Tom has given us one of today’s gems of humor, and I want to share the other one. There are far, far more tweets than I can possibly include here, but I will try to indicate the range and depth of incompetence, which is truly monumental.
First, a narrative account for those of you who prefer such things.
At the center of the scheme is publicity-hungry Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman, who has repeatedly dabbled in internet conspiracy theories in the past, including promoting the idea that murdered Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was killed by deep-state government operatives.
….
Burkman has not any offered any evidence at all of his accusations and his previous “bombshell” press conferences on other stories have become notorious flops in Washington media circles.
….
Burkman’s latest gambit has far higher stakes than his previous ones; but it too seems similarly bound for self-destruction. Allegations that he was offering to pay women to accuse Mueller come from an uncorroborated email sent to a number of media outlets, including The Daily Beast, by a person who identified herself as Florida resident “Lorraine Parsons.”
In her emails, Parsons claimed that Burkman and his associates were pressuring her to “make accusations of sexual misconduct and workplace harassment against Robert Mueller” and to “sign a sworn affidavit to that effect.” In exchange, she said, they were offering tens of thousands of dollars. Parsons repeatedly declined to talk to The Daily Beast on the phone, and internet searches have failed to provide any background on her. Parsons didn’t respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
….
Jacob Wohl, a right wing Twitter personality and a self-described friend of Burkman, said Burkman had told him he had hired Matthew Cohen, who is a managing partner at the private investigations company Surefire Intelligence, to assist with the investigation.
Surefire is a bit of a mystery. Since-deleted Craigslist advertisements for the company said it “was founded by two members of Israel’s elite intelligence community.” The ads billed services including “counter intelligence,” “private spies,” and “ethical hackers.”
More amusing details at the link. And yet more on Twitter. Stuff is being deleted (although I’m sure copies exist), which Popehat earlier pointed out could be destroying evidence in an FBI investigation.
https://twitter.com/EdKrassen/status/1057384188213637120
Bellingcat is ON IT! (disclosure: I have worked with Bellingcat and occasionally write articles for them.)
Just finished a new post that rounds up @JacobAWohl's hilariously bad attempts at smearing Mueller and making a fake intelligence firm:
The Unintelligent Design of SureFire Intelligencehttps://t.co/DqZK4IIZOa— Aric Toler (@AricToler) October 30, 2018
Looking into the employees for "Surefire Intelligence" on LinkedIn, and it's not a promising start for this being a legit place. pic.twitter.com/LgCtEsAsjt
— Aric Toler (@AricToler) October 30, 2018
Jacob Wohl is a moron and didn't realize that there are reverse image search engines other than Google when he was adding filters to these pictures. Yandex got this as the very first result.
— Aric Toler (@AricToler) October 30, 2018
Popehat and other lawyers are yukking it up.
In anticipation of likely questions: "being a moronic manchild" is not a defense to federal criminal charges.
— NotOutlandishHat (@Popehat) October 30, 2018
So we all know Jacob Wohl is a dumbass, but aside from the whole “ridiculous fake intel company that uses his mom’s voicemails and stolen photos of supermodels as Tel Aviv special agents,” there’s also this gem from today. pic.twitter.com/FtY1AFJvcb
— Ms. Entropy / سيدة الفتنة (@MsEntropy) October 30, 2018
Jacob Wohl is still trying to deny he set this whole thing up, despite the phone number for this company redirecting to his mum’s voicemail. https://t.co/u5ORLGgI7G
— Nick Waters (@N_Waters89) October 30, 2018
Odd. Jacob Wohl says he doesn't know nuttin' about Surefire Intelligence, the firm tied to the bizarre Mueller allegations. Take a look at the photos below of Mathhew Cohen, head of 'Surefire,' and of Jacob Wohl. pic.twitter.com/Q1rAW4wkPO
— Jane Mayer (@JaneMayerNYer) October 30, 2018
https://twitter.com/kim/status/1057363567693852672
A friend said this has been the best day he’s seen on Twitter for a while.
Baud
I had a little fun with this too, but I’ll admit that a part of me thinks we shouldn’t take this so casually just because they were incompetent this time.
Sorry if I’m being a downer.
Cheryl Rofer
And kudos to Kay (not the front-pager) for naming it the Dunning-Krueger Putsch.
The Midnight Lurker
Surefire Intelligence? More like Backfire Intelligence. Thank you.
