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Democrat Hobbs leads Republican Lake for Arizona governor

PHOENIX (AP) — Democrat Katie Hobbs led Republican Kari Lake in the race for Arizona governor, but the battle for control of the crucial battleground state was too early to call.

Lake, a former television news anchor, says she would not have certified the state’s 2020 election results. Her television-ready demeanor, confrontations with journalists and combative message for Democrats made the first-time candidate a rising star on the right whose future in national politics is already being debated.

Hobbs, Arizona’s secretary of state, rose to prominence defending the integrity of President Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona, where he eked out the smallest margin of any state he won two years ago.

The results will be a window into the pulse of the electorate in Arizona, a longtime Republican stronghold that turned toward Democrats during the Trump era. They’ll provide insight into whether Biden’s success here in 2020 was a onetime event or the onset of a long-term shift away from the GOP.

Republicans nominated for statewide offices a slate of Trump-endorsed candidates who have promoted falsehoods about the 2020 election as a centerpiece of their campaigns. All trailed their Democratic rivals in initial election returns, which reflected mail ballots received ahead of the election. Those margins were expected to diminish as more ballots were counted.

Democrat Hobbs defends decision not to debate GOP’s Lake in tight Arizona gubernatorial race

By Shawna Mizelle, CNN
Updated 11:20 AM EDT, Wed November 2, 2022

Washington
CNN
—
Arizona Democratic gubernatorial nominee Katie Hobbs on Wednesday continued to defend her decision to not debate her Republican opponent, Kari Lake, despite polls showing a close race and criticism from some Democratic allies.

“You know, not only is Kari Lake – has she centered her entire platform around this election denialism, I didn’t want to give her a bigger stage to do that,” Hobbs, a Democrat, told “CNN This Morning.” “She has shown that she’s not interested in any kind of substantive conversation, she’s only interested in creating a spectacle.”

It’s a stance Hobbs has stood by throughout the closing days of the campaign – she told CNN’s Dana Bash last month that such an event wouldn’t move voters – but it has provided an opening for Lake, a Donald Trump acolyte whose campaign has labeled Hobbs a “coward” for refusing to take the stage with her.

Michael
Writes Michael’s Newsletter

Nov 9

The US is ruled by a supernational, parasitic elite dressed in blue and red to accommodate our political colorblindness. Consequently, a republican majority will likely amount to very little. Giving lip service is one thing. Making potentially career ending or even life-threatening choices by adhering to your principles is quite another.

Yet, the idea that somehow a nation that overwhelmingly disapproves or is even angry with the way things are going (73% according to CNN exit polls), failed to produce the fabled red wave and overturn most incumbent representatives, senators and governors, seems utterly absurd to me.

Even if we were to leave aside the chicanery that likely took place all over the country for a moment, Fetterman’s win over Oz in PA is a very telling example of a constitutional republic in a state of decay.

It is the most jarring illustration of fixation on identity politics and the party line by an alarmingly large number of people, to whom even the most basic qualifications of a candidate, such as the ability to form a coherent sentence, seem largely irrelevant. It is a demoralizing middle finger but also a valuable lesson to the layperson, who still believes that voting for a red or blue puppet once every blood moon is the ultimate form of democratic expression; to anyone whose apathy and laziness make them susceptible to messianism and wishful thinking.

It’s way past time we realized that participating in a rigged system doesn’t make us morally superior. It makes us complicit to the crimes that are committed with our blessing and in our name.

The reimagining of our political system is both essential and long overdue.

BradK
Nov 9

"The reimagining of our political system is both essential and long overdue."

Agreed. But such reimagining requires perseverance, fortitude, and great dedication to ferreting out the truth from the constant onslaught of lies and propaganda. Far too many Americans -- and especially so the younger generations -- posses none of these qualities and have the attention spans of a house fly. Squirrel!

Sure, they will bitch and moan about the price of gas, rent (as they will likely never own a home) or a plate of avocado toast, but they will just as willingly conform to the herd and accept the current state of things. Call it Stockholm Syndrome if you like.

