December 14, 2022 at 05:19PM Tucker Carlson Points Out “For Some Reason Twitter Seems to Need an Awful Lot of Spies”
Tucker Carlson nailed it last night when discussing the makeup of Twitter. It makes you wonder…
Last night Tucker Carlson made some brilliant, and yet obvious, observations about Twitter.
Tucker shared:
Let’s say you were trying to staff a social media site. Who would you hire? Well, obviously since this is a tech business, you would hire tech people – coders, software engineers to keep the place running.
Then you’d hire an administrative staff because you had to, some lawyers, a caterer, a flack or two, maybe an interior decorator if you wanted HQ to look good. But how many spies would you hire?
Well probably none. Spies have nothing to do with the mission of a social media company. They would not be needed. You wouldn’t hire any opera singers either.
Yet, for some reason Twitter seems to need an awful lot of spies. The upper ranks of Twitter, we now know, were absolutely loaded with people who once did info work for government agencies. At least 15 of these people and possibly many more.
Tucker asks some great questions. Why were Deep State actors even allowed on Twitter’s campus?
Tucker goes on to list some of the known Deep State actors at Twitter and then notes that a man was fired because he complained about foreign intervention at Twitter as well.
Yes. Exactly this. Yes. It’s not that DHS had a portal into Twitter, it’s that DHS took over the operation of Twitter and controlled every element of it. That’s also why profits and losses were never part of the viability equation. DHS controls Twitter operations,
Once you change your reference point and review the data from a different perspective, things make sense. DHS doesn’t operate on the backbone of Twitter, Twitter operates on the backbone of DHS. The information and content on Twitter exist, or not, by the permission and authority of the national security state, DHS.
Narratives can be enhanced or throttled. Public perceptions can be uplifted or deemphasized. Candidates can be boosted or dismissed. Control over the public conversation is not simply in the hands of Twitter executives, the platform content is shaped by the guiding hand of the controlling interest – the government.
A defense lawyer said Bankman-Fried planned to fight being sent to the US.
Counsel for SBF has requested bail be set at $250,000.
Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams called the case “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history” and said the investigation of the alleged scheme is “very much ongoing.”
Which may explain why presiding judge JoyAnn Ferguson-Pratt denied SBF’s bail application, highlighting his “risk of flight” and ordered the crypto executive to be held in custody at the Bahamas Department of Corrections until Feb. 8.
The case has been adjourned to the said date.
* * *
The US Securities and Exchange Commission said it will file charges against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday relating to violations of securities law, accusing him of “orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX” and seeking to ban him from the cryptocurrency industry.
“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler
The SEC has charged Bankman-Fried with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The SEC’s complaint seeks injunctions against future securities law violation that prohibits Bankman-Fried from participating in the issuance, purchase, offer, or sale of any securities except for his own personal account.
Here are some of the wildest accusations from the SEC’s 28-page filing:
SBF improperly diverted assets to his privately held crypto hedge fund:
Unbeknownst to those investors (and to FTX’s trading customers), Bankman-Friedwas orchestrating a massive, years-long fraud, diverting billions of dollars of the trading platform’s customer funds for his own personal benefit and to help grow his crypto empire.
Throughout this period, Bankman-Fried portrayed himself as a responsible leader of the crypto community. He touted the importance of regulation and accountability. He told the public, including investors, that FTX was both innovative and responsible. Customers around the world believed his lies, and sent billions of dollars to FTX, believing their assets were secure on the FTX trading platform. But from the start, Bankman-Fried improperly diverted customer assets to his privately-held crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC (“Alameda”), and then used those customer funds to make undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations.
Bankman-Fried then exempted his crypto hedge fund, Alameda, from risk mitigation procedures:
He told investors and prospective investors that FTX had top-notch, sophisticated automated risk measures in place to protect customer assets, that those assets were safe and secure, and that Alameda was just another platform customer with no special privileges. These statements were false and misleading. In truth, Bankman-Fried had exempted Alameda from the risk mitigation measures and had provided Alameda with significant special treatment on the FTX platform, including a virtually unlimited “line of credit” funded by the platform’s customers.