Cheryl Rofer
@Baud: I’m sure they’ll try again, but part of what is happening is that they’ve run these plays so many times they are easy to figure out. Also, too, I saw a suggestion on Twitter that young Jacob is what we might call a second-generation Fox listener and has lived his whole life inside the rightwing bubble, where things work differently than they do in real life. Part of it is also that they are trying to manufacture an October surprise, but this surprise on them is crowding out Trump’s sending troops to the border, as is Trump’s visit to Pittsburgh, which is also not going so well for Trump.
So we can enjoy this but remain vigilant.
Ian G.
I’m glad the Coen Brothers already made “Burn After Reading” because it would be impossible to make a satire like that again after this. This is amateur hour even by the standards of the amateur con artists who gather around Trump like flies to shit.
guachi
Saw over at LGF that the day Mueller was supposed to have assaulted someone he was in jury duty (rejected in voir dire).
SRW1
Surefire Intelligence?
Cause Ratfucking Intelligence was already taken?
ruemara
@Ian G.: I said it read like a bad sequel.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: You are, Go have a cocktail or two and come back later.
smintheus
One assumes that Surefire Intelligence Investigator “Donald Treehorn” is related to Jeff Lebowski’s buddy Jackie Treehorn.
debbie
@Baud:
By the time they work their way up to competent, Trump will be long gone.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Isn’t there supposed to be a third (fourth?) layer in this shit sandwich? I thought, based on the little I’ve read here and elsewhere, that the ultimate con was supposed to be that media gullibly reports that someone is paying (possibly non-existent) women to make stuff up about Mueller, and then Wohl/Burkman/whoever leaps out of the bushes and yells, “Ha! Gotcha, libtard journalists! I made up that entire story and you fell for it! Now no one can trust you EVAH!” With the diabolically clever side benefit that Mueller is somehow smeared in the public’s view by being vaguely associated with sexual misconduct.
I may be giving this dumbass way too much credit. It does sound like something Roger Stone would be at the back of somewhere, though.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
I think, though, that part of what this shows is that faking this stuff convincingly is actually really hard. You look at the success of somebody like Sacha Baron Cohen and think it must be easy to fool people with fake companies, but it isn’t as easy as it looks. SBC doesn’t have to fool everyone; he just has to fool enough people to give his show some material. In contrast somebody trying to frame Mueller has to fool everyone, since just one reporter figuring out something is fishy will be enough to unmask the whole operation. And those reporters are going to put a lot more effort into figuring out what’s going on than somebody’s publicist trying to figure out if they should arrange a meeting.
GregB
Jacob, what an ass-Wohl.
Let this be the beginning of the Trump shit maelstorm that swirls every last on of his associated grifters, shitheels and four-flushers down into the bowels of the earth where they belong.
Cheryl Rofer
JaySinWA
It’s a frame I tells you, a dirty rotten frame job. //
Gin & Tonic
@Cheryl Rofer: Holy cow, that’s perfect.
A Ghost To Most
Cartoon villians. Who Framed Robert Mueller?
To the Dip with them.
ETA: What, Jessica Rabbit wasn’t available?
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: The didn’t seem to take into account that Mueller has the FBI on speed dial(being a former director and all).
Mary G
I mostly know Wohl because he replies first or nearly first to Twitler’s tweets. Also on Twitter, he is always posting that he was in a hipster coffee shop in LA and all the liberals are terrified or secretly Trump supporters. So there are a number of Tweets that start with that today.
chopper
@Cheryl Rofer:
perfect.
chopper
this is “mr. burns with a fake mustache”-level garbage, here.
hello, my name is mister…snrub.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: He may have to give up those hipster coffee shops for a stay at the Greybar Hotel.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@chopper: …or the guy in New York who used to call the media saying he was John Barron.
Adam L Silverman
The minute Jacob tells the FBI he’s not Matthew Cohen (Jane Meyers’ tweet) he’s going to prison.
JaySinWA
@JaySinWA: Actually though, given the wheels within wheels stuff we already see, faking setting up Wohl could be part of the plot. Like a not so criminal mastermind’s idea of a criminal mastermind plot. It was a pretty transparent link to Wohl.
Raoul
@Cheryl Rofer: Indeed.
Of course, as has been said (including here by Baud), we’re so far kind of lucking out that these people are so freakin incompetent. But the myriad weaknesses in our system of governance will outlast Trump (I think). And one party will still have zero incentive to fix any of the glaring holes (the GOP, in case there is a Wohl-level reader here who needs that spelled out).
