Ben Wittes has updated his seminal post from last summer…. I repost it here in its entirety: More than a year ago, writing with Jane Chong in May 2017, we laid out what we called, “Seven Theories of the Case: What Do We Really Know about L’Affaire Russe and What Could it All Mean?” The lengthy post was an attempt, … Read More
That Time My Cousin Brad Was On Maddow Talking About How He Was Hacked By Russians
Even though this was a couple weeks ago, I learned about it last night Sadly, I also learned last night about the death of another cousin.
QAnon Conspiracy Theorists Visible At Trump Rally Last Night
A story today in the Washington Post does a great jump of summarizing the QAnon insanity and its growing influence. I’ve been wanting to write about QAnon for a while, but it is difficult to get one’s hands around: Believers in “QAnon,” as the conspiracy theory is known, were front and center at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall, where … Read More
Another Trump Tweetstorm This Morning
There was a time when Trump wouldn’t refer to Mueller by name, tweeting only about the “Special Council” from time to time. Maybe it is because he got continually mocked for misspelling “counsel”, but Trump now refers to Mueller by name in his tweets, as he did in a large tweetstorm (7 tweets) this morning. An unhinged Trump tweet isn’t … Read More
Mueller May Have What He Needs To Show Obstruction
An under-reported Murray Waas bombshell from this morning: Previously undisclosed evidence in the possession of Special Counsel Robert Mueller—including highly confidential White House records and testimony by some of President Trump’s own top aides—provides some of the strongest evidence to date implicating the president of the United States in an obstruction of justice. Several people who have reviewed a portion … Read More
Manafort Trial Starts Today
By all accounts, it is moving fast. The jury had already been selected and opening statements have started… and it is only 2 pm on Day One. I don’t know how closely this trial will be followed (I won’t follow it), but apparently, prosecutors are going to avoid “the T word” (“Trump”), since this is taking place in Northern Virginia, … Read More
Facebook: We Found Campaign Influence Operations For Upcoming Elections
Facebook has detected an ongoing influence operation targeting Americans with content related to the politically contentious issues of immigration enforcement and white supremacism, according to a report from the New York Times: Like the Russian interference campaign in 2016, the recently detected campaign dealt with divisive social issues. Facebook discovered coordinated activity around issues like a sequel to last year’s deadly “Unite … Read More
Ten Days Away
Yup. No blogging for quite ten days. I was taking some R&R in Costa Rica. I TRIED to stay off the grid — in fact, I thought I wouldn’t be able to get on the grid even if I wanted to. But alas, they have Internet there too. What did I miss? CNN reported last Thursday that Michael Cohen was prepared to … Read More
It’s Not Just Trump Anymore
Michelle Goldberg asks “Are Republicans Covering for Trump, or for Themselves?” Of all the interlocking mysteries of the Trump-Russia scandal, one that I’ve found particularly perplexing is the utter servility of congressional Republicans before a president many of them hate and believe to be compromised by a foreign power. Yes, I know they’re thrilled about tax cuts and judges. Given … Read More
Putin’s Comin’
President Trump has asked his national security adviser John Bolton to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington for a second summit. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that plans are underway for a second summit after Trump floated the news in an earlier tweet today. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats informed on stage at Aspen Security Forum … Read More
Trump Was Briefed About Russian Interference Two Weeks Before He Became President
NY Times: Two weeks before his inauguration, Donald J. Trump was shown highly classified intelligence indicating that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had personally ordered complex cyberattacks to sway the 2016 American election. The evidence included texts and emails from Russian military officers and information gleaned from a top-secret source close to Mr. Putin, who had described to the … Read More
More Cleanup On Aisle Trump
Yesterday, the day after Trump’s unconvincing walkback of believing Putin over the US intelligence community, this happened at a press pool spray: The exact exchange that just occurred in the White House 👇 REPORTER: Is Russia still targeting the US, Mr. President? TRUMP: Thank you very much. No. (Shakes head) REPORTER: No? You don’t believe that to be the case? … Read More
The Spy Who Loved Me
This is some serious Cold War movie stuff: A Russian woman charged this week with serving as a foreign agent has been in regular contact with Russian intelligence, the Justice Department says, and she attempted to offer sex in exchange for a position with an organization she targeted. Prosecutors included that information in court documents as part of their request … Read More
Treason Summit Fallout
It’s been compared to Pearl Harbor and 9/11. These comparisons, to me, aren’t apt. For one thing, people died. More importantly, those tragedies weren’t self-inflicted. But the gravity of what Trump did has even surpassed his “both sides” comment of Charlottesville. Virtually every politician and pundit has condemned the disastrous press conference. “Treason” and “traitor” are on many lips, while … Read More
In Other News, The OTHER Trump-Russia Connection
This is getting almost no coverage (update: okay NOW it is), but there is breaking news on another front. The DOJ just announced the arrest of an unregistered Russian agent, Maria Butina. Right now, the only charge is that Ms. Butina was an unregistered foreign agent, but the FBI was investigating her on the belief that she worked at the … Read More