rigorousintuition.ca

Ben Collins

A company called “Surefire Intelligence” has ties to this Mueller smear.

Jacob Wohl denied having ties to Surefire.

Surefire’s official phone number redirects to a voicemail box registered to Jacob's mom.

‏
Jacob gave us comment at first, but went quiet when we told him Surefire Intelligence's phone number redirected to a voicemail account registered to his mom.
https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/sta ... 4905558016

Mueller refers sex assault scheme targeting him to FBI for investigation

Oct. 30, 2018 / 1:34 PM CDT
By Tom Winter, Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins

Special counsel Robert Mueller last week asked the FBI to investigate a possible scam in which a woman would make false claims that he had sexually assaulted her, after several political reporters were contacted about doing a story on the alleged assault.

Multiple reporters were contacted over the past few weeks by a woman who said she had been offered money to say she was sexually assaulted by Mueller, the special counsel who is probing possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. After investigating, according to the political website Hill Reporter, the reporters each independently determined the assault allegation was likely a hoax and that it was unclear if the woman had been offered money to make the claim. The reporters then contacted the special counsel's office to report that they had been approached about the scheme.

"When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the special counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation," said Peter Carr, spokesperson for the special counsel.


While investigating the possibility of a hoax, the Hill Reporter's Ed Krassenstein, who was one of the reporters contacted, said he received threats, including a text message reading, "You're in over your head…. Drop this" which included his and another editor's home addresses.

Around the same time reporters began to be contacted about the assault allegations, Jack Burkman, a Republican lobbyist and radio host, began promoting, via his Facebook page, that he is investigating sexual misconduct and alcohol-related allegations against Mueller. On Tuesday morning he tweeted that he would hold a press conference two days later to "reveal the first of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's sex assault victims."

Over the past two years, Burkman has peddled a separate, evolving conspiracy theory that has blamed several different wild plots for the death of Democratic staffer Seth Rich, who was shot on a Washington street in 2016 during an apparent botched robbery.

Krassenstein told NBC News he reached out to the special counsel’s office on Tuesday telling them what he knew about the sex assault scheme.

He also gave NBC News the phone numbers used by the woman alleging she was offered money to make the allegations, which were both disconnected.

Krassenstein and other journalists also pointed to Jacob Wohl, a disgraced hedge fund manager turned pro-Trump conspiracy theorist and Surefire Intelligence, a company connected to him, as being involved with Burkman’s alleged plot.

“I gave Burkman a call. I wanted to know who ‘Surefire Intelligence’ is. That’s when he told me about Jacob Wohl,” said Krassenstein. “To me, this was all a setup from somebody trying to discredit the media.”

Early this morning, Wohl tweeted, “Several media sources tell me that a scandalous story about Mueller is breaking tomorrow. Should be interesting. Stay tuned!”

Reached by direct message on Twitter, Wohl denied having a hand in any plot to pay women making false allegations against Mueller. “I don't have any involvement in any investigations of any kind. I'm not quite that cool,” he said.

The allegations still took off as viral posts on far-right news sites known for spreading fake news and disinformation tied to Wohl. Gateway Pundit, where Wohl is employed as a writer, touted their “exclusive documents” about a “very credible witness.”

In a statement, Surefire Intelligence tweeted that it “does not comment on current, past or future operations, nor the lack thereof."

Wohl declined to comment on his involvement with Surefire Intelligence. However, his email is listed in the domain records for Surefire Intelligence’s website and calls to a number listed on the Surefire Intelligence website went to a voicemail message which provided another phone number, listed in public records as belonging to Wohl’s mother.

Wohl stopped responding to NBC News after being told Surefire’s official phone number redirects to his mother’s voicemail.

Tom Winter is a producer and reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit based in New York, covering crime, courts, terrorism, and financial fraud on the East Coast.

Brandy Zadrozny

Brandy Zadrozny is an investigative reporter for NBC News.

Ben Collins

Ben Collins covers disinformation, extremism and the internet for NBC News.

Adiel Kaplan contributed.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justic ... on-n926301

BREAKING REPORT — **EXCLUSIVE DOCUMENTS** : Special Counsel and Former FBI Director Robert Mueller Accused of Rape By ‘Very Credible Witness ‘



Special Counsel Robert Mueller was accused by a very credible witness today of rape at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City in 2010.

A formal press conference is scheduled for Thursday at noon in Washington DC.

Rreporter Jack Burkman tweeted this out today.


Top articles1/5READ MORE
BREAKING REPORT — **EXCLUSIVE DOCUMENTS** : Special Counsel and

The Gateway Pundit obtained a copy of the charges.

What we know: The woman is a “very credible witness.” Her story are corroborated. The incident happened in 2010 in New York City. The woman is a professional.

We will post the document shortly.

The Mueller apologists are already trashing the accuser — and don’t even know who she is!

UPDATE:Here are the documents.









