New Years Day: Things I Have Learned in The Last Ten Years

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Quinn Norton
For this first day of the 2020s I would like to share with you some of the frustrating, hopeful, and baffling things I've learned over the last decade about humans and the planet we share. Most of what anyone learns in any decade isn't particularly…
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Horowitz
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The Inspector General Report on Carter Page Fails to Meet the Standard It Applies to the FBI

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emptywheel
The DOJ IG Report finding errors in the Carter Page FISA application makes some of the same kind of errors it suggests are a firing offense. That ironically shows how important transparency is to combatting confirmation bias.
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"Fact Witness:" How Rod Rosenstein Got DOJ IG To Land a Plane on Bruce Ohr

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emptywheel
The DOJ IG Report on Carter Page has some important evidence on the FISA process. But its treatment of Bruce Ohr threatens to undermine the information sharing that DOJ has been trying to encourage for almost two decades.
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Eli Is Leaving, and Bowl Season For Real Trash Talk

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bmaz
There has been a joke here at Emptywheel from longer than you can imagine. Good Eli versus Bad Eli. There has been so much of both. But Easy Eli Manning is, arguably, going into arguably his last game as a Giant, if not in the NFL, an incredibly…
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Christmas Eve Remembrances

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bmaz
Yeargh, I bollixed this up. Meant to post this several hours ago, and told Marcy I was going to, but instead had a giant nap on the couch with an overly large puppy right beside. We deal with a lot of hard subjects here on this blog, and…
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The Damning Revelations about George Papadopoulos in a DOJ IG Report Claiming Exculpatory Evidence

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emptywheel
An examination of the really damning stuff the DOJ IG Report on Carter Page says is exculpatory may be best understood to suggest that Papadopoulos' denials should have led the investigation to focus on him far earlier than it did. 
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Eleven Days after Releasing Their Report, DOJ IG Clarified What Crimes FBI Investigated

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emptywheel
In one of a number of corrections, the DOJ IG report clarifies that it conflated FARA and 18 USC 951 in at least one mention of the crimes FBI was investigating. That confusion may totally undermine the Report's analysis on the import of the First Amendment in targeting Carter Page.
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The Ugly Results Of Inequality

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Ed Walker
It gets ugly when there is too much inequality.
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How Putin Got in Trump's (and So, All of Our) Head

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emptywheel
The way in which Trump's retweet of a Putin headline has gone viral was utterly predictable.
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The Various Channels Via Which the Steele Reports Got Ingested by FBI

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emptywheel
The DOJ IG Report on Carter Page fills in a lot of the details about which Steele reports the FBI obtained when. While it doesn't excuse their use of the report for later Page FISA applications, they had not received two of the sketichiest reports before they used Steele's reports in the first application.
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Horowitz
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Crossfire Hurricane Glossary

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bmaz
A glossary of some of the names, acronyms, and titles in the DOJ IG Report on Carter Page.
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Yakety Yak Trash

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bmaz
A big weekend of NFL football this week, with great games on Saturday, Sunday and Monday night. Soak it in!
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Sam Clovis Responded to a Question about Russia Interfering in the Election by Raising Voter ID

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emptywheel
There's a small detail in the DOJ IG Report on Carter Page that deserves further mention. When the FBI was sending informants -- including Stefan Halper -- to talk to people in conjunction with its investigation, it always asked them about…
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Horowitz
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Timeline of Key Events in DOJ IG Carter Page Report

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emptywheel
As part of my deep dive into the DOJ IG Report on the Carter Page FISA, I've tried to capture the key events in it, which are discussed in iterative fashion in the report so hard to understand. Note, too, that the much-touted 17 problems with…
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The Carter Page IG Report Debunks a Key [Impeachment-Related] Conspiracy about Paul Manafort

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emptywheel
The DOJ IG Report on the Carter Page FISA debunks a key conspiracy behind GOP claims that Ukraine tampered in the 2016 elections: that the investigation into Paul Manafort was only resuscitated after Serhiy Leshchenko published the Black Ledger. That investigation was opened in January 2016, well before Trump hired Manafort.
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Explain It To Me: What Does Impeachment Mean Now?

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Rayne
The Articles of Impeachment were pretty straightforward. But what of Trump's re-election and the scope of presidential pardons?
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Will Hurd
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The Entire Republican Party Owns Trump's Crimes Going Forward

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emptywheel
The Republican party institutionally values cheating to win over national security now.
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Amy Berman Jackson Disputes Claims of "Exculpatory" Information on Russia and Ukraine

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emptywheel
Amy Berman Jackson has seen more of the underlying evidence from this investigation than anyone. And, in her comments during Rick Gates' sentencing yesterday, she sure seems to think that Bill Barr, Donald Trump, and Michael Horowitz are dismissing the seriousness of this investigation. 
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Impeachment: House of Representatives' Debate and Vote Thread [UPDATE-4]

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Rayne
This post and thread are dedicated to today's scheduled House of Representatives' activities related to impeachment of Donald J. Trump.
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Rosemary Collyer Responds to the DOJ IG Report in Fairly Blasé Fashion

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emptywheel
Rosemary Collyer issued a sternly worded but functionally moderate letter in response to the DOJ IG Report.
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