The Libertarian Party had one of its social media accounts compromised by a “hostile foreign government,” according to LNC Chair Angela McArdle, who shared on Friday that the party was recently contacted by an FBI field agent. McArdle later shared an FBI letter which stated that it was the party’s Facebook account and that it occurred sometime between August 2023 and February 2024.
McArdle, in an X post made on Friday, stated that an FBI field agent contacted the Libertarian National Committee on Thursday and alleged that one of the party’s social media accounts had been compromised by a “hostile foreign government.” However, McArdle said that the agent refused to disclose how the FBI obtained the information, as well as which government and the specific nature of the threat.
A copy of a letter that was also sent to the Libertarian National Committee from the FBI was later posted by McArdle on her X account and is available here. The letter also shared information confirming the specific account and the timeframe.
In response to this information, McArdle stated that the Libertarian Party’s IT department and social media team “performed due diligence” to ensure that there was no breach of data. She added that no evidence of such a breach was uncovered based on their findings.
McArdle went on to express her lack of trust in the FBI, referencing stories of aggressive FBI field agents appearing across the country. Additionally, she criticized the Biden administration for cracking down on dissenting voices ahead of the 2024 general election, stating that the Libertarian Party intended to continue calling out instances of corruption they might find within the current Department of Justice and the Biden administration.
“The greatest threat to freedom in the US isn’t an anonymous ‘hostile foreign government,'” McArdle concluded in her post. “It is the United States Government. It is the current administration, who has engaged in an unprecedented amount of censorship, coercion, and Orwellian control tactics.”
McArdle mentioned in a follow-up post to her original statement that the party intends to release the contents of the conversation “soon.” A letter from the FBI was also shared later in the day.
Editorial update: This article has been updated at 4:50 PM EST to include a letter that the Libertarian National Committee received from the FBI regarding the compromise.
Has there been any update on this?
Minor update. As mentioned earlier in the comments, Jake Porter submitted a FOIA request for additional information regarding the recent FBI communication with the Libertarian Party. He recently stated on social media that he has received acknowledgment of his FOIA request for further information.
Link: https://twitter.com/jakedporter/status/1775957418356195649
Gadfly,
Per the temptation of Christ, Satan rules all governments, since offering Jesus power over all governments would have to be a real offer for it to be tempting, and Jesus would know whether the offer was real. Is there any reason to believe the US government would be an exception?
Zuckerberg forgot to wear his glasses again, did he?
Per Jack, it does check out, and the Eff Bee Eye does promise a follow-up response. Assuming the letter is genuine, the feds do not say what, if anything, the hackers did, if it’s actual hackers and not just a foreign log-in or whatever. So, let’s all go to the LP’s Facebook page and see if it has an posts that might be even more head-scratching than normal in the last six months.
Wait, WAIT!
Did McArdle not talk about Luciferian masters here at the IPR in the request for a party fiscal audit? Would Satan not be a representative of a foreign government?
There’s your answer, folks; thank me later, Jordan.
Thanks to those who pointed me to the return address – I’d missed it since it wasn’t part of the letterhead. It’s weird that it says to refer to that office than to “reply” to that office.
Look one line above case reference number.
It’s in the letterhead. I plugged it into a search engine. Came up as FBI field office.
Hi Jack – the letter that Angela posted doesn’t have a return address. Where did you see one? Can you link it? Thanks! Case or reference numbers are worthless. I get all sorts of spam emails with reference numbers.
It has a reply address which checks out as FBI DC field office and a reference case number. Lack of agent name and signature or other contact info such as phone or email is somewhat suspicious but may have been stripped to avoid public harassment from social media followers. I agree, we should not treat it as factual until more info available, but it’s not implausible either from what I can see.
If it was a prank, maybe someone is trying to bring LNC to FBI’s attention.
I think it unlikely that this was really from the FBI and was more likely a phishing expedition. I’ve had contacts from the FBI (I worked at a church on Capitol Hill during J6) and what Angela describes doesn’t sound like them at all. The letter shared also looks strange. A letterhead with no address? Inconsistent formatting in the body of the letter? No signature? With respect, I think that the headline and statements in the article should not state as a fact that there has been FBI contact until that is confirmed in some way.
The FBI letter asks for feedback but doesn’t include any contact info. I am dubious it is real.
As much as they’d like to flatter themselves otherwise, the FBI absolutely does not give a shit about the LNC or what it says.
Most likely scenarios? The IP addresses in question belonged to a VPN or similar privacy tool; or perhaps someone with fb account keys logged in from a foreign cell SIM/network, business, hotel, etc on a trip abroad; or something similar. Or someone picked up a keylogger virus leading to remote access while surfing porn or whatever.
Or lnc is getting pranked. We’ll see how quickly feebs reply to foia request.
There is nothing unusual or unexpected in feebs not publicizing sources and methods. That’s exactly the response you would expect.
Their advice is generally sound. 2FA and frequent password updates are generally recommended. That’s regardless of allegedly hostile foreign actors.
I have filed a FOIA request with the FBI requesting copies of all correspondence from them to the Libertarian Party and officers as well as meta data from any phone calls made between them and the officers during 2022-2024.
I’m 100% certain she verified that this was really the FBI.