THE TRUMP REGIME'S ONGOING CRIME SPREE

Make no mistake about what happened with William Barr's Justice Department dropping charges against the self-confessed criminal conspirator Michael Flynn this week... this was two things. First, it was a de facto Presidential pardon, only without the potential damage to Trump's re-election bid that having him directly pardon Flynn would have likely sparked. Second, it was the most recent development in the New Fascist International(e)'s ongoing Russiagate conspiracy (acting as both cover for past related criminal activity and laying the groundwork for future criminal acts and cover-ups). Also, it's just plain fucking disgusting.

Here's some pretty good analysis of why this latest move by Barr's now hopelessly tainted DOJ is an example of its breathtaking dishonesty, its institutional hypocrisy (if everyone was given the same consideration as the DOJ intends on giving Flynn re: the "relevance" of his FBI questioning, America's jails and prisons would be empty), its flagrant abuse of power, and its abject mockery of the rule of law:

These are dark days for more reasons than a mere virus, folks. Shit is happening under cover of sickness that is absolutely disgusting, and far more damaging to the body politic than Covid-19 could ever hope to be.

CONSERVATIVE GROUP AIRING BRUTAL ANTI-TRUMP ADS ON FOX NEWS!

Ya gotta love it!

THE POLITICAL PERIPHERY AND THE CRIMINAL GOP

There's a whole lot of craziness going down in the USA these days, so much so that it's getting harder and harder to figure out where regular old partisan hackery/mendacity ends, and where truly bugfuck shit-flinging insanity begins.

For example, take Trump's Attorney General William Barr. Ostensibly the People's Prosecutor, Barr's reputation among a certain class of ahistorical, mainstream media "moderate" at the time of his choosing was that of a staid, boring, old school Republican who had performed adequately in the same position for President Poppy Bush, thus making him a "reassuringly middle-of-the-road choice" for the post by Trump.

Barr's current tenure at the head of the DOJ has done much to correct this disastrously erroneous assessment of him as both a professional, and as a man.

Beginning with the high likelihood that he personally hobbled the FBI investigation into a series of sexual assault accusations made against then Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh (and his role in the official period of gloating that followed Kavanaugh being elevated to that lifelong position), followed by his criminal sabotage of the Mueller Report roll-out (not to mention his suspected behind-the-scenes tampering with same), and now, with recent revelations about his round-the-world goose chase in search of proof for the most ass-backwards bogus fascist conspiracy theory in the history of fascist conspiracy theories*, any illusion about Barr's competence or moderation have been well and duly shattered for all time. There's no coming back from a year like the one he's just had.

In fact, the above would be true even if he hadn't cemented his fate with a pair of almost unbelievably regressive, inflammatory, paranoid and partisan speeches, first to the University of Notre Dame law school, and then to the ultra-conservative Federalist Society. Here's what Esquire's essential Charles Pierce had to say about these two "loony" speeches (and I do urge you to read his entire piece):

If this really is Attorney General William Barr’s final go-round as a servant to radical conservative power, and we can only pray to god that it is, he’s certainly going out with a bang. In the past two weeks, he’s given two speeches that are so stunningly detached from political reality, and so basically and fundamentally un-American, that they were probably best given from atop a milk crate in Washington Square, and not from respectable rostrums provided by powerful and influential institutions. In short, Barr has become something of a raving maniac.

I also strongly urge you to read the Salon piece and the Guardian article. Both are great at explaining exactly how disturbingly batshit both of Barr's incendiary and profoundly un-American speeches were, complete with copious quotes and cogent analysis. In terms of individuals who need to be removed from anywhere near the levers of power, Barr is perhaps second only to Donald Trump, himself, and I'm sure a case could be made that he's even worse.

*"It wasn't Russia, but UKRAINE who meddled in the 2016 presidential elections! And it wasn't on behalf of Trump, but HILLARY!"

***

And you thought the Ukraine scandal was bad! Have you heard the latest about how Trump's former National Security Adviser John Bolton told attendees at a super-secret meeting of Moran Stanley's largest hedge fund clients that Preznit Trump had already made foreign policy decisions in Turkey based exclusively on how those decisions would affect his financial bottom line? Yes, it sounds ridiculous, but considering some of the recent goings-on in that part of the world, not completely out of the realm of possibility. In fact, it's entirely in keep with the Trump brand of politics. From PoliticusUSA.com, linked above:

Bolton was suggesting that Trump is making foreign policy decisions based on what will make him money. Trump’s refusal to separate himself from his business has left him compromised and mired in conflicts of interest. Trump is getting people killed in Northern Syria because he wants to keep making money in Turkey. Trump isn’t just making money off of the presidency. He is jeopardizing US national security and making the country less safe so that he can make more money overseas.

 Time to add another line item to the ever-growing list of causes for Trump's impeachment and removal from office? I certainly think so, considering it seems to me like we could all do with a bit of reminding about the devastating repercussions that Trump's hasty retreat from the Kurdish territories has had on our historic allies in the region.

***

This Vox feature by Sean Illing, entitled The Post-Truth Prophets, takes aim at the super-contentious topic of postmodernism, particularly about how it's been pretty much correct in its predictions about pretty much everything, and yet it's still reviled by many; mostly by people who don't understand it.

And why is that? Mostly, it's because they're mistaking its predictions for prescriptions, spawning the supreme irony of postmodernism's most insistent and committed critics being, themselves, nigh unto perfect illustrative examples of the fatal flaws locked inside the rapidly proliferating and metastasizing, mutually incompatible gaggle of steady-state Big Narratives all competing to be the first to have their Apocalyptic historical teleological endgame scenarios proven Most Correct. The ubiquitous Jordan Peterson being perhaps the most popular, and egregious, case in point.

If you think you know enough about postmodernism to shit on it in public, like to your friends and such, or if you harbor a sneaking suspicion that there might just be something worthwhile to be found therein (in spite of, or perhaps because of, all the negative things you've heard about it), then give Illing's article a read. It's a more than decent jumping off point for learning about the good, the bad, and yes, the ugly, of postmodernist philosophy. Enjoy!

Did you hear the latest from the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch project about how Preznit Trump's main speechwriter, closest adviser, and chief engineer of Operation Baby Cages Stephen Miller has had his Affinity for White Nationalism Revealed in Leaked Emails? I know, I know... this is about as surprising as when Rosie O'Donnell came out of the closet. But still, despite the fact that it isn't much of a shock, it really should be, if you think about it. Especially when you examine the particulars up close. Part one of Hatewatch's exhaustive report begins:

In the run-up to the 2016 election, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller promoted white nationalist literature, pushed racist immigration stories and obsessed over the loss of Confederate symbols after Dylann Roof’s murderous rampage, according to leaked emails reviewed by Hatewatch. 

The emails, which Miller sent to the conservative website Breitbart News in 2015 and 2016, showcase the extremist, anti-immigrant ideology that undergirds the policies he has helped create as an architect of Donald Trump’s presidency. These policies include reportedly setting arrest quotas for undocumented immigrants, an executive order effectively banning immigration from five Muslim-majority countries and a policy of family separation at refugee resettlement facilities that the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General said is causing “intense trauma” in children.

In this, the first of what will be a series about those emails, Hatewatch exposes the racist source material that has influenced Miller’s visions of policy. That source material, as laid out in his emails to Breitbart, includes white nationalist websites, a “white genocide”-themed novel in which Indian men rape white women, xenophobic conspiracy theories and eugenics-era immigration laws that Adolf Hitler lauded in “Mein Kampf.”

