By Michael Kern of OilPrice.com

Amid expected higher demand at the start of the heating season, LNG imports into northwest Europe are expected to soar by 30% in November compared to October, Montel reported on Wednesday, citing preliminary estimates from LSEG.  

With winter heating demand kicking in, LNG imports are set to rise materially in November, although they would be lower than in the same month of 2022 when Europe was scrambling to get its hands on LNG cargoes to replace pipeline Russian gas.  

Next month, northwest Europe is estimated to import around 243 mcm/day, headed to the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the UK, per the LSEG projections.  

“The heating demand kicks in and there are forecasts of colder weather,” Wayne Bryan, head of European gas at LSEG, told Montel.

The estimated November imports would be 15% lower than in November 2022.

Weather and weather forecasts from November onwards will be the driving force of LNG imports into Europe, and also the biggest unknowns for European gas consumption this winter.

Europe has reduced its gas consumption over the past year, due to energy saving and to lower industrial demand due to high prices and demand destruction.

Some of the lost European demand for natural gas due to the energy crisis and record-high prices could never return, Vitol Group’s chief executive Russel Hardy said last week.

“For gas, demand has plummeted in Europe, with double-digit percentage reductions. We expect some of the lost demand to be permanent,” Hardy told the Energy Intelligence Forum in London.  

Gas demand in the EU was 12% lower in 2022 than the 2019-2021 average, driven by falling industrial and household gas demand, researchers at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel wrote earlier this month.

By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com

The United States is likely to tighten the sanction enforcement on Iran’s crude oil exports over the Hamas-Israel war and the Iranian backing of Hamas, Helima Croft, the head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, told CNBC on Wednesday. 

“The Biden administration is desperate to contain this war, they clearly do not want it spilling beyond Gaza,” Croft told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on the sidelines of an investment forum in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Mohamed bin Salman, and “discussed ongoing diplomatic and military efforts to deter state and non-state actors from widening the conflict between Israel and Hamas,” the White House said. 

According to RBC’s Croft, “we just don’t know what the red lines are for a number of players in this conflict.”

Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the market has been wondering whether to price in an even tighter supply should the United States tighten the enforcement of the sanctions on Iran’s oil exports.

Oil supply from Iran, which has been rising in recent months to a 2018 high due to what appears to be weaker enforcement of the U.S. sanctions, could begin to shrink again, analysts say. 

“The argument is, can you continue to allow Iran to keep the bank open for groups like Hamas? So, I think the Biden administration is going to have to tighten those sanctions,” RBC’s Croft told CNBC today.

The U.S. cannot take off the market 700,000 bpd of Iranian exports overnight, but “they could certainly do more on ship-to-ship transfers, they certainly can talk with Chinese refineries with access to U.S. capital markets,” she added.

Some stricter enforcement of the sanctions against Iran could be coming soon, because there is bipartisan Congressional pressure to “basically try to close the bank for groups like Hamas,” Croft concluded.

Authored by Frank Miele via RealClear Wire,

How do they get away with it?

Even with the thousands of alternative media sources available today – Internet, podcasts, social media – the legacy media picks a narrative and repeats it so often that the average citizen may well accept it as true.

Now, if the subject matter is something inane like the importance of a Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce romance, we can all play along and, well, no harm, no foul. But when the purpose is character assassination of a candidate for president, it is dangerous to be unaware of the falsity of what the mainstream media is selling.

I know I sound like a broken record, but every week something more egregious presents itself. For the last two weeks, it has been the false narrative that Donald Trump praised the terrorist organization Hezbollah for being “very smart.” On every news show every hour for at least a week, one of the guests or anchors would tell you this as if it disqualified Trump to be president.

So, once again, I have to ask, “What did Trump really say?”

It’s not hard to find out. Video exists of the Oct. 11 speech in West Palm Beach, Fla., and yes, Trump did say that Hezbollah is “very smart” but not as a compliment. Rather, he was saying that it was foolish for Israel, President Biden, or anyone else to underestimate this brutal foe.

