Email/Dossier/Govt Corruption Investigations
January 3, 2023 – Twitter Files: Twitter and the “FBI Belly Button” – FBI’s Elvis Chan: “We can give you everything we’re seeing from the FBI and USIC agencies”
1.THREAD: The Twitter Files
Twitter and the FBI “Belly Button” pic.twitter.com/nfOGQGlvUM— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
https://t.co/BcFhHCvjAE February, 2020, as COVID broke out, the Global Engagement Center – a fledgling analytic/intelligence arms of the State Department – went to the media with a report called, “Russian Disinformation Apparatus Taking Advantage of Coronavirus Concerns.” pic.twitter.com/KjUeE8vejt
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
5.State also flagged accounts that retweeted news that Twitter banned the popular U.S. ZeroHedge, claiming the episode “led to another flurry of disinformation narratives.” ZH had done reports speculating that the virus had lab origin. pic.twitter.com/JlIobPzAFE
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
7.“YOU HAVEN’T MADE A RUSSIA ATTRIBUTION IN SOME TIME” When Clemson’s Media Forensics Hub complained Twitter hadn’t “made a Russia attribution” in some time, Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth said it was “revelatory of their motives.” pic.twitter.com/zByT5aCaBo
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
9.Twitter was also trying to reduce the number of agencies with access to Roth. “If these folks are like House Homeland Committee and DHS, once we give them a direct contact with Yoel, they will want to come back to him again and again,” said policy director Carlos Monje. pic.twitter.com/ytvK532j4M
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
11.The GEC report appeared based on DHS data circulated earlier that week, and included accounts that followed “two or more” Chinese diplomatic accounts. They reportedly ended up with a list “nearly 250,000” names long, and included Canadian officials and a CNN account: pic.twitter.com/GYi4YuPdyu
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
13.The GEC was soon agreeing to loop in Twitter before going public, but they were using a technique that had boxed in Twitter before. “The delta between when they share material and when they go to the press continues to be problematic,” wrote one comms official. pic.twitter.com/ONn9BfYybi
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
15.“IT MAKES SENSE TO PUSH BACK ON GEC PARTICIPATION IN THIS FORUM” When the FBI informed Twitter the GEC wanted to be included in the regular “industry call” between companies like Twitter and Facebook and the DHS and FBI, Twitter leaders balked at first. pic.twitter.com/S4aUMXW2ed
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
17.A deeper reason was a perception that unlike the DHS and FBI, which were “apolitical,” as Roth put it, the GEC was “political,” which in Twitter-ese appeared to be partisan code.
“I think they thought the FBI was less Trumpy,” is how one former DOD official put it. pic.twitter.com/y33deYO50B
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
19.When senior lawyer Stacia Cardille tried to argue against the GEC’s inclusion to the FBI, the words resonated “with Elvis, not Laura,” i.e. with agent Elvis Chan, not Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) unit chief Laura Dehmlow: pic.twitter.com/zOfVr8VlRx
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
21.Roth reached out to Chan with concerns about letting the “press-happy” GEC in, expressing hope they could keep the “circle of trust small.” pic.twitter.com/17qLQFldVj
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
23.”BELLY BUTTON” “We can give you everything we’re seeing from the FBI and USIC agencies,” Chan explained, but the DHS agency CISA “will know what’s going on in each state.” He went on to ask if industry could “rely on the FBI to be the belly button of the USG.” pic.twitter.com/CHiCsZJBAh
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
25.Twitter was taking requests from every conceivable government body, beginning with the Senate Intel Committee (SSCI), which seemed to need reassurance Twitter was taking FBI direction. Execs rushed to tell “Team SSCI” they zapped five accounts on an FBI tip: pic.twitter.com/hWnkOX292C
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
27.They also received an astonishing variety of requests from officials asking for individuals they didn’t like to be banned. Here, the office for Democrat and House Intel Committee chief Adam Schiff asks Twitter to ban journalist Paul Sperry: pic.twitter.com/SXI1ekqi13
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
29.Twitter honored almost everyone else’s requests, even those from GEC – including a decision to ban accounts like @RebelProtests and @BricsMedia because GEC identified them as “GRU-controlled” and linked “to the Russian government,” respectively: pic.twitter.com/OQjQuKTzTO
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
31.Remember the 2017 “internal guidance” in which Twitter decided to remove any user “identified by the U.S. intelligence community” as a state-sponsored entity committing cyber operations? By 2020 such identifications came in bulk. pic.twitter.com/OrSC1uwgm8
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
https://t.co/8CuYA5AmvV brief report, sent right after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early last year, flagged major Russian outlets like Vedomosti and https://t.co/DEZHKl0MPQ. Note the language about “state actors” fits Twitter’s internal guidance. pic.twitter.com/ken4c2Y9MJ
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
35.They were even warned about publicity surrounding a book by former Ukraine prosecutor Viktor Shokhin, who alleged “corruption by the U.S. government” – specifically by Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/EWdl5L2IpG
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
37.“I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR WORK LOAD”: Requests poured in from FBI offices all over the country, day after day, hour after hour: If Twitter didn’t act quickly, questions came: “Was action taken?” “Any movement?” pic.twitter.com/KAu2YesocC
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
https://t.co/08M51rg2BM all led to the situation described by @ShellenbergerMD two weeks ago, in which Twitter was paid $3,415,323, essentially for being an overwhelmed subcontractor.
Twitter wasn’t just paid. For the amount of work they did for government, they were underpaid.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
40.For more on the #TwitterFiles, check out @BariWeiss, @ShellenbergerMD, @LHFang, and @davidzweig. For more on this story, read https://t.co/otqYK3tD7c
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
- @mtaibbi
- 2020 election
- 2020 election interference
- 2020 election meddling
- Adam Schiff
- Carlos Monje
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- Chinese propaganda
- Clemson Media Forensics Hub
- COVID-19 pandemic
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
- Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
- Department of State
- Department of Treasury
- Elvis Chan
- false media narrative
- FBI Belly Button
- FBI San Francisco field office
- Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)
- Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF)
- Global Engagement Center (GEC)
- House Intelligence Committee
- industry calls
- January 2023
- Laura Dehmlow
- lying to media
- lying to public
- Matt Taibbi
- media collusion
- media manipulation
- National Security Agency (NSA)
- Nick Pickles
- Paul Sperry
- PeaceData
- Russian disinformation
- Senate Intelligence Committee
- Signal
- Stacia Cardille
- TK News
- Twitter ban
- Twitter files
- Yoel Roth
- Zero Hedge
January 3, 2023 – Twitter Files: Former House Intel Committee chief Adam Schiff asks Twitter to ban journalist Paul Sperry
27.They also received an astonishing variety of requests from officials asking for individuals they didn’t like to be banned. Here, the office for Democrat and House Intel Committee chief Adam Schiff asks Twitter to ban journalist Paul Sperry: pic.twitter.com/SXI1ekqi13
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
28.“WE DON’T DO THIS” Even Twitter declined to honor Schiff’s request at the time. Sperry was later suspended, however. pic.twitter.com/9PX2Zw5Nzj
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
29.Twitter honored almost everyone else’s requests, even those from GEC – including a decision to ban accounts like @RebelProtests and @BricsMedia because GEC identified them as “GRU-controlled” and linked “to the Russian government,” respectively: pic.twitter.com/OQjQuKTzTO
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
Paul Sperry responds 1/04/2023:
BREAKING: Dem Rep. Adam Schiff wanted journalist Paul Sperry’s account suspended over reporting on Trump whistleblower, TwitterFiles revealshttps://t.co/Er4oopJGLr
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) January 4, 2023
Explains why Twitter could never give me a reason for my suspension. It was Schiff!
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) January 4, 2023
January 4, 2023 – Twitter Files: Twitter is pressured by Intel Community (including Senate Intel, Mark Warner)
“Matt Taibbi has a new substack out on the Twitter Files. This one concentrates on how Twitter found itself under political pressure from the Deep State to, in essence, lend support to the Russia Hoax. This, as usual, was an evidence free operation. Twitter looked but couldn’t find evidence of Russian “meddling”. Twitter execs said so to one another, but buckled to Deep State pressure. Overall, what we’re seeing from the Twitter File revelations is that the anti-Trump campaign was the biggest gaslighting of the public population ever witnessed since lower tech operations by the likes Stalin, Mao, and Hitler. It was all done with the appearance of an open society, but nothing could have been further from the truth. And it happened under a Republican administration. This will all be red meat for Sundance, as you’ll see the central role of Mark Warner and the Senate Intel Committee. Nevertheless, you can be sure that political masters higher up the food chain were directing all of this.
What I’ve done here is simply pasted in the text of Taibbi’s tweets—sans documentation, which you can find at the link.
1.THREAD: The Twitter Files
How Twitter Let the Intelligence Community In
2.In August 2017, when Facebook decided to suspend 300 accounts with “suspected Russian origin,” Twitter wasn’t worried. Its leaders were sure they didn’t have a Russia problem.
3.“We did not see a big correlation.”
“No larger patterns.”
“FB may take action on hundreds of accounts, and we may take action on ~25.”
4.“KEEP THE FOCUS ON FB”: Twitter was so sure they had no Russia problem, execs agreed the best PR strategy was to say nothing on record, and quietly hurl reporters at Facebook:
5.“Twitter is not the focus of inquiry into Russian election meddling right now – the spotlight is on FB,” wrote Public Policy VP Colin Crowell:
6.In September, 2017, after a cursory review, Twitter informed the Senate it suspended 22 possible Russian accounts, and 179 others with “possible links” to those accounts, amid a larger set of roughly 2700 suspects manually examined.
Note the “possible”. That suggests that Twitter believed it best to offer up some meager results, whether there was real evidence or not.
7.Receiving these meager results, a furious Senator Mark Warner of Virginia – ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee – held an immediate press conference to denounce Twitter’s report as “frankly inadequate on every level.”
