But the president said he had not been tested again since being diagnosed with COVID-19 a week ago, meaning it's unclear whether he is still positive for the highly contagious virus. He said he expected to take another test on Friday.

During his interview with Hannity, Trump paused multiple times to clear his throat. The president has not been seen in person since departing the hospital on Monday.

White House physician Sean Conley said in a memo released earlier Thursday evening that he believed it would be safe for Trump to resume public activities on Saturday. That timeline is a shift from earlier in the week, when Conley said doctors would not breathe a sigh of relief for Trump's health until he made it to next Monday without complications.

On Friday evening, Trump tweeted the announcement of a "very BIG RALLY" in Sanford - meaning the Orlando Sanford International Airport - in central Florida. The Monday evening event will be the first since the president tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

The White House has reportedly sent out invitations for a Saturday morning event already, featuring a gathering on the South Lawn with Trump delivering "remarks to peaceful protesters for law and order" from the balcony, a safe distance away.

The remarks will be in addition to a previously scheduled event organized by activist Candace Owens and her group Blexit. As part of their safety rules, anyone who shows up will have to bring a mask and wear it, a Bloomberg News White House correspondent reported. They will also have to undergo a temperature check and a questionnaire, but no tests.

• Azerbaijan's president says "neighbor" Russia is most suitable mediator, Turkey accused of sending terrorists in from Middle East
• Turmoil in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, & Ukraine shows that, three decades on, the Soviet Union's still collapsing
• Azerbaijan caught using lame False Flags to justify using cluster munitions against Armenian civilians

• Azerbaijan's president says "neighbor" Russia is most suitable mediator, Turkey accused of sending terrorists in from Middle East
• Turmoil in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, & Ukraine shows that, three decades on, the Soviet Union's still collapsing

[...] For the sake of brevity, I am not discussing Halper's role in targeting former Defense Intelligence Agency Director, Lieutenant General Mike Flynn. That is another column for another day -- and certainly Haspel knows a great deal about that, as well.

The timeframe (2014-2017) matters, because Haspel, as London Station Chief would have been briefed on the FBI's counterintelligence plan before any actions were approved to go forward. The CIA Station Chief is the top intelligence official in any given country. The FBI must inform the Station Chief of what they planned to do and get Station Chief approval. The FBI hates that, but those are the rules. Because the various intelligence agencies are sensitive, they do not use the word "approved." Instead, they use the word "coordinated." Jargon aside, nothing would have happened without Haspel's okay.

Think about this for a while: The current CIA director was an active, knowledgeable party to the efforts to target candidate Trump with a contrived foreign counterintelligence investigation. That carried forward to a more sophisticated and aggressive plan to carry out a soft coup against President Trump. People around President Trump were prosecuted and/or had their lives destroyed based on a scheme of U.S. government lies. Who appears to have been "in on it" from day one? Gina Haspel.

So, when we read in an article by Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist, that Haspel is personally resisting the declassification and release of records on "Russiagate," we are not surprised. In fact, we are relieved, because a few of us have been shouting from the mountaintops about Haspel for years, to no avail. The smarmy James Comey is easier to identify and loathe than the elusive Haspel.

For those seeking more information on Haspel, Shane Harris of the Washington Post wrote a nauseating hagiography of Haspel in July 2019. Consistent with WaPo's standards there are several factual errors and loads of opinion masquerading as "tough reporting." Harris (and one assumes Haspel) makes sure readers know that Haspel and company "boils down" presidential intelligence briefings to "a few key points that they think Trump absolutely needs to know." We are supposed to also believe that "Trump favors pictures and graphics over text." Of course, the CIA director's office did not cooperate with Harris. No, not at all.

The FBI is not allowed to penetrate and subvert a presidential campaign. Executive Order 12333, Section 2.9, "Undisclosed Participation in Organizations in the United States," prohibits it in plain language. Historically, the prohibition is a consequence of U.S. Army Counterintelligence penetrating Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at the behest of the FBI during the 1960s -- among other abuses of power and authority. That legal prohibition is the reason the FBI felt the need to manufacture a "foreign counterintelligence threat" in the UK and then "import" the investigation back into the United States.

The FBI plotters needed to establish a foreign counterintelligence "event" to run their operation. The UK was the easiest and operationally safest/friendliest place to pull it off, especially with Stefan Halper's connections to Cambridge. Haspel was clearly fully informed and had "coordinated" the operation. She also enjoyed cordial relationships with MI6 and GCHQ. Now we (largely, but imperfectly) know what transpired. Halper under oath, in public, would fill in a lot of blanks. Gina Haspel, under the same circumstances and conditions, might just complete the puzzle. Should President Trump be reelected, it might just happen. A President Biden guarantees we will never hear another syllable of the rest of the story.