Newly declassified documents reveal that the Trump-Russia collusion narrative—widely circulated by Democrats and major media outlets—was not the result of intelligence failures or speculation, but a calculated and deliberate hoax orchestrated by the Hillary Clinton campaign. As David Marcus writes in a blistering op-ed for Fox News, “Democrats lied, and half the country believed them.” The files include explosive emails between Clinton advisers and operatives tied to George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, detailing how the campaign seeded the collusion lie to damage then-candidate Donald Trump. The evidence is damning, and it confirms that the conspiracy went far beyond opposition research—it involved coordinated misinformation spread through federal intelligence channels and complicit media outlets.
Key Details:
Emails show Clinton adviser Julianne Smith pushed a long-term plan to “demonize Putin and Trump” with fabricated claims.
Documents tie the Open Society Foundation to strategy discussions about using the media and FBI to sustain the hoax.
Former Trump adviser Michael Caputo calls for accountability, stating the damage done to innocent Americans cannot be undone.
Diving Deeper:
In a searing exposé titled “The Russia hoax is simple. Democrats lied and half the country believed them,” Fox News columnist David Marcus lays bare the extent to which the Clinton campaign deceived the American public. The newly declassified files—released Thursday—confirm what many conservatives have long suspected: the Trump-Russia collusion story was a fraud, built on calculated misinformation, not credible intelligence.
“At the heart of this deception,” Marcus writes, “was the cold, calculated black-and-white evidence of how the Clinton campaign crafted the lie.” One of the most telling revelations includes a July 2016 email from Leonard Benardo, vice president of the Soros-funded Open Society Foundation. He wrote, “Julie [sic] says it will be a long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump,” and chillingly added, “Later the FBI will put more oil into the fire.” Julie, in this case, is Julianne Smith, a top foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton.
Just days later, Benardo allegedly followed up with another email confirming, “HRC approved Julia’s idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections,” noting it would serve as a distraction from Clinton’s own missing emails. Most damning of all, Marcus highlights a line from the email: “The point is making the Russian play a U.S. domestic issue… In absence of direct evidence, Crowdstrike and ThreatConnect will supply the media.”
These revelations point directly to a larger plan—one that ultimately relied on compliant media outlets and partisan actors inside federal intelligence agencies. As Marcus writes, “The Clinton campaign knew all too well that their lackeys in the media would eat up this half-baked nonsense with a spoon, and probably win awards for it—which is exactly what happened.”
The files even cite John Durham’s annex to the Russia hoax probe, which concluded that the Clinton team used “FBI-affiliated ‘attic-based’ technical structures” to feed false information to media giants under the guise of cybersecurity intelligence.
Former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey stand at the center of this firestorm. According to Marcus, “field officers in the CIA objected to the lies and were run over because, according to their then-Director John Brennan, ‘it rings true.’” This vague standard was enough to get FISA warrants to spy on Trump’s associates renewed, creating the illusion of guilt and fueling years of baseless investigations.
Even after Trump won, the Obama administration continued to massage intelligence reports in late 2016 to sustain the lie. These manipulations led directly to Robert Mueller’s investigation, which cost taxpayers over $30 million and ultimately exonerated Trump.
But the cost was far greater than dollars. As Marcus noted, innocent lives were shattered. One such victim, Michael Caputo, told Marcus, “It is precious little comfort knowing we were right, we need accountability, but even accountability doesn’t feed the bulldog.” Caputo’s message was clear: lives were ruined, reputations crushed, and justice has yet to be served.
In 2018, a Suffolk poll showed the extent of the deception’s success: “Forty-six percent are convinced that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.” Despite no evidence and a final report clearing Trump, nearly half the country had bought into the narrative—hook, line, and sinker.
Marcus ends with a searing moral indictment: “To everyone involved in this hoax, the message must be clear: This is your legacy, your attempt to deceive the American people and destroy the man they elected to lead them. That is who you are.”
With the truth finally exposed, the legacy of the Russia collusion hoax becomes one of deception, manipulation, and the ruthless pursuit of power at the expense of the American public.