8.“#Irony,” mused Crowell the day after Warner’s presser, after receiving an e-circular from Warner’s re-election campaign, asking for “$5 or whatever you can spare.”
“LOL,” replied General Counsel Sean Edgett.
9.“KEEP PRODUCING MATERIAL” After meeting with congressional leaders, Crowell wrote: “Warner has political incentive to keep this issue at top of the news, maintain pressure on us and rest of industry to keep producing material for them.”
So, Twitter execs weren’t stupid. They knew exactly what this was about—politics. Evidence free political gaslighting, but of the entire country.
10.“TAKING THEIR CUES FROM HILLARY CLINTON” Crowell added Dems were taking cues from Hillary Clinton, who that week said: “It’s time for Twitter to stop dragging its heels and live up to the fact that its platform is being used as a tool for cyber-warfare.”
11. In growing anxiety over its PR problems, Twitter formed a “Russia Task Force” to proactively self-investigate.
So joining the gaslighting party had nothing to do with evidence—it was to handle a “PR problem”, which was really a problem with the political masters who regulated, or might regulate, their platform.
12.The “Russia Task Force” started mainly with data shared from counterparts at Facebook, centered around accounts supposedly tied to Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA). But the search for Russian perfidy was a dud:
Despite their best gaslighting intentions, there just wasn’t anything that could be plausibly called evidence.
13. OCT 13 2017: “No evidence of a coordinated approach, all of the accounts found seem to be lone-wolf type activity (different timing, spend, targeting, <$10k in ad spend).”
14.OCT 18 2017: “First round of RU investigation… 15 high risk accounts, 3 of which have connections with Russia, although 2 are RT.”
What to do? Cast the net more widely! But—still no fish in the net.
15.OCT 20 2017: “Built new version of the model that is lower precision but higher recall which allows to catch more items. We aren’t seeing substantially more suspicious accounts. We expect to find ~20 with a small amount of spend.”
16.OCT 23 2017: “Finished with investigation… 2500 full manual account reviews, we think this is exhaustive… 32 suspicious accounts and only 17 of those are connected with Russia, only 2 of those have significant spend one of which is Russia Today…remaining <$10k in spend.”
Basically, a total bust. But that was good enough to generate MSM headlines to gaslight the populace and spread Russia hysteria.
17.Twitter’s search finding “only 2” significant accounts, “one of which is Russia Today,” was based on the same data that later inspired panic headlines like “Russian Influence Reached 126 Million Through Facebook Alone”:
18.The failure of the “Russia task force” to produce “material” worsened the company’s PR crisis.
That sure has a Stalinesque show trial ring to it, doesn’t it? If you can’t prove guilt, you may be the guilty party! You may be a “wrecker”, a saboteur, … a, a, AGENT OF PUTIN!
19.In the weeks after Warner’s presser, a torrent of stories sourced to the Intel Committee poured into the news, an example being Politico’s October 13, “Twitter deleted data potentially crucial to Russia probes.”
20.“Were Twitter a contractor for the FSB… they could not have built a more effective disinformation platform,” Johns Hopkins Professor (and Intel Committee “expert”) Thomas Rid told Politico.
21.As congress threatened costly legislation, and Twitter [again] was subject to more bad press fueled by the committees, the company changed its tune about the smallness of its Russia problem.
Fake confession time.
22.“Hi guys.. Just passing along for awareness the writeup here from the WashPost today on potential legislation (or new FEC regulations) that may affect our political advertising,” wrote Crowell.
23. In Washington weeks after the first briefing, Twitter leaders were told by Senate staff that “Sen Warner feels like tech industry was in denial for months.” Added an Intel staffer: “Big interest in Politico article about deleted accounts.”
24.Twitter “pledged to work with them on their desire to legislate”:
25.“Knowing that our ads policy and product changes are an effort to anticipate congressional oversight, I wanted to share some relevant highlights of the legislation Senators Warner, Klobuchar and McCain will be introducing,” wrote Policy Director Carlos Monje soon after.
It’s bipartisan.
26.“THE COMMITTEES APPEAR TO HAVE LEAKED” Even as Twitter prepared to change its ads policy and remove RT and Sputnik to placate Washington, congress turned the heat up more, apparently leaking the larger, base list of 2700 accounts.
27.Reporters from all over started to call Twitter about Russia links. Buzzfeed, working with the University of Sheffield, claimed to find a “new network” on Twitter that had “close connections to… Russian-linked bot accounts.”
28.“IT WILL ONLY EMBOLDEN THEM.” Twitter internally did not want to endorse the Buzzfeed/Sheffield findings:
29. “SENATE INTEL COMMITTEE IS ASKING… POSSIBLE TO WHIP SOMETHING TOGETHER?” Still, when the Buzzfeed piece came out, the Senate asked for “a write up of what happened.” Twitter was soon apologizing for the same accounts they’d initially told the Senate were not a problem.
30.“REPORTERS NOW KNOW THIS IS A MODEL THAT WORKS”
This cycle – threatened legislation, wedded to scare headlines pushed by congressional/intel sources, followed by Twitter caving to moderation asks – would later be formalized in partnerships with federal law enforcement.
The desired result has been achieved—Twitter is transformed into the PR gaslighting arm of the Intel Committee, censoring information that might lead the public to become suspicious of what its masters were up to.
31.Twitter soon settled on its future posture.
In public, it removed content “at our sole discretion.”
Privately, they would “off-board” anything “identified by the U.S.. intelligence community as a state-sponsored entity conducting cyber-operations.”
32.Twitter let the “USIC” into its moderation process. It would not leave.
Wrote Crowell, in an email to the company’s leaders:
“We will not be reverting to the status quo.”
(Meaning In History/Substack, 1/4/2023) (Archive) (Taibbi thread)
- @mtaibbi
- 2016 Election
- 2016 election meddling
- Amy Klobuchar
- Carlos Monje
- Colin Crowell
- DNC hack
- Hillary Clinton
- IC/Twitter communications
- January 2023
- lying to public
- Mark Warner
- Matt Taibbi
- media collusion
- political ads
- Russiagate
- Russian meddling
- RussiaToday
- Senate Intelligence Committee
- Twitter files
January 5, 2023 – US Attorney Lausch urges AG Garland to appoint a special counsel the day after his investigators interviewed Biden aide Kathy Chung
BREAKING: US Attorney Lausch urged AG Garland to appoint a special counsel THE DAY AFTER his investigators (on Jan. 4) interviewed Biden aide Kathy Sang-ok Chung re her role in packing/storing classified WH docs. Chung previously worked with Hunter who suggested VP Biden hire her
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) January 24, 2023
BREAKING It appears there may now be evidence that Hunter Biden was once PERSONALLY a part of the movement of his father’s official “papers”, according to emails concerning early discussions about The Biden Institute. https://t.co/X68IHSypVv pic.twitter.com/M7A5UG5Yod
— Truth Ninja (@TruthNinja316) January 23, 2023
January 6, 2023 – Louisiana AG lawsuit reveals Biden regime pressured Facebook to censor Tucker Carlson and targeting of Robert Kennedy, Jr.
(…) On Friday, January 6, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry released communications between Joe Biden’s Director of Digital Strategy, Joe Flaherty, pressuring Facebook to censor Tucker Carlson of FOX News.
Clear effort at government-directed social media censorship @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/iDhcSBFFjo
— AG Jeff Landry (@AGJeffLandry) January 6, 2023
Joe Flaherty demands to know what “reduction” of the information looks like on Facebook. The White House is very upset that the FOX News host is questioning the dangerous experimental vaccine.
Jeff Landry also released a Facebook document telling the White House how to censor Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense Fund. (Read more: The Gateway Pundit, 1/7/2023) (Archive)
Facebook telling the White House how they can censor @RobertKennedyJR pic.twitter.com/zd4yu2lFmU
— AG Jeff Landry (@AGJeffLandry) January 6, 2023
More on Rob Flaherty, White House Director of Digital Strategy:
(…) This guy is middle management incarnate. Flaherty’s cartoonishly disrespectful language as he barks orders at various tech employees — who without fail respond with a “Thanks Rob” — has made me laugh aloud several times. I wanted to learn more about this perfect caricature of modern-day fascism. A bit about his background…
Flaherty got into politics as an undergraduate at Ithaca College. His social media aptitude quickly accelerated his career, landing him a position on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign just two years after graduating.
His thoughts on Hillary from an old blog post:
“Hillary Clinton went right in. That’s what she does. She’s tough as shit. It’s that toughness that, even in my worst moments in the last few months, has been genuinely inspiring to me. When she’s up against the wall, she grinds it out.”
I’m sure Mark Middleton can attest to that inspiring toughness.
Shortly thereafter, Flaherty became the “Digital Director” for Beto O’Rourke’s 2020 presidential campaign, engineering totally-not-authoritarian fundraising schemes like this one:
Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15.
Buy your shirt now: https://t.co/kEJxoLvfH5 pic.twitter.com/KKpAKX4IL8
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 13, 2019
Apparently a huge success (note the timestamps compared to Beto’s):
this hour was betterhttps://t.co/QkDcBs4uPf
— Rob Flaherty (@Rob_Flaherty) September 13, 2019
Flaherty’s accolades do not end there. The social media savant was even behind the famous “We did it Joe!” promotional video, which announced Biden’s presidential victory for those who’d missed it. From Ithaca College News:
“One key moment in the campaign for Flaherty was the announcement of Biden’s running mate, then Senator Kamala Harris… had an extensive rollout plan, including a text message announcement, a video of Harris receiving the call from Biden.”
