Ball of Thread

JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom both gave press conferences showing that Trump's attempts to invade their states is about authoritarianism, not law enforcement. But Newsom's effort more successfully exposed Trump's authoritarian spectacle.   Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/02/a-tale-of-two-governors-confronting-versus-dick-wagging/   Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/

In June, Republicans on the Supreme Court lifted a stay, giving DOGE access to all Americans' Social Security records. Then, DOGE gave Ed "Big Balls" Coristine -- a guy with ties to criminal hackers -- access to that.   Read more:  https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/26/amid-hunt-for-crime-in-dc-whistleblower-implicates-ed-big-balls-coristine-and-john-roberts/   Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/

Tulsi Gabbard just stripped the security clearances of 37 intelligence officials, including one of the NSA's top math whizzes. Her excuse for doing so stems from conspiracy theories invented by a disgruntled whistleblower. Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbdY69KYf3U    Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/21/quantum-leaps-the-so-called-whistleblower-that-got-nsas-top-mathematician-fired/   Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/

We know why Vladimir Putin has leverage over Trump, and it's not the goddamned pee tape. Trump has survived for the last eight years--not just the Russian investigation, but his first impeachment, his second impeachment, January 6, stealing classified documents--by claiming every push for accountability was just a hoax by Hillary Clinton. Russia Russia Russia. But Putin has proof that Trump knows Hillary didn't frame him--instead, Russian spies framed her. And if he released that, it would destroy the very means by which Trump has avoided accountability for eight years.

Solicitor General John Sauer wrote a batshit letter to the appeals court reviewing Trump's tariffs. It's little more than Trump's Truth Social posts slapped on a page -- not even on DOJ letterhead! But here's why it might work with SCOTUS. Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/13/trump-confesses-he-will-bankrupt-the-country-unless-scotus-lets-him-break-the-law/ Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/ 

The ways in which John Durham sustained his prosecutions of Michael Sussmann and Igor Danchenko even after concluding that the theory of his case was actually Russian disinformation provide a good sense of how Pam Bondi plans to do it going forward. Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/10/john-durhams-show-trials-a-preview-of-coming-attractions/ Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/ 

Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and John Ratcliffe share a secret with Vladimir Putin's spies: There's an email redacted in the classified Durham appendix that makes it clear that Hillary Clinton didn't frame Trump, Russian spies framed Hillary. Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/06/how-chuck-grassleys-politicized-redactions-gave-putin-leverage-over-trump/   Suport Marcy and emptywheel:  https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/

Back in 2021, John Durham discovered that both prongs of his investigation into Hillary Clinton -- that Hillary Clinton had a plan to smear Donald Trump, and that the FBI got notice of that -- were false. He also had to have known that Kash Patel and John Ratcliffe misrepresented what spooks have found. But he continued to investigate for another two years anyway, committing precisely the crime he set out to investigate.   Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/03/john-ratcliffe-and-kash-patel-and-durham-himself-committed-the-crime-john-durham-was-hunting/

Marcy Wheeler looks deeper into news that Trump's former defense attorney, now the deputy attorney general, will reach out to Ghislaine Maxwell. She lays out how Trump is orchestrating a cover-up scheme to protect himself from damaging Epstein revelations by getting Ghislaine Maxwell out of prison through a cooperation deal that will target his political opponents instead.

Marcy Wheeler digs deeper into the Catturd Deficit that allows white supremacists to use Xitter to rig the news. Then she looks at how Trump's illegal war on Iran has created unprecedented fractures in his base, from Russian useful idiots like Marjorie Taylor Greene to anti-Semitic voices like Candace Owens, and even convicted January 6th participants like Joe Biggs.  She explores how to exploit these cracks using the same tactics that got Trump elected, turning his own troll army's playbook against them.