Hatewatch reviewed more than 900 previously private emails Miller sent to Breitbart editors from March 4, 2015, to June 27, 2016. Miller does not converse along a wide range of topics in the emails. His focus is strikingly narrow – more than 80 percent of the emails Hatewatch reviewed relate to or appear on threads relating to the subjects of race or immigration. Hatewatch made multiple attempts to reach the White House for a comment from Miller about the content of his emails but did not receive any reply.

Miller’s perspective on race and immigration across the emails is repetitious. When discussing crime, which he does scores of times, Miller focuses on offenses committed by nonwhites. On immigration, he touches solely on the perspective of severely limiting or ending nonwhite immigration to the United States. Hatewatch was unable to find any examples of Miller writing sympathetically or even in neutral tones about any person who is nonwhite or foreign-born.

Miller has gained a reputation for attempting to keep his communications secret: The Washington Post reported in August that Miller “rarely puts anything in writing, eschewing email in favor of phone calls.” The Daily Beast noted in July that Miller has recently “cut off regular contact with most of his allies” outside the Trump administration to limit leaks.

Miller used his government email address as an aide to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions in the emails Hatewatch reviewed. He sent the majority of the emails Hatewatch examined before he joined Trump’s campaign in January 2016 and while he was still working for Sessions. Miller also used a personal Hotmail.com address in the emails and did so both before and after he started working for Trump. Hatewatch confirmed the authenticity of Miller’s Hotmail.com address through an email sent from his government address in which he lists it as his future point of contact:

“I am excited to announce that I am beginning a new job as Senior Policy Advisor to presidential candidate Donald J. Trump,” Miller wrote from his government email on Jan. 26, 2016, to an undisclosed group of recipients. “Should you need to reach me, my personal email address is [redacted].”

Katie McHugh, who was an editor for Breitbart from April 2014 to June 2017, leaked the emails to Hatewatch in June to review, analyze and disseminate to the public. McHugh was 23 when she started at Breitbart and also became active in the anti-immigrant movement, frequently rubbing shoulders with white nationalists. McHugh was fired from Breitbart in 2017 after posting anti-Muslim tweets. She has since renounced the far right.

McHugh told Hatewatch that Breitbart editors introduced her to Miller in 2015 with an understanding he would influence the direction of her reporting. For that reason, and because Miller would have regarded her as a fellow traveler of the anti-immigrant movement, McHugh sometimes starts conversations with Miller in the emails, seeking his opinion on news stories. Other times, Miller directly suggests story ideas to McHugh, or tells her how to shape Breitbart’s coverage. Periodically, Miller asks McHugh if he can speak to her by phone, taking conversations offline.

“What Stephen Miller sent to me in those emails has become policy at the Trump administration,” McHugh told Hatewatch.

 Yes, I realize that's a very long excerpt, but it's a very long article, so I feel justified. The article goes on to present a ton of disturbing and undeniably factual information that every American should be familiar with at some point, because Stephen Miller, not unlike William Barr and Trump, himself, is a dangerous criminal whose actions have led directly to untold human suffering and numerous deaths of children, and he belongs in the Big House, NOT the White House.

***

MINUTIA & INCONSEQUENTIA

• Well would you look at that! Hillary Clinton has once again been cleared after YET ANOTHER investigation into her emails, this time by Trump’s own State Department! It's enough to make one wonder whether they maybe only let her slide because of recent revelations about the Trump family's own myriad failures to follow protocols when it comes to the proper use, storage, and disposal of communication devices... especially when you're discussing the criminal extortion of an entire nation in order to receive a) bogus, foundationless "investigations" of your top rival in upcoming elections, and b) potential backing for for the most ass-backwards bogus fascist conspiracy theory in the history of fascist conspiracy theories?
• Have we, as a people, already moved beyond Trump's recent disastrous unilateral, overnight withdrawal from Syria, followed by Turkey's aggressive advantage-taking of the situation? All of which led to one of the most shocking developments in America's recent foreign policy history: the abject humiliation of an emergency blue ribbon task force made up of Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Pompeo, and a number of others, all furiously knocking on a door that wouldn't open for them in Ankara as the Turks refused to meet with the highest level envoys ever sent by USA? Historically unprecedented. Already left behind in the swirling mists of the 24 hour news cycle.
• Congratulations to (Dr.jur.) George Mentz, JD, MBA, CWM ®, Counselor of Law, Licensed Attorney – USA – Academy GAFM ® (and, yes, this is how George prefers to refer to himself, complete with all those acronyms and circled "R" symbols) upon his ascendancy to the Commission on Presidential Scholars! What is this Commission, you ask? Well, it's "a group of eminent private citizens appointed by the President to select and honor the Presidential Scholars. Commissioners are selected from across the country, representing the fields of education, medicine, law, social services, business, and other professions. The Commissioners make the final selection of the 161 Presidential Scholars. The Scholars demonstrate exceptional accomplishments in academics, the arts, career and technical education and an outstanding commitment to public service." And what did George do to get on this commission? Turns out he runs a diploma mill, wrote a lot of nice things about Trump on the wingnut website Newsmax.com, and has authored a number of books about the Illuminati! All the best people! 

***

THREE EXAMPLES OF SERIOUS TRUMP CORRUPTION IN KAZAKHSTAN ALONE

Incredible work on this beat by the incomparable Rachel Maddow, as usual. You're going to want to stick with it until the very end, because the climax features a real ironic corker of a journalistic flourish that you're just gonna love.

PS - I know this story is from January 2018, but a lot of the (blistering, absolutely damning) information contained within it was new to me, and it's just so well presented (Maddow's occasionally irritating voice notwithstanding), that I just had to share it with y'all.

ALL THE PREZNIT'S SCUMBAGS

In-fucking-credible.

WHO'S WHO IN TRUMP'S LATEST SNAFU

JULIAN ASSANGE IS A LYING SACK OF SHIT

Hey, did y'all hear about how a bunch of Wikileaks documents, including private messages to and from Julian Assange and other co-conspirators, were recently handed over to a number of journalistic outlets by a group of concerned whistleblowers?

You want homophobia, sexism, racism, anti-Semitism? YOU GOT IT!

But even worse than those relatively minor transgressions, it turns out Wikileaks is also staffed by a bunch of lying, hypocritical assholes with numerous political biases, disturbing international connections, and sinister hidden agendas!

Who'd have thunk it?!

I suppose there is a certain delicious irony to be savored, re: Assange and company having often engaged in rhetoric more offensive, biased and "problematic" than most of their many targets have, and far, FAR worse than Hillary Clinton or John Podesta, in terms of their private communications. I’m sure the folks behind the Freedom of the Press Foundation, who cut off what had previously been a generous amount of funding to Wikileaks last year after multiple questions were raised about their methods and ethics, are feeling well vindicated these days.

Shocking absolutely nobody, another thing these DMs reveal is a clearly obvious pro-Trump, pretty much alt-right mindset prevailing among many among most of WikiLeaks' current leadership, with most of the original “true believer” information activists having long been replaced by stealth political saboteurs and professional hatchet-men.

So, basically, if you're looking for a quick and easy way to tell which is the wrong side of any issue to be on, you need look no further than the Twitter feed of the now entirely discredited and hopelessly corrupt Julian Assange (currently on mute, as his Ecuadorian hosts have had enough of his antics), and the various arms of his WikiLeaks operation.

But let’s be honest for a moment, here… you didn’t REALLY need whistleblowers to clue you in to what Wikileaks and Assange have become in recent years, did you? From their decision to back Trump at every turn, even going so far as to join Trump’s war on the media and CNN, to their obviously partisan attacks on the Democrats throughout the 2016 election period,

Wikileaks has been full of shit for a long time now.

