Friday, September 2, 2022

One Question

 

On September 21, 2021 FBI director Christopher Wray, appointed by Trump, warned the Senate about Domestic Violence Extremists.

From:

Statement Before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

September 21, 2021

Threats to the Homeland: Evaluating the Landscape 20 Years After 9/11

Individuals who commit violent criminal acts in furtherance of social or political goals stemming from domestic influences—some of which include racial or ethnic bias, or anti-government or anti-authority sentiments—are described as domestic violent extremists (DVEs)... The top threats we face from DVEs are from those we categorize as racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) and anti-government or anti-authority violent extremists.

History is watching as the country learned just how deadly Domestic Violence Extremists can be when the Oklahoma City federal building was blown up by one of them. The nation would witness racist mass shootings in temples and shopping centers. Election-denying white supremacists and white nationalists are running for office, and winning, as Republicans.

Let’s review a little actual history for context.

Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. It is a fact backed by all the evidence.

Every state certification, every recount, and even every partisan “audit” confirmed Biden won.

Trump refused to accept the election results and refused to concede. Then he lied about the election being stolen by massive voter fraud.

He was on track to commit a string of crimes to overturn the election.

He would pressure Georgia Secretary of State Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” for him to win the state.

He would pressure the FBI to “Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen".

He would send his crooked lawyers to 60 courts with allegations of fraud they had no evidence to support.

His cronies would pressure states to send “alternative electors” to overrule the will of their voters.

He would ultimately summon a fanatic and angry mob to Washington DC on January 6, 2021, and incite them to riot and storm the Capitol.

 “Be there, will be wild!”The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C., will take place at 11.00 A.M. on January 6th. Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal! “

Trump’s Attorney General William Barr told Trump Biden won, and the U.S. Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.

Barr told ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl.“If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bullshit.”

Barr wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

In the weeks after the election, accusations of major fraud centered on several specific allegations. I had asked the Justice Department office heads around the country, working with the FBI, to look into these and a number of similar claims. Some turned out to be patently frivolous; others just were not supported by the available evidence. I had repeatedly informed the president through his staff that the department was looking at substantial claims of fraud but so far hadn’t found them to have merit...

...“Why would you say that?” he demanded, his voice rising. “Because it is true, Mr. President,” I replied. “The reporter asked me what the department had found to date, and I told him.”

“But you did not have to say that!” he barked. “You could have just said, ‘No comment.’ This is killing me—killing me. This is pulling the rug out from under me.” He stopped for a moment and then said, “You must hate Trump. You would only do this if you hate Trump.”

“No, Mr. President, I don’t hate you,” I said. “You know I sacrificed a lot personally to come in to help you when I thought you were being wronged.” The president nodded, almost involuntarily conceding the point. “But over the weekend, you started blaming the department for the inability of your legal team to come up with evidence of fraud. The department is not an extension of your legal team. Our mission is to investigate and prosecute actual fraud. The fact is, we have looked at the major claims your people are making, and they are bullshit.”

The president looked defiant. I continued, “I’ve told you that the fraud claims are not supported...And others have also told you this. But your legal team continues to shovel this shit out to the American people. And it is wrong.”

Trump’s own election security chief for Homeland Security Christopher Krebs called the 2020 vote "the most secure in American history" which promptly got him fired.

He urged Republicans to condemn threats and harassment against election officials who rejected baseless claims of widespread fraud.

Krebs testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

"This is not the America I recognize. It's got to stop. We need everyone across the leadership ranks to stand up. I would appreciate more support from my own party, the Republican Party, to call this stuff out and end it. We've gotta move on. We have a president-elect in President-elect Biden."


All of this fell on the deaf ears bracketing the closed mind of a raging narcissist.

On January 6th 2021 Trump urged his mob to march to the Capitol. “We fight like Hell and if you don’t fight like Hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

So his mob followed their orders. They stormed the Capitol and fought like Hell. They would violently assault the Capitol Police who stood in their way.

Trump waited to see if his mob would succeed in shutting down congress, or even overturn the election.

