RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week

RealClearInvestigations'

Picks of the Week

September 14 to September 20

Featured Investigation:

Weaponized Scoops: New Russiagate Documents

Expose Media/Government Collusion

Paul Sperry reports for RealClearInvestigations that newly declassified FBI documents reveal how associates of former FBI Director James Comey and Rep. Adam Schiff allegedly leaked classified material to favored reporters in 2017. These leaks fueled the Trump-Russia “collusion” narrative, generating Pulitzer Prize–winning stories whose veracity has been challenged. The documents highlight deep entanglements between government officials and journalists, failed FBI leak probes, and what critics call “media collusion” to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency.

• The records suggest Schiff and his staff organized a “Russia team” to weaponize intelligence against Trump after the 2016 election. An FBI informant, later identified as longtime House Intelligence Committee staffer Robert Minehart, said Schiff authorized leaking classified information to reporters as part of a plan to smear Trump and drive impeachment. Staffers allegedly laundered leaks through spouses and intermediaries. Schiff has denied the charges.
• Reporters Ellen Nakashima (Washington Post) and Michael Schmidt (New York Times) were central to advancing the collusion storyline, publishing stories citing anonymous “senior administration officials.” Nakashima received scoops on the Carter Page FISA warrant and alleged Russian interference, despite contradictory evidence. Schmidt allegedly received Comey’s memos through Columbia law professor Daniel Richman, a close Comey ally. Critics say their reporting relied heavily on partisan sources and misleading leaks.
• FBI investigations into at least seven major leaks during 2017 targeted Schiff, Rep. Eric Swalwell, dozens of Hill staffers, and high-ranking officials. Yet none led to prosecutions. Investigators limited subpoenas, failed to retrieve encrypted messages, and deferred to congressional immunity claims, which undermined their efforts. Some suspected leakers, including Schiff’s staff director Michael Bahar, were never fully investigated.
• The documents also expose the close personal ties between officials and journalists, including marriages and friendships that blurred professional lines. Critics argue this incestuous culture allowed damaging falsehoods to spread unchecked. Former reporters say the press has refused to revisit its Russiagate coverage, protecting both sources and its own credibility even as evidence of political manipulation mounts.

Waste of the Day

by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books

Staten Island Ferry Makes Millionaires, RCI

Exaggerated Medicare Diagnoses, RCI

Veterans’ Hospital Equipment Is Missing, RCI

 Throwback Thursday: Pakistan’s Pump Failure, RCI

NY Contracts Are Intentionally Expensive, RCI

Trump 2.0 and the Beltway

FBI Probing If Others Knew of Kirk Assassination Plan, Washington Free Beacon

Charlie Kirk's Murder Tests Free Speech, AP

Inside Disney’s Abrupt Decision to Suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s Show, Wall Street Journal

Deep State Is Proving To Be Worthy Foe for Trump, Politico

James Comey Confidant Subpoenaed in Probe, ABC

Comey's Daughter Sues Trump Over Her Firing, NBC News

Biden’s FBI Targeted Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, PJ Media

Biden’s Progressive Infrastructure Boondoggle, City Journal

Joe Biden Is Struggling to Cash in on His Presidency, Wall Street Journal

Other Noteworthy Articles and Series

Toxic Fumes Leaking into Planes, Sickening Crews & Passengers 

Wall Street Journal

This article reports that thousands of so-called “fume events” have been reported to the Federal Aviation Administration since 2010, in which toxic fumes from a jet’s engines leak unfiltered into the cockpit or cabin. The leaks occur due to a design element in which air you breathe on an aircraft is pulled through the engine. The system, known as “bleed air,” has been featured in almost every modern commercial jetliner except Boeing’s 787. The rate of incidents has accelerated in recent years, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found, driven in large part by leaks on Airbus’s bestselling A320 family of jets.

The Journal’s reporting – based on a review of more than one million FAA and National Aeronautics and Space Administration reports, thousands of pages of documents and research papers and more than 100 interviews – shows that aircraft manufacturers and their airline customers have played down health risks, successfully lobbied against safety measures, and made cost-saving changes that increased the risks to crew and passengers.

The fumes – sometimes described as smelling of “wet dog,” “Cheetos” or “nail polish” – have led to emergency landings, sickened passengers and affected pilots’ vision and reaction times midflight, according to official reports. Most odors in aircraft aren’t toxic, and neither are all vapors. The effects are often fleeting, mild or present no symptoms. But they can also be longer-lasting and severe, according to doctors, medical records and affected crew members.

This article reports that manufacturers, regulators and airlines have said these types of incidents are too infrequent, levels of contamination too low and scientific research on lasting health risks too inconclusive to warrant a comprehensive fix. In some cases, they have attributed reported health-effects from fume exposure to factors including hyperventilation, jet lag, psychological stress, mass hysteria and malingering.