Further, these younger ones don't even know of an America with the prosperity, hope, freedom, and opportunity which older generations basked in. And apparently took for granted as we mourn their loss. For the young who have not experienced such things, they can never miss what they have never known and certainly cannot be counted on to help restore.

Michael
Writes Michael’s Newsletter
Nov 9

I dare not suggest that this is an easy endeavor. At the same time, this is not a time for pessimism or complacency.

We have been indoctrinated to the idea that politics is a taboo, that discussions political in nature are to be avoided at all costs, lest we end up in a fight and risk severing connections with friends and family. The most important step, in my opinion, is to stop avoiding the elephant in the room by forcing ourselves to try to reach out to people and get them to question the nature of politics in its current form. It requires a composed but calm approach. We need to be accepting but also persistent, unbiased but also honest about our own shortcomings. A successful engagement requires patience and maybe a bit of finesse.

I do believe that as long as we make it a habit to reach out to people and try our best to make just one of them to wake up, our numbers will increase exponentially.

bongoben
9 hr ago

The enemy is purely political and they're happy to force their political views down your throat at every opportunity. Politics isn't a taboo.

Michael
Writes Michael’s Newsletter
8 hr ago

I agree with you that our enemy is indeed purely political. I'm also certainly not blind to their constant attempts at indoctrination and propaganda, almost always political in nature.

But maybe we have different life experiences. In my circle of family and friends at least, I'm being constantly confronted by many for trying to steer the conversation to politics: "why did you have to bring up politics, we were having a nice time", "no politics at the dinner table" and so on. Sometimes even preemptively: "we'll go visit x but please leave politics at home". This has been for me a constant point of friction through all my adult life. Sadly it persists even today that things are demonstrably bad, and are getting worse by the hour. That's the taboo I'm referring to.

JuQu
Nov 9

I am old enough to have “basked” at least for a while. I am not able to blame this solely, or even especially, on the young. So many of my generation, boomers, especially women, don’t mind at all the loss of freedom and opportunity, not even for their children. I hate to be a downer but I see only one glimmer of hope at the moment. It appears that the folks in Florida recognized competent leadership. If that is so, we can begin there. Begin to cite that victory to folks in discussion. See if they can understand the differences between competence and incompetence. See if they care. Many do not.

the absolute red rout in florida is telling. districts that NEVER go red went red because there was a leader. there was a vision. and there was a brave guy who stood tall and faced down the whole rest of the country and the federal government along with it to protect the rights of floridians.

there was confidence, swagger, and stature.

there was character.

and the people fricking love him for it. he flipped the “straight tickets” past crimson and into outright ruby and everyone got to come along, house, senate, and dogcatcher. he barely squeaked into office the first time in a seriously purple state but showed what he has and put up a crushing 20% win this time to the point where folks are saying “i think FL is red now.”

personally, i am less sure. maybe. maybe not. perhaps florida is not so much R as RDS because, at the end of the day, people follow teams and tribes and thus parties, but parties are led by people and who those people are matters and so too does their vision.

Judge invalidates Paterson, NJ, city council election after allegations of mail-in voter fraud

Anna Sturla
Published 8:40 PM EDT, Thu August 20, 2020

A New Jersey judge invalidated a city council election and ordered a new one after allegations of voter fraud, according to a ruling issued Wednesday.

The May 12 election for Paterson’s Third Ward city council was “rife with mail in vote procedural violations,” Judge Ernest Caposela said in his ruling, though he left the decision on whether there was voter fraud to the criminal courts.

...

Paterson’s mayor heralded the ruling.

“It was the right ruling. That past election was fraught with fraud,” Mayor Andre Sayegh told CNN. “The City will comply with the judge’s decision and we created the Mayor’s Election Awareness Team to preserve the value of the vote in Paterson.”

A Paterson councilman and the councilman-elect were among four people charged with criminal conduct involving mail-in ballots during the election, New Jersey’s Attorney General announced in late June.