Trump watched his mob for over three hours on TV, as they beat, maced, kicked, and brutalized the police with flag poles and clubs. Dozens of officers were sent to the hospital among over a hundred injured. A delusional woman was shot and killed trying to attack our Congress.

After three hours it was obvious his mob had failed their master’s objective. Only then did Trump tell them to leave.

I know you're hurt. We had an election that was stolen. It was a landslide. But you have to go home now...we love you, you're very special."

He repeated his Big Lie while he PRAISED his thugs.

Now the former president is being revealed as a serial criminal under investigation for a growing number of crimes.

One might think the FBI coming into his home for stolen top secret documents would give him pause.

But he can't help himself. He is what he is.

On September 1, 2022 Trump, said on Wendy Bell Radio:

"I will tell you, I will look very, very favorably about full pardons. If I decide to run and if I win, I will be looking very, very strongly about pardons. Full pardons. We'll be looking very, very seriously at full pardons because we can't let that happen. ... And I mean full pardons with an apology to many."

“I am financially supporting people that are incredible and they were in my office actually two days ago, so they’re very much in my mind. It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to them. What they’ve done to these people is disgraceful.”

~~~

On the same day President Biden finally had this to say

"Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.

Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans.  Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology.

MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution.  They do not believe in the rule of law.  They do not recognize the will of the people.

They refuse to accept the results of a free election.  And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.

MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards — backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.

They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.

They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th — brutally attacking law enforcement — not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots.

And they see their MAGA failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2024 elections.

They tried everything last time to nullify the votes of 81 million people.  This time, they’re determined to succeed in thwarting the will of the people.

That’s why respected conservatives, like Federal Circuit Court Judge Michael Luttig, have called Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans, quote, a “clear and present danger” to our democracy."

~~~~

The day before on August 31st Biden made this point:

"So let me say this to my MAGA Republican friends. Don’t tell me you support law enforcement if you won’t condemn what happened on the sixth. For god’s sake, whose side are you on? You can’t be pro-law enforcement and pro-insurrection."

“It wasn’t dissent… It was insurrection. It was riot and mayhem. It was radical and chaotic. It was unconstitutional. And maybe most important, it was fundamentally un-American.”

Biden's right.

MAGA Republicans are the most serious domestic terror threat to the US today. The Proud Boys are still “standing by”. Thousands, if not millions of white nationalists, racists, and other Trump fanatics, would kill their fellow Americans for their beloved infallible savior. All he has to do is give them an order to attack anyone he says are his enemies.

If American voters can't see the difference between right and wrong, between truth and lies, between democracy and fascism, and between decency and dishonor, the fall of the republic is at hand. The election this November comes down to basically one question.

Whose side are you on?


16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dave is a pathological conformist he embraces Obedience and the Rise of Authoritarianism He does support Biden that is a tell all.

Dave Dubya said...

Anonymous,
Thank you for not reading or responding to the content.
We can only assume you're a pathological conformist who embraces Obedience and the Rise of Authoritarianism and support Trump. That is a tell all.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Forget trying to rationally engage with trolls like Anonymous @11:16. They have nothing to back up their statements and nothing to exculpate the ex-president Trump from all the crimes he's accused of committing.

I wonder if the Anon who posted that is the same Anon who came to my blog this AM and posted a plagiarized comment he/she claimed was his/her own?

Anyway, I will never understand how 30 to 35% of the American people still support this alleged criminal who continues his rallies to keep his cultists riled up and loyal to him.

You've documented accurate, factual, historic actions that Trump took against this country and more people need to read this, but I don't think Trump's cultists will ever see him for the threat to our democracy that he truly is.

Dave Dubya said...

Shaw,
I filter out most trolling, but when they say something really stupid I like to play with their ignorance. One particular troll has been obsessed with me for well over a decade.
He wants attention, of course. He never reads anything I write or rarely responds on topic. But the mountain of stupidity, hate, the willful ignorance he shows is almost unbelievable.

I mean, where else will anyone say something so stupid to suggest agreeing with Biden on MAGAts is "pathological conformist"?

Their projection is endless. Without their "projection card", their "commie card", "racist card" and their oh, so frequent "victim card" they have little to say.

