,

The Conspiracy Theories Flynn Wants to Resuscitate and the McCabe Investigation

5 Comments
/
/
emptywheel
Sidney Powell managed to reinflated a long debunked conspiracy theory because of DOJ's asymmetry about how they publicize the results of their investigations.
Read more →
, , ,

House Committees' Deposition: U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker

40 Comments
/
/
Rayne
If yesterday's blizzard of disinformation tweets is any kind of measure, the GOP is worried about today's interview of the former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, before the House Committees charged with the impeachment inquiry.
Read more →
,

In Days before Robert Mueller Got Hired, DOJ Immediately Forwarded Bill Barr's Op-Ed Approving of Comey's Firing to Rod Rosenstein

6 Comments
/
/
emptywheel
The weekend before he appointed Robert Mueller, two people in DOJ sent Rod Rosenstein Bill Barr's op-ed promising that Jim Comey's firing would not have any effect on the Russian investigation.
Read more →
, ,

Bill Barr Risks becoming Joseph Mifsud's New Coffee Boy

165 Comments
/
/
emptywheel
Bill Barr was supposed to get an interview directly with Joseph Mifsud. But because he acted even more stupidly than coffee boy George Papadopoulos, he didn't get what he would really need to test Mifsud's claims about being a Western rather than a Russian asset.
Read more →
,

ODNI GC Klitenic: President Has Sole Authority Over Security Clearances, But Is Not Member Of Intelligence Community

59 Comments
/
/
Jim White
On July 10, 2019, Jason Klitenic, General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ruled that the President alone has authority over the granting of security clearances. Then, on September 13, he agreed with OLC that the President is not a member of the Intelligence Community.
Read more →
, ,

Is Bill Barr Already Feeding Sidney Powell So-Called Evidence Trump Coerces?

61 Comments
/
/
emptywheel
A comment from Sidney Powell in the September 10 status hearing raises questions about whether Bill Barr is already using coerced "evidence" to undermine his own DOJ.
Read more →
,

Bill Barr's OLC Treated His Implication in the Whistleblower Complaint as Top Secret

71 Comments
/
/
emptywheel
A key part of the whistleblower allegation is that Trump abused the classification system to try to hide his crime. It turns out that DOJ did the same thing.
Read more →

At Time of Trump-Zelensky Call, Mulvaney Was Already Under Notice From Cummings, Engel and Schiff Not to Hide Records

44 Comments
/
/
Jim White
Note the byline. In perusing the House Oversight Committee website while looking for something else, I ran across this remarkable letter dated February 21, 2019. It is addressed to Mick Mulvaney as Acting White House Chief of Staff and is…
Read more →
,

The CIA Affiliation of the Whistleblower Isn't the Key, It's CIA General Counsel's Role in a Cover-Up

22 Comments
/
/
emptywheel
They key point of the NYT story revealing Courtney Simmons Elwood's role in the cover-up of the Ukraine whistleblower complaint is not that the whistleblower worked at CIA, but that she -- CIA's General Counsel -- took steps that allowed for the possibility of a cover-up.
Read more →
, , ,

[Some of] Where Trump Wants to Go with the Server in Ukraine Story

127 Comments
/
/
emptywheel
Trump really is after something with his Ukraine story.
Read more →
, ,

Crowdsource: Updated Trump-Ukraine Timeline, with Giuliani [UPDATE-5]

74 Comments
/
/
Rayne
Trump's attempt to extort performance from Ukraine this past July is part of a years-long story arc in which some characters show up repeatedly. In this dedicated thread let's tease out a character's role.
Read more →
,

Bill Barr's (Claimed) Surprise about Being in the Zelensky Transcript Is Irrelevant To His (Non) Recusal

139 Comments
/
/
emptywheel
Bill Barr continues to excel at placing carefully worded self-exonerations in the press. A widely-quoted AP story tells us everything we don't need to know about the circumstances of his non-recusal, but does tell us that he was surprised to be implicated.
Read more →
,

As Democrats Entertain a Ukraine-Only Impeachment, Jack Goldsmith Lays Out Import of Impeaching for Clemency Abuse

75 Comments
/
/
emptywheel
Reports say Nancy Pelosi is considering narrowly crafting impeachment to cover just the latest Ukrainian corruption. Leaving off Trump's abuse of the pardon power -- and continuing to let Presidents believe they can abuse the power with impunity -- would be a catastrophic failure.
Read more →
,

Non-Impeachment Trash Talk

58 Comments
/
/
bmaz
With no formal impeachment inquiry resolution voted yet, it is time to Trash Talk some college and pro football.
Read more →
, ,

Hidden until Now: Trump Admitted 2016 Russian Interference in Lavrov-Kislyak Meeting

136 Comments
/
/
Rayne
We've known about this particular Oval Office conversation Trump had with Lavrov and Kislyak - but we didn't know there was a LOT more to this conversation.
Read more →
,

Retroactive Classification: The Government's Favorite Tool for Silencing Whistleblowers

104 Comments
/
/
Jim White
Retroactive classification is the government's favorite tool for silencing whistleblowers.
Read more →

Why Roger Stone Threatened to Sue emptywheel!

25 Comments
/
/
emptywheel
Last year, Roger Stone threatened to sue emptywheel because I laid out Don McGahn's efforts to protect Roger Stone's rat-fucking. It turns out the government believes Stone lied about that topic to HPSCI, and his lawyers are trying to prevent that lie from being submitted at trial.
Read more →
, ,

The Intelligence Issues the House Intelligence Committee Largely Ignored

260 Comments
/
/
emptywheel
An entire hearing on the whistleblower complaint transpired without members of Congress hitting on most of the key threats to the intelligence community presented by the alleged (and confirmed by the call summary) actions.
Read more →
, ,

The Definition of "Collusion" as Impeachment Proceeds: the Risk Trump Poses to All Americans

67 Comments
/
/
emptywheel
The memorialization Andrew McCabe made of opening the investigation into Donald Trump makes it clear he cared first and foremost about protecting America, not crimes. That has been lost in the ensuing 2.5 years.
Read more →
, ,

Three Things: Complaint Declassified, Ambassa-doored, Scripted Call? [UPDATE]

198 Comments
/
/
Rayne
The whistleblower complaint situation is moving faster than a pyroclastic flow. The complaint has been declassified, Rudy's meetings were oddly timed, and we lost a diplomat because of him.
Read more →