Jared Wise Weaponiz Work Gp
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President Donald Trump vowed that in his second term, he would go after the foes that he claimed "weaponized" the government against him. In a deep dive on the failed effort, New York Magazine writer Andrew Rice explained that little has come from it.
Writing Monday, Rice described the story of Jan. 6 attacker Jared Wise, the FBI agent who egged on pro-Trump rioters at the U.S. Capitol as they assaulted Capitol Police officers. While Wise recently resigned, he was a key player in the so-called "weaponization working group" within the Justice Department.
"The term weaponization was one of Trump’s rhetorical tricks, a fancy way of saying 'I know you are, but what am I?'" wrote Rice. "So what if prosecutors had indicted him on four occasions and convicted him of 34 state felony counts? That just meant the government was criminal. During his campaign, Trump had promised retribution. They had tried to get him, so he would get them back"
Wise was hired to join the "weaponization working group" along with other close Trump allies. Attorney General Pam Bondi created a target list in her memo: "Jack Smith, the special counsel who twice indicted him; Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who convicted him; and New York attorney general Letitia James, who had brought a civil fraud case against him and his family."
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who oversaw the effort officially, was a key Trump defense lawyer who purports to be dedicated to Trump's weaponization cause.
After it became clear that lawyer Ed Martin couldn't get confirmed to be a U.S. Attorney, he took over the day-to-day efforts of the "working group." Another on the team is Neil W. McCabe, a national personality for the Real America’s Voice channel, a pro-Trump political commentary channel.
The story said that Martin prepared for his role as the "captain" of the weaponization working group by reading books about the Italian Mafia. He then divided the DOJ leadership into “competent and incompetent villains," one ex-federal prosecutor told Rice.
Rice explained that during the first Trump administration, the DOJ was populated primarily by Federalist Society members who simply saw Trump as a means to achieve their political ends. "In Trump II, the conservative bar was no longer sending its best."
Blanche and Martin began to clash, however, as it became clear that the two were taking different approaches, creating a "source of tension," one department official involved in the operation described. Blanche wanted to hold people accountable for weaponization "without becoming the weaponizer yourself." Martin was an arrest-at-all-costs kind of ideologue.
The only thing the DOJ has been able to achieve is going after New York's James for stating on a mortgage application that the house would be her primary residence. Another targeted former FBI Director James Comey for allegedly lying under oath before Congress. The U.S. attorney appointed by Trump wouldn't put his name on the cases. He was ousted and they found someone who would. Judges found the appointment to be unlawful and contrary to the laws that set deadlines for appointing a U.S. attorney. Both cases have fallen through.
Another effort was to prosecute Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), but the prosecution couldn't move forward, and those in the U.S. attorneys' office fear it has stalled completely.
According to the report, Blanche has been furious about the failed attempts, saying this is what happens when they're not cautious in their approach.
Someone familiar with Blanche's thinking told Rice, “That’s how big wins end up as gigantic, embarrassing losses."
The weaponization working group under DOJ expanded. They began working with other Trump loyalists at the White House, IRS, Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and CIA. They were looking for anyone in President Joe Biden's administration they could find who broke the law.
Trump was furious. According to right-wing host Steve Bannon, the president wanted to see "perp walks." He hasn't and it has been over a year.
Wise, the FBI agent who participated in Jan. 6, was once a well-respected agent. One former colleague called him "smart" and "detail-oriented." Some had other opinions. One alleged that after Wise became a squad supervisor, “a number of things fell through the cracks." Wise grew irritated that he was taken off monitoring homegrown extremists to manage staff.
“This happens in the Bureau all the time,” the former colleague told Rice. “It’s called orders.”
Wise later said in court documents that it was Trump who inspired him to leave the FBI. He claimed he heard someone disparage Trump and was so furious he quit. He then took a job working for Project Veritas, a political organization that at the time was trying to shift into "something resembling a political-intelligence service," the report said.
Meanwhile, Martin has failed in his efforts to go after Comey and James. He appeared on Bannon's show and was pressed to work on the 2020 matters. Martin said he was on it. Since then, the DOJ has seized ballot documents and servers from the Fulton County Board of Elections, despite the judge expressly saying they could only take "copies." Officials complained that by taking everything, there was no longer a way to compare any discrepancies.
Behind the scenes, Blanche wasn't supportive of the cases.
"They tried to shut it down,” McCabe told Rice of the prosecutions.
Martin ended up ensnared in his own scandal, allegedly leaking grand jury information from their Schiff probe. He was stripped of all of his titles and would only be working on pardons from that point forward. Since then, Blanche has been hit by Martin's allies as having a "Democrat mentality."
The report noted that U.S. attorneys discovered that a way to make a name for themselves is by using their offices to go after Trump foes. So, subpoenas dropped for "John Brennan, the final CIA director under President Obama, who was one of at least 30 current and former intelligence officials who were served at that time."
“What they’re doing here is exactly what they accused the former administration of doing,” said one person the FBI contacted for information about the earlier Trump probes, Rice said. “Taking that tinge of what they want to believe and turning that into a criminal prosecution.”
The DOJ then began going after six lawmakers who worked in the military or intelligence. They have failed there too.
Overseeing all of this was Blanche. A "dismayed" former friend told Rice, “I keep waiting for there to be some red line that he won’t cross."
Over the recent CPAC event in Texas, Blanche told the crowd he's still pressing to be successful.