While he spent lavishly on office space and condominiums in The Bahamas, and sank billions of dollars of customer funds into speculative venture investments, Bankman-Fried’s house of cards began to crumble.
Here’s how he diverted funds:
Bankman-Fried diverted FTX customer funds to Alameda in essentially two ways: (1) by directing FTX customers to deposit fiat currency (e.g., U.S. Dollars) into bank accounts controlled by Alameda; and (2) by enabling Alameda to draw down from a virtually limitless “line of credit” at FTX, which was funded by FTX customer assets.
As a result, there was no meaningful distinction between FTX customer funds and Alameda’s own funds. Bankman-Fried thus gave Alameda carte blanche to use FTX customer assets for its own trading operations and for whatever other purposes Bankman-Fried saw fit.
SBF had a secret ‘[email protected] account with a negative $8 billion balance’:
Bankman-Fried directed FTX to have customers send funds to North Dimension in an effort to hide the fact that the funds were being sent to an account controlled by Alameda.
Alameda did not segregate these customer funds, but instead commingled them with its other assets, and used them indiscriminately to fund its trading operations and Bankman-Fried’s other ventures.
This multi-billion-dollar liability was reflected in an internal account in the FTX database that was not tied to Alameda but was instead called “[email protected].” Characterizing the amount of customer funds sent to Alameda as an internal FTX account had the effect of concealing Alameda’s liability in FTX’s internal systems.
In 2022, FTX began trying to separate Alameda’s portion of the liability in the “[email protected]” account from the portion that was attributable to FTX (i.e., to separate out customer deposits sent to Alameda-controlled bank accounts from deposits sent to FTX-controlled bank accounts). Alameda’s portion — which amounted to more than $8 billion in FTX customer assets that had been deposited into Alameda-controlled bank accounts — was initially moved to a different account in the FTX database.
However, because this change caused FTX’s internal systems to automatically charge Alameda interest on the more than $8 billion liability, Bankman-Fried directed that the Alameda liability be moved to an account that would not be charged interest. This account was associated with an individual that had no apparent connection to Alameda. As a result, this change had the effect of further concealing Alameda’s liability in FTX’s internal systems.
SBF has claimed in interviews he ‘wasn’t aware’ of how illiquid Alameda’s collateral had become, yet according to the SEC:
Bankman-Fried was well aware of the impact of Alameda’s positions on FTX’s risk profile. On or about October 12, 2022, for example, Bankman-Fried, in a series of tweets, analyzed the manipulation of a digital asset on an unrelated crypto platform. In explaining what occurred, Bankman-Fried distinguished between an asset’s “current price” and its “fair price,” and recognized that “large positions – especially in illiquid tokens – can have a lot of impact.”
Bankman-Fried asserted that FTX’s risk engine required customers to “fully collateralize a position” when the customer’s position is “large and illiquid enough.” But Bankman-Fried knew, or was reckless in not knowing, that by not mitigating for the impact of large and illiquid tokens posted as collateral by Alameda, FTX was engaging in precisely the same conduct, and creating the same risk, that he was warning against.
SEC charged Bankman-Fried for orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX). The regulatory body noted that the former CEO concealed his “diversion of FTX customers’ funds to crypto trading firm Alameda Research while raising more than $1.8 billion from investors.”
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
Plaintiff: SECURITIES AND ) EXCHANGE COMMISSION,
Defendant: SAMUEL BANKMAN-FRIED Plaintiff Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”), for its complaint against Defendant, Samuel Bankman-Fried (“Bankman-Fried”), alleges as follows:
SUMMARY
1. From at least May 2019 through November 2022, Bankman-Fried engaged in a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX Trading Ltd. (“FTX”), the crypto asset trading platform of which he was CEO and co-founder, at the same time that he was also defrauding the platform’s customers. Bankman-Fried raised more than $1.8 billion from investors, including U.S. investors, who bought an equity stake in FTX believing that FTX had appropriate controls and risk management measures. Unbeknownst to those investors (and to FTX’s trading customers), Bankman-Fried was orchestrating a massive, years-long fraud, diverting billions of dollars of the trading platform’s customer funds for his own personal benefit and to help grow his crypto empire.
