Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Vice, Motherboard, the Nation, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial.
Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. She lives with her spouse in Grand Rapids, MI.
David Weiss is claiming one thing about the disposition of Alexander Smirnov’s 2020 attempt to frame Joe Biden in Smirnov’s prosecution and saying something totally different in attempts to withhold discovery on that from Hunter Biden. And the withheld documents go to the core of Weiss’ decision to renege on a plea deal.
There are at least eight possible reasons why SDNY may have delayed turning over files relating to Michael Cohen’s SDNY prosecution to Alvin Bragg and Trump. Most involve preventing (or delaying) DOJ embarrassment. But there are several confirmed investigations that could also explain and would entirely justify it.