Scott Salmon, attorney for incumbent Councilman William McKoy in the case, told CNN his client was “thrilled” by the ruling.

“That’s the cost of democracy. We’d rather get it right, do it twice, than not get it right,” Salmon said.

The attorney for the councilman-elect agreed.

...

“The Attorney General has charged four individuals in Paterson, NJ—including one sitting city council member and one candidate for city council who nominally won his race—on charges arising from a scheme to collect and illegally mail in hundreds of absentee ballots in that election. That scheme led to a crisis in Paterson, requiring that the city hold another election between the indicted candidate and his opponent because it is impossible to determine just how many fraudulent ballots were cast,” the Trump campaign and Republican Party wrote challenging New Jersey leaders.

“It was a local election in Paterson. Some guys tried to screw with the system,” Murphy said on MSNBC Thursday. “I view it as a really positive data point. They got caught.”

...
many seem wont to blame election hijinks but i suspect this is more red herring than grand fishy proximate cause and that while i’m sure there was (as ever) skullduggery i suspect it’s likely not the widely dipositive issue so many seem to argue it to be.

we can debate how mail-in ballots changed the nature of elections, and there is obviously a discussion to be had.

and there is no question these changes have favored dems over GOP or that they were chosen to do so, but that’s not automatically the same as cheating or fraud. slanting the electoral laws is a time-honored tradition as old as the athenian agora. this is hardly new news.

is there cheating? of course. always has been. was it enough to swing elections? who knows? maybe a few, probably not this many. (though the fact that the question is so utterly unanswered and systems are so opaque is in and of itself a real issue) but at the end of the day, that’s the playing field...

this has always been an arms race.

and you ignore it at peril.

we can put forward solutions, or we can barrack for in person only paper voting with purple finger ink and the whole 9 yards, but we’re all probably unlikely to get it.

because that’s not what the people who run elections want.

clearly, 90% of the purported rationales for “why we need to do it this way” are obvious sham, but do me a favor and wake me up when THAT becomes prohibitive in government.

of course it’s dishonest, it’s government.

but like it or no, we live in the real.

election rules are like the tax code. it’s complex, ever changing, and basically unparse-able and that is a feature, not a bug. it’s purposeful design.

the whole point is for amazon to be able to figure out the quintuple-irish reverse-domicile invert and pay no tax while you get grilled by the IRS for missing $7.29 in interest received on a money market account.

however manipulative it may be, gaming the rules is not the same as cheating and it’s not illegal. just like taxes, that’s just politics. there is avoidance and there is evasion. the line is gray and gets hashed out in semi-competent court.

US elections are basically calvinball.

the whole process is to make up the rules as you go.

(and pretending to have just noticed this is just one more tactic in the game)



it might be nasty and counter to the spirit of the intended idea of free and fair elections but this has always been the game in registration, access, bussing, gerrymandering, dead people voting, ballot stuffing, and 40 other things they’ve probably never even let the public hear the names of.

the original joke about “i’m glad my grandfather didn’t live to see this, he’d never have voted democrat when he was alive!” probably dates back to the sven snorinson faction of the vinlander party from the daneland thing of 1123.

that’s elections for you and america’s are more bizarre and baroque than most. changing them would be a great idea and solve a lot of problems, but does the will exist among the states and counties whose purview this is to do so?

i have real doubts.

@JenniferSey

The fact is— it wasn’t a gamble.

@GovRonDeSantis looked at the data and made the right call. It wasn’t dumb luck. It was informed by data & science rather than panic and fear. He viewed health more broadly - not just through lens of one disease.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ff/672063/

DeSantis’s COVID Gamble Paid Off
Florida’s governor turned his coronavirus policies into a parable of American freedom.

By Helen Lewis

@TEAM_CAPSLOCK
·
Replying to @gnocchiwizard

With Covid somewhat in the rear view (though still lurking below the surface), it’s astounding to see ppl downplay R.DeSantis’ response.

National media pounded him for weeks for not closing the beaches during spring break, until he became the least popular gov in the country.