STAY TUNED — WE KNOW WHAT THE LIBERAL MEDIA IS REPORTING ON THIS
THERE IS MUCH MORE TO COME….

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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/1 ... e-witness/

Josh Russell
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@josh_emerson
Follow Follow @josh_emerson
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If you have ever wanted to track exactly how disinformation moves through the right wing ecosystem now is the time.




Gaining traction over on reddit (They know it's fake and just don't care)

https://twitter.com/josh_emerson/status ... 1665136640

Thread by @ScottMStedman: ".@Jack_Burkman is behind a GOP scheme to offer women money to make up stories about Robert Mueller's alleged sexual harassment. The Special […]"

Scott Stedman

.@Jack_Burkman is behind a GOP scheme to offer women money to make up stories about Robert Mueller's alleged sexual harassment. The Special Counsel's office has referred the matter to the FBI. I was privy to this scheme. This thread will detail my experience.
2 weeks ago, I, along with other journalists were set an email from a woman who alleged that she was a former colleague of Mueller. She said that Jack Burkman, via an intermediary, offered her tens of thousands to make up sexual assault claims against Mueller.
I found the woman to be unreliable, she wouldn't get on the phone, she wouldn't give me any other contact information. She did however give me the phone number of the intermediary who allegedly offered this money on behalf of Burkman.
The intermediary, in messages to me (see attached) confirmed the story. I don't know the true identity of this person OR the person who sent the original email.



I discussed this with other journalists, mainly @NatashaBertrand, but I concluded that this was an effort to discredit the media. However, it appears now that Burkman is trying to move forward with these claims. The Special Counsel's office has referred the matter to the FBI.
I don't know what to make of what has transpired. I didn't find the woman reliable. I found that the intermediary was oddly eager to share details. I came public with this story because Jacob Wohl teased that this was coming. He appears involved in the campaign as well.
I faced a huge internal struggle here. I didn't want to give these people any credence, but when I learned that Burkman and Wohl were going through with this, I felt the need to speak up.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1057 ... 38434.html

More
NEW: Another woman, @jentaub, was contacted on October 22 by a man claiming to work for Surefire Intelligence, who offered to pay her to discuss her "past encounters" with Mueller. (She's never met Mueller.) Story has been updated:

Mueller Wants the FBI to Look at a Scheme to Discredit Him

The special counsel says a woman was offered money to fabricate sexual-harassment claims.

Natasha Bertrand is a staff writer at The Atlantic where she covers national security and the intelligence community.
1:14 PM ET

FBI Director Robert Mueller listens to questioning while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)," on Capitol Hill in Washington September 17, 2008.Molly Riley / Reuters
This story has been updated.

An alleged scheme to pay off women to fabricate sexual-assault allegations against Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been referred to the FBI for further investigation, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office told The Atlantic. “When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the Special Counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation,” the spokesman, Peter Carr, told me in an email on Tuesday.

The special counsel’s office’s attention to this scheme and its decision to release a rare statement about it indicates the seriousness with which the office is taking the purported plot to discredit Mueller in the middle of an ongoing investigation.

Read: The partisan, nihilist case against Robert Mueller

The special counsel’s office confirmed that the scheme was brought to its attention by several journalists who were told about it by a woman alleging that she herself had been offered roughly $20,000 by a man claiming to work for a firm called Surefire Intelligence—which was in turn hired by GOP activist named Jack Burkman—“to make accusations of sexual misconduct and workplace harassment against Robert Mueller.” The woman told journalists in an email, a copy of which I obtained, that she had worked for Mueller as a paralegal at the Pillsbury, Madison, and Sutro law firm in 1974, but that she “didn’t see” him much. “When I did see him, he was always very polite to me, and was never inappropriate,” the woman wrote. The law firm told me on late Tuesday afternoon, however, that it has “no record of this individual working for our firm.”


The woman explained that she was contacted by a man “with a British accent” who wanted to ask her “a couple questions about Robert Mueller, whom I worked with when I was a paralegal for Pillsbury, Madison, and Sutro in 1974. I asked him who he was working for, and he told me his boss was some sort of politics guy in Washington named Jack Burkman. I reluctantly told [him] that I had only worked with Mr. Mueller for a short period of time, before leaving that firm to have my first son.”

She continued: “In more of an effort to get him to go away than anything else, I asked him what in the hell he wanted me to do. He said that we could not talk about it on the phone, and he asked me to download an app on my phone called Signal, which he said was more secure. Reluctantly, I downloaded the app and he called me on that app a few minutes later. He said (and I will never forget exactly what it was) ‘I want you to make accusations of sexual misconduct and workplace harassment against Robert Mueller, and I want you to sign a sworn affidavit to that effect.’” The man “offered to pay off all of my credit card debt, plus bring me a check for $20,000 if I would do” it, she wrote. “He knew exactly how much credit card debt I had, right down to the dollar, which sort of freaked me out.”