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A federal judge has ruled that Linda Sun — the senior New York government official accused of laundering proceeds from tens of millions of dollars in corrupt pandemic-era supply deals from China, while orchestrating a covert foreign influence campaign targeting two Democratic governors — cannot access millions in seized assets to fund her legal defense.
The ruling marks a major setback for Sun and her co-accused husband, Chris Hu, in a landmark national security case that federal prosecutors say blends elite political manipulation with transnational bribery, Chinese underground banking, and state-backed espionage and interference operations tied to Beijing’s United Front Work Department.
In a decision issued July 22, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan found that Sun and Hu failed to meet even the minimal evidentiary threshold for a Monsanto hearing — a legal mechanism that allows defendants to unlock frozen assets if they can demonstrate no access to alternative funds. Cogan sided with the Department of Justice, which argued that the couple may be actively concealing substantial unrestrained assets, including income and equity tied to a lattice of nine business entities owned by Hu.
At least one of those ventures, a commercial real estate holding, was partially liquidated to fund more than $400,000 in legal fees. Others, including Leivine Wine & Spirits — a high-end Flushing boutique that FBI agents concluded could not be generating the massive bulk cash revenue it reported — allegedly handled more than $77,000 in unexplained monthly cash deposits even before the store formally opened.
The broader criminal case, as The Bureau previously reported, alleges that Linda Sun covertly acted as an undeclared foreign agent for the People’s Republic of China, advancing the CCP’s foreign policy objectives while enriching herself through corrupt contracting and laundering networks. She allegedly leveraged her role in New York’s diversity and inclusion bureaucracy to influence Governor Andrew Cuomo’s public messaging, including helping script his April 2020 tweet thanking the Chinese government for a donation of ventilators during the pandemic. Under Governor Kathy Hochul, prosecutors say, Sun’s actions became more brazen: arranging unauthorized proclamations in honor of PRC diplomats, suppressing mention of the Uyghur detention camps in official remarks, and preventing Taiwan’s representatives from gaining access to state officials.
Sun and Hu allegedly funneled at least $8 million in kickbacks — derived from over $30 million in fraudulent pandemic-era PPE contracts — into a personal laundering architecture involving real estate, luxury goods, and business accounts in Queens.
Sun — also known as Wen Sun, Linda Hu, and Ling Da Sun — and Hu deny all charges and have mounted an aggressive legal campaign characterized by multiple suppression motions, challenges to search warrants, and attempts to have the case dismissed.
These efforts have accompanied a steady stream of damaging disclosures from prosecutors, including search warrant returns detailing a trove of luxury property allegedly acquired with laundered foreign capital. Among the seized or restrained assets are a $3.6 million mansion in Manhasset, a $1.9 million condo in Honolulu’s Ala Moana district, and a $1.5 million Forest Hills rental property. Government filings also list a 2024 Ferrari Roma, a Mercedes SUV, and a Range Rover as seized vehicles — in addition to more than $200,000 in liquid cash and bank deposits, none of which, the court noted, were properly accounted for in the couple’s asset declarations. A Jeep Gladiator, not initially disclosed by the defendants, was later identified by the government as an additional unrestrained asset.
As the couple’s legal maneuvers multiplied — most of them, in the court’s view, lacking the substance to alter the case — their defense costs ballooned. In their Monsanto application, Sun and Hu portrayed themselves as effectively destitute and victims of court delays.
“The collective value of everything the government seized exceeds $7 million — and that effectively cut off Mr. Hu and Ms. Sun’s access to nearly every financial resource, making it challenging to continue to care and provide for their child, let alone pay their legal fees,” their motion argued.
“Those legal fees have inevitably climbed. Moreover, as a result of the government’s repeated delays and missteps in this action, Mr. Hu and Ms. Sun have been forced to file multiple motions and endured protracted proceedings.”
The 24-page filing also added vivid new detail to the government’s sweeping seizure operations, including countering suggestions that Sun’s parents were used not only as proxies for home purchases to disguise her money laundering payoffs from China, but also to hold personal assets and cash.
“During a search of Ms. Sun’s parents’ home, the government seized their life savings of $265,209, along with watches, jewelry, and other personal items that it has yet to return,” Sun’s Monsanto motion complains. “The government also seized $130,000 from Ms. Sun’s mother’s safety deposit box at TD Bank. To date, the government has not filed any charges against Ms. Sun’s parents or in connection with these items, nor has it included these items in any forfeiture allegations, making its continued restraint of such third-party property deeply troubling.”