We did it, @JoeBiden. pic.twitter.com/oCgeylsjB4
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 7, 2020
(Read more: Zero Hedge, 1/8/2023) (Archive)
- Andrew Slavitt
- Beto O'Rourke
- Biden White House
- censorship
- Children’s Health Defense Fund
- Clinton campaign team
- Courtney M. Rowe
- Covid vaccines
- COVID-19 pandemic
- Digital Strategy
- government censorship
- Hillary Clinton
- January 2023
- Jeff Landry
- Kamala Harris
- lawsuit
- Louisiana AG
- Rob Flaherty
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- social media
- Tucker Carlson
January 9, 2023 – Twitter Files: Pfizer board member used same Twitter manager as the WH to suppress debate on Covid vaccines
On August 27, 2021, Dr. Scott Gottlieb – a Pfizer director with over 550,000 Twitter followers – saw a tweet he didn’t like, a tweet that might hurt sales of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccines.
The tweet explained correctly that natural immunity after Covid infection was superior to vaccine protection. It called on the White House to “follow the science” and exempt people with natural immunity from upcoming vaccine mandates.
It came not from an “anti-vaxxer” like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but from Dr. Brett Giroir, a physician who had briefly followed Gottlieb as the head of the Food & Drug Administration. Further, the tweet actually encouraged people who did not have natural immunity to “Get vaccinated!”
No matter.
By suggesting some people might not need Covid vaccinations, the tweet could raise questions about the shots. Besides being former FDA commissioner, a CNBC contributor, and a prominent voice on Covid public policy, Gottlieb was a senior board member at Pfizer, which depended on mRNA jabs for almost half its $81 billion in sales in 2021. Pfizer paid Gottlieb $365,000 for his work that year.
Gottlieb stepped in, emailing Todd O’Boyle, a top lobbyist in Twitter’s Washington office who was also Twitter’s point of contact with the White House.
The post was “corrosive,” Gottlieb wrote. He worried it would “end up going viral and driving news coverage.” (Read more: Alex Berenson/Substack, 1/9/2023) (Archive)
1/ My first #TwitterFiles report: how @scottgottliebmd – a top Pfizer board member – used the same Twitter lobbyist as the White House to suppress debate on Covid vaccines, INCLUDING FROM A FELLOW HEAD OF @US_FDA!
Thanks @elonmusk for opening these files.https://t.co/UbHlmtjELP
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 9, 2023
3/ Twitter put a misleading tag on the tweet, preventing it from being shared. Gottlieb then went after a tweet about Covid’s low risk to kids from @justin_hart. Pfizer would soon win the okay for its mRNA shots for children, so keeping parents scared was crucial…
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 9, 2023
4/ In October 2022, @scottgottliebmd claimed on Twitter and CNBC that he was not trying to suppress debate on mRNA jabs. These files prove that Gottlieb – board member at a company that has made $70 billion on the shots – did just that.
Full story here:https://t.co/UbHlmtjELP
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 9, 2023
- @AlexBerenson
- Biden White House
- Covid vaccines
- COVID-19 pandemic
- Dr. Brett Giroir
- Dr. Scott Gottlieb
- Elon Musk
- Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
- January 2023
- lying to public
- media collusion
- media manipulation
- mRNA shot
- natural immunity
- Pfizer
- Todd O'Boyle
- Twitter ban
- Twitter files
- White House/Twitter communications
January 11, 2023 – Ten senior Biden administration officials were hired to their current or former positions after stints at the Penn Biden Center
During the Penn Biden opening ceremony in Feb 2018, Biden told Andrea Mitchell that he told UPenn’s president the idea of the center was “even more intriguing after the outcome of the [2016] election when you said I could bring along with me some serious, serious people.” pic.twitter.com/JQHjA2j9o2
— Cameron Cawthorne (@Cam_Cawthorne) January 11, 2023
(Fox News, 1/11/2023) (Archive)
- @Cam_Cawthorne
- @ThomasCatenacci
- Amy Gutmann
- Antony Blinken
- Ariana Berengaut
- Brian McKeon
- Carlyn Reichel
- Colin Kahl
- David Cohen
- Jeffrey Prescott
- Juan Gonzalez
- Michael Carpenter
- National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
- National Legal and Policy Center
- Obama administration
- Penn Biden Center
- Peter Flaherty
- Richard Sauber
- Spencer Boyer
- Steven Richetti
January 12, 2023 – Twitter Files: The Fake Tale of Russian Bots – Twitter officials were aghast, finding no evidence of Russian influence
1.THREAD: Twitter Files #14
THE RUSSIAGATE LIES
One: The Fake Tale of Russian Bots and the #ReleaseTheMemo Hashtag— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
3.Twitter officials were aghast, finding no evidence of Russian influence:
“We are feeding congressional trolls.”
“Not any…significant activity connected to Russia.”
“Putting the cart before the horse assuming this is propaganda/bots.” pic.twitter.com/r8O21QacME— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
5.On January 18th, 2018, Republican Devin Nunes submitted a classified memo to the House Intel Committee detailing abuses by the FBI in obtaining FISA surveillance authority against Trump-connected figures, including the crucial role played by the infamous “Steele Dossier”: pic.twitter.com/uhl7TXYsBC
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
7.Nonetheless, national media in January and early February of 2018 denounced the Nunes report in oddly identical language, calling it a “joke”: pic.twitter.com/IkTXRGrfaH
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
9b. Feinstein/Schiff said the Nunes memo “distorts” classified information, but note they didn’t call it incorrect. pic.twitter.com/3ZMVM6XH9p
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
11.Feinstein, Schiff, Blumenthal, and media members all pointed to the same source: the Hamilton 68 dashboard created by former FBI counterintelligence official Clint Watts, under the auspices of the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD). pic.twitter.com/sifFJhBTn6
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
13.Inside Twitter, executives panned Watts, Hamilton 68, and the Alliance for Securing Democracy. Two key complaints: Hamilton 68 seemed to be everyone’s only source, and no one was checking with Twitter.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
15.“All the swirl is based on Hamilton,” said Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth. pic.twitter.com/xqJxVM3knb
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
17.Roth couldn’t find any Russian connection to #ReleaseTheMemo – at all. “I just reviewed the accounts that posted the first 50 tweets with #releasethememo and… none of them show any signs of affiliation to Russia.” pic.twitter.com/wJJ3rmI3Ks
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
19.A staffer for “DiFi” – Feinstein – agreed it would be “helpful to know” how Hamilton 68 goes by “the process by which they decide an account is Russian.”
But, only AFTER Feinstein published her letter about Russian influence. pic.twitter.com/ysPYDuEtOH
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
21.Added another: “It might be worth nudging Blumenthal’s staffer that it could be in his boss’ best interest not to go out there because it could come back to make him look silly.” pic.twitter.com/tP6VZF0PPC
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
23.Blumenthal published his letter anyway.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
25.They expressed this explicitly to Blumenthal’s camp, saying “Twitter spent a lot of resources” on this request and the reward from Blumenthal shouldn’t be round after round of requests.”
“We can’t do a user notice each time this happens.” pic.twitter.com/pcixoeYIyH
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
27.Ultimately senior executives talked about “feeding congressional trolls” and compared their situation to the children’s book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” pic.twitter.com/xk6reot1lf
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
29.The metaphor for the endless Russia requests was so perfect, one exec wrote, “I’m legit embarrassed I didn’t think of that first.” pic.twitter.com/MbI6XrnS18
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
31.Outside counsel from DC-connected firms like Debevoise and Plimpton advised Twitter to use language like, “With respect to particular hashtags, we take seriously any activity that may represent an abuse of our platform.” pic.twitter.com/DW5nO9Syh5
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023
- Adam Schiff
- Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD)
- Carlos Monje
- Clint Watts
- Clinton/DNC/Steele Dossier
- Colin Crowell
- Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (DOJ OIG)
- Devin Nunes
- Dianne Feinstein
- disinformation campaign
- Emily Horne
- fake Russian bots
- Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)
- feeding congressional trolls
- FISA Title-1 surveillance warrant
- Global Policy Communications
- Hamilton 68 Dashboard
- Horowitz Report
- House Intelligence Committee
- January 2023
- lack of evidence
- Lauren Culbertson
- media collusion
- media lies
- Michael Horowitz
- Nick Pickles
- Nunes memo
- Richard Blumenthal
- Russiagate
- Russiagate disinformation operation
- Russian trolls
- Trump Russia collusion
- Trump Russia collusion narrative
- Twitter officials
- Yoel Roth
January 12, 2023 – Former Biden assistant is questioned by law enforcement over classified docs
“A former top aide to President Biden — who reportedly was questioned by federal investigators as part of the probe into the president’s handling of classified documents — exchanged emails with Hunter Biden on numerous occasions, according to a Fox News Digital review.
Kathy Chung, Biden’s executive assistant when he was vice president and the Pentagon’s current deputy director of protocol, is among several former aides to the president to be interviewed by law enforcement, NBC News reported Thursday. Chung and the others questioned reportedly helped move materials and belongings from Biden’s office at the end of the Obama administration in early 2017.
Throughout much of her five-year tenure working for Biden during the Obama administration, Chung regularly communicated with Biden’s son Hunter Biden, transmitting information about his father’s schedule and passing messages directly from the then-vice president, according to emails obtained from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop and verified by Fox News Digital.
Chung’s relationship with Hunter Biden also appears to date back before she worked for his father. The emails showed that Hunter Biden recommended Chung for the executive assistant role when the previous holder of the job, Michele Smith, departed the White House in the spring of 2012.
At the time, Chung worked in former Sen. Mark Udall’s, D-Colo., office as his scheduling director. She previously worked for Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman, who was appointed to replace Biden in the Senate in 2009 and is a longtime confidante of Biden dating back decades.
In response to her message, Hunter Biden responded later that day saying that the job would make her the primary gatekeeper of Biden and would be “involved in everything that goes on outside of policy.”
(…) And on multiple occasions, the pair coordinated schedules for meetings with former University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann. Shortly after taking office, the president selected Gutmann to be the U.S. ambassador to Germany.
“VP will be meeting with President Guttman on Friday, Jan. 8, 11:00 am, at the Lake house in DE,” Chung wrote in an email to Hunter Biden, other family members and several White House officials in January 2016. “VP hopes that you will be able to join him for this meeting. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!!”
