A leading firearm safe manufacturer, Liberty Safe, is facing fierce public backlash after it complied with an FBI request to aid the bureau’s attempt to gain entry to an alleged January 6 rioter’s personal safe.
The firm cooperated after the FBI shared with Liberty Safe a warrant to open the gun safe of Nathan Hughes. The Arkansan was arrested by the bureau last Thursday on felony and misdemeanor charges in connection with his role during the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
“On August 30, 2023, Liberty Safe was contacted by the FBI requesting the access code to the safe of an individual for whom they had a warrant to search their property,” the Utah-based company wrote in an official statement, on Tuesday. “Our company’s protocol is to provide access codes to law enforcement if a warrant grants them access to a property,” the firm wrote on the social-media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The company later released an update clarifying that “existing customers” could “have records of their access codes expunged.” The policy, Liberty Safe, added was: “Effective immediately.” Moving forward, the company “will require a subpoena that legally compels Liberty Safe to supply access codes but can only do so if these codes still exist in our system.”
Leading conservatives took to X to voice their frustrations, with some commentators drawing a parallel between Liberty Safe and Bud Light, the alcoholic beverage company that came under fire for its branding partnership with transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
“America’s top gun safe manufacturer, Liberty Safe, gave the FBI an access code to a safe owned by someone who was present at the J6 protest. We have officially found the Bud Light of gun safes. Enjoy going out of business, @libertysafeinc,” one conservative media personality wrote beside footage of the FBI raid.
A similar note was struck by Charlie Kirk, an influential young conservative and founder of Turning Point USA. “Liberty Safe is an enemy to gun owners,” Kirk argued on X . “They could have fought the warrant — like Apple did — instead they buckled and bent over. Your guns are not safe with @libertysafeinc Boycott. Ridicule. Ruin their company.” Kirk further revealed that Liberty Safe was bought by Monomoy Capital Partners in 2021, a group he cast as “a liberal East Coast investment firm.”
“I pulled FEC [Federal Election Commission] reports on the company and found approximately $400,000 over the last 10 cycles of donations to Democrats,” Kirk added above a list naming Senators Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.), John Fetterman (D., Penn.), and Mark Kelly (D., Arizona).
“Liberty Safe’s current CEO, Justin Hillenbrand, was a founding partner of Monomoy and donated $4,600 to Obama for America. And we’re supposed to be surprised they betrayed their customers to the FBI as quickly as humanly possible? Boycott Liberty Safe,” he wrote late Tuesday night.
Bubbling frustration led American Rebel, a rival of Liberty Safe, to release a public statement confirming that the company had been inundated by calls. “We welcome all the calls from safe dealers and customers who feel the same way we do,” CEO Andy Ross noted in a statement. “We stand behind the Constitution and are committed to protecting our customers’ privacy rights.”
“At American Rebel we have an unwavering commitment to building the next great brand that embodies the very essence of American patriotism…Customers want to purchase products that share their values. I am very proud to announce that we will be introducing American Rebel Beer in early 2024.”
Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and X, disagreed with the public calls to boycott Liberty Safe. “I think we’re going too far with these Jan 6th sentence lengths, especially given other crimes that aren’t being prosecuted at all, but Liberty Safe had no choice here and are not to blame.”