association” with the group and that ‌Dutch police ⁠were incompetent. The hackers said that now they were not setting a deadline for the FBI to rescind

an advisory about ShinyHunters, opens new tab

, softening their initial statement which gave the FBI a week.

“This was not a threat,” they said. “Nothing will happen.”

News of Van der Stap’s arrest,

first reported, opens new tab

by independent journalist Brian Krebs, caused a stir in the cybersecurity community.

Van der Stap’s 2023 convictions of data theft and extortion had already received widespread publicity, as did ​his subsequent public disavowal of cybercrime. ​On his personal website, Van ⁠der Stap acknowledged that his journey “hasn’t been a straight line” but said his experience had taught him that “knowledge is for building and protecting, not breaking.”

Korper said he had carefully vetted Van der Stap before hiring him, ​monitored him during his employment, and was shocked by the arrest.

“I truly believe that people deserve a ​second chance, but in ⁠this case I was not thanked for it,” Korper said. “Absolutely everybody I talked to is flabbergasted.”

The executive said he had hired an outside firm to investigate whether Van der Stap had hacked Neo Security or its customers, but so far investigators have found no evidence that he acted against his ⁠employer or ​its clients.

Korper and Van der Stap have not been in touch since the arrest, Korper ​said. Attempts by Reuters to reach Van der Stap or identify a lawyer or representative were not successful.

Adds comment from FBI in paragraph 6

Reporting by Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam, and Raphael Satter and Andrew Goudsward ​in Washington; Additional reporting by AJ Vicens in Detroit. Writing by Makini Brice and Raphael Satter; Editing by Andrew Heavens, David Gaffen and David Gregorio

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

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Top Trump FBI Chief Quits After Katie Miller Meltdown


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from The Daily Beast Latest Articles.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

The departure is the latest shakeup during the tumultuous tenure of FBI director Kash Patel.

Andrew Bailey, Katie Miller photo illustrationi

Photo Illustration by Eric Faison/The Daily Beast/Getty

Donald Trump has lost another senior official, with the FBI’s deputy director leaving days after two veteran counterterrorism chiefs were abruptly reassigned over their handling of an investigation involving Stephen Miller’s wife.

FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey announced on Monday that he was stepping down to return to his family in Missouri, just one year after taking on the job as the bureau’s second highest ranking official following the departure of MAGA podcaster Dan Bongino.

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Embarrassing Breach at F.B.I. Fuels Fears of Harm to Its Employees


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In an internal memo, the F.B.I. said it believed the hackers may have stolen sensitive information on all of its employees.

A criminal hacking group known as ShinyHunters said it had targeted the F.B.I. as retribution for its public warning in the spring that the group was known to harass its victims and their family members.Credit…Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

The theft by a criminal hacking group of reams of sensitive personal data involving potentially tens of thousands of former and current F.B.I. employees is emerging as one of the worst breaches of sensitive government information, leaving the bureau rushing to protect its personnel as an uncertain deadline loomed.

Nearly a week after the group, known as ShinyHunters, revealed it had pilfered intimate details about bureau personnel from the agency’s jobs portal and threatened to leak them online, F.B.I. investigators are still piecing together how the breach took place and the total damage.

The hack appears to have swept up home addresses, Social Security numbers, secretive job assignments and much more, according to a New York Times analysis of some of the records. Some are already comparing it to China’s breach of more than 20 million records from the Office of Personnel Management over a decade ago, considered so catastrophic that officials and lawmakers vowed to never let something like it happen again.

Many F.B.I. employees first learned about the hack when news reports about it surfaced on Tuesday, according to current and former officials. The next day, F.B.I. staff received an email reminding them that October is cybersecurity awareness month, which struck some as tone deaf in light of the breach, one of those people said.

On Friday, bureau leaders, in an internal memo to its rank and file, declared the hack a cybersecurity incident and acknowledged its employees had personal information stolen.

“We are operating under the premise that the threat actor is also exfiltrating PII of all F.B.I. employees,” according to the memo, which was described by someone who had seen it, using the abbreviation for personally identifiable information.

The memo said the agency would offer virtual briefings in the weeks ahead and instructed employees to remain vigilant at home and at work, report any unsolicited contacts or threats, avoid answering calls from unknown numbers and set up voice mail accounts with A.I.-generated voices. “Bureau leadership remains committed to supporting the safety of you and your family,” it said.

