The Department of Justice should investigate if Mike Pompeo provided classified information to Australian journalist Sharri Markson
(to advance the "Wuhan Lab Leak" media narrative of the origins of COVID-19)
In his tenure as CIA Director and Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo took steps to plug up leaks in the CIA and silence Julian Assange. Pompeo's efforts culminated in the arrest of Julian Assange in April 2019, months before he attended a Bilderberger convention, and months before the Plandemic began. Pompeo appears to have subsequently become a leaker himself to a much more American-friendly journalist, Sharri Markson, to promote Pompeo's own narrative on a "Wuhan Lab Leak" origin of COVID-19.
Let me preface this by saying that I don't want the Australian police to drag Sharri Markson out of her home and extradite her to the United States to face 175 years or so in prison like Assange faces.
If a Department of Justice investigation should prove that Pompeo has leaked classified information, however, he should face the same type of prison sentences that Reality Winner and Bradley (Chelsea) Manning, both employees of the government at the time of their leaks, have both served in the United States.
After Yahoo News published a story that 30 former officials claimed that Mike Pompeo discussed plans to assassinate Julian Assange, Pompeo denied the allegation. He said if those 30 people had spoken to the press about intelligence from within the CIA, that they should all be prosecuted. Pompeo said he took his responsibilities to protect classified information seriously.
To Megyn Kelly: Makes for pretty good fiction, Megyn. They should write such a novel. This is classic Isikoff. Look, I can't say much about this other than whoever those 30 people who allegedly spoke with one of these reporters, the should all be prosecuted for speaking about classified intelligence inside the Central Intelligence Agency. Maybe they didn't. Maybe they just made it up. But you should know I take seriously my responsibilities to protect that information.
In fact, an inspection of Markson's interest in researching and reporting the "Wuhan Lab Leak" narrative raises the potential and probable cause for the Department of Justice to investigate that Mike Pompeo was a source of information provided to Sharri Markson.
In a speech and interview of Sharri Markson with Tom Switzer of Australia's Center for Independent Studies (CIS), Markson provided some history of the origins of her reporting. This section will be a bit lengthy, because I'm going to quote Markson and others extensively, so that the reader can have a full context. Along the way with the quotes, I'll add some original sources of information of the things they are referring to and, and I'll also add some observations of my own.
Tom Switzer: Take us back to March 12 of 2020. You texted a trusted source in the Australian Foreign Intelligence Agency. Tell us more.
Sharri Markson: So I texted a contact tapped into that community, or tapped into that agency, and asked him if it was possible that this was a laboratory leak in Wuhan or if it was just a conspiracy theory. And he replied to tell me that it was something that was being investigated, whether it came from a Wuhan laboratory, and he gave some detail.
Tom Switzer: In March... when you're making these inquiries, no one seriously contemplated the idea that this could come out of a lab. But you had the scoop at the Australian a month later. Tell us about that scoop.
(Switzer said "trusted source" and Markson replied "contact." Earlier in the video, Markson said: "Tom (Switzer) very kindly introduced me to some crucial players. He was the person who connected me with the right people so I could interview the former Secretary of State and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who I first interviewed for my book and then again a few months later for the documentary.")
Sharri Markson: Well that was at the Daily Telegraph. So the first front page story was that the "five eyes" intelligence network are examining whether COVID-19 leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. And then in the same story, I detailed how the scientists Shi Zhengli and her number two, Peng Zhou, had either worked or been trained in the CSI a decade earlier.
A brief tangent follows on Markson's reporting in the Daily Telegraph. I believe the image below is the front page of the print version of the article that Markson was referring to. While Switzer seemed to refer to a “scoop” by Markson in April, a month later than March, it looks like this newspaper was published in early May. It is unclear if Markson published anything on Wuhan in April. The date is important because Australia's foreign minister Marise Payne called for an investigation into COVID-19 in China in April, and it is unclear the extent to which Markson's reporting would have influenced Australia's foreign minister to call for an investigation.
An online article written by Markson on Wuhan is here: "Coronavirus NSW: Dossier lays out case against China bat virus program." In a video contained in the referenced link, Markson reported details of a "15-page research document" that was "prepared by concerned Western governments." Markson has referred to the "concerned Western governments" as combined intelligence agencies "five eyes" (United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada).