Two nights ago, I read all of Biden’s security people… national defense people, and they said ‘Gee I hope Hezbollah doesn’t attack from the north because that’s the most vulnerable spot.’ I said wait a minute. Hezbollah’s very smart. They’re all very smart. The press doesn’t like it when I say it though. …

But Hezbollah, they’re very smart, and they have a national defense minister or somebody saying I hope Hezbollah doesn’t attack us from the north, so the following morning they attack. They might not have been doing it, but if you listen to this jerk, you would attack from the north because he said that’s our weak spot. Whoever heard of officials saying on television that they hope our enemy doesn’t attack in a certain area?

In his speech, Trump paused to recall how the press had attacked him previously when he said that President Xi of China “is a very smart man.” As Trump said, “They killed me the next day,” and that’s what happened after Trump’s Florida speech as well.

From that day forward, the press passed along the Hezbollah anecdote in a truncated form that had no context and no legitimacy as news but only as propaganda. All they told their readers or viewers was this: “Trump said Hezbollah is ‘very smart.’” In other words, Trump is dangerous and disreputable and a terror sympathizer who shouldn’t be commander in chief.

It’s bad enough when it’s said in an echo chamber like MSNBC that is afraid to invite conservatives on their shows, because of course their entire audience hates Trump and will never vote for him anyway. But what about Fox News? Why is it that you virtually never heard anyone on so-called conservative Fox push back against the narrative and explain that Trump said Hezbollah is “very smart” only in the limited context of the terrorist organization responding with missiles from the north when Israel said it was worried about missiles coming from the north.

I think the gist of what Trump said boils down to this: “If you think your enemy is stupid, if you insist on underestimating your enemy, then you have no one to blame but yourself when the enemy does what you dared them not to do.” That goes for Hitler in World War II, the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. They ain’t stupid, but that doesn’t mean they are moral. Acknowledging your enemies’ strategic strengths does not mean you are praising their moral character, any more than you are praising Satan when you admit that he outsmarted Adam and Eve.

Speaking of Fox News, there has been a noticeable shift away from Donald Trump in its news coverage in recent months. No surprise when one of their board members, former House speaker Paul Ryan, is a vehement and outspoken Never Trumper. Most recently it looks like the network has been trying to promote the presidential candidacy of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has been one of Trump’s most vocal critics on the campaign trail.

Haley has also been attacking fellow candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sean Hannity seized on her words to try to ambush Ramaswamy in an interview following the savage Hamas attack on Israel. This resulted in one of the strangest moments in television history when Hannity suggested that Ramaswamy was not qualified to be president because of his lack of political experience.

“I think people that never held public office like you,” Hannity said to Ramaswamy, “maybe they’re not qualified to be president.”

Anyone with a scintilla of awareness will find Hannity’s lack of self-awareness astonishing. For years, Hannity was a cheerleader for Trump, who based his entire candidacy in 2016 on the fact that he wasn’t a politician. Yet here was Hannity unabashedly siding with the swamp creatures against the outsider who says he wants to shift the political paradigm away from business-as-usual.

Ramaswamy, the only America First candidate running in the GOP primary besides Trump, may have provoked Hannity by giving an interview to former top-rated Fox News host Tucker Carlson a few days earlier. That interview on X (formerly Twitter) followed quickly after the Hamas attack on Israel, and Carlson introduced Ramaswamy by showing a clip of Haley saying that the attack on Israel was also “an attack on America” and suggesting that Israel should “finish” not just Hamas but also Iran, a nation of 86 million people which may or may not have a nuclear weapon.

That gave Ramaswamy an opening to criticize Haley as someone who was “in a position to get wealthier from war, what with a military contracting business and otherwise.”

Although this topic holds no apparent interest for Sean Hannity, it is a matter of fact that the candidate’s husband Michael Haley is a partner in Allied Defense LLC, a South Carolina company tied to military contractors. Daily Beast did an investigative piece that looked at Nikki Haley’s financial disclosures and found that Allied Defense and the Haleys “could benefit financially from state and federal policy, including from the export of military equipment to Taiwan.”

