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Trevor Aaronson

@trevoraaronson.bsky.social
1.5K followers 142 following 37 posts

Journalist writing a book about the FBI | Peabody winner | Pulse and Into the Madness now on Audible | Signal: taa.10 | linktr.ee/trevoraaronson

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Reposted by Trevor Aaronson
Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
This is just astonishingly great reporting. All of the crises the White House has claimed over the last 14 months were planned in advance. All of them. And however much contempt you have for media outlets who reverently relayed Trump's claim to have no relation to Project 2025, it isn't enough.
phoenixnewtimes.com
Insurrectionist Brunch: Trumpists plotted to deploy military on U.S. soil
Before the 2024 election, a cadre of MAGA loyalists met over brunch to plot ways for Trump to use the military domestically.
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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Actual history teachers: um, no
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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
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Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
The vast percentage of roles in the modern US military are *not* in combat. Who cares if your mechanic can do 100 pushups? If your cook can run a sub-6 minute mile? If your intelligence analyst can deadlift 300 pounds? And who cares if your Sec of Defense is great at PT if he cannot think or lead?
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
After 20 years of resisting FBI coercion, Farahi is again fighting for his freedom. My new story in @theintercept: bit.ly/4peQ3ie
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This Imam Refused to Be an FBI Informant. Now ICE Wants to Deport Him.
Foad Farahi had resisted the FBI since the George W. Bush administration. Under Trump, ICE rounded him up.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
This summer, ICE agents knocked on Farahi’s door in North Miami Beach. He was detained and sent to a remote facility. He’s now one of a record 60,000 people in ICE detention. A judge ruled he can’t be sent to Iran, so Trump officials are trying to deport him to a third country.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Decades of investigation produced no charges. Farahi has never been credibly accused of terrorism, much less indicted. The government’s suspicion appears to rest largely on one informant’s uncorroborated claims.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
The FBI kept investigating Farahi, always coming up short. At one point, they even hired a conman as an informant and tasked him with befriending Farahi. While on the FBI payroll, that informant was committing crimes the Bureau ignored. bit.ly/46phoGQ
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FBI Counterterrorism Informant Spent a Decade Committing Fraud
While working to ensnare Muslims in FBI stings, Mohammed Agbareia preyed on the Islamic community as a con man.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Years later, FBI agent Terry Albury leaked internal manuals to @theintercept. The files confirmed what Farahi’s case suggested: this wasn’t a rogue tactic. It was codified FBI policy. bit.ly/3I2C3XY
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The FBI’s Secret Rules
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
I first wrote about Foad Farahi’s case in 2009. It was one of the earliest public examples of the FBI using immigration status to pressure Muslim informants. At the time, the FBI denied the practice outright. Even as more cases emerged, the Bureau kept denying. bit.ly/4nh2h82
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FBI tries to deport Muslim man for refusing to be an informant
Unholy War: FBI tries to deport North Miami Beach imam Foad Farahi for refusing to be an informant
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Two decades ago, the FBI used immigration as leverage to recruit an imam as a spy. He refused, and avoided deportation. Then the Trump administration rounded him up. His story is a Kafkaesque saga linking the FBI’s post-9/11 informant machine to today’s immigration dragnet. 🧵
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
@michael-feinberg.bsky.social Michael, I'm a journalist -- I was hoping to connect with you about a project I'm researching. Could you send me a message here or via Signal (username taa.10)? Thanks.
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Peabody Awards @peabodyawards.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Breaking news narratives shape our memories of major events as media cycles evolve. Learn the real stories by watching and listening to these Peabody-recognized works highlighted in our latest #PeabodyFinds newsletter. ➡️ peabodyawards.com/stories/reth... @wnyc.org @trevoraaronson.bsky.social
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Peabody Awards @peabodyawards.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
@trevoraaronson.bsky.social and his team raise important questions about public narratives and the politicization of memory once reports came out after the 2016 shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, which killed 49 people and wounded 53.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
They Criticized Musk on X. Then Their Reach Collapsed. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
They Criticized Musk on X. Then Their Reach Collapsed. (Gift Article)
Three users who disagreed with the site’s owner saw views for their posts plummet.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
4/ Pulse reveals the hidden connections between the FBI, the shooter, and the shooter's father — raising urgent questions about what federal agents knew before the massacre and what they chose not to reveal. 🎧 All 8 episodes are available now on @Audible_com. bit.ly/3xQkaGG
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Pulse
Check out this great listen on Audible.com. Pulse: The Untold Story, an Audible Original from journalist Trevor Aaronson and Western Sound, investigates the Pulse nightclub shooting and raises startli...
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
3/ Pulse: The Untold Story investigates the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando — the deadliest attack on the LGBTQIA+ community in U.S. history. But there was a story you didn't hear.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
2/ For 80+ years, the @peabodyawards.bsky.social have recognized #StoriesThatMatter — media that defends the public interest, encourages empathy, and expands our understanding of the world. bit.ly/PeabodyNomin...
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Nominees - The Peabody Awards
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
I'm honored to share that Pulse: The Untold Story, my Audible Original documentary series, has been nominated for a Peabody Award in the Podcast/Radio: Documentary category. #PeabodyAwards #Peabody85 🧵
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Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
It always boggles my mind that I, a journalist, am expressly forbidden from trading stocks, but members of Congress, with vastly greater knowledge of market-moving news, are allowed to profit by front-running markets, and so may profit by in essence stealing from the public they represent.
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