2. Throughout this period, Bankman-Fried portrayed himself as a responsible leader of the crypto community. He touted the importance of regulation and accountability. He told the public, including investors, that FTX was both innovative and responsible. Customers around the world believed his lies, and sent billions of dollars to FTX, believing their assets were secure on the FTX trading platform. But from the start, Bankman-Fried improperly diverted customer assets to his privately-held crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC (“Alameda”), and then used those customer funds to make undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations.
3. Bankman-Fried hid all of this from FTX’s equity investors, including U.S. investors, from whom he sought to raise billions of dollars in additional funds. He repeatedly cast FTX as an innovative and conservative trailblazer in the crypto markets. He told investors and prospective investors that FTX had top-notch, sophisticated automated risk measures in place to protect customer assets, that those assets were safe and secure, and that Alameda was just another platform customer with no special privileges. These statements were false and misleading. In truth, Bankman-Fried had exempted Alameda from the risk mitigation measures and had provided Alameda with significant special treatment on the FTX platform, including a virtually unlimited “line of credit” funded by the platform’s customers.
4. While he spent lavishly on office space and condominiums in The Bahamas, and sank billions of dollars of customer funds into speculative venture investments, Bankman-Fried’s house of cards began to crumble. When prices of crypto assets plummeted in May 2022, Alameda’s lenders demanded repayment on billions of dollars of loans. Despite the fact that Alameda had, by this point, already taken billions of dollars of FTX customer assets, it was unable to satisfy its loan obligations. Bankman-Fried directed FTX to divert billions more in customer assets to Alameda to ensure that Alameda maintained its lending relationships, and that money could continue to flow in from lenders and other investors.
5. But Bankman-Fried did not stop there. Even as it was increasingly clear that Alameda and FTX could not make customers whole, Bankman-Fried continued to misappropriate FTX customer funds. Through the summer of 2022, he directed hundreds of millions more in FTX customer funds to Alameda, which he then used for additional venture investments and for “loans” to himself and other FTX executives. All the while, he continued to make misleading statements to investors about FTX’s financial condition and risk management. Even in November 2022, faced with billions of dollars in customer withdrawal demands that FTX could not fulfill, Bankman-Fried misled investors from whom he needed money to plug a multi-billion-dollar hole. His brazen, multi-year scheme finally came to an end when FTX, Alameda, and their tangled web of affiliated entities filed for bankruptcy on November 11, 2022.
The first thing to note in the rap sheet is the date, “From at least May 2019 . . .”, by which the SEC means FTX’s entire existence. It was around May 2019 that SBF bought the FTX.com domain and the first fundraising announcement didn’t drop until August of that year.
Additionally SEC Chair Gary Gensler, warned:
“The alleged fraud committed by Mr. Bankman-Fried is a clarion call to crypto platforms that they need to come into compliance with our laws.”
Grewal said the charges will be filed publicly “tomorrow” on Dec. 14 at the Southern District of New York.
December 13, 2022 at 04:25PM McConnell Trashes Trump: “Our Ability to Control the Primary Outcome Was Quite Limited in 2022 Because of Support of the Former President” (VIDEO)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday lashed out at President Trump and blamed 2022 losses on support of the former president.
Recall, Mitch McConnell held up funds for Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters and other solid MAGA candidates.
McConnell funded RINOs like Murkowski from Alaska and dissed Trump-endorsed candidates.
McConnell on Tuesday told reporters that the GOP didn’t do well in 2022 because of Trump.
Not a word about the brazen Democrat voter fraud and disenfranchisement in Maricopa County.
The GOP just needs more RINO/establishment candidates, according to McConnell.
“We ended up having a candidate quality test,” McConnell said. “Look at Arizona. Look at New Hampshire. And the challenging situation in Georgia as well.”
“Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in ‘22 because the support of the former president proved to be very decisive in these primaries. So my view was do the best you can with the cards you’re dealt. Now hopefully in the next cycle we’ll have quality candidates everywhere and a better outcome.”