I bet my troll from White Settlement way down in Texas has gone to your blog too.

I call him Vern. He accidentally forwarded something with his name on it a few years ago.

His name is Timothy, but nobody calls him that. When he gets too uppity, I'll remind him I know who he is. That settles him down for a while.

Anonymous said...

What a surprise, government does not listen to threats brought to them by their own intelligence.
FDR was warned Japan would attack America. Bush was warned terrorists would attack New York. 70 years apart, yet we had learned nothing.

Dave Dubya said...

Anonymous,
You have a point about FDR and Bush, although Bush manufactured a lot imaginary threats to invade Iraq.
The government is absolutely recognizing the threat by radical Right extremists, if you read what I wrote.

Foreigner said...

\\You have a point about FDR and Bush, although Bush manufactured a lot imaginary threats to invade Iraq.

Just ask yourself.
What if?
What if there was no of that "manufactured imaginary threats" and we would leave in a world where Saddam was still here. Happy to go hand in hand with Putin and Xi?

More than that. If. Just if only Putin would be punished for what he did in Georgia in 2008 THE SAME as Saddam was. In 1991 for at least.
We would not have such big worldwide problems today.
Am I right?


\\Blogger Shaw Kenawe said...
Anyway, I will never understand how 30 to 35% of the American people still support this alleged criminal who continues his rallies to keep his cultists riled up and loyal to him.

Such words puzzling me.
What is so strange here?
What if that commenter is a criminal himself?
Or just some wimp, engrossed of society, like Himeier.
But with no guts to show his anti-social self with something more decisive than mere barking in comments.


\\You've documented accurate, factual, historic actions that Trump took against this country and more people need to read this, but I don't think Trump's cultists will ever see him for the threat to our democracy that he truly is.

But... what if they DO NOT want democracy?

I'm telling that from my own country -- Ukraine, experience.
When Putin came onto us first time, in 2014.
There was... no, far from majority. Less than 10% of people.
But that was people who started crying eagerly "Putin, go send your army into our town!!!"

And as our history teaches us, bloodily, such a chance cannot be disqualified as unimportant.

Dave Dubya said...

Foreigner.

It's fine to consider the "what ifs", but the what was, and what is, are reality.

As far as military aggression, the "what if" would be "What if we had a world of less hate, fear, greed and abuse of power over people? What if we had sane and civilized leaders who never start wars?

Or, "What if we had a UN or NATO that could deter wars?"

As for Iraq, "What if the Shia majority rose against Saddam?"

Instead we had an oil millionaire who wanted Iraq's oil. How many thousands would still be alive if he wasn't our Vice-President at the time? Ironically his daughter is one of the few Republicans who want to hold Trump accountable for his crimes.

It was her father who helped harden the American radical Right with lies and fear mongering.

Saddam's military was stopped in Iran and defeated in Kuwait, so it was not likely he could have started any more foreign aggression. And he was NOT allied with al-Qaeda, as the war mongering liars said.

But you are right. A lot of people don't want democracy. They don't have any experience with it. Even the US democracy is mostly facade.

Humans are too fearful and easily deceived. Authoritarians appeal to fears in people. The primitive part of our brain's "fight or flight" is in the amygdala. Conservatives and authoritarians show a larger and more active amygdala in MRI scans.

We are animals, subject to manipulation and conditioning for the evil ends of evil leaders.


Anonymous said...

If 35% of Americans (more than 35% voted for him to win the presidency) I can only conclude these Americans do not want the kind of democracy the founding fathers set up and we have lived by for over 200 years. I only hope future Americans save our democracy at the ballot box. As much as Trump likes to say elections are rigged, there is no evidence that there is widespread corruption in our elections, so there is hope to save democracy in America. To help that we need people like Liz Cheney. It's odd for me to say that because I hated her father so much, he was Darth Vader.

Dave Dubya said...

Anonymous 5:26 PM,

Our hope needs to be expressed in massive voter turnout this, and every election from now on, to counter the rising threat from extremist far Right authoritarians.

The radical Right are actively indoctrinated their people to distrust and oppose democracy.