Case in point, check out the way they had a shell entity called “Most Damaging Wikileaks”, which they pushed heavy via their social media, purposefully and in bad faith give the absolute worst possible, most literal read of every single email from their ill-gotten trove of John Podesta's personal emails. And the way they blatantly lied about what those emails actually said

For example, check out entry #6, which allegedly proves that Hillary's campaign wants "unaware" and "compliant" citizens. Their interpretation goes: "The Clinton campaign is literally conspiring to keep the population unaware of what is going on, and they admitted it in this email. Very scary ‘1984’ level thinking (group-think). If Hillary is the right choice for president and the truth is on her side, they should encourage their supporters to be aware and do research on both candidates."

Don’t be lazy. Go and read the email in question at this link, then tell me if you think their take on what that email says is accurate... or if Wikileaks has taken someone's disappointed critical words about the sorry state of contemporary political culture and spun that all-too-valid criticism into something unrecognizable… the idea that the person writing those words is, in fact, not just approving of these circumstances, but is literally a MASTERMIND behind them! It would be laughable if people didn’t give Wikileaks so much more credit than their bad faith political games-playing deserves.

Then check out #7, where they say "Top Hillary aides mock Catholics for their faith". Wikileaks claims that "Top Clinton aides, John Halpin and Jennifer Palmieri" -- both of whom are practicing Catholics, by the way -- "mock Catholics for their faith. They complain about the large number of Catholics in prominent positions. ... Palmieri when confronted about this revelation didn’t apologize." They then go on to agree with a number of conservative commentators who, upon reading the emails in question, called for Palmieri to either quit or be fired.

Here's Palmieri’s email. Read it, and you'll see that it's obvious what she was referring to... that specific, socially hardline conservative, anti-Vatican 2, "Opus Dei" brand of angry white country club Catholicism, of the type best exemplified by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Rupert fucking Murdoch. Nothing Palmieri said was untrue, and only an anti-intellectual snowflake idiot would think it controversial. That Wikileaks counts it as the seventh most controversial "revelation" from their Podesta document dump tells you all you need to know about that morally bankrupt, New Fascist International propaganda outlet.

One is reminded of Assange's reaction to the Catalan independence referendum in Spain. At the time, he declared haughtily from his cupboard in the Ecuadorian embassy that "the future of Western civilization is revealed" in these movements of breakaway from centralized power structures.

Of course, he doesn't feel quite the same about Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, or any other former Soviet satellite or independence movement that seeks to remove the heel of Putin’s boot from their collective throats. No, these freedom seekers should simply bow down to Putin, and accept that he's gonna carve off chunks of their territory at will. Better him than that despicable Imperial world-eater, the USA, am I right guys? I mean, come on! Everybody knows today’s CIA is worse than Stalin at his scariest, right?

Furthermore, the fact that Russia provides backdoor support to Catalan's independence movement (just as they do to the far right and far left and whatever other destabilizing actors there are in whatever state Russia feels like fucking with at the time) probably has nothing to do with the Russian mob's vast array of interests in the region, right?

I mean, to argue otherwise would be like accusing Assange of being in Putin's hip pocket or something! Totally not true. Total conspiracy theory. Totally not so obvious that a deaf, dumb and blind person could see it.

"Wikileaks... NEVER BEEN WRONG, BRO!!! ZERO EVIDENCE OF RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE, BRO!!! MADDOW IS A MAD COW, BRO!!!"

In closing, I would simply like to point out that Julian Assange deserves every bad thing that is about to happen to him... and worse. Far, far worse. And when it starts, it’s probably going to look a lot like this…

MIRROR: SETH ABRAMSON'S INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT TWEET-STORM RE: TRUMP TREASON

If we are fortunate enough to come through the current civilizational crisis unscathed and with our faculties intact, and future historians take it upon themselves to try and piece together precisely how the interlocking network of treasonous conspirators that I have dubbed the New Fascist International could so swiftly and easily hijack the commanding heights of American power, I believe they will find the contributions of Twitter All-Star Seth Abramson to be of paramount importance to their work. I humbly beg you all to read every word of Seth's recent research, to really try and grapple with the full implications of it, even if that means re-considering some of your previous beliefs. I also urge you to share this information with your friends and family. - Jerky

***

(THREAD) It's time to tell the biggest untold story of the 2016 election: how a cadre of pro-Trump FBI agents and intel officers—some active, some retired—conspired to swing the election to Trump. The story involves Flynn, Prince, Giuliani, and others. Hope you'll read and share.

1/ True Pundit is a pro-Trump fake news site that began publishing on June 9, 2016—the day that Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort met with Kremlin agents in Trump Tower to discuss the Kremlin's provision to the Trump campaign of incriminating material on Clinton.

2/ True Pundit would quickly reveal itself as having the same agenda Trump Jr. had when he met with Kremlin agents on the day True Pundit launched: its mission would be to destroy Clinton's candidacy by uncovering incriminating material about her—particularly via her emails.

3/ All articles on True Pundit are published anonymously. The only person publicly associated with the website operates under a pseudonym—"Thomas Paine." (Thomas Paine, a Founding Father of the United States, was instrumental in convincing the colonies to rebel against Britain.)

4/ From June 9, 2016 to June 12, 2016, it seemed clear True Pundit had been started up in a hurry—it published dozens of stories but no original reporting. More than 95% of stories were simply links to other sources, while True Pundit "originals" were two-sentence news summaries.

5/ Many of True Pundit's early news sources were predictable: Breitbart, The Daily Caller, InfoWars, The New York Post, The Washington Examiner, The Washington Free Beacon, Fox News, and The Daily Beast. Breitbart was far and away the most commonly linked-to website at the time.

6/ But True Pundit also, in its first three days, occasionally linked to mainstream news sources like The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC, ESPN, Reuters, The Guardian (UK), The Telegraph (UK), and The Independent (UK).

7/ That said, in its first 72 hours True Pundit also linked to two Russian news sources—RT and Sputnik—an intelligence-oriented site called "Intel News," and several fringe-right publications. A typical link assured readers Clinton would destroy America:

link

8/ Then, on June 12th, 2016, the Orlando nightclub shooting occurred—and it seemed a switch had been turned on. True Pundit had its story. The site meticulously covered Omar Mateen, the 29 year-old from a moderate Muslim family who killed 49 people at an LGBT club called "Pulse."

9/ It's important to know that of the site's first several dozen stories pre-June 12, only one was both a) not a link to another source, and b) more than two sentences. This story—about the July DNC—claimed True Pundit (just 3 days old) had "police" and "security expert" sources.

10/ It must've seemed odd to any readers of True Pundit in those first 72 hours of operation to read that the Philly publication already had *multiple* sources in the Philadelphia Police Department and *multiple* Philly-based "recognized security expert" sources—but so they said.

11/ But Mateen changed everything. Suddenly True Pundit was publishing what it said were original ("exclusive") stories, all of which relied—or claimed to—on FBI sources. Not just one source, but multiple—and not just random sources, but sources close to the Pulse investigation.

12/ The mystery of this was dispelled almost immediately, when True Pundit wrote the following in an "exclusive" on Mateen after the shooting: "True Pundit has folks who worked for the FBI and other agencies on staff." It then claimed to have "unique insight" into FBI operations.

13/ Whether or not True Pundit really had ex-FBI staff, no reader could possibly know. But what was clear was that True Pundit was obsessed with the FBI, had—at a minimum—some basic knowledge of criminal investigation, and was very, very, angry at the current state of the Bureau:

14/ Two things must be noted here: first, that the complaint True Pundit has about the FBI—that it radically underestimates the threat of Islamist terrorism and values HUMINT too little in fighting terrorism—are exactly the anti-terror complaints Mike Flynn has widely publicized.