Yet when Hannity interviewed Ramaswamy on Oct. 12, he started with a clip of Haley remarking that Ramaswamy says “everybody is bought and paid for with no evidence whatsoever.” Perhaps that’s too strong, but “no evidence whatsoever” is a questionable description for a candidate with financial connections to Boeing, where she previously served on the board; receives support from the SFA Fund, a Super PAC promoting Haley’s aggressive stance against Communist China; and whose husband’s company stands to benefit if Taiwan is attacked.

Hannity was uninterested in any of that. Instead he attacked Ramaswamy for daring to question Haley in his Oct. 9 interview with Carlson. “What you’re doing here is saying about Nikki Haley, you’re saying that her concern for Israel is driven by financial and a corrupting influence,” Hannity said. “Your quote, ‘There are frankly financial and corrupting influences that lead them to speak the way they do.’”

If viewers were able to hear Ramaswamy’s answers – Hannity kept talking over him – they would have learned that the quote about “financial and corrupting influences” was a reference to why politicians single out some conflicts like the Ukraine war and the Israeli conflict and ignore other wars that are just as barbaric, deadly, and heart-breaking.

Here’s what Ramaswamy told Tucker Carlson:

Look at what’s happening with Azerbaijan and Armenia. You don’t really hear much about that now. Why?… What’s happening is an atrocity. I mean, you have people who are Armenians, mostly Christian, six-figure numbers – 100,000, 120,000 – being driven back to their country from a region that has long been a place they have called home, a lot of atrocities that aren’t even yet coming to light in Western media. But Azerbaijan has a lobby, a powerful lobby, in Washington, D.C., and I think a big part of what’s wrong in the United States today … is you have a system that is bought and paid for. … It is wrong what happened in Israel … but the selective nature of ignoring certain other conflicts or even more importantly ignoring the interests of the U.S. right here at home, is what irritates the heck out of me, out of the politicians in both parties, and it is shameful. and I think that there are frankly financial and corrupting influences that lead them exactly to speak the way they do.”

So there is the actual context of Ramaswamy’s complaint about “financial and corrupting influences,” and as you can see it has nothing to do with moral outrage over the attack on Israel.

According to Hannity, however, Haley could do no wrong, and Ramaswamy could do no right, especially when it came to his warnings against allowing the defense industry to call the shots on our national security posture.

“You’re saying that if somebody works for a defense contractor, that that is a financial corrupting position when national security and defense is critical to the cause of freedom and has been throughout human history?”

Hold on, Hannity! Did you really just criticize a Republican candidate for president because he is warning against allowing those who will benefit from war to make decisions about war? Perhaps you have forgotten the earlier warning of President Dwight Eisenhower, who in his farewell address to the nation in 1961, said: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted.”

Maybe Hannity isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. I’ll take the two presidents he implicitly criticized – Trump and Eisenhower – over his bullying histrionics any day of the week. And I’ll continue sounding the alarm whenever news outlets – whether on the left or right – promote an agenda rather than doing their job of informing the public without fear or favor.

Porsche AG is out with the latest warning that the interest rate shock increasingly pressures consumers and will spark demand issues next year. 

Bloomberg quoted Porsche’s CFO Lutz Meschke as saying high interest rates are sidelining consumers. He added Porsche’s largest market, China, has also seen demand issues due to a lackluster recovery in the economy that will remain under pressure next year.

“In 2024, we expect a challenging year due to the geopolitical situation and the economy in China,” Meschke told investors on a call Wednesday morning while discussing the company’s nine-month results.

For the first nine months of the year, demand for the German automaker’s most popular vehicles remained strong. There was a weakness for the Cayenne, while the sales of high-margin 911 helped offset the issues in China. 

Meanwhile, sales of Mercedes-Benz Group AG’s luxury vehicles, such as the S-Class, have already seen a slide in the third quarter as ongoing threats of a global trade slowdown increase into 2024. 

