Vote Leave broke the law. Deliberately & spectacularly.
Met investigation dropped without explanation.
Russia Report revealed grotesque national security failure.
He came to power on a *mandate* of breaking the law. It’s idea we should be shocked by any of this that’s shocking
Facebook in 2016 was a global threat surface.
Elections in Philippines, UK & US attacked by domestic & foreign bad actors.
In Britain, one of these bad actors was the man who’s now PM.
His investment in the cover-up of his own campaign has led to a cascade of catastrophes
The lies are the point. They brought him to power. The entitlement to break the law was baked in. Because that’s what cover-ups do. And that’s what Boris Johnson did.
And it’s why the institutions failed us so spectacularly post-2016: the Met, the NCA, the intelligence services.
In US, the FBI investigated, indicted & jailed person after person. It revealed systematic, multi-layer attack by a hostile foreign power. And it unravelled a skein of links to Kremlin money & influence.
An overwhelming number of which..ran through London.
Yet here:
Vote Leave oversaw the biggest electoral fraud of modern times.
Yet, it’s still trivial compared to what we know now via US investigations
But it’s why Johnson had to bury the evidence. Why he had to suppress Russia Report. And why essential to ignore Intel & Security Committee
So of course he thinks he’ll get away with a suitcase of booze & 16 police investigations.
Because it’s where cover-ups lead: to more cover-ups. To a gaping hole in our national security & a govt so high off its own supply, it killed 170k people without even blinking
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The idea Boris Johnson has the ability, desire or moral leadership to ‘stand up to Vladimir Putin’ is utterly absurd. This is the man who personally suppressed Russia Report, who refuses to investigate foreign interference in our elections & who ennobled the son of a KGB officer
There’s so much absurdity in his speech, but don’t overlook this. Boris Johnson is knee deep in Kremlin cash & everything about the Russia Report was a national security disgrace & disaster. 2/
This is Hannah. My amazing, beautiful, STRONG stepdaughter.
I’ve taken on power. And what’s happened to me is result of that choice. But for some women - like Hannah - there’s no choice. This 🧵= little bit of how she was targeted, hacked, stalked. And came back stronger. 1/
Hannah was harassed over months & years. The Met police refused to take seriously. Refused to investigate. They finally did when they appeared to acknowledged there was a risk to life. Her stalker was stopped & detained at Heathrow. And then let go. 2/
In 2018, Hannah learned that her friend from school, Alice Ruggles, had also been stalked. She’d also reported it to the police. She’d also not been believed. And then she was murdered. 3/
I have been through a trauma. And I need to speak publicly about it. About why this lawsuit sent me to such a dark place. And why the pursuit of individuals outside their news orgs is barbaric, cruel & a threat to all journalism
This is where it began. Nov 2017 with this video
This was 2 weeks after first Mueller indictment showed Trump-Russia investigation began in London & referenced Russian ambassador. And one day after Theresa May made a landmark speech about threat from Russia: ‘Russia, we see what you are doing’
This is how LeaveEU responded.
This is how I responded at time. I found it extraordinary LeaveEU was retweeting Russian Embassy’s attacks on MPs & journalists - @BenPBradshaw@RhonddaBryant@hugorifkind & I all tagged in.
But it was only me - the sole woman - who was singled out for the punishment beating
It’s an obscenity that the machinery of the British legal system can be used to target & harass journalists. This has to stop. I am profoundly grateful to Gavin Millar QC for setting out the legal & moral case for why we must defend public interest journalism.
And I survived 🙏
I wasn’t on trial for my life. But I was. My professional reputation, my career, potentially my home. I survived because I had to. And because I was lifted & supported by so many others who understood this was about something much bigger than me. And that I couldn’t do it alone.
What happens next is up to the judge. The verdict won’t be for weeks. But no-one who witnessed what happened in court can be in any doubt that this was about more than 23 words. The entire process was designed to punish, shame & humiliate me.
The bullying & intimidation a vivid microcosm of what these last 5 years have been like. There is a pattern of behaviour here. In 2014, Banks was arrested and issued with a harassment notice against a female employee.
End of Day 3. 2nd day in stand. Survived. Today’s special shout-out goes to stalwart @ObserverUK editor @paulfwebster, @sarah_donaldson the editor who shepherded me through entire investigation. And the wonderful @_EmmaGH who co-reported Cambridge Analytica alongside me💕
Webbo (aka @paulfwebster) is at the back top right & here’s @sarah_donaldson & @_EmmaGH having - I imagine - important discussions about the trials, tribulations & traumas of deciding to do public interest journalism for a living
Oh! And I accidentally missed out ‘amazing’ from my descriptor of @sarah_donaldson. Journalism: a team sport. Editors: the unsung heroes behind every journalist. Memories of the overwhelming exhaustion of that day very very close to the surface 💕