Surefire Intelligence describes itself as “a private intel agency that designs and executes bespoke solutions for businesses and individuals who face complex business and litigation challenges.” Surefire’s domain records list an email for another pro-Trump conspiracy theorist, Jacob Wohl, who began hyping a “scandalous” Mueller story on Tuesday morning. Wohl told The Daily Beast that Burkman had hired Surefire to assist with his investigation into Mueller’s past, but denied knowing anything about the firm’s involvement in an alleged plot to fabricate allegations against Mueller when asked why his email address appeared in the domain records. He did not respond when asked by NBC why a number listed on Surefire’s website referred callers to another number that is listed in public records as belonging to Wohl’s mother.

Conor Friedersdorf: The bad faith of a right-wing sting operation

The woman was not willing to speak to the reporters by phone, according to Scott Stedman, one of the reporters who received the letter. So portions of her story have gone uncorroborated, and her identity has not been independently confirmed. But she is not the only woman who received an inquiry from someone claiming to be investigating Mueller’s past for Surefire Intelligence.

Jennifer Taub, an associate professor at Vermont Law School, received an email from a man using a "Surefire Intelligence" email address around the same time, on October 22, which Taub forwarded to me on Tuesday. "It's my understanding that you may have had some past encounters with Robert Mueller,” he told Taub. “I would like to discuss those encounters with you.” (Taub told me she has never had any encounters with Mueller, though she does appear on CNN at times as an expert commentator.)

“I believe a basic telephone call, for which I would compensate you at whatever rate you see fit (inside reason), would be a good place to start,” the man continued. “My organization is conducting an examination of Robert Mueller's past. Tell me a decent method to contact you by telephone (or Signal, which would be ideal) and a beginning rate to talk with you about all encounters you've had with Special Counsel Mueller. We would likewise pay you for any references that you may have. Lastly, I would appreciate your discretion here, as this is a very sensitive matter." Taub forwarded the email the special counsel’s office, noting that she did not plan to respond.

Around the time that Taub and the other woman began receiving these calls and emails from Surefire, Jack Burkman released a video on his Facebook page claiming, without evidence, that Mueller “has a whole lifetime history of harassing women.” On Tuesday, the day the special counsel’s office revealed that it had referred the woman’s claims to the FBI, Burkman tweeted a similar allegation.

In an emailed statement, Burkman denied knowing the woman who originally alerted journalists to the alleged scheme and called the FBI referral “a joke, mueller wants to deflect attention from his sex assault troubles by attacking me.” He added in a separate email that “on Thursday 1200 NOON ROSSYLN HOLIDAY INN we will present a very credible witness who will allege that Mr. Mueller committed against her a sexual assault.” Mueller’s spokesman reiterated that the claims are false.

Emily Yoffe: Does anyone still take both sexual assault and due process seriously?

Burkman, a conservative radio host, is known for spreading conspiracy theories. He launched his own private investigation into the murder of the DNC staffer Seth Rich, dangled uncorroborated claims of sexual harassment against a sitting member of Congress, and earlier this year offered $25,000 to FBI whistle-blowers for any information exposing wrongdoing during the 2016 election. He also promoted legislation that he authored—despite not being a member of Congress—that would ban gays from playing in the National Football League, and has hosted two fundraisers for Rick Gates—the former Trump campaign official who was indicted by Mueller late last year.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... bi/574411/

Lachlan Markay
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More! At least three supposed Surefire employees, including "station chiefs" in DC and Tel Aviv, use fake LinkedIn headshots. The two station chiefs' pics are actually of Israeli model Bar Rafaeli and Sigourney Weaver's husband

Inside the Crazy Cabal Trying to Smear Robert Mueller

A Seth Rich conspiracy pusher and fringe online figures appear to be working behind the scenes.

10.30.18 2:57 PM ET
One of the shadier characters in politics, along with a number of fringe internet figures, appears to be behind an attempt to pay women to accuse Special Counsel Robert Mueller of sexual assault.

The scheme became public on Tuesday when Mueller’s staff formally asked the FBI to launch an investigation into the matter. But for weeks it has been simmering below the surface, with numerous reporters having been tipped off by a woman who claimed she had been approached with promises of cash.

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 denied involvement in any attempt to pay people to frame or accuse Mueller. But he also claims that he has witnesses who will expose the Special Counsel as a sexual harasser and has scheduled a Thursday press conference in Northern Virginia to introduce his first accuser.

“We’re going to prove that he is a drunk and a sexual abuser,” Burkman told The Daily Beast.

Mueller has undergone extensive background checks during a career that has included a stint as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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. In July, he promised that he had a whistleblower who would prove the government killed Rich. But Burkman’s witness never showed in person, instead calling in anonymously via speakerphone — a stunt that enraged Burkman’s fellow conspiracy theorists.

This isn’t Burkman’s first attempt to get publicity for a sexual assault allegation either. In late 2017, with the MeToo movement kicking off, Burkman claimed that he represented a woman who would accuse a congressman of sexual assault. But with the press on hand for the revelations, Burkman had to concede that his client refused to appear. Instead, Burkman offered everyone a “big apology” for wasting their time.



