Federal Tyranny: Threatening Texans

State public servants must shield Texans from an increasingly tyrannical federal government.

However, the Republican-led Texas House has seemed more interested in working with the federal deep state than in finding ways to defend Texans from it.

Since the 2020 election, a growing number of Americans have become alarmed at the political persecution of former President Donald Trump by the federal “deep state.” Through a seemingly endless number of indictments and investigations, both federal and co-opted local law enforcement officials appear determined to tip the scales of the 2024 election against Trump.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton agrees that federal agencies have gone rogue. “I thought, ‘We are crossing lines we’ve never crossed before in this country.’ It was stunning to me that they would raid a president’s home,” Paxton said on the Salcedo Storm podcast in August 2022. He was referring to the FBI’s raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. “I think there’s a legitimate reason to fear our own government at this point. They are turning into what we’ve read about in countries like Germany in the ‘30s. And what’s going on in Russia or China now … I don’t see much of a difference.”

There are more strange coincidences suggesting that not only Trump is being targeted, but so is anyone who even attempts to defy the federal establishment.

Growing Tyranny

On November 8, 2023, Roll Call reported that the U.S. House would be voting on an amendment to stop the FBI from using taxpayer monies to buy property for a new headquarters. The amendment was proposed by Congressman Matt Gaetz (R–Fl), who stated: “It is not my grave concern that the FBI’s building is crumbling. It is my grave concern that the civil liberties of Americans are crumbling … I wish we were more worried about that and less worried about whether or not we got new carpet and wallpaper at the FBI building.”

That same day, the U.S. Justice Department announced that they had arrested three men for running a “High-End Brothel Network.” The announcement stated “elected officials” were among the alleged customers of this sex slave ring. Suspiciously, on November 8 the U.S. House voted against Gaetz’ amendment to block funding for the new FBI headquarters. On November 9, Steve Friend, an FBI whistleblower, cried out. “Today the House GOP voted to give the FBI a $300 million HQ,” he posted on X. “Last year, I brought protected whistleblower disclosures about @FBI weaponization to @HouseGOP. They used it to go on TV & get elected. I lost my career and am under FBI investigation … Soulless demons. Go to hell.”

These patterns of tyranny extend to the local level. In September 2023, New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) spoke out against illegal immigration, saying that the crisis will “destroy New York City.” In October, he urged those seeking asylum not to come to the Big Apple. That same month, the Biden Administration announced “direct deportations” of Venezuelan illegal aliens, and that they would build a part of Trump’s border wall. Then, in November, it was widely reported that Mayor Eric Adams was being investigated for alleged corruption. The New York Post reported that the FBI had taken Adams’ iPad and cell phones as part of the investigation.

Such actions by the federal political establishment are ever-expanding to even well-known entrepreneurs. Elon Musk, the CEO of electric vehicle company Tesla, bought social media platform Twitter in October 2022. He has since proceeded to fire 80 percent of the company’s staff, rename the platform to “X,” and exposed the company’s once-close working relationship with the government in controlling narratives through publication of the Twitter files. On June 2, 2023, after directly intervening to stop X from suppressing The Daily Wire’s documentary “What Is A Woman?” on the platform, Musk then encouraged “every parent” to watch it. The film, hosted by Daily Wire personality Matt Walsh, directly challenged the establishment narrative that one’s sex can be changed.

In a November 2023 interview, Musk said what drove him to buy Twitter was because it was being used to spread the woke “mind virus” worldwide.

Since his changes to the platform, Musk has become a target of multiple government investigations. In August 2023, the U.S. Justice Department sued Musk’s company, SpaceX, for allegedly not hiring refugees and people with asylum status. “SpaceX was told repeatedly that hiring anyone who was not a permanent resident of the United States would violate international arms trafficking law, which would be a criminal offense. We couldn’t even hire Canadian citizens, despite Canada being part of NORAD!” Musk shot back on August 24, 2023. “This is yet another case of weaponization of the DOJ for political purposes.”