It is unclear if Mike Pompeo contributed to the production of the "five eyes" intelligence document or conspired to leak the "five eyes" intelligence document to Markson.
Markson described the document: The document has 5 main themes which it builds a case for. (1). Firstly, the silenced and the disappeared. (2). The suppression and destruction of evidence. (3). Deadly denial of human to human transmission. (4). The endangerment of other countries. (5). The assault on international transparency.
The online and print articles were published around May 4-5, 2020. Markson did not specifically say that she had spoken with Pompeo about the information contained in her article, but she did mention Mike Pompeo in a May 4, 2020 tweet:
Continuing with Markson's interview with Tom Switzer:
Trump didn't say anything about a lab leak until April. ... Trump was literally tweeting saying "everything's under control. Xi Jinping is being transparent. He is a great friend. We're gonna be fine. And precisely the time he was tweeting that, you know Pompeo couldn't get officials on the ground in Wuhan. They were being rejected at every level, and as Pompeo said to me, he compared it the movie called The Sting, and they were getting the shutout.
(Here, Markson said Pompeo gave her information on the US government's investigations in China concerning a "Wuhan Lab Leak." This information appears to be classified information. It is unknown if the information given to Markson by Pompeo was approved for release by the United States.)
Tom Switzer: Dates are important. April of last year is also when the foreign minister Maurice Payne called for an international inquiry into the outbreak at Wuhan. Is there any evidence, as the critics say, that she was put in this position by Washington?
(Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne, called for an investigation on April 18, 2020. The screenshot is from ABD.net.AU report with a video of Maris Payne).
Markson: So I asked that question of everyone when I was writing the book. Her international counterparts knew that she was going to be making that statement. That Australia was going to be calling for an inquiry, but, no one asked Australian to do it as far as I could find out. ... Pompeo and his team liked the fact that Australia was gonna be taking the lead on this so it wouldn't be seen as a US versus China issue, it would be seen as international free world versus tyranny type issue.
(It is important to note that Markson said Mike Pompeo was glad that Australia had taken the lead on calling for an investigation of the "Wuhan Lab Leak" narrative, suggesting that it was Pompeo’s goal to provide classified information to Markson, Payne, and likely Switzer, in order to get Australia to advance the “Wuhan Lab Leak” media narrative).
Tom Switzer: Now is as good a time as any here ... to say that 8 months earlier (from April 2020) CIS actually hosted an event at the New South Wales state library with the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and the Prime Minister, and we're talking about the rise of China.
(The event referred to by Tom Switzer was on August 4, 2019, where Tom Switzer, Marise Payne, and Mike Pompeo had a discussion on China and other topics. A video is below. (September 12, 2019- the Wuhan Institute of Virology had taken a database of viruses offline)).
The date of Mike Pompeo’s meeting in Australia has been edited from the publication date of September 19, 2019, to the date provide by the Center for Independent Studies.
Due to Markson's reporting of the "themes" in the "five eyes" intelligence documents, the "Wuhan Lab Leak" theory was widely propagated in media throughout 2020 and into 2021.
In September 2021, there was a large amount of information released from multiple sources which seemed to support the "Wuhan Lab Leak" theory. Mike Pompeo went on record with Sharri Markson for the first time in Sepember. I'll make a brief timeline of events in September, give some brief background on the organizations DRASTIC and Intercept, then return to Markson's interview of Pompeo.
On August 29, 2021, Markson announced that she had interviewed President Trump concerning the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
On September 6, 2021, the Intercept released "more than 900 pages of materials related to U.S.-funded coronavirus research in China" that were legally obtained by a Freedom of Information request and a lawsuit.
On September 19, 2021, Sky News Australia aired interviews of Mike Pompeo, John Ratcliffe, and Donald Trump by Sharri Markson.
On September 20, 2021, DRASTIC released documents that were illegally leaked by an anonymous source. DRASTIC: "A big thanks to anonymous whistleblowers around the world who help to expose and confound our enemies."
The Intercept was co-founded in 2013 by Glenn Greenwald, a journalist who published documents illegally obtained by Edward Snowden. Snowden was charged with espionage, but Greenwald and other journalists who published the documents were not charged. Greenwald resigned from the Intercept in October 2020 because he said the editors at Intercept had refused to publish an article he had written that was critical of Joe and Hunter Biden.