VIDEO:
McConnell: “Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in 2022 because of the support of the former president. Hopefully in the next cycle, we’ll have quality candidates everywhere.” pic.twitter.com/ep0aatPWXl
December 13, 2022 at 06:51AM BREAKING: Police Violently Assault and Arrest Indigenous Protest Leader Sererê in Brazil – His Wife Begs Authorities for Assistance! Protesters Surround Police Station! – VIDEO
To our readers: The international corporate media refuses to report on the massive uprising of millions in Brazil against the fraudulent presidential elections held at the end of October. The globalist press has decided that Bolsonaro must go, just like they decided that President Donald Trump must go.
The people of Brazil disagree. MILLIONS of protesters have taken to the streets of every major city for over 40 straight days.
On Monday night Indigenous Brazilian protest leader Cacique Sererê was violently assaulted and then taken away by police. Sererê has been leading protests against the communist takeover of the country.
Keep your eyes on Brazil. Prayers for its people.
Indigenous Brazilian protest leader Sererê was arrested on Monday night at the Alvorada Palace in Brazilia.
The arrest took place after the communist Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes called for his arrest.
According to reports, Sererê was knocked out and dragged away by police officers.
• Xavante indigenous leader, Sererê, made a request for arrest against Alexandre de Moraes (STF) for abuse of authority. Sererê became a symbol of movements against president-elect Lula (PT);
• On tonight (December 12, 2022), Sererê was approached by the police, physically attacked and taken unconscious to the Federal Police bulding;
• Protesters mobilized en masse to stand in front of the building and are revolting against the aggression and arrest of the indigenous man, causing a dispute between protesters and police.
• Indigenous peoples are protected by justice and cannot be arrested or detained for a crime that is not heinous.
The night will be long.
Serere’s wife called on authorities to save her husband!
December 12, 2022 at 05:24PM UPDATE: I Gave Them Information on Ukraine Corruption and They Ignored It – Rudy Giuliani Names Names of Those Who Ignored Biden’s Corruption in Ukraine
Rudy Giuliani was on with Newsmax this weekend and based on his review of his work in the Ukraine, he knew Joe Biden was “a lifelong criminal”. We all do now thanks to Rudy.
Rudi Giuliani was on with Newsmax over the weekend where he discussed Joe Biden’s corruption in the Ukraine and Hunter’s laptop. He made some remarkable statements as he went through his efforts to get the word out on the corrupt Biden family.
Even former Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was involved in burying the story on Joe Biden, Russia, Ukraine, and Hunter Biden’s laptop — which altered elections and skirted free speech and the law — former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Newsmax.
“I had this whole thing – let’s say half of it; certainly enough to prosecute — in 2019,” Giuliani told “Saturday Report,” saying he was waking up every morning thinking about how to reveal it all to Americans, including sharing the information with TV host Sean Hannity, Just the News’ John Solomon, and even Pompeo. “I gave it to Hannity in early 2019, then to John Solomon, then to Mike Pompeo, who also buried it.
[Update from Rudy Giuliani: Per a discussion with Rudy Giuliani today, Rudy explained that he gave the information on Biden’s corruption in the Ukraine to Sean Hannity and John Solomon who did report and even cooberate his information. Mike Pompeo ignored it.]
“And you should know that now that he’s running for president — and I will tell you the whole story about that at some point. I’ll write it out.”
Giuliani was former President Donald Trump’s private attorney and was shocked to have learned Justice Department Attorney General Bill Barr had Hunter Biden’s laptop in late 2019.
“And then Barr buried it in January of 2020, and I didn’t know that Barr has the hard drive,” Giuliani continued to host Rita Cosby. “He covered up the hard drive.”
From the first allegations of Russian collusion to the Trump campaign to the presidential elections and now the deadly war in Ukraine, Americans could have known the truth in 2019, if they had just listened to Giuliani, he continued.
“I’ve been living with this for 3.5 years when I first put out the information about Biden’s bribery in Ukraine, and I lived through that,” Giuliani said. “I got up every morning from the first moment I got that hard drive, saying to myself, ‘How can I get this to my fellow citizens? Because, you just read a just a little bit of that, you realize the candidate of the Democratic Party was a lifelong criminal, and I mean, there are 50-60 crimes outlined there and I’m not saying that lightly.”
We were stunned when Rudi Giuliani said that the Bidens were as corrupt as the Clintons before the 2020 Election. But he was right.
Rudy would know. He was a former prosecutor in New York and Mayor of New York before joining the Trump team. He has stood up for President Trump all these years.
