NBC "News" just published a QAnon-Adjacent story.
I thought all of this was a conspiracy theory...?
The FBI found 200 sex trafficking victims and more than 125 suspects during a two-week child exploitation operation in July, federal officials said Tuesday.
During "Operation Cross County," the FBI located 59 victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation and 59 missing children.
The FBI teamed with state and local agencies to identify or arrest 126 suspects of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking and 68 suspected traffickers.
"Sex traffickers exploit and endanger some of the most vulnerable members of our society and cause their victims unimaginable harm," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. "This operation, which located 59 actively missing children, builds on the tremendous work the FBI has undertaken over many years to rescue minor victims and arrest those responsible for these unspeakable crimes.
The FBI-led initiative in partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) "focused on identifying and locating victims of sex trafficking and investigating and arresting individuals and criminal enterprises involved in both child sex and human trafficking," federal officials said.
Operation Cross Country 13, an FBI-led nationwide law enforcement initiative, which included other federal agencies, state and local police, and social services agencies aiming to find and assist victims of human trafficking, particularly child victims.
Operation Cross Country 13, an FBI-led nationwide law enforcement initiative, which included other federal agencies, state and local police, and social services agencies aiming to find and assist victims of human trafficking, particularly child victims.
Recall: FBI whistleblowers, punished by the FBI and deprived of a salary and left to beg from friends and family while the FBI "investigated" -- covered up -- their allegations, alleged that they were being taken off child slavery investigations so they could be assigned to the Bureau's preferred tasks of arresting abortion protesters and conducting armed raids of January 6th grandmothers.
The House Judiciary Committee Republicans released a letter this week that they sent to FBI Director Christopher Wray that featured claims from a whistleblower from the Bureau who claims that FBI agents were moved off child sex abuse cases to work on political investigations.
"We continue to hear from brave whistleblowers about disturbing conduct at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including politicization within the Washington Field Office (WFO)," said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Ranking Member on the Committee, at the start of the letter. "On July 27, 2022, we wrote to you about protected whistleblower disclosures that FBI officials including an Assistant Special Agent in Charge from the WFO-were pressuring agents to reclassify cases as 'domestic violent extremism' (DVEs) even if the cases do not meet the criteria for such a classification."
...
"In addition, the whistleblower disclosed that the FBI is sacrificing its other important federal law-enforcement duties to pursue January 6 investigations," the letter added. "The whistleblower recalled, for example, being 'told that child sexual abuse material investigations were no longer an FBI priority and should be referred to local law enforcement agencies.' Such a posture is not only a dereliction of the FBI's mission to investigate violations of federal laws, but it is a grave disservice to the victims of child sexual abuse and other crimes that do not advance the FBI leadership's political agenda."
Public trust in the FBI has fallen to an all-time low.
Americans' trust in the FBI has taken a sharp nose-dive in the wake of the agency's raid on Mar-a-Lago, and the seizure of documents from former President Donald Trump's home.
A new poll released on Thursday from the Trafalgar Group for the Convention of States Action, found that Americans overall are split in their opinion of the FBI, with a slight majority of independent voters siding with Republicans against the FBI.
46.6 percent of those polled said that the FBI is "to be respected for their pursuit of justice and law and order," while 46.2 percent said that the FBI is "too political, corrupt, and not to be trusted." 7.2 percent of Americans said they weren't sure.
73.7 percent of Democrats said that they respect the FBI, while 68.3 percent of Republicans said the FBI is too corrupt and political.
And with (some) conservative Republicans hungry to cut the FBI's budget and block funding for Christopher Wray's treasured new grand, swank FBI headquarters -- or, even worse, move it to Georgia!!! -- suddenly the FBI decides they should make a big show of doing their actual jobs instead of their preferred self-assigned job of acting as the Mob Enforcers for the Democrat Crime Mob.