“I am now leaving for the United States for my seventh trip to meet with President Trump since he was elected for a second term,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said prior to his departure to Washington. “This, of course, does not include his unforgettable visit to Israel and his speech in the Knesset.” (Seven since Trump took office again!)

He and President Trump are expected to begin their meeting at the White House, focused on Iran negotiations and the possibility of military action, by late-morning (11 eastern). Netanyahu’s ‘welcome’ in D.C. last night raised some eyebrows, given an entire major freeway into the beltway area was shut down for security reasons…

They are literally shutting down highways for Netanyahu’s arrival in DC

pic.twitter.com/94YbO5Cy2t

— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) February 11, 2026

Before leaving Israel, Netanyahu told reporters that Iran is the “first and foremost” issue he will raise with Trump. He was originally scheduled to travel to the US for a February 18 meeting, but Israel asked to move it up after the US-Iran talks in Oman.

“I will present the president with our views regarding the essential principles of the negotiations – principles that, in our eyes, are vital not only for Israel but for anyone in the world who desires peace and security in the Middle East,” the Israeli leader previewed.

Israel is pressing the US to require that any agreement with Iran include zero nuclear enrichment and limits on its ballistic missile program. Iranian officials have rejected those terms, signaling they would block any deal. On Tuesday, Trump indicated that Iran’s missiles should be part of the agreement. 

But if Tehran were to agree with this it would essentially be self-destructing, as it would have no deterrent and be defenseless against any future Israeli attack – or any other enemy aggression for that matter.

One Israeli source told CNN that Tel Aviv is “worried about Iran’s progress in restoring its ballistic missile stockpiles and capabilities to its status before the 12-Day War.”

Iranian leaders are meanwhile fully aware of what Netanyahu’s D.C. trip represents, and the timing:

Tehran, which resumed talks with Washington last week in Oman, warned Monday of “destructive influences” on diplomacy ahead of the Israeli premier’s visit.

On Wednesday, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said his country would “not yield to excessive demands” on its nuclear program, though he said the country is not seeking an atomic weapon.

Just after Netanyahu’s arrival Tuesday evening, he met with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner to discuss “regional issues”. He was also briefed on how Oman-mediated talks are going, ahead of the proposed second round expected next week.

President Trump is still threatening to send a second carrier group to the Central Command (CENTCOM) area, which would be a clear signal he intends major military action. He could still order some kind of limited action, also as Congress is once again missing in action on reigning in war powers.

Via Academy Securities’ Peter Tchir,

There is almost nothing to nitpick about this report (though we do have some caveats).

Big beat on jobs 130k vs 65k expected. Private jobs crushed it, adding 172k (yes, public sector jobs shrank).

Downward revision for prior 2 reports was “only” -17k.

The benchmark revisions were -862k.

A big number but -825k was baked in, so kind of a rounding error at this stage on “old” data.

Unemployment rate dropped to 4.3%.

Not only did the household survey add 528k jobs, but we got this drop even while labor participation INCREASED to 62.5% – a very healthy shift in unemployment.

The birth/death model showed job losses of 69k.

Since I do think birth/death had an outsized influence on the revisions it is good to see a negative number here. It gives me more confidence in the print.

What is there to complain about?

• NSA (not seasonally adjusted) had a drop of 2,649,000 jobs.

  • We have been complaining (for years) that the seasonal adjustments have a lot of issues and this year’s might be worse than usual in that respect

  • We still add a lot of jobs in winter and take them away in summer, because that is how the weather worked (slowing in the Northeast), but we no longer believe that is accurate as so much construction has moved to the South.

  • It adds back a lot of jobs that were added for the holidays. It is unclear how many jobs were really added for the holidays. It does not help that the government shutdown(s) has made the data even less reliable than usual.

• In 2025 the largest downward revision was in February where they took away 167k from the prior 2 reports.

These two factors are why I will take this payroll data with a “grain of salt”.

The market has immediately priced in a more hawkish Fed with rate-cut expectations tumbling.

Ahead of today’s jobs report, the Trump admin unleashed a full court press to warn markets about what was expected to be a very weak numbers, with Peter Navarro saying “we have to revise our expectations down significantly for what a monthly job number should look like” and Kevin Hassett told CNBC on Monday to “expect slightly smaller job numbers” and that “one shouldn’t panic” if the labor data comes in weak. That’s also why the whisper number ahead of today’s jobs print was well below the consensus, at 35K vs 65K median consensus. 

