A stunning development on the legal front that directly impacts the so-called conspiracy theory that the death of Seth Rich was something more than routine street crime. The FBI now admits it has Seth Rich's laptop. This information has just been posted on Lawflog.com courtesy of Ty Clevenger.

According to an email posted at Lawflog.com and sent to attorney Ty Clevenger, the attorney for the FBI now admits that the:

FBI has completed the initial search identifying approximately 50 cross-reference serials, with attachments totaling over 20,000 pages, in which Seth Rich is mentioned. FBI has also located leads that indicate additional potential records that require further searching. . . . FBI is also currently working on getting the files from Seth Rich's personal laptop into a format to be reviewed. As you can imagine, there are thousands of files of many types. The goal right now is to describe, generally, the types of files/personal information contained in this computer.

After more than four years of repeated denials from the FBI that they had searched their files and had no information on Seth Rich, we now know that was a blatant lie. It was David Hardy, a FBI Senior official, who put that denial in writing in September 2017. Hardy was the Section Chief of the Record/Information Dissemination Section ("RIDS"), Information Management Division ("IMD"),1 Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), in Winchester, Virginia.

In the days since a bombshell report linked Rep. Eric Swalwell with a suspected Chinese spy, the congressman's record on China has come under scrutiny...but that's not it...THIS COULD GET REAL INTERESTING REAL FAST.

A look at some of the California Democrat's statements and legislative history reveals a mixed bag: at times opposing the Chinese government's practices, but not when President Trump was involved.

"Director Ratcliffe said that China is the greatest threat, which does not match what we have been briefed on privately," Swalwell told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow in August, when discussing foreign election interference. While China, Iran, and Russia had all been suspected of trying to impact November's election, Swalwell only focused on Russia, which he recognized as being the "one country that has a preference for Donald Trump."

But it doesn't stop there!

The Swalwell Scandal isn't about a one-off dalliance w/ a Chinese spy.

With Politico reporting on Wednesday that Hunter Biden's criminal investigation covers potential money laundering, and CNN's Simon Prokupecz reporting that the feds are looking into a 2017 gift to Hunter from CEFC China Energy Co. founder Ye Jianming - a 2.8-carat diamond, let's revisit a prime example of what one Chinese professor described as 'friends in high places' within the Democratic party.

In November, 2017, Joe Biden's brother James received a surprise call on his cellphone from Patrick Ho, Ye Jianming's lieutenant who was arrested by the FBI (and is now serving a 36-month sentence for bribery and money laundering), according to a December, 2018 report by the New York Times. According to James, the call was meant for Hunter:

James Biden, a financier and brother of the former vice president, was in a hotel lobby in November 2017 when he got a surprise call on his cellphone. The call was from Patrick Ho, Mr. Ye's lieutenant. Mr. Ho, 69, was in trouble.

Federal agents who had monitored CEFC's rise since at least the summer of 2016 had sprung into action, arresting Mr. Ho in New York on allegations that he had bribed African officials in Chad and Uganda. Days later, federal agents showed up at Mr. Ye's luxury apartment building across from Central Park with a subpoena to interview Mr. Ye, said people familiar with the matter.
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In a brief interview, James Biden said he had been surprised by Mr. Ho's call. He said he believed it had been meant for Hunter Biden, the former vice president's son. James Biden said he had passed on his nephew's contact information.

Dianne Feinstein is the oldest sitting US senator and, according to the New Yorker, is suffering from severe cognitive decline. Online, some pundits wondered why the magazine never examined Joe Biden the same way.

At 87 years old, Dianne Feinsten has represented California in the US Senate since 1992, and was previously the mayor of San Francisco between 1978 and 1988. After a long career in public service, the New Yorker reported on Thursday that her mind simply isn't what it used to be.