When The Gateway Pundit got ahold of Hunter’s laptop we laid out multiple reports on the corrupt Biden family right before the 2020 Election. We were censored and eventually permanently suspended for doing so.
Rudy knows who the crooks are.
[NOTE: This report was updated after a discussion with Rudy as noted above. Rudy clarified that Sean Hannity and John Solomon both worked with him in reporting the Bidens’ corruption in Ukraine. Mike Pompeo did not. TGP is planning on interviewing Rudy tomorrow to address the Biden corruption in the Ukraine and Hunter’s laptop.]
December 12, 2022 at 06:49AM The World Health Organization, Johns Hopkins, and Bill Gates Just Conducted Another Pandemic Simulation — This Time The Virus Is Deadlier And Targets Children
Bill Gates at the Catastrophic Contagion Conference in Belgium.
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security partnered with the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct “Catastrophic Contagion,” an exercise to simulate a global pandemic that is deadlier than the coronovirus and especially dangerous for children.
Bill Gates was in attendance.
The group conducted Catastrophic Contagion in Brussels, Belgium on October 23, 2022.
During the simulation, the World Health Organization’s health advisory board addressed a fictional “Severe Epidemic Enterovirus Respiratory Syndrome” pandemic that originates in Brazil and disseminates across the globe.
The exercise simulated a series of WHO emergency health advisory board meetings addressing a fictional pandemic set in the near future.
According to RXList, enteroviruses, including hepatitis A and polio, are comprised of RNA, enter the body through the gastrointestinal tract and attack the nervous system.
The pandemic simulation also included pre-recorded news broadcasts and live briefings from health officials. This is similar to earlier simulations.
A pundit named Jeanne Meserve of GNN, a fictional news outlet, is seen in footage during the pandemic simulation announcing the high death toll, particularly among children, from a pandemic that would have been prevented if countries adopted pandemic operational drills and adhered to the WHO’s pandemic guidances.
“As of today, there have been an estimated 1 billion cases worldwide with more than 20 million deaths, including nearly 15 million children. Countless millions are alive, but left with paralysis or brain damage,” Meserve notes.
“The most successful countries are those which invested in preparedness and trained for this moment years in advance,” she continues. “This included having full-time pandemic preparedness and response teams which conducted detailed operational planning and routinely tested those plans through exercises and drills. If more countries had participated and heeded the guidance the toll might have been much less.”
Bill Gates and senior public health officials from Angola, Germany, India, Liberia, Nigeria and Rwanda moderated discussions during the simulation.
Just months before the Covid-19 outbreak, the same world elites that conducted “Severe Epidemic Enterovirus Respiratory Syndrome 2025” held a similar exercise on October 18, 2019, dubbed “Event 201.”
During the high-level pandemic exercise, the John Hopkins Center for Health Security, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation simulated a global coronavirus pandemic that transmitted from bats to pigs to humans, a blueprint for what subsequently transpired with the coronavirus outbreak. The simulation also demonstrated a coordinated global response to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the John Hopkins Center for Health Security website, “Event 201 was a 3.5-hour pandemic tabletop exercise that simulated a series of dramatic, scenario-based facilitated discussions, confronting difficult, true-to-life dilemmas associated with response to a hypothetical, but scientifically plausible, pandemic. 15 global business, government, and public health leaders were players in the simulation exercise that highlighted unresolved real-world policy and economic issues that could be solved with sufficient political will, financial investment, and attention now and in the future.”
Executives from pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson and Merck, as well as the executive director of the Bill Gates-controlled Global Fund and the president of the UPS Foundation, were featured at the event conducted just months before the coronavirus started making global headlines.
John Hopkins Center for Health Security posted several videos on its YouTube channel from the simulation, “Event 201, A Global Pandemic Exercise”
John Hopkins also conducted SPARS 2025-2028, another pandemic exercise that examined the global pandemic response to a virus that spread from the Philippines to St. Paul Minnesota, in 2017.