The motion continued: “The only consistent source of funds that the couple previously did have—$4,800 per month in rental income from the Forest Hills Property—no longer exists. In light of Mr. Hu and Ms. Sun’s ongoing active efforts to sell the property, they are unable to rent it out. In sum, the couple is financially hamstrung.” Legal costs to date exceed $2 million, with an additional $1 million projected for November’s trial.
But Judge Cogan wasn’t moved by their claims of poverty. The Brooklyn judge found the couple’s filings omitted obvious holdings, provided vague and conclusory statements, and failed to identify how the pair had continued paying legal bills and living expenses. The court determined that Sun and Hu’s failure to declare a comprehensive list of assets was not accidental.
“This Court still does not have sufficient information to evaluate the extent of defendants’ unrestrained funds,” Cogan wrote.
The judge’s conclusion aligns with the Department of Justice’s assertion that Sun and Hu may still control millions in unreported funds.
Prosecutors revealed that beyond Hu’s nine business entities, the couple had liquidated at least $44,000 in bonds, still held over $90,000 in stock holdings, and were receiving loan proceeds and other unexplained capital transfers. The government also challenged the couple’s claim that they had been denied access to property sale proceeds.
In their Monsanto filing, the couple’s attorneys wrote: “With nearly every avenue to resources effectively extinguished by the government, Mr. Hu and Ms. Sun are now left with insufficient funds to finance their family’s monthly expenses, let alone their rising legal bills.” Their monthly costs reportedly exceed $20,000, covering property taxes, insurance, food, and childcare.
But the couple’s own legal framing may have inadvertently amplified the very financial allegations they are attempting to defeat. Central to their argument, Sun and Hu claimed their ability to retain legal counsel was crippled by disruptions to the same high-end Flushing liquor business that Hu had previously described as a bulk-cash-generating enterprise — a characterization investigators alleged was a cover for laundering illicit cash into business accounts.
Now, however, Hu claims his business depends on credit transactions.
“American Express has imposed a block on any payments made by customers using an American Express credit card at his liquor store,” the defense motion stated. “Shopify — the point-of-sale system previously utilized by his business for credit card processing — no longer allows Mr. Hu’s store to process credit cards through its system, which for a time hobbled the store’s operations.” The defense further asserted that a visible law enforcement presence near the storefront “chilled customers from entering the store and interacting with Mr. Hu, which has adversely affected sales.”
The case filings detail how Hu’s money laundering network allegedly relied on unlicensed Chinese remitters in Flushing.
Such Chinese cash brokers are part of a transnational system used to ferry capital from the PRC through underground banking corridors into American storefronts and property and banks, broader ongoing U.S. government investigations into Chinese crime networks have found.
Sun’s unsuccessful Monsanto motion also highlighted that one of their expensive failed legal efforts aimed to suppress a public comment by former Trump official Kash Patel, who described her as a Chinese agent embedded in the U.S. government and profiting from corrupt PPE contracts while frontline Americans went without protection.
“While Americans were locked down and desperate for PPE, Linda Sun and Chris Hu cashed in — allegedly lining their pockets while serving CCP interests,” Patel posted to X. “This is corruption that endangered lives.”
Although prosecutors did not cite Patel’s remarks, the defense argued the statement had unfairly prejudiced the case.
As previously reported by The Bureau, in a separate ruling denying Sun’s motions to dismiss the case and suppress evidence, Judge Cogan found ample support for the government’s allegation that Sun knowingly acted as an undeclared agent of the People’s Republic of China — in violation of U.S. laws requiring foreign agents to register.
In one WeChat exchange cited by the FBI, Sun reportedly told her parents that a Chinese contact known as “Chairman Xia” had upgraded her airline tickets. Prosecutors say she was hosted in a Beijing hotel suite previously occupied by former First Lady Michelle Obama. In the same thread, Sun acknowledged she expected to be asked for increasing “favors” by her handlers in return for their generosity — a detail prosecutors highlight as evidence of her witting entanglement in a covert foreign influence campaign.