Still, many past and present personnel remain in the dark about whether their data has been purloined. In recent days, some have anxiously asked Times reporters whether their names are contained in the hacked data, wondering whether they needed to take steps to protect themselves or their families.

In a statement on Monday, the agency said it was “working around the clock to investigate the cyber incident involving FBIJobs.gov and is in regular communication with anyone who may be impacted — including multiple bureau-wide communications within 24 hours of public reporting.”

It added, “The F.B.I. treats the security of its information and the safety of its work force as top priorities, and our investigation is ongoing.”

In announcing its hack, ShinyHunters, believed to be a loose collective of young hackers operating across the globe, said it had targeted the F.B.I. as retribution for a public advisory the bureau had issued in the spring, warning that the group was known to harass victims and family members with threatening or coercive maneuvers. In their note, the hackers demanded that the F.B.I. “correct or simply REMOVE” the advisory or risk further consequences.

In an email to The Times on Friday, ShinyHunters said that the bureau had until the end of Tuesday to fulfill its request, even as the hackers themselves appeared to acknowledge that the bureau was unlikely to acquiesce.

That note left open the possibility that the hackers would not dump the data online, even as the group reiterated its deadline. But on Monday, in a new statement, the group claimed it never intended to do so.

“Since the very beginning we had made our decision that we would never publish this data,” the group said. “We have never intended to nor have we ever planned to.” It added that the hack and threat to the F.B.I. was a “marketing campaign to protect our business” and said that “we are not taking any further actions” with the data, including revealing more about what is contained in the files.

“We seek no escalation as our goals have widely been accomplished,” it said.

It remains to be seen what ShinyHunters will do, and security researchers warned that even if they did not publish it online they could still sell it to other criminals or foreign governments.

It is also unclear just how much sensitive information the hackers stole. The group claimed publicly to have stolen records on everyone who has applied for a job at the F.B.I., and told The Times that the people with compromised information numbered in the tens of thousands.

Ciaran Martin, the former head of Britain’s cyberdefense agency, said the F.B.I. hack likely had “huge impact on the operational capability” of the bureau and could rank as one of the most consequential data breaches in history — graver even than the Office of Personnel Management burglary.

“Losing the data on 20 million federal employees to the Chinese was bad,” Mr. Martin said. “But you knew the Chinese weren’t going to sell or publish it.”

Image

T.S.A. PreCheck numbers that are provided to F.B.I. employees were among the private personal data obtained by the hackers.Credit…Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

A sample of records that the hackers have shared with The Times and other news organizations includes newer hires as well as retired ones, with birth dates ranging from the early 1940s to the mid 2000s. The most recent date references in the spreadsheet were from late April, suggesting the stolen files are at most only months old.

Current and former U.S. officials said that at least portions of the sample, and potentially all of it, appeared to be authentic.

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A Times review of the sample found that it contained a range of private personal data, including:

  • The names, home addresses, phone numbers, work emails, Social Security numbers and birth dates and hire dates of current and former F.B.I. personnel.

  • Names and numbers for spouses and other emergency contacts, including in some cases parents, siblings and even children.

  • Employee identification numbers that are used for the Transportation Security Administration’s PreCheck program, which could aid spies in tracking travel itineraries of agents, including those that work undercover.

  • Names of the units in which F.B.I. personnel are employed and their job titles, as well as the names of supervisors. While some list mundane departments, others reveal extraordinarily sensitive assignments including counterintelligence, narcotics and various desks focused on Russian, Chinese and Iranian national security threats. F.B.I. agents in those roles are generally expected to zealously protect their work in such fields to avoid putting a target on their back.

Additionally, ShinyHunters said that it had stolen medical data about employees, including psychiatric records and documents related to blood and urine tests. It also said that it had additional background check files on employees.

Former bureau officials and security experts said the hacked data prompted no end of worries. The data could also make it far easier for violent criminals to seek revenge against F.B.I. agents who sent them to prison. When they submit paperwork against criminal suspects, F.B.I. agents sign their names to the records but are typically trained to not let delicate personal information easily emerge online.

“It doesn’t take much imagination to picture scenarios where employees or their families could be threatened or harmed by this kind of information being released,” said Andrew Brandt, a threat intelligence researcher at the cybersecurity company Huntress. “The bigger worry is ShinyHunters selling the data to other criminal or nation-state groups who could put it to more damaging use, rather than dumping it themselves.”

