Maria Butina and I, Part I: Meeting Maria

Pavel Starikov from Russia [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

It is not my intent to reveal anything beyond what I recently said on TV (and likely, even less). Given that much of that is now going through a media blender, I aim merely to organize and state clearly the things I said on television recently, so as to reduce room for misreporting.

Pavel Starikov from Russia [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

          A frequently played video in the news this past year has been a clip from the summer of 2015 of a 26 year old Maria Butina standing up in a Las Vegas conference to ask Candidate Donald Trump a question. The conference was FreedomFest, an annual conference for liberals(1) that occurs in Las Vegas each summer, when freedom-oriented people descend on Vegas for four days and hear lectures on everything from Alexis de Toqueville to Hayek, from the Magna Carta to Bitcoin to Emigrating to Panama.

          A glance at the schedule of the 2015 FreedomFest will confirm that I was at that conference as well. Wednesday, the opening day, I gave the keynote (“Turtles All the Way Down: How the Crypto-Revolution Solves Intractable Problems on Wall Street”), and participated in a panel Thursday. I left Friday afternoon. I believe Candidate Trump arrived and spoke Saturday, so we never crossed paths.

          After my opening keynote, there was a line of perhaps a couple of dozen people waiting to talk, take a photo with me, or even ask for an autograph (it happens, and it is still weird). I noticed a well-dressed, professional, striking redheaded young woman standing off to the side, her position and posture indicating she was not seeking an autograph, but had purposeful business and was waiting for the people asking for photos and autographs to dissipate. She cut quite a figure, not just from her dress and physique, but mostly from her carriage. I guessed she was likely a reporter.

          When those waiting had dissipated, she approached me and handed me her card. It identified her as “Maria Butina”, the president of a gun rights group in Russia. She spoke of it for perhaps 30 seconds, mentioning it had something to do with General Kalashnikov. The truth is, though, unlike everyone else in that room that day, I’m not into guns. I am OK with them, I have had some basic classes, but I do not fetishize them. Thus I did not have much interest in hearing about gun rights in Russia, and so after perhaps a minute at the most, I smiled at Maria, thanked her, pocketed her card, and walked away.

          The next day I was on a panel. After the panel, again a line of a dozen or two dozen well-wishers formed. There was no sign of Maria, but this time when I walked with my assistant down an empty hallway out the back, there she was. She sidled up to me as I walked (my assistant stepped away to give us privacy) and said,  “Dr. Byrne, please allow me to tell you why I am really here. Here is my other card.” She presented me a card identifying her as Special Assistant to the Vice Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia. “I have been sent here to make contact with you.”

Smoothly, with polished grammar beneath her Russian accent, she continued, “Did you know that in certain circles in Russia you are a famous man? We know about you, we know about your relationship with Milton Friedman(2), we watch your videos on Youtube about liberalism. I have been asked to come to this conference to deliver you a message. Would you afford me 90 minutes to speak with you privately?” She had clearly polished her delivery.

I told her of my suite(3) and asked her if she would be comfortable having lunch with me there, watching her closely for her reaction. She thought for only an instant, then accepted professionally, with no hint of coquetry. I turned to my assistant and told him to book her for lunch the following day in my suite. As Maria walked away, I wondered if this was going to be substantial enough it would create a hassle regarding my clearance.(4)

Up to this moment I have gone into such detail simply to give a stamp of verisimilitude to what may otherwise be a strange and unconvincing tale. Going forward, however, I will be more brisk.

The next day I had had lunch arranged and delivered. Maria arrived at my suite punctual to the second. Again, her businesslike comportment and maturity stood out for a woman of her age. Again, there was not a hint of coquetry. Upon being seated we began an intense 90 minute conversation, of which I will give a compressed description below.

Maria is from Siberia. Her parents moved there in the Soviet era. She is of Russian heritage, and (if I recall correctly) a tiny fraction Jewish. All Russian six year olds get tested intellectually (and physically?):  there are two schools left over from the Soviet era where the most elite 30 of them (nationwide) are sent. She was selected, and ten years later graduated second in her class of 30. She finished university and a master’s degree in political science, while doing something entrepreneurial on the side regarding the furniture business, which had netted her a good bankroll (in the tens of thousands of dollars, I sensed, or maybe a bit more). She also was training for the amateur Greater Moscow Powerlifting Championship (or something like that), focusing on deadlift and power clean, I think.