A luxury downturn has been underway this year. We asked in May: Did Europe’s Luxury Bubble Just Burst? 

By June, we pointed out Luxury Recession: Diamond Prices Crash, Rolex Downturn Persists. 

In early October, we noted, First Rolexes, Then Diamonds, Now Consumers Revolt Against Mercedes S-Class As Luxury Bust Worsens. 

Then, we showed demand woes were materializing in high-end clothing companies: ‘It Ain’t Gucci’: LVMH Shares Tumble As Luxury Bubble Unravels.

As a reminder, a recent market survey of Deutsche Bank clients found an increasing number were “nervous about yield-led global accidents.”

The slowdown in luxury may be an ominous sign of mounting recession risks for 2024. 

By Ye Xie Bloomberg markets live reporter and analyst

Washington isn’t the only capital that is flooding the market with government bonds. Beijing is doing it too. A more-proactive fiscal expansion signals that Beijing isn’t entirely complacent about its current economic stability.

Inevitably, bond sales will suck up liquidity from the banking system. That may required the PBOC to offset the liquidity drain by lowering the reserve requirement ratio. If so, it would put a ceiling on the recent rise in bond yields.  

US bond yields resumed their surge Wednesday after a five-year note auction met with poor demand. It underscored investors’ anxiety toward the anticipated increase of bond sales by the Treasury next week.

China’s bond market has also been pressured by supply lately, with 10-year yields rising to a five-month high. In a rare move, Beijing announced on Tuesday plans to issue additional sovereign debt worth 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion) to support disaster relief and construction.

The signaling effect of the move — which will send China’s budget deficit to a three-decade high — is more significant than the actual impact. Bloomberg Economics estimated the fiscal spending will only add 0.5 percentage point to GDP growth in 2024. Still, it shows that Beijing is concerned about the economic outlook amid the property crisis that’s claimed Country Garden as its latest victim.

For the central bank, the immediate concern is to offer more funding to accommodate bond issuance. According to Nomura’s estimate, government issuance will amount to 5.9 trillion yuan in the fourth quarter, well above the 4.3 trillion in 2022 and an average of 2.8 trillion in three years through 2021.

Liquidity conditions have already been tight. In recent weeks, the seven-day repo rate has been persistently trading well above the PBOC’s benchmark of 1.8%. Bloomberg also reported that one-year bank funding costs shot up above the PBOC’s MLF lending rate, an unusual occurrence since 2019.

So the consensus is looking for the PBOC to lower the RRR, unleashing more cash into the banking system, and potentially lower interest rates. Standard Chartered’s economists now call for 50bp cut in RRR by year-end, versus no reduction seen previously. Economists at Goldman Sachs expect a 25bp cut in RRR and a 10bp reduction in the policy rate in the fourth quarter.

Yields on 10-year bonds have increased 16 basis points since the PBOC’s last rate cut in August. If the PBOC pumps more liquidity into the market, it may put a lid on rising yields.

So the consensus is looking for the PBOC to lower the RRR, unleashing more cash into the banking system, and potentially lower interest rates. Standard Chartered’s economists now call for 50bp cut in RRR by year-end, versus no reduction seen previously. Economists at Goldman Sachs expect a 25bp cut in RRR and a 10bp reduction in the policy rate in the fourth quarter.

Yields on 10-year bonds have increased 16 basis points since the PBOC’s last rate cut in August. If the PBOC pumps more liquidity into the market, it may put a lid on rising yields.

“Why is everyone saying Gen-Z is going to get drafted? Like – no – the f*ck we are not – and you know why I know that – because we’re just going to say No. Like how are they going to actually force us to get up and go to war,” a Gen-Zer on TikTok said in a recent video. 

Besides war, he said, “We [Gen-Z] have things to do nowadays, like work and be bisexual.” 

Your #GenZ nugget for the night.
Prepare accordingly. 😆 pic.twitter.com/MgoMlkMcYC

— T (@Krommsan) October 23, 2023

Another young TikToker revealed he is headed for the hills when a draft occurs.

