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
Meet Johnny Pollock: The Anti-Social [Media] Cell Leader of January 6 Lakeland Insurrectionists
/125 Comments/in January 6 Insurrection/by emptywheelIn the days after January 6, there was a false conception that the insurrectionists might all be found via their social media use. Johnny Pollock, who appears to have been on the lam since at least March, shows that some of the more dangerous insurrectionists were smarter than that.
“One if By Land, Two if By Sea:” What We Know of the Oath Keepers’ January 6 Quick Reaction Force
/115 Comments/in emptywheel, January 6 Insurrection/by emptywheelEarly in the Oath Keeper investigation, the claim to have an armed Quick Reaction Force to descend on DC if things went haywire seemed like the product of Thomas Caldwell’s boasts. But since then, the government has provided evidence that at least six of the Oath Keepers charged with involvement on January 6 dropped off weapons at the Ballston Comfort Inn.
The Oath Keepers Dilemma: The Government Has Threatened Yet Another Indictment
/40 Comments/in January 6 Insurrection/by emptywheelAll the Oath Keepers want more time to contemplate the evidence against them. One of them, Joshua James, even suggests that given the threat of another indictment, none of them may go to trial.
With three public plea deals, the government has got the remaining 15 defendants playing an awful game of prisoner’s dilemma, trying to calculate how to get out of this mess.
The Grand Jury Secrets Hiding the Proud Boys’ East Door Activities
/3 Comments/in emptywheel, January 6 Insurrection/by emptywheelRick Willden, a Proud Boy who was arrested yesterday for things he did at the East Door of the Capitol on January 6, is one of maybe six people arrested initially via indictment. That suggests the government has some secrets it wants to hide about how it showed probable cause to arrest him.