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"Unofficial" FBI Group Swept Up Journalists, Politicians As Russian Disinfo "Conduits" For Probing Biden-Ukraine Dealings

An FBI analytical group that reviewed confidential-source reporting about Biden family corruption in Ukraine was "unofficially formed" inside the bureau's Foreign Influence Task Force in late 2019 and did not corroborate the allegations it was assigned to assess before labeling the reporting as Russian disinformation, according to newly declassified records.

The records [Direct download link] provide a more detailed picture of an effort known as Round River, a component of a broader intelligence project called DELTA, that operated in the run-up to and through the 2020 presidential election.

An Office of the Director of National Intelligence slide deck says analysts with the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force-Russia, or FITF-R, came together around December 2019 and used internal systems to gather "any/all derogatory information" previously reported by confidential human sources concerning "Joseph Biden corruption and other Ukraine related-topics."

The deck refers to that body of reporting as the "Ukraine Narrative," including information concerning Burisma Holdings, Hunter Biden, Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky and allegations of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. The analysts' purpose, according to the document, was to "red flag" the reporting as Russian disinformation.

But the same document states: "The Round River team did not corroborate any of the allegations of the 'Ukraine Narrative.'"

Screenshot: DELTA Project

The analysts were given "administrative accesses to all reporting" and drafted intelligence products that were later placed in confidential-source files to indicate that the reporting had been deemed Russian disinformation, the deck says.

The group "operated leading up to and through the 2020 US Presidential election."

The records add important context to earlier reporting that senior Republican and conservative figures were identified as Russian-disinformation "conduits" in connection with Round River.

A separate FBI spreadsheet shows that the terminology was broader - and in some cases more tentative - than a designation of someone as a Russian agent or knowing participant in a foreign influence effort. It records people and organizations considered for warnings that they could be caught up in a foreign influence operation, along with the FBI's position on providing such a briefing.

Among those listed as conduits are former Attorney General William Barr, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Rudolph Giuliani, Sens. Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, Rep. Jim Jordan and former Rep. Devin Nunes.

The document also identifies several prominent names not highlighted in initial coverage: Richard Donoghue, Pete Sessions and Mick Mulvaney.

Donoghue was serving at the highest levels of the Justice Department during the period covered by the operation. Mulvaney was White House chief of staff when the group formed, and Sessions, a former congressman at the time, returned to the House in 2021. Giuliani and Sessions are among the entries marked "FBI Equities," indicating the bureau objected or had an investigative interest bearing on a proposed briefing. Most of the other conduit entries are marked "No Objection."

The spreadsheet does not show that all of those nominated were actually warned - and in fact, Joe Biden is the only entry expressly marked "Briefed." 

Funny how that worked!

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/13/2026 - 15:00

CCTV captured the moment a suspected thief tried to steal cash from a convenience store in Argentina before a struggle with the shopkeeper tore off her sweatshirt. Police later detained the woman after she reportedly returned to the store demanding the surveillance footage be deleted.

Alongside traditional documentary filmmaking, Oscar-nominated director Maite Alberdi uses elaborate reenactments to underscore her themes.

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It’s been over 24 hours since the Los Angeles Lakers were sold to former Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger and businessman Josh Kushner, and there’s already been an update that could prolong the sale. According to ESPN basketball insider Brian Windhorst, for the sale to officially go through, Kushner will have to sell his minority...

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He previously underwent the operation in 2019.

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The actress was placed on life support after suffering an asthma attack last Friday.

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The University Of Michigan Is Now Hiding Grades From Fragile Freshmen

Authored by Andrea Widburg via AmericanTinker.com,

In 2017, Macalester College, a pricey Midwestern college, ran an article in its glossy “Macalester Today” magazine titled “The Dog Is In.” Indeed, that was the cover story. In the article, Macalester boasted about having multiple therapy dogs roaming the campus to help students deal with homework stress—students who, as best as I could tell, had about 12 hours a week of class time, plus homework.

I was not impressed.

Little did I know, though, that worse was to come.

Nine years after Macalester boasted about its students being so fragile that they needed therapy dogs, the University of Michigan  has announced that it is hiding first-semester grades from freshmen, lest those same freshmen might be distressed if their grades didn’t meet their expectations:

The University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) will stop reporting traditional letter grades on first-semester transcripts for incoming freshmen beginning in Fall 2027, replacing them with “pass” or “no credit” designations as part of a pilot program aimed at reducing student stress and curbing a “mental health crisis”.

Students will still earn letter grades and receive instructor feedback in every course. However, those grades will remain internal, will not appear on official transcripts, and will not affect first-semester GPAs.

University officials say the policy is intended to help freshmen transition to college, support student well-being, and encourage students to take academically challenging courses without worrying that one difficult semester could permanently affect their records.

This is bat-fecal-matter crazy.

If the students aren’t given specific information about their academic progress, they cannot fix their mistakes and change their trajectory.

I had a couple of times in college and law school where I was either lazy or confused, resulting in bad grades. Maybe I was made of stronger stuff than the new freshmen, or maybe, just maybe, I lived in a time when we were less infantilized, but those bad grades didn’t cause me to have a mental collapse. Instead, I fixed the problem, either by being less lazy or by haunting my professors until I understood what I was doing wrong. Failure (well, not an actual “F” but, still, bad grades) was as important a lesson as anything the professor was actually teaching.