Security experts said that given the breadth of the records, they would be of enormous value if they were acquired by foreign spies, who could then use the material to build elaborate dossiers on F.B.I. agents — including those who may be undercover or later assigned to such a post — and track them for years, if not decades. Aided by artificial intelligence, spies or hackers could also combine the information with other exposed data that is already in their hands or that is easily acquired on the dark web.

“Breaches do not exist in a vacuum,” Justin Sherman, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, wrote in a recent essay arguing that different exposed data sets can be combined and analyzed by hostile spy services.

The hack is just the latest in a string of embarrassing security failures for the F.B.I.

Two years ago, government investigators learned that Chinese spies had compromised vast segments of the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure in a hacking campaign known as Salt Typhoon. Among the most startling revelations was that the breach included sensitive wiretap networks at Verizon and AT&T that process court-authorized surveillance orders for the F.B.I. to monitor domestic criminal suspects.

China has denied involvement, but U.S. intelligence officials considered the compromise a counterintelligence failure of the highest magnitude, with national security implications that could last for years. It prompted such alarm within the F.B.I. that field offices were told to check if informants had been potentially compromised and, if necessary, take steps to ensure their safety.

The bureau still does not understand the full scale or scope of Salt Typhoon and its exposure from it, according to current and former U.S. officials. But the F.B.I. received another blow this spring when suspected Chinese hackers were found again inside a network it maintains for domestic surveillance orders.

In the case of ShinyHunters, it was not Chinese spies but a notorious gang of cybercriminals who hit the F.B.I. Already, bureau leadership had warned staff that hackers linked to ShinyHunters who infiltrated AT&T in 2024 may have stolen months of call and text logs belonging to some of its agents, which also fanned concerns about whether its informants had been exposed, as Bloomberg reported last year.

The members of ShinyHunters are seen as highly skilled — and audacious — English-speaking hackers who extort their victims for millions of dollars and brag about their exploits. In their recent correspondence with The Times, the hackers have favored British spellings of certain words.

A French citizen charged with participating in some ShinyHunters attacks was arrested in Morocco in 2022, extradited to the United States and sentenced to three years in prison. Other suspected members were arrested last year in France.

On Monday, a security journalist, Brian Krebs, reported that authorities in the Netherlands had arrested a 23-year-old convicted cybercriminal on suspicion of aiding in data thefts and extortions tied to ShinyHunters just days before the F.B.I. breach. ShinyHunters said in response on Monday that the Dutch suspect “has no association with us.”

The F.B.I.’s Dallas field office has been leading an investigation into ShinyHunters and working with international partners to hunt down other members, according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.

It is not clear exactly how ShinyHunters pulled off the F.B.I. hack. The group said it had used a zero-day, or previously undiscovered, coding flaw within the Oracle PeopleSoft software, an application that companies use for human resources and financial management.

But some security researchers said the story may be more complicated. On Friday, Google revealed in a blog post that its threat intelligence teams have recently seen ShinyHunters renewing a campaign of “mass exploitation” against victims using a bug with Oracle PeopleSoft that was publicly disclosed with a patch in June. The post does not mention the F.B.I. breach, but a person familiar with the matter said investigators believe the known bug was involved in the ShinyHunters theft of personnel files.

The flaw was considered important enough that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency promptly added it to a catalog of high-risk known vulnerabilities that federal agencies are instructed to quickly address.

“This type of vulnerability is a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and poses significant risks to the federal enterprise,” CISA said at the time.

In response to questions from The Times, ShinyHunters said in an email on Friday that the F.B.I. had not contacted the group and that it would hold firm to its Tuesday deadline.

The hackers said that the severity of the breach was “SIGNIFICANTLY” worse than publicly known but did not explain in what way. Cybersecurity researchers who have followed the collective have said it has a track record of sometimes embellishing its activities but so far, in this breach, its claims have been largely corroborated.

“We have no intention to reveal the true impact, we will leave that to the F.B.I.,” ShinyHunters said. “If they lie, we will not correct them.”

The group also said that it was aggrieved by the F.B.I.’s advisory and that the hack was “all about protecting our business.”

“This is happening so we are heard and acknowledged,” ShinyHunters said. “We may sound like children whose feelings are hurt, sure, but in our game, reputation is all that matters.”

Dustin Volz writes about cybersecurity and intelligence for The Times. He is based in Washington.

Alan Feuer is a reporter for The Times who covers the effects President Trump has had on the courts, the Justice Department and the broader rule of law.