After Chung invited Hunter Biden to another meeting with Gutmann in April 2016, he suggested in a follow-up message to his business partner that he may need to reschedule a previously-scheduled meeting with the prime minister of the Ivory Coast. He added that “the Guttman mtg is a must attend for me per Dad.” (Read more: Fox News, 1/12/2023) (Archive)
January 13, 2023 – Court filing: The FBI admits Seth Rich was directly involved in the DNC “hack”
(Read more: Court Listener PDF (21 pages) , 1/13/2023) (Archive)
Attorney Ty Clevenger explains further:
1/6 New Seth Rich documents, fresh off the grill! FBI filed a new motion about CrowdStrike records. I’ve only given it a cursory review, but we have at least one bombshell (in 5/7). #FridayNightDocumentDumphttps://t.co/zN6CzphV9K
— Ty Clevenger (@Ty_Clevenger) January 21, 2023
3/6 Exhibit A to the FBI motion. “Here’s why we’re not giving you anything about this CrowdStrike report.”https://t.co/LCaC7gTMVb
— Ty Clevenger (@Ty_Clevenger) January 21, 2023
5/7 Oh wow, this one is huge. That “forensic report” on Seth’s laptop? It was indeed produced by CrowdStrike. Major ramifications…https://t.co/CtOnLCMISc
— Ty Clevenger (@Ty_Clevenger) January 21, 2023
7/7 Lo and behold, we have an EIGHTH sworn declaration from Mr. Seidel. I must have become a full-time job for him. That makes me happy.https://t.co/Zkc3B7qqAx
— Ty Clevenger (@Ty_Clevenger) January 21, 2023
- agency records
- Andrea Parker
- Brian Huddleston
- chain of custody
- cover up operation
- cover-up
- Crossfire Panda
- CrowdStrike
- data imaging
- Digital Evidence Policy Guide
- DNC emails
- DNC hack
- DNC leak
- DNC servers
- Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)
- FOIA evasion
- FOIA exemption
- FOIA lawsuit
- FOIA requests
- forensic analysis
- forensic report
- Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
- House Intelligence Committee
- January 2023
- Michael Seidel
- Motion for Clarification
- Mueller Report
- Mueller team
- Robert Mueller
- Russian hack
- Seth Rich
- Seth Rich laptop
- Seth Rich work computer
- Seymour Hersh
- Shawn Henry
- Ty Clevenger
- Vaughn Index
- Wikileaks
January 13, 2023 – Recently questioned Biden assistant Kathy Chung, appears in Biden laptop report 31 times, suggesting multiple felonies
“Chung” appears 31 times in our dossier. Kathy committed multiple felonies with—& at the direction of—the Biden family. She set up business meetings between Joey & Hunt with the then-richest man in the world, Mexican billionaire @carlosslim: https://t.co/8a9LYlhh28@USAttyWeiss https://t.co/kLYxIuodgh pic.twitter.com/si1du4cF04
— Marco Polo (@MarcoPolo501c3) January 13, 2023
January 13, 2023 – Twitter Files: More Adam Schiff ban requests and “Deamplification”
1.TWITTER FILES: Supplemental
More Adam Schiff Ban Requests,
and “Deamplification”— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 13, 2023
3.The real issue was Donald Trump retweeted the Biden pic. To its credit Twitter refused to remove it, with Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth saying it had obvious “humorous intent” and “any reasonable observer” – apparently, not a Schiff staffer – could see it was doctored. pic.twitter.com/QJtS6s506Z
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 13, 2023
5.Twitter also refused requests for bans of content about Schiff and his staff, e.g. “complete suppress[ion of] any and all search results about Mr. Misko and other Committee staffers.” Twitter said this would not be “conceivable.” pic.twitter.com/2HQrmp4fnY
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 13, 2023
7.Twitter policy at the time didn’t ban QAnon, but “deamplified” such accounts. About the batch of tweets that included those above, Twitter execs wrote: “We can internally confirm that a number of the accounts flagged are already included in this deamplification.” pic.twitter.com/IWss2BoUKx
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 13, 2023
9.“WE APPRECIATE GREATLY”
“We are curious whether any deamplification measures implemented by Twitter’s enforcement team – which we appreciate greatly – could… impede the ability of law enforcement to search Twitter for potential threats about Misko and other HPSCI staff.” pic.twitter.com/h7TRauK6j5— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 13, 2023
January 14, 2023 – Lawsuit: 6 Shocking Revelations of Government Censorship
1. CISA considers your thoughts “Cognitive Infrastructure”
One of the most stunning things we’ve learned from this lawsuit is that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency now considers your thoughts and what you post online, a part of the United States Government’s “critical infrastructure,” thereby giving them the authority to regulate them. I don’t think anyone asked everyday Americans if they’d want the government regulating what goes on inside their brains, but alas, here we are.
2. Rob Flaherty coerced Facebook to ban and censor the vaccine injured, despite acknowledging their posts were true and didn’t break the Terms of Service
Rob Flaherty is the White House Director of Digital Strategy and a senior advisor to President Joe Biden. The government initially attempted to hide his involvement in censorship, but other discovery exposed his name, and the judge granted written interrogatory and discovery to the Plaintiffs in this case. As we will see in the examples below, Flaherty often acts as a ”boss” or manager to social media executives, cursing at them and treating them with disdain when they don’t follow his directives to censor the speech of Americans.
In an email response to Flaherty, Facebook beamed about removing post visibility and censoring the vaccine injured, stating:
3. Flaherty wanted Facebook to take more action in censoring the encrypted chat program “WhatsApp”
Rob Flaherty spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get Facebook to more stringently censor WhatsApp, despite Facebook telling him they had no way to read the messages its users were sending one another. Facebook added multiple layers of censorship to the app, deboosting posts that were forwarded often and pinning what it called “authoritative” messages about COVID and vaccines to the application.
4. Flaherty wanted to know what Facebook was doing to censor vaccine claims that were “dubious” but not false
Rob Flaherty consistently demanded information about what Facebook was doing to censor content that was not false but that they considered “dubious.” He demanded internal data from the organization to confirm their efforts to censor Americans were working.
This is the most heart wrenching so far. As vaccine injury begins to rear its ugly head, people flock to Facebook to share their experiences. FB tells the government that they are taking action on that content even though it is true and doesn’t violate TOS. This is evil. RT this pic.twitter.com/nU9944aUw4
— Tracy Beanz (@tracybeanz) January 10, 2023
5. Joe Biden was inadvertently swept up in the censorship algorithm the White House forced Instagram to implement
In what can only be considered a stroke of serendipity, Joe Biden’s account on Instagram was inadvertently demoted and shadowbanned due to the frequency with which is was posting content about COVID-19 vaccines. Instagram, at the behest of an abusive Rob Flaherty, created an algorithm to demote accounts that were sharing an inordinate amount of vaccine-related content. Flaherty realized that the POTUS account wasn’t picking up followers and emailed execs at the company to let them know. They responded, stating that they couldn’t get into details, but the account had been fixed. After a profanity-laced email sent back from Flaherty, the execs were forced to admit that the very censorship algorithm they created to censor everyday Americans swept up the President as well. Needless to say, the White House didn’t much like being censored.
6. The office of First Lady Jill Biden was also involved in censoring Americans on Twitter
The First Lady also got into censorship action, begging Twitter to remove an edited video of Jill Biden that was clearly a parody. Twitter fought back against the demand but ultimately removed the content after Flaherty became involved and was copied on communications. We wouldn’t have known that censorship extended to the sitting First Lady without the expedited discovery order covering Rob Flaherty.
(Much more including docs: UndercoverDC/TracyBeanz, 1/14/2023) (Archive)
- "cognitive infrastructure"
- @tracybeanz
- Biden White House
- censorship
- censorship algorithm
- censorship of vaccine injured
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
- Digital Strategy
- government censorship
- January 2023
- Jen Easterly
- Jill Biden
- Joe Biden
- lawsuit
- Louisiana AG
- Missouri AG
- Rob Flaherty
- text messages
- uncoverdc
January 15, 2023 – Andrew McCabe says the DOJ should obstruct the House GOP’s investigation into the Biden document scandal
(…) McCabe said it’s time for the DOJ to play hardball and obstruct Republicans in Congress.
“Chairman Jim Jordan announced this House Judiciary Committee investigation into the DOJ actions related to the President’s handling of the classified documents today,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper said on Friday. “How much does that impact the DOJ ongoing investigation?”
McCabe said the DOJ should refuse to cooperate with the House GOP’s investigation and hide documents under the guise of an ‘ongoing investigation.’
“I certainly would advise them — if they were willing to listen to my advice — I would advise them to take a very hard line against that,” McCabe said. “There is a clear precedent here of not sharing information from an ongoing criminal investigation with Congress. And I think the DOJ is in a very strong position to resist on those grounds.”
“Who knows what comes of that resistance?” McCabe continued. “Maybe DOJ leadership starts getting subpoenaed.
January 16, 2023 – Former intel official Douglas Wise knew Hunter Biden laptop ‘had to be real’ but signed ‘disinfo’ letter anyway
“A former top intelligence official who signed on to a letter attacking The Post’s bombshell 2020 reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation has now admitted he knew a “significant portion” of the recovered files “had to be real” – but doesn’t regret dismissing the exposé.
Douglas Wise, a former Defense Intelligence Agency deputy director, was one of 51 erstwhile intelligence brass who issued the public letter on Oct. 19, 2020 — five days after The Post began a series of reports on the now-first son’s shady overseas business dealings.
“All of us figured that a significant portion of that content had to be real to make any Russian disinformation credible,” said Wise — who didn’t respond when The Post reached out for an explanation in March of last year, but found his tongue when he spoke to The Australian.
January 17, 2023 – Justice Department declined to oversee search at Biden’s residences
“The Justice Department reportedly considered accompanying President Joe Biden’s lawyers as they searched his residences but declined to do so.
