By Lee Williams
Nowadays, the ATF operates above the law, and it’s become clear that despite their frequent high crimes and civil rights abuses, no one in the federal government is going to hold the agency accountable as long as Joe Biden occupies the White House.
But one Oklahoma state representative isn’t satisfied with waiting for the feds or anyone else to intervene. He’s got a plan to stop ATF’s illegal abuses right now, and unlike other loftier elected officials, he’s taking action, personally. He’s not just pontificating about the problem in front of a bank of microphones.
“The ATF is coming for our guns, and if we let them do this with no pushback, they will do it more,” said Oklahoma state Rep. Justin “JJ” Humphrey, (R-Lane).
A story published Tuesday revealed that Rep. Humphrey sent a letter to Oklahoma’s Governor, Attorney General, and other law enforcement officials demanding an investigation into the ATF raid on the home of one of his constituents, Russell Fincher, a parttime gun dealer, high school history teacher and Baptist pastor.
According to a press release, Humphrey said he was contacted by Fincher after a dozen ATF SWAT team members bearing “automatic weapons” raided Fincher’s home, handcuffed him on his porch in front of his 13-year-old son and coerced and threatened him into relinquishing his Federal Firearm License.
“If this report is true, and I have every reason to believe it is, then it would appear the ATF’s actions constitute a gross misuse and abuse of their federal police powers,” Humphrey said in the press release.
Fincher, Humphrey wrote in the letter, “is a distinguished figure in our community, serving both as pastor and schoolteacher in the small community of Clayton, Oklahoma. He is known as a respected member of the community, and I have every reason to believe his account. If proven true, the actions of the ATF agents could be seen as a severe misuse and abuse of their federal law enforcement authority.”
On Tuesday, Humphrey told the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project how he arrived at this decision.
“When I first got the call, I didn’t immediately call Russell back,” Humphrey said. “I called his neighbors who I know in the community and asked what kind of guy he is and what do you all know about him. I haven’t found a single person who had anything negative to say about this guy. You typically don’t see the pastor being the criminal. He’s also a history teacher. He’s got a degree. He’s got multiple incomes, including selling guns. I’ve done thousands of pre-sentence investigations, and I know how to find out info about people. If Russell had an ex-wife, I would have called her, too. All of my reference checks show that Russell Fincher is a real decent good guy.”
Humphrey is a no-nonsense elected official who thoroughly understands right from wrong. He’s a cattle rancher with a degree in Criminal Justice who spent 35 years in law enforcement, including 20 years as a probation and parole officer for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Humphrey is not the type of official to excuse the use of excessive force on one of his constituents.
“On the surface, it appears ATF abused their position, extorted Russell and it appears they used terroristic threats,” Humphrey said. “That alone more than warrants an investigation into these ATF officers. That’s what I’m asking for. The fact they’re officers doesn’t mean they can’t violate the law. If they used their badges to do it, it’s even worse.”
What we know
Humphrey hasn’t seen the affidavit for the search warrant ATF obtained before they raided Fincher’s home. Agents obtained the warrant from a magistrate, not a judge. He takes issue with how the warrant was executed, especially since Fincher invited the agents to his home.
“If you’re cooperative, do I show up 12 deep?” Humphrey asked. “Why did they do that?”
Agents found nothing illegal or even questionable during their search, he said. It was their second attempt to find something criminal on Fincher.
“They ran a confidential informant at him, to get him to illegally sell them a gun, which he refused to do,” Humphrey said. “How did they obtain their warrant? It seems pretty shaky. What did they tell the magistrate? What did they base their search warrant on? Did they illegally obtain their search warrant based on fraudulent info? That’s perjury and abuse of office. Those are the things we’re looking at.”
Humphrey took issue with how ATF agents intimidated Fincher into “voluntarily” surrendering his Federal Firearm License. Agents handcuffed Fincher on his porch in front of his 13-year-old son, while yelling and screaming about possible federal charges, until Fincher relented and said he’d self-terminate his FFL. One of the agents had three copies of the needed paperwork.
