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Why the FBI’s visit to Lindsey Graham’s home looks less medical and more like RussiaGate — plus the hush-money prosecutor who never really left DOJ, and Thursday’s over-hyped mystery speech.
JUL 14READ IN APP
Good morning, C&C, it’s Tuesday! Your roundup includes: conservative social media going up like dry timber over President Trump’s mysteriously-announced Thursday primetime address, and why — before you clear your calendar — the smart money says potpourri (Iran, with a dash of election integrity), not the fraud-reveal Rapture the base is pining for; then the story that refuses to stay buried, as the FBI descends on the late Senator Lindsey Graham’s home in force — Marshals, a big black evidence box, a guy posted to guard it — all for a death the government still calls natural, and why the scene smells less like grief and more like RussiaGate catching up with a man who spent a decade elbow-deep in Ukraine; and finally, meet Matthew Colangelo, the hush-money prosecutor who downshifted from the number-three job at the entire Justice Department to a desk in Alvin Bragg’s office — and the calendar entries hinting he never really left the DOJ at all.
🌍🇺🇸 ESSENTIAL NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🇺🇸🌍
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By now, everyone with a scrolling addiction has seen the uncontrolled wildfire of speculation burning up conservative social media over President Trump’s recently announced national address scheduled for 9pm ET Thursday. Once again, the topic is a mystery and the speculative fur is flying. Remember our rule about hot takes! Let’s walk through it to learn how these things get so out of control. Yesterday, Reuters reported, “Trump to assert voting machine vulnerabilities in Thursday speech.”
The rhetorical fireworks began late yesterday afternoon, after MSNOW reporter Jake Traylor tweeted in an explosive postthat, according to two anonymous White House officials granted permission to discuss it, President Trump will “reveal plans by foreign nations to interfere in the 2020 election”:
Whatever else that tweet may have done, it recaptured a news cycle that had been spiraling around Lindsay Graham’s sudden death, and launched a thousand ships of wild conjecture. For example, one dramatic viral rumor claims the President will ‘invalidate’ both of Georgia’s Democrat Senators for being illegally elected:
Now, I love nothing better than dot-connecting. But this might not be the one to pin any hopes on. The claims about the Georgia senators are pretty thin. I tracked down this rumor to independent conservative influencer DC Reporter, who, within a couple of hours, had withdrawn the claim :
But the rumor already had its sneakers on and was halfway around the world. Anyway, scratch that one off your bingo cards.
🧨 Meanwhile, the corporate media was, for once, doing its job. They chased the rumors. Time ran a story this morning headlined, “Trump to Give Primetime Speech on Thursday: What to Expect.”While it didn’t tackle the rumors directly, it said this about the latest mystery address: “The White House did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment on what the latest speech, scheduled for 9 p.m. ET, would cover, but multiple reports have hinted at the issues the President may touch on.” It then cited Axios.
Axios reached an unnamed “senior advisor”who said, “President Trump’s prime-time Thursday speech from the White House is slated to include election integrity, an update on Iran and whatever else he deems important.” Which was about as clear as Ukrainian mud. Then, Axios directly debunked the rumors: “Trump’s adviser denied online reports that the president plans to discuss the 2020 Senate elections in Georgia, which were won by two Democrats.”
So it’s a riddle. Officially, the White House has no agenda. Axios’ source said there was no agenda. “It will be a potpourri,” the senior adviser advised. At least it will smell good.
Still, is it possible, or perhaps even likely, that Trump will discuss the SAVE Act and election integrity? Of course. And who knows, he might declassify something. After all, he’s been sitting on a voting-machine-vulnerability report that Tulsi Gabbard turned in just about a month ago. Headline from Reuters, June 22:
It’s intriguing, but it doesn’t quite connect. Tulsi’s report has been stuffed in a drawer for weeks. All of yesterday’s breathless reports agree on one thing: Trump will discuss Iran. That does seem likely, since he’s just made a major move: resetting the timer for another 60-days of active military intervention without Congressional approval under the War Powers Act. Politico, yesterday:
If the President did have big election news, would he combine a major announcement about the resumption of direct hostilities with Iran with massive election integrity news in a potpourri press conference? It seems more likely that a major election announcement would get its own press conference.
