Strzok-Page texts released in the Flynn case last week have a new clue. "Typhoon" is unredacted in this new batch. That's FBI's code for @GeorgePapa19.
Page tells Strzok on May 10, 2017, they need to "lock in" the case in a "formal chargeable way."
Timeline is interesting...
Because Papadopoulos was later charged for an interview he gave FBI several months earlier. So what was their plan to lock him in in a "chargeable way" after that text, and why would they need to?
Page was asked about the text in her House testimony. She said she couldn't remember who they were talking about (I'd always assumed it was Manafort).
She said she thought she might have been saying they needed to admonish the target with a 1001 warning against lying.
Except, according to the special counsel's statement of offense against Papadopoulos, the FBI had already admonished him in the Jan. 27, 2017 interview.
Since Page knew when she sent that text that she was talking about Papadopoulos, she seemingly would have known what went on in his first interview with FBI. So he was already "locked in" when she sent that text, unless she had another idea in mind.
Every bit of this is insane -- 1.) it's truly crazy that Brian Auten technically still has a job at FBI. He was among Crossfire Hurricane's worst offenders.
2.) NYT's framing is predictably laughable. They frame his suspension as "partisan" payback. nytimes.com/2025/04/11/us/…
Auten was the top intel analyst on the Trump-Russia probe. He aggressively pushed for the Steele dossier to be used in the investigation, and the FISA warrants.
He missed or ignored literally dozens of red flags about the dossier. He is either a very bad analyst, or corrupt.
I've asked on and off for the past four years whether Auten was still employed, but FBI always declined comment. I'm very surprised he does still have a job; I'd assumed maybe he was quietly fired or resigned.
Pepsi reviewed his role there in 2005 after a federal wiretap picked up two Sharpton associates claiming that Sharpton would grease the wheels for them to cash in on Pepsi's "minority mandates."
Sharpton, aware of his reputation, tried to head off allegations of a shakedown at his Pepsi boycott announcement Saturday.
"First thing right-wing is going to do is [say], 'Oh, this a shakedown."
MSNBC tells @FreeBeacon it was “unaware” that Al Sharpton received $500k from Kamala Harris campaign prior to friendly interview
But network declined comment on whether Sharpton faced discipline for violating company’s conflicts of interest policy 🧵
MSNBC ignored our inquiries on this for 2 weeks, but finally responded after the Society of Professional Journalists said these payments are a “black eye” for the network
MSNBC requires employees to disclose any conflicts of interest. Network suspended @JoeNBC and @KeithOlbermann in 2010 for donated a small amount to political campaigns without approval
A mystery PAC called AllVote has been sending misleading text messages to voters about registration and polling locations.
We followed the bread crumbs back to a complex network of Dem super PACs, and dirty tricks Dem donor REID HOFFMAN freebeacon.com/elections/some…
AllVote is a project of Rapid Resist Action and a group called Movement Labs. AllVote spox @cmclymer apologized this week for the group’s misleading text campaign, but declined to disclose the group/donors behind it
But Rapid Resist Action, led by a former Obama official Yoni Landau, has done this before, in 2020 and 2022, sending out errant text messages about registration and poll.
State Department is standing by an adviser who spoke at an anti-Israel rally that saw chants of "Death to Israel," praise for slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and calls for Jews to be returned "back to Poland." freebeacon.com/biden-harris-a…
Dearborn mayor Abdullah Hammoud serves on State's Assembly of Local Leaders, for 20 mayors and local leaders to "share their views or concerns with foreign policy topics directly with the Department."
Hammoud is a leading voice of the anti-Israel movement, and spoke at a Dearborn rally on Sept. 25. He was introduced by Hamas/Hezbollah sympathizer Osama Siblani, who moments earlier praised Hezbollah's Nasrallah as a "hero" and said Jews would be sent "back to Poland."