“This guy has on his person not one but three copies of termination paperwork?” Humphrey said. “This reveals their true intent.”
Humphrey knows a state-run criminal investigation could have a chilling effect on ATF’s misdeeds across the country. At the very least, it would force ATF Special Agent Theodore Mongell, who led the raid on Fincher’s home, to explain his probable cause under oath, as well as why he believed the pastor and his son were such a threat that ATF needed to hit their home with a heavily armed SWAT team. It would also force Agent Mongell to admit or deny the threats he reportedly made to other gun dealers.
“You tell all your FFL buddies we are coming for them. We are shutting the gun shows down,” Fincher recalled Mongell saying during the raid.
“This is terroristic threats, and I think these terroristic threats are really easy to prove,” Humphrey said. “They’re using their police powers to intimidate, extort and threaten.”
A GiveSendGo account has been created to help with Fincher’s legal fees.
The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project wouldn’t be possible without you. Click here to make a tax deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.
This story is part of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and is published here with their permission.
This is likely going nowhere.
What might change that?
So true, but if it were, we could expect arrests of various ATF staff and leaders, impeachment of politicians who approved of those activities, impeachment of our dictator wanna-be, Biden and others of his supporters. Unfortunately falls into the realm of “if only it were true”
“Unfortunately falls into the realm of “if only it were true” ”
Indeed.
Federal impeachment is incredibly difficult. Criminal conviction of a few lower level bureaucrats in state courts should be possible, and would send a message.
Ok and so what’s the plan? I didn’t see one just blustering
I get the impression his plan is to do a state level criminal investigation then bring state criminal charges under state law, states can do that for federal employees who violate state law. Oklahoma has laws against (at least some of) the conduct of these ATF thugs.
Booger you are right on this one and Oklahoma will send a few ATF agents to Oklahoma prisons with the kind of felony convictions that will loose them their jobs permanently! Long story, but this West Virginian has a lot of Oklahoma friends and those folks are dead serious. JJ has a good idea there. A policy of “Mess with any honorable Red State resident and go to prison.” … and likely loose your cushy, overpaid Federal job will have a sobering effect.
Don’t just send them to prison. Seize all of their assets, revoke their US citizenship, and escort them to the border to deport them with a warning that if they try to reenter they will be summarily executed.
If we are going to dream a dream -might as well make it a sweet one.
a Nixon quote to apply to these government thugs-“when you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds WILL follow”. Time to go to court, and squeeze their balls{if they have any}. Use tactics the left has taught us!
Believe it when I see it man. Kinda like a unicorn 🦄. Sounds real nice but ain’t seen it yet
That sounds like a cue for possum to come in and tell us he saw a unicorn once and it cooked up real nice.
😁
Bahhahahaha
Matt, he already has. He told me the back straps were excellent, but he boiled the horn all day and it never would get tender.
It’s a little known fact that the way to take a unicorn is to jump on its back and blow its horn untill the battery goes dead.
Oh joy, another reDUMBlican investigation. Big whoopie. DO SOMETHING OR QUIT WASTING OUR TAX $. This is just another I’m going to take care of those demoKKKrats once and for all. ya right. FJB & F the uniparty
Glad to see someone willing to push back. You cannot even trust warrants these days and quite frankly I don’t think people should honor them unless they are able to read them and get answers to how they were obtained and have your lawyer’s phone handy so you can get them on the phone while you are being intimidated. Belonging to groups like US Law Shield and others is a must these days to have quick access to legal advice in an emergency and coverage if you have to go to court.
dprato – have them on speed dial and politely advise the wannabe intruders you have your legal counsel on the phone and their actions ARE being recorded. This might also be a good ad for having one of the doorbell cameras as well. Sure, neither are going to stop them if they are bound and determined to take you out oops down. They might hesitate a bit before they shoot your dog, especially if they just happen to have the wrong address.
I would imagine they would just take your phone and smash it, if you tried to stop them they’d shoot you you.
Power is power.
No way man, they’d seize it as evidence.
Goal–100,000 American dollars.