They know minority rule is their only path to power.

They love to insist, "The US is a Republic, not a democracy", to justify their war on fair elections and fair representation.

Of course there can be no republic without fair elections and fair representation. They don't want to hear that.

You might check out Dana Milbank's look at the Cheneys.

Liz Cheney’s demise was set in motion by her father

Foreigner said...

\\It's fine to consider the "what ifs", but the what was, and what is, are reality.

Well, RFia's agression on Ukraine was "what if"... up till 24th of February.

As well as possibility of terroristic attack with captured jumbo jets was mere "what if"... before 9/11

And just today, many more of "what ifs" circling like that sharks in a water.
As apparent -- China going mad and starts a war, on Taiwan at first. But only blind wouldn't see that it'll go on a sprea after that.

As predictable -- RFia non-stop pounding through thier propaganda... that they have LOTS of miraculous weapon they can unleash on USA any moment.

As all kinds of known unknowns and unknown unknowns.
As dino-killer asteroid or COVID.

Today... we are a damaged ship in an ocaean of possibilities. And all kinds of what-ifs circling around us in a dangerous water.
And there is no earth near, no other ships harring in our direction for a rescue.
Only us.
Only crew of Spaceship Earth.



\\Or, "What if we had a UN or NATO that could deter wars?"

Neither NATO nor UN have nukes or enough conventional forces to do that.
Do I need to point finger at those who HAVE?
But, I know what you intellectuals today say about deterence -- their preposterous idea if deterence without deterence. Deternce without showing force. :-)



\\Saddam's military was stopped in Iran and defeated in Kuwait, so it was not likely he could have started any more foreign aggression. And he was NOT allied with al-Qaeda, as the war mongering liars said.

We saw it. In history. Isn't it?
"Germany is thoroughly defeated, and will not plan an agression" they was saying in after WW1.



\\We are animals, subject to manipulation and conditioning for the evil ends of evil leaders.

That is very sad for me to read such words.
'Cause, that's exactly Putin's idea, he trying deseminate and mostly succed with that with his own ruSSians.
But he'd like to spread it all around world.
As that COVID. Contagious and widespread.

That way he ALREADY won. :-(((

Dave Dubya said...

Foreigner,
Yes, the human species is its own worst threat. The minority with the authoritarian personality will make anyone or everyone miserable to have their power and dominance.

Most of us are not like them, but they exert more influence.

What if most people could realize that?

The war on Iraq was based on lies. Saddam was evil, so that made the lies more believable.

So evil Americans started the war for oil and political power. I don't think Saddam would have risked starting another war, because he knew the consequences after his defeat in Kuwait.

Germany wasn't thoroughly defeated in WWI. The Russian Revolution freed up all their soldiers in the East to strengthen the Western Front. After the US entered the war they realized they couldn't win and agreed to an armistice. They were not militarily defeated as much as worn down. As we know Hitler would blame Jews for losing the war. They were totally defeated in the Second World War, and haven't started any wars since.

But sadly, there are still fascists and even Nazis, even in the US.

But like Putin today, the world let Hitler seize land without interfering. And like Putin, it only emboldened Hitler for further aggression.

And we know Putin was emboldened by his number one fan Trump's praise for him and efforts against NATO.

It is terribly sad that people can be so misled and abused by such authoritarians.

Most of us want to get along and cooperate. Most of us are basically decent as individuals.

But the madness of mob mentality the authoritarians incite is always lurking to lead us to tragedy.

Too many people would follow leaders instead of questioning them. We are a herd species that way.

Anonymous said...

