Timeline of U.S. Political Transformation, 7c, January - December 2018

§7c. The Bat Lady and Other Precursors

May 29, 2022

As the Russia-collusion story collapses, its producer Brennan (CIA), inter-agency coordinator Strzok (FBI), McCabe (FBI), and others leave office in (temporary) disgrace or are fired. Half a world away, an obscure scientist, immersed in swine diarrhea in Wuhan China, discovers in it a bat coronavirus with potential military application as a bio-weapon. She later becomes famous as the ‘Bat Lady’.

The sequence of actions and events, policies and programs that transformed the United States from a free society into one lacking the Constitutionally required ‘consent of the governed’. How this gap in governance is increasingly filled by force and violence, livelihood threats, mass surveillance, centralized control of messaging, censorship, distraction, and miscounting of electoral results. Updated by inserting facts often revealed years after the event into the record when they actually took place.

2018: FBI opens investigation into Hunter Biden for criminal money-laundering.

Jan 11, 2018: Document dump reveals FBI not only paid Fusion GPS but also allowed the private firm to submit FISA 'About Inquiries'. || Source

Feb 2018: CEFC founder Ye Jianming is detained by police in Beijing after falling out of favor with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, and disappears. Ye is a partner with Hunter Biden in several energy transactions. Chinese Government agencies acquire pieces of CEFC. Payments to Hunter Biden's law firm Owasco continue through Sept 2018.

Jan 29, 2018: FBI Director Christopher Wray fires Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for falsifying FISA applications, collecting political contributions for his wife from an ally of Hillary Clinton who is the subject of an FBI investigation, among other derilictions of duty noted in Inspector General's Report.

Feb 2018: Wuhan Virology Institute 'Bat Lady' Shi Zhenling collaborates with military scientist to uncover source of swine diarrhea. She discovers it is caused by a novel cross-species bat coronavirus. Later Shi collaborates with another military scientist, Zhou Yusen, in Dec 2019. Zhou applies for a patent on the SARS-2 virus in Feb 2020 and dies under unexplained circumstances in May 2020. Shi Zhengli denies, in response to a question from Jamie Metzl on Twitter on March 24, 2021, doing any military research: 'all our research is open & transparent…I don't know of any military work.' || Source for Feb 2018 research: U.S. NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Award No. R01A 110964 to Peter Daszak and Shi Zhengli and U.S. Agency for International Development Emerging Pandemic Threats Predict Project AID-OAA-A-14-00102. || Source for Shi denial.

Feb 2, 2018: Former CIA Director Brennan joins NBC News as Senior National Security and Intelligence Analyst.

Feb 2, 2018: House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes says investigation of Brennan is warranted by inconsistencies regarding reliance on Steele dossier and a Yahoo article with information from Steele as the only basis for investigating Trump and associates. || Source

March 5, 2018: Recently retired NSA Director Mike Rogers sends classified letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes. Adm Rogers informs Committee that a two-page summary of the dossier was 'added' as an 'appendix to the ICA draft', and that consideration of that appendix was 'part of the overall ICA review/approval process'. This contradicts CIA Director Brennan's earlier testimony that the Steele dossier formed 'no part' of the ICA conclusions. || Source

March 5, 2018: Special Counsel Mueller admits to Trump lawyer John Dowd that there was no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion to influence the 2016 presidential election, but suggests Trump's firing of Comey is obstruction of justice. Dowd explains Comey was fired for mishandling the Clinton email investigation and for violations of FBI rules.

March 6, 2018: Julian Assange is indicted for Conspiracy to Commit Computer Intrusion (18 USC 371) by grand jury in Eastern Dist Virginia, based on FBI investigation started Dec 2017. Indictment is sealed pending completion of Mueller investigation in April 2019.

March 12, 2018: HPSCI releases result of 14-month investigation into Trump/Russia: finds no 'no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy'.

March 16, 2018: On the basis of IG Report of misconduct by FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, AG Sessions fires him for lying under oath several times and making unauthorized disclosures to news media.

