Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) on Tuesday unveiled more evidence of the weaponization of the terrorist watch list after learning that a Catholic school teacher had been surveilled by the FBI for over two years.
Paul unveiled more evidence from the ongoing investigation into the weaponization of the watch list through documents obtained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation about Christine Crowder.
During a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing in September, Senior Federal Air Marshal Mark Crowder testified that his wife, Christine, a Catholic school teacher, was placed on a terrorist watch list and had been surveilled by the FBI and Federal Air Marshal Service for over two years.
Findings of the investigation into watch lists include:
- The FBI opened an investigation into Crowder based on a tip from a former friend. Initial findings indicated negative geolocation, facial recognition, and criminal history or extremist activity.
- Despite the FBI admitting the need to interview Crowder, the Bureau claimed that she participated in the illegal entry into the U.S. Capitol and was recommended for a watch list and selectee status.
- The FBI physically surveilled Crowder’s house at least four times for the purpose of identifying her and her property.
- The U.S. Attorney’s Office accepted the case or prosecution based on the tip without verifying her identity and recommended that the FBI conduct a social media analysis.
- The FBI executed a search warrant on Crowder’s Facebook via Facebook’s Law Enforcement Portal.
- After two years, the FBI investigation was closed after stating in a memo that the Bureau closed it for negative results in a geofence query and facial recognition. Her ride share receipt and the photograph of her were not consistent with the original tip.
- Crowder was interviewed by FBI agents in May 2023 after the investigation was opened in June 2021.
Chairman Rand Paul has worked to reveal more abuse from the Biden administration’s Transportation Security Administration’s Quiet Skies Program.
Paul said in a statement in September:
I commend Secretary Noem for ending Quiet Skies, but our work is not done. We must make sure that this program does not come back under another name. Every official who directed or approved surveillance of Americans for protected speech must be removed from office. Full transparency must become the rule rather than requiring a year of investigation. The result will be a process that respects the Constitution, ends real life shadow bans against Americans and gives all of us the assurance that our government is focused on protecting us, not on chasing political ghosts.
During the same hearing in September, the Bluegrass State conservative noted how the Crowder family surveillance is not an isolated incident; it happens to hundreds of Americans. He explained:
Her family was surveilled when they flew. This was not an isolated case. It happened to hundreds of Americans. It happened because the TSA used First Amendment protected activity as a predicate for watch listing Americans. That’s unconstitutional, of course. First Amendment activity cannot be the sole basis for watch listing someone, but sole basis is an important caveat and it’s an opening the TSA exploited.
Today we will release internal TSA records that reveal how the agency authorized First Amendment activity to be used to justify the surveillance of Americans with no evidence and no recourse.
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They didn’t just coincidentally watch list hundreds of people who attended the same Trump rally. They did it intentionally and obscured the process to create plausible deniability. For example, documents obtained in my investigation reveal that TSA relied on data collected by the George Washington University Project on Extremism.
Consider this first, DHS funds the Project on Extremism. An external partner not bound by the same laws and regulations as federal agencies. Then, the Project on Extremism identifies supposed domestic threats by meticulously tracking January 6th defendants. DHS then uses the Project on Extremism reporting as evidence, sometimes the only evidence for putting someone on a watch list.
“The Quiet Skies Program has been used for nearly two decades to target and surveil everyday Americans, violating our constitutional rights and civil liberties, targeting political opponents, and costing taxpayers approximately $200 million per year, all while failing to stop a single terrorist,” Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard said at the time. “ODNI has worked closely with DHS and Sen. Paul to expose the truth behind this program, putting an end to weaponization against Americans.”
Paul revealed in May that he received records that federal air marshals surveilled now-DNI Gabbard during domestic flights, “reporting back information related to her appearance and even how many electronics she was observed using.”