Burkman has proved eager to attach himself to a wide array of causes that have the possibility of getting him on cameras. He once introduced legislation (which lobbyists don’t formally do) to get gay players banned from the NFL—a campaign that sparked a sharp rebuke from his gay brother.

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.

Asked last week if he was paying women to accuse Mueller, Burkman said he couldn’t comment. But on Tuesday, Burkman insisted that he had not offered remuneration.

“Be careful with the internet,” Burkman told The Daily Beast. “It’s a mirage, it’s just a wasteland of crazy stuff.”

The rumors surrounding the Parsons email drew the attention of internet-famous brothers Ed and Brian Krassenstein, who have risen to prominence in the Trump era by tweeting viral-ready attacks on the president. The Krassensteins said they also received the Parsons email. But after trying to investigate it, they claim that Ed Krassenstein received a threatening message warning him to “drop this” attached to a message listing his home address.

In his efforts to dig up dirt on Mueller, Burkman appears to have enlisted outside help. 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.”

Some LinkedIn profiles for supposed employees of the company use fake profile headshots. Talia Yaniv, whose page listes her as Surefire’s “Tel Aviv station chief,” uses a photo of Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli. The company’s “station chief” in DC uses a photo of Sigourney Weaver’s husband. And its deputy director of operations ripped off a headshot from a Michigan pastor.

Among the little public information available on the company is a pair of suspiciously vague posts on the publishing platform Medium. Both posts were written to appear as journalistic exposes of the company but neither does much beyond extolling its supposed expertise and impressive client list—without naming any of the clients. Both the posts were written by self-described journalists whose Twitter accounts were created in the last three months, and neither has done much beyond promote their Medium posts on Surefire.

The website lists offices in Los Angeles and nearby Irvine, CA, Washington D.C., New York, Tel Aviv, London, and Zurich. All of the U.S. phone numbers are Google Voice contacts that redirect callers to a single phone number with an area code corresponding to Orange County, CA, from which Wohl’s family also hails.

After about a dozen attempted calls to that number, someone finally picked up. The man, who refused to identify himself, would not discuss Surefire. “I don’t know, man, I can’t help you with that,” he said. Asked again who was speaking, the man hung up.

Surefire’s website domain data lists an email address bearing Wohl’s name and that of a legally suspect financial firm he led, NeX Management. Surefire’s website also contains images uploaded to the same Google cloud account as images uploaded to the now-defunct websites of NeX Management and two other asset management firms that Wohl ran, Montgomery Assets and Beverly Hills Management.

Wohl, who hinted at the Mueller allegations on Monday night, denied any knowledge of or involvement with Surefire. “Dude,” he told The Daily Beast in a Twitter direct message, “I work for an influence marketing company in L.A.”

Shortly after Burkman announced his press conference, David Wohl, Jacob’s father and a conservative pundit, amplified the news. “Uh oh,” he wrote. “The Witch Hunt is in jeopardy!”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-th ... r?ref=home

Yashar Ali

13 days ago I received this tip alleging an attempt to pay off women to make up accusations of sexual misconduct against Special Counsel Bob Mueller. Other reporters received the same email. Now the Special Counsel's office is telling us they've referred the matter to the FBI

Aric Toler
‏

Hahahahahhaha Jacob Wohl (the "LA hipster cafe" guy) is tied to the DNS records for the place that did the "investigation" for this thing. He used jacob.wohl@nexmanagement.com when setting up the site.
https://surefireintelligence.com.cutestat.com/

Jane Mayer


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.

Mueller Smear Pushed by Pro-Trump Activists Falls Apart at Press Conference
Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman struggled to explain even basic details of their allegations—like the spelling of the accuser’s name.
Will Sommer

11.01.18 3:30 PM ET

John Middlebrook/AP
A press conference intended to publicize sexual assault claims against special counsel Robert Mueller collapsed in spectacular fashion on Thursday, after the pro-Trump operatives behind the event failed to demonstrate a grasp of even basic details about their accuser or explain why they had repeatedly lied about their project.

Mueller has asked the FBI to investigate the effort from publicity-hungry Washington lobbyist Jack Burkman and pro-Trump Twitter personality Jacob Wohl, which has been dogged by accusations that they offered women money to accuse Mueller of sexual misconduct.

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But the prospect of an FBI investigation was the least of Wohl and Burkman’s problems on Thursday.

Throughout their 45-minute press conference, the two men repeatedly contradicted themselves and each other, giving cryptic non-answers that convinced approximately zero people in attendance that their allegations were anywhere close to the truth.

DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT
Kimmel Roasts Trump Troll Over Wacky Plot to Frame Mueller

Marlow Stern

It began much like it ended.

Poorly.

After initially promising that the accuser, a fashion designer named Carolyne Cass, would appear alongside them, Burkman and Wohl seemed to change their minds by the time reporters assembled inside the dimly lit Holiday Inn in Rosslyn, Virginia.