15/ Second, if True Pundit had told the truth about itself, it meant (a) the very purpose of the website was to give ex-FBI agents an opportunity to complain about the Bureau, and (b) the site's M.O. in doing so would be to use as sources current FBI agents upset with the Bureau.

16/ Keep in mind that, by June 2016, the FBI had already been investigating Hillary Clinton's emails for eleven months—since July of 2015. Indeed, the FBI's investigation into Clinton's emails had begun at almost exactly the same time Donald Trump announced his presidential run.

17/ Keep in mind, too, that True Pundit was launched less than a month before then-FBI Director James Comey announced—on July 5, 2016—that the Bureau was not going to bring charges against Clinton. By mid-June, current FBI agents would've just learned no charges were forthcoming.

18/ Rudy Giuliani would later describe the anti-Clinton elements at the FBI as being, during Summer/Fall 2016, not just "angry" but "boiling," and not just "boiling" but on the brink of "revolution."

True Pundit appears to have been an outgrowth of that.

link

19/ So this is where I point out that there was one *other* story—besides the Omar Mateen story—that True Pundit was positively obsessed with (and doing "exclusive" reporting on, using FBI sources) during its first week: Hillary Clinton's emails and the FBI investigation thereof.

20/ Just 96 hours into its existence, True Pundit was running a *multi-part* "exclusive" on an FBI probe the site's authors' friends in the Bureau were conducting. The reports cited "intelligence sources" with extensive knowledge of the FBI investigation.

link

22/ You have to understand the level of access to current FBI agents True Pundit was then claiming to have: the site, which had started up *less than 100 hours prior*, was claiming to have *exclusive* knowledge of *prior FBI contacts* with the nation's then-most infamous killer.

23/ By June 13, 2016, it was clear that True Pundit was a political outfit: it had quoted from and linked to a Trump press release, and had mercilessly attacked the Democratic candidate for president. Any active FBI agent speaking to True Pundit was—already—a Hatch Act violation.

24/ Here's all the info you need on the Hatch Act.

It applies to the FBI and—while not a criminal statute—a violation of the Hatch Act is a violation of federal law and would get you fired from federal employment immediately (assuming a serious breach).

link

25/ So here's where things get complicated. Beginning in mid-June 2016, True Pundit switches to all original "reporting" and begins publishing longer stories. It is relentlessly right-wing: anti-immigration, pro-Second Amendment, pro-Trump, virulently anti-Clinton and anti-Obama.

26/ It also takes a hard turn into anti-Clinton fake news within its first week—as the story below demonstrates.

link

27/ But here's what you *really* need to understand: the FBI quickly became aware of this website—at the highest levels—and *acknowledged*, internally, that the people behind True Pundit had access to intel from *current* FBI agents.

Even *James Comey* was aware of True Pundit.

28/ And it *matters* that James Comey was (a) aware of True Pundit, and (b) believed they had sources within the FBI.

Moreover, it *matters* that he knew—and he did—that True Pundit was angling for sources *inside* the Clinton probe, and that Comey's deputy thought he had them.

29/ Documents acquired via FOIA requests by (of all organizations) Judicial Watch reveal that Andrew McCabe, Comey's deputy, believed that True Pundit had "heavyweight" sources within the FBI. While Comey was skeptical, he *acknowledged* the sources were *definitely* FBI sources.

30/ When McCabe forwarded a True Pundit story to Comey on October 24, 2016, calling its source on Clinton "heavyweight," Comey demurred, saying "This still reads to me like someone not involved in the investigation at all, maybe somebody who heard rumors."

link

31/ The date here matters, as does Comey's response. This was the week Comey ultimately decided to go to Congress with his decision to reopen the Clinton case—and in using the word "still," we hear Comey's anxiety about the possibility details of the Clinton FBI probe would leak.

32/ It's clear from this email that True Pundit was a source McCabe thought active FBI agents on the Clinton case might consider leaking to, and Comey by no means dismissed that possibility. Why does it matter? Because it was *this* fear of a leak that *led* to The Comey Letter.

33/ The New York Times has written that Comey reopened the Clinton investigation—which decision FiveThirtyEight polling appears to confirm cost Clinton the election—because he felt news of "new" Clinton emails (from Anthony Wiener's PC) was "sure to leak."

link

34/ So, to recap: on October 24, 2016, Andrew McCabe warns his boss Jim Comey that True Pundit has access to "heavyweight" FBI sources—clearly implying *sources within the Clinton probe*. 72 hours later, Comey writes the "Comey Letter" because he's "sure" probe details will leak.

35/ Things are about to get confusing, so let me just step back and say that from mid-June 2016 to October 2016 True Pundit had become a big deal—they were getting regularly retweeted and discussed by right-wing media outlets. Including—by the way—WikiLeaks. (More on that later.)

36/ So while the fact that True Pundit had routinely published fake news was widely known by October 2016, so was the fact that it was run by men who purported to be ex-FBI and who credibly claimed to have FBI sources. The few times they were *right* were when they had FBI intel.

37/ But understand something else: within 60 days of its creation, True Pundit had become a "darling" of the 600 Russian Twitter accounts that routinely pushed anti-Clinton propaganda as part of the Kremlin's interference campaign. And True Pundit knew it.

link

38/ USA Today: "[Thomas Paine] did not deny playing a part in the Russian network's information operation....'we are flattered to be accused of participating in disinformation campaigns for government because as a startup that's the exact time-tested model we've been emulating.'"

39/ While USA Today wouldn't write about True Pundit until August 2017, the time-period of True Pundit's influence they're discussing—Summer/Fall 2016—is when Paine was proudly "participating in a [Russian] disinformation campaign" but *also* causing the FBI real fear over leaks.

40/ So I think this is a good time for you to hear Thomas Paine's voice. Here's a lengthy interview he gave (of course not giving his name or allowing his likeness to be visible, as he knew—and we'll discuss this more shortly—his operations were illicit).

41/ Paine: "We started True Pundit as a way of doing something—instead of sitting around and complaining—when Clinton was running for president. We figured we would get some of the guys from the old band together—[unintelligible]-type guys and some intel guys we all worked with."

42/ So what these ex-FBI and intel guys did is libel Clinton for the 150 days leading up to the 2016 election. What they specialized in was falsely accusing her of crimes. On October 2, 2016, it was that Clinton had tried to order Julian Assange's murder.

link

43/ On September 29, 2016, True Pundit's false claim—immediately echoed, like many True Pundit stories, by RT, the Kremlin-backed TV station—was that there was a criminal conspiracy between Clinton and Facebook (ironic now, I know) to steal the election.

link

44/ In early September 2016, True Pundit claimed, falsely citing NYPD sources—as it often would (and this fact will become important)—that Clinton was wearing an invisible earpiece during a live "town hall" on NBC.

link

45/ As the election approached, the fake news coming from True Pundit often focused on false claims that Clinton had a major medical condition she was hiding. Again, these claims got spread from True Pundit to Russian media—and True Pundit *knew* about it.

link

46/ The same day True Pundit launched its fake news about a Clinton-ordered drone strike on the founder of WikiLeaks, the New York field office of the FBI took possession of Anthony Wiener's computer from NYPD—this was October 2, 2016. Comey knew the FBI was getting the computer.

47/ Unfortunately, the same FBI field office that had been occasionally leaking to True Pundit about the Clinton email investigation over the summer was the one now in possession of Wiener's computer—so when Comey instructed them to see if it had any new emails, they ignored him.

48/ Here's where I have to incorporate the entirety of an article I wrote last December for The Huffington Post about what the pro-Trump agents in "Trumplandia" (the New York field office of the FBI) did when Comey told them to work on the Wiener computer.

link

49/ We now know that Wiener's computer had only duplicate Clinton emails on it. But at the time Comey didn't know that. In fact, that's what he wanted his agents to find out—and IT experts will tell you that it wouldn't have taken long to get a sense that that was the situation.

