We’ve had more updates than new material recently, but that is about to change soon.
Today I thought I would recap a few things after picking up several hundred subscribers in the recent weeks to set the stage for what is to come.
Currently, I am in litigation against the US government in 2 lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act (I previously obtained documents under a third). Those have both been ongoing for awhile, and the government is nearing completion of their initial productions of records. A motion for discovery is ready to be filed (not commonly granted), and I’m ready to fight it out over any exemptions they claim. Most of the FOIA’s relate to the attribution of the DNC hack, something that 3 independent sources have informed me is dependent on some of the same names associated with the Alfa Bank scandal.
I am also in litigation against Manos Antonakakis (referred to as Researcher-1 by John Durham) under the Open Records laws of Georgia, a lawsuit now a year old. An important ruling in that case could come any day now (though I estimate it’s most likely to come in a few more weeks).
That was made possible by finds in my prior records requests finding Georgia Tech paid over $100,000 for Antonakakis’ legal fees, and the State of Georgia apparently paid over $500,000 for David Dagon’s fees for their roles in the Alfa Bank/other scandals. This meant the University viewed their highly political work as falling within their day-to-day responsibilities at the University and associated records are public records. Not bad for an amateur.
I am a journalist in a sense, certainly doing my best to get to the bottom of what I think is a massive scandal. I have been in the background on a number of published stories and we have broken some news ourselves. I am also just a guy on the internet.
When I started this, I had no training in journalism or FOIA, I certainly didn’t have any inside knowledge or connections at the time.
I started following a small group of guys on Twitter, who are still too often drowned out by Q-anon nutjobs. Their finds were brilliant. They have made numerous contributions that have found their way into the mainstream media without much credit. Often, it was just reading through declassified documents and constructing timelines that identified inconsistencies or new information. Some of us were interviewed by Matt Taibbi early last year if you’d like to check that out.
I slowly started contributing some of my time, and after awhile I delved a little deeper.
I eventually transitioned into submitting FOIA’s and Open Records requests, something that I felt could add value for the “corner”, although TechnoFog, Walkafyre, and FOIAFan certainly do a ton of work on FOIA too. I began obtaining thousands of pages of documents from state agencies in Georgia, many of which have been pretty interesting.
Last summer I started filing lawsuits and continued fighting for documents. I’m now at a point where I have spent tens of thousands of dollars in this fight, and I feel confident my efforts will be fruitful.
It’s not just Russiagate per se, we have picked up materials raising questions about the role of DARPA in criminal investigations, as well as the obtainment and use of commercial data by the US government. Case in point is the following email snagged by our friend @theanderspaul which we noted late last year:
We have thousands of pages of documents, not all of them are particularly interesting but I think Americans should read them all. They should ask questions about what our government is doing. Where is our fourth amendment? Would you rather be stopped and frisked or have the government go through all your data?
Are private companies really operating at arms-length with the government? Or is the government really just creating companies to offload tasks not within their mandates and with hefty contracts to boot?
So long as finds like this keep coming, I will continue poking people with a sharp stick.
One perk of things slowing down a bit for me personally has been the opportunity to relax a little. I was able to exercise, get outside this summer and it’s been great for me. I like to smoke cigars when I sleuth and my lungs are grateful for a reprieve. I had been burning the midnight oil for many months.
I anticipate having a very busy fall and winter.
Opportunities have always been around, from being involved in the initial stages of a major documentary at one point, to a potential Hannity appearance and more - I have turned down most of it. But…if I have to do some of that to get to our answers, I am prepared to.
I am also preparing to intervene in the case Mueller brought against the GRU operatives to seek a protective order over documents we are seeking, if needed.
It shouldn’t be this hard to get answers.
I saw a new piece from Paul Sperry today suggesting the classified annex from John Durham relates to more FISA abuse and reliance on false media stories to continue the charade against Carter Page.
It’s been nearly two years since the first source came to the sleuths suggesting a link between DNC hack attribution and some of the people associated with the Alfa Bank scandal. Is there anything in that classified annex about that? If so, why hasn’t that leaked?
Is the entirety of our media and our government truly this corrupt? It takes a no-name internet blogger to explore this, at his own expense?
The time has finally come, and we are going to look through the looking glass.