RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
January 16 to January 22, 2022

Featured Investigation:
Durham vs. Horowitz: Tension
Over Truth and Consequences
Grips FBI's Trump-Russia Reckoning

As he exposes the role of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in false allegations about Trump-Russia collusion, Special Counsel John Durham is sharply challenging FBI apologists who claim dubious vindication from an inspector general’s finding that the bureau’s probe was launched in good faith, Aaron Maté reports for RealClearInvestigations.

The outcome of the clash could determine the completeness – or not – of the official reckoning within the U.S. government over the Russiagate scandal, in which the Democrat-run government, at the behest of the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign, spied on the presidential campaign of the opposition. Maté reports:

• Durham has signaled a less forgiving approach than has Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general who found that the Trump-Russia probe was properly “predicated.”
• There is much evidence that it was improper: Christopher Steele’s Clinton-funded opposition research played a much greater role in the probe than the FBI has acknowledged.
• Numerous officials received Steele's allegations long before Sept. 19, 2016, when, the FBI claims, its Crossfire Hurricane team first got ahold of the dossier.
• The FBI’s own records undercut its claims that it decided to launch the Russia probe on a vague tip from an Australian diplomat recounting a London barroom conversation.
• Given how hard the FBI and its allies have fought to shield its conduct from scrutiny, Durham's probe could become a major political flashpoint as it reaches its final months and homes in on its final targets.

Biden, Trump and the Beltway

Mueller Figure Guilty of Secreting UAE Money to Hillary
Washington Examiner

The Department of Justice did in fact find a well-financed campaign by a foreign government to influence the 2016 election – but it involved Hillary Clinton and the United Arab Emirates. This article reports that George Nader, a key witness in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and a convicted child sex predator, quietly pleaded guilty last year to involvement in an illegal campaign finance scheme funneling millions of dollars from the United Arab Emirates into Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. It was known publicly that Nader, a Lebanese American lobbyist, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in June 2020 after pleading guilty to bringing an underage teenage boy to the United States for sex. But the illegal foreign donation scheme appears to have been hushed up. This article also suggests that Mueller may have got things backward:

Nader was mentioned more than 100 times in Mueller’s 448-page report on the Russia investigation, and he was interviewed by the special counsel team multiple times, including about possible efforts from the United Arab Emirates to influence members of Trump's campaign.

For Oath Keepers and Founder, Jan. 6 Was Weeks in the Making
Associated Press

What evidence convinced the Department of Justice to take the extraordinary step of indicting 11 members of the Oath Keepers of seditious conspiracy in connection with the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol? What proof does the government possess that they conspired “to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States"? This article is sympathetic to the government’s case, but some may find the proof wanting. Here is the meat of the evidence that prosecutors provided to the AP:

The Oath Keepers worked as if they were going to war, discussing weapons and training. Days before the attack on the Capitol, one defendant suggested in a text message getting a boat to ferry weapons across the Potomac River to their “waiting arms,” prosecutors say.

On Dec. 14, 2020, as the electors in the states cast their votes, [leader Stewart] Rhodes published a letter on the Oath Keepers’ website “advocating for the use of force to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power,” according to the documents. As that transition in Washington drew close, Oath Keepers spoke of an arsenal they would keep just a few minutes away and grab if needed. Rhodes is accused of spending $15,500 on firearms and related equipment including a shotgun, AR-15, mounts, triggers, scopes and magazines, prosecutors said.

The Oath Keepers worked as if they were going to war, discussing weapons and training. Days before the attack on the Capitol, one defendant suggested in a text message getting a boat to ferry weapons across the Potomac River to their “waiting arms,” prosecutors say.

On Dec. 14, 2020, as the electors in the states cast their votes, Rhodes published a letter on the Oath Keepers’ website “advocating for the use of force to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power,” according to the documents.