Gen Z is looking forward to the food and shelter of jail for dodging the WW3 draft, if you can catch him. Also he’s gay.#WW3 #WWIII pic.twitter.com/92g0eJVlMI

— 🌈 Tess T. Eccles-Brown, PhD (@TTEcclesBrown) October 24, 2023

And another Gen-Zer interrupted boomer Hillary Clinton during a speech at Columbia University. He called on Clinton to make a statement about President Biden’s recent “warmongering speech” as a regional conflict in the Middle East could spark World War 3. 

🚨Hillary Clinton SNAPS after INTERRUPTED mid speech over refusing to call out Joe Biden for getting us into WWIII

pic.twitter.com/52Z8d1Uq0O

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 24, 2023

Observing Gen-Z’s reactions to the risk of being drafted, many of them supported Democrats. The Biden administration is currently managing two conflicts: One in Ukraine and the other involving Israel and Hamas. 

Corporate progressive media and woke universities have brainwashed this hopeless generation into believing Democrats are the ‘party of love’ – but it’s far from that. 

Just remember, Gen-Z, The US Army recently changed its gender policies… 

Enjoy basic training.

… and internet search term “military draft age” surges.

As well as “military draft.” 

As for the Military-Industrial Complex, good luck rounding up Gen-Zers for a draft. Many are no longer willing to fight your endless wars. It seems the propaganda isn’t working anymore. 

Authorities in Maine are investigating three active shooter events and a suspect remains at large, the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on Facebook.

“We are encouraging all businesses to lock down and or close while we investigate,” the sheriff’s office said.

As The Sun Journal reports, police, fire and rescue personnel descended on Sparetime Recreation on Mollison Way about 7:15 p.m. after a report of an active shooter.

Shortly after, reports came in that there was another shooting at Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant on Lincoln Street.

Lewiston public information officer Derrick St. Laurent told the Sun Journal at about 8:15 p.m. that another shooting was reported at the Walmart Distribution Center on Alfred A Plourde Parkway.

CNN reports that at least 16 people are dead, according to multiple law enforcement sources, and 50-60 people are injured in the incidents, though it’s unclear how many are injured due to gunfire.

🚨#BREAKING: Mass Casualty Incident Declared as Active Shooter Strikes Multiple Locations

📌#Lewiston | #Maine

Currently, numerous emergency personnel and other authorities are responding to an active shooter in Lewiston, Maine. Reports indicate that at least 16 people,… pic.twitter.com/M3S6TAcp9l

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) October 26, 2023

The Sheriff’s office released this image of the alleged suspect….

Maine State Police also said they are responding to an active shooter situation in Lewiston in a post on Facebook.

“Please stay inside your home with the doors locked,” state police said.

“If you see any suspicious activity or individuals please call 911.”

Developing…

With international headlines once again floating the possibility of WW3, this time connected with Israel-Gaza events and not Ukraine, the White House is coming under growing criticism for Biden’s mishandling of world events and major geopolitical flashpoints. Many pundits have of late observed that Democrats have become the “war party” – having escalated the situation in both Ukraine and the Middle East, given the billions in US weaponry being poured into hot wars but with no sense or plans for an “off ramp”. 

These tensions spilled out into the open during an even featuring Hillary Clinton, herself a Democratic hawk who oversaw ‘dirty wars’ in Libya and Syria as then Secretary of State. She weighed in on foreign conflicts as part of a panel for the Institute of Global Politics at Columbia University on Monday. A heated back-and-forth at one point erupted as an activist stood up to challenge Clinton over her support for “war-mongering” President Joe Biden.