And so with markets and traders fully expecting a ugly print – with Bloomberg’s chief economist looking for a 0 January print – the BLS decided to shock everyone, and reported than in January the US added 130K jobs, double the 65K median estimate and up from a downward revised December print of 48K (vs 50K previously). This was also the highest monthly jobs increase since December 2024.

While today’s number was double the median consensus, here is some additional color: at 130K, the forecast was higher than 79 out of 80 forecasts, with just Citigroup’s 135K forecast higher.

That said, expect today’s number to be revised sharply lower last month: that’s because the November report was revised down by 15,000, from +56,000 to +41,000, and the change for December was revised down by 2,000, from +50,000 to +48,000. With these revisions,  employment in November and December combined is 17,000 lower than previously reported. It gets worse though, with 25 of the past 26 jobs reports revised lower. 

There is another reason why today’s report will be revised away: while the seasonally adjusted change was a stronger than expected 130K, the unadjusted was a negative 2.649 million. That means that the entire delta in today’s “surprise beat” was due to seasonal  adjustments. 

The positive surprise in the payrolls number also translated into improvement in the unemployment rate, which unexpectedly dropped to 4.3%, down from 4.4% in December where it was expected to stay. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for teenagers declined to 13.6 percent in January. The jobless rates for adult men (3.8 percent), adult women (4.0 percent), and people who are White (3.7 percent), Black (7.2 percent), Asian (4.1 percent), or Hispanic (4.7 percent) all posted modest improvements in recent months. 

Tied to this, the labor force participation rate rose to 62.5%, up from 62.4% and fractionally better than the expected unchanged print. 

There was more positive surprises: in January, hourly earnings rose 0.4% MoM, up from a downward revised (of course) 0.1% in January and above the 0.3% estimate. On a YoY basis, this translated to a 3.7% increase in average hourly earnings, in line with estimates and unchanged from the previous month.

Some more details from the report:

• The number of people employed part time for economic reasons decreased by 453,000 to 4.9 million in January but is up by 410,000 over the year. These individuals would have preferred full-time employment but were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs. 
• In January, the number of people not in the labor force who currently want a job decreased by 399,000 to 5.8 million. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job. 
• Among those not in the labor force who wanted a job, the number of people marginally attached to the labor force changed little at 1.7 million in January. These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months but had not looked for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, also changed little at 475,000 in January. 

Taking a closer look at the Establishment survey, we find that job gains occurred in health care, social assistance, and construction, while federal government and financial activities lost jobs. Payroll employment changed little in 2025 (+15,000 per month on average).Here is the breakdown:

• Health care added 82,000 jobs in January, with gains in ambulatory health care services (+50,000), hospitals (+18,000), and nursing and residential care facilities (+13,000). Job growth in health care averaged 33,000 per month in 2025. 
• Employment in social assistance increased by 42,000 in January, primarily in individual and family services (+38,000).
• Construction added 33,000 jobs in January, reflecting an employment gain in nonresidential specialty trade contractors (+25,000). Employment in construction was essentially flat in 2025.
• In January, federal government employment continued to decline (-34,000) as some federal employees who accepted a deferred resignation offer in 2025 came off federal payrolls. Since reaching a peak in October 2024, federal government employment is down by 327,000, or 10.9
• percent.
• Financial activities employment declined by 22,000 in January and is down by 49,000 since reaching a recent peak in May 2025. Within the industry, insurance carriers and related activities lost 11,000 jobs over the month.

And visually:

Of these, the most notable is was the ongoing sharp decline in government workers, which tumbled by 42K, and are down 5 of the past 6 months.

Last but not least, extending last month’s move, in January the bulk of job creation was full time jobs which increased by 582K, while part-time jobs rose by only 31K.

And while the January numbers was stellar (at least until it is revised much lower in coming months), the much uglier part to today’s jobs report was the dramatic negative benchmark revisions which we highlighted yesterday. 

As we noted, the establishment survey data released today was re-benchmarked to reflect comprehensive counts of payroll jobs for March 2025. These counts are derived principally from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), which counts jobs covered by the Unemployment Insurance (UI) tax system. The benchmark process results in revisions to not seasonally adjusted data from April 2024 forward. Seasonally adjusted data from January 2021 forward are subject to revision. In addition, data for some series prior to 2021, both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted, incorporate other revisions.

The seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment level for March 2025 was revised downward by 898,000. On a not seasonally adjusted basis, the total nonfarm employment level for March 2025 was revised downward by 862,000, or -0.5 percent. 

AS a result, the change in total nonfarm employment for 2025 was revised from +584,000 to +181,000 (seasonally adjusted), which means that the US barely generated any jobs in 2025, and that instead of creating 49K average jobs per month, the US only added 15K jobs. 

We will have more to say on the historic negative revisions shortly, but for now suffice to say, the picture is one of a much weaker jobs market, and the January bounce notwithstanding – and it won’t stand once it is revised lower – the Fed will have no choice but to slash rates aggressively to prevent the already precarious labor market from rolling over into contraction. 

Trade wars, along with a generational shift away from wine, have pushed Bordeaux winemakers into turmoil, with French wine and spirits exports sinking to their lowest level in two decades.

“In volume, our exports have been in a slump and are at their lowest level in at least 20 years,” Gabriel Picard, president of FEVS, the country’s federation of wine and spirits exporters, told Bloomberg at the Wine Paris fair on Tuesday.

Gabriel Picard

Picard warned that wine sales have been sliding since 2022. In an earlier statement, he said, “Geopolitical tensions, trade conflicts, exchange-rate fluctuations, and the loss of consumer confidence have all weighed on our exports.”

In a separate interview with Reuters at Wine Paris, he added, “There is a real decline in the U.S., and the volume correction may not have been sufficient.”

He warned, “We may see another volume correction in 2026.”

Wine Map Of France 

FEVS data show that exports in 2025 declined 8% in value to $17 billion compared with 2024. Volumes fell by about 3%.

The Wine Paris trade fair is a push by President Macron to search for solutions to the industry’s crisis. The French government is paying winemakers in Bordeaux to rip up their vines to reduce oversupply.

Looking at markets, the Liv-ex Fine Wine 50, a benchmark index from Liv-ex that tracks daily price moves in Bordeaux First Growths, comprises 50 component wines and shows the bust underway since peaking in early 2023.

“Twenty years ago, people liked robust reds with a high alcohol content, but today they’re looking for fresher, lighter wines, so producers in Bordeaux are returning to an old winemaking method to suit new tastes,” Bernard Burtschy, a wine critic for Le Figaro, told The Times.

Via Remix News,

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called anti-Olympic protesters enemies of the country after demonstrators clashed with police in Milan on Saturday and disrupted train traffic with sabotage actions.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Giorgia Meloni (@giorgiameloni)

In a post on Instagram, the Italian Prime Minister emphasized that while many people are working to make the Olympics a success and present a positive image of Italy, there are those who, in her opinion, are acting specifically against the country.

“Thousands upon thousands of Italians are working around the clock to ensure that everything runs smoothly during the Olympics.

“Many are doing so as volunteers because they want their country to make a good impression and be admired and respected,” she posted.

“Then there are those who are enemies of Italy and Italians, protesting ‘against the Olympics’ and ensuring that these images are broadcast on television around the world.

“This comes after others cut railway cables to prevent trains from running,” her post continued.

“Once again, we express our solidarity with the police, the city of Milan, and all those who will see their work undermined by these gangs of criminals,” Meloni concluded.

On Saturday, thousands of people protested against the Olympics in Milan, one of the main venues for the event, reports Hirado. During the demonstration, a group of about 100 people broke away from the crowd and clashed with police, throwing fireworks, smoke bombs, and bottles.

Police also used water cannons to restore order. Authorities said six people were arrested after the riots. The incidents also disrupted rail traffic.

Although Meloni made no mention of what Italians are protesting specifically, there have been ongoing protests against the use of U.S. ICE agents for anti-terrorism efforts during the Winter Olympics as well as against Israel’s participation in the Games.

Read more here…

The Pentagon’s chief strategist is heading to NATO this week to spell out what many European capitals have been quietly dreading: the future U.S. military posture in Europe is under review – likely up for downsizing, and even Europe’s US-supplied nuclear umbrella could be up for review and negotiations.

Defense Department policy chief Elbridge Colby will represent Washington at Thursday’s NATO ministerial, filling in for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is sitting out this round. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to lead the US side. US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said Colby will address among other things “capabilities that may need to be ultimately transitioned out of Europe.”

