Uranium jerky: Angle on Ukraine (Part VII)

Back in the fall of 2020, I published a series of six articles* under the subject “Uranium Jerky” (explanation in the first article), taking note of the extraordinary connection of the events recounted in them to the Obama administration and – among other things – the high-profile Clinton-involved developments of the time, including the sale of Uranium One to the Russians.

One of those events was Goldman Sachs’s unique, remarkable decision, announced on 20 January 2009, that it would become a buyer of and dealer in physical uranium.  It proceeded to do so, and to this day has not shed that role, although the company began suggesting it would do so under congressional pressure at least seven years ago.

I’m still not sure most readers fully grasp the significance of a firm like Goldman Sachs, with little visibility or transparent exposure to observers of the uranium industry, owning and moving around thousands of tons of uranium.

Two pings on the new, “speaking” Durham filing in the Danchenko case

On 2 September 2022, Special Counsel John Durham entered a motion under seal in the federal case against Igor Danchenko – source for the Steele dossier – for making false statements to the FBI.

The motion, regarding admissibility of evidence, was filed under seal because it contained classified information.  The motion was unsealed 13 September with redactions in the Exhibits.  Margot Cleveland previewed earlier at The Federalist the presumption that if the motion were unsealed, we’d be able to discern the direction Durham is going to take the case.

In her view, especially based on Danchenko’s response to the new Durham filing, Durham will have to expose the Deep State’s operations if he wants to keep the case going.  Otherwise, the Danchenko defense will argue, with probable success, that his false statements were immaterial, because they didn’t affect the FBI’s, or DOJ’s or Robert Mueller’s, follow-on choices about investigation of the original matter.

The Durham motion goes directly to that point,

Mar-a-Lago affidavit: Russiagate rides again

The affidavit behind the warrant for the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago is out, sort of, and it appears to fulfill expectations.  The statute citations are absurd, the prior cooperation of former President Trump with federal agencies is clear, a huge question remains unanswered, and the issue of declassification is dealt with in a series of rimshots that never land in a pocket (which alone should have been a red flag to magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart).

And that’s just the part we can see.  The real question – not really a question, I think – is what’s invisible behind the massive redactions.

I say it’s not really a question, because one thing it has to be is excuses for the statute citations, which include language implying Trump is suspected of conspiring to hand sensitive national defense material to unauthorized persons, and has unknown confederates in such an enterprise.

TOC Ready Room 24 August 2022: Notes on the Boxes of Mar-a-Lago; the end of an old order continues

The big news from the last 48 hours is that the Biden White House actually did know in advance of the Mar-a-Lago raid, and in fact had been involved in the issue of the documents held at Mar-a-Lago since at least April of 2022 (and probably earlier).  So the original claim that the Biden White House didn’t know about it was false.

That point has been gone over vigorously since it came out Monday night.  But the latest information on the Mar-a-Lago/classified information dust-up also confirms my previous discussion of the classification issue (and here).

In addition to that discussion, I offer as preparation an excellent 7-odd minutes with Megyn Kelly and former CIA officer Bryan Dean Wright, which packages a pretty comprehensive overview of the things that matter.

Pinglet on new theme that Trump was “hoarding documents” about Russiagate

It’s not that we didn’t already know that this, in essence, is what the raid on Mar-a-Lago was about.  It was virtually certain from the beginning that the Justice Department’s purpose has been to verify what Trump is holding that could expose more about the Obama administration’s conduct as part of Russiagate and Spygate.  (For earlier posts on this topic, see here, here, here, and here.  Most recent post first.)

So Newsweek might be said to be catching the mainstream media up to reality.

But Newsweek’s exclusive new report on the matter, attributed to “sources,” spins harder than a washing machine at the end of its cycle.  It describes former President Trump, for example, as “hoarding” materials “for years,” where it could have said something with more journalistic integrity like “saved materials during his term in office.”  The latter sounds normal – which it is;