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How Many COVID-19 Deaths Is Ron DeSantis Hiding?

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Jim White
Ron DeSantis fired Rebekah Jones, who developed and managed the Florida database for COVID-19 deaths on May 1, just as he "reopened" the state. Since her departure, the number of deaths reported has dropped even though the reported number of new cases per day has been reported as steady. Floridians are now confronted with relying on a database that may well have been manipulated when they are trying to make life and death decisions that depend on accurate information.
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Glenn Greenwald's Invented Claims in Defense of Bill Barr and Mike Flynn

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emptywheel
This post uses an error-ridden Glenn Greenwald piece to show what the public record on Mike Flynn's prosecution really is.
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Pompeo's Latest Attempts To Propel Propaganda On Lab Escape Of SARS CoV-2 Suffer Two Epic Swat-Downs

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Jim White
Two reports (possibly based on the same fabrication) claiming the SARS CoV-2 virus was accidentally released by the Wuhan Institute of Virology have been thoroughly debunked by the media in the US and Australia. Mike Pompeo has been at the forefront in catapulting the false propaganda in these reports. A significant portion of the "documentation" for the propaganda appears to have originated with State Department leaks. All of which leads one to wonder whether Steve Linick was looking into Pompeo's role in spreading this demonstrably false information.

Bill Barr and Chris Wray Schedule a Press Conference to Admit Trump Let an Al Qaeda Terrorist onto Our Military Base

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emptywheel
Today, Billy Barr and Chris Wray had a press conference to announce that -- in spite of his Muslim Ban -- Trump had permitted an affiliate of AQAP, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, into this country, and onto a military base, where he bought a gun and murdered three sailors. But they didn't take the obvious conclusions away from that.

It’s the Inequality, Stupid: Why Test, Trace, Isolate Won't Stop Covid-19 in America

Everything is changing, and in the face of that, America is failing. Over 90,000 souls have paid for our failing. Millions more are living in terror for their livelihoods and their families. But Covid-19 isn't a technology problem, or a…
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The Emptywheel Fabulous Car Blog! Formula One and Car Flicks

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bmaz
So, we shall take a brief respite from the fabulous music blog this weekend to bring you a fabulous car blog. Off to the races! There has been a shake up in the F1 force. And man is it palpable. By the end of the last circus, it was quite…
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Steve Bannon's Bas-Relief Confession that Trump Told Him to Deny Discussing Sanction Relief

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emptywheel
The transcript of Steve Bannon's second appearance before the House Intelligence Committee makes it clear that the White House gave him a script of misleading denials. He followed that script in his testimony to Mueller.
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Schrodinger's Materiality: Bill Barr's DOJ Has an Active Filing Arguing Flynn's Lies Were Material

The Mike Flynn case is the rare opportunity where the kind of Both-Sides journalism the Beltway press loves to practice has merit. On one side, there's Bill Barr's DOJ, which has a currently active argument that Mike Flynn's lies were material to a legitimate investigation. On the other side, there's Bill Barr's DOJ, which has a different argument that because there was no legitimate investigation at the time, Mike Flynn's lies were not material. 
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Three Days in December 2016: Sanctions, Nukes, Syria, and Russia

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emptywheel
Between three days in December 2016, some intelligence report or reports involving Mike Flynn seems to have flowed through very senior government officials, first to Treasury, then to NATO, and then to CIA.
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As Richard Burr Rushes to Release Volume Five of SSCI's Russian Investigation, the FBI Closes In

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emptywheel
Richard Burr is pushing to get the final volume of the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into Russia's tampering in 2016 declassified before the August recess. That may explain why the totally justified investigation into Burr's potential insider trading is happening so aggressively and publicly.
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Billy Barr Put a Firearms Prosecutor in Charge of Reviewing a Counterintelligence Investigation

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emptywheel
The career prosecutor Bill Barr brought in from St. Louis to review the Mike Flynn prosecution is an expert on felons brandishing guns, not on counterintelligence investigations.
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Judge Sullivan to Judge Gleeson: Pick Flynn's Perjury

I warned Sidney Powell not to get too cute with Judge Sullivan. I noted that her efforts to get her client out of his guilty plea involved him making materially conflicting sworn statements. Too late.
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Of over 40 Potential Unmaskings of Mike Flynn During the Transition, Just One Led to Criminal Charges

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emptywheel
Ric Grenell has sent credulous reporters into a tizzy with a list of unmaskings of Mike Flynn that show of over 40 potential unmaskings, just one led to a criminal investigation.
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The Legal Posture of the Flynn Case: Emmet Sullivan Has Up to Six Pending Decisions, Not One

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emptywheel
Many, perhaps most, people who've commented in the last week have noted that Emmet Sullivan has the prerogative whether to accept DOJ's motion or not. It's true he has that authority. But he actually has up to six different decisions pending, including fully briefed sentencing memoranda and multiple conflicting sworn statements from Flynn.
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Sidney Powell Argues that Judge Sullivan Can't Appoint an Amicus at Same Time as Applauding the Time He Did Far More

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emptywheel
Yesterday, Sidney Powell was publicly applauding Judge Sullivan's authority to appoint outsiders to review a prosecution gone haywire even as she was submitting a filing telling him he couldn't. She deleted that post -- but she can't delete the prior claims she made in Sullivan's docket.
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Emmet Sullivan Tells Potential Amici Not to Bug Him Yet

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emptywheel
It's unclear precisely why Emmet Sullivan just wrote a long order telling potential amici seeking to weigh in on the Flynn prosecution to hold off. But the order does make clear that he's not just going to dismiss this prosecution.
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The Public Record Claims that Flynn Had No Permission from Trump to Undermine US Policy in Calling Kislyak

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emptywheel
Ric Grenell is trying -- and the press is credulously complying -- to politicize an obvious unmasking of Mike Flynn's identity. The record shows the unmasking obviously complies with FISA standard, and Flynn's own actions exacerbated the need.
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Mike Flynn Collaborator Barbara Ledeen's Past Role in Producing "New" Evidence

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emptywheel
DOJ claims it has "new" information to justify the flip-flop it made from a November filing arguing the investigation into Flynn was legitimate, and not a perjury trap. In the past, that has meant that Flynn collaborator Barbara Ledeen just wanted something on Fox News.
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DC Bar No. 472845 Argued Flynn's Prosecution Was Legitimate before DC Bar No. 472845 Argued It Wasn't

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emptywheel
Last November, D.C. Bar No. 472845 submitted a filing arguing that FBI agents were engaged in a legitimate and significant investigation when they interviewed Mike Flynn on January 24, 2017. Last week, D.C. Bar No. 472845 submitted a filing that contradicts the earlier one in every way.
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Bill Barr Did Not Provide the Most Important Exhibit to His Mike Flynn Dismissal Motion: The Call Transcripts

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emptywheel
As currently submitted, the government has made claims about the call transcripts between Mike Flynn and Sergey Kislyak without providing evidence. Indeed, the record currently provides evidence that rebuts those claims. Emmet Sullivan would be totally within his authority to demand those call transcripts.
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