On Joe Kent's Interview with Michael Shellenberger

Can the FBI be trusted to pursue investigative leads in a politically red hot assassination case?

I just listened to Michael Shellenberger’s interview with Joe Kent, Shellenberger published on his Substack yesterday — Joe Kent Says He Would Testify In Trial Of Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin

The American people now find themselves in a very unhappy place because we can no longer trust the leaders of our federal institutions to tell us the truth. The best we can tell ourselves is that maybe they tell us the truth about some things some of the time.

We the People are now akin to a wife who has caught her husband cheating multiple times. He insists that he has seen the light and is now entirely faithful and honest. She tells herself—as Iago counseled Othello—that she should beware of seeing suspicious behavior where none may actually exist. And yet, her doubts and suspicions remain.

Such is the psychological and epistemological catastrophe that ensues when trust is broken.

It seems to me that the top brass at the FBI has zero credibility. I have no doubt that there are field agents who do an excellent job, but they are not in a position to decide how far a lead is followed, especially when it’s politically hot.

Consider that in August 2001, FBI field agents in Minneapolis attempted to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to search the computer and belongings of Zacarias Moussaoui following his arrest on August 16 for immigration violations. In his possession were a laptop computer, two knives, flight manuals pertaining to Boeing’s 747 aircraft, a flight simulator computer program, fighting gloves and shin guards, and a computer disk with information about crop dusting.

Gee whiz, I wonder what a foreign national was planning on doing with this stuff? Note that Moussaoui was arrest ten days after President Bush received the Presidential Daily Brief titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.”

FBI agent Coleen Rowley made a request for permission to search Moussaoui’s personal rooms. This request was denied by her superior, Deputy General Counsel Marion “Spike” Bowman, and later rejected based upon FISA regulations.

At the same time this was going on, Ahmed Ressam—detained in December 1999 for his participation in the al-Qaeda plot to bomb LAX around New Year’s 2000—was sharing information with the FBI to obtain a shorter sentence.

However, for some reason, the FBI didn’t think to ask Ressam about Moussaoui. Only AFTER 9/11 was he asked about this person, whom he correctly identified as has having trained al-Qaeda's Khalden Camp in Afghanistan.

I first started wondering about FBI grooming when I learned about an undercover FBI agent’s involvement in the 2015 plot to attack a convention at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas (see my post "Tear Up Texas": FBI Encouraged a 2015 Shooting & Did Nothing to Stop It).

Back in 2024, I learned about the remarkable case of a 23-year-old diagnosed schizophrenic named Jerry Drake Varnell who—with the encouragement and assistance of an undercover FBI agent in 2017—participated in what he believed was a plot to blow up the BancFirst building in downtown Oklahoma City. He was found guilty in 2019. In 2020 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison “for attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction at BancFirst in downtown Oklahoma City.”

According to the US Attorney’s Office press release on the conviction:

At trial, the jury heard testimony from an informant who made recordings of his conversations with Varnell. It also heard from the undercover FBI agent who helped Varnell build what he thought was a bomb, an FBI bomb technician, and others. It listened to numerous recordings in which Varnell planned the attack and reviewed numerous written electronic communications that corroborated his intent. Furthermore, it heard the testimony of a defense expert concerning Varnell’s mental health. Through its verdicts, the jury concluded any mental health problems did not prevent Varnell from forming the intent required for conviction. It also determined the FBI did not entrap him.

To me, what is most striking about this case—apart from the fact that the offender was a diagnosed schizophrenic—is how he drew the attention of federal law enforcement. As reported by KGOU (an Oklahoma NPR station):

Government witnesses said they deemed Varnell a threat based on his online activity such as “liking” anti-government groups on Facebook and messages referencing Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Tyler Durden, a split personality character from the 1999 film “Fight Club.” Agents also said Varnell claimed he had built homemade explosives during conversations with undercover FBI agent Williams and an FBI informant named Brent Elisens.

As was repeatedly pointed out by Varnell’s defense attorney:

Varnell is a diagnosed schizophrenic. He told federal agents that his anti-government sentiments started around age 16, the same age his parents say his schizophrenic episodes began.

Defense attorneys asked FBI agents if they knew of Varnell’s paranoid schizophrenia. Retired FBI agent Jennifer Schmidtz, who testified Wednesday, said she knew of “allegations” in a Custer County case involving Varnell and self-reported mental health issues in Varnell’s college transcripts. In a 2017 statement, Varnell's parents claimed he has been institutionalized on multiple occasions.

The defense has team also focused on an FBI report from Dec. 2016 that stated, “Varnell does not have a job or a vehicle. The threat has not been repeated. Varnell does not have the means to commit the act at this time.”

By August 2017, the defense pointed out, Varnell was still unemployed and without a car. …

Varnell’s property was searched the day of his arrest, and Schmidtz, who supervised the search, testified there was no physical evidence showing Varnell experimented with chemicals capable of causing an explosion. The search did uncover a speech written by Varnell laiden with conspiracy theories about developing psychotropic drugs, the Clintons and Timothy McVeigh.

During cross examinations the defense continued to point out that Varnell never followed through on pieces of the plan he was responsible for, like choosing a time and place and supplying barrels. Varnell came up with a list of locations after encouragement from undercover agent Williams, and he settled on the on the BancFirst location after Williams took him to scout the location on July 13. He suggested Nov. 5 as an attack date, but Williams said it was too far away. And Varnell never supplied barrels, so Williams provided them.

In other words, “undercover agent Williams” was the chief planner and executor of the apparent plot. Jerry Varnell participated in this plot with the encouragement of undercover agent Williams and under the direction of undercover agent Williams.