“The FBI has completed its search for records subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that are responsive to your request,” Section Chief Michael G. Seidel of the Bureau’s Record/Information Dissemination Section, Information Management Division wrote to this correspondent in an April 15 response to my Codrea v. Department of Justice complaint. “The enclosed 229 pages of records were determined to be responsive to your subject and were previously processed and released.”
The complaint was filed, as AmmoLand Shooting Sports News reported, because the FBI had failed to produce records requested in July of last year regarding a commitment by Hunter Biden to “consent to a permanent entry in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System such that he will be denied via NICS if he attempts to legally purchase another firearm” as part of an abortive plea deal.
Signing a form and ceding rights is not a statutorily authorized way of designating a citizen a “prohibited person.” Since Congress didn’t authorize it, the FOIA request attempted to discern how DOJ could legitimately claim such authority by asking for:
- All records regarding the phrase “consent to a permanent entry in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System”
- Records regarding the authority of the Department of Justice to allow and/or require individuals to consent to “permanent entry” in the NICS system to deny firearms purchases; and
- Records regarding the ability/authority of those persons who have consented to “permanent entry” in NICS to remove themselves from NICS.
In a joint status report filed in late March, the Department admitted, “Based on the additional information provided by Plaintiff, the FBI expects to produce approximately 350 pages by mid-April.”
That document production is embedded below, containing the “Self-Submission Form” and redacted communications, completed forms, and investigation reports. And while the reports show the signatories’ conduct and statements were threatening and bizarre, and indicated fantasies of violence and revenge (and conversely, they even included a “thank you for disarming me and saving me from myself” letter), none of it by itself rises to the level of having been convicted of a crime or committed an act that would mandate their permanent disability by law.
If you have someone threatening to shoot up schools or hijack planes, or kill people, as some of the reports indicate, those are all prosecutable, and the proper remedy would be to charge them, try, them, convict them, and remove them from access to victims. Especially when the Department knows from its own studies that dangerous criminals rarely go through NICS to get their guns.
But that requires effort, resources, and due process for the accused. It’s inarguable that coercing them into signing a form is the easier way to chalk up a “success.” That the public is in no less danger does not seem to be a factor, and in a perverse way, more violent crime is a known motivator for the public to demand more government controls.
What all those pages in the FOIA response did not do is provide what was being asked for.
“Although your request is in litigation, we are required by law to provide you the following information,” Seidel continued, relating how to appeal the production if “not satisfied” and direction on how to request “dispute resolution services.”
It looks like the litigation will proceed.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
If I am understanding this article correctly… a permanent entry in your NICS file without due process is major problem. Here, they listen in on your phone calls, snoop thru your computers and cell phones and create AI dossiers thru FBI’s TYR program. all the while, you didn’t know a lefty created AI program just branded your patriotism as terroristic.
Oh boy, I better not write the next paragraph… I’ll get murdered in my sleep by ATF agents.
no, they want you awake when they murder you for a non-crime.
even though this is about that scumbag biden (pick whichever one you want), how can you voluntarily and permanently give up your right(s)? a government can strip you of your rights, you can waive your rights, but give them up? and once given up can you get them back? or is it no takebacks?
I think you just earned a badge (or sticker) for your 47th watch list inclusion this year already. lol
atf needs to be disband and members jailed for the crimes they have committed under color of law title 18-242 fbi not far behind….we need to reactivate state militias that have power to arrest federal criminals
With any luck most of those arrests won’t lead to any prosecutions.
I’d expect those armed agents to resists, providing self-defense justification for extreme prejudice.
dump as much bs as you can takes time to go through it
I’m looking forward to a law firm, via disclosure or subpoena, or maybe a journalist via FOIA, requesting the source code and a working copy of the software that ATF agents reportedly use to revoke a FFL along with all the memos, notes and communication pertaining to the program, and all design, development, testing, operation, user, instructional or other documents or manuals associated with or related to the program. If it’s done by a law firm for a case then they must insist the source code and working copy be for the version used to suspend the client’s FFL. A… Read more »
Or that there is no more of a criteria for revocation of an FFL than the “nailing jelly to a tree” criteria involved in “engaged in the business.” IOW, if the BATFE can shoot you dead on a whim, why can’t they revoke your FFL on another whim? The essence of good law is that any reasonable person can tell if the law was broken, when, and why. If a jury of your peers can’t tell WTF is going on, how can they possibly render a verdict? Look at the Trump/Bragg case ongoing in New York. Supposedly a felony resurrected… Read more »
The picture; I see two COMMIES who HATE Americans standing and pointing to frames. They are wondering, HOW CAN I FRAME MORE Legal Law Abiding American Citizens with UNCONSTITUTIONAL “rules,regulations, EA, and EO” which are enforced as “law” ???
So I’m sorry if this is a stupid question but can someone explain to me why hunter didn’t get flagged by nics in the first place? I understand that he lied on the form but you can’t just lie about your criminal history and buy a gun if you’re a prohibited person. I’m just wondering what I’m missing here. Or are we supposed to believe that it was just some accident that he wasn’t a prohibited person and there was no fuckery involved?
I believe that Hunter didn’t actually have a criminal record when he bought that gun and lied on the 4473. As far as I know he’s never been arrested, tried or convicted for anything. By the time his exploits became public knowledge, he was supposedly clean and no longer consorting with hookers. I couldn’t care less about that. I want to see him , and his father, locked up for lobbying fir foreign governments and using the office of VP to facilitate his crooked business dealings.
Won’t and can’t happen, GOP spent a lot of money, resources and time (15 months) and came up with nothing on either Bidens wrongdoing.