Charlie Savage writes about national security and legal policy for The Times.

Adam Goldman is a London-based reporter for The Times who writes about global security.

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Andrew Bailey, No. 2 at FBI, resigns in latest shake-up at bureau


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The conservative firebrand whom the Trump administration installed as a No. 2 at the FBI announced Monday that he is resigning from the bureau.

Andrew Bailey, the former Missouri attorney general who has supported debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen, told bureau employees in an email that he was leaving to spend more time with this family, according to three people familiar with the personnel move who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a matter they were not authorized to speak about.

Bailey, who was hired into the leadership role about a year ago, confirmed his departure in a social media post.

“With great pride in what we have accomplished, I am announcing that I am stepping down to return to my family in Missouri,” Bailey wrote on social media. “I am confident Director Patel will continue to reform the FBI, combat violent crime, defend the homeland, ensure strong organizational accountability, and restore public trust in this institution of excellence.”

The departure marks a dramatic turn for Bailey, a loyalist of President Donald Trump who had been floated as a candidate early in the administration to run the FBI or Justice Department.

It is also the latest shake-up at the federal law enforcement agency under FBI Director Kash Patel. Bailey was hired to serve as the co-deputy director alongside Dan Bongino, a conservative podcast host and former Secret Service officer.

Neither Bongino nor Bailey had FBI experience, which made them highly unusual picks for a position that typically goes to a veteran of the bureau. The position does not require Senate confirmation and is tasked with running the day-to-day operations of the FBI.

Earlier this year, Bongino quit amid frustrations about the demands of the position, The Washington Post previously reported. He was replaced with Christopher Raia, a career FBI official.

During Bailey’s tenure, the department has seen an unprecedented wave of dismissals and transfers of experienced FBI agents.

Last week, for example, the top two agents running the counterterrorism division in the Washington field office were transferred because of their work investigating threats against Katie Miller — a conservative podcaster who is the wife of top Trump aide Stephen Miller — according to three people familiar with the matter.

The officials were transferred because top officials felt work on the probe was moving too slowly, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.

Bailey resigned from his position as Missouri attorney general last September to assume the role as FBI co-deputy director.

He is a military veteran who as Missouri’s chief legal officer mounted high-profile legal fights aligned with Trump’s agenda. He sued Starbucks over its diversity, equity and inclusion policies; fought transgender care policies; and waged legal battles against “sanctuary city” policies.

Among the most notable parts of Bailey’s short FBI tenure was his presence on the scene as the FBI executed search warrants in January to seize 2020 ballots and other election material from Fulton County, Georgia.

It is rare for an FBI deputy director to personally oversee such a routine development in an investigation, but Bailey’s presence was also notable given the political tensions surrounding the probe and Trump’s repeated insistence, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen. The FBI has said it is investigating whether what it has described in court filings as “deficiencies” in the 2020 vote tabulation in Fulton County, home to Atlanta, were the result of intentional wrongdoing that could constitute a crime.

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“Very serious threats”: FBI officials demoted after Katie Miller theats probe


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Two veteran FBI counterterrorism officials were demoted after investigators determined allegedly harassing calls to a top White House aide’s wife did not warrant further investigation, according to multiple reports.

Michael Burgwald, who led counterterrorism operations at the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and his deputy, Courtland Rae, were removed from their leadership positions Friday and reassigned to FBI headquarters.

The shakeup followed an investigation into allegedly threatening and harassing calls received by Katie Miller, a conservative podcaster married to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

A field office team reviewed the calls but found they did not meet the threshold for an FBI investigation and identified no connection to terrorism, CNN reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

That conclusion reportedly caused friction with FBI leadership.

Bloomberg Law, which first reported the demotions, said Washington Field Office leadership was dissatisfied with the pace of the investigation and that the Miller family shared those frustrations. FBI Director Kash Patel was also displeased with the office’s progress, according to the outlet.

The FBI and White House have pushed back on suggestions that the Millers or Patel ordered the personnel changes.

Washington Field Office chief Darren Cox said he made the decision himself.

“Director Patel did not order this decision,” Cox said. “This was a personnel decision made at the Washington field office level alone based on our constant evaluation of mission needs.”

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said the Millers had never met or interacted with Burgwald or Rae.

“Senior leadership at the FBI determined they were stifling investigations into very serious threats and made a unilateral decision to remove them,” Bis said.

Details about the calls themselves have not been made public, leaving unclear what investigators reviewed or why they concluded the messages did not warrant further FBI action.