50/ Instead, Comey's agents *sat* on the computer, doing no meaningful work on it—certainly nothing that would confirm or deny whether it had any *new* (let alone inculpatory) evidence on it. Comey didn't find out his agents had done nothing he'd asked them to until late October.

51/ What the New York field office of the FBI *did* do during that period, along with NYPD, was issue threats—via True Pundit—that it would "leak" the *content* of the emails on Wiener's computer (which content wasn't known, of course, as they had no search warrant to search it).

52/ Comey assumed his agents would do one of the following:

(1) Get metadata from the PC to confirm the emails were duplicates;
(2) ask Abedin or Wiener—both cooperating witnesses—if the FBI could view the emails; or
(3) get a warrant for the emails.

They did *none of these*.

53/ The result was neither NYPD nor the FBI had read the emails on Wiener's PC, but were—according to True Pundit, at least—simultaneously leaking false information to True Pundit about what the content was. They wanted Comey to fear such leaks of false information—and it worked.

54/ On November 2, 2016—a week before the 2016 presidential election—True Pundit published the article below, which is the biggest pile of steaming bullshit dropped on America at any point during the 2016 election season. Every single word of it was false.

link

55/ Immediately—*same day*—Trump's top national security advisor, Mike Flynn, retweeted the article.

Recall that Flynn was receiving undisclosed—*illegally* undisclosed—monies from Russia while advising Trump in the fall of 2015, and dined with Putin in Moscow in December 2015.

56/ Within 48 hours (in other words, as quickly as he could schedule a radio interview) Erik Prince, another Trump national security advisor—who's since admitted to having contact with Mike Flynn during the presidential campaign—spread the fake news via Steve Bannon's Breitbart.

57/ Prince is friends with Bannon—who was then the CEO of Trump's campaign—and just told Congress under oath Bannon was his contact with the campaign before and after the election. Here's audio of Prince spreading the Trumplandia-via-True Pundit fake news:

58/ But the reason you have to *read* the article itself—as odious as it is—is that it contains *explicit threats against Comey* should he not *immediately* indict Clinton:

59/ If you've been following along, you'll see there are two problems here—one, the article was published 6 days after Comey wrote the "Comey Letter"; two, the damaging emails True Pundit and/or NYPD and/or pro-Trump elements at the FBI were threatening to release *didn't exist*.

60/ As to the latter point, it's easily addressed: Jim Comey had *no idea* what was in the emails—on October 27, 2016 *or* November 2, 2016—because the very agents then threatening him via True Pundit *hadn't acquired a search warrant or gotten permission to search the computer*.

61/ The better question is how Comey would've *known* to be afraid of disclosures about the emails being published in True Pundit before the election. And the answer is (a) the McCabe email Judicial Watch uncovered, and (b) statements made by Trump advisors—particularly Giuliani.

62/ But first, understand that that True Pundit article is *exactly*—I mean *exactly*—what Comey was afraid of. Not knowing the content of the emails—because his men had deliberately not done the work to find it—*anyone* could claim NYPD/FBI sources and then lie about the emails.

63/ Comey believed such lies would (a) spread over right-wing media (they did); (b) be amplified by Trump aides (they were); and (c) appear in venues with enough credible connection to the FBI people would believe them and—worse still—he wouldn't know the truth to correct them.

64/ And (d) those lies would then swing a U.S. presidential election, and he'd be blamed for it. And if the FBI "leaks" turned out to be lies—which they were—the FBI would be disgraced and would be blamed for throwing the election to Trump.

So he did the only thing he could do.

65/ The only option pro-Trump traitors within the FBI had left Comey was to (a) re-open the investigate publicly, then (b) promise to get to the truth of the emails on Wiener's PC so swiftly that no one would have time to leak or publish or disseminate *lies* about those emails.

66/ Reports at the time said Comey probably wouldn't be able to check all the new emails before the election—in part because of their number, in part because he had to go through the warrant process—which is why True Pundit, Flynn and Prince all felt clear to go public with lies.

67/ And it's why the CEO of the Trump campaign, Steve Bannon, felt clear to publish those lies via Breitbart.

Then Comey surprised them all by doing the work in one week he'd earlier given an entire team of his agents three and a half weeks (from October 2 to October 27) to do.

68/ Okay, now watch this (especially the last few seconds) and check the date:

69/ 2 days *before* the Comey Letter was sent (so, October 26) Giuliani knew something big was coming—after spending the preceding days saying he had access to *active* FBI agents *and* retired FBI agents (like True Pundit's) who were incensed at Clinton.

70/ First Giuliani said he had access to "active" agents, then he denied it; he said a "big surprise" was coming, then he claimed he was only talking about a new ad campaign. No one believed it—especially given he kept referencing the FBI's anger at Comey.

71/ But now that we know all Trump's most nefarious men—Bannon, Flynn, and Prince, who were all meeting with one another during the campaign—were reading True Pundit, Giuliani's "I heard it from active agents" while *also* claiming "I heard it from retired agents" makes sense.

72/ It makes sense because True Pundit was made up of retired FBI agents speaking to—or claiming to have spoken to—active FBI agents, and the big surprise Giuliani predicted was likely the "news" True Pundit posted and that Giuliani's compatriots then spread throughout the media.

73/ Keep in mind, Giuliani hadn't seen the emails either—no one had, including the NYPD and FBI agents claiming to have seen them—so all he needed to know was that True Pundit, a site he followed and which likely included some retired FBI agents he knew, would be running a story.

74/ And given that *both* McCabe and Comey were aware of TruePundit—who it was comprised of, who they claimed to have access to, and what they were trying to do—the idea those "ex-intel guys" would have communicated their plans to Flynn and/or Prince and/or Giualiani makes sense.

75/ But the key is this: the NYT said Comey re-opened the investigation publicly because he was "sure" information about the new emails would leak. And the reason he thought that information would leak is because he knew about True Pundit and (via McCabe) FBI leaks made to them.

76/ All those leaks were illegal—as Flynn, Prince and Giuliani well knew given their backgrounds. And they equally knew that True Pundit stories were regularly being repeated on Russia media. And Flynn and Prince knew by November 2nd that in fact no one had seen those emails yet.

77/ What all this suggests is coordination between True Pundit, the FBI, NYPD, and members of the Trump campaign to stall the Clinton email investigation just long enough to either (a) force Comey to re-open it, or (b) be able to claim whatever they wanted about the "new" emails.

78/ Remember how I said Bannon's Breitbart was the chief retweeter of and source for True Pundit—along with Russian bots. Remember how I said that Bannon, Flynn and Prince all met during the campaign, and all jumped on the True Pundit story the *second* it came out on November 2.

79/ This has all the hallmarks of a domestic criminal conspiracy—"criminal" because it involves fraud and obstruction of justice. And it involves the Trump campaign and Russian bots and pro-Trump elements in the FBI and NYPD working in concert. So why isn't it being investigated?

80/ Inspector General Horowitz is looking at it, we're told. That's not good enough—not when Trump is stacking the deck by claiming the FBI had a *pro-Clinton* bias, even as he knows it was working in concert with his men. Enough. Let's starting discussing this as a nation. {end}

PS/ There are up to twenty more tweets in this thread. I stopped because I needed to sleep, but there are few more items of great note that I need to add. They're forthcoming shortly. (Hope you'll share the first tweet in this thread in the meantime.)

