A former Department of Homeland Security whistleblower whose death two years ago spurred a barrage of right-wing conspiracy theories — including from top Congressional Republicans — did, in fact, die by suicide, a California sheriff announced Tuesday.
Philip Haney fatally shot himself in the chest Feb. 21, 2020 on a roadside southeast of Sacramento, the Amador County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a detailed statement.
An autopsy did not reveal any suspicious trauma or injuries, and a forensic handwriting analysis found that Haney had signed a suicide note found at the scene of the shooting along Highway 124, authorities said. Haney, 66, had arranged financial papers on the kitchen counter in his motor home, with some detailing how he wanted his assets dispersed.
He’d been depressed in the days before his death, a neighbor said. He even gave away his potted plants.
While Haney’s death was long suspected to have been a suicide, Tuesday’s update closed a multi-year investigation that unwittingly brought the rural county, population 40,000, into viral claims that the man’s death was part of a deep-state plot to silence a whistleblower.
A prominent critic of the Obama administration’s handling of terrorism investigations, Haney in May 2016 published “See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad,” which alleged inaction against terrorism on the part of the federal officials.
A DHS officer for 15 years, Haney spoke during a...
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