DRASTIC is a group of mostly anonymous researchers with apparent scientific backgrounds who discuss the Wuhan Lab Leak narrative on Twitter.
On August 15, 2021, Alina Chan, a molecular biologist and "Scientific Advisor at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard," stated that she was not then and had never been a member of DRASTIC.
September 20, 2021, DRASTIC released the leaked documents.
On September 21, 2021, Alina Chan retweeted the co-author of her book, Matt Ridley, who said: "Yes, I have been told by a very senior government source that it (the leaked documents) is genuine."
("Very senior government source" could describe Pompeo.)
On September 23, 2021, Alina Chan made many tweets concerning the origins of the leaked documents and reporting of the leaked documents. These are some of those tweets.
Whoever initially leaked the documents that were published by DRASTIC appears to be guilty of the same type of crimes that Winner, Manning, and Snowden were charged with. The person or persons should be identified and charged.
To describe a person who has knowledge of an issue involving a crime, the DOJ uses a term "person of interest." I think the term "person of interest" is a fair term to apply to Alina Chan. I am only pointing out that she expressed knowledge of these illegally leaked documents before DRASTIC published them.
I believe that the publication of these leaked documents in close proximity in time to the documents published by Intercept, and the interviews of Sharri Markson of Pompeo, Ratcliffe, and Trump, is not coincidental. The timing of these events suggests a coordination of the release of multiple sources of information by a central source, which again, in my estimation, points to Pompeo.
On September 28, 2021, Sharri Markson published her book, What Really Happened in Wuhan. Markson said she interviewed "scientists, whistleblowers from Wuhan, Chinese defectors, intelligence officials, and politicians like the former President and Secretary of State" while researching her book.
On November 19, 2021, Alina Chan and Matt Ridley published their book "Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19."
Now continuing with the interviews by Sharri Markson of Mike Pompeo, John Ratcliffe (former Director of National Intelligence), and Donald Trump.
Sharri Markson: "Mr. President, what evidence were you presented with that convinced you that it did in all likelihood come from a lab?"
Donald Trump: "Well I started hearing stories that you have also, that there were lots of body bags outside of the lab. And people were saying there were a lot of people lying down on the streets of Wuhan and there were body bags."
Sharri Markson: "Body bags outside of the Wuhan Institute of Virology?"
Donald Trump: "I heard that a long time ago. And if they did in fact have body bags that was one little indication wasn't it?"
Sharri Markson: "Was that something that came from the agencies, the intelligence agencies, was that what they were telling you?"
Donald Trump: "I don't know where it came from. Ask China. But you're going to have to figure that out. And you probably will be able to do it knowing you."
(Trump's response to Markson's question "was that something that came from the agencies" did not appear to me to follow Markson's question and suggests to me that the video was edited in a misleading manner.)
Sharri Markson: President Trump told me that there were body bags outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Is this correct?
Mike Pompeo: I don't want to talk about particular things. Presidents get the chance to talk about particular things that the rest of us can't. But there was enormous, albeit indirect evidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the center point for this. Remember too, there were 14 American diplomats on the ground at this time who were watching and observing what was taking place inside of Wuhan. I hope one day that we'll be able to get that information out more broadly. As I come back to it, the cumulative evidence that one could see points singularly to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
When asked questions about classified intelligence, US Intelligence agencies typically say things like "I cannot confirm or deny..." If you answer the question in the manner that Pompeo did to a direct question about the truthfulness of Trump’s remarks, it can easily be considered to be a confirmation. That is certainly true in Pompeo's case.
Sharri Markson: "When did the intelligence community first become aware that there was a virus spreading in Wuhan?
John Ratcliffe: "You know in late 2019 we have intelligence from both human intelligence sources and signals intelligence sources and other intelligence sources that were telling us that there was some sort of a problem in Wuhan."
Sharri Markson: "Key to that assessment was intelligence that 3 people working in the Wuhan Institute of Virology had become sick in October 2019."
John Ratcliffe: "What Mike Pompeo and I put out is, you know, people became sick in the lab in October, with symptoms that became entirely consistent with what most people have experienced around the world from COVID-19."
Sharri Markson: "Do you believe that to be the first cluster of the Pandemic?"
Mike Pompeo: "Based on everything I've seen, this is the first cluster."