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Cass had “panicked,” they said, after arriving in Washington and quickly took another flight to an unnamed location.

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Without an in-person accuser, Wohl and Burkman instead offered a signed affidavit from her that claimed Mueller raped her in a New York hotel room on Aug. 2, 2010.

No other evidence was given, aside from a print-out Wohl had distributed that noted Mueller had been in New York on Aug. 5, 2010. Left unsaid: That was three days after the alleged attack.

Additionally, they accused Mueller’s team of “leaking” a Washington Post story that undermined their tale. The report showed Mueller was in Washington on Aug. 2 serving a jury duty summons.

Despite their claim of an exhaustive investigation of the allegations, Wohl and Burkman failed to spell the accuser’s name correctly.

Cass’ first name is misspelled as “Carolyn,” without an “e” in the affidavit, and Burkman insisted that her name was spelled without an “e” when asked by reporters. Only after repeated pressing did Burkman concede that her name is actually “Carolyne.”

“Even the Declaration of Independence had misspellings,” Burkman quipped.

Burkman claims to represent Cass, and he said she hasn’t reported her allegations to New York police.

Other allegations the duo had made earlier fell apart as well. Burkman had previously claimed that he had seven women willing to accuse Mueller. Wohl eventually conceded that they did not have seven women with accusations against Mueller.

Allegations that accusers were being paid have swirled around the effort. In October, a number of media outlets, including The Daily Beast, received an email from a “Lorraine Parsons” who said Burkman’s associates were offering her tens of thousands of dollars to accuse Mueller. And on Tuesday, Vermont Law School professor Jen Taub also told The Atlantic that she’d been offered money to accuse Mueller.

Wohl and Burkman were reluctant to explain how Wohl, who claimed he first worked with Cass on an unrelated estate issue, was first in contact with their accuser. They also failed to explain where Mueller’s FBI security detail was when he was supposedly assaulting a woman.

And Wohl was cryptic about other details, too—he repeatedly declined to say whether he has a private investigator license. Eventually, Wohl said he sometimes works with licensed private investigators. Wohl’s name isn’t in a database of licensed private investigators maintained by the state of California, where he lives.

The two men even declined to say how they knew each other.

Burkman said only that their meeting was “synergistic.”

Wohl, who is better known as a pro-Trump partisan on Twitter than any sort of sleuth, initially tried to hide his role in the effort. Wohl insisted earlier this week that he wasn’t the head of “Surefire Intelligence,” the previously little known investigations firm that compiled Cass’ allegations.

Surefire at first claimed to be a group of ex-intelligence agents from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. But Wohl was forced to concede otherwise after a number of digital footprints, including clues on Surefire’s website and a company phone number that linked to Wohl’s mother, proved he was behind it.

A number of LinkedIn accounts for the firm’s “staff” were also revealed as stolen headshots from models and Hollywood celebrities. But Wohl, who insisted he wasn’t behind the fake LinkedIn pages, said he had to lie about the firm for investigative purposes.

“It was important that I preserved my anonymity,” Wohl said.

The allegations from Wohl and Burkman have struggled to gain traction even in the right-wing media. The Gateway Pundit, a pro-Trump site that Wohl writes for and which frequently runs hoaxes as actual news, initially published Cass’ affidavit.

But it has since backtracked, pulling down the document and stressing that the post was Wohl’s responsibility alone. A reporter from Gateway Pundit asked Wohl tough questions at the press conference, suggesting that even his sometime -employer isn’t convinced of his claims. After the press conference, Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft published a post saying the site had “suspended our relationship” with Wohl.

The event was reminiscent of other failed Burkman press conferences, including several he’s held on the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. Burkman attached himself to the investigation of the former Democratic National Committee staffer’s murder in 2016 but has frequently failed to make good on his claims. Burkman’s previous flops included a botched press conference in which he promised and failed to deliver a deep-state representative who would say Rich was killed by government hit men.

BUSH-LEAGUE SHITSHOW
Seth Rich Conspiracy Theorist’s Event Fizzles Spectacularly

Will Sommer

At times, the event resembled a real-life version of the Twitter fights Wohl often engages in. Wohl complained that someone online had photoshopped a picture of him turning into a corncob—a reference to a popular tweet about someone doubling down in the face of internet embarrassment.

Burkman defended Wohl, 20, from charges that he doesn’t have enough experience to investigate such a serious charge against Mueller.

“I think Jacob is a child prodigy who has eclipsed Mozart,” Burkman said.

A heckler cut in, yelling that Wohl couldn’t even open an eTrade account—a reference to Wohl’s lifetime ban from futures trading, a penalty he earned in a previous career as a teenage hedge fund operator.