@gnocchiwizard
·
Replying to @TEAM_CAPSLOCK

national media pounded him for an entire year after he decided to open the state up and all these professional propaganda experts in media sat on their hands because they were still being safe (living zoom life until pfizer released their miracle juice)

@TEAM_CAPSLOCK
·
Replying to @gnocchiwizard

Perhaps I’m too narrowly focused, but the most pressing issue for me is governments using emergencies as a pretext to deprive citizens of rights while amassing wealth and power for themselves. It seems to be a worldwide phenomenon. And I want a leader who will fight against it.

@gnocchiwizard
·
Replying to @TEAM_CAPSLOCK

it's a complete transformation of the relationship between government and the governed, where once inalienable rights become contingent on the ABSENCE of an emergency, and the emergency can be anything government says it is, including a seasonal respiratory virus.

...it drives me up the wall that so many people consider it a niche concern. like no, the question is do people have basic rights or can those rights be revoked, without any due process or democratic check, for entire populations with the stroke of a pen?

Collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX had ties to Ukrainian government, WEF, and top Biden adviser

...

Within the span of a few days, FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried – known in the industry as “SBF” – lost nearly all of his $16 billion fortune in what Bloomberg called "one of history’s greatest-ever destructions of wealth."

On Friday, the Bahamas-based FTX was forced to file for bankruptcy after $473 million of its funds were stolen in a hack of the cryptocurrency exchange. Customers rushed to withdraw their funds, but it was too late.

...

Sam Bankman-Fried gives millions to the Democratic Party

Before his cryptocurrency exchange collapsed, Bankman-Fried was a major financier of the Democratic Party.

MarketWatch reported, "SBF contributed more than $5 million to Joe Biden and groups supporting him during his 2020 presidential campaign. He said he was motivated by Biden’s 'generic stability and decision-making process.'"

Bankman-Fried gave Democrats nearly $37 million in the 2021-2022 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets. SBF was the second-biggest individual donor to the Democrats, only to be surpassed by $128 million from George Soros.

In May, Bankman-Fried said he expected to donate "north of $100 million" to Democrats in the 2024 presidential election, but vowed to have a "soft ceiling" of political spending of $1 billion if former President Donald Trump ran again.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that Bankman-Fried met with top Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti on April 22 and May 12, according to White House visitor logs.

Gabe Bankman-Fried – SBF's brother who handles the billionaire's political operations – visited the White House on March 7, according to the outlet.

SBF largely funded the Democratic Protect Our Future PAC that only launched in May 2022. SBF's brother said the PAC was formed to "stop the next pandemic."

In May, Gabe Bankman-Fried said of the Protect Our Future PAC, "If this is a weird crypto play, I certainly have not been informed about it. I want to stop the next pandemic. That is really my one and only goal here... I think over time, people will realize that."

Bankman-Fried's mother is also a major fundraiser for Democrats

Bankman-Fried's mother, Barbara Fried, is a Stanford professor, and has "written extensively on questions of distributive justice, in the areas of tax policy, property theory, and political theory." She is also the co-founder of the Mind the Gap political action committee that was established in 2018 to help Democrats win elections.

Vox published a glowing article about Mind the Gap in January 2020 titled: "Inside the secretive Silicon Valley group that has funneled over $20 million to Democrats."

"What is also unusual is that Mind the Gap is led not by highly experienced political hands, but by academics with no professional backgrounds as fundraisers," the Vox article reads. "The group’s leaders are a pair of Stanford law professors: Barbara Fried, who has no apparent campaign experience, and Paul Brest, the former president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Graham Gottlieb, a Stanford fellow who served in junior roles for former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign and in his White House, is its executive director."

Vox notes, "Backers include people like Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, San Francisco power broker Ron Conway, and a coterie of major Democratic donors from across Silicon Valley, including fundraiser Amy Rao."

The FTX connection to the Ukrainian government and WEF

Curiously, the Ukrainian government launched a cryptocurrency donation website in March that was backed by FTX.