Officials believed joining in the search would complicate the investigation’s later stages. They also cited trust in the Biden team as a reason to avoid tagging along, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The Justice Department’s treatment of Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents differs greatly from their treatment of allegedly mishandled classified documents by former President Donald Trump.
Trump’s team had been in contact with the National Archives, but talks between them deteriorated and lead to the FBI raiding the former president’s residence at Mar-a-Lago. They found classified documents in the search. Officials believed Trump’s team had not been honest when they claimed they had turned over all documents that were property of the federal government.
Biden’s lawyer originally disclosed the finding of classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president at the Penn Biden Center to the National Archives in November 2022. There were several follow-up communications about additional classified documents found at his Wilmington, Delaware, residence.
In both Trump’s and Biden’s cases, Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed special counsels to investigate the alleged mishandling of the classified documents. (Read more: Washington Examiner, 1/17/2023) (Archive)
January 19, 2023 – Biden laptop pics put Hunter Biden at classified docs home while raking in million from the CCP
…the Washington Free Beacon reports that photos from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop place him at the Wilmington House in July, 2017. Of note, the classified documents were reportedly brought to the house in January of that year.
The photos ‘are the most concrete evidence to date’ that Hunter – who was actively negotiating a deal with a CCP-linked Chinese energy company – had access to areas of his father’s home where classified documents were stored.
A Washington Free Beacon review of the laptop found four 2017 photographs of Hunter Biden, clad in a white collared shirt and a camouflage baseball cap, behind the wheel of his father’s 1967 Corvette Stingray. GPS metadata embedded in the photos indicate they were taken within a minute of each other at 6:49 p.m. on July 30 of that year, just outside the president’s Wilmington, Del., residence. The photos show Hunter Biden posing in the vehicle beside two young girls. One appears to be his then-12-year-old niece, Natalie Biden. The other could not be identified.
Former Secret Service agent and certified cyber forensics expert, Konstantinos Gus Dimitrelos, analyzed the photos and confirmed their authenticity.
“If requested, I will testify the photographs are genuine and were taken on July 30, 2017,” he told the Free Beacon.
And as the Beacon further reports – corroborating Breitbart‘s reporting, “At the time the photos were taken, Hunter Biden was negotiating a lucrative business deal with the now-defunct Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC, which was closely tied to the Chinese government. Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski claimed to have met with Joe Biden in person in early May 2017—less than three months before Hunter Biden was pictured taking the wheel of his father’s prized vehicle—to discuss the Biden family’s Chinese business dealings.”
In total, CEFC paid Hunter Biden $6 million in legal and consulting fees in 2017 and 2018.
And of course, the same media which suggested the Trumps were Russian operatives based on a hoax – are virtually silent at actual risks to national security posed by the Biden family. (Read more: Zero Hedge, 1/19/2023) (Archive)
January 21, 2023 – Feds search Biden Delaware home and find six more classified documents
“Six more classified documents were found at the Wilmington, Delaware home of Joe Biden on Friday during a nearly thirteen-hour search of the home by the Department of Justice according to a statement released Saturday evening by Biden’s private attorney Bob Bauer. This is the fifth batch of classified documents found in Biden’s possession and the fourth to be found at the Wilmington home in searches stretching from December 20 to Friday. The first batch was found at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. on November 2nd. (Update at end.)
Bauer also said, “The DOJ also took for further review personally handwritten notes from the vice-presidential years,” and that some of the items taken by investigators were from Biden’s time as a senator as well as vice president.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel, Robert Hur, to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents on January 12. Hur has not yet taken over the case from U.S. Attorney for Chicago John Lausch; the search was conducted by FBI agents under Lausch.
A separate statement from the White House Counsel’s Office notes “Neither the President nor the First Lady were present during the search. The President’s lawyers and White House Counsel’s Office will continue to cooperate with DOJ and the Special Counsel…” pic.twitter.com/O3UxV4iY8W
— Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) January 21, 2023
Statement from White House Counsel’s Office on ongoing cooperation with the Justice Department: pic.twitter.com/LUUjgzuouL
— Ian Sams (@IanSams46) January 21, 2023
January 21, 2023 – Sergei Millian tweets about a “secret sealed SpyGate case” that involves the Renteria Memo
On or about January 21st of this year, Sergei Millian teased a “secret sealed SpyGate case” via a series of now deleted tweets. Shout out to The Washington Pundit Telegram channel for posting this screenshot of it.
Twitter user @mgEyesOpen searched PACER and found it. Sure enough, it exists and is sealed.
I searched the case myself, 21-SC-3164 (ZMF), and it was difficult to find. That is probably on me for being a bit inexperienced and/or lacking some knowledge in how best to use PACER’s query system. I kept at it and did eventually locate the sealed case just as @mgEyesOpen did. However, in my searches for the case that Millian had teased everyone with, I kept getting a return for a different case, with a slightly different name:
I didn’t find much on it, but the Case Title:
‘IN RE APPLICATION OF USA FOR 2703(d) ORDER FOR SIX EMAIL ACCOUNTS SERVICED BY GOOGLE LLC FOR INVESTIGATION OF VIOLATION OF 18 U.S.C….’
…was intriguing to me, so I bookmarked it.
About once or twice a week since, I have checked that bookmark and searched around again. Always coming up empty-handed… until now.
Paydirt.
Paydirt.
The New York Times filed to have records unsealed (notice that the violations that are being investigated here are redacted) in the very case that I kept happening upon when searching for the case that Millian teased. If that makes sense…
Here, just for clarity’s sake:
21-SC-3164 (ZMF) = Super secret Spygate case that Millian teased (Filed ?)
20-SC-3361 (ZMF) = Six Email Accounts Disclosure Case (Filed January 5th, 2021)
1:21-MC-00091 (ZMF) = NYT Case asking for unsealing in the Six Email Accounts Case (Filed June 8th, 2021)
As I began to read the first filing in the Time’s suit, I was struck by a familiar name from page 3.
I’m sure many readers will recall that Special Counsel Durham added Small to his team back on August 1st of 2022. However, it is possible Durham may have been tasking Small to do work for the Special Counsel’s Office before then. And the court battle over this case played out just a couple months before Small was added.
Which begs the question:
Is this Six Google Email Accounts case connected to the Durham SCO?
Back to the filing…
Two orders. One for information, another to gag the NYT’s attorney.
Four New York Times journalists?
What 2017 news report?
(checks the footnote)
Eric Lichtblau… his name came up in the Sussman case. Sussmann’s defense team wanted to call him up to testify, but wished for the scope of that testimony to be limited. In the end, they decided against it.
What April 2017 news report?
I wonder who the other journalists are?
Oh my.
DOJ was seeking information from the email accounts of these four journalists plus two others because of this article!
They are talking about the Renteria Memo!
This is about the highly classified Renteria Memo and who leaked information about it to the New York Times!
Boom.
I wonder… are Karoun Demirjian and Devlin Barrett the other two journalists whose email accounts DoJ was interested in?
Gone Spearfishing.
At this point in the dig I decided to search around to see if anyone else had reported on this case. Something this significant has surely made waves somewhere.
It had.
This article is worth reading in full, but to summarize it…
In the last weeks of the Trump Administration the Justice Department seized the phone records of those New York Times journalists who are named in the filing and are the authors of that famous Comey piece — Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau and Michael S. Schmidt. They also seized the records of journalists at the Washington Post and CNN. I’m guessing the other two journos must work at those organizations. The order for this seizure was issued by Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui, hence the (ZMF) on the case titles.
DOJ also asked for and Judge Faruqui approved an unprecedented gag order on several executives at the Times to prevent them from alerting those journalists of the seizures. They specifically cited a concern that if the journalists knew of the order they may delete records.
There were some constraints on the records seizure. It was for “non-content information,” meaning only the order “covered… to whom the emails were sent and when they were sent and received.”
In early June of 2021, DoJ asked Judge Faruqui to quash the orders and he did, thus allowing the execs at the New York Times to inform the journalists of the seizure and the newspaper to then inform the public.
DoJ also informed the journalists “that it had obtained several months of their 2017 phone records and had unsuccessfully sought non-content information about their emails.” Google fought the production of the “non-content information” and delayed it over and over. Google’s efforts paid off.
Just days before the gag order was lifted, DoJ announced they would change their policy on seizing such records.
The Accidental Discovery.
The case I had accidentally found while searching for the “super secret SpyGate case” was 20-SC-3361 (ZMF) , the Six Email Accounts Disclosure Case (Filed January 5th, 2021).
The case I found that is connected to it, 1:21-MC-00091 (ZMF), is the NYT Case asking for further unsealing in the Six Email Accounts Case. They wanted the Justice Department to unseal the Application for the seizure of records and everything else.
The Times was successful in getting unsealed much, not all but much, of the docket for the case titled APPLICATION OF USA FOR 2703(d) ORDER FOR SIX EMAIL ACCOUNTS SERVICED BY GOOGLE FOR INVESTIGATION OF VIOLATION OF 18 U.S.C. §§ 641 AND 793.
With the full title there, I want to now define the violations being investigated here.
18 U.S. Code § 641 – Public money, property or records
18 U.S. Code § 793 – Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information
Interesting…
Does this perhaps indicate that someone involved in the Renteria Memo leak sold that classified information?
Drawing the Line From Here to Durham.
I’ve already mentioned that Adam Small was on at least some filings in the case, but there is another connection I want to draw. It’s the “why it matters” now connection.
First though, just in case you don’t recall or did not click the links to read the Times’ Comey article or the WaPo article in this substack, I need to remind you, or perhaps inform you, of what the Renteria Memo is.
During the 2016 primaries, a document was given to the FBI that purported to be “Russian intelligence.” It revealed that there was an “understanding” between the Clinton Campaign and Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
This document described an email in which AG Lynch “had privately assured someone in the Clinton campaign that the [investigation into Hillary’s use of a private email server] would not push too deeply into the matter.”
The document is controversial and ultimately the FBI concluded it was unreliable.