Leftists are idiots. Just read what they say in the threads of commentary. They will do nothing to disprove it. Need evidence of their idiocy? Where shall I begin?
Let's start with the fact that any information about the documents taken from the Trump home are necessarily leaks coming from the DOJ or FBI. It must come from them because nobody else has access to the documents.
Each leak selected specifically to cast Trump in the worst possible light and each leak a serious violation of the law. Now, why would the FBI or DOJ intentionally violate the law to selectively leak if they had a case? May I suggest one possible reason? They don't have a case, so they are manufacturing one in the minds of the public.
How about the fact the leaks suggest Trump had nuclear secrets? None of the documents the FBI claimed to have been retrieved from Trump's home contained "nuclear secrets". How do we know this? Nuclear related documents have a special classification prefix of the letter "Q" and belong to a set of documents called a "Q-List". This means all nuclear related documents have the letter "Q" as a prefix. No documents taken from Trump's residence contained that prefix.
Of course, we don't know who the leaker is and when it's revealed that there was never any nuclear documents to sell to a friend or enemy, it just won't be mentioned anymore and the schmucks on the left will just go on their merry way to the next fake story.
The very same method is employed every day by the DOJ/FBI and their collaborators in the media who simply repeat without any critical comment whatsoever.
Here is a suggestion for anyone disbelieving the method of deceit being employed here. Go back and examine virtually every attack on Trump and the methodology is the same.
It begins with an anonymous leak. The media does its job by describing the leakers in ways to support their credibility: "sources close to the investigation". Or in ways that further reinforce credibility: "multiple sources close to the investigation."
The leaks are invariably to the detriment of Trump, and often very controversial or salacious, but always couched in language leaving room that the allegations may not be true. For example: "investigators believe Trump MAY have sold nuclear secrets to a foe." Each time these leaks happen, they tend to reinforce the belief in the minds of the opponents of Trump that he must be guilty of something. Rather than question the motives of the FBI or DOJ, their impulse has been conditioned over many months to suspect the worst. In fact, one leftist commented, "This is what they tell us, but we "know" the truth is even worse." Such an odd thing to say since the truth has yet to show any of these allegations are true, much less the truth being worse.
There is indeed an epidemic of idiocy on the left. Delete that.
It's a pandemic of idiocy.

Dave Dubya said...

Anonymous,

Thank you for your heartfelt opinion. In your passionate defense of Trump, you may have allowed some lapse of reasoning.

Yes. Leftists can be idiots. So can Trump supporters. Everybody is an idiot one time or another. We all say stupid things without having the facts or thinking it through. It’s part of our human nature to sometimes react emotionally or flippantly, instead of rationally. I believe this is something only a true idiot could disagree with.

It’s reasonable to question any anonymous report “according to people familiar with the investigation”.

Information about Trump’s attempt to extort the president of Ukraine into investigating the Bidens first came to our attention by a leaker. And it turned out to be accurate. Other leaks did not.

In August 2021 Reuters lamely reported: “Exclusive: FBI finds scant evidence U.S. Capitol attack was coordinated – sources”

The FBI has found scant evidence that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result, according to four current and former law enforcement officials... FBI investigators did find that cells of protesters, including followers of the far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys groups, had aimed to break into the Capitol. But they found no evidence that the groups had serious plans about what to do if they made it inside, the sources said.”

The report later admits, “Spokespeople for the Justice Department and U.S. Attorney's office in Washington, which is leading the Jan. 6 prosecutions, declined to comment.”

So they only quoted anonymous sources NOT in the FBI or even “familiar with the investigation”, but from “four current and former law enforcement officials”.

Reports of Hunter’s laptop were dismissed as “Russian propaganda”. Later the press admitted it was real. Corrections of inaccuracy are particularly absent in pro-Trump media. Apparently they, like their master, are infallible?

As it happens stealing secret government documents is a more serious crime than leaking information about the investigation of the theft. Remember it was Trump himself that first reported the search at his resort. Then it was Trump himself who demanded to see the affidavit the FBI used to search Mar-a-Lago. It only confirmed the leaks.

Perhaps one might consider it was the malevolent behavior of Trump that resulted in these leaks?

The FBI has shown probable cause of Trump’s criminal acts. They have seized real evidence of his crimes. "Investigators believe Trump MAY have sold nuclear secrets to a foe” is not reported as fact. Trump “may have done” anything since he sent an angry mob to obstruct our peaceful transfer of power after losing the election.

The facts and evidence are clear. Those documents are NOT his personal property. He STOLE them, failed to return them upon request, LIED about returning all of them, and obstructed efforts to reclaim them.