In the face of unanswered questions from the press, Burkman and Wohl headed to their car followed by reporters. But Burkman promised more details to come at an unspecified future press conference.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mueller-s ... conference

Jacob Wohl’s Mom



What a monumental f*cking disappointment you’ve turned out to be Jacob.


https://twitter.com/wohl_mom

Jack Burkman & Jacob Wohl’s Story Exposed Through Exclusive Conversations
BY ED KRASSENSTEIN & BRIAN KRASSENSTEIN November 1, 2018


Individual claiming to be employed by Surefire Intelligence knew of Lorraine Parsons prior to the story going public.
Jack Burkman claimed that Surefire Intelligence’s ‘partners have actually worked for Trump’.
Jack Burkman linked the name Lorraine Parsons to his Mueller Investigation before Parson’s allegations went public.
Jack Burkman seemingly implied that he might represent Parsons.
Jacob Wohl claimed to only know of Jack Burkman from his run-ins with him at Trump meet-ups and denied working on a Mueller investigation.
It was just two days ago that Hill Reporter broke a bizarre story about an alleged attempt to pay a woman named Lorraine Parsons to make sexual assault accusations against Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Conservative radio host and conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman and conservative Twitter troll Jacob Wohl have been tied to these suspicious allegations as well. Lorraine Parsons doesn’t appear to be a real person.

Now Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl claim to have a “credible” accuser who is apparently coming forward with what they refer to as legitimate sexual assault allegations against Robert Mueller. The alleged accuser’s name is Carolyne Cass.

Jacob Wohl has also admitted to being the man behind the suspicious company named “Surefire Intelligence”, and says that he nor Jack Burkman have any idea who Lorraine Parsons is.


The problem with these claims, which were made by the two men in a video released today by a journalist named Alicia Powe, and via a press conference held in Virginia, is that Hill Reporter has had conversations with both Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl over the past 10 days, and their statements seem to contradict the story that they are telling today.

Our Original Contact with Lorraine Parsons

After being contacted by Lorraine Parsons, who later told me that her maiden name was “Weaver” and that she lived in a gated community in Fort Myers, Florida called ‘Palms of Monterey‘, we not only reported the allegations to the Special Counsel’s office but Brian Krassenstein and I also began an investigation of our own for HillReporter. The initial email was sent to us by Parsons on October 18.


On October 22, Parsons reached out to us again with an apparent text message that she received from a number which she claimed offered her money in exchange for a sworn testimony alleging sexual misconduct by Robert Mueller. She claimed that the individual who sent her this text was a man named Bill Christensen who was working on behalf of Jack Burkman, and that the message was sent to her on October 19 at 3:05PM. The area code for this number was (703), which belongs to an area in Arlington, Virginia and surrounding areas. Note: Wohl and Burkman’s press conference today was in Arlington, Virginia as well and Burkman’s phone number we reached him at also comes from the (703) area code.


Screenshot of a text message sent to Hill Reporter on October 22,2018 from a woman claiming to be Lorraine Weaver Parsons.
Brian Krassenstein Receives Veiled Threats From a Man Calling From a Phone Number Provided by Lorraine Parsons, Claiming to be From Surefire Intelligence

We called the phone number from the text message above that Parsons provided to us, which was from a man named Bill Christensen, according to Parsons (number redacted). Upon calling this number, we reached a voicemail box and left a message. Several minutes later we received a text message from this same exact number, which read, “You’re in over your head Brian. Drop this.” The text message, seen below, also included a screenshot of both of our home addresses, in what appears to have been a veiled threat trying to intimidate us into dropping our investigation.



Text message Hill Reporter received on October 22, prior to receiving a call from a man from this same number claiming to be “Mike Wilcox” of “Surefire Intelligence”.
About 20 minutes later, a man called us from another similar number also originating from the (703) area code. He identified himself as Mike Wilcox of ‘Surefire Intelligence’ and confirmed that he was aware of “Lorraine Parsons”. Below is a transcript of the call:


Surefire’s “Head of PR” Mike Wilcox: Brian I want you to drop this right now. You are in way over your head. Stop this right now!Hill Reporter’s Brian Krassenstein: Excuse me, what was that?Surefire’s “Head of PR” Mike Wilcox: That’s really all I have to say Brian.Hill Reporter’s Brian Krassenstein: I’m not really sure what you mean.Surefire’s “Head of PR” Mike Wilcox: I don’t think there is much more to say, thank you.Hill Reporter’s Brian Krassenstein: Who is this again?Surefire’s “Head of PR” Mike Wilcox: My name is Mike Wilcox.Hill Reporter’s Brian Krassenstein: Ok, I’m not following you though.Surefire’s “Head of PR” Mike Wilcox: I don’t think there is anything else to say I just said everything I needed to say.Hill Reporter’s Brian Krassenstein: Who do you work for?Surefire’s “Head of PR” Mike Wilcox: I am the head of PR at Surefire Intelligence. You were in contact with one of our people, Bill Christensen, and I know you have tried to speak with Lorraine Parsons.Hill Reporter’s Brian Krassenstein: Yes, yes I have. So what’s wrong with that? I’m just curious. You are telling me to stop contacting her?Surefire’s “Head of PR” Mike Wilcox: Yeah, and beyond that I can’t really comment on any past, future or current operations.Hill Reporter’s Brian Krassenstein: So I’m in over my head? What do you mean by that?Surefire’s “Head of PR” Mike Wilcox: That’s all I have to say Brian (Hangs up).
This conversation doesn’t only show the intimidation tactics used by the man who alleges to be working with Jacob Wohl’s Surefire Intelligence, but it also shows that on October 22nd, the same day that Parsons emailed us and other reporters, Surefire Intelligence apparently was well aware of Lorraine Parsons, and in fact appeared to be worried that we were digging into her. Not only that, but the text message we received from the same number as the one Parsons claimed to had been offered $75,000 from confirms that Surefire Intelligence was likely either staging a fake text message exchange between themselves and Parsons, or they actually did try to offer this unverified woman cash in exchange for her sworn statement against Mr. Mueller.