On the Front Lines with Ukraine’s Most Lethal Soldiers 

Ken Harbaugh, Atlantic

On June 1, reporter Ken Harbaugh joined the drone operators of Ukraine’s 34th Coastal Defense Brigade during “one of the most intense days of Russia’s invasion, to see firsthand how they are remaking drone warfare.” Ukraine’s drone units, he writes,

have pioneered one of the most consequential innovations in modern warfare. It has nothing to do with materials science or weapons design. Rather, it is a new approach to killing: Ukraine has gamified war, awarding points to pilots who eliminate certain targets. An online portal updates the point values for killing infantry, destroying artillery, or neutralizing any manner of battlefield asset. On any given day, military intelligence might determine that rocket launchers pose a special threat, in which case they could be worth the most points. Today, the value of a special-forces soldier, such as the ones speeding toward us, is especially high. Points mainly confer bragging rights, but pilots can also exchange them for items that make life at the front more bearable. … The two Russian special-forces operators deposited on Ukraine’s side of the Dnieper had no idea how little their lives were worth. Later that day, their deaths would be delivered by a cheap drone, composed of printed parts, assembled a few hours earlier, and equipped with a one-kilogram explosive charge surrounded by bits of scrap metal. On a shelf next to me, between the smoke grenades and coffee creamer, sat a 20-pound bag of rusty bolts waiting to be packed around the next day’s warheads.

Harbaugh reports that in 20 hours the brigade launched 12 suicide drones and killed at least one Russian – likely more. “One kill a day might seem insignificant. But that rate, repeated over and over by drone units across the front, has transformed the war. … In previous conflicts, a kill count that large from a unit this small would have been extraordinary; for drone warfare, it’s merely good.”

Gun Owners Turning to Self-Defense Insurance 

New Yorker

This article reports that the proliferation of firearms and stand your ground laws has led millions of gun owners to seek a new type of protection: self-defense insurance. Subscribers pay a monthly fee in order to have access to low-cost or no-cost legal representation from attorneys who are well versed in firearms law.

“Don’t Risk Being Unprepared,” the website for the United States Concealed Carry Association, which sells plans ranging from thirty-nine to fifty-nine dollars a month, warns. “If you don’t know what to say or do, or not to do after a self-defense incident, you could end up in the worst case scenario.” … Nowadays, ten or so companies offer legal-defense plans, which may also include crime-scene cleanup, private investigators, replacement of confiscated firearms, expert witness testimony, and psychological care. Some extend legal support to people whose guns have been seized under red-flag laws. Membership spikes during periods of uncertainty. The pandemic- and protest-related upheaval of 2020, which drove Americans to buy guns at an unprecedented rate, contributed to a [very, very large jump in membership].

This article reports while self-defense-insurance companies market primarily to gun enthusiasts, they are agnostic about a client’s means of self-protection. “Anytime you ever have to defend yourself with any legal weapon – dog, gun, baseball bat, car, doesn’t make any difference,” a U.S. Law Shield representative said at a recent presentation to potential customers. “We represented a lady one time, somebody broke into her house while she was cooking. She threw hot grease on him and hit him with a frying pan. That’s a legal weapon.” 

America Loves Cocaine Again - Cartels Cheer 

Wall Street Journal

In the whack-a-mole world of the war on drugs, this article reports that as the Trump administration clamps down fentanyl, cocaine is making a comeback.

Cocaine sold in the U.S. is cheaper and as pure as ever for retail buyers. Consumption in the western U.S. has increased 154% since 2019 and is up 19% during the same period in the eastern part of the country, according to the drug-testing company Millennium Health. In contrast, Fentanyl use in the U.S. began to drop in mid-2023 and has been declining since, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. … U.S. forces in the Caribbean recently blew up two speedboats, including one this week, that President Trump alleged were ferrying cocaine and fentanyl from Venezuela to the U.S. Fentanyl is largely produced in Mexico, and most cocaine ships through the Pacific.

This article reports that Colombia is producing record amounts of cocaine, and the volume of the drug arriving in the U.S. is driving down prices. Cocaine prices have fallen by nearly half to around $60 to $75 a gram compared with five years ago.

U.S. May Deport Man Who Raised 3 Marines with Citizen Wife 

Miriam Jordan, New York Times

Narciso Barranco snuck into the U.S. from Mexico three decades ago. In the years since, he reared three boys who have served in the Marines while supporting his family as a landscaper. His wife, step-mother to his children, is an American citizen. On June 21, the 48-year-old was stopped and arrested in a sweep near a Home Depot store in Tustin, California.

The arrest of Mr. Barranco, a Latino man doing a job that many other Latinos in California do, quickly became a rallying point for those who believe enforcement actions have gone too far. A slight man with a reserved demeanor, Mr. Barranco had built a life in the shadows, tending the lawns and flower beds of Southern California’s suburban homes and commercial properties. He had no criminal record.

This article provides a deeply sympathetic portrait of Barranco. Nevertheless, it illuminates some of the complexities of the immigration debate. “According to polls, Americans strongly agree that immigrants without legal status should be deported if they have been convicted of a violent crime. But support for Mr. Trump’s immigration sweeps begins to erode when people are asked about the much larger group of undocumented immigrants with no police record who have worked and raised families in the United States.