As a child of the rubble of the Soviet Union, she had grown up witnessing corruption and lawlessness, and thus had gravitated to liberalism . She had studied in university and was intellectually broad: as one would expect, she can talk about Dostoevsky and Chekhov (we discussed Notes from Underground and its relation to the Left, and “The Sneeze”, which I had seen in London in my student days), but also Orwell, Nabokov, and Twain. Yet her real focus in university, she said, had been liberalism. She knew our history, from the English and Dutch to US history and our Constitution, much better than most Americans I’ve ever met. Phrases like   “Jeffersonian democracy” drop from her mouth with comfort, and others like “Lockean reasoning” do not throw her off. She can talk about Milton Friedman and Friederich Hayek, and knows the difference between a Monetarist and the Austrian School of Economics.

Maria had been noticed by some powerful players in Moscow. “There are 50 oligarchs who run Russia, but there are seven who really run Russia. I am close, very close, to four of them.”

She also mentioned that her gun rights group had been formed by Mikhail Kalashnikov. “Believe it or not, General Kalishnikov was a liberal, too!” And he had chosen a 23 year old woman to be its leader. “Do you know who General Kalashnikov is to Russians? Do you know what this means in our culture? That this 93 year old General named me, a 23 year old woman, to lead this?” I assured her that I knew of the near-mythical status General Kalashnikov has to Russians (they view his 1947 invention, the AK-47, as “the gun that freed the world”). I told her I also understood the significance of his having named her the leader of the organization he founded. We chuckled at the coincidence: a 93 year old Mikhail Kalashnikov had picked a woman to lead his organization, and she was meeting the guy that 94 year old Milton Friedman had picked to chair his.(5)

I told Maria two things:

1) I have gotten the sense from Russians I have met over the years that they think Americans do not know what they went through in World War II. I told her this was a misconception, and we know the Naziis killed 20-30 million citizens of the Soviet Union, and that to Russians it was an event such as the Holocaust was to Jewry. She seemed touched. (The truth is, we Americans could be a bit more conscious of that fact, but in general I think we are aware of it more than Russians understand.)

2) The second thing I shared with Maria was my theory of Russian history. The Ottomans had taken Constantinople, and the Sultan had put the Orthodox Church under the jizya. After some decades, the Ukrainian Bishop had made a deal with the Sultan to pay X years worth of jizya (I think X = 30 to 40) in return for being allowed to break away. Thus was born the Russian Orthodox Church, which, in its isolation, developed a unique version of Christianity. It maintained the standard Judeo-Christian narrative that humanity was once high, then there was the Fall, but by doing certain things we get to return to being high again. In the Russian version, however, salvation for mankind is something that occurs not individually, but collectively; most importantly, it is specifically through the capacity of the Russian people to bear immiseration and suffering that the future salvation of all humanity is purchased. That is central to Russian Orthodoxy. The liberal in me says, “If I were a Russian tyrant, that would be a handy theology to have my Church teaching everyone.” I recall Maria getting a bit misty-eyed at my theory, as though it struck a chord, and then we had quite a conversation about it.

Maria already knew of my membership on the Council on Foreign Relations, a NY-based foreign policy think tank (and no, it is not the den of Backroom Boys of popular culture). That was interesting: the membership list of CFR is not secret, but it takes some work to find. She asked my thoughts on US- Russia relations.

I told Maria the truth: General Jack Vessey was a great influence on me and my beliefs.(6) General Vessey used to counsel me such things as, Any world where the US and Russia get along is better than any world where we are at war. Also, that the secret to world peace was first getting things right between the USA, Russia, and China, then using that as the scaffolding from which to hang the rest of the international order.(7)

In January of 2015 General Vessey had me as his guest at  CSIS in Washington, DC, to watch Kissinger and Shultz (two other vintage hawks) on stage exploring the Ukraine crisis. The two Cold Warriors felt (as did Vessey) that what the US had done in the Ukraine in 2014 was a provocative act, insisted that we should not be starting World War III over the Ukraine, and instead argued for a Swiss-like outcome. Most troubling to all was the taped Nuland-Pyatt telephone calls (BBC story here). With “Fuck the EU” nonchalance they nearly triggered World War III, with as much apparent thought as I would put into a choice of vacation destination.