PS2/ So I wrote about what was happening on the Trump campaign and FBI side of things after True Pundit published its false story about the Clinton emails on November 2nd, 2016. I didn't talk about what True Pundit did at that point—and frankly it's even more alarming to recount.

PS3/ To obscure the fact that its very existence, operations, sourcing, and disinformation dissemination was evidence of a pro-Trump conspiracy between current and former FBI agents, True Pundit did *exactly* what Trump is doing now: alleged a *pro-Clinton* conspiracy at the FBI.

PS4/ And it didn't wait to do this until there was a statement from the FBI or other indication of blowback from its November 2nd article, as of course there wasn't any—not against True Pundit, at least—and the goal of alleging a *pro-Clinton* conspiracy at the FBI was political.

PS5/ So what True Pundit did, in the 4 days before the election, was put on a play of sorts about—if you can believe it—its authors being hunted by pro-Clinton FBI agents. Yes—seriously—hunted. It was a ploy for attention and to falsely underscore the "truth" of its "reporting."

PS6/ Check out these tweets by "Thomas Paine" alleging that his and his compatriots' courage in posting the "real" story of Clinton's emails—again, every single piece of which was false—had led to the whole True Pundit team being hunted like dogs by pro-Clinton forces at the FBI.

PS7/ Not only do these tweets falsely suggest the True Pundit team had to go into hiding pre-election, they also implied an anticipated fake-news coordination with WikiLeaks and that the "truth" of the Clinton emails was *worse* than the fake news True Pundit had already put out.

PS8/ This performance art-like component to True Pundit's November 2nd, 2016 fake-news "bombshell" about Clinton—immediately disseminated via Trump-campaign and Trump-affiliated channels—suggests a level of premeditation to the timing and roll-out of its threats against the FBI.

PS9/ It suggests too that the fake news we're seeing from Trump right now—the idea pro-Clinton FBI agents are secretly maneuvering to suppress the truth about Clinton—is the same one True Pundit was selling (and Trump aides promoting) in the midst of a *pro-Trump* FBI conspiracy.

PS10/ But it gets worse. And it gets worse because Trump won, which fact taught True Pundit that not *only* was its fake-news dissemination via Russian, far-right, and Trump-campaign channels effective, it *also* would continue to have success—specifically—in threatening the FBI.

PS11/ In March 2017, just 48 hours before it was revealed that Mike Flynn had been illegally working as a Turkish agent prior to election day—a revelation that *substantially* ramped up his chances of getting charged by Jim Comey—True Pundit posted a harrowing message on Twitter:

PS12/ Stunning. True Pundit is using the *same* threat (revelation of Clinton emails that don't actually exist) to the *same* purpose (thwarting the administration of justice by Jim Comey) that it used *before* the election—with Trump campaign help—to swing the election to Trump.

PS13/ Note that what "Thomas Paine" is doing is illegal *whether or not his NYPD sources exist*. Just as it was illegal to do the same thing 96 hours pre-election. Just as it was illegal if Flynn, Prince, and/or Bannon know anyone from True Pundit and were coordinating with them.

PS14/ Either Thomas Paine was obstructing justice by issuing credible threats against the FBI if the FBI didn't accede to his demands—and indeed, this probably rises to a level beyond Obstruction of Justice—*or* he was part of a *conspiracy* with NYPD and FBI elements to do this.

PS15/ This is where I remind everyone a) that the animating principles behind True Pundit match those of Flynn and Flynn retweeted True Pundit's November "bombshell" ASAP; b) the nature and timing of Rudy Giuliani's statements suggest a possible connection to True Pundit; and...

PS16/ c) Bannon and Prince coordinated immediately following publication of this "bombshell" to disseminate it via Breitbart. Prince can claim he wasn't a Trump advisor (though he was), but Flynn definitely was, Giuliani definitely was, and Bannon was the *CEO of the campaign*.

PS17/ More broadly, this March 2017 tweet suggests an *ongoing plot*—and ongoing MO—at True Pundit to influence the FBI in a very specific way: to hinder the Russia investigation; to help Mike Flynn; to allege a pro-Clinton conspiracy at the FBI; to distract via Clinton "crimes."

PS18/ Remember: a) Paine won't give his name or let his face be seen—confirming that, as ex-FBI, he knows what he's doing is *illegal*—and b) he's told the media that he was *proud* to have True Pundit be part of a Russian disinformation campaign, and was aware of it at the time.

PS19/ There's no evidence to support Paine's claim he was being hunted by the FBI pre-election, but he certainly *should* be getting hunted by authorities now.

And Flynn, Prince, Bannon, Giuliani, and any other Trump aides who passed on True Pundit stories should be questioned.

PS20/ I want to emphasize that I have only *scratched the surface* of the True Pundit story here. But there's more than enough here to tell any investigator (Horowitz, Mueller, or Congressional) that the timing and coordination of all of this suggests something much larger. {end}

NOTE/ The first step is to check every Paine tweet/True Pundit story against a) events in the Russia scandal/probe, b) public RTs by Trump aides. Don't forget True Pundit was registered as Manafort came on-board (March 2016) and began the day of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting.

NOTE2/ The second step is to find and question Jason Goodman—see earlier tweet in which Goodman interviews Paine—as it appears possible Goodman knows who "Thomas Paine" is (recall that "Paine" references early in his interview having "private" off-air conversations with Goodman).

NOTE3/ The third step is to get RUDY GIULIANI under oath and ask him questions about his reading of True Pundit and knowledge of *anyone* associated with it. He should also be asked about *any* October 2016 contacts with Flynn, Prince, or Bannon—as well as contacts *before* then.

NOTE4/ The fourth step is to get in contact with McCabe and Comey and ask about True Pundit's stories and threats *or* any stories or threats coming from associated websites or individuals that may have contributed to Comey being "sure" (false) info on Wiener's emails would leak.

NOTE5/ The fifth step is for Mueller to ask his now-cooperating witness Michael Flynn about *all* of this—as Flynn may well be cooperating on certain aspects of the Russia case *without* implicating others in the *domestic* end of the conspiracy that gave Trump the 2016 election.

CONCLUSION/ This is, again, just a scratching of the surface of the story of True Pundit. In the long run, extremely superficial—but enough to get the ball rolling. People have wrongly assumed this end of the story to be disconnected to the Russia probe. It is not. It is central.

DOCS/ Guess what the pro-Trump ex-FBI/IC agents at True Pundit are working on now, America—that's right, *getting Mueller fired and ending the Trump-Russia probe*.

You can be reasonably certainly the president himself has True Pundit bookmarked—as this looks like hand-in-glove.

DOC2/ "Thomas Paine" is now having a meltdown, folks. Largely—it appears—in response to this thread, as he keeps on referencing me and has already accused me of (wait for it) secret Deep State connections.

Yeah, maybe Google me first.

Pay attention, Horowitz, Mueller, Congress.

DOC3/ Here's the FiveThirtyEight analysis suggesting that what this thread is talking about is no more or less than something that was/is a *sufficient* basis for Clinton to lose the 2016 election, if not (not by any means) the *only* reason that happened.

link

DOC4/ Here's an exemplar of how right-wing pubs like InfoWars—the owner of this account is Jones' partner there—publicly associated True Pundit with WikiLeaks in a symbiotic way (i.e. WikiLeaks' RTs of True Pundit bolstered it, even as True Pundit bolstered WikiLeaks narratives):

DOC5/ This Newsline excerpt discusses Judicial Watch's McCabe-Comey emails. Note Comey clearly acknowledges that True Pundit has access to FBI agents—maybe "lower-level" agents spreading "rumors" to True Pundit.

But then—2 days later—Giuliani issued his public warnings/threats.

