Author Archive for: emptywheel
About emptywheel
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.
Entries by emptywheel
The Disinformation that Got Told: Michael Cohen Was, in Fact, Hiding Secret Communications with the Kremlin
/61 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, Mueller Probe/by emptywheelIf the dossier was significantly disinformation, then all Americans were victims of it. It turned a legitimate concern about real Russian interference into American elections into one of the biggest sources of political polarization in recent history. As such, disinformation injected into the dossier should increasingly be treated as central part of the 2016 Russian influence operation — perhaps its most successful and lasting part.
Kevin Fairlamb and Jacob Chansley Sentences Affirm Judicial Legitimacy
/80 Comments/in 2020 Election, January 6 Insurrection/by emptywheelJudge Royce Lamberth sentenced two prominent January 6 defendants to 41 month sentences in the last week. One thing both sentencing hearings did — whether motivated out of genuine remorse or as part of a cynical ploy to butter up a judge — is reaffirm the legitimacy of the judicial process. Both these men recognized their actions as crimes. Both recognized the legitimacy of a judge imposing sentence for it. And both defendants recognized the professionalism of those at DOJ working to prosecute the case.