However, that document was a major factor in FBI Director Comey deciding to himself announce in July of 2016 the closure of the investigation into Hillary’s Email Server, because, partially based on that document, he did not feel comfortable giving the investigation over to AG Lynch. Comey did not coordinate with the Justice Department when he did this. It was an extraordinary move and a very unpopular one with media, the administration, Democrats and Republicans.
To this day, media and Democrats are FURIOUS with Comey for doing this because in announcing the closure, he retained control of the investigation and then later reopened it 11 days before Election Day 2016. These two acts have media and Dems, likely Clinton as well, convinced that Comey cost Clinton the election.
The email described in the document (a copy of the email is not actually in the document) is between Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was at time the chair of the Democratic National Committee, and Leonard Benardo, an official at the George Soros owned Open Society Foundations. Wasserman Schultz informs Bernado that AG Lynch had privately communicated with Clinton Campaign staffer Amanda Renteria and told her that “she would not let the FBI investigation into Clinton go too far”.”
Remember of all of this information, even the very existence of the document, was highly classified AND STILL IS. The Renteria Memo has never been released and the Comey article triggered a criminal referral from “an agency in the intelligence community.”
During testimony on Capitol Hill in December 2018, Comey said in regards to the Renteria memo,
“So far as I knew at the time, and still think, the material itself was genuine, which is a separate question, though, from whether it was what it said was accurate…”
“[I’ve] tried to be very careful in public comments about this. There was material that had not been verified that I believed if it became public, would be used to cast doubt on whether the Attorney General had acted appropriately with respect to the investigation… I don’t think I’m allowed to go beyond that in characterizing that material.”
So, why does it matter right now, in February of 2023?
This New York Times article from January 26th, 2023 is why.
This hit and spin piece on Barr and the Durham SCO, this smear piece, has one significant, never before revealed, very ‘dasting piece of information in it.
DOJ was investigating the Renteria Memo’s leak and now Durham is investigating the email described in it!
And notice what the Times doesn’t include:
That from June 2021 through December 2021, they were in court fighting the Justice Department over the seizure of the email records of four of their own reporters, THE SAME ONES WHO WROTE THE COMEY ARTICLE! THE ARTICLE THAT INFORMED THE WORLD OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE RENTERIA MEMO!
In the Sussmann case, Durham broke the Clinton Campaign’s attorney client privilege over a number of emails. This exchange from the transcript provided one of the most memorable, and for [them], foreboding exchanges.
“Not for this trial…”
Another possibility worth considering:
Might the issue Comey described with the memo, that the “material was genuine” but it’s accuracy was in question be due the fact that it may have come from a fake Debbie Wasserman Schultz email account like the one Imran Awan created and used?
It’s a darn good question and a strong possibility.
As detailed in this Daily Caller article,
“Wasserman Schultz frantically fought to stop police from looking at the laptop’s hard drive. For more than two months, police had been telling her they suspected him of cybersecurity breaches, including what she called “data transfer violations,” but she maintained that she thought the police were picking on him and wanted to protect his “due process” — even though she knew how serious cyber breaches can be because she was head of the DNC when its emails were released last year.”
The Durham Special Counsel’s Office ran at least two, possibly three, grand juries in 2022 while also putting on two trials.
We now know that one of those grand juries received documents from the Open Society Foundation and an appearance by Leonard Benardo.
I think we can be confident that Durham asked him about the Wasserman Shultz email.
And I think we can be confident that the Justice Department, in seeking the email records of the journalists who revealed the existence and some details of the classified Renteria Memo, are investigating that leak and did not give up on that effort because it was a dead end. Remember, they did seize the records. And look at this section from a filing that is STILL heavily redacted.
There’s a future shock to [their] systems under those black bars.
While taken separately, these seemingly-disparate nuggets of information appear as Small as the man this dig started on, by tying the various threads together, a tapestry begins to appear.
Or a web.
One that could tie the Media Industrial Complex together, and bind them in their own lies. Their complicity.
Keep those Saint Durham candles lit.
I don’t think he’s done quite yet.
(Just Human/Substack, 2/15/2023) (Archive)
(Re-published in full with permission)
- @DawsonSField
- @mgEyesOpen
- @realjusthuman
- 2016 Election
- 2016 presidential campaign
- Abid Awan
- Adam Goldman
- Adam Small
- Amanda Renteria
- Andrew DeFilippis
- Awan brothers
- Awan laptop
- Clinton campaign
- Clinton Email Investigation
- David McGraw
- Debbie Wasserman-Schultz
- Democratic National Committee (DNC)
- Dutch intelligence
- email communications
- Eric Lichtblau
- Espionage Act
- George Soros
- Hillary Clinton
- Imran Awan
- James Comey
- January 2023
- John Durham
- Judge Beryl Howell
- Judge Zia M. Faruqui
- Leonard Benardo
- Loretta Lynch
- Matt Appuzzo
- media leak
- Michael Schmidt
- Michael Sussmann
- Open Society Foundations
- Renteria memo
- Russian intelligence analysis
- Russian Intelligence memos
- Sergei Millian
- Spygate
- The New York Times
January 21, 2023 – A connection emerges between the Penn Biden Center, hearsay whistleblower, and Trump impeachment hoax
“The Managing Director of the Penn Biden Center, a Biden adviser named Michael Carpenter, now finds himself embroiled in a national controversy that threatens to take down a president. But it isn’t his first time.
Carpenter is implicated in the high-profile scandal since classified documents from Biden’s vice presidency were stored at the Penn Biden Center on his watch. The scandal has led to the quick appointment of a Special Counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
(…) Dr. Carpenter, readers might remember, was flanked to Biden’s right at the Council on Foreign Relations panel in 2018 where Biden infamously announced that he threatened to withhold aid from Ukraine if it did not fire the prosecutor charged with investigating the Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
Burisma, of course, just so happened to be employing his son Hunter Biden on its Board of Directors for the hefty stipend of over $80,000 a month. Of course, we are to dismiss the obvious ‘quid pro quo’ implicated in the former vice president’s demands.
Such a ‘quid pro quo’ is a normal part of diplomacy (“sticks and carrots”), but it would become a scare word during the Trump impeachment hoax. If you recall, a “whistleblower” named Eric Ciaramella had relayed second-hand information that Trump was attaching aid to Ukraine to assurances from then-president Volodymyr Zelensky that Biden’s demand for the prosecutor be fired get properly investigated.
That was it. The Democrats, desperate to wound and potentially rid the U.S. government of their nemesis Donald Trump, nonetheless launched theatrical impeachment hearings over the matter.
The unnamed star at the center of the impeachment theater was the “whistleblower,” believed by investigators to be pictured with Dr. Michael Carpenter below.
Carpenter, interestingly, is a Biden adviser with expertise on Russia and Ukraine, as well as on weapons trafficking, according to his bio at the Atlantic Council.
It is unknown what is in the classified documents discovered at the Penn Biden Center and at Joe Biden’s Wilmington Delaware home. However, CNN has reported that the classified documents involved Ukraine.
“Among the classified documents from Joe Biden’s time as vice president discovered in a private office last fall are US intelligence memos and briefing materials that covered topics including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom,” a source told CNN.
“A total of 10 documents with classification markings were found last year in Biden’s private academic office and they were dated between 2013 and 2016,” the report added.
Joe Biden in 2016 had pressured the Ukrainian government to fire the prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma’s leadership for corruption.
A series of documents from the Obama-Biden administration showed that representatives for Burisma Holdings sought a meeting with the State Department in February 2016 to discuss the corruption allegations.
Burisma’s representatives invoked the former vice president’s youngest son, Hunter, in order to try to get a meeting with the State Department. The FOIA documents obtained in a lawsuit by John Solomon did not indicate if the meeting ever took place.
On one of the last days of his term as vice president, Joe Biden traveled to Kyiv. FOIA documents hosted at the U.S. State Department show one possible explanation why.
Viktor Nebozhenko, a political scientist, was cited in an email from then Foreign Service Institute director Karen Robblee to former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch speculating on the timing of Biden’s visit and what it could possibly mean.
“Donald Trump said that he will carry out an audit of investments in security and democracy in Ukraine,” Nebozhenko said. “For 8 years the US Administration has turned a blind eye to our corruption and gave a lot of money through the IMF and various funds. And all this has disappeared somewhere. Trump, as the new director of the company under the name of the United States, wants to know where that money went.” (Read more: Trending Politics News, 1/21/2023) (Archive)
- Atlantic Council
- audit
- Burisma Holdings
- classified documents
- Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
- Department of State
- Donald Trump
- Eric Ciaramella
- FOIA documents
- FOIA lawsuit
- Foreign Service Institute
- hearsay whistleblower
- Hunter Biden
- illegal possession of classified documents
- International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- Iran
- January 2023
- Joe Biden
- Karen Robblee
- Marie Yovanovitch
- Merrick Garland
- Michael Carpenter
- mishandling classified information
- money laundering
- National Security Council (NSC)
- Obama administration
- Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
- Penn Biden Center
- political corruption
- quid pro quo
- Russia
- Trump impeachment
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Viktor Nebozhenko
- Viktor Shokin
- Volodymyr Zelensky
January 22, 2023 – Biden attorneys did not inform the DOJ of the illegal possession of classified docs at the Penn Biden Center; The National Archives IG informed them
“With the discovery of yet more classified documents at President Biden’s Wilmington home on Friday, the disclosure of which was withheld from the public until after the NFL playoff coverage began on Saturday evening, the Biden team is trying to put its best spin on things: The president, you’re to believe, is being fully cooperative.
The truth of the matter is that, like most criminal suspects as to whom there is already strong evidence of felony offenses, Biden consented to a search knowing that, if he did not, newly appointed special counsel Robert Hur would apply for a judicial warrant from a federal judge. Biden would then have been subject to the same political damage that has dogged former president Donald Trump since the Mar-a-Lago search in August: a judicial finding of probable cause to believe he has committed multiple offenses for which the penal code prescribes prison terms of up to ten years (for each offense).