Sharri Markson: "Former CIA Director Mike Pompeo was Secretary of State during the Pandemic. His knowledge of COVID-19 was second to none in the Trump Administration."
Mike Pompeo: "I have seen no evidence that there's a cluster that began anyplace but this. I am all ears to see any evidence that presents some facts set to the contrary."
Sharri Markson: "Did they survive, those 3 workers who got sick?"
John Ratcliffe: "What I can say is that from the intelligence perspective is that some of the people who were most involved, either infected, or reporting on, or whistleblowing on, or trying to get answers and have journalists report on, have been difficult to track down later, at least from my time there, and so I think that's consistent with what the Chinese Communist Party does, you know the status of those individuals, why they've disappeared, I really can't comment on that."
Summarizing: Trump tells a story of body bags outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Pompeo taciity confirms it. John Ratcliffe also tacitly confirms Trump's report and mentions human, signals, and other sources. "Human" sources seem to refer US diplomats around Wuhan; "signals" are typically communications intercepts; and "other" seems to imply satellite surveillance. The "other intelligence source" is the most important point to me here.
Remember the 1962 Cuban missile crisis?
The picture above was taken by a U-2 spy plane over Cuba. The United States presented it as evidence at the United Nations that the USSR was installing nuclear weapons in Cuba. It was proof of the facts alleged by the United States.
The latest Plandemic death totals from the WHO, just to put this in context: "14.9 million excess deaths associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021."
Are we to believe that the intelligence community of the United States will not defend the United States from a nation that could have irresponsibly or intentionally killed millions? Or is it that the intelligence community does not agree with the information given by Trump, Pompeo, and Ratcliffe to a foreign journalist?
I think the public deserves an explanation.
Pompeo went to great lengths to silence Julian Assange before appearing to release classified intelligence to a more US-friendly Australian journalist. Contrast the undocumented suggestions of Pompeo, Ratcliffe and Trump with the reporting style of Julian Assange and Wikileaks.
Stella Morris (wife of Julian Assange): Wikileaks... poses a challenge to the legacy media because Wikileak's model is what Julian calls scientific journalism. To publish original source documents alongside the analysis, in order to allow the reader to draw their own conclusions. To access the same information that the journalist did, in order to assess the material themselves.
In the video above, you can see the video of what Wikileaks refers to as a "war crime." This video was provided by Manning, who served 7 years of a 35 year sentence to bring you that video. You may agree or disagree with the characterization of "war crime," but there is no doubt about the nature of what happened.
The United States could and should provide video evidence of "body bags" outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Some people on social media say that China faked the body bags incident and show some comical videos of people falling down. I cannot determine the veracity of those videos. I won't try to substantiate that China faked an incident outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology or not, because I shouldn't have to do that. I expect the intelligence communities and Department of Justice to do the job they have sworn to do. If it is true that there were body bags outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology, they must confirm it and provide the type of satellite video evidence that everyone knows they have. If they disagree with the implications of the information provided by Pompeo, Ratcliffe, and Trump to a foreign journalist, they must say so.
The DOJ must investigate the leaks of classified information to Sharri Markson, whether these leaks were laundered through Australian intelligence or not. It is a matter of settled law in the United States that it is illegal to leak classified information of the type that Winner, Manning, Snowden, and perhaps Pompeo have done.
In addition to investigating Pompeo for leaking classified information, the Department of Justice should consider the possibility that Mike Pompeo has intentionally advanced a false narrative on the origins of the COVID-19 Plandemic. The allegations of Pompeo’s assassination plans of his unfavored Australian journalist should naturally be included in this investigation.
As for the publication of classified information by Markson and DRASTIC, I for one, do not want to set a precedent that journalists do not have the right to Freedom of Press or Freedom of Speech. I also do not believe the law of the United States applies to foreigners in foreign countries any more than their laws apply to the United States. Julian Assange’s legal status is not a matter of settled law. Before the arrival of Pompeo to the CIA, the position of the Obama administration was that Julian Assange was a journalist. But whatever the position of the Department of Justice is today, it must be applied equally. That means dropping the charges against Assange, or charging the others such as Markson and DRASTIC with leaking the same type of classified information if the facts of an investigation support it.
Charles Wright
Excellent article Charles… Many thanks for sharing.