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Surveillance Reform Can No Longer Ignore EO 12333

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emptywheel
Yesterday, a bunch of civil liberties groups issued a letter calling for FISA 702 reform as part of the Section 215 reauthorization this year. I agree that the reauthorization this year should address the problems with 702 that weren't addressed…
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Mick Mulvaney Confesses OMB and DOD Are Withholding Evidence of a Crime from Congress

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emptywheel
Amid all the other crazy disclosures in his press conference today, Mick Mulvaney admitted that the White House didn't have a very very good reason to ignore the will of Congress in releasing security funds to Ukraine. Yet, OMB and DOD are refusing to tell Congress why it did so, in clear violation of the law.

Sorting Out The Timeline For Lev Parnas And Program Trading Corp.

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Jim White
Florida and FINRA records indicate Lev Parnas joined Program Trading Corp. late in 1998, rather than at its founding in 1992 as suggested in a previous post.
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Gordon Sondland's Statement Protects, Does Not Break with, Trump

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emptywheel
The press seems to have fallen for Gordon Sondland's bullshit claim he has broken with Trump about a quid pro quo. In reality, his prepared statement goes to some lengths to protect Trump.

Rest in Power: Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (1951 - 2019)

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Rayne
Cummings' passing is a huge loss for his district, his state, and our country.
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The Frothy Right Gets More Excited about an Eight Year Old Phone than Contemporaneous Metadata

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emptywheel
Sidney Powell and Bill Barr have gotten the frothy right more worked up about an 8 year old phone than they have ever been about metadata contemporaneous to Russia's efforts to sway the 2016 elections.

On the Potential Viability of Foreign Agent Charges for Rudy Giuliani

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emptywheel
Yes, there are a lot of reasons it might be hard to charge Rudy Giuliani for FARA violations. But given the charges already shown, conspiracy charges--potentially quite ugly ones--may well be easier to charge.
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Lev Parnas Had A Remarkable Start On His Path To Fraud Guarantee

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Jim White
It's almost as if Lev Parnas was a "made man" at 23 (or 26, see update) with experience in real estate, shipping and securities, all enterprises known to be favored by those laundering cash coming out of the former Soviet Union.
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The Criminal Investigation into Paul Manafort Was (and May Still be) Ongoing--and Likely Pertains to Trump's Ukraine Extortion

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emptywheel
Documents from the filings and hearings on Manafort's breach of his plea deal suggest a real continuity between his efforts to implement a plan Konstantin Kilimnik presented to him on August 2, 2016 and the influence operations of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.

A Meditation: Who Are You?

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Rayne
Me, typing away at my keyboard and you reading these pixels means neither of us are in the streets, fighting to preserve what’s left of our democracy. Who are we?
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How Twelve Years of Warning and Six Years of Plodding Reform Finally Forced FBI to Do Minimal FISA Oversight

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emptywheel
After 12 years, we finally are beginning to put the common sense measures on FBI's use of Section 702 surveillance to show that the concerns we raised over a decade ago were absolutely correct.
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Clemson Up Huge; People Losing Their Shit Over A Kicker

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bmaz
Trash talk is late. I had some serious home maintenance issues here in the Cactus Patch, other distracting things, and a bunch of dopes that thought references to Louise Mensch and her band of crackpots might be fair content on this blog. Let's…
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The President's Joint Defense Agreement with the Russian Mob

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emptywheel
John Dowd's desperate attempt to make the Ukraine scandal go away the same way he made the Russia scandal go away involved admitting, in a letter to Congress, that his former client and his current not-yet-but-soon-to-be-indicted clients are in a Joint Defense Agreement with the Russian mob.
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The Problem with Letting the Client-in-Chief Rewrite Impeachment Strategy Mid-Week

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emptywheel
On Tuesday morning, DOJ argued that HJC can't have grand jury materials because it wasn't pursuing impeachment. Yesterday, DOJ argued that HJC can't have grand jury materials because it is pursuing impeachment.

Do Lev Parnas and David Correia Have A Connection To Sale Of Trump Properties To Russians In South Florida?

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Jim White
Lev Parnas and David Correia incorporated Mendo Cali, LLC in 2014 with Inna Ponomareva, a real estate agent also affiliated with a brokerage specializing in selling South Florida Trump properties to Russians.
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Consider How Paul Manafort's Fate May Have Affected Marie Yovanovitch

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emptywheel
Trump's efforts to push out Marie Yovanovitch definitely overlap with the period that grifters Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were cultivating him and his "free" lawyer. But they also started during the period when Paul Manafort's fortunes started to go south.
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Judicial Watch Reveals Reza Zarrab's Lawyer May Have Pitched Rosenstein on Special Counsel Pick

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emptywheel
As Rod Rosenstein contemplated whom to appoint as Special Counsel, one of Reza Zarrab's lawyers weighed in.
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Rudy Giuliani Represents Fraud Guarantee Founder

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Jim White
Tasked with finding fraudulent "evidence" against the Biden family, Rudy Giuliani also represents one of the founders of Fraud Guarantee. Sounds about right.
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DOJ Confirms that Trump's Anti-Biden Propagandists Were in the Employ of a Russian

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emptywheel
The indictment of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman implicates Trump in a conspiracy with an as yet unnamed Russian donor.
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