It happened at about 30-minutes into the event, but lasted a number of minutes. Clinton snapped and yelled for the man to “sit down”. During the charged exchange Clinton, who clearly lost patience, pleaded with the man, “Well, then sit down. We’ve heard your opinion, thank you very much,” and additionally tried to respond to his criticisms by saying during the tense situation, “I’m sorry, but some of us are on Team America despite our flaws.” The man was later identified as Robert Castle of the Schiller Institute, a group set up by the late Lyndon LaRouche, which often shows up to high profile speaking events to loudly protest. “She’s trying to push us to WW3!” the man shouted as security tried to usher him out of the room. Clinton immediately responded, “Oh please!” Watch below:

🚨Hillary Clinton SNAPS after INTERRUPTED mid speech over refusing to call out Joe Biden for getting us into WWIII

pic.twitter.com/52Z8d1Uq0O

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 24, 2023

By Cyril Widdershoven of OilPrice.com

Israel is on the brink of a full invasion of the Gaza Strip, with the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF) prepared to implement a range of military strategies. While regional tensions are escalating, a full-scale war has not yet erupted on Israel’s northern borders with Lebanon and Syria, involving Hezbollah, a Shia terrorist organization, and its supporters. Diplomatic pressure from the USA and Arab nations is currently preventing Hezbollah from launching a large-scale offensive. This ongoing ‘stalemate’ is precarious, as it has the potential to trigger a regional conflict and create significant instability in Arab countries, such as Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, which could face public backlash. Despite the concerns within the oil and gas market about the ongoing conflict and its potential impact on energy supplies and operations, the expected oil price risk premium remains relatively low. The situation appears uncertain, but even Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Davos in the Desert FII2023 conference proceeds as if the crisis is not occurring. Energy industry leaders are mingling in opulent settings at Riyadh’s Ritz Carlton, seemingly disconnected from the reality on the ground.

Just as political leaders in the West often struggle to understand the sentiments of their constituents, leading to the rise of populism, it appears that energy giants, OPEC leaders, and commodity traders are similarly detached from the unfolding crisis. The situation bears a striking resemblance to the Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s borders in 2022 when most believed that nothing significant would happen.

From a military geopolitical perspective, the current alertness of Western forces, including the USA and Israel, is unparalleled. While all eyes are on the IDF and its neighbors, the significant buildup of US forces in the region is being concealed from public view. The only noticeable change in posture is the preparations made by Washington to safeguard US civilians and diplomats from becoming embroiled in the conflict. However, the hidden buildup of US Navy force projection capabilities, the deployment of advanced anti-missile systems, fighter squadrons, and an offensive capacity to target any regional adversary is unprecedented. Officially, Washington attributes these military moves and preparations to protecting US troops in the Middle East, given the increased attacks on their assets by Iran-backed militants in Iraq and Syria. However, it is evident that the focus extends beyond force protection.

Since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, US forces in the Middle East have been repeatedly targeted by missiles, drones, and rockets in Iraq, Syria, and even in response to Yemen-based missile launches in the Red Sea region. All these attacks have been linked to Iranian-backed operations. Washington’s recent call for US citizens to evacuate Lebanon and other Arab capitals should not be underestimated. There are clear signs that a direct military confrontation between the USA and Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran is imminent. The positioning of two US aircraft carriers off the coast of Israel, alongside the existing US fleet in and around the Arabian/Persian Gulf, underscores the seriousness of the situation. A ground assault by Israel on Gaza or heightened Hezbollah activity in northern Israel could easily trigger a larger conflict.

Oil markets, commodity traders, investment funds, and maritime companies should reevaluate their strategies promptly. While building a military capability to project power is generally a defensive move that should be welcomed, the current actions indicate a shift from defensive to offensive postures. Unless a miracle occurs in the coming hours or days, a higher level of volatility and confrontation than what the mainstream media or analysts are portraying seems imminent. One significant incident, even initiated by a minor player like Hezbollah or Iranian-backed militias resulting in US casualties, could trigger a major crisis. Iran’s military capabilities, especially its missiles and proxy forces, are formidable, and the outcome of a full-scale confrontation would be definitive.