Colby has long argued that NATO allies must assume the primary responsibility for their own defense, which aligns with President Trump’s priorities – namely that Europe can no longer rely on open-ended American security guarantees, also as Washington aligns toward dominance in the Western hemisphere (Donroe Doctrine).

Much of America’s military presence may soon be on the move. Speaking before a pre-conference audience, US envoy Whitaker already signaled contention. “I completely reject everything I just heard” he said, as Washington is “not trying to dismantle NATO,” but that European allies must take more responsibility.

Europe must grow up, he explained. “When your kids are young, they’re dependent on you. But eventually you expect them to get a job. And so to me, that’s where we are. We still love them. You’re still allies,” Amb. Whitaker said.

While praising allies’ willingness boost military spending to 5%, he assessed that they are being too sluggish in turning this extra defense investment and expenditure into actual military capabilities.

“One of the things that I’ve noticed in my time here in Europe is there is a lot of discussion and not a lot of action,” he emphasized.

He was responding to a fresh annual report produced by the Munich Security Conference (MSC), scheduled formally to take place February 13-15, which stated that “for decades, Europe thrived under an American security umbrella that allowed it to prioritize integration and prosperity over hard power. That era has ended.”

Just days ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spelled out that Moscow has “no intention of attacking Europe” as there is “no reason to do so” – but that the West could expect in the face of any aggression against Russian territory or its interests “a full-fledged military response.”

Wrecking-ball politics the order of the day…

The #MSCreport 2026 is out now! 🐘

The world has entered a period of wrecking-ball politics. More than 80 years after construction began, the US-led post-1945 international order is now
⚠️ Under Destruction.

Read our brand-new Munich Security Report: https://t.co/dErDjv8G4t pic.twitter.com/gC1Zs0Z3OU

— Munich Security Conference (@MunSecConf) February 9, 2026

On the nuclear umbrella issue, Finland’s defense minister told AFP Tuesday that while he welcomes open European dialogue on a stronger regional nuclear deterrence, he admitted it is not realistic “at this point” to replace American nukes.

Defense chief Antti Hakkanen acknowledged, “We fully trust … that the US is fully committed to the nuclear deterrence in NATO” – adding that European countries were “taking the leading role in conventional defense.”

Via Remix News,

Authorities in Germany have uncovered a sophisticated fraud network that allegedly deployed paid operatives to take language and naturalization exams on behalf of migrants, with the fraud taking place on a nationwide scale.

The investigation, centered in Nuremberg, suggests a coordinated effort to bypass residency and citizenship requirements. Notably, potential applicants for citizenship must display a basic understanding of the German language.

Prosecutors say the network functioned by providing substitute test-takers who possessed a high command of the German language. According to investigators, candidates used forged identification documents that displayed the substitute’s photo but contained the personal data of the actual applicant, according to Welt.

Applicants reportedly paid between €2,500 and €6,000 per examination. Since the documents appeared legitimate, “the examiners were thus unable to detect the fraud,” resulting in the issuance of genuine certificates used to obtain residence permits or citizenship.

The Middle Franconia Police Headquarters announced on Monday that two individuals are currently in custody, including a 39-year-old Iraqi man, identified as the primary mediator, who is in pre-trial detention.

Additionally, a 22-year-old German man was arrested in January while actively “trying to take such a language examination.”

Furthermore, the scale of the network was highlighted in December when “10 people were also identified as operatives at a language school in North Rhine-Westphalia while they were taking exams for other schools.”

While the current arrests were made in Bavaria, the “investigations concern the entire federal territory.”

Police noted that while “proceedings for forged language certificates have already been underway in the past,” this specific method of using look-alike deputies represents a significant escalation. Following an initial review of the evidence, Bavarian investigators “assumed that there will be a high double-digit number of further investigations.”

Concerns about the mass naturalization of foreigners have already been raised, with potentially thousands or even theoretically tens of thousands of foreigners using fraud to obtain their citizenship.

In one case, hundreds of forged certificates were found by just one official, who found that these certificates were being sold on a huge scale on TikTok.

Furthermore, many of the fraud cases have likely gone undetected.

The language test required for German citizenship, which must show proficiency in only B1, hardly proves a strong command of the German language either. Nonetheless, there are numerous cases involving migrants paying thousands of euros for a forged certificate or for test takers to take the test for them.

Already, there have been broad concerns about foreign workers in Germany who lack an adequate level of German for their roles as doctors and police officers.

