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FBI Agent goes public with Russian intelligence operation that hooked Musk and Thiel
(kyivinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
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Article doesn't name the agent, nor go into any useful detail.
Yeah, seems like a pretty big oversight for the author... [Checks byline]... no author credited.
Great. Very real. Much news.
This is the correct assessment. Name the agent and lay out the grooming, and now you have a story.
We waited for 30 years to know who Deep Throat was. Does that mean Woodward and Bernstein were full of shit?
I never Felt that way.
He has already been arrested for this, so finding out his identity shouldnt be hard. It wouldnt add anything to the story anyways. More details about how, who and when would be nice tho.
If finding out his identity weren't that hard, it would be in the story. It would otherwise be extreme journalistic malfeasance. There's an old newsroom saw: "Get the name of the dog." That's never relevant. The name of a defendant, though? That's sort of what news does so long as they aren't a minor, which doesn't seem to apply here.
But yes, the whole thing is irritatingly light on details.
Its completely normal not to leak the identity of whistleblowers, idk what everyone is talking about in these comments. Just because he already got caught doesnt make him any less of a target for maga crazies.
Generally if it should be easy to find and you're reading a shitty article, it can be easily found in believable sources.
I'm 99.9% certain the article is talking about ex-FBI agent Johnathan Buma. There are many articles about him, but I wasn't aware of it (been tuning a lot of news out lately, tbh). All details match and he was very recently interviewed by ZDF (significant legit German news organization) for a new investigational documentary about Elon Musk. I posted it in a different comment that has video of some parts of the interview (English with German dubbed over top). There's also a link to the full documentary. I started watching it but haven't finished.
The only other sources I found are
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/52742
and https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/musks-fondness-for-sex-and-drugs-made-him-prime-russian-target-in-blackmail-plot-ex-fbi-jonathan-burma-101747514721675.html
Plenty of credible other sources https://search.brave.com/search?q=wall+street+journal+buma+fbi+bond but most of them are about his arrest two months ago re Giuliani not Musk or Thiel.
Here is a seven minute video of him talking about his Biden investigation which turned into a Giuliani investigation but his bosses wanted him to stick to Biden only.
Here is a very detailed recent one about about his recent release on $100k bond - it says he is running for Congress as a ‘Resistance’ Democrat in Arizona. No Thiel or Musk mention here.
Here is one about Thiel.