CoinDesk reported in March, "'Aid for Ukraine,' which has the backing of crypto exchange FTX, staking platform Everstake, and Ukraine’s Kuna exchange, will route donated crypto to the National Bank of Ukraine, Everstake’s Head of Growth Vlad Likhuta told CoinDesk. Ukraine’s crypto-savvy Ministry of Digital Transformation is also involved."

An Everstake press release stated, "Aid For Ukraine is cooperating with the cryptocurrency exchange FTX which converts crypto funds received into fiat and sends the donations to the National Bank of Ukraine. This marks the first-ever instance of a cryptocurrency exchange directly cooperating with a public financial entity to provide a conduit for crypto donations. Earlier this month, FTX already converted $1 million worth of SOL and transferred it to the National Bank of Ukraine."

Bankman-Fried said at the time:

At the onset of the conflict in Ukraine, FTX felt the need to provide assistance in any way it could. By working with the Ministry of Digital Transformation to set up payment rails and facilitate the conversion of crypto donations into fiat currency, we have given the National Bank of Ukraine the ability to deliver aid and resources to the people who need it most. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Sergey and the Everstake team as they continue to work tirelessly in helping Ukrainians as they suffer from this conflict.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) lists FTX as a partner, and provides a link to the exchange's website.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s fall cuts off big source of funds for US Democrats

FTX entrepreneur has emerged as the second-biggest donor to liberal groups after George Soros

Stefania Palma and Courtney Weaver in Washington, Caitlin Gilbert in New York
16 HOURS AGO

Sam Bankman-Fried stormed on to the US political scene with multimillion-dollar donations that led lawmakers, particularly Democrats, to believe he was ushering in the next generation of donors. But in a matter of days, his business empire collapsed into bankruptcy and the prospect of millions more in donations evaporated.

Before the fall of Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the entrepreneur had emerged as the second-largest donor to Democrats after George Soros. He had vowed to give up to $1bn to political candidates linked to causes he supported, a pledge from which he later backed away.

He also became one of the most prominent crypto representatives in Washington, supporting digital asset legislation and hiring former regulators as advisers.

Bradley Beychok, co-founder of the Democratic super political action committee (Pac) American Bridge 21st Century, said Bankman-Fried “came on the scene out of nowhere [and] became a large supporter of different causes and candidates very quickly,” adding that he had built an “organised campaign”.

But a liquidity crisis that has forced the 30-year-old’s $32bn business empire into bankruptcy has erased a potential pool of funds linked to a seemingly reliable player in an often volatile industry.

“Sam didn’t live up to his commitments,” said one Democratic lobbyist working in the crypto space. Bankman-Fried’s grand spending promises had been “more bluster than action”, the lobbyist added.

The entrepreneur was the second-largest donor to Democratic-leaning groups during the latest midterm elections, spending $36mn. Soros spent $126mn, but the Pac he supported with that large donation only spent about $15mn this cycle.

The majority of Bankman-Fried’s donations, about $27mn, went to the Protect Our Future Pac, which supported candidates that prioritised pandemic prevention, one of his interests. It endorsed 25 Democrats in congressional races this cycle, of which 18 have so far won their respective races. Chief among these were Virginia representative Abigail Spanberger and Florida representative-elect Maxwell Frost, who at 25 will be Congress’s first Generation Z member.

...

Marionumber1 » Thu Nov 10, 2022 11:07 pm wrote:I must say I'm immediately dubious of any commenter like Michael who claims to be above the partisan divide but then not-so-subtly states "It's a shame Republicans didn't win more". To be clear, I think every US election is inherently problematic because they're all based on unverifiable computer tallies.

Controlling Politics

If you're one of the billions of people whose instincts point toward a world of sophisticated election engineering, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

There is nothing illegal, of course, with spending millions of dollars during an election cycle. Unless that money isn't yours. But let's agree that this "ownership of the money" thing seems like a gray area for a whole lot of people who don't understand Cantillon-fueled currency theft.