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The reassignments also remove decades of counterterrorism experience from the Washington office as the United States remains at war with Iran.

Burgwald is a West Point graduate who has received multiple attorney general’s awards. Rae helped oversee the FBI’s response to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Both officials also worked on investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The Millers and their children moved from their Virginia home into military housing last year amid what the White House has described as a campaign of stalking, doxing and threats against the family.

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ShinyHunters hackers say they stole psychiatric and medical records of FBI staff


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  • Summary
  • Hackers claim stolen data includes health information
  • Reuters has partially authenticated some of the files
  • FBI says it is ‘aggressively’ investigating reported breach
  • ShinyHunters is a notorious hacking crew

WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) – FBI personnel data recently stolen by the ShinyHunters hackers includes sensitive psychiatric and medical ​evaluation records, according to the hackers and documents reviewed by Reuters.

ShinyHunters, one of the world’s most notorious and attention-seeking hacking crews, first said ‌it had breached the FBI on Tuesday. In the hack, the group obtained granular details about bureau employees and their assignments, Reuters previously reported, including sensitive work against Chinese spies, Russian intelligence, drug cartels and others.

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The breach has already rattled the bureau, but now threatens to turn into a serious counterintelligence risk, said Eric O’Neill, a former FBI operative who founded the cybersecurity consultancy Nexasure AI.

O’Neill said the presence of ​medical data was a sign that the hack was approaching the same kind of magnitude as the 2015 intrusion into the Office of Personnel Management, which ​exposed millions of Americans’ sensitive clearance information, allegedly to Chinese intelligence.

He added that the data would be a powerful magnet for ⁠hostile spies.

“I would be shocked if Russian intelligence isn’t knocking on their door and saying, ‘We want that stuff, hand it over,'” said O’Neill.

The FBI declined to comment on the ​records. In a statement issued Wednesday, the bureau said it was “aggressively investigating” the reported breach.

ShinyHunters circulated the medical files to a small circle of reporters earlier this week after announcing ​it had broken into the FBIjobs.gov site and stolen what it claimed was 2 to 3 terabytes of data.

The BBC earlier on Friday reported that

a blood and urine test document, opens new tab

was among the sample, but the presence of other sensitive files, including a mental health evaluation and other records, has not previously been reported.

Reuters was able to partially authenticate some of the half-dozen files in several ways, ​including running two social security numbers in them against credit bureau data, and lining up the date of a pre-employment mental health evaluation against a former FBI analyst’s ​LinkedIn profile. Reuters also matched the name of an FBI psychiatrist in the document to a LinkedIn profile with the same name and an identical job title.

In one case, Reuters was able ‌to confirm with ⁠a person familiar with the matter that a medical professional listed in one of the documents as performing FBI evaluations was in fact doing so at the time, although the person could not authenticate the entire file.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter.

The psychiatrist and the FBI employees named in the data either did not return messages or declined comment.

DOCUMENTS INCLUDE MEDICAL SPECIFICS

The documents reviewed by Reuters range in sensitivity. One medical record, which was part of a “fitness for duty” ​exam given to prospective employees, noted that ​an applicant took aspirin daily and was ⁠allergic to dust and cats.

Another record said a potential employee exhibited “symptoms of depression” in high school. A third document carried an electrocardiogram result.

Reuters could not establish whether the limited number of documents viewed were representative of the rest of the data trove held ​by ShinyHunters, or whether there even were other documents.

An FBI advisory released in May said the group has in the past ​exaggerated its level of ⁠access in an attempt to extort its victims.

ShinyHunters told Reuters on Tuesday the data it had was “very very very sensitive” and included medical information, discharges, prescriptions, clinical visits, and “any health issues with Agents.”

The hackers said they had compromised several of the bureau’s internal services, including the FBI’s background and employee applicant screening system, FBI MedLink, which contains agency personnel medical records, and ⁠the FBI’s ​Background Investigation Contract Services unit. Reuters could not corroborate those specific allegations.

Initially, the group said it would ​hold the data hostage until the FBI retracted its May advisory, which it said it took exception to. Since then ShinyHunters has removed that defiant statement from its website, saying Thursday it would not comment on ​what it would do “if the victim does not comply with our kind request.”

Story updated with context and additional detail in paragraphs 10 through 15

Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington and AJ Vicens in Detroit; editing by Chris Sanders and David Gaffen

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