Raised so far–820 smackers.
The 2A “community” is all hat and no cattle.
Does the “2A community” include you? How much did you donate?
Federal Court Rejects Lead Ammo Ban In National Forest.
Why shooting sports are exploding in popularity among young people.
Word is Shannon Watts almost had her first orgasm when she misheard the title of the PBS News Hour show thinking it said that shooting sports are not popular among young people.
😁
.40, did that talking head really warn us the video contains the sound of gunfire? Never heard Hollywood warn me of that before a movie or television program.
“.40, did that talking head really warn us the video contains the sound of gunfire?”
Yes he did.
Imagine that, a story about shooting sports exploding in popularity among young people… and PBS displays ‘woke stupid’ with ‘We should warn you then story includes the sound of gun fire.”
Is it some sort of trigger thing for people? Maybe to some, but if they are so easily triggered then why are they watching a story about shooting sports exploding in popularity among young people?
(yeah, I slipped a gun reference in their with ‘triggered’ … 😁)
That’s like running a story about rain fall and saying “We should warn you the story includes moisture.”
And shooting “orange disks”
Amazing the National Peoples Broadcasting would run this story.
Trap is also big in Iowa HS. And archery (NASP) in Middle/High school. But lean toward FUDD. What this nation needs (at least in Blue) is widespread Centerfire competition. Long range rifle, Pistol, Three gun. A range in every school to reinforce “blade of grass”. Where DOES all that ammo/gun tax $ end up?
“exploding in popularity” – that’s likely the reason slow joe and company are wanting to deny federal funding for shooting and archery programs in junior and senior high schools.
I heard a very telling line in the dialogue such activities make them ‘mentally strong’ and of course a lot more resistant to the programming er um indoctrination oops .gov mandated ‘education’.
always record interactions with law enforcement. Seems to me this guy may have made things move a whole lot quicker if he had, and they acted as he said they did.
Seems like a good way to get your cell phone crushed underfoot to me and besides he was hand cuffed at the time.
Stream it to a cloud account.
Phone gets busted, the data up to that point is preserved. (Easiest for the general population to do.)
Actually, there are a pile of sites that reccomend doing either that, or stream to an offsite server setup just for that.
That is probably something Joe Public wouldn’t be familiar with, but it would be MUCH harder for the Feebs to seize/dissappear the video..
Its hard to record interaction when you are basically taken by surprise then hand cuffed and have automatic weapons pointed at you by mentally unstable tyrants for no crime at all and everyone else in the area at the time that could record (his 13 year old son) is kept segregated and terrorized, and not allowed to record it.
.40 cal Booger,
I was thinking the same thing on all of your points.
I read in another article this morning, the ATF disabled his cameras and unplugged his internet. So recording it may not have been possible.
Mel,
If that article is true, then it is time for discreet nannycams. (For the unaware nannycams are are very-well hidden cameras. For example the eye of a small stuffed animal could be a nannycam.)
And high-fidelity audio recording would be nice as well in addition to nannycams (which should also record audio although the audio would not be anywhere near as sensitive and high quality).
The tricky part may be where to record and save the video/audio. A large NVR (network video recorder) is obvious during a search and easy to find/destroy. Perhaps a much smaller network video recorder hidden in a location where government thugs would not typically search would be the way to go.
Anyone running a kitchen-table FLL should have hidden cameras and microphones uploading to the cloud as a matter of security.
“If that article is true, then it is time for discreet nannycams.”
If it happened as claimed by the victim its time for armed resistance, citizen fire teams and squads, discrete snipers, and a revolution.
The heck with just recording it any more…we already know when they show up its with a tyrannical hostile intent. They show up at peoples homes with illegal registry lists accusing them of crimes they did not commit so they can try to coerce their way into a home with warrant or cause, and they are armed. The purposely lie to an innocent man so they can show up to use a bogus warrant, and unlawfully detain and cuff him and terrorize him and his child at gun point. They continually make up definitions out of thin air for their self-serving purpose of being able to call people criminals so they can show up with armed force to threaten and terrorize and imprison them. They gleefully take away peoples lively hood at gun point for misspelling a name or not writing a letter clearly.