Read more here…

Europe’s flagship sixth-generation fighter project is unraveling fast. Politico Europe days ago observed that the Franco-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System (FCAS) is now “on the verge of collapse” after Dassault and Airbus failed to meet critical deadlines for agreeing on work-sharing arrangements.

The warnings have been building for months, with loud public signaling coming from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who already conceded that the project is stalled, bluntly admitting there is “no progress” – while French officials also sound increasingly pessimistic, with some privately warning that the manned fighter element of FCAS may already be “dead”.

Some of the key quotes in the Politico piece attempt to strike hopeful note, but sound anything but reassuring: “We are doing everything we can to try and save this program. We’ll see how we can land,” the head of the French arms procurement agency, Patrick Pailloux, was cited in the report as telling the press.

Prior understandings have already broken down, with the report explaining: “The manned fighter has been at the core of the bitter industrial disputes between Dassault and Airbus over leadership, technology, and work-sharing, with little sign of a resolution. Dassault is looking for more control over the development of the Next Generation Fighter (NGF), a key component of the FCAS project.”

And a December deadline to resolve the dispute has come and gone with no resolution. “In Berlin, German officials insist Germany still wants to preserve parts of the project – particularly the joint combat cloud and other shared systems – even if the fighter itself splits into two separate jets,” the Politico report added. 

So the ultra-ambitious project could all ultimately break down over control and intellectual property questions – and shared workflow issues – given Paris is accusing Berlin of trying to “steal know-how” while German officials have grumbled about the project being little more than a costly bailout for France’s defense industry. 

Last year Merz acknowledged, “We are not making any progress with this project. Things cannot continue as they are.” But nothing appears to have changed since then till now.

Most recently, Bloomberg has reported that “FCAS is meant to be operational around 2040, but that deadline may be hard to meet.”

The same report noted another blackeye for EU and inter-NATO unity and cooperation: “The program’s difficulties call into question Europe’s broader ability to form wartime alliances as the region comes under increasing US pressure to spend more on defense and become more self-reliant.”

US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker referenced this theme of the Trump administration, namely European disunity, in comments in Germany just ahead of the annual Munich Security Conference. Europe must grow up, he explained, and Washington can’t provide the unity and self-reliance it needs. “When your kids are young, they’re dependent on you. But eventually you expect them to get a job. And so to me, that’s where we are. We still love them. You’re still allies,” Amb. Whitaker said.

The FCAS story so far…
Left: plucky France with Macron and Dassault just trying to build a European fighter jet that can launch from an aircraft carrier.
Right: cold-hearted, untrustworthy Germans with their insistence on shared workloads and design decisions destroying FCAS. pic.twitter.com/i80fLUSGUp

— Georg ‘Dr. Maverick’ Löfflmann (@gloefflmann) February 10, 2026

While praising allies’ willingness boost military spending to 5%, he assessed that they are being too sluggish in turning this extra defense investment and expenditure into actual military capabilities.

“One of the things that I’ve noticed in my time here in Europe is there is a lot of discussion and not a lot of action,” he emphasized. The faltering FCAS sixth-generation fighter project could in the end prove yet another costly example of bickering that doesn’t produce tangible results.

Authored by Michael Kern via OilPrice.com,

Germany is proposing that renewable energy developers pay for connecting to the grid in new regulations that would replace the current system of first-come, first-served, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a new draft law it has seen.  

The current congestion in the queue for grid connections and the regulations allowing the first applications to be connected is slowing renewables expansion.  

“Connecting generation, storage, and consumption facilities to the electricity grid is facing ever greater challenges,” says the bill proposed by Germany’s economy and energy ministry, as carried by Reuters. 

“In particular, the ongoing flood of applications from large-scale battery storage systems is overloading grid operators and blocking other grid connection applicants,” according to the bill.  

Apart from having renewable energy developers pay for connecting to the grid, the new regulations would aim to encourage the construction of wind, solar, and battery capacity in areas with easier connections for the grid.  

Despite soaring wind and solar installations in recent years, Germany needs to accelerate capacity additions to meet its own renewable energy targets. 

Europe’s biggest economy has a target to have renewables account for 80% of its electricity generation in 2030.    

In solar, Germany is halfway through reaching its 2030 solar power targets, the German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar) said in June last year.

The association, however, warned that solar power expansion has slowed and while Germany is halfway there on its solar goals, the next stage to reaching the 2030 targets cannot be taken for granted.

