Chapter 19
“I have a message from the Tea Party, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. We’ve come to take our government back.”
Four dark blue unmarked panel vans pulled into a small strip center in Arlington, Texas near 5:00 p.m. Inside one of the storefronts, volunteers from the Arlington Tea Party were finishing up their day, getting ready to fight the rush-hour traffic home.
This Tea Party group had six full-time volunteers, four women and two men who were there almost daily. Three of the volunteers were over sixty years old. They were using their retirement to stay busy and devote time to what they thought was a worthwhile grassroots cause.
Three vans sped through the parking lot and parked in front, purposely blocking staff members’ cars in their parking spaces. The fourth van pulled around behind the building near the back door. Just a few seconds behind them came two vans from the local NBC and ABC affiliates that parked approximately fifty yards away from the Tea Party office front. The station crews exited their vans with television cameras at the ready and appeared to be waiting for some kind of event to take place.
A woman came out of the Tea Party office and peered at the van parked directly behind her SUV. She started for her vehicle.
The back cargo doors of the vans swung open. SWAT police jumped out of the vans in full paramilitary gear—helmets, bullet-proof vests and automatic weapons. Fully visible on the back of each were the bright yellow letters ATF.
The agents approached the Tea Party volunteer with guns drawn, screaming at her to get down on the ground. Two agents escorted her to the ground as the rest burst through the front door of the office, forcing the five other staff members to the floor. The squad’s automatic weapons were pointed at them.
The agents struck two middle-age staffers, a man and woman, repeatedly with batons because they could not get to the floor fast enough to suit them. It was apparent the sudden commotion had confused them, and they didn’t understand the multiple, sometimes conflicting commands being shouted at them.
There was a loud crack at the back of the office as agents violently forced the door off its hinges, charging in with guns drawn, yelling orders.
From the south side of the parking lot, at least ten police cars from various law enforcement agencies poured into the parking lot. As news cameras rolled, the ATF and local police led the staff members out of the office in handcuffs. The women were crying, and the men looked like they were in shock. The two that had been hit were bleeding, with blood running down over the man’s ear from his head and the woman bleeding from the nose. They were hustled into one of the blue vans and escorted out of the parking lot by three police cars.
The news crews were allowed to videotape the agents as they removed computers, records, boxes and file cabinets, loading them into a Ryder rental truck that pulled into the parking lot after the van left the scene. More unmarked vehicles with federal government license plates arrived. Nearly fifty ATF and federal agents, along with a number of local police, were on the scene. The entire parking lot was barricaded, and employees and customers in adjoining retail stores were evacuated to a location two blocks away.
At the exact same time the Arlington raid was conducted, no less than six other raids took place at other local Tea Party offices in the Dallas Metro area and in Denton, Texas. In addition to these raids, ATF and FBI agents conducted raids at more than two dozen private homes, businesses, and offices of various Tea Party organizations in the area.
Dallas ATF Deputy Director Walt Griffey and Lee Cabot, the deputy director of the regional FBI office studied prepared written statements behind one of the blue vans. A small podium was pulled from one of the vans and TV teams assembled microphones onto it. By this time, at least six other local news outlets from Fort Worth, Dallas and national news organizations were on hand with cameras and lights ready to film.
Griffey, a tall angular man with a bold full mustache, gray hair and expensive suit, stepped to the podium with his statement, flanked by Cabot.
“Today, under the direction of the Justice Department, agents of the ATF, FBI, Homeland Security and local law enforcement officials raided the offices of various Tea Party organizations in the North Texas region with ties to would-be assassin, Rash Sally, who was responsible for the assassination attempt on President Johnson and for the death of a Secret Service agent,” said Griffey. “Under the authority of the National Defense Authorization Act—the NDAA—we have confiscated all records, files and computers of Texas Tea Party organizations with ties to Rash Sally to further the investigation of any possible coordinated conspiracies to commit this act.”