As that transition in Washington drew close, Oath Keepers spoke of an arsenal they would keep just a few minutes away and grab if needed. Rhodes is accused of spending $15,500 on firearms and related equipment including a shotgun, AR-15, mounts, triggers, scopes and magazines, prosecutors said.

“All I see Trump doing is complaining,” Rhodes wrote, according to prosecutors. “I see no attempt by him to do anything. So the patriots are taking it in their own hands. They’ve had enough.”

What the article does not report is whether the Oath Keepers had a plan to storm the Capitol or overthrow the government. It does not say that the group members were carrying weapons on Jan. 6 or tried to gather arms sometime during the day.  It does claim, without detail, that one member of the group “hunted” for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Other Biden, Trump and the Beltway

NY: AG Outlines Possible Fraud at Trump Business New York Times
Nancy Pelosi's Son Tied to 5 Firms Probed by the Feds Daily Mail
Epstein Took 8 Women to Clinton White House Daily Mail
DHS Ignored Messages Before Jan. 6 Politico
Flynn GOP Arm-Twisting Plan for '20 Vote Audits Alleged Guardian
Mueller Figure Guilty of Secreting UAE Money to Hillary Washington Examiner
If Winners in Nov., GOP Coming for Hunter Reuters

Other Noteworthy Articles and Series

Declassified: Video of the Botched Afghan Drone Strike
New York Times

Surveillance footage obtained by the Times through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit documents the final minutes and aftermath of a botched drone strike in Kabul last August, when the American military mistakenly killed 10 innocent people — including seven children — in a tragic blunder that punctuated the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan. This article reports that the Aug. 29 strike unfolded three days after a suicide bomber claimed by an arm of ISIS had carried out the attack at the airport’s Abbey Gate that killed 183 people, including 13 Americans. As American leaders faced pressure to show strength in response to the chaos, U.S. personnel ...

... tracked the driver of a white Toyota Corolla for about eight hours before targeting him in the mistaken belief that he was an ISIS-K member moving bombs. But the man was instead Zemari Ahmadi, a worker employed by Nutrition and Education International, a California-based aid organization. … In the first days after the strike, the military also described a secondary explosion [seen in the video attached to this article] that it insisted supported the suspicion the car contained a bomb but later said was probably instead a propane tank…. In November, the Air Force’s inspector general, Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said, released findings of his investigation, which found no violations of law and did not recommend any disciplinary action. (The military later said no one involved would be punished.) The general blamed “confirmation bias” for warping operators’ interpretation of what they were seeing.

California: Rail Thefts Leave Tracks Littered With Pilfered Packages
Los Angeles Times

Train robberies are making a comeback in southern California. Union Pacific, for example, reported what it claimed was a 160% increase since December 2020 in thefts along the railroad tracks in Los Angeles County where the homeless congregate. The company estimates that about 90 cargo containers a day are compromised, sometimes by an organized group that has halted trains and recruited people living on the street to ransack the containers. Los Angeles Police Capt. German Hurtado says the railroad is partly to blame because it doesn’t provide enough security. “We have millions of dollars of items and equipment, but it is unpoliced,” Hurtado said. “There are even sometimes weapons on these trains. Everything goes by train, you learn.” After describing a recent derailment that left “a blizzard of torn plastic wrappers, cardboard boxes and paper packaging,” this article reports:

Along the tracks Saturday, a couple who said they showed up after seeing an Instagram post scanned the crush of abandoned cartons looking for something valuable. An Xbox package had caught their eye. Another man who had been waiting for a bus stopped to rummage through the debris. He found some car speakers he figured he could sell for $200 to make up for the hours he missed at work that day.

“It’s ugly out there,” the LAPD’s Hurtado said.

