There’s a lot happening in Washington right now, and it’s moving fast. The FBI’s buying your location data without a warrant. The incoming DHS secretary won’t rule out sending ICE to the polls. The Justice Department’s blocking an unredacted Epstein document that fingers him in drug trafficking. And the FBI and IRS are quietly setting up a joint task force to go after nonprofits they don’t like.
Tomorrow, we’re hosting two exciting live interviews on Substack for subscribers.
At 4pm ET we’ll be joined by Michael Fanone, a former D.C. police officer who suffered a heart attack on January 6th, 2021, and who’s now traveling the country warning about the threat to democracy posed by the Trump administration. Then, at 7pm ET, we’ll bring you an EXCLUSIVE update on Supreme Court cases that may be decided on Friday, with legal expert Chris Geidner.
Join us in the Substack app at 4pm and 7pm ET to listen in tomorrow.
Trump’s FBI Increasing Surveillance of Americans
Here’s something that didn’t get nearly enough attention this week.
At Wednesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that the FBI is actively purchasing commercially available data, including information that can be used to track people’s movements and location history.
This is significant because back in 2023, then-Director Christopher Wray told Congress the FBI had done it in the past but wasn’t doing it anymore. Patel’s confirmation blows that door wide open again.
The Supreme Court ruled back in 2018 that law enforcement needs a warrant to get location data from cell phone providers. But data brokers don’t fall under that ruling. So the FBI goes around the warrant requirement entirely by just buying the data on the open market instead.
Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat from Oregon, didn’t mince words. He called it an outrageous end run around the Fourth Amendment, and said it’s especially dangerous now that AI can be used to comb through massive volumes of private information.
Wyden and Republican Senator Mike Lee introduced the Government Surveillance Reform Act last week, which would require federal agencies to get a warrant before purchasing Americans’ personal data. There’s a bipartisan House version too.
Republicans argue buying commercially available data is necessary to track criminals. But “commercially available” doesn’t mean “constitutionally kosher.” And what starts with potential criminals doesn’t always end there.
ICE Could Be at the Polls After All
Senator Markwayne Mullin sat before the Senate for his confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday. And he said something that should’ve set off a lot more alarm bells than it did.
When asked directly whether he’d send ICE agents to polling places, Mullin wouldn’t rule it out. He said agents would only show up if there was a “specific threat.” But he couldn’t guarantee what that threat might look like.
Senator Andy Kim talked about the chilling effect already spreading through immigrant communities, saying he had to give his own father-in-law specific instructions for re-entering the United States.
Mullin’s response was dismissive, arguing that since non-citizens shouldn’t be voting, there’s no concern.
The concern, of course, is that it’s not just undocumented people who feel that fear, but also naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents and anyone who looks like they might be asked to prove their right to be somewhere.
Under federal and state law, federal agents are barred from polling places. Full stop. That’s not ambiguous. But Mullin’s non-answers suggest the administration isn’t exactly rushing to reassure voters.
The Epstein Document the DOJ Doesn’t Want You to See
Senator Wyden had a busy week. He’s also now accusing Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche of personally blocking the release of an unredacted 2015 Justice Department memo tied to a DEA investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
The heavily redacted version of the document, included in the batch of Epstein files released in January, showed Epstein was the subject of a Drug Enforcement Agency probe that ran for at least five years. The DEA was looking at him and 14 others for suspicious wire transfers tied to drug trafficking and prostitution.
Wyden’s investigators were told the DEA was prepared to hand over the unredacted version. Then Blanche apparently stepped in during the last three weeks and stopped it.
Blanche denies blocking anything. He says the memo is available unredacted in a congressional reading room and that Wyden simply never went.
Wyden says that’s not the point. He wrote to Blanche directly accusing him of preventing production of the document and calling the interference “highly disturbing.”
What’s in those redacted sections? The 14 other names. That’s the question that keeps getting louder the more the Justice Department seems to want this buried.
The FBI-IRS Task Force Coming for Nonprofits
And finally, the FBI and IRS are setting up a joint initiative to investigate nonprofit organizations for suspected ties to “domestic terrorism.”
This stems from a December memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi ordering federal law enforcement to prioritize investigations into antifa and other groups she broadly defines as “extremist.” The memo suggests these groups could be committing tax crimes by defrauding the IRS.
A command center will be housed at the FBI, with IRS Criminal Investigations agents working on one-year temporary assignments.
What’s notable here is that Antifa didn’t even come up during Kash Patel’s Senate Intelligence hearing on Wednesday. It wasn’t referenced in the official 2026 threat assessment either. But at a House Homeland Security hearing back in December, a senior FBI official called antifa one of the biggest threats, and then couldn’t answer basic questions about its structure or membership.
Former Justice Department domestic terrorism counsel Tom Brzozowski told CBS News the approach raises serious legal questions about what legal basis, what “predication” the FBI has for building a list of groups to target for criminal investigation.
That’s not a partisan concern. That’s a constitutional one.
Join Us For Live Interviews Tomorrow
Raw America isn’t just covering this from a distance anymore.
Today, we were at Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation hearing. We’re covering the Iran war protests that most outlets are still ignoring. That kind of coverage costs money. Travel, time, access, and the commitment of showing up when it matters.
That’s why I want to thank you for being a paid subscriber.
Also, as a quick reminder, we have two Raw America lives tomorrow.
At 4 PM ET we’ll be joined by Michael Fanone, a former D.C. police officer who is now traveling the country warning about the threat to democracy posed by the Trump administration. Then, at 7 PM ET, we’ll bring you an EXCLUSIVE update on Supreme Court cases that may be decided on Friday, with legal expert Chris Geidner.
If you want to protect democracy and be sure this information gets out, please share this newsletter with someone you know.
Thanks for watching!
