Retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness called for criminal accountability for government officials he believes concealed intelligence related to Chinese election interference, arguing during an interview with Steve Gruber that internal threats pose a greater danger than foreign adversaries.

The discussion centered on allegations involving FBI agent Nikki Flores and claims that officials within the federal government withheld information regarding Chinese activities affecting the United States.

Gruber opened the conversation by asking Maness for his assessment of the issue.

“220 million in the United States apparently is of no concern. Your thoughts on this Friday?” Gruber asked.

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Maness responded by acknowledging China as a significant national security concern but argued that the greater danger comes from individuals working within the U.S. government.

“I tell you what, Steve. You know the Chinese are a threat, absolutely a threat. But the biggest threat is internal,” Maness said.

He referenced allegations involving FBI agent Nikki Flores and said an email attributed to her raised serious concerns.

“If Nikki Flores, FBI agent, is a leader in the FBI, and in an email says she's effectively running a shadow government, and nobody thinks about this. 1000s of people had to know about that,” Maness said.

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According to Maness, government monitoring systems should have identified language of that nature.

“Every electronic monitoring system in the United States government is monitoring emails for phrasing like that to make sure there's not real seditionists that work inside our government, and nobody reported on it,” he said.

Maness added that while there may have been whistleblowers, he believes the matter should have received far broader attention.

“There may have been one whistleblower or two that we don't know about, but that should have been mass reported, Steve,” he said.

The retired Air Force officer also discussed what he described as broader counterintelligence concerns involving China.

“And when you combine that with what the Chinese have done with the voter rolls and what they are doing with fake ballots, with fake driver's license, all of those things together, we have a major problem. It's a counterintelligence problem,” Maness said.

He also questioned how many Chinese nationals may currently be inside the United States.

“We do not know how many CCP agents are either in this country as college students. 600,000 strike you as a familiar number. People that have come across the border illegally in the Biden administration. 100,000 estimated for Chinese military age males, strike you as a familiar number,” he said.

Maness argued that officials concealed information from the president.

“Now, proof, absolute proof that people inside the United States government were running a shadow government, and what were they doing? They were hiding from the sitting president of the United States the fact that China was actually doing this,” he said.

Gruber said he believed there was a specific term for the conduct being described.

“There is a word for that, Colonel. There's a word for that. The word is espionage, and it's pretty clear: subverting the will of the people, subverting the sitting president, keeping information, lying by omission,” Gruber said.

He also referenced White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's recent briefing, noting a question from reporter Kaitlan Collins regarding potential criminal charges.

“Caitlin Collins yesterday during the briefing with Caroline Leavitt asked a question that was important. Actually, if you have this information, why has nobody been arrested? And Caroline pointed out because we're just making this public. We're told that people will be losing their jobs, people will be getting fired, and then prosecutions could and should follow,” Gruber said.

He added that accountability should extend beyond personnel actions.

“If no prosecutions follow here, Colonel. I don't see the point of it. There better be consequences is my point,” Gruber said.

Maness responded by calling for immediate arrests if the allegations are substantiated.

“Steve, Nikki Flores wrote that email, and the 1000s of Americans working inside the United States government that had anything to do with seeing that email should have all been arrested in pre-dawn raids this morning,” he said.

He contrasted the allegations with the prosecution of Enrique Tarrio.

“We put Enrique Terrio, sentenced him to 20 plus years in prison, had him in solitary confinement for over three years on fake seditious conspiracy charges. Think about that,” Maness said.

He argued that the current allegations involve far more serious conduct.

“This is actual sedition, actual espionage. It's a combination of spying for the Chinese Communists and acting on it in order to subvert a presidency of the United States of America,” Maness said.

According to Maness, the issue extends beyond any individual president.

“It's not about Donald Trump, Steve. This is about subverting the will of the American people and subverting the Constitution of the United States, and every person working for the U.S. government, every single one working for the U.S. government as our employees, has taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and they did this,” he said.

Maness concluded by calling for a full accounting of everyone involved.

“Who told them to do this? Who were the leaders involved? Who were the actors involved? Every person down the line, from the person that gave the order to massage the presidential daily briefs, so it wasn't talking about elections or Chinese involvement trying to influence our elections. Every one of them was conducting sedition and espionage, at least tangentially, for the communist Chinese. That is a fact now. It's documented,” Maness said.

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