Ed Krassenstein’s Conversation with Jack Burkman on October 22, 2018, Where Burkman Claims Surefire Intelligence’s Partners have Worked for Trump :

After receiving these threats, we contacted the Special Counsel’s office and began taking meticulous notes and documenting everything that occurred from thereon out, including a phone conversation we had with Jack Burkman.

“Can you tell me who Surefire Intelligence is,” I asked Burkman on October 22, after reaching him on his personal phone which also had a (703) area code. “I don’t think Surefire Intelligence is a real company,” I told Burkman. “I think you are using them to spread false information.”


Burkman then responded, ”Surefire is a real company. They are an intel outfit in Los Angeles. We’ve known them for a long time. The guy’s name is Wohl and their partners have actually worked for Trump.”

“We’ve known them (Surefire Intelligence) for a long time,” Burkman continued. “The guy’s name is Jacob Wohl, and he does just as the name suggest, they do a lot of intel work, they do a lot of good research, it’s an extremely good outfit out of California.”

It is worth noting that in today’s press conference Wohl said that Surefire Intelligence has had absolutely no contact with the White House.

In this same phone conversation with Burkman, I asked him, “Who would you say Lorraine Parsons is?”

Burkman, apparently fumbling for a response, replied, “Well we can’t, I can’t get in, another words you want to get into a discussion, another words, you’re correct we’re conducting an investigation of Mueller, but I don’t want to get into, I can’t really get into that with the press. I mean it’s that, you wanna go through the investigation.”

It was apparent that I had caught Burkman off guard, and without mentioning Parsons previously he seemingly equated her name with being part of his investigation into sexual assault allegations into Mueller, even though today he claims to never have had heard of or had anything to do with Parsons. I decided to keep digging with the Lorraine Parsons questions, knowing it was making him uncomfortable.

I followed up with Burkman, by saying, “Some things seem rather fishy about this investigation. Lorraine Parsons came forward saying that you offered to pay her to come forward with allegations against Mueller, but I don’t actually believe Lorraine Parsons is a real person, and I don’t believe that Surefire is a legitimate company.”

Burkman replied, “The only thing I can tell you is that Surefire is certainly real. I’ve known them for some time. But in terms of the rest, some of these people, I may end up representing as council, so I can’t get into the details of all of this.”

Again Burkman seemingly tried to avoid answering my questions about Lorraine Parsons, but as you can see, he seemed to imply that he may represent Parsons in the future.

Then I turned my attention to Mike Wilcox, who is the man who previously claimed to be from Surefire Intelligence and made veiled threats to Brian Krassenstein over the phone. I asked Burkman, “About Surefire, are you familiar with a man named Mike Wilcox?”

Burkman replied, “I can’t really comment on any of this stuff except to tell you I think it’s a good outfit.”

Later in an email Burkman told me he doesn’t know Mike Wilcox.

Yesterday Jack Burkman denied publicly, in the video by Alicia Powe, to knowing anything about Lorraine Parsons, or who she is. Jacob Wohl claims that Parsons is likely a bogus persona created by Robert Mueller’s office or the mainstream media. In these conversations though, Burkman not only refused to tell me that he didn’t know who Parsons was when I asked him the question several times, but he fumbled for answers and tied Lorraine Parsons to his Mueller investigation.

Additionally, Mike Wilcox, who claimed to be from Surefire Intelligence, admitted to us that he knew of Lorraine Parsons.

The dates as to when Carolyn(e) Cass allegedly approached Burkman and Surefire Intelligences also are not consistent. In the documents released by Surefire Intelligence, it is stated that “On or about October 1, 2018 Carolyn Cass reached out to Surefire Intelligence regarding the possibility of investigating an incident of rape.” However, in today’s press conference Jacob Wohl said, “She came to us September 15th.”

On October 23, Jack Burkman sent us an email stating “Just fyi, we now have one woman ready to go public — discussions ongoing with a second. Many months of hard work have gone into this.”