It would be lovely if life were just about going from success to success and pleasure to pleasure.

However, most of life is about dealing with harsh reality: The need to get good grades, a job, pay bills, deal with unpleasant people (including bosses or teachers), etc. Life is work.

Our ability to get the most out of life—to grow as a person and to be happy—comes not from gliding through the good times, but from learning when there are bad times: learning to change harmful behaviors, and learning to use reasonable optimism, not unreasoning, immature despair, as the engine powering you.

And one other thing: The grading system across academia has a profound flaw, and the way to fix it isn’t to hide information from students.

Grades should be weighted, with the grades at the beginning of the year, semester, or quarter having less value in the averaging than grades later in the quarter.

What matters isn’t where you start; it’s where you end.

If you struggle in the beginning but, through hard work, get better as you go, those early grades shouldn’t matter at all, or should matter minimally. In the same way, if you start slacking off after a fast start, that should be punished.

Tyler Durden Thu, 08/13/2026 - 14:40

A Navy veteran, diver and surfer reached a legal settlement with Newport Beach that secures him the right to teach paid surf lessons on city beaches.

Bio parents Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed have custody of the baby born to Texas surrogate McKenna West, who refused their abortion request.

Araghchi Mocks 'Fake Intelligence' Amid Skepticism Over Iranian Plot Against Trump In Turkey

US mainstream media has this week been dominated by claims that an Iranian assassination threat prompted President Donald Trump to secretly switch planes while flying out of Turkey last month, with Air Force One serving as a decoy while he flew out on a smaller military aircraft.

The details of the 'escape' from alleged danger are wild, and continue to be subject of widespread scrutiny and questioning, given the American president was actually covertly transferred into a catering container, which then ferried him to a small C-32A aircraft, according to reports in The Washington Post and The New York Times.

BBC: Donald Trump secretly switched planes when he was returning from a Nato meeting last month in order to avoid a threat to his life from Iran.

The claim was that Iranian covert forces could target Air Force One at the airport in Ankara using shoulder-fired rockets, or MANPADS, from perhaps just one kilometer away

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday while speaking of the broader war and the status of the Hormuz Strait appeared to gently mock the ordeal and controversy surrounding it. He referenced "fake intelligence" in the broad comments.

Importantly the words come as some like Turkey are accusing Israel of feeding Washington 'fabricated' intelligence, which then led to the dramatic Trump plane-switching escapade.

FM Araghchi asserted that the United States has "has long miscalculated due to intelligence failures," especially when launching its war on Iran.

But that's when he could be interpreted as mocking the Air Force One drama, continuing on X: "Worse than fake news is fake intelligence."

Some analysts have questioned why at this point in the conflict, when Iranian government and armed forces have clearly survived nearly six months of everything the US military has thrown at it, Iran would even see the need to assassinate a head of state.

Such an action would only invite a much greater military response than has been seen before, and the Islamic Republic seeks to keep its current leverage over Hormuz, wanting to keep things at a low-burn headed into US midterm elections.

The Washington Post’s @DanLamothe, who broke the news of Trump’s secret plane switch via a catering truck, joins OutFront to share new reporting that the CIA had “low confidence” in Israeli intel that Trump was facing a threat from Iran: “Given the seriousness of the issue… they… pic.twitter.com/CPROjMMFhG

— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) August 13, 2026

In the meantime there are fresh reports that the US intelligence community itself is skeptical of the assassination plot claims:

US intelligence officials were skeptical of an alleged Iranian assassination threat against President Donald Trump during his trip to Turkiye for the NATO summit, which prompted a secretive plan to fly him out of the country in an alternative military aircraft.

The assassination threat was relayed by the Israeli government to the CIA, where analysts did not view the intelligence as compelling and conveyed that skepticism to Trump administration officials, Washington Post reported, quoting current and former US officials familiar with the intelligence said.

Another official called the reports of threats against Trump’s life “Israeli-derived, not US-generated, and viewed as low confidence,” Washington Post added.

However, the Secret Service is trained to take basically every threat seriously and move fast, especially while the president is traveling through foreign countries, or in potentially hostile environments. 

More and more skepticism has emerged of late across the political spectrum related to official Washington claims related to the Iran conflict...

The story of Trump secretly switching airplanes is actually a great example of how we got into the war with Iran…

“Israeli-derived, not U.S.-generated, and viewed as low confidence” by our own intelligence agencies. pic.twitter.com/zWKkWxYBat

— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) August 13, 2026

"As the President has said, he has faced numerous threats on his life, including ones from Iran, and every measure is taken to ensure his safety," a US official said in a statement.

"The United States Secret Service’s core mission is protecting the President, which they achieved," the statement added.

*  *  *

Meanwhile, expect some of Iran's Lego videos to drop next...

Washington Post: Trump underwent an elaborate plan to hide his flight from Turkey to the United Kingdom last month using a catering food truck amid Iran threat. pic.twitter.com/ySqAT6No94

— IRI Embassy in Armenia (@iraninyerevan) August 11, 2026 Tyler Durden Thu, 08/13/2026 - 14:20

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