December 10, 2022 at 09:45AM BREAKING: Kari Lake Files 70 Page Lawsuit to Throw Out Fraudulent Arizona Midterm Election Results – Claims HUNDREDS of Thousands of Illegal Ballots, 59% of ED Precinct Machine Failures, Tens of Thousands of Illicit Mail-in Ballots
Republican Kari Lake on Friday filed a lawsuit to nullify the 2022 midterm election results for the governor’s race in the state of Arizona.
On Thursday Trump Attorney Christina Bobb previewed this historic filing.
The Gateway Pundit reported earlier that Kari Lake filed her lawsuit. We now have the full document to share with our readers.
Attorney Kurt Olsen told The Gateway Pundit, “We have put forward evidence that unquestionably shows that this election was stolen with illegal votes and likely fraudulent votes.”
The lawsuit begins, “the eyes of the Country are on Arizona. On November 3o, 2022, Rasmussen Reports published a poll of likely U.S. voters asking about the Election Day problems with vote tabulation in Maricopa County. This poll asked whether responding voters agreed or disagreed with Contestant Kari Lake’s statement calling the election ‘botched’ and stating, ‘This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats. This is about our sacred right to vote, a right that many voters were, sadly, deprived of on [Election Day], November 8th.’ The results of that poll are stunning, Severnty-two percent (72%) of Likely Voters said they agree with Lake’s statement, including 45% who Strongly Agree.”
Never in US history has their been so much evidence compiled of a fraudulent election taking place.
In the filing this afternoon the Kari Lake campaign claims HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of illegal votes were counted in the election, 59% of Maricopa County precincts had broken tabulators or printers on election day disenfranchising voters, and tens of thousands of illegal mail-in ballots were counted that did not pass signature verification requirements.
The Gateway Pundit is reviewing the document that was presented in court on Friday afternoon.
According to the filing the number of illegal votes cast in Arizona’s general election on November 8, 2022, far exceeds the 17,117 vote margin between Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Democrat gubernatorial candidate Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, certified at the official state canvass on December 5, 2022. Witnesses who were present at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (“MCTEC”), Runbeck Election Services (“Runbeck”), and a multitude of Maricopa County vote centers, as well as other facts meticulously gathered, show hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots infected the election in Maricopa County.
More from the filing: Maricopa County’s public statements concerning remaining ballots to be counted on November 9, 2022, and November 10, 2022, show an increase of approximately 25,000 votes with no explanation of why the number of remaining ballots could increase.
Maricopa County officials also permitted the counting of tens of thousands of mail-in and drop-box ballots that did not satisfy signature verification requirements.
The remedy for illegal absentee ballots is either to set aside the election under Miller, 179 Ariz. at 180, or proportionately to reduce each candidate’s share of mail-in ballots under Grounds, 67 Ariz. at 183-85.
As set forth above, the Maricopa County election board and the election officers in Maricopa County engaged in misconduct that nullifies the results of the 2022 election in Maricopa County, by failing to prevent the entirely foreseeable problems that afflicted the voting at Vote Centers on Election Day; and by failing to follow Arizona law with respect to signature verification and chain of custody.
Kari Lake’s team of expert attorneys have gathered evidence from signed witness testimony, Dominion and Runbeck whistleblowers, and Maricopa County whistleblowers to craft a 68-page lawsuit against Maricopa County and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
They even got screenshots of text messages between IT workers hired by Maricopa County to fix election day problems.
Judge Peter Thompson, appointed in September 2010 by Gov. Jan Brewer, will rule on this case.
December 9, 2022 at 05:21PM NBC Scrubs Bombshell Report That Russia Offered America Brittney Griner OR Paul Whelan in Exchange for Viktor Bout
NBC News scrubbed its bombshell report that Russia offered the US Brittney Griner OR former Marine Paul Whelan in exchange for the “Merchant of Death.”
Joe Biden on Thursday announced he traded the world’s most wanted fugitive, Russian Viktor Bout, AKA, the “Merchant of Death” for pot-smoking anti-American baller Brittney Griner.
The White House on Thursday said Joe Biden did not have a choice.
“Unfortunately, the choice became to either bring Brittney home or no one,” Karine Jean-Pierre said.
However, according to NBC News, Joe Biden had a choice: Brittney Griner OR Paul Whelan.
Citing a senior government official, NBC News said, “…Russia has treated Whelan differently because he is an accused spy, and that the Kremlin gave the White House the choice of either Griner or Whelan – or none.”
