By Wyatt REED

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Russiagate hysteria led the FBI to spy on a panel featuring The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal and Anya Parampil. As Blumenthal warned during the discussion, the bogus Trump-Russia collusion narrative was exploited to target a wide range of anti-establishment figures.

“Russiagate, one of the principal reasons that I oppose it – and why I called it out from the beginning – is that while it seems to be directed at Trump, it’s going to go beyond Trump and it will be used to suppress the left as classic McCarthyism always did.”

When The Grayzone’s founder, Max Blumenthal, made that statement on June 2, 2018, he had no way of knowing, but he was making it to the FBI.

A newly-uncovered file published by journalist Chip Gibbons shows a pair of FBI special agents was on hand to monitor the panel discussion Blumenthal was participating in that day at the 2018 Left Forum at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. The main target of their investigation appeared to be Randy Credico, a comedian and radio host also appearing on the panel, who was accused of being Roger Stone’s “backchannel” to Wikileaks – a charge Credico strenuously denied when subpoenaed by both the House Intelligence Committee and Robert Mueller.

According to Gibbons, “the revelation that FBI agents surveilled the panel of journalists and activists stem from documents the FBI turned over… under the Freedom of Information Act.” As the journalist noted, the file in question is an “FD-302,” a type of report which FBI agents use to document interviews with their subjects. The file, which can be viewed in its entirety here, specifies that the “investigation” was carried out “in person.”

The report lists one of the special agents at the panel as Andrew Thomas Mitchell. A 2024 Department of Justice press release shows Mitchell was granted an Attorney General’s Award following his work as the FBI Unit Chief on an investigation into a West Virginia husband and wife who were convicted of attempting to sell information about nuclear submarine designs to a foreign country. The FBI’s investigation into Stone, which likely led to their monitoring of Credico, was also handled by its Counterintelligence Division.

The FBI appeared to be taking advantage of its investigative mandate to surveil Credico’s friends and colleagues as well. Others who unknowingly participated in the FBI-monitored panel include journalist Anya Parampil, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, and KPFK Flashpoints host Dennis Bernstein.

Most of the two-page report is redacted, including the name of Mitchell’s partner. But Credico, who says he was approached by the pair several hours later, described the other agent as a woman. According to Credico, the agents followed him to a comedy set he performed later that evening, which was advertised in promotional materials for the forum that were included in the FBI file.

Afterwards, “a young man and woman, who were dressed like Disney tourists, came up to me as I was walking alone and told me how much they loved the show,” before revealing themselves to be FBI agents, he stated. Per Credico, he immediately phoned his attorney, who arranged to speak with the Bureau at a later date.

On July 22, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard ordered the declassification of documents which largely discredited the allegation that Moscow hacked the DNC and waged a “sweeping and systematic” campaign to interfere in the 2016 US Presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. Among the files was a previously unseen 2016 report by the US Intelligence Community admitting that the FBI and National Security Agency had “low confidence” in the assessment that Russia was behind the leaks, as well as a 2020 House Intelligence Committee report revealing that “only specific information” suggesting Putin ordered the hack was derived from a single source with “second hand access.”

Original article:  thegrayzone.com