So we’ll be vulnerable to a demagogic authoritarian after we pass this reign of dumpster flames.
Ken Shabby
GOP:
Stepping on their dick.
“That’s not my dick. Know why? I sold it. I don’t have one. I never had one.”
What
A
Clown
Show
“Either Jesus or my wife’s family has it.”
“A kangaroo ate it on the Appalachian trail.”
“My son ate it during one of them goddamn vid yo gaymes.”
C Stars
You know, it’s funny, but on Fox/Infowars/under whatever fucking rock you turn over from now on, morons who vote are going to be asserting, with utmost confidence, that Mueller commits sex crimes. The gullible idiots aren’t going to be checking these hilarious twitter accounts, they’re just going to hug their Trump U. certificates and AR-15s a little tighter, terrified and titillated in their “knowledge” that All Democrats* Are Evil And Out To Get Our Lord & Savior Trump.
Or maybe I am just in a dark mood today…
*And fancy-lawyer-type Republicans named Mueller
Mary G
George Conway (Mr. Kellyanne) and Neal Katyal have put up a joint piece in WaPo that says the president is a moron. Well, not in so many words, but they are clear that he cannot erase birthright citizenship with an executive order.
George seems to be running out of fucks left to give for his wife’s boss.
lgerard
How many times has Hoft written type of post in the past?
he must have an easy to use template
cmorenc
As a would-be political scammer, Jack Burkman makes James O’Keefe look smart and successful by comparison (a really low bar to exceed), and O’Keefe did pull off one successful scam before he then tried to disastrously scam his way into then-Sen Mary Landrieu’s office.
Gin & Tonic
@Mary G: Neal Katyal is a liberal? When did that happen?
Ken Shabby
@Adam L Silverman:
Darn.
Those Nice People and their Cotillions. Drat and Fuck.
chopper
these guys fucked up with a focus and intensity normally seen only in successes. this is some grade-A dick stepping.
debbie
Ken Shabby
@Cheryl Rofer:
With pinwheels and urine pants.
All those nice patruts, wanting only The Very Best for all of us.
Thoughtful David
I saw that the woman who reported it to the FBI mentioned that they had offered to pay off her credit card and that they knew to the dollar how much she owed on her credit card. Who would be able to get that kind of information?
So I offer this conspiracy piece: The NY office of the FBI is in on it. They could (illegally but readily) get their hand on her credit card information. And they have a lot to fear from Mueller.
No, I don’t believe this. They’re too damned incompetent to have been anyone professional.
It would be irrational not to speculate.
Mary G
Schlemazel
@Baud:
no, you are exactly right. This is pretty much the operation they used to bring down Franken with Roger Stone hinting days in advance about what would happen. They are trying to destroy democracy and just happen to be destroying women who were legitimately assaulted as an ‘added benefit’
Brachiator
@Baud:
Might as well laugh about it, because what is both horrifying and pathetic is how far these nut jobs will go to protect and help Trump. He would never do the same for them.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: His father is a lawyer and a major Trump campaign surrogate. And Jacob lives at home.
Schlemazel
@Thoughtful David:
the NY office of the FBI is totally compromised by the Russian mafia. It is entirely possible
Ken Shabby
Pee Ess/
Bob Mueller, Secks Machine.
youtu.be/JOD-M7WZkZQ
Cold Sweat – Hit it:
youtu.be/Piu-cXXyjN4
Bob Mueller, all time, swingin’
That man, THAT man.
JaySinWA
@Adam L Silverman: Given his father’s moronic defence in his hedge fund ponzi scheme, he should get a better lawyer.
Mike in DC
Rhymes with “Buster Duck”. You really have to work hard to achieve that level of stupidity.
Ken Shabby
GOP: takin care o bidness.
That’s America.
“ I don’t care, about your past. I just want, our love to last.”
I break out
In a tax break
Ughn ughn ughn
This is what Makes America Strong Again
Patricia Kayden
Love the last tweet of Biden and President Obama having a good laugh. Hopefully our side will be laughing and celebrating next Tuesday night. Trump’s presidency feels as if it’s in its second decade.
Cheryl Rofer
piratedan
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: there are LOTS of layers in this here shit sandwich, apparently there’s a whole lotta white bread, and I’m pretty sure that there may be some non Hellman’s Mayo and lots of American Cheese too (plastic wrappers optional depending on your taste).
