Probing the FBI. Plus: The great "Assange in Los Angeles" conspiracy theory!

Sessions has appointed John Huber, a United States Attorney from Utah, to probe the FBI. In other words, it is Huber's mandate to "prove" the validity of Trump's delusion that the Bureau is part of a pro-Hillary "deep state" conspiracy.

This is an extremely important business. In recent weeks, far too many pro-Resistance writers have gleefully proclaimed that Mueller was about to go after Sessions. Good lord, why would any anti-Trumper write such a thing? It's as though these people sought to goad Sessions into doing what he has done.

From now on, consider the consequences of what you write. Don't play chess if you can't think more than one move ahead.

To the best of my knowledge, nobody has yet discussed one important goal of the Huber probe: It will rip away the Mueller's veil of secrecy. Nothing indicates that the pro-Trump forces have planted anyone within Team Mueller. The Trumpers are flying blind.

Remember Goldfinger? Remember the early scene in which the bad guy, hoping to cheat at a card game, hires a blonde to spy on his opponent's hand? John Huber is that blonde. Even if Huber issues a report that the FBI has done nothing wrong, he will let "Goldfinger" (or in this case, "Goldcombover") know the cards in Mueller's hand.

(In all likelihood, Huber will find something helpful to the right-wing propaganda machine. These guys know how to transform a pimple into Mount Everest. Remember the Peter Strzok affair? Here's the truth about that.)

Stone-y silence. In the preceding post, we've discussed Stone's possible dinner with Julian Assange on August 3, 2016 (or thereabouts). I still haven't heard from any UK "spies" as to whether there are back exits to the Ecuadorean embassy in London. But wouldn't it be just like Assange to seek a covert exfiltration? Many anti-spooks have a hankering to play Secret Squirrel.

The Atlantic has the latest.

Stone’s defense is that the email was bullshit. “I never dined with Assange,” he told the Journal. There was no such meeting. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do. This was said in jest.” This is the second time in recent weeks that a Trump-connected person has offered this trust me, I was lying defense, following Cambridge Analytica’s Alexander Nix. Both men have been such prolific merchants of balderdash that it’s hard to dismiss this excuse. Stone’s penchant for falsehood is such that he could very well have invented a meeting with Assange to aggrandize himself.

On the other hand, Stone later exchanged Twitter messages with WikiLeaks, as my colleague Natasha Bertrand reported in February. He has also admitted to being in touch with Guccifer 2.0, the hacker who provided the emails to WikiLeaks, though he insists he did nothing untoward. He also defended Guccifer 2.0 as not being a Russian.

Side note: Not only was the second Guccifer obviously Russian, so was the first one. (That conspiracy-crazed Romanian cab driver was just a front, or a fall guy.) This is not theory; the American intelligence community came to that conclusion.

I can only roll my eyes at the suggestion Stone was bloviating to Nunberg. Why would Stone go to such lengths to impress a friend and pupil? Stone has called his comment a "joke," but -- as noted in our earlier post -- the usual point of a jest is to evoke giggles, which this particular "joke" failed to do.

The Great "Assange in L.A. Conspiracy Theory! The right-wing Daily Caller has been granted a peek at Roger Stone's credit card trail, which Stone proffers as his alibi:

Stone provided TheDC with a boarding pass, confirmed by Delta to WSJ to be authentic, along with a Jet Blue record showing a flight he took from JFK Airport in New York to Los Angeles International Airport on August 1, 2016. Stones’s credit card shows a $49.97 purchase he made at Izzy’s Deli in Santa Monica, California on August 2. Payments to Thrifty Car Rental, the London West Hollywood Hotel in Beverly Hills and baggage fees for Delta Airlines were made on the same card on August 3.

Stone provided TheDC a second boarding pass showing him boarding an overnight Delta Airlines flight from LAX to Miami, Florida on August 3. He arrived in the Sunshine State at 5:43 am ET on August 4, 2016, the day he sent the email reviewed by WSJ to Nunberg.

Given the gravity of the situation, I wouldn't put it past Stone to establish a "legend," handing his credit card to an underling and having him make a trip to L.A. It seems a bit odd for him to keep an old boarding pass, as though he had considered the need to establish an alibi.

Alternatively, I'd like to propose the following fun thought: Could Assange have been in Los Angeles?

Some will say that the theory I'm about to present is irresponsible conjecture. To those critics, I would note Stone's close association with Alex Jones, the God-Emperor of Irresponsible Conjecture. Fair is fair: If you're gonna dish it out, you had better be ready to take it.

Here's my scenario...

Ecuador is a poor country and Putin is the richest man in history. Russia and Ecuador have long been close and have grown closer during the past two years. Thus, the suggestion of Ecuadorean complicity in an escape plan should boggle no-one's mind.

A little-noticed story from 2015 revealed that those staffers did, in fact, formulate an exit strategy for Assange.

The embassy in London where Julian Assange has chosen to remain for more than three years considered getting rid of their long-term guest by helping him flee in fancy dress, it has emerged.

Leaked documents showed Ecuadorian diplomats were becoming increasingly concerned about Mr Assange’s behaviour and drew up a number of bizarre plans to allow him to leave the building without being arrested by waiting police officers.

One option set out by diplomatic staff was to help Mr Assange make a rooftop flit to a nearby helipad.

Other proposals included dressing him in a disguise so he could walk unrecognised out of the building in Knightsbridge, west London, or dash out and becoming lost in crowds of shoppers at Harrods department store just yards away.

“Assange could leave in fancy dress or try a discreet exit,” said one document.

“He can try to reach a nearby helipad across the rooftops, or he could get lost among the people in Harrods.”

Assange has behaved so poorly that the staff wanted to help him escape -- in fact, one gets the impression that his hosts longed to heave him out of a window, the higher the better. If he had made his "discreet exit," he would have had zero reason to inform the world of that fact. No doubt he would sneak back into the embassy from time to time, just to keep up appearances.

(If this theory has any validity, Pam Anderson's well-publicized visit in December of 2017 would be purely a matter of maintaining Julian's cover.)

Would air travel prove a problem? Nah. The FSB could provide all sorts of convincing documentation to establish an alternate identity. (Here's an obvious question which nobody has thought to ask: Who provided Paul Manafort with two alternative passports?)

Question: If freed, where would Assange go?

The obvious answer: Los Angeles. Pamela Anderson has made no secret of her love for him -- and her mansion in Malibu (with guest home) would provide a perfect refuge. She isn't there much of the time.

Anderson lives near the Malibu Cinema, in what locals call the Colony. If you're in the area, and if you see a forty-something fellow with silver hair, a hard-to-place accent and an air of unearned superiority, let me know. Remember that your cell phone has a camera.

In case you're curious: Izzy's Deli is just twelve miles away from Pam's palatial pad.

Added note: Jerome Corsi, whom I trust about as far as I could toss Izzy's Deli, seems to think that Julian Assange is alive and well and living in Switzerland. He came to this conclusion after reading some cryptic bullshit from Q-anon.

For what it's worth, Pamela Anderson has also spent much time hanging out in the land of Heidi.