Mike Rogers, under consideration for FBI director, covered for botched Benghazi attack, favors deep state surveillance tactics

WASHINGTON, DC - When Donald Trump assumed the presidency in 2017, he found himself at odds with several of his appointees, both within and outside his cabinet. Notable among these were John Bolton, the national security adviser; Jeff Sessions, the attorney general; and perhaps most significantly, Christopher Wray, the Director of the FBI. Trump had pledged a different approach during the recent presidential campaign. This brings us to his imminent decision regarding the FBI's leadership, a crucial choice given the agency's recent history under Wray and his predecessor, James Comey. 

Is it conceivable that Trump could repeat the same error? It's a distinct possibility, as per a report from Fox News, which cited unnamed sources, that former Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan is being considered for the role of FBI chief. Rogers, a former FBI special agent and a recent candidate for US Senate in Michigan, lost by a narrow margin. 

This would be a second chance for Rogers, who was considered in 2017 to serve as FBI director after Trump fired Comey. Wray was subsequently named FBI Director. 

Trump has promised to look outside the Washington, DC swamp to fill critical positions in the federal government, and doing so with the FBI is a vital step, especially in light of the weaponization of the agency we’ve seen over the past nine years. Under Wray’s leadership, the agency has targeted school parents protesting at board of education meetings, people praying at abortion centers, and Trump himself, who saw his house raided by armed FBI agents allegedly in search of classified documents. Why, then, would Trump look at a longtime swamp resident to lead the country’s preeminent law enforcement agency? 

Going back to the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the US Special Mission in Benghazi that killed four Americans, Rogers was knee-deep in the apparent cover-up surrounding the attack, which saw the official government spin describing as emanating from protests over an Internet video. It was never revealed what exactly Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the State Department, and the CIA were doing in Benghazi, Judicial Watch reported. 

Rogers, as then-chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, led hearings investigating the Benghazi attack and downplayed testimony from CIA contractors given in closed session. Judicial Watch reported, citing Daily Beast national security correspondent Eli Lake, that he did not believe the CIA had stonewalled the committee. Rogers, along with Reps. Buck McKeon and Darrell Issa both initially opposed the creation of the select committee in Benghazi. 

An interesting side-note to the Benghazi fiasco is that Rogers’ wife, Kristi Rogers, had run a private military contracting firm, Aegis Defense Services. Through Ms. Rogers’ efforts, “Aegis won several major contracts with the U.S. administration,” the newsletter Intelligence Online wrote. 

It should be noted that according to a spokesperson for the House Intelligence Committee, policies mandated “that there should be no interaction with Mrs. ROgers on any matter relating to the official business of the House” and “no interaction between the Committee and any representative of Aegis.” Judicial Watch noted there was “no evidence of wrong-doing” by Mr. Rogers or Aegis, however, it said what occurred was “an insider’s game of covert operations and corporate profits played out in the gray areas of law and policy.” 

To understand the Benghazi fiasco, it is essential to learn some history. As reported by Judicial Watch, protests began against then-Libyan strongman Muammar Gadhafi in February 2011. NATO got involved and began air strikes in March of that same year. As reported by the AP at the time, the CIA and State Department were “working closely” to track down arms stockpiles, including chemical weapons, yellowcake uranium, and 20,000 MANPAD shoulder-fired missiles. The spokesperson for the State Department at the time was a woman named Victoria Nuland. 

Nuland has long been involved in foreign policy and was known as a “combative liberal hawk,” according to Responsible Statecraft, and served in prominent roles in the administrations of Obama and Biden while also representing the U.S. at NATO under George W. Bush. In other words, she’s a classic deep-state mole. She was actively involved in meddling in Ukrainian affairs during the Maidan protests and was involved with the ousting of former Ukrainian President Yanukovych. 

The outlet noted that on a leaked recording of a call to the US Ambassador to Ukraine at that time, she said, “fuck the EU,” which they called “remarkable,” according to one journalist. 

“What was remarkable about the episode was the utter confidence with which Nuland seemed to speak for the United States and its policy. From the start of his administration, President Barack Obama tried to lower tensions with Russia and refocus American attention on a rising China; he made clear that he wanted no part in the problems of the post-Soviet periphery. Yet in the middle of the uprising in Kiev, there was Nuland, encouraging protesters and insulting European allies,” journalist Keith Gessen wrote. 

In October 2011, Rogers told USA Today that there were “reports that they [MANPADS] may in fact have crossed borders,” in effect criticizing the Obama administration for a lack of urgency. After Gadhafi was killed and less than a year later, Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack on the embassy station in Benghazi, Rogers became an outspoken critic of the Obama administration, slamming it for a lack of transparency. 