The targeting continued. On October 5, 2023, The Guardian reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was investigating Musk over his purchase of Twitter, and CNBC reported that the federal agency sued Musk in order to force him to testify. On November 22, 2023, Wired reported that four Congressmen advocated for the SEC to investigate Musk over allegations he lied to investors of his Neuralink company about the deaths of a dozen monkeys experimented on with brain-chip implants. A day later, it was widely reported that the SEC and Justice Department were investigating allegations that Tesla funds were being used to build Musk a new mansion. On December 12, the Federal Communications Commission announced they were upholding a decision the prior year to deny Starlink, Musk’s satellite broadband company, close to $900 million in taxpayer monies for rural broadband.

A number of these could be considered coincidences. However, according to Wade Miller, interim vice president at the Center for Renewing America, there are clear cases of tyranny within Americans’ federal government.

“I think that if you look at like the Department of Justice and the FBI, we have some serious systemic abuses occurring,” Miller told Texas Scorecard. He said that recently U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R–UT) pointed out that the FBI is spying on American citizens and public servants, including Congressmen. Miller mentioned there are “warrantless searches that are being approved and abused through the entire FISA process. But that’s just scratching the surface. It goes well beyond that.”

Where it regards X, the federal government also has an interest in squashing Musk’s stated quest for free speech. “We just are learning more about the degree of organization with which the federal government was and potentially is working with social media companies to censor speech that it doesn’t like,” Miller said. “The federal government can’t itself go out there. It’s using its coercive power to try to get these private entities to do it because if they did it, it would be a more blatant violation of the law. But it’s still no different if they’re just using these intermediate private entities to do their bidding than it is if they do it themselves.”

The weaponization of government power has extended beyond public servants and entrepreneurs to tipping the scales of justice.

The defense attorney for Kyle Rittenhouse—the young man unjustly targeted by public servants after he defended a local business and himself in during the 2020 Kenosha, Wisconsin riots—said the FBI fought records requests for their entire recording of the conflict between Rittenhouse and rioters. Rittenhouse’s attorney, Mark Richards, said this resistance even included the FBI at one point claiming “the rest” of the recording was gone. Rittenhouse was acquitted on homicide charges after killing two men in self-defense.

(Rittenhouse’s book, Acquitted, shares his story. It is co-written with Texas Scorecard Publisher Michael Quinn Sullivan.)

This weaponization has grown into mass targeting of citizens as well.

It was widely reported that special prosecutor Jack Smith, along with the U.S. Dept. of Justice, had obtained a subpoena that included “lists of Twitter users who have favorited or retweeted tweets posted by (Trump’s @Twitter) account, as well as all tweets that include the username associated with the account (i.e. ‘mentions’ or ‘replies’).” This has led to calls by Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, for defunding “this rogue operation.”

Wade Miller mentioned more federal targeting of citizens who have different political beliefs than the government establishment. “There’s ongoing right now targeting of conservative organizations still by the IRS,” he said. “This isn’t eight years ago. We’re talking about today it’s happening.”

These apparent tyrannical efforts have reached into Texas as well.

Feds Threatening Texas

In his August 2022 interview, Attorney General Paxton said he’s seen federal agencies not follow the law where it concerns unreasonable searches and seizures. “I’ve had this happen to people in Texas, where lines are cut, damage is done so that no one can see what they’re doing, because they don’t operate any more under the law,” he said. “Americans should be extremely concerned because if we don’t find a way to stop the FBI and Department of Justice from doing this, they are going to continue to do this to freedom-loving Americans who they disagree with politically.”

Since being elected in November 2014, Paxton has regularly fought against federal overreach and tyranny through multiple lawsuits. In October 2022, Paxton won a victory against the Biden administration in his lawsuit against federal guidelines aimed to force schools and employers into allowing gender-confused children and adults to use whatever gender-specific bathroom or locker room they desire. “It is time for the Biden administration to quit forcing their political agenda,” said Paxton. “This is about the safety of children. It is time to put their well-being first.”

