America First Legal (AFL), a conservative law group, has made public a collection of documents that reveal the existence of a coordinated effort within the Biden administration to suppress the free speech rights of its political adversaries. The release of these records follows legal action taken by AFL against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regarding its now-disbanded Homeland Intelligence Experts Group, which worked closely with an advisory body led by former intelligence officials John Brennan and James Clapper to devise strategies for tackling “domestic terrorism,” a term that encompasses political dissent.
The American people need to read these records and our exposé of the Biden Administration’s efforts to further weaponize the government to achieve their objectives,” stated Gene Hamilton, AFL Executive Director. He added that the advisory committee was established in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act and expressed satisfaction at having halted its operations through legal intervention. Now, it is up to Congress to prevent the Biden administration from continuing to use these same individuals to promote its radical agenda within the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis.
Over recent weeks, AFL has released a portion of these documents as part of their “#DeepStateDiaries” series. These documents detail the strategies employed by the DHS intelligence group to operate, including creating campaigns, collaborating with local authorities to disseminate its message, and persuading popular podcasters to endorse its objectives. The conservative legal organization released dozens of pages containing emails, notes, and other documentation obtained during their litigation against the DHS group on Thursday.
The Homeland Intelligence Experts Group was dissolved by the DHS in May following legal action initiated by AFL. Established in September 2023, the group’s mission was to “provide advice and perspectives on intelligence and national security efforts.” However, AFL argues that this group was never intended to provide impartial, expert guidance to support the Department of Homeland Security’s objectives. Instead, it was a highly partisan organization designed to offer cover for the department’s radical agenda under Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The DHS group received advice from an advisory body led by Brennan, who formerly headed the CIA, and Clapper, who served as Director of National Intelligence under former president Barack Obama. Both Brennan and Clapper were signatories to a 2020 letter penned by intelligence experts that suggested the information obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop, left at a Delaware computer repair shop, was likely Russian disinformation. Since then, this laptop has been independently authenticated on numerous occasions by various outlets and experts.