Prosecutors subpoenaed Apple in February 2018 for data on 73 phone numbers and 36 email address as part of the Trump Justice Department’s investigation into leaks of classified information, according to multiple reports.
On Secrecy, COVID and the PRC
I hope you’ve enjoyed or at least feel you’ve learned more about this lab leak controversy from the emails I’ve published over the last couple days. I very much have. I now see a lot more of the complexity of the topic. But at the end of the day I come away with the conclusion that we really don’t know because we don’t have a lot of data.
And that brings us back to a recurrent point: if the Chinese authorities wanted to they could clear a lot of this up by granting access to the records of the Wuhan laboratory, perhaps the medical records of the staff and interviews with the relevant scientists. To China skeptics this is an obvious sign of guilt, a sign of something to hide. Many people from the sciences have a reaction that is a mix of anger and puzzlement. Science is about transparency, so what’s the problem exactly? Many biologists and virologists have years of experience working collaboratively with Chinese scientists or even some of the very scientists in question. So seeing them all go silent just seems odd or inexplicable.
But of course it’s not the scientists. It’s the Chinese government.
Readers Respond on Lab Leak #6
From TPM Reader MN …
First of all, for credibility’s sake, I am a computational biology postdoc at [*******]. I’ve done some research on the SARS-CoV-2 genome but it hasn’t been my main focus the way it has for many people. Nonetheless, I’m acquainted with at least the discussion of genomic mutations and evolution, although the nitty gritty web lab virology is not my area.
Reminder
Remember, our 2nd annual drive for The TPM Journalism Fund starts next week. I’ll get into all the details and the pitch next week. But it’s really important for our operation. So please keep an eye out and if you can give a glance to our posts about it we would really appreciate it.
The Senate’s Big China Bill Doesn’t Portend Much Good About ‘Bipartisanship’
On the few issues in Congress where there’s bipartisan support for some kind of action, the idea persists that the body can break through deadlock and pass real change.
It’s even led to discussion of a “secret Congress,” one free of the culture war-infected partisan politics in which legislators are free to quietly, and in a bipartisan fashion, pass meaningful legislation that the country needs.
But is that really true? Take a look at the Endless Frontier Act, a much-heralded package aimed at boosting federal investment in research and development to keep the country competitive with China in science and technology.
Continue reading “The Senate’s Big China Bill Doesn’t Portend Much Good About ‘Bipartisanship’”
Readers Respond on Lab Leaks #5
From TPM Reader JB …
For what it’s worth, I think most of the discussion in the US political world about the origins of COVID-19 has been about ephemera, driven by Republicans flopping around like fish in a boat as they try to devise a winning post-Trump (but Trump-friendly) political issue and media people fretting about whether media coverage is giving adequate weight to the things Republicans claim to be upset about today.
DOJ Inspector General To Probe Seizure Of The Data Of Lawmakers And Reporters
Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced on Friday his investigation of the Justice Department’s seizure of the data of Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee and of several reporters as part of wide-ranging leak investigations during the Trump years.
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OAN Hosts’ AZ ‘Audit’ Fundraising Group Now Bankrolling Visits From Out-of-State GOPers
A fundraising group led by a host and correspondent from the far-right One America News Network is now covering travel expenses for out-of-state Republican legislators to tour the shambolic “audit” of Maricopa County, Arizona’s 2020 election results.
Garland: DOJ Voting Rights Push To Include Focus On Sketchy Audits, Elex Worker Threats
Attorney General Merrick Garland laid out on Friday a muscular approach he says the Justice Department will take to protect the right to vote. In a policy speech at the department’s D.C. headquarters, Garland addressed not only the slew of restrictive voting measures advancing in GOP statehouses, but the harassment of election officials and the recent phenomena of dubious post-election “audits” that cast doubt on the 2020 results.
Toensing Appeals In Bid To Force Gov’t To Return Phone It Took
Trump lawyer Victoria Toensing appealed a lower court ruling on Friday that rejected her request to have prosecutors return a search warrant executed on her.
Continue reading “Toensing Appeals In Bid To Force Gov’t To Return Phone It Took”