Current Events > CBS interview with ICE whistleblower interrupted by government agents

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-ice-spokesman-james-schwab-opens-up-about-resignation-trump-administration/

In his first television interview, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson James Schwab has opened up about why he abruptly resigned in March. But his interview with CBS News' Jamie Yuccas on Wednesday was unexpectedly interrupted by agents identifying themselves as agents from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's Office.

Before the surprise visit, Schwab told Yuccas that both the Obama and Trump White Houses asked him to "spin" information. But he said he felt compelled to resign after the current administration told him to lie about an incident that pitted the government against Oakland's mayor.

Back in February in the month leading up to Schwab's resignation, tensions in the San Francisco Bay area were running high over a series of raids carried out by federal agents with ICE. With the guidance of his superiors in Washington D.C., it fell to Schwab to communicate with journalists about those raids. The day before the operations took place, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned the community about the operation -- a surprise to Schwab.

"She was putting your officers' lives, potentially, in danger?" Yuccas asked Schwab. "Correct," he replied.

"We ended up arresting 232, which is 16 percent higher than our highest estimates. So internally, that was considered a success.But what they publicly said was that she let people go," Schwab said. According to him, that was not true.

He helped craft a statement to the media saying, "Some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayor's irresponsible decision." He was comfortable with that statement, he said, because it included the words "some of."

"This is a spin statement. This is what every public affairs officer does," Schwab said.

A week later, Attorney General Jeff Sessions' language was noticeably different. He said "ICE failed to make 800 arrests" because of the mayor's statement. Sessions' words didn't sit well with Schwab.

"Completely false...that made me extremely uncomfortable," Schwab said.

When reporters asked him to clarify the discrepancy, Schwab said he was instructed by his superiors in Washington to simply refer to the original statement he drafted without disputing Sessions' version of events.

"After they failed to correct it it's a flat-out lie. They know it's a lie. It was just shocking to me that no one wanted to fix that," Schwab said.

Troubled by what he saw as public deception, Schwab turned in his resignation.

"I could not fathom staying at an organization that was OK with lying to the American public. I hate that."
...
During the interview at his home, some three months after he quit, Yuccas and Schwab were interrupted by a surprise visit from men who said they were agents from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's Office. He was "completely shocked" to see them.

"They just said that they wanted to talk to me about the leak with the Oakland mayor," Schwab said of his conversation with the agents.

"Did you ever contact the Oakland mayor's office?" Yuccas asked.

"No. I've never met her before. I never contacted Libby Schaaf," Schwab said. "Never. I would never tell her. I would never tell anyone...They were very serious. He was very stern with me, and it was concerning."

Schwab said it was "absolutely" an intimidation technique.

"Why, three months later, are we doing this?" Schwab said. "This is intimidation. And this is why people won't come out and speak against the government."

---

That is fucking terrifying.
---

Jesus Christ.
---

What the fuck
---

So the government casually stormed an interview for the news, suppressing it? Weird that almost sounds unconstitutional.
---

Yikes!
---

They stopped the misinformation
---

Is this the tyranny that 2Aers say that their guns are for?
---

nothing to see here, move along citizens
---

Holy shit. The ICE are a gas chamber short of being the gestapo.
---

A_Good_Boy posted...

Is this the tyranny that 2Aers say that their guns are for?

Of course not, since it owns the libs.
---

Okay but that does sound like a legit thing for them to be looking into though
---

We better keep taxes extremely high so that the beast can keep taking in trillions in revenue each and every year. We better keep letting the government have an unprecedented amount of power and influence over us.

There's absolutely nothing that can go wrong with that.
---

FLUFFYGERM posted...

We better keep taxes extremely high so that the beast can keep taking in trillions in revenue each and every year. We better keep letting the government have an unprecedented amount of power and influence over us.

There's absolutely nothing that can go wrong with that.

Would would happen if hypothetically every single tax paying citizen refused to pay the full amount?

What would the government do?
---

LightningAce11 posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

We better keep taxes extremely high so that the beast can keep taking in trillions in revenue each and every year. We better keep letting the government have an unprecedented amount of power and influence over us.

There's absolutely nothing that can go wrong with that.

Would would happen if hypothetically every single tax paying citizen refused to pay the full amount?

What would the government do?

That's such an impossible hypothetical that I'm not even going to waste time thinking about it, to be honest.
---

They would have killed him that day if the news crew wasn't there.
---

A_Good_Boy posted...

Is this the tyranny that 2Aers say that their guns are for?

Not unless Trump starts stomping over their rights too. If shit like this or worse keeps happening, I'm going to have to move back to Italy with my family.

Shit is scary here
---

Antifar posted...

Before the surprise visit, Schwab told Yuccas that both the Obama and Trump White Houses asked him to "spin" information. But he said he felt compelled to resign after the current administration told him to lie about an incident that pitted the government against Oakland's mayor.

I'd like to know more about this.
---

A_Good_Boy posted...

Is this the tyranny that 2Aers say that their guns are for?

Those kind of people only want guns so they can kill brown people in the event society collapses.

Sad_Face posted...

Antifar posted...

Before the surprise visit, Schwab told Yuccas that both the Obama and Trump White Houses asked him to "spin" information. But he said he felt compelled to resign after the current administration told him to lie about an incident that pitted the government against Oakland's mayor.

I'd like to know more about this.

i think the fact that he felt compelled to quit once trump took office says all you need
---

YOUHAVENOHOPE posted...

Sad_Face posted...

Antifar posted...

Before the surprise visit, Schwab told Yuccas that both the Obama and Trump White Houses asked him to "spin" information. But he said he felt compelled to resign after the current administration told him to lie about an incident that pitted the government against Oakland's mayor.

I'd like to know more about this.

i think the fact that he felt compelled to quit once trump took office says all you need

Reading the full thing actually says all you need to know, not just the part that spares your feelings.
---

If I were him, I'd be fleeing to Canada right now tbh.
---

Antifar posted...

current administration told him to lie about an incident that pitted the government against Oakland's mayor.

@FLUFFYGERM

pls spin...
---

He's already been here, my dude
---

y i k e s
i
k
e
s
---

Don't invite PC over, nobody likes him.

Anyway, welcome to police state America. Thing is these agencies have far too much freedom to be unconstitutional.
---

A_Good_Boy posted...

Is this the tyranny that 2Aers say that their guns are for?

No, because if it was the liberals wouldn't constantly be trying to gun grab.
---

Before the surprise visit, Schwab told Yuccas that both the Obama and Trump White Houses asked him to "spin" information.

What a shock

- nobody
---

_MorningStar posted...

That is fucking terrifying.

Yup.
---

First they came for
---