Numerous others writing about the FTX scandal have explained what appears to be a money laundering operation through Ukraine. I'll try to repeat it in a simple way, then move on:

- POTUS Biden & Co. sent billions to Ukraine.

- Ukraine put vast sums in the hands of FTX

- SBF & Co. spent tens of millions on primarily Democratic candidates during the Midterm elections.

It is noteworthy that the "Aid for Ukraine" website apparently set up by SBF and reportedly took in $60 million in donations is last picked up by the Wayback machine ten days prior to the U.S. Midterm elections.

One thing that such a scheme generally secures is the willingness of everyone involved to defend everyone else. If one participant falls (legally speaking), they can take all their co-conspirators with them.

Again, others have written about how SBF was Biden's second-largest donor, the $70 million SBF & Co. spent on Democratic Party candidates during the 2020 Midterms and the billion dollars he planned to spend going forward, so I'm not going to lay all that out in detail.

Then money handed out like cheap Halloween candy was not entirely pushed to Democrats. A good strategy must also involve capturing enough of both sides of the aisle to push an agenda. Buying influence with a former Bush-era HHS bureaucrat fits a lot of Venn intersections.
...

Charles F. McGonigal was a counterintelligence agent in charge of the FBI's New York Field Office during the Trump administration. Today he stands accused of accepting over $225,000 from a foreign intelligence officer, laundering the money, violating sanctions against Russia, and lying about it. This is a breaking story with details constantly emerging. What we know so far is that McGonigal faces two indictments in two different districts. He faces a nine count indictment in the District of Columbia (see PDF link above map) charging him with violating three federal statutes against concealment of material facts (18 U.S.C. 1001(a)(1)), making false statements (18 U.S.C. 1001(a)(2)), and falsification of documents (18 U.S.C. 1519). He also faces a five count indictment in the Southern District of New York charging him with two violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, one count of money laundering, and one count of making false statements (https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press ... 6/download). McGonigal was arrested over the weekend and is currently incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn (MDC Brooklyn).

The video below and media accounts of this case accusing McGonigal of violating sanctions against Russia might puzzle people who've only read the press release from D.C so far because it makes no mention of the parallel case in New York. As a result, we initially thought the news fake because it was reporting charges of violating Russian sanctions while we were looking at a press release and indictment which didn't mention sanctions at all. That is why we initially reported with skepticism the allegations of Russian collusion. Turns out the government issued two different press releases the same day with neither one referencing the other. This would lead most people in our position to conclude that we had seen the indictment when in fact we had only seen one of the indictments. They don't do that often.

The D.C. indictment alleges that in 2017 McGonigal began colluding with a group of Albanian men including a former intelligence officer residing in New Jersey and an advisor to the Albanian Prime Minister. McGonigal is alleged to have done them several favors while traveling across Europe during that time, but he mysteriously appears to only be charged with lying about the money and failing to disclose his dealings with foreign nationals. The FBI's press release accuses McGonigal of "engaging in other conduct in his official capacity as an FBI Special Agent in Charge that he believed would benefit the businessperson financially" so we are surprised not to see any charges related to accepting bribes or engaging in official misconduct. It is really odd to see someone accused of so much charged with merely concealing or lying about what he is accused of. It makes one wonder why he didn't just fill out the forms accurately if he didn't have to worry about facing charges for admitting to accepting the money or reciprocating with favors.

The New York indictment alleges that McGonigal conspired with a man named Sergey Shestakov to violate sanctions imposed on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska following the 2014 annexation of Crimea. However, McGonigal is not accused of helping Deripaska circumvent sanctions until 2021 after he left the FBI. The other charges seem to stem from laundering money received as a result of violating the sanctions and lying about it (https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/fo ... -violating).

According to media reports, McGonigal was in charge of investigating allegation of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's campaign in 2016. None o f the charges appear related to that.

McGonigal was arrested over the weekend and faces several charges after the Department of Justice (DOJ) discovered that he allegedly aided Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in evading U.S. sanctions.