April 18, 2018: Congress sends criminal referrals to Justice Department for James Comey, Hillary Clinton, Loretta Lynch, Sally Yates, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

April 2018: Treasury freezes all U.S. assets of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and his aluminum company, under authority of Executive Order (E.O.) 13661 and E.O. 13662, authorities codified by the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), as well as E.O. 13582. 'Deripaska has been investigated for money laundering, and has been accused of threatening the lives of business rivals, illegally wiretapping a government official, and taking part in extortion and racketeering. There are also allegations that Deripaska bribed a government official, ordered the murder of a businessman, and had links to a Russian organized crime group.' Deripaska offers to testify without immunity from prosecution regarding these allegations, but Senator Warner blocks Deripaska testimony, claiming the purported immunity condition is unacceptable. In PBS April 16, 2019 interview, Deripaska says it is 'absurd' to suggest Russian Government would rely on Manafort for anything.
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April 26, 2018: European Commission proposes 'vaccine passports'. || Source

May 2018: Maltese professor and CIA asset Joseph Mifsud, on the run, meets lawyer Stephen Roh in Zurich to record deposition. (Prosecutor John Durham later obtains Mifsud's recorded deposition.)

May 17, 2018: Atlantic Council (Gen James Jones, Chairman) and Facebook form partnership to censor election-related disinformation, 'inauthentic behavior', and potentially inflammatory material by selectively removing accounts so identified, to restore the integrity of elections worldwide.

Aug 2018: Former FBI contractor and cybersecurity specialist Dennis Nathan Cain delivers documents on Clinton Foundation and Uranium One to DOJ Inspector General Horowitz staff. While seated in a pew of a church near the White House, Cain hands a double-sealed envelope containing a flash drive with the documents to the IG official. Cain alleges then-FBI Director Robert Mueller failed to investigate Clinton Foundation criminal activity (receipt of a $130 million donation) related to Rosatom's purchase of Uranium One in 2013. An IG official personally hand-delivers the documents to House and Senate intelligence committees.

Aug 7, 2018: Google, Apple, and Facebook all remove Alex Jones and Infowars from their websites at the same time, possibly coordinated by Senator Mark Warner. || Source

Aug 10, 2018: FBI fires Peter Strzok, central figure in FBI's counterintelligence investigation of candidate and President Trump, suppression of criminal evidence in Clinton email case, falsification of FISA warrant applications, unauthorized circulation of Steele dossier to media, ambush interview of Lt Gen Flynn, and related activities. Strzok firing indicates SC Mueller has nothing further to investigate.

Aug 15, 2018: Former CIA Dir Brennan's security clearance is revoked.

Aug 19, 2018: Brennan states on TV he had no evidence of Russian collusion with Trump as of the date he left CIA.

Aug 30, 2018: Hillary Clinton, Cheryl Mills, and four other security clearances revoked.

Nov 6, 2018: With $100 million from Mike Bloomberg, Democrats obtain House majority, enabling impeachment of President Trump, while Republicans retain Senate majority, ensuring acquittal on impeachment charges.

Nov 7, 2018: AG Sessions resigns.

Nov 15, 2018: Federal magistrate Stephanie Gallagher in the U.S. District Court for Baltimore signs order authorizing FBI raid on home of Dennis Nathan Cain to recover 'stolen federal property'.

Nov 19, 2018: 16 FBI agents raid Maryland home of Dennis Nathan Cain in search of documents he had previously delivered to IG Horowitz. Cain produces copies of documents he delivered to IG Horowitz, but FBI continues searching and removes work equipment without explanation.

Nov 30, 2018: Sen Grassley writes to FBI Dir Wray, asking whether FBI was aware Cain's disclosures to the DOJ IG were lawful and protected under Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act (ICWPA). || Source

Dec 8, 2018: President Trump nominates William Barr Attorney General.

Dec 12, 2018: In UK court, Christopher Steele states Fusion GPS clients were DNC and Clinton campaign. 'Perkins Coie LLP [engaged Fusion GPS] to provide legal advice on the potential impact of Russian involvement on the legal validity of the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential election. Based on that advice, parties such as the Democratic National Committee and HFACC Inc. (also known as ‘Hillary for America’) could consider steps they would be legally entitled to take to challenge the validity of the outcome of that election.' || Source , and British High Court Filing Aug 2, 2018, Claim No. HQ18M01646.

Dec 18, 2018: Yahoo reporter Michael Isikoff, one of the first to publicize the Steele dossier, states that this dossier which stimulated investigation of Trump for collusion with Russia lacks evidence and 'some of the more sensational allegations will never be proven and are likely false'. || Source

Dec 18, 2018: Flynn appears with his Covington Burling attorneys for sentencing after cooperating with government investigations. District Judge Sullivan berates him for unspecified crimes, for 'selling out his country', threatens jail time, then asks whether he would like to postpone sentencing. Flynn agrees.

§7. Notes On A Higher Calling, January - June 2017