One man just wiped out $10 trillion in wealth, is destroying centuries-old legal protections, and seems determined to unravel humanity’s greatest public health achievement. In 3 months. I don’t know how we get out of this. But if we do, one person can never have that kind of power again.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
A trade war is brewing, markets are tumbling, and economists are warning of a recession — yet this is the lead story on Fox News' website right now.
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Ben Wikler @benwikler.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
The Department of Government Efficiency, for example
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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
The government’s statement is a flex, not a confession of error. The important elements of the flex are these: 1. We send enemies to brutal foreign labor camps. 2. We decide who enemies are. 3. We may decide you are an enemy based on a secret informant, or our view of your tattoos. /1
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Between this guy's pardon and Carlos Watson's commutation, the message is clear: In America, the bigger your financial crime, the safer you are.
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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
A very old Soviet joke, from an especially dark time: Foxes are fleeing the USSR in droves. Q: Why are you running away? Fox: The Soviets passed a new law that they’re going to arrest all camels. Q: But you’re foxes! Fox: Yeah, why don’t *you* try proving to the NKVD that you’re not a camel.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
This isn’t a national crisis. It’s a moral panic — manufactured, inflated, and designed to justify a sweeping expansion of immigration enforcement power. Full story here ⬇ (7/7) bit.ly/4l57JKN
bit.ly
How a Landlord and a Florida PR Firm Helped Trump Kick Off the Tren de Aragua Gang Panic
Trump’s “Operation Aurora” swept up only one suspected Tren de Aragua gang member — but set the stage for a radical expansion of government power.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Also in the piece: a mini-scoop. FBI special agents in charge are now expected to participate in ICE raids — for photo ops like the one shown here. “They have to pose,” one former FBI agent told me. (6/7)
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
ICE’s X account is now filled with photos of men labeled as Tren de Aragua members. Can they prove those claims? They don’t have to. Under Trump’s wartime powers, just the accusation is enough for deportation. (5/7)
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
After Trump took office, ICE, DHS, and the DEA launched eight operations in the Denver area, claiming they were targeting more than 100 members of the violent Venezuelan gang. How many suspected gang members did they actually find? Just one. (4/7)
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
The narrative exploded — boosted by local media, the New York Post, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump. A viral video of armed men at an Aurora apartment turned the complex into ground zero for a nationwide gang panic. (3/7)
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
In 2024, a property company in Colorado — facing civil and possible criminal exposure over poor housing conditions — hired a Florida PR firm. They began pushing a narrative to the media: Repairs couldn’t be made because Venezuelan gang members had taken over the buildings. (2/7)
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Think a Venezuelan gang is invading the U.S.? My story today in @theintercept.com is about how that panic really started — not with a crime wave, but with an alleged slumlord in Colorado and a PR firm in Florida. (1/7) 👇
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
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Lisa Song @lisalsong.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Six employees said the scope and scale of the list is unprecedented and highly unusual. (My first time working with the wonderful @anniewaldman.bsky.social !)
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
www.techradar.com/news/live/x-...
techradar.com
X is down again – here's everything we know about Twitter's third outage of the day
X is having a bad day that appears to be getting worse
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Seems fitting.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
C'mon, at least make the metaphors a little less obvious. bit.ly/3F9QLe1
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SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft explodes midflight for a second time | CNN
SpaceX pulled off the rocket booster catch maneuver during its eighth test flight but the Starship spacecraft exploded over the Caribbean, according to reports from residents.
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 05/03/2025
Yeah. This is the other point that's so important. We *need* decentralized systems across the board to protect democracy. We need people to have the power to control their online experiences, rather than oligarchs.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
For context, I wrote here about how the "FBI did it" conspiracy theory surrounding January 6 led me to this story and to exploring the deeper connections between violence and conspiracy theories in American life. 6/6 bit.ly/412y2Z0
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The Shooter Who Tried to Create a Conspiracy Theory
"Into the Madness," now available on Audible, investigates a mass shooting outside Chicago — and what it reveals about America’s obsession with conspiracy theories.
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Listen here or search "Into the Madness" on Audible. 5/6 www.audible.com/pd/Into-the-...
audible.com
Into the Madness
Check out this great listen on Audible.com. On July 4, 2022, a shooter climbed onto a rooftop in Highland Park, Illinois, and opened fire on a Fourth of July parade below, killing seven people and wou...
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Drawing from dozens of interviews and more than 48 hours of recorded calls with Crimo, the series explores the rise of nihilistic violence, the role of technology in fostering extremism, and America's increasing susceptibility to conspiracy thinking. 4/6
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
"Into the Madness" reveals how Crimo tried to turn the shooting into a game, one designed to spread a conspiracy theory. 3/6
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Next week, Robert “Bobby” Crimo III goes on trial. But what has remained unknown — until this series — is what might have motivated him. 2/6
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
On July 4, 2022, a gunman opened fire on a parade outside Chicago, killing seven and wounding dozens. "Into the Madness," my new Audible series out today, uncovers the story behind the attack — and how conspiracy theories fueled the violence. 1/6
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 13/02/2025
See here's how to do a headline. fortune.com/2025/02/13/e...
Some federal workers are ‘getting wealthy at taxpayer expense,’ says Elon Musk, whose companies have received at least $20 billion from the government
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Trevor Aaronson @trevoraaronson.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Several former FBI agents, all aligned with Kash Patel, attempted to ease my concerns about Trump's nominee to head the nation's top law enforcement agency. bit.ly/40nlA6X
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