(…) The president did not consent to an FBI search of his home because he is unconcerned. He consented to it because he knew law enforcement had more than sufficient evidence to compel a search of his home. From his standpoint, with his 2024 reelection hopes now teetering, it was better to pose as a cooperative volunteer than be forced to open his door to federal agents brandishing a judicial warrant.
On this point, the scandal is: Why did the Justice Department wait so long? And why, in the interim, did both DOJ and the Biden White House allow Biden private lawyers who did not have security clearances conduct what turn out to have been incompetent searches that both (a) exposed them to secret intelligence they were not authorized to possess, and (b) failed to locate the secret intelligence they said they were looking for? (And recall that Biden spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre assured us nearly ten days ago that Biden’s lawyers had completed the search for classified documents—only to have still more documents be discovered hours later.)
Remember the timeline here. The first batch of classified documents was found illegally stored in Biden’s office on November 2—i.e., over two-and-a-half months before the FBI finally conducted Friday’s search. Contrary to Biden’s claim of self-reporting, he did not report that discovery—evidence of a serious crime—to law enforcement. Rather, his private lawyers reported it to the Biden White House, which then notified not the Justice Department but the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It appears Biden was hoping NARA would just return the documents to the files and no one would be any the wiser.
The discovery, however, came to the attention of NARA’s inspector general—the watchdog official who reports agency wrongdoing to Congress. It was the IG’s office that, on November 4, notified the Biden Justice Department. (Read more: National Review, 1/22/2023) (Archive)
- Biden White House
- Brett M. Baker
- classified documents
- cover up operation
- Department of Justice (DOJ)
- FBI search
- Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)
- illegal possession of classified documents
- January 2023
- Joe Biden
- lying to public
- mishandling classified information
- NARA IG
- National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
- Penn Biden Center
January 23, 2023 – Former FBI official, Charles McGonigal, is charged with concealing $225,000 in cash received from Oleg Deripaska
“Charles F. McGonigal, 54, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field office, has been arrested on charges relating to his receipt of $225,000 in cash from an individual who had business interests in Europe and who had been an employee of a foreign intelligence service, while McGonigal was serving as Special Agent in Charge of FBI counterintelligence efforts in the New York Office. McGonigal retired from the FBI in September of 2018.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew M. Graves, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office Donald Alway, and Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office David Sundberg.
According to the nine-count indictment, unsealed today, from August 2017, and continuing through and beyond his retirement from the FBI in September 2018, McGonigal concealed from the FBI the nature of his relationship with a former foreign security officer and businessperson who had ongoing business interests in foreign countries and before foreign governments. Specifically, McGonigal requested and received at least $225,000 in cash from the individual and traveled abroad with the individual and met with foreign nationals. The individual later served as an FBI source in a criminal investigation involving foreign political lobbying over which McGonigal had official supervisory responsibility. McGonigal is accused of engaging in other conduct in his official capacity as an FBI Special Agent in Charge that he believed would benefit the businessperson financially.
McGonigal’s initial appearance in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia has not yet been scheduled.
“Covering up your contacts with foreign nationals and hiding your personal financial relationships is a gateway to corruption,” said U.S. Attorney Graves. “The FBI should be commended for handling the delicate and difficult task of investigating a former executive. This investigation demonstrates their commitment to act as an impartial enforcer of the law. The FBI and the Department will guard the best interests of the United States and hold to account those who make false statements and try to deceive the Bureau.”
“Mr. McGonigal betrayed his solemn oath to the United States in exchange for personal gain and at the expense of our national security,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Alway. “A senior FBI executive at the time, McGonigal is alleged to have committed the very violations he swore to investigate while he purported to lead a workforce of FBI employees who spend their careers protecting secrets and holding foreign adversaries accountable. Agents in my office, with the support of agents in Washington, D.C. and New York, vigorously pursued a former colleague without bias.”
“As an FBI agent, Charles McGonigal took an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Sundberg. “In betrayal of that oath, McGonigal is alleged to have received money from a businessman with foreign business interests, to have concealed these payments, and to have lied about related foreign contacts and travel. Integrity is one of the FBI’s core values and we hold our own to the highest standards.”
The charge of falsification of records and documents carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The charge of making false statements carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison for each count. The charges also carry potential financial penalties. The maximum statutory sentence for federal offenses is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes. The sentencing will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. (Read more: Justice.gov, 1/23/2023) (Archive)
- bribery
- Charles McGonigal
- corruption
- David Sundberg
- falsification of documents
- falsification of records
- FBI Counterintelligence Division
- FBI NY Field Office
- Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)
- Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)
- graft
- hypocrisy
- illegal payment
- indictment
- January 2023
- lying to FBI
- making false statements
- Matthew M. Graves
- McGonigal indictment
- Oleg Deripaska
- pay to play
- Russiagate disinformation operation
- Trump Russia collusion
- Trump Russia collusion narrative
January 23, 2023 – Former FBI Charles McGonigal is indicted for taking $225,000 from former Albanian intel official and then shakes down opponents running against Socialist President Edi Rama
(…) In twin indictments last month, McGonigal was charged with taking secret cash payments from a former Albanian intelligence officer, holding secret meetings with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, and attempting to remove top Kremlin oligarch Oleg Deripaska from a US sanctions list.
The Albanians cited by prosecutors tie this scandal to Hunter Biden and the Chinese energy company CEFC that paid him and uncle Jim Biden millions of dollars in a deal which Joe Biden was slated to join after his vice presidency ended.
According to prosecutors, McGonigal received $225,000 in cash in the fall of 2017 while he was the FBI’s counterintelligence chief in New York, from an Albanian former intelligence official, identified in the Albanian and European media as Agron Neza.
In turn, Neza introduced McGonigal to another well-connected Albanian, Dorian Ducka, who was an adviser to Rama and also worked for CEFC.
A photograph published last month in Albanian media sourced from China Daily in May 2017 shows Ducka standing with CEFC chairman Ye Jianming, who famously gave Hunter a 3.16-carat diamond estimated to be worth $80,000 in February 2017.
(…) Why were the Albanians paying McGonigal?
According to Belind Kellici, the Opposition Democratic Party candidate for May’s mayoral election in Tirana, Albania, McGonigal opened FBI investigations into political opponents of Albanian Socialist Party PM Rama, probes used to declare them personae non gratae, unable to do business or open a bank account in the US. (Read more, New York Post, 2/15/2023) (Archive)
January 23, 2023 – Indicted FBI official, Charles McGonigal, led a shakedown operation on Albanian oligarchs, hauling in 30 million Euros
(…) McGonigal, while still serving as a senior FBI official, became a fixer for Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama and his ruling Socialist Party. Albania is a staunch U.S. ally and NATO member, but since Rama took over in Tirana a decade ago, that small country has become a hotbed of corruption, plus Europe’s leading narcostate, with deep connections to Latin American drug cartels. Why the Biden administration turns a blind eye to all this remains a troubling question. Buying senior American officials such as McGonigal is part of how Rama keeps pulling it off. The Albanian opposition is up in arms over this scandal, featuring a top U.S. intelligence official serving as the fixer for the ruling Socialists.
McGonigal made several trips to Albania to help Rama, including in September 2017, when the accused was still a top FBI official. While this trip had an official FBI purpose, its unofficial purpose was helping out Rama by bullying his opponents in Albania. A new report by the Washington Post reveals some of this sordid visit:
“McGonigal, who was still working for the FBI at the time, gave the prime minister Bureau ‘paraphernalia’ and warned him against awarding lucrative drilling licenses to companies that were fronts for Russian interests. While McGonigal appeared to be acting in his role as a counterintelligence officer against Russian influence, prosecutors allege that, in fact, Neza and another Albanian man working with McGonigal, identified by prosecutors as an informal Rama adviser, had their own financial interests in the oil fields.”
The truth is worse than that. It’s bad enough that a top FBI official got involved unpleasantly, for cash, in the internal politics of an American ally. This column can report that what McGonigal did on that fateful trip to Albania was considerably worse than the federal authorities or media have admitted. High-level Albanian sources who witnessed McGonigal’s appalling conduct while he was in that country recount that the FBI senior official worked a shakedown operation on wealthy Albanians for personal profit.
McGonigal told successful Albanians, not all of whom were in the good graces of the Rama government, that they were facing imminent U.S. sanctions, which would destroy their businesses, seize their bank accounts, and end their foreign travel. However, McGonigal could fix this problem for a modest fee of a few million dollars. The message was clear: Pay me or I will destroy your life. The worried Albanians took this threat seriously, given McGonigal’s FBI position, and many of them paid up. Some paid “only” 3 million euros. Others paid much more.
Sources tell me that McGonigal shook down Shefqet Kastrati, Albania’s top oil magnate, for 12 million euros, worth nearly $15 million in 2017. Kastrati’s representatives have adamantly denied the allegation to the Washington Examiner. Apparently, McGonigal also attempted to get bribes from Samir Mane, a leading Albanian businessman, in a similar fashion. Balkan sources say that McGonigal’s haul from this shakedown was on the order of 30 million Euros, though that presumably was split with his Albanian partners.
Where did the money go? This was unlikely to have been a cash operation, given its sensitivity, and Balkan intelligence sources tell me that cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, was involved. Those sources say that McGonigal attempted similar shakedown operations in Albania’s neighbors, Macedonia and Montenegro, both of which contain significant ethnic Albanian minorities.
Details are murky and need thorough investigation, but Albanians in a position to know insist that they witnessed this unprecedented activity by Charles McGonigal when he was one of the FBI’s top officials. This is the worst scandal in the FBI’s long history. It demands immediate congressional investigation. What the DOJ has indicted McGonigal for looks like the small tip of an astonishingly corrupt Balkan iceberg. (Read more: Washington Examiner, 2/13/2023) (Archive)
January 23, 2023 – Former special agent in charge of NY FBI Counterintelligence Division charged with violating U.S. sanctions on Russia
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced the unsealing of a five-count Indictment charging CHARLES MCGONIGAL and SERGEY SHESTAKOV with violating and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) and with conspiring to commit money laundering and money laundering. SHESTAKOV is also charged with making material misstatements to the FBI. The defendants were arrested on Saturday evening, and they will be presented this afternoon before Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave in Manhattan federal court. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Jennifer H. Rearden.