Paxton has won other victories. In April 2023, Paxton and a coalition of a dozen other states forced the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice to provide correspondence between the Biden administration and the National School Boards Association. This was after the coalition of states sued the Biden administration for correspondence about the NSBA’s 2021 letter comparing parents to domestic terrorists.

In the fall of 2020, the FBI targeted Paxton, launching a probe into allegations of misconduct and abuse of office. These allegations were brought by a since discredited group of self-proclaimed “whistleblowers” who once worked for Paxton. One of these individuals admitted in the 2023 impeachment trial of Paxton that he went to the FBI with “no evidence” of criminal activity.

Texans have long been undermined and threatened by their federal government in one specific area—the border.

For many decades, the federal government has shown little interest in providing the core service of border security, despite hundreds of billions of federal taxpayer monies allocated to the U.S. Department of Defense. For Fiscal Year 2023, more than $810 billion of federal taxpayer monies were set aside for the DOD. However, it was widely reported in November 2023 that the Pentagon failed an independent audit for the sixth straight year, leading to questions about where certain monies have gone.

As Texas public servants have steadily become more active in trying to secure the southern border, recent federal efforts have borne the appearance of actively undermining state efforts as opposed to inactive indifference.

For example, Texas placed wire fencing along the Rio Grande shore in an effort to deter illegal border crossings. In October 2023, Texas Scorecard reported that Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security for cutting the wire fence at Eagle Pass—a known hotspot for illegal border crossings.

“In the midst of an unprecedented immigration crisis at the southern border, federal government officials are, once again, undermining Texas’s efforts to stem the flow of illegal Immigration,” the lawsuit states. “By cutting Texas’s concertina wire, the federal government has not only illegally destroyed property owned by the State of Texas; it has also disrupted the State’s border security efforts, leaving gaps in Texas’s border barriers and damaging Texas’s ability to effectively deter illegal entry into its territory.”

The undermining efforts continue.

In November 2023, two reports were published regarding federal subversiveness to border security. Andrew Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies explained how in Fiscal Year 2023 the Biden Administration allowed 140 percent more illegal aliens than legal immigrants into America. He said it was through four different pathways.

First, the CHNV Parole Program has allowed 30,000 nationals per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to fly to the U.S. In total, nearly 250,000 foreign nationals have been paroled into the U.S. under the program. Second, the CBP One App allows illegal aliens from all over the world–—including countries with terrorism concerns—to set up an appointment for their illegal entry. According to CIS, the administration paroles up to 1,450 inadmissible aliens daily, with 235,172 paroled in FY 2023. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over the app. Third, ports of entry have allowed illegal aliens to be released into the country on parole. Illegal aliens are allowed to present themselves to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers at ports of entry and will be released on parole shortly after. Arthur says the Biden administration is “creating a separate immigration system to the United States, over and above what Congress has set.” Finally, the Biden administration has provided for illegal aliens to gain access into the country through evading border patrol agents. As border patrol agents are overwhelmed at the border, processing more than 5,600 illegal aliens a day, it has been revealed that there were 600,000 known “gotaways” in FY 2023. However, it is assumed the number, including unknowns, might be higher.

The second November report on federal subversiveness regarded illegal border crossers being provided with GPS coordinates to enter Texas. Some believe the Mexican government is involved, but it has also been reported that the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security has coordinated mass swims across the Rio Grande.

Even the federal courts are unreliable. Texas Scorecard reported on December 1, 2023 that the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to reinstate an injunction against Texas that ordered the state to move its buoy barriers in the Rio Grande. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has since announced that the state is requesting an en banc review of the case by all Fifth Circuit judges.

This type of federal abuse doesn’t stop with attempts to undermine Texas’ effort to secure her southern border. It also extends to federal agencies combatting government school districts that fall in line with parents’ demands to end wokeness.

Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, TX, became ground zero for the battle between parents and woke educrats in 2020. That was the year the school board attempted to pass a proposed “Cultural Competence Action Plan (CCAP)” that included mandatory social justice training as a graduation requirement, auditing of Christian clubs, and reporting of unintended “microaggressions” to a campus diversity council.

