U.S. Government Desperate To Hide Identity At Bundy Standoff Trials
by Charles C. Bonniwell
Glendale’s very own phony private investigator Charles Johnson has now made national news regarding a fake documentary he directed on the Cliven Bundy family in Nevada. His national exposure includes PBS’ Frontline documentary television series and stories in the investigative online magazine The Intercept to the apparent great consternation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States government generally.
Johnson Comes To Glendale
Johnson arrived in Glendale in March 2016, claiming to be a private consultant for an unidentified “female journalist” tracking down anyone who was quoted in the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle critical of Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi, the principal owner of Authentic Persian & Oriental Rugs, or his proposed massive condo development on Colorado Boulevard. Johnson also tried to gain entrance into Glendale City Clerk Sherry Frame’s Denver apartment late on a Saturday afternoon. (See “Phony P.I. Arrested: Citizens Critical of Wealthy Rug Merchants Harassed,” Chronicle front page April 2016 issue.)
Various persons who were stalked and harassed by Johnson filed complaints with the Glendale and Lakewood police departments and when he returned to Glendale several weeks later he was arrested by the Glendale Police for failing to register in Colorado as a private investigator as required by Colorado law. However, prior to going to trial in Arapahoe County on the misdemeanor charge the FBI demanded that Arapahoe County D.A. George Brauchler dismiss all charges “for reasons that cannot be disclosed.”
FBI Letter
Brauchler however indicated that he required a letter on FBI letterhead by the Special Agent in Charge of the Denver office before he would act. He then took the letter, attached it to his request for dismissal to the court, which made the letter publicly available to the outrage of the FBI. The Chronicle published the full letter as part of our June 2016 front page story “Phony P.I. — FBI Mole or Worse? All Charges Dismissed Per FBI.”
In March 2017 the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies issued a “Cease and Desist Order” against Johnson from acting as a private investigator in Colorado without obtaining a license, which the FBI was unable to block. (See “FBI Agent Provocateur Charles Issued ‘Cease and Desist Order’ From Colorado Agency,” Chronicle front page February 2017 issue.)
But it was always unclear who exactly was Charles Johnson. Was he an FBI informant, a rogue agent or something else? We now know. The man arrested by the Glendale police and pictured on the front page of the Chronicle is, in fact, an official Special Agent of the FBI whose real name is not Charles Johnson.
Johnson In Nevada
Agent Johnson went to Nevada after the standoff over the cattle of Cliven Bundy which had been seized by the BLM concerning a multiyear grazing fee dispute. A group of armed citizens had taken the cattle back from the BLM who feared a Ruby Ridge-like firefight and had backed down. But the government was now intensely committed to bringing criminal charges against Cliven Bundy, his two sons and 14 other people who were part of the standoff.
Johnson arrived in Nevada claiming he was a documentary film producer and he wanted to produce a film to be called “America Reloaded” that would be sympathetic to the Cliven Bundy family and followers. But he was, in fact, an undercover FBI Special Agent hoping to obtain incriminating statements to be used in any upcoming criminal trial. He gave out a card that was exactly the same, with one exception, as he used in Glendale with the same address in Nashville and phone number but instead of “Detective Consultant” it stated he was a director with “Longbow Productions.”
Ultimately Johnson and his camera crew obtained over 100 hours of interviews, portions of which were shown at the trial of six relatively insignificant Bundy standoff participants. The federal court ordered, over the objections of the federal prosecutors, that the minor participants be tried first followed by Cliven Bundy and his family and then a third trial of middle level participants.
Cloak Of Secrecy
Johnson was brought in under the cloak of secrecy to testify about his fake documentary. It was admitted that Johnson was, in fact, an undercover FBI agent, that Charles Johnson was not his real name, and the government would not provide his real name. He entered the courthouse through a special entrance barred from the press and the public. To hide his visage from the public all cell phones were banned from the courtroom. The federal judge prohibited any questions of Johnson about his other activities.
All of this amazing court secrecy seemed almost comical as all anyone had to do was Google the name Charles Johnson and FBI and Johnson’s arrest photo appears from the stories run in the Chronicle and on Fox 31 television in Denver. That was exactly what Trevor Aaronson, investigative reporter for The Intercept, did for his story “How An Undercover FBI Agent Ended In Jail After Pretending To Be A Journalist.” He also requested copies of the tapes, recordings and documents regarding the arrest of Johnson for his story from the City of Glendale.