Aegis also operated within Libya. When then-Rep. Rogers assumed control of the House Intelligence Committee, and Aegis Advisory–a subsidiary of Aegis–started to set up shop in Libya. 

‘Aegis has been operating in Libya since February 2011,” an Aegis Advisory intelligence report aimed at corporate clients read. The report was marked “Confidential” and advised the company’s ability to provide “proprietary information [and] expert knowledge from our country team based in Tripoli. The company also provided security as part of its package, with the report noting, “Aegis has extensive links in Libya which can be leveraged quickly to ensure safe passage,” Judicial Watch reported. In a 2012 piece, Al Jazeera reported Aegis was “seeking a $5 billion contract to guard Libya’s vast and porous borders.” 

Rogers’ wife started out as a press aide to Ambassador Paul Bremer in Iraq and later as an assistant commissioner for public affairs at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. When Aegis opened a U.S. branch in 2006, Ms. Rogers was named executive vice president. She was promoted to president in 2008 and CEO in 2009. In 2011, she was named vice chairman of the Aegis board of directors. In 2012, she left and joined a law firm, Manatt, as managing director for federal government affairs. 

Shortly after Ms. Rogers was named vice chairman of the board, Aegis began taking particular interest in Benghazi. Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, a global intelligence and consulting firm, became a recipient of Aegis Advisory’s Libya briefings. WikiLeaks obtained Stratfor documents that showed the Libya briefings were sent to Stratfor’s so-called “alpha list,” a confidential repository for most of the filtered intelligence, a Stratfor analyst wrote in an email released by WikiLeaks. “The first rule of the alpha list is that you don’t talk about the alpha list.” 

In a July 2011 report circulated to the alpha list, a senior Aegis official spoke about a trip to Benghazi: 

“Despite reports of pockets of jihadist elements, the presence of Islamic extremism has so far been low-key,” the official said. However, other elements were at work. “Qatar and the UAE [United Arab Emirates] have established a strong presence on the ground, providing tactical assistance at all levels, weapons, and recognition,” the official said while adding that one motivation for the Qatari involvement was “U.S. support to act as its proxy.” 

What is the tie-in between Aegis and Benghazi? Rumors circulated that linked Aegis to the Blue Mountain Group tasked with guarding the State Department’s Benghazi mission. However, Aegis has denied the ties and issued a statement confirming the same. “No member of the Aegis Group has ever entered into a contract with any department of the U.S. government to perform work in Libya.” 

That may be the official story, but Judicial Watch noted that activities concerning the U.S. government, its allies, and private contractors in Libya are “cloaked in secrecy.” For example, to avoid congressional oversight, some sensitive missions were handed off to friendly foreign governments or through so-called “shell” companies. While there is no evidence that Aegis was involved in such a thing, Ms. Rogers was laser-focused on pushing Aegis’s ability to conduct confidential operations. 

In fact, a biographical profile on Manatt’s website that was since removed said that Ms. Rogers “obtained top-secret facility security clearance for Aegis, created the company’s board of directors, and positioned it for future growth and expansion.” The BOD included two swamp creatures–former senior CIA officials, Robert Reynolds, a leader in contract and procurement for the CIA, and John Sano, a former deputy director of the CIA’s clandestine services, Judicial Watch wrote. 

When the story got too close to Ms. Rogers, Rep. Rogers abruptly stepped down from his House seat to become a radio talk show host. Only two weeks earlier, his wife left Manatt after only thirteen months, an unannounced departure. Her affiliation with the firm has since been scrubbed from its website. 

When Judicial Watch reached out to the various players involved, they reached a dead end. Neither Ms. Rogers, Manatt, Reynolds, or Sano responded to interview requests. The State Department and the CIA were also contacted by Judicial Watch and refused to respond to questions about Aegis. Judicial Watch also reached out to an attorney for Aegis, who declined to answer questions about its work with the U.S. intelligence community and its work in Benghazi. 

That brings us back to Rogers being considered as a candidate for FBI Director, along with longtime Trump loyalist Kash Patel. The Daily Caller reports that Patel was a vocal critic of the Mueller investigation into alleged “Russian collusion” in the 2016 election. More recently, Patel called for a “24/7 declassification office.” 

“What the deep state uses the most to cover up their corruption is an illegal application of the classification system,” Patel stated. 