After 45 minutes of such getting to know each other, Maria pushed her plate aside, dropped her voice, and said (again, in abbreviated form):

I would like to tell you why I am here. Russia is a wonderful country, it is a wonderful land. But it has a harsh history. For 400 years so many Russians have been killed or fled. There is a generation of Russians who want to change this. We are liberals. There are liberals among the oligarchs and the power structure. We know that the way of Russia’s past has to evolve, that war is not the way forward. We dream of a Russia that has rejoined the Western, liberal tradition.

There are maybe 100-150 liberals across the government and oligarchs.

We are not disloyal to Putin: he is our president.  We are not talking about anything inappropriate. But Putin will not be president forever. We wish to talk about what a post-Putin age might look like someday.

There is a club for liberals we have formed. It is a gun rights group. Yes we like guns, but the group is really a group for the liberals among the power structure of Russia. It was formed by Michail Kalashnikov, because he was a liberal.

I know this will sound ridiculous to you, Dr. Byrne, but there are those who wish me to be president someday. I am being groomed for it. By our constitution one cannot run until age 35. I think I will be 40. Many of the oligarchs know me personally, and understand what I want to do for Russia with my life. We want to make Russia a place that people do not want to leave.

Switching gears, she said, “We watch your videos on liberalism. We have some of them dubbed in Russian. We talk about them in our club.” She named one I gave at the world’s first global conference on Bitcoin, in Amsterdam, 2014.(8) She knew of talks I give on the history of liberalism (such as “Why We Fight”: this version is from 2.5 years ago but I’ve been giving versions of it for years).

“I have been asked to invite you to come to Moscow and speak at the Central Bank on the subject of Bitcoin and Liberalism, and how you think blockchain can change the world. Then I would like to take you for three days to the Altai Mountains. There is a resort there that will be shut down. There will be 40-45 people there from across the Russian power structure. Government people, oligarchs and their people. We wish to speak with you about blockchain, Milton Friedman, the Austrian School…. And a future for US and Russia that is a path besides war.”

I asked her, “What about the FSB? They may not be crazy about me given some things I have said and written in the past.”

She told me that they would know all about me before I arrived. I would likely be pulled aside in the Moscow Airport. She told me just to be honest and straightforward. There was no need to lie. We were not doing anything inappropriate. They would be aware of my itinerary, and likely even have someone at the Altai Mountain resort. We were not trying to hide anything.

She said she understood that I could not accept her invitation at that moment. The idea had been socialized on their end, and they had sent her to find me at this conference and deliver this invitation. They wanted to know if and when I could commit to a date to come to Russia, speak at the Central Bank, and go to the Altai Mountains. Before the cold came would be best.

I told her to convey to those who had extended the invitation that I was honored, and that I would think about it.

Precisely at 90 minutes Maria gathered her personal effects, stood, and I saw her to the door. She declared that we would communicate “under the guise of having romantic relationship” to make arrangements for our next meeting, where we would plan out such a trip.

As I closed the door and she walked away, I decided:

  • I rated the odds as:
    • 1/2 – 2/3 opportunity to do something good (preach the gospel of liberalism in the right quarters, build connections with good people in Russia, and nudge the ball of peace forward);
    • 1/3 – 1/2 this is a risk. The Russian and Soviet secret police have a long history of setting up fake dissident organizations and seeing who shows up. Maybe she is who she says she is, maybe she is not who she says she is, and maybe she is who she thinks she is but Torshin is orchestrating some mischief here. Or maybe Maria is a Red Sparrow: some people in Russia may bear grudges against me for things I did over a decade ago (examples of which abound on Deep Capture, or view “Economic Warfare as an Instrument of Transnational Organized Crime”).
  • Maria had tipped the scale regarding what I, as a holder of the most minor of security clearances, had a duty to call in.  The feds and I don’t have any special friendship (note the number of federal investigations I have been hit with in my life). But I knew that if I did not call it in, and certainly if I accepted and went to Russia, someday I would be sitting in a gray room with a bunch of men in suits grilling me angrily, at a minimum.  