We already know when they show up its with hostile intent.
correction for: “coerce their way into a home with warrant or cause”
should have been …
coerce their way into a home without warrant or cause
Old S.F. saying–“if you aint cheating, you aint trying” watch their search patterns on TV and use spots they tend to miss, or ignore to place your “nannycam”. Good thinking!
Hey, that photo looks like the guy from the “Gun Meme of the Day: Sex Position Edition“
You seem butthurt on that meme, wanna talk about it champ?
I’m not upset, just noticed a similarity, pudgy, middle-aged white male with glasses.
Well when they all look alike I guess I can see your obsession. Odd type but not my place to judge.
he closely resembles the loonies that shot Pres. Reagan, and John the Beatle.They too were pudgy,pale white, and couldnt get laid in a house even with reservations. Totally ineffective protoplasm.
Tread softly, void; “butthurt” has a special meaning for MajorLiar.
Oh I know I am mildly concerned he may have suffered some trauma and sees much of the world through that lense. Or he is just disingenuous and/or projecting. Either way always interesting to see how common troll comments make him scramble to defend his (talking) points.
The Markups for the 2024 Federal Budget are due at the end of this month. The entire Democrat Crime Organization controlled D.O.J. is rogue, not just the BATFE. We should contact our U.S. Representative and tell them not to fund a single bit of the Biden Tyranny, nothing at all. And no continuing resolutions. It would be better to be in grindlock until January 2025 that suffer further under a Rogue Anti-Bill of Rights Tyranny.
I don’t get it. Is everyone here going to tear up their “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsen and STFU? What more do you need to see? The government is treading on this guy and people are suggesting he record the interaction?? That maybe that will help it go quicker? Cracking jokes about some lady? At what point do all you keyboard commandoes quit bragging that you will resist the government when it comes knocking? What greater abuse do you need to see? Cause it doesn’t look like anyone is going to do anything about this.
How cool is this, Ray Epps on TTAG!
Why yes feds monitor this page amongst others.
MINOR49er, your point?
Bingo! My thoughts exactly.
seems like Epps may be what used to be called –“a plausibly deniable asset”—someone an agency hires someone from outside to do their work because they are not sworn officers of that agency,so the agency says with a straight face–“he isnt ours”
Social media is set up to act as a pressure relief valve.
ATF knows they have until Biden leaves office to get away with operating on the edge of the legal envelope. If a Republican gets in to office their fun and games will likely be severely curtailed. They also know there’s really nothing illegal going on with gun shows. It’s all zealots chasing their liberal anti-gun dreams. Sooner or later another Waco will happen again because those in power never learn.
If something similar every happens, you can be assured that FBI thug agents are inciting it. As the Michigan Wittless “plot” and Jan 6. Their stoolies are certainly on TTAG and all the other gun and conservative forums.
I’d like to see the video of the ATFJBT attempting to raid an FFL and the county Sheriff show up with 40 deputised citizens from the community.
May most of them be veterans with combat experience and in no mood for bs.
you really need to look up ‘Athens Tennessee 1946″ citizens fight back against–Democrat draft dodgers. The veterans knew what to do!
Humphrey Dumphry sat on a wall
Humphrey Dumphry had a great fall
All the Kings horses and all the Kings men
Shit all over the citizens again.
And there ain’t nothing we can do about it.
Embrace the Pain Mortals.
LOOP HOLE!!!
Retain receipt and sell at cost, therefore not making a profit!!!!
“Retain receipt and sell at cost, therefore not making a profit!!!!”
Might be underestimating govt, a bit.
“ no one in the federal government is going to hold the agency accountable as long as Joe Biden occupies the White House. ”
Name a single government agency GOP has ever dismantled. Now count the times GOP voters have been catfished by DNC-light since Ronald “Mumford Act” Reagan.
Clowns pretending they’re going to do something other than vote with the herd.
Social media is set up to act as a pressure relief. There will be no rescue.
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