Did Texas Ranger Coax Guilt Out of the Innocent?
Marshall Project

The mind, especially when it is under stress, can be prone to suggestion. This article argues that a former Texas Ranger famous for solving cold cases – James Holland, whom the Los Angeles: Times has dubbed “the serial killer whisperer” – may have exploited this psychological weakness to get people to confess to crimes they may not have committed:

One of Holland’s key tactics — lying to suspects — remains common and protected by the courts. But in the search for Bobbie Sue Hill’s killer, the Ranger also used more contested methods, including hypnosis and hypothetical narrations of the crime. Altogether, his tactics demonstrate how far a detective can go without breaking the law, and how easy it is for the legal system to rely on a questionable confession. Even after years of high-profile exonerations, academic research on why innocent people are convicted, and attempts by judges and lawmakers to fix the problems, detectives continue to use techniques that are known to produce false confessions.

Excerpt: Action Star Gina Carano vs. Cancel Culture
"Virtue Bombs" by Christian Toto

In his new book “Virtue Bombs,” film critic and RealClearInvestigations contributor Christian Toto writes that Hollywood’s dream factory is a woke nightmare for dissenters from its prevailing politics. But not everyone gives in. Gina Carano – who had a budding Mixed Martial Arts career before becoming an action star in TV and film – fought back when forces in Hollywood and the media tried to cancel her for uttering conservative views. Toto reports in an excerpt from his book:

Carano shared tweets that questioned the pandemic lockdowns and mask mania. She also pleaded for more voter security, arguing the public would have a greater trust in the electoral process if safeguards like Voter ID were employed.

Insane. Crazed. Out of control. Or, to a sober-eyed observer, reasonable arguments that put her gently to the right of center. 

The crooked media quickly went to work, bending her social media musings to fit its agenda. 

That means a tweet asking for better election security was akin to saying President Trump crushed Joe Biden before the Democrats stole the election. 

Worst of all, she poked back at those demanding we all add our personal pronouns to our Twitter bios. Carano did as told, except her pronouns read, “Beep/bop/boop.” …

She didn’t bow to the woke gangsters. Instead, she oh, so gently told them to take a hike. 

A publicist insisted she put out an apology, but she did it her way. “Can I just do my own research?” she told them.

That wasn’t good enough.

“I don’t have any hate in my heart for anyone.... I stepped on a land mine,” she later told Ben Shapiro.

Meanwhile, Lucasfilm employees were savaging Carano on social media without repercussions. The company wanted her to go on a Zoom call with forty-odd colleagues, some of the same folks saying awful things about her on Twitter. 

She refused. 

Coronavirus Investigations

Why Are States Sitting on Zillions in Unspent Covid Aid?
Daily Beast

As much as $800 billion of the roughly $6 trillion that has been approved by Congress in the last two years for the pandemic is currently unspent. This article reports that the biggest chunk of that total, by far, comes from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which was passed in March 2021 – and which many critics called unnecessary in a recovering economy.

That legislation included billions of dollars to directly counter the virus through vaccine distribution and testing. But the majority of the cash went toward broader relief measures like state and local government aid, renters’ assistance, and support for K-12 schools. Nearly a year after that legislation passed, however, the vast majority of the almost $200 billion allocated to K-12 schools has not been spent. The same goes for half of the $195 billion sent out to state governments. And most city and county governments have not spent much of the $130 billion they collectively received, either.

Admininistration Moves to Track Vax Objectors
Daily Signal

At least 19 total federal agencies – including five cabinet level agencies – have created or proposed to create list of employees who have requested a religious-exemption from vaccine mandates. As the nation’s largest employer, with over four million civilian and military employees, the federal government has received tens of thousands of such requests. The article provides a good overview of what information the government will collect and share:

The agencies plan to collect religious affiliation, the reasons and support given for religious accommodation requests, names, contact information, date of birth, aliases, home address, contact information, and other identifying information. These lists will be shared between federal agencies.

But, it reports, it is not clear why it is taking the action.

The notices do not explain how long they plan on storing this data, why they need to share it between agencies, or why they need to keep it beyond the decision to grant or deny an employee’s religious accommodation request.