GOP Operative Sentenced to 18 Months for Funneling Russian Money to Trump Campaign
Jesse Benton arrives for sentencing in 2016.David Pitt/AP Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.On Friday, a federal judge in Washington, DC sentenced a veteran GOP operative to 18 months in prison for funneling $25,000 from a Russian businessman to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. Jesse…
How the Case of Arrested FBI Agent Charles McGonigal Is Tied to a Russia-Linked Influence Effort
Joe Minchillo/AP Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.It was shocking news: Charles McGonigal, a former counterintelligence chief for the FBI, was arrested for his alleged role in two separate schemes. In one, he purportedly accepted $225,000 from an Albanian American businessman, while he was…
Shoot Down the Balloon, You Coward! (And Please Also Donate $35 to Republicans.)
Mother Jones; Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette/AP; Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.President Joe Biden seems to be pretty unhappy about the suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over Montana. His administration signaled this by postponing Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing—less…
Columbia Journalism Review’s Big Fail: It Published 24,000 Words on Russiagate and Missed the Point
Mother Jones illustration; AP Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Misdirection, an essential tool for magicians, is not usually a component of media criticism. But in a lengthy critique of the coverage of the Trump-Russia scandal published this week by the Columbia Journalism Review, veteran investigative reporter…
Why Those Documents at Mike Pence’s Place Should Be Bad for Trump
Documents with classified markings were discovered last week in the Indiana home of former Vice President Mike Pence, seen here in November.John Minchillo/AP Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Has the FBI checked Dick Cheney’s house? On Tuesday, a lawyer for former Vice President Mike…
Mike Pence Is Courting Controversial Anti-Gay Pastors
Mike Pence greets John Hagee in 2019.Patrick Semansky/AP Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.When he ran for president in 2008, the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) denounced the views of Texas evangelical minister John Hagee as “crazy and unacceptable” and rejected his endorsement for…