By It appears that the Biden administration may not be done using the tools of federal law enforcement to go after critics.
In a surprising pre-dawn operation, FBI agents seized electronic devices belonging to Shayne Coplan, the CEO of Polymarket, just one week after the platform accurately predicted President-elect Donald Trump’s win in the recent U.S. election.
The New York Post reported that the 26-year-old entrepreneur was woken up at 6:00 a.m. in his Soho home by law US enforcement officers who demanded his phone and electronics, a source close to the matter told The Post.
It’s “grand political theater at its worst,” the source told The Post. “They could have asked his lawyer for any of these things. Instead, they staged a so-called raid so they can leak it to the media and use it for obvious political reasons.”
Coplan was not provided any reason for the incident, but the source said they expect it is political retribution since Polymarket accurately predicted Trump’s win – not traditional polls.
The government is likely trying to accuse Polymarket of market manipulation and rigging its polls in favor of Trump, the source said.
“This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election,” a Polymarket spokesperson told Axios. “Polymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections.”
The raid has sparked questions about potential political motivations, as Polymarket’s decentralized prediction platform has grown popular for allowing users to wager on the outcomes of events, including political races.
Polymarket has marketed itself as an open, transparent prediction market that allows people to make informed bets on events without trading fees. The platform does not take positions on outcomes, and all of its data is publicly available, the company explained.
At this time, Coplan has not been arrested, and the FBI has not provided further details about the basis of its investigation.
In May, two members of Congress explained that Biden has been weaponizing the government against his political opposition, even beyond Donald Trump.
Mike Lee and Chip Roy wrote in Newsweek, “How can Laken Riley’s murderer, an illegal alien, be repeatedly arrested and set free while Paul Vaughn, an American father, faces an 11-year prison sentence for singing hymns outside an abortion clinic? One word: weaponization. President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland have weaponized the Department of Justice, including the FBI, against anyone and everyone with whom they disagree.
Vaughn was convicted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights. In the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the FACE Act has become President Biden and radical progressive Democrats’ primary way of advancing their radical abortion agenda.
Vaughn is not alone. Mark Houck, a pro-life father from Pennsylvania, was arrested at his home by FBI agents. Guns were pointed at him, his wife, and his children. When confronted about this incident during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Garland continuously refused to call the FBI’s actions inappropriate.
Even the judge in Houck’s case remarked that the FACE Act seemed ‘to be stretched a little thin here.’ While Houck has since been acquitted, the FBI sent a clear message to pro-life Americans exercising their First Amendment rights: If you peacefully stand up for life, we will make you suffer.”
In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the (FACE) Act into law, aiming to protect abortion clinics, pregnancy centers, and places of worship from violent attacks. However, in practice, critics argue the Department of Justice has predominantly used the legislation to target pro-life advocates and religious groups.
Since the law’s passage, the FACE Act has been applied in approximately 130 cases against pro-life activists but has been used only five times to protect churches and pro-life centers—even though these locations are statistically 22 times more likely to face attacks than abortion clinics.
In 2023 alone, there were 436 documented incidents of hostility against churches. Yet, despite repeated requests for intervention, the Justice Department has largely refrained from investigating these cases. Comprehensive data on the Department’s FACE Act prosecutions remain incomplete; Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke has yet to provide Congress with detailed prosecution statistics, despite multiple requests and assurances during congressional hearings that this information would be made available.
FACE Act charges, for example, were not brought by the Biden administration when pro-choice radicals attacked a Catholic parish during the summer of 2022 when liberals panicked about Roe v Wade being overturned.
Throughout that summer, a radical pro-abortion group calling itself “Jane’s Revenge” claimed responsibility for firebombing dozens pro-life clinics. So far only a handful of minor charges have been brought against the group.
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