If Cass only came forward on September 15 like Wohl claimed or on October 1 like the documents claim, this would imply that Wohl and Burkman were investigating sexual assault allegations against Mueller many months prior to this victim coming forward.

Ed Krassenstein’s Conversation with Jacob Wohl on October 23 and Thereafter

After having spoken with Jack Burkman who claimed that Jacob Wohl was behind Surefire Intelligence, I contacted Wohl via Twitter DM (DM’s seen below). In this conversation Wohl told me that he didn’t know who Surefire Intelligence was, and that he never heard of Mike Wilcox.

In today’s press conference Wohl claimed to have lied to the media in regards to his connections with Surefire Intelligence, because the “investigation was still in flux.”

I also asked Wohl about his links to Jack Burkman. He told me that he’s “run into Jack Burkman a few times at Trump meetups,” but left it at that. He then proceed to tell me that he is “not working on any Mueller investigation.”







As you can see, there are many inconsistencies with what Burkman and Wohl told Hill Reporter over the past two weeks, especially when you factor in their claims at today’s press conference.

The fact that Burkman claimed that Surefire Intelligence and Jacob Wohl’s “partners” have previously worked for President Trump, also is important to note. If in fact Surefire Intelligence has links to the president, this story screams of continued attempts to obstruct the Mueller probe. With that said, Burkman is a known conspiracy theorist and liar, so his statements should be viewed with a grain of salt, and there certainly isn’t any evidence out there to implicate the president himself.

Hill Reporter has confirmed that after the Special Counsel referred the alleged attempts to pay women to claim sexual misconduct by Robert Mueller to the FBI, the FBI has in fact begun interviewing multiple witnesses.

https://hillreporter.com/jack-burkman-j ... ions-12507

Ken Klippenstein
‏
Verified account


Responding to my FOIA, FBI cites ongoing “law enforcement proceedings” re Jacob Wohl’s Surefire Intelligence, the firm that tried to frame Robert Mueller with fabricated sexual assault allegations
https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/sta ... 8299774976

FBI Cites ‘Law Enforcement Proceedings’ Regarding Jacob Wohl Firm
By: Ken KlippensteinApr 2, 20190 comments
The FBI refers to “law enforcement proceedings” regarding Surefire Intelligence, a company connected to far-right conspiracy theorist Jacob Wohl, in its response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by TYT.

TYT’s FOIA request sought records regarding Surefire Intelligence, the firm that produced a now debunked dossier alleging sexual misconduct by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. In its response, the FBI declined to provide records on Surefire Intelligence on the grounds that it could interfere with law enforcement proceedings.

“Acknowledging the existence or non-existence of records could reasonably be expected to interfere with law enforcement proceedings,” according to a letter signed by Section Chief David Hardy of the FBI’s Record/Information Dissemination Section.

The FBI’s response did not clarify whether Surefire Intelligence or Wohl are the subjects of those proceedings. Wohl maintains that he has not been questioned by the FBI, though he did not directly comment on whether or not Surefire is being investigated.

“I have never been questioned by the FBI, nor have I ever been questioned by any other law enforcement agency,” Wohl told TYT via email. “Further, as part of an intensive course of vetting I went through in order to obtain my concealed carry permit, I went through a Live Scan background check which revealed my perfectly clean record.”

In October, a spokesman for Mueller said, “When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the special counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation.”

Although Wohl has refused to comment on his involvement with Surefire Intelligence, NBC News reported that his email is listed on the website’s domain records and that a phone number listed on the website links to Wohl’s mother’s number. BuzzFeed reporter Chris Geidner also notes that Surefire Intelligence LLC was registered anonymously in Delaware in early October, just 10 days before Wohl announced via Twitter, “Spoke to a prominent DC insider today who told me there are several women prepared to make credible allegations against Dirty Cop Robert Mueller.”

Later that month, a woman who used to work for Mueller as a paralegal, told The Atlantic that she had been contacted by a man who identified himself as an employee of Surefire Intelligence. She said that the man offered her a check for about $20,000 and to pay off her credit debt if she signed a sworn affidavit alleging workplace harassment and sexual misconduct by Mueller.

Another woman, Vermont Law School Professor Jennifer Taub, said she was contacted at about the same time by a Surefire Intelligence employee offering compensation to speak with them via phone about any encounters with Mueller she may have had.

On November 1, Wohl held a press conference at a D.C.-area Holiday Inn, at which he distributed a dossier containing a statement of sexual assault allegations against Mueller ostensibly signed by a woman named Carolyne Cass, who was not present. When contacted by media, Cass said that Surefire had fabricated the story.

On the same day, the far-right media website Gateway Pundit, which employed Wohl and had promoted his story about Mueller, suspended their relationship with Wohl.

While taking questions at the November 1 press conference, Wohl and an associate were asked by one reporter, “Are you both prepared for federal prison?”
https://tyt.com/stories/4vZLCHuQrYE4uKa ... 5e7rKLxNYu