DOC5-II/ Note the word "still"—implying not only *isn't* this the first October conversation Comey's had with with McCabe about the risk of leaks from the NYC office, but McCabe *clearly* has expressed concerns Comey wants to disbelieve.

Giuliani's threats may have changed that.

DOCS5-III/
10/24: McCabe thinks big leak coming; Comey admits leaks but not in Clinton probe—yet.
10/26: Giuliani widely teases FBI-related October surprise that will swing election to Trump.
10/27: Comey learns his agents betrayed him.
10/28: Comey writes his letter to Congress.

***

Believe it or not, Seth's got a Part Two ready to go already. Keep watching this space for updates! - Jerky

BILL MAHER BREAKS DOWN TRUMP'S TREASON CSI-STYLE

Trump can’t demand that everyone stand for the flag if he colluded with a foreign Gov't to subvert the very democracy that flag represents. pic.twitter.com/6uomqdqLKQ

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) September 30, 2017

QUOTE OF THE DAY ~ JULY 8, 2017

"Next to Fred Trump, Roy Cohn was the single greatest influence in Donald’s life. And Roy is incandescent evil. I would sit with him, and it was enough to make you rush back to church, the Satanic feeling that he would give you. That was Donald’s mentor and constant sidekick, who represented all five of the organized crime families in the City of New York."

— Investigative journalist and long-time Trump investigator/foe Wayne Barrett, who conveniently passed away this November, shortly after the New Yorker ran an article suggesting that we were lucky to have him around to help guide us through the wide-awake nightmare of Trump's ascending to the White House. Oh well... so much for that.

SUGGESTED READINGS FOR JUNE 25, 2017

Of the many indicators that the Anglosphere's public intellectual ecosystem is in a sorry state of decline, perhaps the most compelling is the fact that telegenic mediocrity Sam Harris--he of the soothing, hypnotist's mien and the cold dead eyes of a serial killer--continues to be taken seriously, and that he maintains a significant readership, as well as a positively rabid online fan club.

Fortunately, the mysterious Reddit escapees who produce THErHizzonE have taken it upon themselves to provide the interested reader with a forensically thorough and meticulously argued case against paying any attention to anything Sam Harris has to say on any topic, whatsoever. And yet, as entertaining is it is to see such a self-satisfied, narcissistic fraud be so utterly dismantled, the author(s) have also done a great public service, producing a must read for anyone concerned about the deleterious effects that one well connected phony can have on the wider public discourse.

***

Speaking of malevolent bad faith actors with sinister ulterior motives and an inexplicably large and vocal American fan base, how about them Russians?! The Daily Beast's excellent overview of America's long history of having sincere attempts at rapprochement backfire spectacularly, titled How Moscow's Spies Keep Duping America Over and Over Again, is both fascinating and chilling. It's enough to make you wonder which evil genius magician managed to convince so many ostensible Trump "foes" that there's nothing to the whole Russia thing, when the Russia thing is fucking HUGE, man, in all its ugly glory. Trump is covered in sucker marks from all the tentacles the Kremlin, Russian organized crime, the oligarchs (same dif) and all those weird Central Asian post-Soviet kleptocratic petrostates have wrapped around him. And yet we have self-styled lefties and Democrats screaming to stop talking about Russia. It's a testament to the New Fascist International's insanely powerful, next level propaganda skills, that's for goddamn sure.

***

That's enough heavy thinking for one day. Let's close off today's offerings with a video: Wheeler Walker Jr.'s hit crossover (from Filthy Trucker Novelty Tape to New Country Fringe) "hit" single, "Pussy King"!

SETH ABRAMSON TWEET STORM

Journalist Seth Abramson used his Twitter account to unleash an epic Tweet storm laying out his argument that Trump is already circling the drain, and that Mueller and Co are basically just tying up the loose ends, dotting the i's and crossing the t's. I've collected that information here, for ease of use and reference. Enjoy! - JERKY

(THREAD) We DO have PROOF Trump and Russia colluded. This thread PROVIDES it. Please read and RETWEET so we can end the no-collusion canard.

(1) In counter-intelligence, the term "coordination" is used to describe what laypeople now discuss as "collusion," so I use that term here.

(2) The Washington Post reports the FBI is investigating whether "coordination" was achieved between Trump and Russia via financial crimes.

(3) The assumption of this Washington Post report is that if Trump received Russian money during the campaign, he "coordinated" with Russia.

(4) This link to the WP confirms financial coordination would be "collusion." That is NOT what this thread is about.

(5) I link to the WP to *establish* that transfers of money between Trump and Russia during the campaign would be considered "coordination."

(6) The reason Trump-Russia money transfers in the campaign constitute "coordination" ("collusion") is because *Russia was at war with us*.

(7) Homeland Security experts agree that cyberwar is a modern form of war, and in 2016 Russia *unilaterally waged war* on the United States.

(8) The case for Trump-Russia coordination is *very easy* to make—it begins with *when* Trump learned Russia was waging cyberwar on America.

(9) We know that, at the *latest*, Trump himself learned that Russia was *at war* with the United States during the last week of July 2016.

(10) On July 26, 2016, in a major national news story, NBC reported "Experts Are Sure Russia Hacked" U.S. systems.

(11) (You'll note the difference between the Twitter headline and the *actual* headline; click on the link to see, "Experts Are *Sure*...")

(12) We know Trump read NBC's report because the *very next day* he gave a *nationally televised press conference* on the very same subject.

(13) In his big press conference, Trump said Russia "probably" had engaged in cyber-war against the United States.

(14) (As you see from the Twitter headline, Trump went *further* and said he also *hoped* it was true Russia was cyber-attacking America.)

(15) Trump's admission (a) he believed Russia was at cyberwar with America, and (b) *hoped* it was, *shocked* the American political system.

(16) It's easy—in hindsight—to forget Trump's July 27, 2016 pronouncement was *not* just national news but considered *infamously historic*.

(17) But *equally* important was that the *Trump campaign* was *well aware* how big a problem Trump's statement was—which know in two ways.

(18) First, and most importantly, that was the *last major press conference Trump gave during the course of the 2016 presidential election*.

(19) Consider that: a man whose attorneys, friends, family and staff can't get him to shut up on Twitter *stopped giving press conferences*.

(20) And he *stopped giving press conferences* at a time he needed to give them to get attention *and* media *wanted* to give him attention.

(21) The second remarkable thing Trump did was that he publicly *reversed course* shortly thereafter. As we know, Trump *hates* to do this.

(22) Trump saying Russia "probably" was hacking U.S. systems meant (legally and otherwise) that he believed it to be "more likely than not."

(23) After Trump and/or his aides pulled him from *all future press conferences*, he suddenly began to express doubt about Russian hacking.

(24) Suddenly Trump's position—even as the IC became *more and more certain* in its assessment—was that *anyone* could've done the hacking.

(25) But America never forgot his "probably" or "I hope" and *disbelieved* that Trump would then become *less* sure as the IC became *more*.

(26) If you're reading this, I hope you will agree that all I've done here so far is relate American history as it happened. No conjectures.

(27) Another mere fact is this one: AG Jeff Sessions testified under oath that he discussed sanctions with Sergey Kislyak in September 2016.

(28) Sessions also made clear—under oath—that he didn't discuss hacking with Kislyak at that meeting. He only discussed sanctions with him.

(29) So for instance, we could *not* say that Sessions was negotiating with Kislyak to drop sanctions *if Russia stopped hacking America*.

(30) No—what we know, from Sessions, is he engaged in negotiations over the dropping of sanctions against Russia with no such preconditions.

(31) To review: July 27, Trump accepts Russia is likely at war with America; weeks later he lets Sessions talk sanctions (no preconditions).