McGonigal, a former FBI agent, and court interpreter Sergey Shestakov also allegedly accepted payments from Deripaska after agreeing to investigate one of the oligarch's rivals. McGonigal and Shestakov were charged with money laundering, conspiring to violate and evade U.S. sanctions, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and conspiring to commit money laundering, according to the DOJ.

Gnomad » 24 Jan 2023 18:36 wrote:FBI agent of Trump era - when FBI "found no collusion with Russia" - now arrested for foreign collusion.
Hmmmm..

https://copblaster.com/blast/49948/trum ... -collusion

Charles F. McGonigal was a counterintelligence agent in charge of the FBI's New York Field Office during the Trump administration. Today he stands accused of accepting over $225,000 from a foreign intelligence officer, laundering the money, violating sanctions against Russia, and lying about it. This is a breaking story with details constantly emerging. What we know so far is that McGonigal faces two indictments in two different districts. He faces a nine count indictment in the District of Columbia (see PDF link above map) charging him with violating three federal statutes against concealment of material facts (18 U.S.C. 1001(a)(1)), making false statements (18 U.S.C. 1001(a)(2)), and falsification of documents (18 U.S.C. 1519). He also faces a five count indictment in the Southern District of New York charging him with two violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, one count of money laundering, and one count of making false statements (https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press ... 6/download). McGonigal was arrested over the weekend and is currently incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn (MDC Brooklyn).

The video below and media accounts of this case accusing McGonigal of violating sanctions against Russia might puzzle people who've only read the press release from D.C so far because it makes no mention of the parallel case in New York. As a result, we initially thought the news fake because it was reporting charges of violating Russian sanctions while we were looking at a press release and indictment which didn't mention sanctions at all. That is why we initially reported with skepticism the allegations of Russian collusion. Turns out the government issued two different press releases the same day with neither one referencing the other. This would lead most people in our position to conclude that we had seen the indictment when in fact we had only seen one of the indictments. They don't do that often.

The D.C. indictment alleges that in 2017 McGonigal began colluding with a group of Albanian men including a former intelligence officer residing in New Jersey and an advisor to the Albanian Prime Minister. McGonigal is alleged to have done them several favors while traveling across Europe during that time, but he mysteriously appears to only be charged with lying about the money and failing to disclose his dealings with foreign nationals. The FBI's press release accuses McGonigal of "engaging in other conduct in his official capacity as an FBI Special Agent in Charge that he believed would benefit the businessperson financially" so we are surprised not to see any charges related to accepting bribes or engaging in official misconduct. It is really odd to see someone accused of so much charged with merely concealing or lying about what he is accused of. It makes one wonder why he didn't just fill out the forms accurately if he didn't have to worry about facing charges for admitting to accepting the money or reciprocating with favors.

The New York indictment alleges that McGonigal conspired with a man named Sergey Shestakov to violate sanctions imposed on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska following the 2014 annexation of Crimea. However, McGonigal is not accused of helping Deripaska circumvent sanctions until 2021 after he left the FBI. The other charges seem to stem from laundering money received as a result of violating the sanctions and lying about it (https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/fo ... -violating).

According to media reports, McGonigal was in charge of investigating allegation of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's campaign in 2016. None o f the charges appear related to that.

https://www.newsweek.com/ex-cia-officer ... nt-1775899

McGonigal was arrested over the weekend and faces several charges after the Department of Justice (DOJ) discovered that he allegedly aided Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in evading U.S. sanctions.

McGonigal, a former FBI agent, and court interpreter Sergey Shestakov also allegedly accepted payments from Deripaska after agreeing to investigate one of the oligarch's rivals. McGonigal and Shestakov were charged with money laundering, conspiring to violate and evade U.S. sanctions, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and conspiring to commit money laundering, according to the DOJ.

“Jeb Bush’s full endorsement of Ron DeSantis“

https://twitter.com/Professor__Max/stat ... -ro%2Fc%2F (1:45)

“Uh, thanks, Jeb.” —Ron Desantis probably.