NBC scrubbed its initial report after conservatives pointed out it contradicted the White House’s talking points.
NBC’s updated/scrubbed version of its article stated: “…because [Whelan] is accused of spying and that the Kremlin ultimately gave the White House the choice of Griner or no one after different options were proposed.”
NBC finally updated with an editor’s note.
“An earlier version of this article misstated the choice the Biden administration was given over hostages. It was a swap for Griner or no one, not a choice between Griner or Whelan,” NBC News said.
December 9, 2022 at 06:20AM Russia Releases 1st Footage Of Griner, Bout Prisoner Swap
Update(1608ET): Russian state media has released footage of a moment the Biden administration would probably rather have remained hidden from public view.
TASS released the footage Thursday afternoon, in which Brittney Griner, seen below wearing a red jacket, and Viktor Bout crossed paths on a UAE airport tarmac, both on their way to freedom. Each was handed over to their respected countries’ officials, and the groups quickly walked the opposition directions into awaiting aircraft.
In releasing the footage, Moscow appears to be celebrating a ‘victory’ of sorts over chief rival and adversary the United States. Illustrating this, prominent Russian MP and media personality Maria Butina (the same person had in 2018 been convicted by the US, and later booted from the country, for acting as a unregistered foreign agent) had this to say in a state media interview:
“Russia was pushing hard and that means that we have a very strong position in the world that the United States can’t resist.”
Additionally, Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued the following statement: “Washington categorically refused to discuss including the Russian national in the exchange scheme. Nevertheless, the Russian Federation continued to actively work on rescuing our compatriot.”
More footage was made public by the Russian side depicting some of the lead-up to Griner’s release. It also showed Viktor Bout aboard a Russian aircraft enjoying his first moments of freedom after serving 11 years of a 25-year term.
Meanwhile, there’s a growing body of evidence strongly suggesting the White House had a chance to get ex-Marine Paul Whelon out of Russian prison, despite the administration’s current denials of this.
That’s one happy arms dealer…
It appears that in the end, the “celebrity” influence and greater PR surrounding appeals for Griner won out in the end, and the administration chose her, despite that she fully confessed to violating Russian law by bringing the cannabis vape cartridges into the country following her arrest last February.
She had been handed a harsh 9-year prison sentence, to be carried out at a remote, notorious penal colony. But now she is returning home to her family.
And then there’s this…
For a review of who ‘Lord of War’ Viktor Bout is, see below:
* * *
Update(1228ET): The Daily Mail is calling it a “deal soaked in blood” after the governments of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Russia confirmed that Brittney Griner’s release for notorious convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout came via Saudi/UAE mediation efforts led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). Foreign ministry statements by both countries, hours after the now freed American and Russian walked past each other on a UAE airport tarmac, revealed the following per a leading Mideast regional news outlet:
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed led mediation efforts that secured the release of two prisoners between the US and Russia, a joint statement issued by both countries’ foreign ministries said on Thursday.
“The ministries said the success of the mediation efforts was a reflection of the mutual and solid friendship between their two countries and the United States and Russia,” the statement said.
A senior administration official would not comment directly on MBS’s role but said the U.S. will ‘continue to lean on partners around the world’ to secure the release of unjustly detailed Americans.
The swap happened at Abu Dhabi airport, where Griner and Bout had to walked past each other to reach their respective parties on the airport tarmac, Russian state media reports.
The official said Griner was ‘all smiles’ on the tarmac as she approached the American delegation.
Amid the outrage that the Biden administration released a “big catch” notorious Russian criminal, also while leaving Paul Whelan behind to languish in a Russian penal colony, many are questioning the timing of all of this coming together a meretwo days after the US government dropped the Khashoggi lawsuit against the Saudi leader.
To review of the timeline and chain of possibly connected events, Biden recently gave MbS immunity for the Jamal Khashoggi murder ironically enough at a moment MbS was pushing production cuts through OPEC (which helped Putin and Russian interests)… and now the White House gets Griner back (and perhaps it will quickly be “forgotten” how the Saudis just humiliated the US administration on oil output).