"Everybody’s afraid that in the next administration, if we don’t win, we’re going to all be investigated and indicted," Blanche said. "And why are they afraid? Because that’s exactly what happened during the last administration."
At each turn in every investigation where someone in the Trump orbit was prosecuted, it was approved by a grand jury and a judge. In the case of several who were convicted and later pardoned by Trump, juries found them guilty, or they entered a plea agreement, admitting their guilt. Thus far, the same has not been true of the targets of the "weaponization working group."
Rice noted that about a day after he sent fact-checking requests to the Justice Department, Wise announced his resignation. A few hours later, Bondi was fired by the president. He alleged on X that he could only “fully expose the abuses by the FBI and DOJ” if he were “outside of government.” Blanche now runs the DOJ.
“Americans are in the painful process, of realizing that our government isn’t so different than the evil ones they’ve told us about for many years," Wise wrote on X.
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A prominent Democrat is demanding to know how many January 6 “insurrectionists” have been hired by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as critics warn that federal agents under President Donald Trump are increasingly engaging in violent enforcement actions.
“We know that several participants in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol have been rewarded with high-ranking positions in the Department of Justice (DOJ),” U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
“However, it remains unclear how many more have been invited to join the ranks of this Administration, including among the masked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents and officers that have dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, shot, and killed citizens and non-citizens alike in communities across the country,” he added.
According to Raskin, Jared Wise, a former Supervisory Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), “stormed his way into the Capitol Building” on January 6, 2021.
“As he did so, he taunted and threaten police officers defending the building and the ones inside, screaming: ‘You guys are disgusting. I’m former—I’m former law enforcement. You’re disgusting.”
Raskin included additional language attributed to Wise, then wrote that he “has never expressed remorse or contrition for his criminal actions.”
Wise was pardoned by President Donald Trump, along with nearly 1,600 others, “including hundreds of cop beaters.”
“Today, Mr. Wise serves as senior adviser in the office of the Deputy Attorney General, alongside another January 6th participant, Ed Martin, the U.S. Pardon Attorney and head of the DOJ Weaponization Working Group,” Raskin wrote.
Congressman Raskin also blasted the recruitment and vetting processes being used by the Trump administration.
“For its part, DHS seems to be courting pardoned January 6th insurrectionists. It uses white nationalist ‘dog whistles’ in its recruitment campaign for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents that appear aimed at stirring members of extremist militias, including the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters, which participated in the insurrection,” he stated. “The recruitment campaign began with a $50,000 sign-on bonus, removal of the college degree requirement, and a relaxed vetting process.”
“Who is hiding behind these masks?” Raskin demanded to know. “How many of them were among the violent rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6th and were convicted of their offenses? The American people deserve to know how many of these violent insurrectionists have been given guns and badges by this Administration.”
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former FBI agent who allegedly encouraged rioters to murder police officers during the January 6 Capitol insurrection has been given a job at the Justice Department. According to a 2023 indictment, the former agent, Jared Wise, repeatedly shouted “Kill ’em!” at rioters as they battled a police line of officers protecting the Capitol. Wise was on trial in January when President Trump issued sweeping pardons and commutations for over 1,500 January 6 rioters on his first day back in office. The New York Times reports Wise is now serving as counselor to Ed Martin, the director of the so-called Weaponization Working Group, which Trump established to seek retribution against his enemies. This comes after Attorney General Pam Bondi last week fired three more federal prosecutors who worked on January 6 cases.
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Ex-RNC spokesman laments MAGA's 'dark heart' over new DOJ advisor - Raw Story
a former Jan. 6 attacker was on trial for two felony counts and four misdemeanors when he was pardoned by President Donald Trump upon entering office. Now, that man, Jared L. Wise, is being named an adviser or counselor to Justice Department official Ed Martin.
Wise, who pleaded not guilty to his charges around Jan. 6, will be advising the so-called "weaponization working group," a program under Trump's Justice Department to target prosecutors and investigators who worked on Jan. 6 cases.
Speaking about the matter on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House" on Wednesday, former Republican National Committee spokesman Tim Miller called the new hiring part of the "dark hearts" of the MAGA movement.
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Stand-in host Alicia Menendez called it "lionization" of the Jan. 6 attackers. "The placing, not just in the public domain, but in an actual position of power, a person who has undermined American democracy."
Miller noted that the "Back the blue element is very selective" when it comes to the conservative support of law enforcement.
"This is an appointed position, but, you know, across the country people that were there on January 6th or participating at various levels, you know, ran in Republican primaries for offices that were supported," he pointed out. A friend, he said, ran a campaign where the Jan. 6 participation "was a plus for them with the electorate, according to all their polling."
"So, I mean, this is kind of the dark heart of what we're seeing in the MAGA movement. So, it's not particularly surprising that some of these folks will have positions in the Trump administration," said Miller.
He also said that Wise isn't the only one, there are others in the Trump administration who are "horribly unqualified, who have been advanced horribly" due to their "extreme views."
Tim Heaphy, former lead investigator for the House Select Committee that investigated Jan. 6, called the matter "discouraging," but said that they'll never find the "weaponization" they seek because it wasn't there.
Instead, he explained, Wise was "charged and prosecuted for conduct, not his beliefs about the election."
Wise worked on the FBI's terrorism task force when he went to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
See the clip below or at the link here.
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