Griffey paused to let the seriousness of his remarks sink in. “Mr. Sally had known ties to this particular Tea Party office behind me, as well as others in the region. The Justice Department, under U.S. Atty. Gen. Jamail Tibbs, is committed to conducting a full investigation of the events surrounding the tragedy on election day. Rest assured, we will ultimately bring anyone who worked in concert with Rash Sally to justice. We’ll now take a few questions.”
A blonde woman, neatly dressed in a navy blue business suit, shouted, “Are the staff members who were taken away officially under arrest?”
“The staff members and the leaders of all these organizations are being questioned as we speak as to their relationship with Rash Sally.”
“Are they incarcerated?” the blonde persisted. “Has anyone been charged?”
Griffey looked at her sternly. “At this time, nobody has been charged; however, that could change once the evidence we recovered today has been examined and we have conducted our investigation.”
A tall man in a crumpled suit shoved to the front. “How many people have been taken into custody?”
“We cannot answer that question with any accuracy. It would have depended on who was on site at the premises we raided today.”
“Do you have reason to believe there was a conspiracy within the Tea Party to assassinate the president?” another reporter shouted.
“We cannot answer specific questions about the ongoing investigation, but let me just say we have credible evidence today’s actions were necessary.”
When the raid began, Heath Sagemount was three doors down at a wireless store. He saw the ATF agents bail out of the vans as the raid began. Running out of the store with his iPhone, he activated its camera. Heath, a journalism student at nearby SMU and an avid Libertarian, let his instincts kick in, filming most of the raid with his phone’s video camera.
Now, with questions being taken, he stepped to the front, holding his iPhone high with video recorder running and shouted, “Did you have a search warrant?”
At first, Griffey ignored his question, but Heath continued to out-shout the horde of reporters, many of whom now had the same question.
“Did you have a search warrant?” Heath yelled again.
“We did not need a search warrant. The NDAA allows the federal government to act when there are suspected terrorists and terror cells in the United States.”
“Has anyone been charged? Were they read their Miranda rights? I didn’t see the people you arrested read their rights. Where are you taking them?” Heath insisted.
Fixing the young man with a baleful glare, Griffey shook his head dismissively. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is all we have time for today. The Justice Department will keep you apprised of the ongoing investigation. Thank you.”
“Where are you taking them?” Heath repeated.
“Thank you.” Griffey turned his back on the crowd and left to enter one of the vans.
As Heath continued to shout questions, two FBI agents came up and told him to leave or he would be arrested. One agent grabbed Heath, pinning his arms down. The other agent grabbed the iPhone and began deleting the videos from the phone.
From behind the line of reporters, Police Chief John Rodriguez of Arlington strode up to the ATF officials, obviously irritated. “What the hell are you boys doing?” he demanded.
“Sir, we have this under control,” one official told him.
“I’ll expect you and the rest of your team to meet me at my office,” Rodriguez said angrily. “No one notified my department the ATF would be conducting these raids in my jurisdiction. And why are the Dallas police here? This is highly improper,” he grumbled.
Chief Rodriguez, a staunch Republican, was particularly pissed off that the Dallas mayor and police chief, both card-carrying Democrats, were not only aware of the joint federal agency raids, but apparently had prior knowledge well ahead of the raids.
“Chief Rodriguez,” the ATF official said sharply, “someone from the bureau will be in touch with you shortly.”
“You boys don’t seem to know anything about common courtesy and common sense,” Rodriguez told the ATF guy angrily. “You should have briefed local law enforcement before an effort like this was carried out.” He turned and stomped back to his car. The ATF official shrugged.
As police, press and bystanders started to disperse, the ATF agent returned Heath’s iPhone. As he walked to his car, Heath glanced at his phone and noticed the ATF agent hadn’t erased every video. The agent erasing them must have gotten distracted and left two videos intact. Heath picked up the pace to his car, hoping the agents didn’t come back to confiscate his phone.
When he was in his car, he drove two blocks, then pulled over to see what videos remained. As he watched the footage on the miniature screen, a huge grin crossed his face.