Germany saw the highest number of onshore wind turbines commissioned in the first half of 2025 for eight years, but the rebound in installations is still off track to reach the official targets, the German wind energy association, Bundesverband WindEnergie (BWE), said in the middle of 2025. 

Despite the jump in wind power installations, Germany still has a gap between the rate of capacity expansion and the legally mandated goals in the Renewable Energy Sources Act, the so-called EEG, BWE president Bärbel Heidebroek said in July.   

President Donald Trump has instructed the CIA and other spy agencies to hand over intelligence related to the 2020 election, a bunch of (presumably panicked) US intelligence officials told Politico and NBC News. 

The records are to be handed over to Kurt Olsen – now a temporary government employee in the White House – who four years ago was involved in the “Stop the Steal” campaign to determine whether Joe Biden won the 2020 election via cheating. 

And you know they’re freaking out by the way they tell us this…

“The administration last year hired Kurt Olsen, who more than five years ago took part in the “Stop the Steal” campaign that promoted baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, to investigate the 2020 election.” –NBC News

…

President Donald Trump has directed top U.S. spy agencies to share sensitive intelligence about the 2020 election with his former campaign lawyer, known for pushing debunked theories of electoral fraud, according to four people with knowledge of the effort. –Politico

Indeed:

“The president has asked Mr. Olsen to look at intelligence related to the 2020 election and the agency is ensuring that he has the access necessary to do his work,” a CIA official told NBC in an emailed statement (probably right after hanging up with the reporter). 

When asked about Olsen’s role, the White House told the outlet “President Trump has the authority to provide access to classified material to individuals as he deems necessary. The entire Trump administration is working together to ensure the integrity of U.S. elections.” 

The admin did not specifically respond to questions about whether Olsen was focusing only on the 2020 election, or possible security threats to future elections. 

The freakout comes after the FBI’s recent search of an elections center in Fulton County, Georgia – where they seized ballots from the 2020 election. 

Now check out the tone over at Politico:

The decision to provide some of the government’s most sensitive spy material to Olsen is unusual, given that he has no known experience working with the U.S. spy community and only joined the Trump administration as a short-term special government employee in October 2025. Special government employees are supposed to work no more than 130 days during any period of 365 days, suggesting his time at the White House could end soon.

The first person said that Olsen has passed a background check and a polygraph exam. It is not clear how close Olsen is to completing his report on the 2020 elections.

Intelligence analysis is supposed to be nonpartisan, and it appears Olsen’s views on electoral fraud in prior U.S. elections are so deeply held that even some people close to the president question his ability to evaluate the material shared with him.

“This guy has no background” in intelligence, said the second person, a close Trump ally. Olsen “will find some super classified report, say it’s evidence of fraud, but really it’s just completely out of context.”

…

Olsen rose to prominence by working closely with Trump to undermine the results of the 2020 election under the slogan “Stop the Steal.” He urged several DOJ officials that year to file a complaint to the Supreme Court scrutinizing Trump’s loss, and even called the president multiple times during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol

Wow!

About That Raid

As we noted earlier Tuesday, an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans last month, which was unsealed Tuesday, lays out five categories of confirmed problems in Fulton County’s handling of ballots, raising questions that have simmered for over five years since Trump and his allies raised questions about the election in Georgia and other states where irregularities were alleged.

According to a report from Just the News, Evans filed the affidavit last month to establish probable cause for a raid that seized around 700 boxes of ballots from an Atlanta-area storage warehouse. The investigation stemmed from a referral by Kurt Olsen, President Trump’s election integrity czar. Evans interviewed roughly a dozen unnamed witnesses about allegations tied to the contested Georgia race, where Joe Biden edged out Trump by less than 12,000 votes in the official results.

“This warrant application is part of an FBI criminal investigation into whether any of the improprieties were intentional acts that violated federal criminal laws.”

Fulton County admitted it lacks scanned images of all 528,777 ballots counted during the initial count and of the 527,925 ballots tallied during the state’s first recount.

County officials also confirmed that during the recount, some ballots were scanned multiple times. Ballot images obtained through public records requests show identical markings appearing on duplicated images.

During the Risk Limiting Audit, hand counters reported vote totals for batches that didn’t match the actual votes inside those batches.

According to the affidavit, “The State’s Performance Review Board reported that Secretary of State investigators confirmed inaccurate batch tallies from the Risk Limiting Audit.” 

More on that here…

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