(32) Note that Sessions, in hours of testimony, couldn't remember a *single* key detail about his *three meetings* with Kislyak. Except one.

(33) The *one* detail Sessions *chose* to recall on Kislyak—and *repeated* in *both testimonies*—is the September meeting was "contentious."

(34) Why did Sessions go to such *extraordinary* lengths—even contradicting his own "meeting amnesia"—to establish the tone of one meeting?

(35) Here—for the first time in the thread—I move from *fact* to the sort of *circumstantial evidence* the FBI uses in criminal cases daily.

(36) The reflexivity shown by Trump and Sessions on *two issues*—Russian hacking and the September meeting—suggest a consciousness of guilt.

(37) It's *shocking* that *weeks* after Trump admitted Russia was *at war with us* he let his *top foreign policy aide* negotiate sanctions.

(38) So: a) Trump would *want* us to think he doubted Russian hacking, b) Sessions would *want* his September meeting to seem *contentious*.

(39) Fortunately for Trump, he kept repeating *so often* that he doubted the IC analysis on hacking that we *forgot* he first *accepted* it.

(40) Fortunately for Sessions, he broke protocol by taking no notes, then *not reporting* his meeting, then committing *multiple* perjuries.

(41) So investigators must determine what Trump and Russia negotiated with respect to sanctions by some other means. And—good news—they can.

(42) FBI investigators now know Trump's transition was engaged in ongoing sanctions negotiation w/ Russia and committed felonies to hide it.

(43) Mike Flynn risked *more than a decade in prison* to try to hide from the federal government that Team Trump was negotiating sanctions.

(44) And Trump risked *aiding and abetting Flynn* by *not* firing him for weeks. Why? To keep Flynn on his side—to keep him from squawking.

(45) Even in (finally) firing him, Trump a) underscored that Flynn was a "good man" and b) wouldn't say he fired him over lies *to the FBI*.

(46) FBI investigators also know Trump planned to—*as one of his first acts in office*—drop all sanctions on Russia.

(47) Trump's plan to drop sanctions was—*yet again*—*without preconditions* and at a time our IC *confirmed* unilateral Russian aggression.

(48) Indeed, Trump's plan to drop sanctions *without preconditions* was at a time Russia's behavior toward the United States had *worsened*.

(49) Trump's plan to drop sanctions on Russia *without preconditions* constitutes a transfer of *hundreds of billions of dollars* to Russia.

(50) To transfer hundreds of billions of dollars to an enemy currently waging war upon you—*without preconditions*—constitutes coordination.

(51) And *all* the evidence we have right now underscores Trump was negotiating dropping sanctions during the campaign *and* the transition.

(52) And Trump's *own televised statements*—-plus his later attempts to cover them up—confirm he *knew* Russia was waging war upon America.

(53) The media may assume that collusion *only* occurs when money flows from Russia to Trump—the FBI makes *no such mistake*, be sure of it.

(54) Trump used his top NatSec/FP aides—Sessions and Flynn—to negotiate dropping sanctions on Russia without preconditions in a time of war.

(55) The FBI does not *need* proof that the Russians paid Trump, because it already *has* proof Trump made long-term plans to *pay Russia*.

(56) The FBI doesn't *need* proof Team Trump gave intel to the Russians, as Trump merely needed to *know* what Russia was doing. And he did.

(57) During the campaign and transition Trump plotted with Sessions and Flynn to provide material aid and comfort to an active US adversary.

(58) That that illegal aid and comfort was contingent upon Trump being president didn't even need to be said, because it was *self-evident*.

(59) The moment Sessions and Flynn confirmed they negotiated dropping sanctions in a "hot" cyberwar—without preconditions—we had collusion.

(60) There's no doubt whatsoever that Trump, Sessions, and Flynn thereby offered inducements to Russian hacking *as it was happening to us*.

(61) Note—the evidence I've presented thus far is only a *fraction* of the evidence the FBI has on this issue. I'll let you in on some more.

(62) *Public reports* from late July 2016—when Trump was learning about Russian cyberwar on America—confirm *many* steps taken on sanctions.

(63) The next tweets in this thread are *all* based on widespread—even ubiquitous—national news reports from July 2016. Feel free to Google.

(64) At the RNC, Trump's #2 foreign policy aide—J.D. Gordon—negotiated sanctions with the Russians then lied to the national press about it.

(65) Prior to Gordon's lie, Trump's Campaign Manager—Paul Manafort—lied to the national press about whether Trump was negotiating sanctions.

(66) In his first Congressional testimony, Trump's top foreign policy aide—Sessions—perjured to hide that he too met with Russia at the RNC.

(67) The fact Sessions had *already* discussed sanctions with Kislyak in late July belies his claim their September meeting was contentious.

(68) The FBI couldn't fail to miss this M.O.—Trump's top NatSec/foreign policy aides lie to Americans, Congress, and the FBI *on sanctions*.

(69) Moreover the FBI knows a) all negotiations lacked preconditions, and b) all negotiations occurred when Trump knew about Russia hacking.

(70) Republicans have used *disinformation* to convince the media and its viewers that coordination/collusion requires "hacking assistance."

(71) Republicans also use *disinformation* to convince the media and its viewers that coordination/collusion requires Russia *paying Trump*.

(72) The FBI is *investigating* hacking assistance—how did Russian bots micro-target competitive U.S. districts?—but they *needn't* find it.

(73) The FBI is investigating Russian payments to Trump associates via money laundering—per The Washington Post—but they *needn't* find it.

(74) And what the FBI *certainly* doesn't *need* to find is the Dick Tracy-like "smoking gun" the GOP is, like mob-movie fanboys, demanding.

(75) Criminal investigators—and I was one—know the coordination *most* likely to work, and stay hidden, is the *simplest* sort of collusion.

(76) If media wants to keep saying "no evidence of collusion yet!" it needs to educate itself on what international collusion can look like.

(77) Instead they rely on quotes from pols—but of *course* pols will wait for a smoking gun that'll convince *everyone*. Why shouldn't they?

(78) As long as the possibility of a Dick Tracy-like "smoking gun" remains out there—and it very much does—pols can stay "mum" on collusion.

(79) But journos and social media users should say clearly and unambiguously that we *have* evidence of collusion and now seek *even more*.

(80) And if the *media* would start researching *coordination via sanctions* we might get lots of *new* information we don't *already* have.

(81) So the next time someone says to you, "There's been a year of investigation and no proof of any collusion!" you should simply say this:

(82) "We have REAMS of evidence Trump's team committed MULTIPLE CRIMES to give Russia sanctions relief in exchange for continued cyber-war."

(83) Then go further: "EVERY REVELATION in the Russia probe—on Sessions, Flynn, Manafort and Trump—CONFIRMS collusion via sanctions relief."

(84) When those of us who don't want to see America run by an autocrat concede the collusion question to friends and family, America loses.

(85) So *fight for your country* by telling anyone who'll listen that we *know* Trump colluded with Russia. And show them this thread. {end}

(PS) This thread uses "war" to mean "cyberwarfare." The analyses here presume *only* a known hostile actor—not a formal declaration of war.

(PS2) A US person/entity materially aiding/abetting a hostile foreign actor engaged in cyberwarfare against America is coordinating by law.

(PS3) Pre-election assurances the US would drop sanctions on Russia—without conditions—at a time America was under cyber-attack are illegal.

(PS4) All that's needed is for a person to know the future transfer of billions they're promising is to a foreign power engaged in cyberwar.

(PS5) The evidence we have *now*—from public reports, Congressional testimony and Trump's own statements—confirms all elements of collusion.

(VIDEO) Many videos—like this BBC one—cut off Trump's next eight words: "Let's see if that happens—that'll be next."