This kind of thing has happened before. Back in December, the Administration announced an “emergency” primetime address from the President. Hype and hope shredded the charts. It could be mass arrests! Shutting down the Fed! He’s taking down Obama! The actual speech turned out to be a potpourri of Trump listing his first year’s accomplishments, one by one, with classic Trumpian commentary on each.
It has a nice odor for MAGA, but it hardly smelled like an emergency. Worse, it gave far-left media a Festivus stocking stuffed with mocking material. E.g., Vox:
So, based on the last presidential address without an agenda, you might want to set your expectations more … realistically. Look, I hope I’m wrong. I’m pining for a big election fraud reveal. But I don’t think this one is it. Consume social media responsibly.
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Having poured cold water on one conspiracy theory, allow me to fan the flames of another. There’s been a development in the completely unremarkable and totally normal story of one of the most powerful U.S. Senators suddenly and unexpectedly dying at home without any witnesses. As you may recall, Senator Lindsay Graham, 71, expired Saturday night at home from what a special warp-speed post-mortem on Sunday called, preliminarily, “aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.” Welp. Yesterday, the Hill reported, “FBI visits Graham’s DC home.”
Here are the facts that we can confirm so far: Around 8:27 p.m. EDT, D.C. Fire/EMS was dispatched to Graham’s Capitol Hill address for “chest pain” that escalated to “cardiac arrest,” based on reviewed radio traffic. The 911 call came from an unidentified woman who was not on scene; she was reportedly en route from Baltimore and told EMS the door would be unlocked. This morning, Fox reported the woman was his staff scheduler, and Graham told her he had chest pains.
Logical. Because whenever you think you’re having a heart attack, you call a staffer to call 911 for you. Makes sense. Maybe he forgot the number.
Anyway, the door wasn’t unlocked. Responders found Graham’s door deadbolted. They got no response despite repeated knocking, so they called police to gain forceful entry. By 8:50 p.m., radio traffic indicated CPR was in progress on “a man in apparent cardiac arrest”; photos showed paramedics transporting a person from Graham’s home to an ambulance.
🔥 Yesterday, the Hill, which inspected eyewitness photos from the scene, reported that “at least six men and two women in FBI gear were at Graham’s row house.” Just ‘assisting’ the locals. Some reports pegged the number of LEO officials as high as twenty. Depending on the eyewitness report, either one or two US Marshals were also on the scene with the FBI. Remember that fact; it will be important later.
It is possible that the FBI team was just there to secure classified materials from Graham’s home. You can easily imagine the kinds of sensitive documents, like handwritten notes, that the Senator might have lying around on the coffee table and on various devices. Or even in a safe. Reasonably, officials might want to secure that stuff stat.
But … it still doesn’t quite fit. Congress has its own police force— the Capitol Hill Police and the Sergeants at Arms. Classified documents are required to be stored in secure SCIFs (presumably even more so after the Trump lawfare and the awkward Biden deposition). The Capitol Police and Sergeants at Arms are normally responsible for setting up SCIFs and helping to secure classified congressional information, including managing staff security clearances.
Normally, the FBI (executive branch) would get involved only if Graham were improperlykeeping classified materials at home, in which case the feds would treat it as a law enforcement issue. Otherwise, securing members’ documents seems more appropriately the jurisdiction of the Capitol Police (legislative branch). So why were the FBI needed?
Next, the fact that Marshals may also have been there raises some intriguing possibilities. Marshals work for the courts. In this context, court involvement implies a warrant. The Hill described a “big black container” outside with an FBI agent “standing watch,” from which another agent retrieved a manila folder. An evidence locker, perhaps? Or nothing to see here?