At this point, in deference to federal authorities, I am going to be vague about the nature and method of subsequent interactions. None of that is germane to these matters, other than I can assure you the following took place.

By that evening a detailed description of my interaction with Maria was in Washington, DC.  I asked to hear back on three things:

  1. May I introduce Maria to senior thinkers I know in the foreign policy establishment? I thought she would be interesting for someone to spend an afternoon getting to know (perhaps even General Vessey, who was still alive at the time, or other senior figures who are perfectly capable of taking a meeting like that). Perhaps her dreams of being a back channel for peace might ring a bell with someone.
  2. Is it OK if I travel to Russia on her invitation?
  3. Should I cut her out of my life as being a security risk?

I waited to hear back from the administrative office that handles clearance matters such as this. It had been years since I had even had contact with the office, when I had sent an updated list of foreign travels.

Later, it was confirmed to me that my news was received and shared across certain circles that evening, Friday, July 10, 2015. That is when the Maria/Russian investigation started (at the latest), not July 2016. That is the cover-up.

When I heard back from someone, it was not from an administrative office that oversees clearances.  Instead, communication was re-opened with the Men In Black. It had been a long, long time. Since my mitzvah days with Wall Street….

To be continued…

ENDNOTES

1) “Liberalism” – a political philosophy embracing individual rights, consent of the governed, rule of law under a limited constitutional government, and peace. The US used to use “liberal” correctly, but for about 80 years we have erroneously used it to mean “Left”. It does not mean “Left” and should not be applied to people who wish to abandon liberal principles such as free speech, presumption of innocence, or limited constitutional government (e.g., by wanting to pack the Supreme Court). Because American readers often are confused about what “liberal” actually means, I include some rough (not necessarily precise) equivalents:

  • Classical liberal
  • Philosophical liberal
  • Libertarian
  • Freedom-oriented
  • Constitutional

2) Milton Friedman – Many consider this economist one of the greatest of the 20th century, but also, one of liberalism’s greatest thinkers. Milton devoted the last decade of his life to advancing school choice as his preferred solution for fixing the American republic. I was an admirer of his at Stanford, and (once I was in a position to do so) became a financial supporter of school choice (especially for Black and Latino children). Milton and Rose and I became friendly, and I joined the board of the Milton & Rose Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. It was supposed to change names upon Milton’s death (because foundations get taken off-course after their founder’s passing). However, in 2006, when he was near passing, Milton called me one last time and told me he and Rose had changed the will so that for 10 years after his death, I would lead his foundation as Chairman in his name. That story is known within freedom-oriented circles. To 99.99% of the world it doesn’t boil an egg, but to .01% of the world it means a lot. This was not the first such contact from abroad because of it.

3) When traveling on business, I generally get a suite so that I can have business meetings in the suite’s living room, rather than conduct meetings over meals in restaurants (and thus I avoid about 5,000 calories per day). I would generally not extend an invitation to such an unknown quantity, for all the obvious reasons. However, I have taught frequently at the university level (including Stanford and Dartmouth), and have been around lots of talented young men and women: my impression thus far of Maria was already that she was extremely professional in dress and manner, comported herself impressively, and came across as a much more serious person than most at 26 could pull off.  

4) Because of minor advisory work on foreign policy that I did nearly two decades ago (in brief, getting to read certain policy papers and giving my thoughts on them: quite bookish), for some time I maintained the lowest level security clearance that exists, as approximately 3 million Americans do. When one gets such a clearance, one signs a piece of paper that says, more or less, “When an attractive Russian redhead walks up to you and says, ‘I have been sent here from Russia with a message for you,’ there’s a a number that I am going to call.”   I was not even sure if my clearance was still active. But when they come to re-investigate (which they do every 5-7 years), if it turns out you have been having “substantial” contact with a foreigner and not reporting it, you can get in a fair bit of trouble. And as odd as it may sound, overtures like Maria’s are not completely foreign to me. In fact, I have gone through periods where I got hit with more of this kind of thing than I can take, but I manage to keep contacts insubstantial and glancing so as to avoid having to make such a call.

