Wag the Dirigible
An open thread to talk the stupidest Chinese spying balloon take.
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.
An open thread to talk the stupidest Chinese spying balloon take.
By sending letters to virtually all channels via which the “Hunter Biden” “laptop” was disseminated, his lawyer Abbe Lowell has changed the significance of the hearing that James Comer has scheduled about it next week.
An arrest affidavit describes that James Gordon Meek’s home was searched in April 2022 in conjunction with a CSAM investigation.
In addition to all the difficulties created by the 25 subjects or witnesses in the January 6 investigation, DOJ has been fighting for five months to access Scott Perry’s phone.
A key potential witness against Charles McGonigal stayed in Rudy Giuliani’s guest room as the investigation against the former Special Agent in Charge developed.
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.