According to the magazine, Feinstein's "short-term memory has grown so poor that she often forgets she has been briefed on a topic, accusing her staff of failing to do so just after they have." Rumors of the California Democrat's decline have been out in the open for some time, backed up by videos of her bumbling through public statements and fueled by the gossip-hungry conservative press. Video footage of a Senate hearing last month, for example, showed Feinstein asking the same question twice of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Meet General Lloyd Austin

President-elect Joe Biden is set to nominate retired Army general Lloyd Austin as Defense Secretary. After retiring from the military in 2016, Austin joined the board of Raytheon. The defense manufacturer has sold billions of dollars worth of weapons to the Saudi coalition that's been pummeling Yemen with bombs for years.

New York Times, earlier this year, reported:

"After the Yemen war began in 2015 and the Obama administration made a hasty decision to back the Saudis, Raytheon booked more than $3 billion in new bomb sales, according to an analysis of available U.S. government records. Intent on pushing the deals through, Raytheon followed the industry playbook: It took advantage of federal loopholes by sending former State Department officials, who were not required to be registered as lobbyists, to press their former colleagues to approve the sales."

President-elect Joe Biden privately warned a group of civil rights leaders to curb rhetoric about police reform in America ahead of the Georgia Senate runoff elections in January.

The leaders had been urging Biden to be aggressive in rolling back some of the Trump administration's policies via executive order during his early days in office, including on matters of voting and police misconduct.

They also took issue with Biden's selection of Tom Vilsack as Agriculture secretary instead of choosing a person of color. That prompted Biden to warn the group that such forceful statements could backfire in the Georgia Senate election, which will determine party control of the chamber.

Joe Biden's pick to be the next Secretary of Defense, according to reports on Monday night, is recently retired Gen. Lloyd J. Austin, III. The choice of Gen. Austin further erodes the once-sacred American norm that military officials will be barred from exercising control over the Pentagon until substantial time has passed after leaving active-duty military service.

Before Gen. Austin can be confirmed, Biden will need a special waiver from Congress under the National Security Act of 1947. That law, a cornerstone of the post-World War II national security state, provides that "a person who has within ten years been on active duty as a commissioned officer in a Regular component of the armed services shall not be eligible for appointment as Secretary of Defense." Enactment of the law after the war, explained the Congressional Research Service, was imperative to "preserve the principle of civilian control of the military at a time when the United States was departing from its century-and-a-half long tradition of a small standing military." A 2008 law reduced that waiting period to seven years, but Gen. Austin, who retired from the U.S. Army only four years ago, in 2016, still falls well within its prohibition.

The U.S. military flew two B-52H bombers from Louisiana to the Middle East Thursday, part of an ongoing effort to deter Iran from any aggressive actions, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

The bomber mission, which flew through the region but did not drop any bombs, comes as the U.S. military believes there is a heightened chance for Iranian actions or miscalculations, according to a senior U.S. military official with knowledge of the region.

The two B-52H "Stratofortresses" flew from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on a roughly 36-hour mission that took them across Europe, through the northern Red Sea, across Saudi Arabia and into the Persian Gulf for a north to south transit. The mission included a counterclockwise loop around Qatar, all the time staying closer to the western side of the gulf and outside Iranian airspace, according to the senior U.S. military official with knowledge of the region.

Russia's lower house of parliament has approved the final reading of a bill that would grant sweeping lifetime immunity to former presidents.

The legislation approved by the State Duma on December 9 is part of a package of constitutional amendments approved in a referendum earlier this year that could potentially see President Vladimir Putin stay in power until 2036.

The draft stipulates that any former head of state and their families automatically obtain lifetime immunity from criminal or administrative charges. They also cannot be detained, arrested, searched, or interrogated.

Rice was President Obama's national security adviser and U.N. ambassador.

Democrat Joe Biden on Thursday named Susan Rice as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council for his anticipated administration.

The appointment is considered an unexpected change in role for Rice, a longtime Democratic foreign policy expert. She was President Obama's national security adviser and U.N. ambassador.