I guess this is the minor leagues ratfucking Rookie Ball when compared to O’Keefe’s AA Project Veritas….
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Will Junior be grounded?
suffragettecity
Not only was Mueller in jury duty on the date they allege but his Suite on the 19th floor of the St. Regis is actually where the gym is located.
Google could have been their friend, but noooooooooooooo
Patricia Kayden
@Thoughtful David: I’m sure Mueller and the FBI as a while will figure that all out. Wohl bit off way more than he could chew.
Sister Golden Bear
Hahahahahahaha
joemygod.com/2018/10/gateway-pundit-deletes-mueller-smear-story-were-looking-into-serious-allegation…
Roger Moore
@Thoughtful David:
It’s not obvious that there actually is a woman. We don’t know a huge amount about the whole thing yet, but one of the things I’ve gotten is that the “woman” making these claims corresponded exclusively by email and refused in-person interviews. Some of the reporters who were teased with the story thought it was not about trying to get Mueller but to make the reporters reporting on the story look like idiots. We need to view all the information associated with this thing with this thing with great skepticism.
The Moar You Know
If I were this incompetent I’d still be living at home with my moth…oh wait.
Aleta
Aw thanks Jake!
Barbara
@Roger Moore: Or the woman was told by the FBI not to talk to the press or a woman was paid to provide a false story. Anyway I look at it, it makes me furious that they expected to plant false stories and get away with it.
Schlemazel
@Aleta:
damaging women is just a lucky collateral win for them
Ken Shabby
Robert Mueller: hotter and, more explicit than The Incredible Mr. Limpet.
Bobby Three Sticks, Sex God.
Fifty Shades of Jesus.
Lindsay Graham: I Was Bob Mueller’s Towell Attendant.
GOP. We’ve talked with Jesus, and, we know who he wants for a Man Date.
Jesus. If we were meant to have secks, Bobby M. Woulda got off months ago.
Bobby: Sequel To Rudy – Bobby Goes To Notre Dame But, lands in the shower at Penn State.
Make America Grate Again.
Pee Ess:
Gubmit.
The Moar You Know
@Thoughtful David: I can do it in five minutes with a first name, last name, city and state. It would probably take you twenty tops if you haven’t done it before. Just run a credit report and you have the current balance.
It’s technically not legal since you don’t have a legitimate or authorized use for that info, but nobody gives a shit, least of all the credit companies.
Ken Shabby
@Cheryl Rofer:
Preponderance of Insane, Violent, Morons, with Daddy Issues.
If that’s not a Quorum, I don’t know what is –
Gin & Tonic
@Sister Golden Bear: Scheduling a time and place for that is good – it makes it simpler for the FBI to arrest these bozos.
Roger Moore
@suffragettecity:
This kind of mistake makes me wonder if this really was an attempt to set up the media rather than Mueller. In that scenario, leaving in basic, easy to check factual errors would be part of the plan; when the media fell for it, you could use their inability to catch those mistakes as proof of their unwillingness to check even the most basic facts. Of course the media actually does check their facts, so the whole scheme failed, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t the plan.
lgerard
Rachel from cardholders service
dm
I’m guessing we’ll soon be hearing about how this was a false flag operation set up by liberals to innoculate Mueller from the *real* charges coming down the line, and to smear a Fine Young Man, Ruining His Life by making him look incompetent.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore:
With this group of probable incels, the chances that there’s a woman is slim.
Jay
@lgerard:
Deepak from Cardholder Services and Sales.
Steve in the ATL
@piratedan:
David Duke’s?
Timurid
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Have you checked the crawlspace and the compost heap yet?
Jay
This tweet stream is well worth reading:
mobile.twitter.com/KeyserSozeBro1/status/1057327339237974016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
H.E.Wolf
@ruemara:
Yes please to a rendezvous while you’re in town. I’ll ask Anne Laurie to make my contact info available to you if you check in with her via email..
Ken Shabby
One look at Bobbers Three, blatant conclusion:
A Total Show Pony, A Slave To Loose, Unchristian Women, a Blatantly Indiscrete Disappointment To The Shining City On A Hill, a Walking Sex Addiction and, a Person Begging For Help, In the Broad Light of Day, God’s Good Light and, The Constytyewshin.
All Americans see this, at the glance and, well – it’s Troubling.
I think we all want chastity in our best people, as God intended.
Bob….May be….Sweaty. And, this is why Christ offers His hand as The Redeemer.
Thank God for the GOP and, their courage.
Bob may not be able to help himself – the flesh is weak – but, that’s why Jesus came for all of us.
Gvg
I don’t get the references to Mueller in Jury duty or a gym. The “woman” in the story I read indicated she worked with Mueller back in the 70’s. The impression is the accusation was supposed to be misbehavior over time. Really odd story idea of something so long ago. So that isn’t a specific date and time and I really doubt jury duty records get kept that long ago.
There must be some other version of the story I haven’t heard.
No employee matching the name wouldn’t mean anything that long ago. She could have married and changed her name 3 times by now. Where is the story I missed?
Aleta
@Schlemazel: I bet it doesn’t even cross their mind to include protection in their offer, beyond monitoring the woman’s words to the press to protect themselves.
Jay
@Gvg:
“Where is the story I missed?”
All of it.
lgerard
@Gvg:
The story on Gateway Pundit included a “report” by Wohl’s fake investigative agency. The “report” detailed a supposed sexual assault that took place in Mueller’s 19th floor room at the St Regis Hotel in NYC on April 2, 2010.
Problem
Mueller was in DC that day for jury duty, as reported by The Washington Post at the time.
The 19th floor is occupied by a gym, not rooms
yeah I’m obsessed…..I’m a big Wohl fan
Jeffro
@debbie: I saw that one earlier and LOL’d. Twitter Dick Nixon, the pause that refreshes…
Platonailedit
@C Stars: The trumpturds will stick with the totus, so?
SFAW
@lgerard:
NOTHING is “easy to use” for The Stupidest Man on the Internet.
Aleta
@Baud: The seriousness is probably not far from anyone’s mind, and the laughter not far from the anger. I guess you could have said the same about laughing at Assange (who did succeed in harming H and us). Or about T’s iPhone being accessible to the Chinese, or even about laughing at those -duh people whose low intelligence or brain damage caused accidents that hurt them but could have harmed others.
AnotherBruce
Shitfire intelligence.
JMG
This story is pure awesomeness. No, it’s not important. No, it doesn’t ease the deadly danger to constitutional democracy. But sometimes a great story is just a great story and should be appreciated as such. He used a stock photo of Christopher Waltz!!! Com’ on, even Mueller’s gotta be laughing.
patrick II
@Baud:
I agree. I’m not that amused. I think they have gotten away with dishonest personal attacks they got overconfident. This would not be the only republican personal attack that was proved to be untrue. A big difference this time is that is against Mueller and moves past normal political dirty tricks and into obstruction of justice.
Schlemazel
@Aleta:
PROTECTION? Ha! Real men don’t use protection!
Seriously they don’t care about the woman, she is just a tool & if she gets busted thats OK because that means a woman got caught lying about assault so they win. Plus many of the MAGAts will just know she was flipped by the deep state and fake news
sukabi
Enquiring minds want to know if the ‘brains’ in the White House concocted this scheme…
Viva BrisVegas
@patrick II:
I think that the only thing the Republican ratfuckers heard from MeToo was, “Believe Women”.
A flashbulb went off in their tiny brains and they thought, all we have to do is pay some women to trash anybody we hate and the libtards will automatically believe it and throw them under the bus.
The problem was that they are so trapped in their fantasy worlds they can no longer distinguish between the credible and the risible.
StringOnAStick
This kids little game might get him the sort of serious punishment that he should have gotten when his hedge fund/ponzi scheme got him banned for life from the financial sector. Yet another blazing example of letting white collar criminals get off far, far too easily. It’s also a great example of how being raised in the FOX hothouse produces poor reality testing skills.
M. Bouffant
@lgerard: Many, but this may be the first time he’s admitted a problem w/ something he’s run rather than just deleting the incorrect item.
Ken
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Nuh-huh! There’s totally a woman. She’s… a hot Canadian supermodel!
r€nato
maybe this is where Wohl got the idea to impeach an ex-president.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaver_Synod
BruceFromOhio
You fools! Now look what you’ve done! You’ve blown their covers!
Actually, this strikes me as another variant of the puke funnel, though laughably, horribly wrong in it’s intent and execution. Would a voter in this atmosphere change voting patterns because of (an) accusation(s) against Mueller? Methinks not.