Taken altogether, it looks remarkably like the bootprint of a federal criminal investigation. None of it is consistent with a “natural at-home death.” The remaining possibilities are all pretty astonishing. One that we discussed yesterday is possible foul play involving a sophisticated foreign or domestic perpetrator.
🔥 But another wild possibility is that Graham’s tight relationship with the Administration might not have been quite as close as advertised. The Executive Branch has just assumed control of Graham’s personal information, devices, notes, emails, texts, and so on. If Graham’s loyalties weresplit, the Trump Team is about to find out.
Fact: Lindsey Graham was closely tied to Ukraine, going back to 2014.
Fact: Ukraine is closely tied to RussiaGate, shady biolabs, and ‘potential’ USAID graft, going back to at least 2014.
Fact: Graham’s ‘loyalty’ to Trump 2.0 could be fairly described as transactional; until recently, he’s often been a fierce Trump critic and political adversary.
For example, in 2015–16, Graham called Trump a “kook” who was “unfit for office,” a “race‑baiting xenophobic religious bigot,” and “the world’s biggest jackass.” He dramatically announced his vote for Evan McMullin— not the President.
Then, during Trump 1.0, Graham boarded the Trump train for four years. But after January 6th, Graham theatrically broke with President Trump, saying he was done— “count me out, enough is enough.” Within months, he reversed again and declared, “we can’t grow without him,” and said that the GOP could not “move forward without President Trump.”
Thus, we cannot accurately describe the men’s relationship as a bromance. It’s not like Graham was a lifelong Trump ally. So it’s puzzling that, in February, 2024, Graham flipped even on his beloved Ukraine for reasons that have never been satisfactorily explained. Headline from the Washington Post:
It could be that Graham flipped to Trump’s side because he knew he needed Trump’s endorsement for his 2026 re-election campaign. That is true. By February, 2024, Trump was considered the odds-on favorite for the GOP primary and the party’s de facto kingmaker. Lindsey might just have been practicing prudent politics.
But that kind of Machiavellian politics hardly makes Graham a reliable Trump ally. For instance, what might he do after getting re-elected to another six-year term, when he no longer needed Trump’s support for the South Carolina primary?
And now, the FBI has presumably taken possession of all Graham’s notes and communications from both periods— before and after what the obituaries have described as the transition “from staunch critic to fierce ally.”
Other than Obama himself, it is difficult to name a senior U.S. politician as intimately involved in the Ukraine project as Lindsey Graham— before, during, and after RussiaGate. Runners-up include notable figures like Joe Biden and John McCain. But Graham was at the pinnacle of the pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia org chart. So.
Remember the Marshals? U.S. Marshals are rarely on‑scene at a private home without some federal court authority in the background. Coincidentally, Trump already has a sitting grand jury trained on the RussiaGate case. It would have been trivial for the DOJ to obtain a quick warrant.
Connecting all these dots, if you asked me for a wild speculation, I would place my chips on the FBI “raid” at Graham’s residence not being connected to his untimely death but to the RussiaGate investigation. Even giving Graham the benefit of the doubt, it fits the motive structure of a White House intent on owning the RussiaGate narrative end‑to‑end.
Ukraine again. Graham died within hours of returning from his tenth Kiev trip, roughly a year after calling for a “sledgehammer to go after Putin’s economy,” and one day after publicly claiming that his long-desired Russia-sanctions bill had finally cleared the White House. (Trump hasn’t said that.)
It’s still a breaking story. Things could change. Which is why I usually wait as long as it takes for all the facts to surface before I start connecting dots. But this one is just too irresistibly juicy.
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Late last week, the New York Post reported, “Exclusive | Trump hush money prosecutor played larger role in federal cases against prez than known, logs show.” President Trump immediately posted the story to his Truth Social timeline with the saucy comment, “This was crooked right from the beginning!”
Meet Matthew Colangelo. He is a career progressive litigator, professional bureaucrat, and Democrat-aligned policy lawyer who grew from civil rights and economic justice work into top roles in both the Obama and Biden administrations. On his first day, Biden made Colangelo Acting Associate Attorney General, the DOJ’s number‑three official.