The court cited Sun’s alleged role in arranging fraudulent invitation letters to support illegal visa entries for officials from China’s Henan province. The visit, pitched as part of a proposed $1 billion university partnership in New York, appeared to be a United Front cover operation aimed at expanding Beijing’s political and economic influence on U.S. soil.
According to government filings, Sun used her access not only to open doors for Chinese officials, but to close them to Beijing’s geopolitical rivals — especially Taiwan.
The indictment further alleges that even after receiving a warning from the FBI, Sun continued to act on behalf of PRC officials, including repeated efforts to shape New York State policy toward Taiwan and providing Chinese consular officials with advance access to internal government communications.
In early 2021, prosecutors say, Sun gave the Chinese consulate a draft of Governor Hochul’s public remarks, enabling Beijing to sanitize the language — including stripping any reference to politically sensitive topics such as the detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. “Based on feedback from a PRC government official, [Hochul] did not publicly address the detention of Uyghurs in PRC state-run camps in Xinjiang,” Judge Cogan noted, citing FBI evidence.
“These actions, as alleged, demonstrate Sun using her authority and power to induce action or change the decisions or acts of another,” Cogan wrote, concluding that they were “sufficient to constitute the ‘influence’ element of a FARA offense, even as Sun defines it.”
Finally, Judge Cogan emphasized that the indictment clearly supports the conclusion that Sun understood her alleged United Front handlers — CC-1 and CC-2 — were themselves agents of the Chinese government and Communist Party. As the indictment states: “Sun understood that CC-1 and CC-2 were themselves acting as agents of the PRC government and the CCP when they made requests of Sun.”
The world woke up Friday to Trump’s tariff world order — with a rate-modifying executive order enforcing the terms of Liberation Day, imposing tariffs up to 41% on countries that failed to cut a deal with the United States.
Key Details:
The executive order builds on Trump’s April Liberation Day proclamation, which declared chronic U.S. trade deficits a national emergency and imposed ad valorem tariffs on nearly 70 countries.
Thursday’s follow-up order modifies tariff levels, effective seven days after signing, with full penalties up to 41% now locked in for countries that failed to reach meaningful trade or security agreements with the U.S.
Transshipped goods — products routed through third countries to evade tariffs — will be hit with a flat 40% duty and no possibility for leniency. A blacklist of violators will be published every six months.
🚨 AUGUST 1ST.
President Donald J. Trump signs an Executive Order modifying reciprocal tariff rates, resetting decades of failed trade policies. America First 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/hsgQzlY1Uy
President Donald Trump formalized a new phase of his Liberation Day trade strategy on Thursday, signing an executive order that rewrites tariff rates and tightens enforcement across the global economy. With this action, Trump’s long-promised “reciprocal tariff” regime is no longer a threat — it’s the new world order.
The executive order, issued from the White House Thursday, amends the original April declaration that framed persistent U.S. trade deficits as a national emergency. That earlier order imposed broad-based duties on nearly 70 countries. Thursday’s update locks in or adjusts those penalties depending on each country’s progress — or lack thereof — in negotiations with the United States.
For countries that reached or are nearing “meaningful trade and security commitments” with the United States, temporary rates will remain in place as agreements are finalized. For the rest, full penalties apply — with tariffs ranging from 10% to 41%, as outlined in Annex I of the order.
The European Union receives a tailored formula: if a product’s current U.S. tariff is under 15%, the new combined rate will be pushed to that floor. Goods already above 15% will not face additional penalties.
But the most aggressive provision of the order targets a growing tactic of tariff evasion — transshipping. Under Section 3, goods that are determined by Customs and Border Protection to have been rerouted through third countries to avoid tariffs will face an automatic 40% penalty. Mitigation or reduction of that duty is explicitly barred under the order.
Trump’s team will also release a biannual blacklist of known violators — naming countries and facilities involved in circumvention schemes. This list will inform public procurement, national security reviews, and corporate due diligence.
The order empowers the Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, Treasury, and the U.S. Trade Representative to implement the policy, issue regulations, and take “all necessary actions” to enforce it.
Countries that failed to reach a deal by the deadline now face the consequences. Those still negotiating have little time left. And for businesses and governments around the world, the message is clear: American leverage is back — and it comes with a price tag.
