Emptywheel
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Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Motherboard, the New Republic, and Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial.
Marcy serves on the Advisory Committee for the House Fourth Amendment Caucus, is a senior fellow at GWU’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security, and was declared an Internet Human Rights hero by AccessNow.
Marcy has been blogging full time since 2007. She’s known for her live-blogging of the Scooter Libby trial, her discovery of the number of times Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded, and for reverse-engineering government surveillance years before it otherwise gets disclosed.
Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. Marcy, her spouse, and June Bug the Terrorist FosterEx Dog recently moved to Ireland. Source
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| Scope | National |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Country | United States of America |
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Recent Articles
Search ArticlesDOJ Invokes Trump v. US to Protect Todd Blanche’s Fixer, Aakash Singh
by | Aug 5, 2026 | Weaponized DOJ | The Chicago US Attorney’s Office has submitted its objection to requests from the Broadview 6 that there be some kind of further punishment — discovery, contempt, an investigation — for the misconduct on the case. There are some gaping holes in the argument, which I’ll return to. But there’s one part of the argument that deserves immediate attention.
What Did Jeanine Pirro Know and When Did She Know It?
by | Aug 5, 2026 | Weaponized DOJ | Davey Hearn has responded to Jeanine Pirro’s motion to dismiss his indictment with a two part ask: Predictably, to dismiss the indictment with prejudice, so Trump can’t fire Pirro and install someone else who’ll recharge Hearn In conjunction with that, if Judge Todd Edelman feels like he needs more information before deciding whether to dismiss without (as Pirro requested) or with (as Hearn countered) prejudice, he should consult grand jury transcripts or...
Trump and Pirro BOTH Screwed Up by Rushing to Beat July 4
by | Aug 4, 2026 | Weaponized DOJ | As noted in this post, WaPo has a worthwhile piece on Trump’s pressure on Jeanine Pirro regarding the reflecting pool. It confirms that Pirro not only knew about but reviewed the motion to dismiss against Davey Hearn before it was filed; I had my doubts.
The Davey Hearn Motion to Dismiss ALSO Debunks Trump’s Vandalism Claim
WaPo has a worthwhile story on the competing claims about the reflecting pool which I’ll cover in more depth in a follow-up. But I want to make a discrete point first. It notes that the video Trump keeps posting, claiming, “There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” is a longer version of a video the Park Police released on June 25, six days after Davey Hearn was arrested.
Did Stan Woodward Get Paid Via the Proceeds of the Money Laundering that Todd Blanche Immunized?
by | Aug 3, 2026 | Financial Fraud, January 6 Insurrection, Weaponized DOJ | When right wingers performed Xitter outrage over the list of subpoenas — targeting the financial records of much of the MAGAt right — that Chuck Grassley released last October, I noted that what they were wailing about looked an awful like an investigation into money laundering. Those subpoenas asked for records that would show Trump raised money off false pretenses between November 2020 and his insurrection.
Free At Last, Free At Last, Thank God Almighty Trump’s Taxes are Free At Last
Seal of the US Internal Revenue Service Donald Trump, February 26, 2016 (via PBS): Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is sticking to his new explanation for why he can’t yet release copies of his recent tax returns: The IRS is auditing him, as Trump says it has for the last 12 years. “Until my audit is finished, you’re not going to see anything,” Trump said Friday, adding that he believes the government has unfairly targeted his returns.
Confusion about the Chessboard Trump Has Overturned in His Tantrum
by | Aug 3, 2026 | Iran, War | In recent days, several NYT stories on Iran have raised questions about who in the US, if anyone, has a full grasp on the chessboard they’re playing. First was a pretty hilarious story from David Sanger, which said as much about Sanger’s own beliefs about presidential power as Trump’s infirmities. Deep in the story, Sanger describes the swagger that Trump exhibited in a June interview, a swagger that came after months of successful cons from Trump on Iran.
Senate Republicans Rush to Immunize Money Launder-in-Chief’s Tax Crimes
Overnight, Todd Blanche tweeted out documentation showing what he promised John Cornyn (and with him, Thom Tillis) to get their endorsement to be the top law enforcement officer in the US. One document purports to rescind the Terrorist Slush Fund, attempting to moot the lawsuits in Floyd v. DOJ (the EDVA one moving towards discovery), but remaining silent about the Trump v. IRS case Trump appealed on Friday.
Doug Burgum Accuses Jeanine Pirro of Lying
by | Aug 2, 2026 | Financial Fraud, Weaponized DOJ | Donald Trump’s psychological need to create his own reality has started to create problems for his efforts to abuse the legal system. His attempt to complain that he was debanked by Capital One, for example, forced the bank to reveal that it cut Trump off not because of politics but because of evidence of money laundering.
In His Tax Fraud Appeal, Donald Trump Says His Failsons Are Just Like Hunter Biden
by | Aug 2, 2026 | Weaponized DOJ | I’m genuinely delighted not just that Trump has appealed Judge Kathleen Williams’ order imposing sanctions for the fraud he conducted in her court, but how he has asked for a stay in her ruling, to which she responded by asking the amici she appointed to weigh in again. THIS MATTER is before the Court on the Expedited Motion to Stay the Sanctions Order and Related Proceedings Pending Appeal (DE 114 ) (“Motion”), filed by Plaintiffs President Donald J.