Billy B and Johnny D Drank Whiskey before the Special Counsel Appointment
The timing of when John Durham killed the Italian-predicated tip into Trump’s finances may dictate whether we learn more about it in his report.
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.
The timing of when John Durham killed the Italian-predicated tip into Trump’s finances may dictate whether we learn more about it in his report.
There is, to date, not any evidence that the Bush-Biden-Pence document story is about overclassification. Rather, it’s about the way that Presidents and Vice Presidents go from being immune from laws on classification to being subject to them in an instant, all while packing up boxes to leave.
Comparing Brandon Straka’s unsealed cooperation memos to his January 6 Committee interview still leaves big questions about why DOJ gave him a sweetheart misdemeanor plea deal.
Merrick Garland didn’t appoint a Special Counsel right away to investigate the classified documents found at President Biden’s office and home. He appointed John Lausch to conduct an initial assessment.
This table should provide journalists a handy guide of details they need to know before chasing classified documents discovered in a former Constitutional officer’s home.
There are a number of key FBI investigations, including some in which Oleg Deripaska had tangential interest, on which Charles McGonigal would have had complete visibility. They’re not the ones left, right, and frothers are most concerned about though.
The former FBI Assistant Direct of Counterintelligence in New York , Charles McGonigal, just got busted in DC and NY for the kinds of crimes he used to investigate.
Johnny McEntee likely testified to a grand jury last Friday about a potentially exculpatory comment he claims he heard Trump make to Mike Flynn. But along the way he may have been asked about his role in Trump’s plan to use the National Guard to protect him as he marched on the Capitol.
Until Biden’s lawyers answer some key questions about where the documents found this month were stored — whether an actively used office or a storage space — there’s no reason to believe their story of cooperation is any more complete than Trump’s was.
While one thing still distinguishes Trump’s classified documents from Biden’s — his refusal to give them back — we can’t rule out that Biden’s share some of the more damning details present with Trump.