By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

An FBI watch list of more than one million people identified as “known or suspected terrorists” infringes on the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens in the database, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga said the Terrorist Screening Database violates Americans’ constitutional right to due process, NBC News reports.

The case stems from a lawsuit filed by 23 Muslim Americans, who argued they were wrongly included in the database, which they say is overly broad and inaccurate.

The plaintiffs said they were subjected to abuse and harassment while traveling.

“The general right of free movement is a long-recognized, fundamental liberty,” he wrote. “Inclusion in the TSDB accordingly imposes a substantial burden on Plaintiff’s exercise of their rights to international travel and domestic air travel” which he adds is a “deprivation of liberty interests.”

The FBI has not responded to media requests for comment.

Joseph E. Carrico and Kristi Koons Johnson.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

The FBI field offices in Omaha and Knoxville have new leaders.

Kristi Koons Johnson has been named the special agent in charge of the Omaha Field Office, which covers Nebraska and Iowa.

At the Knoxville Field Office in Tennessee, the new special agent in charge is Joseph E. Carrico.

Johnson had been serving as a section chief in the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI headquarters in Washington D.C. She joined the FBI as a special agent in 1999, serving in the Chicago Field Office, where she investigated public corruption and organized crime for a decade.

Johnson is no newcomer to the Omaha office. In 2010, she served as the chief division counsel for the field office, providing legal advice about investigations and FBI policy. After a stint as unit chief in the FBI’s Internal Policy Office at headquarters, Johnson returned to Omaha in 2016 as assistant special agent in charge of national security, cyber, and intelligence issues for the field office.

Johnson left the Omaha office in 2018 to serve as chief of the Transnational Organized Crime Section of the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI headquarters.

Before Carrico took over the Knoxville Field Office, he had served as a deputy assistant director in the Operational Technology Division at FBI headquarters in Washington D.C.

Carrico began working as a special agent with the FBI in 1999 with an assignment to the Dallas Field Office, where he investigated securities and bank fraud and was a member of the Evidence Response Team. In 2005, Johnson was promoted to supervisory special agent and moved to the Human Resources Division at FBI headquarters.

In 2007, Carrico became an assistant inspector in the Inspection Division before returning to the Human Resources Division as chief of the Special Agent Recruitment and Selection Unit in 2008.

A year later, Carrico served as the supervisory senior resident agent in charge of the Covington Resident Agency in Kentucky, which is part of the Louisville Field Office. In 2011, he again returned to the Inspection Division as a special assistant to the assistant director.

In 2013, Carrico began serving as the assistant special agent in charge of the Administrative Branch of the Chicago Field Office before being promoted to chief of the Digital Forensics and Analysis Section of the Operational Technology Division three years later.

In 2018, Carrico became deputy assistant director in the division, leading digital and forensic analysis, computer network exploitation, and lawful electronic surveillance.