* * *
Update(8:50ET): During his announcement from the White House, with Griner’s family present, Biden spent a lot of time defending his administration from widespread accusations that Griner’s release was prioritized because of her fame while at the same time other detained Americans were left behind.
“This was not a choice of which American to bring home,” Biden said while vowing to continue working on freeing detained US Marine veteran Paul Whelan. 61-year old teacher Marc Fogel is also languishing in Russian prison.
An understandably very frustrated and “devastated” Whelan family has issued the following statement upon the White House announcement of Griner’s release:
Despite the possibility that there might be an exchange without Paul, our family is still devastated. I can’t even fathom how Paul will feel when he learns. Paul has worked so hard to survive nearly 4 years of this injustice. His hopes had soared with the knowledge that the US government was taking concrete steps for once towards his release. He’d been worrying about where he’d live when he got back to the US. And now what? How do you continue to survive, day after day, when you know that your government has failed twice to free you from a foreign prison? I can’t imagine he retains any hope that a government will negotiate his freedom at this point. It’s clear that the US government has no concessions that the Russian government will take for Paul Whelan. And so Paul will remain a prisoner until that changes.
* * *
In a huge and unexpected development, Russia has released into US custody WNBA star Brittney Griner, after in October her 9-year prison sentence was upheld by a Russian court. She had already spent weeks in a harsh penal colony some 300 miles southeast of Moscow.
She was freed in a prisoner exchange which took place in Abu Dhabi Airport on Thursday. In return the Biden administration agreed to give up notorious international arms dealer Viktor Bout. US officials speaking to CBS say the deal had been reached by last Thursday, with the logistics details having been hammered out since then. Biden is imminently expected to address Griner’s release and the prisoner exchange at 8:30eastern. Watch Live:
“To secure Griner’s release, the president ordered Bout to be freed and returned to Russia. Mr. Biden signed the commutation order cutting short Bout’s 25-year federal prison sentence,” CBS reports.
But the report underscores, “Notably, the Griner-for-Bout exchange leaves retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan imprisoned in Russia. Whelan has been in Russian custody for nearly four years. He was convicted on espionage charges that the U.S. has called false.”
When Russian state media began first signaling that the Kremlin will pursue getting Bout back, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken starting over the summer hinted the administration was actually entertaining the possibility, it unleased a wave of controversy, especially given Griner’s own recent public displays which some interepreted as “anti-US”… most notably refusing to stand for the national anthem and even staying in the locker room during its playing.
One commenter previously had this to say in summary of the controversial exchange for Bout:
“It took nearly 10 years for US to apprehend Viktor Bout, and close to 3 more years to convict him for terrorism and arms trafficking. Allegedly, thousands of civilians in multiple African countries, were injured and killed by weapons supplied by Bout. Fair trade for Griner?”
It’s likely that the Department of Justice had been vigorously arguing against releasing Viktor Bout, considering it took a significant extradition process (from Thailand) to even get him into US custody over a decade ago.
Before his just-announced release, he was serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison after being convicted in the Southern District of New York for conspiring to kill Americans and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
Getty Images
Already there’s brewing anger that Paul Whelan, as well as another American locked up in Russia, 61-year old teacher Marc Fogel, over the widespread perception that they’ve been left behind.
December 9, 2022 at 12:18AM Elon Musk Takes a Swipe at Former Twitter Execs Following Release of Twitter Files Pt. 2 — Announces BIG CHANGE Coming to Twitter
The second installment of Elon Musk’s so-called “Twitter Files” was released on Thursday night.
Reporter Bari Weiss is live-tweeting the release of the documents online.
Weiss posted a thread of 30 tweets on the Secret Blacklists of conservative users on Twitter.
Following tonight’s release of the Twitter Files Pt. 2, Twitter owner Elon Musk went online to comment on the findings.
Elon took a veiled shot at his former head of censorship, radical leftist Yoel Roth.
And he also fired a tweet out on his former top censor Vijaya Gadde who openly lied to the public while she was censoring conservatives.
Twitter lied relentlessly to the American public.
And Elon announced a BIG change to the Twitter platform.
Elon and his engineers are working on a software update that will notify users of their true status so you will be able to see if you are shadowbanned, and the reason why and how to appeal.
