Popular conservative commentator Nick Fuentes says that the FBI took almost $500,000 from his bank account, and that he has no legal recourse to recover his money.
The 23-year-old host of America First was one of the many attendees at the rally in DC organized by President Trump on January 6. Although he says he simply attended a “civil First Amendment protected demonstration,” and was nowhere near the U.S. Capitol Building as the protests escalated into civil unrest, the FBI and Department of Justice are investigating him regardless. He described how he was first alerted when his bank card was declined. He then learned his checking account was drained, with almost $500,000 gone. He says his bank confirmed a legal order had been placed against it, but could not elaborate. Over two weeks later, he says the bank provided numbers for attorneys working for the Department of Justice. From this, he gathered he was under investigation by the FBI.
“The reason why this is so crushing is because the Department of Justice and the FBI are immovable,” Fuentes explained. “Because of the War on Terror, because of the PATRIOT Act, because of how the federal government operates, they really can do whatever they want to whoever they want, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” He says a lawyer told him he had no legal recourse to recover the money, the FBI can keep it for as long as they want, and they have no obligation to return it.
The America First host is not the only one targeted by the FBI post-January 6. Live streamer Anthime “Baked Alaska” Gionet, who entered the U.S. Capitol during the protests and live streamed himself pretending to make crank calls on a desk phone, revealed during an interview in June that federal agents are attempting to force him to cooperate with their further persecution of defendants from January 6 by leveraging a threat of an “obstruction of Congress” felony charge over his head. Gionet, who spent some time in jail for entering the Capitol, said he was being treated like an international terrorist, thrown into a cockroach-infested solitary confinement cell with no room to walk.
Even in their arrests itself, the FBI is seemingly showing no mercy to those accused of entering the Capitol. James Cusick, a 73-year-old Purple Heart Vietnam War veteran and pastor, and his son James Casey were arrested at their home in Florida, in front of Casey’s terrified 3-year-old daughter, despite neither of them engaging in any violence at the Capitol. Others accused who are currently locked in a D.C. jail may be facing abuse from prison guards and others, according to some reports.