David Weiss’ Rush Job on Alexander Smirnov’s Sentencing
The most notable feature of Alexander Smirnov’s plea deal is the timing: David Weiss will rush him to sentencing on January 8.
Author Archive for: emptywheel
About emptywheel
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.
Entries by emptywheel
The Terrifying Complexity of Tech Oligarchs’ Obeisance to Trump
/40 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election, Intelligence/by emptywheelABC’s capitulation to Trump’s lawsuit is a sign of things to come — but also what has long been true. By contrast, the capitulation of the tech oligarchs to Trump may represent something altogether more horrible.
Kash Patel Also Lied about Trump’s Personalization of US Intelligence
/17 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election, emptywheel, Leak Investigations/by emptywheelThe lies Kash Patel has told are likely to be aired at his confirmation hearing, but at unlikely to dissuade Republicans to vote against his confirmation to be FBI Director. The most important lies pertain to Trump’s efforts to put information obtained by US intelligence to his own personal use.
To Pay Off His Election Debts, Trump Seems Prepared to Destroy the United States
/77 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election, emptywheel/by emptywheelKimberly Strassel thinks Trump wants to hire people who intend to do grave damage to the US to pay off electoral debts. More likely, the grave damage is the point.
Chuck Grassley Says the FBI Must Combat Sexual Misconduct But the Senate Can Whitewash It
/11 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election, Hunter Biden, SCOTUS/by emptywheelThe NYT let Chuck Grassley and other Senators make false claims that could have been debunked by a great deal of NYT reporting. Better yet, NYT could have simply called out Grassley’s own failures to uphold his own standards.
If an Informant Narcs on a Riot But No FBI Agent Asks about It, Did It Really Happen?
/13 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, January 6 Insurrection/by emptywheelIn spite of the fact that the FBI got key warnings about Stewart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio that never got shared with FBI’s Washington Field Office, in spite of the fact that the FBI had 26 informants on site but only asked three for information, the FBI contested DOJ Inspector General’s critique that it should have done more to work its informants in advance of the attack.
The Lessons of Zero Accountability for a Kash Patel Bureau
/11 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, 2024 Presidential Election, Hunter Biden/by emptywheelAs we talk about what a politicized FBI run by Kash Patel will look like, it helps to review how the House GOP already helped to politicize the FBI’s work.
In Advance of the KashTastrophe, DOJ IG Raises the Stakes on Investigations of Congress
/12 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election, Leak Investigations/by emptywheelThe recommendations in a DOJ Inspector General Report on leak investigations might give Congress further protection to leak. But it also might give aspiring FBI Director Kash Patel an excuse to prioritize prosecutions of journalists, before his former Congressional colleagues.
Zero Accountability: The Five-Plus Times DOJ Got Fabricated Evidence against Hunter Biden
/9 Comments/in emptywheel, Hunter Biden/by emptywheelThere were five cases in which fabricated evidence about Hunter Biden was ingested by FBI. Most was not used by investigators, which the House GOP then used to politicize the case against him. But at least two did have an affect on his prosecution.
Zeynep Tufekci’s Two Blind Spots Cross at DOGE
/109 Comments/in 2024 Presidential Election/by emptywheelThe glee surrounding Brian Thompson’s death is not unprecedented — Donald Trump campaigned on a similar mob glee, targeting Paul Pelosi, to get elected. And then he installed a bunch of billionaires to start looting. And politicians like Elizabeth Warren have already suggested some “broad public solutions” to that looting.