In such a multifaceted conflict, the implications are extensive, encompassing the Eastern Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. These regions are vital maritime transport routes for energy, commodities, and nearly half of global maritime trade. The costs of such a conflict would be staggering, jeopardizing future assessments and investments. History provides valuable lessons, even for algorithm-based commodity traders and investors, and the situation evokes memories of the Ukrainian crisis, but this time, the involved powers possess far greater capacity and reach. It is essential not to underestimate the global influence of Iran, which has a presence around the world, including in the USA, UK, and EU, in addition to its significant naval and IRGC capabilities. Moscow, while not overtly involved, should not be overlooked as a silent partner in the unfolding events.

Oklahoma state Rep. Justin Humphrey (R) says he’s filed a probable cause affidavit with the state Attorney General, and has demanded that agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) be arrested and prosecuted following a June 16 raid on a gun dealer which resulted in the confiscation of more than 50 firearms.

Humphrey says that the document he filed – which he collaborated on with the Pushmataha County Sheriff’s office – focuses on the agents who raided the home of FFL holder Russell Fincher.

According to the affidavit, the ATF agents should be investigated for extortion, terroristic threats and misuse of their authority as law enforcement officials, among other charges.

What’s more, weeks after the raid the ATF sent Fincher a list of the 50 confiscated firearms, marked each one down to $10, and allegedly offered him the option of forfeitting them in exchange for a check.

“When you abuse your law enforcement position, I think you ought to be arrested,” Humphrey told the Epoch Times.

Fincher told the outlet: “I just want them to really investigate it,” adding “I feel like there’s no accountability for the ATF.”

An ATF spokesman, Ashley Stephens, told the outlet that the assertion that the ATF is confiscating guns for no reason or offering to sell them back to owners for pennies on the dollar is “a mischaracterization of what happened.”

More via The Epoch Times;

He is accusing the ATF of not clearly stating what crime, if any, Mr. Fincher is accused of and of pressuring him to give up guns and his FFL by handcuffing him and searching his property in front of his 13-year-old son.

“I’ve looked up all the statutes that I believe were violated,” Mr. Humphrey said.

In an interview with The Epoch Times last September, Mr. Fincher said he was shocked by the raid. He said his relationship with the ATF before that day had an air of professional courtesy.

When agents called and told him to stay home that day because they needed to talk to him, he expected the same type of official visit that he’d always had.

But when Mr. Fincher looked out his window, he saw vehicles come up his driveway, spread across his front yard, and disgorge armed men in tactical gear.

“I didn’t know what to think,” Mr. Fincher said. He stepped out to talk with the agents, was placed in handcuffs, and led away from the house.

“They said, ‘You’re not being arrested, you’re being detained,’” Mr. Fincher said.

The agents asked him about a gun he had legally traded at a gun show years before. A trade that Mr. Fincher said he barely remembers.

The gun had turned up at a crime scene in California years after he had traded it. The ATF traced the gun back to him as the original purchaser. Mr. Fincher said the agents badgered him about the trade, which was legal.

“They said, ‘You sold this gun to a criminal.’ I asked them, ‘Do you have a criminal telling you that Russell Fincher sold me a gun?’” Mr. Fincher said.

Mr. Stephens said that under the ATF’s administrative guidelines, agents only seize guns they’ve been authorized by the court to seize. This is why some guns may be taken while others would be left.

“We can only seize what the court tells us we can seize,” he said.

The owner is provided forms to contest the seizure and petition for the return of the property. Those forms will contain an estimated value for the property.

In the weeks after the raid, the ATF sent Mr. Fincher a list of the 50 confiscated firearms that set a value for each gun at $10. While stressing he was not addressing Mr. Fincher’s case, Mr. Stephens said the ATF doesn’t offer to purchase seized guns.

“That sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard of in 20 years with the ATF,” Mr. Stephens told The Epoch Times.

He added that the agents who seize the property don’t set the value.

Speaking with The Epoch Times for this story, Mr. Fincher took issue with Mr. Stephens’s assertion.

“My attorney told me that if I agreed to forfeit, they would send me a check for each gun,” he said.

Mr. Stephens said that the ATF would comment on the case as soon as possible. However, he said he is prohibited from commenting on ongoing investigations.

“We’re just not allowed to talk about ongoing investigations,” he said.