The Glendale story 
was a subsidiary story to one Ryan Deveraux and Trevor Aaronson wrote in The Intercept titled “The Bizarre Story Behind the FBI’s Fake Documentary About the Bundy Family.” Embedded in the online story at The Intercept are portions of the fake documentary with Johnson as the director and interviewer trying to get the Bundy family and others to criminally implicate themselves as well as telephone calls with Johnson and Bundy family members.
PBS
PBS’s Frontline has a documentary series titled “American Patriot: Inside the Armed Uprising Against the Federal Government” in which they did a segment on May 16 titled “FBI agents posed as filmmakers infiltrate the Bundy family” in which they reveal Johnson’s fake documentary. Interestingly Frontline, in playing the videos of Bundy and followers as well as Johnson’s phone calls, distorted Johnson’s voice to hide his identity perhaps not realizing that Johnson was already an infamous figure and that the same video and phone calls were on The Intercept’s site without distortion.
Poor Track Record
The FBI’s history of pretending to be film makers and journalists is highly dubious and controversial. In the FBI’s scandalous persecution of alleged Atlanta Olympic bomber Richard Jewell, the FBI tried to get the innocent Richard Jewell to waive his constitutional rights by informing him they were simply doing a training film about bomb detection. The FBI then leaked his name to the press. It was later determined that the deadly bomb was, in fact, planted by Eric Rudolph, an anti-abortion activist. Jewell, found innocent, later sued the FBI and got a large monetary settlement.
The FBI pretending journalists became so tainted that in June 2016, four months after Johnson’s foray into Glendale, then Director of the FBI James Comey announced the FBI would rarely use that ruse and only after consultation with the deputy attorney general.
First Bundy Trial In Nevada
The first Bundy Nevada trial which ended April 24, 2017, did not go well for the government. None of the six defendants were found guilty of the main two conspiracy charges that were the core of the government’s case. Two of the defendants were found guilty of other charges including Gregory Burleson who was found guilty of eight charges, inter alia, threatening and assaulting a federal officer, interstate travel in aid of extortion, and brandishing a weapon.
The website for Frontline states that the Johnson fake documentary footage was used to help convict Burleson. Frontline did not reveal that Burleson was, until just prior to the Bundy standoff, a paid informant for the FBI in Arizona.
Federal Judge Gloria Navarro declared a mistrial for the four defendants not convicted of any charges and set the retrial to June 26, 2017. Charles Johnson is expected to once again testify under strict secrecy even though he has now become a highly visible public figure.
It is expected that the government may try to take a different approach at the retrial as defense attorneys stated that the jurors split 10 to 2 for acquittal for two defendants and a majority for acquittal on the other two defendants.
Giglio — Impaired Witness
The FBI and/or the federal prosecutors may be facing ethics charges relating to Charles Johnson. Under the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case of Giglio v. United States when a federal employee is to testify the relevant agency must disclose any information that reflects negatively on its employee’s credibility to the prosecutors and the prosecutors in turn must disclose such information to the defense attorneys. The fact that Johnson was arrested in Glendale, that he clearly lied to the Glendale police and is under a Cease and Desist Order from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies would all appear to be mandatory Giglio disclosures.
According to The Intercept no Giglio disclosures were made to the defense attorneys regarding Johnson. While Federal district courts have a general reputation of looking the other way concerning FBI and prosecutorial misconduct Federal appellate courts are often not so lenient.
It is expected that Glendale’s own phony P.I. Charles Johnson will be prominently in the national news for the duration of the three Bundy trials in Nevada notwithstanding all of the secrecy efforts by the U.S. government.
But what was a super-secret FBI undercover agent doing in Glendale in the first place? Why would the FBI want to harass a city clerk on a Saturday afternoon as well as local citizens who just didn’t want a massive condo project on Colorado Boulevard? It is difficult to fathom a legitimate purpose and, of course, the FBI refuses to justify to the public its activities. The complete lack of transparency, even at the local level, may be one of the reasons why public opinion polls show ever decreasing approval ratings for what was once viewed as the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency.