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PODCAST

Ball of Thread

Independent journalist Marcy Wheeler unwinds the true story of the attack on democracy that is bringing the United States to the brink of fascism.

government

All Episodes

14:13

The Conspiracy Theory that Got NSA's Top Math Whiz...

Ball of Thread ·

2025/08/23

Tulsi Gabbard just stripped the security clearances of 37 intelligence officials, including one of the NSA's top math whizzes. Her excuse for doing so stems from conspiracy theories invented by a disgruntled whistleblower. Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbdY69KYf3U Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/21/quantum-leaps-the-so-called-whistleblower-that-got-nsas-top-mathematician-fired/ Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/

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17:23

Stop Looking for a F@%king Pee Tape!

Ball of Thread ·

2025/08/17

We know why Vladimir Putin has leverage over Trump, and it's not the goddamned pee tape. Trump has survived for the last eight years--not just the Russian investigation, but his first impeachment, his second impeachment, January 6, stealing classified documents--by claiming every push for accountability was just a hoax by Hillary Clinton. Russia Russia Russia. But Putin has proof that Trump knows Hillary didn't frame him--instead, Russian spies framed her. And if he released that, it would destroy

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19:25

How a Batshit Letter May Help Trump Bankrupt America

Ball of Thread ·

2025/08/15

Solicitor General John Sauer wrote a batshit letter to the appeals court reviewing Trump's tariffs. It's little more than Trump's Truth Social posts slapped on a page -- not even on DOJ letterhead! But here's why it might work with SCOTUS. Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/13/trump-confesses-he-will-bankrupt-the-country-unless-scotus-lets-him-break-the-law/ Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/

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24:35

John Durham's Show Trials: A Preview of Coming...

Ball of Thread ·

2025/08/12

The ways in which John Durham sustained his prosecutions of Michael Sussmann and Igor Danchenko even after concluding that the theory of his case was actually Russian disinformation provide a good sense of how Pam Bondi plans to do it going forward. Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/10/john-durhams-show-trials-a-preview-of-coming-attractions/ Support emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/

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14:48

The Secrets Trump's Spies Share with Putin's Spies

Ball of Thread ·

2025/08/07

Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and John Ratcliffe share a secret with Vladimir Putin's spies: There's an email redacted in the classified Durham appendix that makes it clear that Hillary Clinton didn't frame Trump, Russian spies framed Hillary. Read more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/06/how-chuck-grassleys-politicized-redactions-gave-putin-leverage-over-trump/ Suport Marcy and emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/about/support/

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24:14

John Durham's Crime

Ball of Thread ·

2025/08/05

Back in 2021, John Durham discovered that both prongs of his investigation into Hillary Clinton -- that Hillary Clinton had a plan to smear Donald Trump, and that the FBI got notice of that -- were false. He also had to have known that Kash Patel and John Ratcliffe misrepresented what spooks have found. But he continued to investigate for another two years anyway, committing precisely the crime he set out to investigate. Read more:

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15:19

How Trump Wants to Solve His Ghislaine Maxwell Problem

Ball of Thread ·

2025/07/22

Marcy Wheeler looks deeper into news that Trump's former defense attorney, now the deputy attorney general, will reach out to Ghislaine Maxwell. She lays out how Trump is orchestrating a cover-up scheme to protect himself from damaging Epstein revelations by getting Ghislaine Maxwell out of prison through a cooperation deal that will target his political opponents instead.

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15:19

Trump's Trolls' Turn

Ball of Thread ·

2025/06/24

Marcy Wheeler digs deeper into the Catturd Deficit that allows white supremacists to use Xitter to rig the news. Then she looks at how Trump's illegal war on Iran has created unprecedented fractures in his base, from Russian useful idiots like Marjorie Taylor Greene to anti-Semitic voices like Candace Owens, and even convicted January 6th participants like Joe Biggs. She explores how to exploit these cracks using the same tactics that got Trump elected, turning his own troll army's playbook against

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22:19

The Catturd Deficit

Ball of Thread ·

2025/06/17

Marcy discusses how Twitter became Elon's Machine for Fascism and how we can use it against the fascists.

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15:25

AGENT MUSK: The Best Legal Hope to Take Down DOGE

Ball of Thread ·

2025/03/19

A quick update from Marcy. Get the whole story at https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/03/19/the-significance-of-amy-gleasons-fabulous-disappearing-act/

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42:41

Ball of Ka$h — A Conclusion

Ball of Thread ·

2025/02/17

Marcy Wheeler ties it all together. In this last bonus episode of Ball of Thread, Marcy explains how the confirmation of Ka$h Patel and the Trump administration’s abandonment of Ukraine confirm the big ideas behind Ball of Thread. Eight years ago, Kash Patel helped Trump turn a legitimate investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia into a grievance narrative. Over and over, Kash added to the tale: with Ukraine, with January 6, with the stolen documents. And now, as Kash prepares to turn the FBI into

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47:01

13| The Grievance Myth

Ball of Thread ·

2025/01/20

The final Ball of Thread answers how Donald Trump won and defeated the rule of law, for now. His grievance myth. That’s how he got here. That’s why we must expect retribution next. The series will conclude with a final bonus episode, "So Let's Talk About Merrick Garland."

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57:28

12 | The Meaning of January 6th

Ball of Thread ·

2025/01/06

Donald Trump will never accept losing anything – whether an election or a bet. But that wouldn’t matter if he didn’t convince millions of Americans to make his grievances their own. This Ball of Thread unwinds what made the pincer attack that overran the Capitol on January 6th possible. Donald Trump’s grievance narratives gave disaffected Americans meaning, and in that meaning, he convinced thousands of people to throw their lives away in his name. The thing is, it’s all the same con. That con

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18:28

What You Miss About Hunter's Pardon If You Sniff Dick...

Ball of Thread ·

2024/12/16

In this bonus episode, Marcy saves reporters a lot of work by explaining more than a half dozen direct political interventions into Hunter’s prosecutions. The reporting on Hunter Biden’s pardon shows just how badly Ball of Thread is needed—especially the last two episodes on the blackmailing of Joe Biden and the packaging of Hunter. While the pardon story has died down and the former FBI informant who tried to frame the Bidens has now pled guilty, the Republicans in the House who kept this targeted

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54:21

11 | The Packaging of Hunter

Ball of Thread ·

2024/12/10

After Bill Barr buried the Mueller Report and went to work suffocating the remaining prosecutions in the Russia investigation, Donald Trump and his “lawyer,“ Rudy Giuliani, shifted their main narrative focus from Hillary Clinton to Hunter Biden—also with the help of Bill Barr. The first flailing attempts to smear Joe Biden with his son’s connections to a corrupt Ukrainian business resulted in Donald Trump’s impeachment and the arrests of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. But MAGA hit paydirt with the

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01:10:32

10 | Selling Justice

Ball of Thread ·

2024/11/27

What if the President of the United States was framed with the help of the Attorney General of the president he defeated, and nobody cared? In this Ball of Thread, Marcy Wheeler reveals how Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Guiliani, spent more than a year trying to trade access to or leniency from the Department of Justice for dirt on Hunter Biden. And while that disgraceful abuse of power eventually erupted into Trump’s first impeachment, it essentially continued for another four years, only

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01:00:00

9 | Durham Descends

Ball of Thread ·

2024/11/05

John Durham was given an impossible job. Even before the Mueller Report was ready, Bill Barr hired the once-respected US Attorney to investigate how the investigation into the Trump Campaign’s ties to Russia started. After the Inspector General failed to find a conspiracy against Trump inside the FBI against Trump, Barr and Durham tried their best to invent one. They followed every available George Papadaopulus conspiracy, hoping to turn Hillary Clinton, a victim of the Russian attack on the 2016

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01:12:44

8| Zombie Mueller

Ball of Thread ·

2024/10/22

Bill Barr killed the Mueller Report. He made sure Congress would not take it as an impeachment referral, which is what appears to have been. But he wasn’t done. That’s because the suspected crimes the Mueller team found wouldn’t stay dead. Join us as we dig deeper into Bill Barr’s malfeasance as Attorney General. Whether it was Roger Stone or Mike Flynn, Barr’s effort to kill Zombie Mueller paved the way for January 6. Want to know more? Join https://www.patreon.com/BallofThread for

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44:09

7| Barr’s Butchery

Ball of Thread ·

2024/10/11

Want to know more? Join https://www.patreon.com/BallofThread for bonus episodes on breaking news and to ask your questions, which could be answered in a bonus episode. For as little as $1 a month, you can support us and help spread the word. Most people think of Bill Barr’s interference in the Mueller Report in a very limited sense – a letter to Congress and a press conference. But it was far deeper and more deliberate than that. Bill Barr turned out to be the ideal consumer for the spin Paul

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01:38:19

6| The Mueller Referral

Ball of Thread ·

2024/09/13

Robert Mueller had just 22 months to persuade Trump’s aides to cooperate against him. Just 22 months to learn whether Russia had asked for sanctions relief and to carve up Ukraine in exchange for help getting Trump elected. Had the House used Volume II of the Mueller Report as an impeachment referral, the investigation might have proceeded further into the truth of what Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Trump’s closest allies had done in 2016 and beyond. Instead, Trump outlasted Jeff Sessions’ tenure

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