Then, for his own reasons, he abruptly resigned from his top DOJ job to join porcine Alvin Bragg’s ‘hush‑money’ prosecution team in December, 2022. The otherwise inexplicable career downshift raised eyebrows. Trump’s attorney Will Scharf compared the move to “a four‑star general quitting his job and enlisting in the National Guard as a private.”
Colangelo, a deep stater if ever there was one, has never offered any coherent explanation for the professional shift.
🔥 America First Legal, a conservative watchdog group, has been collecting records about Mr. Colangelo. “These records show that the man who delivered the opening statement prosecuting President Trump while working in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was more involved in Trump-related litigation preparation at DOJ than the American people were led to believe,” AFL’s Will Scolinos said in a statement.
The Post’s story highlighted a cluster of Colangelo’s calendar entries that, taken together, suggest he was directly plugged into the federal lawfare strategy against Trump— before and after joining Bragg’s hush‑money team.
These overlapping cases included pretty much all the major lawfare against the President:
- “The dispute over national security records held at Trump’s Mar‑a‑Lago resort” that ultimately led to Jack Smith’s classified‑documents indictment of Trump.
- A December 2021 meeting on “the DOJ’s position” in E. Jean Carroll’s civil sexual‑abuse and defamation case against Trump.
- “Another 12 items” on Colangelo’s calendar were tied to meetings about the subpoena of former White House Counsel Don McGahn for testimony on obstruction‑of‑justice issues in the Mueller report.
During a Congressional hearing, when pressed about Colangelo jumping ship to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland testified under oath that, “I had nothing to do with it. I did not dispatch Mr. Colangelo anywhere.”
The calendar entries suggest otherwise.
The Post’s story does not say, but strongly implies, that Colangelo’s move to Alvin Bragg’s office was part of a coordinated anti‑Trump lawfare campaign, not an innocent career hop. In other words, Merrick Garland’s DOJ helped engineer Colangelo’s transition to Bragg’s Trump team— while pretending it was all arm’s‑length.
🔥 When Bragg hired Colangelo in December 2022, the press release said the former top DOJ official would “focus on housing and tenant protection and labor and worker protection, as well as the Office’s most sensitive and high‑profile white‑collar investigations.” But so far as I can tell, there’s zero record of Colangelo working on any other New York state case besides the Trump cases.
Corporate media coverage —from ABC, NBC and House Judiciary materials— consistently spotlights Colangelo in just one role: lead prosecutor and senior counsel on Trump, delivering the nauseous opening statement as lead lawyer in Bragg’s ridiculous, law-bending hush‑money case.
That doesn’t prove he didn’t work on housing and tenant rights for New York’s poorest citizens, but there is zero public evidence (that I could find) of Colangelo working on any other case. (Except for one minor reference to him helping in 2025 with the Harvey Weinstein case.) And, as the calendar entries show, he was at leastmeeting at DOJ about the other Trump cases —the ones run by DOJ— even though he didn’t work there anymore.
It’s almost like Colangelo kept working at DOJ— even though he was formallysupposed to be working for Alvin Bragg on tenants’ rights. If true, that would be some pretty dark skulduggery at the DOJ’s back door.
If Colangelo’s Manhattan role was actuallyjust an off‑books extension of his DOJ portfolio, then we’re not just looking at routine law enforcement— we’re looking at the skeleton of a deep-state conspiracy to interfere with a federal presidential election. This is the kind of evidence that supports convening a grand jury. Just saying.
President Trump, at least, seemed to find Mr. Colangelo’s moonlighting significant:
What most intrigues me about the steady, drip-drip-drip of these stories is the manifest truth that the Trump Lawfare period isn’t over. One wonders whether the people involved had any idea how persistent and durable the backlash would be.
The clock keeps chiming. It’s lawfare from RussiaGate, with love. Tick, tock.
Have a terrific Tuesday! Then roll back here tomorrow morning for another delicious serving of C&C’s essential news and caffeinated commentary.
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Rose Rambles... 