Dave Dubya said...

(Cont.)

We on the left can howl about perceived partisan FBI behavior.

Do you remember the week before the 2016 election when Comey blurted out his leak about Hillary being “under investigation” because of some sleaze’s laptop? There was nothing in it that would implicate Hillary.

We know Barr auditioned for his job by condemning the Mueller investigation of REAL Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. Despite Mueller clearly writing the investigation did NOT exonerate Trump, Barr jumped ahead to declare “No collusion!”.

He only said there was inadequate evidence of a conspiracy with the Russian government. The fact is Trump accepted help from Russians. “Russia if you’re listening..”, the Trump Tower meeting with Russians, numerous contacts by his campaign with Russians, sharing data with Russians all show Trump welcomed their help.

That was no hoax.

We know Barr fired SDNY federal prosecutor Geoffrey Berman to shut down his investigation of Trump’s toady Steve Bannon for his “build the wall” fraud. Trump pardoned him, of course, but he’s facing state charges now.

We know Trump tried to strong arm the FBI to interfere in the 2020 election to, “Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen”. Only the threats of mass resignations put an end to that scheme, even though Jeffrey Clark was a willing stooge who Trump threatened to install as Director.

Now it’s the Right’s turn to howl about leaks relevant to real crimes by Trump. The real evidence shows he is guilty. “They have no case” is clearly an emotional defense of Trump, and grossly uninformed of the facts and evidence.

I would suggest the "pandemic of idiocy" is broader than you imagine.

Dave Dubya said...

For the record, the Hunter Biden laptop is under FBI investigation. The Washington Post received a copy of the hard drive and had it analyzed by forensic cyber experts.

From: “Here’s how The Post analyzed Hunter Biden’s laptop


At The Post’s request, Matt Green, a Johns Hopkins University security researcher who specializes in cryptography, and Jake Williams, a forensics expert and former National Security Agency operative who once hacked the computers of foreign adversaries, separately examined two copies The Post made of the portable drive Maxey provided.

What the experts found
In their examinations, Green and Williams found evidence that people other than Hunter Biden had accessed the drive and written files to it, both before and after the initial stories in the New York Post and long after the laptop itself had been turned over to the FBI.
Maxey had alerted The Washington Post to this issue in advance, saying that others had accessed the data to examine its contents and make copies of files. But the lack of what experts call a “clean chain of custody” undermined Green’s and Williams’s ability to determine the authenticity of most of the drive’s contents.
“The drive is a mess,” Green said.
He compared the portable drive he received from The Post to a crime scene in which detectives arrive to find Big Mac wrappers carelessly left behind by police officers who were there before them, contaminating the evidence.
That assessment was echoed by Williams.
“From a forensics standpoint, it’s a disaster,” Williams said.

New folders created on drive given to The Post
The Post spent months reviewing the data on the portable drive in its entirety and seeking forensic verification of its contents. It made two new copies of the portable drive provided by Maxey so the experts could analyze them.

Green examined the drive first and, based on his initial findings, urged The Post to seek a second review to verify more of its contents. The Post then hired Williams, who has conducted forensic analyses for Fortune 100 financial services companies and also did similar work during his time at the NSA. He is now on the faculty of the information security research group IANS.

Many questions about the drive remained impossible to answer definitively. That includes what happened during a nearly year-long period of apparent inactivity from September 2019 — about five months after Hunter Biden reportedly dropped off the laptop at the repair shop — until August 2020, when the presidential campaign involving his father was entering its final months.

Soon after that period of inactivity — and months after the laptop itself had been taken into FBI custody — three new folders were created on the drive. Dated Sept. 1 and 2, 2020, they bore the names “Desktop Documents,” “Biden Burisma” and “Hunter. Burisma Documents.”

Williams also found records on the drive that indicated someone may have accessed the drive from a West Coast location in October 2020, little more than a week after the first New York Post stories on Hunter Biden’s laptop appeared.

Over the next few days, somebody created three additional folders on the drive, titled, “Mail,” “Salacious Pics Package” and “Big Guy File” — an apparent reference to Joe Biden.