(…) According to the allegations contained in the Indictment unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:
In 2014, the President issued Executive Order 13660, which declared a national emergency with respect to the situation in Ukraine. To address this national emergency, the President blocked all property of individuals determined by the U.S. Treasury to be responsible for or complicit in actions or policies that threatened the security, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine, or who materially assist, sponsor, or provide support to individuals or entities engaging in such activities. Executive Order 13660 and regulations issued pursuant to it prohibit making or receiving any funds, goods, or services by, to, from, or for the benefit of any person designated by the U.S. Treasury.
On April 6, 2018, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) designated Oleg Deripaska as a Specially Designated National (“SDN”) in connection with its finding that the actions of the Government of the Russian Federation with respect to Ukraine constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy (the “OFAC Sanctions”). According to the U.S. Treasury, Deripaska was sanctioned for having acted or purported to act on behalf of, directly or indirectly, a senior official of the Government of the Russian Federation and for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy.
CHARLES MCGONIGAL is a former Special Agent in Charge (“SAC”) of FBI’s Counterintelligence Division in New York, who retired in 2018. While working at the FBI, MCGONIGAL supervised and participated in investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska. SERGEY SHESTAKOV is a former Soviet and Russian diplomat who later became a U.S. citizen and a Russian interpreter for courts and government offices.
In 2021, MCGONIGAL and SHESTAKOV conspired to provide services to Deripaska, in violation of U.S. sanctions imposed on Deripaska in 2018. Specifically, following their negotiations with an agent of Deripaska, MCGONIGAL and SHESTAKOV agreed to and did investigate a rival Russian oligarch in return for concealed payments from Deripaska. As part of their negotiations with Deripaska’s agent, MCGONIGAL, SHESTAKOV, and the agent attempted to conceal Deripaska’s involvement by, among other means, not directly naming Deripaska in electronic communications, using shell companies as counterparties in the contract that outlined the services to be performed, using a forged signature on that contract, and using the same shell companies to send and receive payments from Deripaska.
MCGONIGAL and SHESTAKOV were aware that their actions violated U.S. sanctions because, among other reasons, while serving as SAC, MCGONIGAL received then-classified information that Deripaska would be added to a list of oligarchs considered for sanctions as part of the process that led to the imposition of sanctions against Deripaska. In addition, in 2019, MCGONIGAL and SHESTAKOV worked on behalf of Deripaska in an unsuccessful effort to have the sanctions against Deripaska lifted. In November 2021, when FBI agents questioned SHESTAKOV about the nature of his and MCGONIGAL’s relationship with Deripaska’s agent, SHESTAKOV made false statements in a recorded interview.
CHARLES MCGONIGAL, 54, of New York, New York, and SERGEY SHESTAKOV, 69, of Morris, Connecticut, are charged with one count of conspiring to violate and evade U.S. sanctions, in violation of the IEEPA, one count of violating the IEEPA, one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, and one count of money laundering, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. SHESTAKOV is also charged with one count of making false statements, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The maximum potential sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the FBI New York Field Office’s Counterintelligence Division and the valuable assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection as well as the New York City Police Department.
The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Hagan Scotten, Rebecca T. Dell, and Derek Wikstrom are in charge of the prosecution with assistance from Trial Attorney Scott A. Claffee of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. (Read more: Justice Department, 1/21/2023)
McGonigal is also included in the Biden Laptop Report:
- Charles McGonigal
- conspiring to commit money laundering
- Department of Treasury
- Executive Order 13660
- FBI Counterintelligence Division
- indictment
- Judge Jennifer H. Rearden
- national emergency
- Office of Foreign Assets Control
- Oleg Deripaska
- Russiagate
- sanction violation
- sanctions
- Sergey Shestakov
- shell companies
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
- Ukraine
January 27, 2023 – Twitter Files – Hamilton 68 plays major role in catapulting Russiagate fake news
1.THREAD: Twitter Files #15
MOVE OVER, JAYSON BLAIR: TWITTER FILES EXPOSE NEXT GREAT MEDIA FRAUD pic.twitter.com/bLRpDpuWql— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
3.“Falsely accuses a bunch of legitimate right-leaning accounts of being Russian bots.” pic.twitter.com/EHRWACkZu4
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
5.These are quotes by Twitter executives about Hamilton 68, a digital “dashboard” that claimed to track Russian influence and was the source of hundreds if not thousands of mainstream print and TV news stories in the Trump years. pic.twitter.com/KzCVBCm1hv
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
7.The ASD advisory council includes neoconservative writer Bill Kristol, former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, ex-Hillary for America chief John Podesta, and former heads or deputy heads of the CIA, NSA, and the Department of Homeland Security. pic.twitter.com/Nug3CpF6iK
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
9.Hamilton 68 was the source for stories claiming Russian bots pushed terms like “deep state” or hashtags like #FireMcMaster, #SchumerShutdown, #WalkAway, #ReleaseTheMemo, #AlabamaSenateRace, and #ParklandShooting, among many others. pic.twitter.com/d9uM8bYWVe
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
11. Hamilton 68 never released the list, claiming “the Russians will simply shut [the accounts] down.” All those reporters and TV personalities making claims about “Russian bots” never really knew what they were describing. pic.twitter.com/q89kuDPIIH
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
11. Hamilton 68 never released the list, claiming “the Russians will simply shut [the accounts] down.” All those reporters and TV personalities making claims about “Russian bots” never really knew what they were describing. pic.twitter.com/q89kuDPIIH
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
13.“These accounts,” they concluded, “are neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots.”
“No evidence to support the statement that the dashboard is a finger on the pulse of Russian information ops.”
“Hardly illuminating a massive influence operation.” pic.twitter.com/LMrgWVKe7k
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
https://t.co/om9vyL01e5 was a scam. Instead of tracking how “Russia” influenced American attitudes, Hamilton 68 simply collected a handful of mostly real, mostly American accounts, and described their organic conversations as Russian scheming.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
17.Some Twitter execs badly wanted to out Hamilton 68. After Russians were blamed for hyping the #ParklandShooting hashtag, one wrote:
“Why can’t we say we’ve investigated… and citing Hamilton 68 is being wrong, irresponsible, and biased?” pic.twitter.com/1Pl5MLG7qw
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
19.“We have to be careful in how much we push back on ASD publicly,” said future White House and NSC spokesperson Emily Horne. pic.twitter.com/BRZEESQZlT
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
21. So the “legitimate people,” as one Twitter exec called them, never found out they’d been used as fodder for mountains of news stories about “Russian influence.” Because the #TwitterFiles contain the list, they’ve begun finding out.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
23. “I’ve written a book about the U.S. Constitution,” says Chicago-based lawyer Dave Shestokas. “How I made a list like this is incredible to me.” pic.twitter.com/nJYekHzEIJ
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
25. Even Twitter execs were stunned to read who was on the list. Wrote policy chief Nick Pickles about British comic @Holbornlolz: “A wind-up merchant… I follow him and wouldn’t say he’s pro-Russian… I can’t even remember him tweeting about Russia.” pic.twitter.com/kFCqyFjG0l
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
27. Consortium editor Joe Lauria too was angered to find he was on the list, which targeted voices across the spectrum: “Organizations like Hamilton 68 are in business to enforce an official narrative, which means excising inconvenient facts, which they call ‘misinformation.’” pic.twitter.com/KtRKiE7C7G
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
29.Hamilton 68 was used as a source to assert Russian influence in an astonishing array of news stories: support for Brett Kavanaugh or the Devin Nunes memo, the Parkland shooting, manipulation of black voters, “attacks” on the Mueller investigation… pic.twitter.com/GU9UCBLEeO
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
31.Incredibly, and ironically, these stories were also frequently used as evidence of the spread of “fake news” on sites like Twitter: pic.twitter.com/dyNZNRFIdH
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
- "legitimate people"
- @Holbornlolz
- @mtaibbi
- #AlabamaSenateRace
- #FireMcMaster
- #ParklandShooting
- #ReleaseTheMemo
- #SchumerShutdown
- #WalkAway
- Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD)
- Bill Kristol
- Carlos Monje
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- covert propaganda campaign
- Dave Shestokas
- Deep State
- Dennis Michael Lynch
- Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
- Emily Horne
- fake news
- fake Russian bots
- false accusations
- government censorship
- Hamilton 68 Dashboard
- Jacob Levich
- January 2023
- Joe Lauria
- John Podesta
- Laura Ingraham
- lying to public
- media lies
- media manipulation
- Michael McFaul
- National Security Agency (NSA)
- Nick Pickles
- propaganda platform
- right-leaning accounts
- Russian propaganda
- Sonia Monsour
- Trump campaign
- Twitter files
- Twitter officials
- Yoel Roth
January 29, 2023 – Kash Patel: “FBI criminal government gangsters Peter Strzok and Charles McGonigal texts unearthed, Russiagate set up exposed”
In the below, now declassified text messages between, at the time, FBI agents Peter Strzok and Charles McGonigal, we can see the inception of the Russiagate scam on the American people and President Donald J. Trump beginning to unfold. (FightWithKash.com, 1/29/2023) (Archive)
- Andrew Brown
- Charles McGonigal
- Crossfire Hurricane
- Crossfire Hurricane investigation
- FBI Counterintelligence Division
- FBI counterintelligence investigation
- Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)
- January 2023
- Jennifer Boone
- Jonathan Moffa
- Kash Patel
- Lisa Page
- Peter Strzok
- Richard Quinn
- Russiagate
- setup
- Stephen Laycock
- text messages
- Trisha Anderson
- unredacted texts