Parents organized and seized control of Carroll ISD, installing a pro-parent majority in the district’s board of trustees.

This citizen victory still stands out as among the bright shining lights of hope for parents still fighting against entrenched government schools in their areas. But this victory caught the attention of the federal government. Rather than respecting the will of Texans and what they want taught to their children, in November 2021, the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into Carroll ISD for “allegations of discrimination based on race, color, national origin, or sex.” This was part of a series of federal counterattacks against parents nationwide.

First, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland weaponized the FBI against concerned parents and was accused of lying about it to Congress, while U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said parents are not the primary stakeholders in their children’s education. The National School Board Association also called parents “domestic terrorists.”

Curiously, establishment media publication NBC also came down hard against Carroll ISD and parents. They published an entire podcast in support of the CCAP and against concerned parents.

“Anyone who pushes back against gender theory, woke ideologies, anything in the equity space, they’re facing increased scrutiny from the Biden administration [and] the DOJ,” Miller said. He added that these ideologies themselves, while they purport to combat racism and division, in effect actually promote it. “If anything the DOJ should, and hopefully it will in 2025, start prosecuting everyone who’s pushing these equity agendas. They are a blatant violation of either Title Six, or Title Seven, or Title Nine in terms of race and sexual discrimination in private and or governmental entities or contractors.”

Conclusion

For some time, multiple indicators have shown that federal tyranny over Texas and Texans has been growing. Some argue it has been a steadily growing threat, but has hit a massive growth spurt in recent years.

One data point was the unfortunate 1993 flashpoint in Waco, Texas. “The FBI locked itself in a 51-day standoff with members of the Branch Davidian cult, resulting in a fire and the deaths of 75 people, including 25 children,” WORLD magazine wrote in their January 2023 report on the FBI’s transformation into a political weapon. “The disaster sparked a public outcry and multiple investigations, and the FBI subsequently steered clear of heavily armed raids.”

To this day, the federal government’s handling of the Waco situation remains widely criticized. “April 19 was the 28th anniversary of one of the most shameful episodes in modern American history: the massacre of 76 innocent men, women, and children by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) in a military-style assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas,” wrote former Texas Congressman Ron Paul in a June 2021 opinion piece for Newsmax. “The assault followed a botched raid on the Davidian compound (staged at a time that it would distract attention from an ATF sexual harassment scandal) and a two-month standoff between the Davidians and the agency.”

Questions surrounded the federal government’s efforts at holding the FBI accountable. In May 2001, Newsmax reported that a special investigation’s flawed reports helped hide that the FBI fired on the Branch Davidian outpost. Filmmaker and investigative reporter Michael McNulty claimed he found flaws in a report by Special Counsel John Danforth. McNulty said Danforth’s report that used data from a 2000 re-creation of the Waco events used “the wrong weapons and the wrong ammunition.” McNulty complained that the newly elected George W. Bush administration “wants to move on” rather than focus on holding the FBI accountable.

Referencing the above-mentioned WORLD report, it notes the FBI’s history “has never been squeaky clean” and cautions that Waco-like incidents may return. “Recent enforcement actions seem to suggest a return to such tactics, and recent targets seem more political—a politics that suggests FBI’s leadership leans left.”

When you want to change your location, it is not only important to understand where you want to go, but also important to understand where you are so that you can figure out the path you need to walk. America and Texas were founded upon self-governance—that has long been the direction our founders set us towards. But what is our current location? What is the time now here in America where it regards federal tyranny? “I think we’re at 11:59,” Wade Miller said. “The hour is late in America.”

Regularly, Americans have opted for new public servants in Congress and the White House, yet federal tyranny appears to keep growing. Questions remain as to what measures Texas’ public servants will take to protect Texans.

In part two, Texas Scorecard will examine a number of agreements the state government has with the federal government, and how the latter’s actions raise questions about these agreements.