Patel, who served in the previous Trump administration as chief of staff to the acting Secretary of Defense, is a longtime critic of the FBI and the surveillance state and has suggested shutting down the FBI’s DC headquarters and shipping agents across the country to tackle crime. 

‘I’d shut down the FBI Hoover building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state,” Patel said in an interview. “And I’d take the 7,000 employees who work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals.” 

The fact that some former agents oppose Patel’s appointment should be all President Trump needs to deep-six Rogers and appoint someone like Patel. 

That brings us to Rogers, who in 2020 mocked Trump for questioning the election results. In a November 21, 2020, op-ed in the Detroit News, Rogers said Trump’s questioning of the election results in Michigan and other states “is cause for both concern and alarm and should be roundly rejected by both Democrats and Republicans alike.” 

“By attempting to use the trappings of the Oval Office to influence state officials, he is violating norms of behavior and setting a dangerous precedent for the future–not just here, but internationally. American democracy must be about more than one person or one party, and right now, the president should honor the office by acting accordingly,” Rogers wrote.

[...]

“The reality for Trump is that he lost the election, and not just in Michigan. The 2020 election was perhaps the most closely watched in history. 

“That we were able to hold an election in the middle of a global pandemic is something worth celebrating–not even COVID-19 was able to disrupt our holding elections. Here, state and local officials should be receiving much-deserved applause for organizing and conducting the vote, enabling our democracy, upholding the law, and counting every ballot. These same state and local officials now need to carry out their duties and certify the people’s decision.” 

Rogers completely dismissed numerous questionable issues, particularly in states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia, and also the fact that deep-state Democrats have questioned every Republican presidential win since 2000. 

The rumors about Trump considering deep-state Rogers for FBI director has gotten the attention of numerous conservatives, from CEO and founder of The Federalist Sean Davis to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and former Trump attorney Roger Stone, who knows a thing or two about deep state corruption. 

.From Davis: 

“Absolutely not. Mike Rogers is a CIA-owned, Deep State clown who could not care less about putting America First. He will stab Trump and all of his supporters in the back at the very first opportunity in order to push America Last neocon foreign policy.” 

From Paul: 

“Donald Trump just endorsed the worst Deep State candidate this cycle. 

@MikeRogersForMI is a never Trumper, and a card carrying member of the spy state that seeks to destroy Trump. 

You have to ask yourself, who gives Trump this awful advice? 

Who’s next, John Bolton?” 

Roger Stone called Rogers “the chief apologist of the mass surveillance policies that allowed President Donald Trump to be spied upon and sabotaged by the unaccountable deep state bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.” 

Stone called Rogers “a fox in the hen house undermining President Trump’s America First agenda,” noting that Rogers made media appearances where he said Trump was “dead in the water” while considering “an anti-Trump presidential run–as recently as last year.” 

In a 20203 interview on CBS News, Rogers completely undermined Trump’s 2024 campaign:

“I don’t believe today as I’m sitting here that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee in 2024. Don’t believe it…He may actually stay in for a while. I just don’t think I believe he will be [the nominee]. His troubles are mounting, his fundraising is waning,” Rogers said. 

Trump just won a landslide election, including the popular vote, 

Rogers previously said, “Trump’s time has passed,” while calling the MAGA movement “clearly destructive.” 

Rogers also supported an open-ended probe into the people who protested election fraud at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

‘When you assault a police officer, you are a criminal. When you break a window to get into a place you are not authorized to be in, you are a criminal,” Rogers said while defending the killer of unarmed military veteran Ashli Babbitt, Lt. Michael Byrd of the Capitol Police. 

Rogers also blamed Trump for the violence that took place on Jan. 6, as reported on CNN:

“The former Republican congressman blamed then-President Donald Trump’s ‘chaotic leadership style’ for costing his party two critical Senate seats in Georgia. He said that ‘the spell’ around Trump had been broken by the US Capitol attack, which he said Trump’s actions ‘clearly’ provoked. And in discussing a news report a week later saying that Trump privately acknowledged some responsibility for the attack, Rogers made his own view crystal clear. ‘Well, you’re damn right you had responsibility for this,’ Rogers said of Trump on January 12, 2021. 

Some Republicans have criticized a few of Trump’s selections for various cabinet posts, but given the mandate he received from the American people, he needs to have people he can trust and who won’t stab him in the back, as happened in his first administration. That said, some people raise red flags that Trump needs to be cautious of, and Rogers is one of those. 

Hopefully, the president-elect will listen to those closest to him and conservatives like Sean Davis and Rand Paul and select an FBI Director who will overhaul the FBI, not double down on their subterfuge.