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
Republican House Chairmen Are Resorting to Immunizing Crimes to Gin Up Their Fake Scandals
/61 Comments/in Hunter Biden/by emptywheelEveryone knows that James Comer and Jim Jordan are doing nothing with their gavels but manufacturing fake scandals. So the willingness to bow to their demands that the manufactured scandal around the prosecution of Hunter Biden be immediate and relentless is just willingness to be used, manipulated, to perpetuate the kind of manufactured conspiracy that is designed to kill democracy.
FBI Saw Itself “Managing What the Elephant Sees and Hears” in Advance of January 6
/96 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, January 6 Insurrection/by emptywheelOn January 2, 2021, the guy in charge of counterterrorism in DC’s FBI office suggested that managing what the Federal government — which he called an “elephant” — sees and hears is sometimes the best way to control the Federal government’s movements. And he helped to ensure that the elephant saw only First Amendment protected activities.
Moving the Boxes: Trump’s Valet and Alleged Co-Conspirator Buys the Boss a Three-Week Delay in His Trial
/51 Comments/in 2020 Presidential Election, Leak Investigations/by emptywheelWalt Nauta’s lawyer Stan Woodward, who is being paid by Trump’s PAC, got some in the press to report that Nauta’s further delay of his arraignment was caused by bad weather. It wasn’t. It was his failure — amid anonymous quotes planning to delay this trial until after the election — to secure local counsel.