Update: Homan said on Fox News Monday night that that the Department of Justice has opened up a criminal investigation into LA leak and that Noem is correct about her assumptions.
“Some of the information we’re receiving tends to lead toward the FBI,” he told Fox host Sean Hannity, adding that whoever did it will lose their job, pension, and will go to jail.
Homan also said they’ve identified the leaker of the Aurora raid as well, but can’t reveal the name yet because the investigation is ongoing.
He stressed that all leakers will be held criminally responsible for putting the lives of ICE agents at risk to protect criminal gangs.
* * *
As Debra Heine reported earlier via American Greatness, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem suggested on Sunday that the “corrupt” FBI is behind a leak to the media regarding upcoming immigration raids in the Los Angeles area.
According to an internal government document obtained by the Los Angeles Times, the operation will be spearheaded by ICE and “focus on people who do not have legal status in the country or who already have pending orders of removal.”
The Times didn’t cite the FBI as a source for its February 7 story, but Noem made clear on social media that she strongly suspected bad actors from the Bureau were behind the leak.
“The FBI is so corrupt,” she posted on X Sunday in response to the report. “We will work with any and every agency to stop leaks and prosecute these crooked deep state agents to the fullest extent of the law,” Noem wrote.
The LA Times said the document was circulated among some government officials last week. A federal law enforcement source “who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal” told the paper that LA FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers and agents have been called in to assist.
Last month, the Department of Justice tasked the FBI; DEA; U.S. Marshal’s Service; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); and Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to assist ICE with deportations.
Steve Friend, former FBI agent-turned-whistleblower, told American Greatness on January 28 that agents had been calling in sick with the ”blue flu” to protest the directive.
Friend, who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America and an “American Radicals” podcaster, said FBI field offices had been asking for volunteers to help with the deportation effort, but many agents were afraid of retaliation from their superiors.
“People know if they step forward, then leadership will identify them as MAGA,” he explained.
“The executive management at some field offices aren’t sending out any guidance for the ICE directive. Just ignoring,” he added.
Friend posted on X Sunday that now “senior executives and managers at the @FBI are telling agents not to assist ICE.”
FBI whistleblower Garret O’Boyle made the same claim Monday on the Kyle Seraphin Show podcast, claiming that supervisors at some field offices are “straight up telling” agents they don’t have to go on the raids if they have “some sort of internal conviction or whatever.”
“Sorry people, that’s not how this works,” O’Boyle said, explaining that there’s a difference between whistleblowing actual violations of law (as the suspended FBI whistleblowers did) and simple disagreeing with policy.
“This is about enforcing laws that we have,” he said. “So if you simply don’t like it, sorry that’s not how this works.”
The LA Times leak is just the latest leak to the media tipping off illegal alien criminals of impending raids.
A major ICE operation targeting violent Tren de Aragua gang members in Aurora, Colorado, was leaked ahead of time last week.
CBS News and NBC News published articles tipping off the gang members “citing numerous U.S. officials,” Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported on X, Sunday. The stories forced ICE to reschedule and the op ended up being a failure, Melugin added.
“And a large scale Chicago op was also leaked to the media during Trump’s first week in office, leading to a canceling and rescheduling of that op as well,” Melugin added.
Furious at the betrayals, White House border czar Tom Homan told Fox News that the leak put law enforcement officers at risk and warned that those guilty of impeding ICE would “find themselves in handcuffs.”
“When they get a heads up we’re coming, it’s only a matter of time before out officers are ambushed,” Homan explained. “We’ve already identified how this operation got leaked,” he said. “The job’s dangerous enough for we’re going to address this very seriously.”
Homan also said ICE might have to stop “media ride-alongs” because the few people who know about the operations, “the better it is for our agents.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi also issued a warning to the leakers: “If you leaked it we will find out who you are and we will come after you,” she told Fox News on Sunday.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks told Fox News last week that there’s been a 90 percent decrease in illegal entries since January 21 and criminal prosecutions are up almost 52 percent.
“We know how to secure the border. All we needed was a President that was gonna empower us,” Banks said.