5) Since it seems relevant I will share this: I have degrees from Dartmouth, Beijing Teacher’s University, Cambridge, and Stanford. Much sound and fury signifying nothing: it happened because I had cancer three times in the years after college, and I spent my twenties being treated in hospitals and convalescing in universities. However, it means I have been around a lot of intellectuals.  Maria Butina is an intellectual.

6) General John Q. Vessey (1922-2016), a hawk’s hawk, was Reagan’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and was reappointed to the role (serving two terms as CJC is quite rare). He is the only man in US history to have gone from Private to Chairman of Joint Chiefs (having earned a battlefield commission at Anzio), and among military thinkers is credited with having been something of a military “turn-around artist” whose innovations were key to the recovery of the US Army after Vietnam. Jack Vessey was a general in the mold of George C. Marshall, a humanist who understood the cost of war and sought above all to prevent it. General Vessey passed away a few years ago, and wished read at his funeral a passage from a 1985 US News article from the period when he was being considered for reappointment to a second term as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs: it predicted Vessey would not be reappointed because he was considered too cautious about committing US troops to foreign causes (or words to that effect). A couple years before he passed, he sent the clipping to me and asked that it be read at his eulogy, for he wanted to be remembered as the general who was too cautious about committing US troops to foreign causes.

7) In response to this I remember asking him, “There are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. Shouldn’t they have a seat at the table?” He thought for a moment and said, “Yep, but there’s no place to send the invitation.”

8) I had been invited to give the talk that opened the conference: the result (“500 years of Liberalism, From Amsterdam to Bitcoin”) was well-known and  discussed in freedom-oriented circles around that time.

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  1. Dr. Byrne,
    I’ve admired you for a number of years and I sincerely appreciate your libertarian perspective. I’m also an OSTK shareholder quite confident in the efficacy of your block-chain ventures. Your story is fascinating and I’m glad you’re able to fill in the missing pieces for many of us here. You have the power to really shake shit up in Washington and I will support your efforts any way I can. Thank you!

  2. “brilliant patriot” God bless You and I will put you in my prayers. Thank You Patrick

  3. Dear Patrick Byrne,

    I only recently was made aware of you although I am an expert on US affairs. I watched a few videos with your recent interviews in the MSM and what impressed me most is your inner sincerity that is driven by a powerful soul impetus you have surely not experienced in your whole life and has obviously also changed your whole life. You may be even afraid of your own courage and this is normal and human. I have dealt with and being exposed to human fears, including my owns, probably more than any other person on this planet and can immediately discern a sincere person when confronted with his own inner demons but nonetheless have made up his mind to follow his inner voice of truth. Such people are as rare as diamonds in the current society and you are one of them.

    You seem to be also a real intellectual and this is another rarity in the US scene.

    And now I come to the point and hope you read this comment which is personal. I do not see any other possibility to establish contact with you otherwise. I knew intuitively that Maria Butina is a special personality and that she was sacrificed for nefarious purposes by the US deep state already at a time when the public knew almost nothing about her. I have an infallible intuition in this respect.

    And this is also true for you as a personality. If you remain truthful to yourself and follow the truth as you define it now – there is also a broader perspective of the truth to which you will be able to come very soon – you will play a much bigger role in the impending events that will transform the USA and the whole world very soon beginning this year beyond recognitiion, i.e. beyond being a simple whistleblower and exposing the deep state. This I can assure you as I can see in the future and actually I have been waiting for you to appear for some time. To this I cannot reveal more at this place.

    But I can offer you in a personal communication first a credible explanation what is happening with you at this point in time at the soul level and where this whole opening of your heart chakra of truth comes from that has already transformed you as a personality. Second, departing from this personal knowledge we can proceed into your future potential role as a revelator and educator of humanity. You only need to hold the course now and do what you think is right, but please do not try to save the US state, it is rotten to the core and there is no salvation for it. But you can save the souls of millions of Americans and this is a noble cause, which I am sure you will be able to accomplish with inner devotion and great aplomb. As I said, your mission is much bigger than exposing the deep state, this is just the beginning – your fire baptism.

