Americans Spied on for the ‘Crime’ of Being Conservative [WATCH]

A newly declassified government memo from June 2021 reveals that the Biden administration authorized federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to investigate Americans based on “concerning” but non-criminal behavior—particularly targeting individuals with military backgrounds, pro-Second Amendment views, or those expressing what the administration deemed “xenophobic” disinformation.

The disclosure came after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released an unredacted version of the Biden-era “Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism.”

The document outlined sweeping authorities for the Department of Justice and the FBI, including guidelines that critics say lowered traditional standards for launching federal investigations into American citizens.

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According to the memo, agencies were instructed to “drive…executive and legislative action” on policies such as banning assault weapons, regulating “ghost guns,” and expanding surveillance of military personnel for potential recruitment into extremist activity.

The memo also directed agencies to identify and mitigate “xenophobia and bias,” including in the context of COVID-19 responses.

For decades, the FBI has operated under strict guidelines requiring a “predicate”—a factual basis that indicates a federal crime or national security threat is imminent—before opening investigations.

However, the Biden-era directive appeared to loosen that threshold, permitting investigations based on behavior that federal agents deemed “concerning.”

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Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, sharply criticized the memo in an interview with Just the News.

“It doesn’t have to be criminal, for sure. But it doesn’t have to be heterodox,” Biggs said.

“It just has to be something that some agent, or some local agent, says, ‘Oh, we got a beef about this. We’re going to check it out.’”

Biggs accused the administration of using law enforcement powers to “spy on Americans” and called on FBI Director Kash Patel to ensure that agents cease using the now-revealed guidance.

“If there’s no predicate, but you’re investigating, then people need to be let go and fired,” he said.

Dr. John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and a former Department of Justice official, expressed concern that law enforcement tactics traditionally reserved for violent extremists were being repurposed to monitor Americans not accused of any crime.

“What Tulsi Gabbard declassified was…shocking,” Lott said on the John Solomon Reports podcast.

“The types of tools and responses that they have been making for people who are engaged in some type of violence actually applied to non-violent individuals, non-criminal activity.”

The memo also directed agencies to track what it called “domestic terrorism iconography,” including common historical symbols such as the Gadsden flag and the Betsy Ross flag, and pro-Second Amendment messages.

A previously leaked internal FBI document had also flagged these symbols as potential indicators of “militia violent extremists.”

Lott argued the approach demonstrated a partisan bias. “Everything that you can find there seems to be something that would be associated with conservatives,” he said.

“There’s nothing about, like, Black Lives Matter… that they should be concerned about.”

The memo further outlined goals that aligned with Democratic Party policy priorities, including gun control, expanding hate crime legislation, and bolstering “trust in government.”

It tasked the Domestic Policy Council with implementing actions such as red flag laws and the full application of the 2021 COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which included creating state-run hate crime reporting hotlines.

The directive also called for a crackdown on “disinformation,” tying it directly to domestic terrorism threats.

It instructed agencies, including the CIA and FBI, to “increase the priority of obtaining from foreign partners foreign intelligence and information related to U.S.-based violent extremism.”

In efforts to combat online disinformation, the memo instructed agencies like Homeland Security, USAID, and the State Department to expand digital literacy programs, redirect funding toward research, and collaborate with “local partners.”

Conservative concerns over politicization of the intelligence community predated the memo’s release.

For years, critics have accused the FBI of selectively applying scrutiny. In one example, the bureau initially categorized the 2017 shooting of Republican lawmakers by a Bernie Sanders supporter as “suicide by cop” before quietly reclassifying it years later as an act of domestic terrorism with political motivations.

WINTERS: DNI Tulsi Gabbard declassified the Biden administration’s Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism, which claims the foremost domestic terrorist threat to the United States is right-wing extremism. https://t.co/j84nIG7mPt@nataliegwinters pic.twitter.com/LWO2kVEEED

— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) April 21, 2025

The memo also outlined surveillance efforts directed at religious groups and parents.

Whistleblowers have testified that pro-life activists, traditional Catholic congregations, and concerned parents at school board meetings were swept into domestic extremism investigations, despite lacking any record of violence.

Former FBI agent and whistleblower Garrett O’Boyle told Congress he was directed to question a pro-life informant about supposed threats to the Supreme Court, even though it was pro-abortion activists staging protests at justices’ homes.

“I was like, why would this person know about those threats? He’s pro-life,” O’Boyle said.

In another instance, internal FBI documents revealed plans to build an informant network within conservative Catholic communities.

The release of the memo has renewed calls in Congress for oversight of the FBI and Justice Department’s use of domestic counterterrorism authorities.

Lawmakers have expressed concern that the federal government used national security tools to monitor and investigate political opponents under the pretext of combating extremism.

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