    In order to begin gaining a better understanding about what is happening to you now psychologically I would recommend you to read this latest energy report on my website that contains in addition 18 books and more than 3000 articles on topics that may change your world view and life for ever, because this change has already started for you and now you only need to take the express train.

    And here is the article I specifically refer to:

    http://www.stankovuniversallaw.com/2019/08/how-the-trinity-created-the-fountain-of-freedom/

    There is much more to that that will expand your Weltanschauung beyond measure, although, or precisely because, you are one of the most outstanding American intellectuals I have encountered so far.

    I wish you all the best Sir, and know that you are protected by powerful divine forces and nothing can happen to you if you only remain truthful to yourself.

    With best personal regards

    George
    Dr. Georgi Alexandrov Stankov,

    Munich, Germany
    Vancouver, Canada,
    Liguria, Italy
    Plovdiv, Bulgaria

  4. I believe that truth always prevails in the end and I’m praying for your continued strength as you bravely tell your story. Thank you!

  5. Patrick has suggested in recent interviews that anyone who wants to help him could buy from Overstock.com

    I would like to add to that and propose a few simple suggestions that can help Patrick/Overstock/Medici and at the same time possibly help anyone who takes these actions to make it a mutually beneficial win/win situation for all involved:

    1)Buy from Overstock.com and give Overstock gift certificates to others

    2)Buy stock in Overstock.Ticker symbol is OSTK.After you buy stock place a GTC(Good Til Canceled) Limit Sell order for $100 a share or more to prevent your shares being loaned out to short sellers who might try to drive the stock price down.

    3)Download the TZERO Crypto App on your smartphone and buy Ravencoin.Overstock already owns a lot of Ravencoin and TZERO is majority owned by Overstock/Medici.

    4)Join Pro freedom social network MINDS.com where users earn crypto tokens for using the site.Overstock/Medici owns about 24% of MINDS

    If We The People unite behind basic principles like truth,freedom,goodwill,integrity,Non-Aggression Principle,Golden Rule,voluntarily helping each other and becoming an economic force it could turn into an awesome power.

    https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/967089837865422848?referrer=truthfreedompeace

  6. Very informative, after one chips off all the 20-dollar words and too-cool-to-be-elitist posturing.

    Patrick was raised to be a deep-stater, as much as Bill Clinton was (bet he hates that comparison).

    The only question is which flavor of DS’er he is, not whether he is one or not.

    Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

    Be careful who you follow.

    WWG1WGA

  7. Message to Patrick-
    Thank you so much for sharing. Your article is amazingly enlightening. Why did I not know about you before? I immediately thought of Conrad Black as I delved into your article.
    Its clear you are brilliant and wise.
    But it is your nobility that stands out.
    What a shameful travesty we have done/are doing to Maria

  8. Dear Patrick Byrne,

    This is an urgent

    I just had a conversation with my partner in Vancouver who is probably the best medium on this planet and she confirmed, based on the video with
    you on Fox news that I sent to her that your I AM Presence (IAP) has fully descended in your body. This is unique and I know until now, besides us both, only one third person that has his IAP descended in his body. This is the proof that you are chosen for big deeds. I assume that you have probably never heard of the IAP, although the I Am Teachings of St. Germain are very popular in the USA, and therefore I recommend you to read this message which St. Germain gave to my partner:

    http://www.stankovuniversallaw.com/2015/04/how-to-merge-with-the-i-am-presence-with-a-scientific-certainty/

    This is amazing and I hope this information will reach you.

    George

    1. St. Germain is not a Catholic Saint, but a demon who channels messages through lost souls.

      Patrick, if you really want to save 15% or more on your prison sentence, come clean on the crypto money laundering.

  9. Thank you for coming forward Patrick. I am sure it was God the Holy Spirit making you come clean. We have been praying for you sir know that God is watching over you. God bless you for coming clean.

  10. Patrick –
    It will be interesting how your story plays out…FBI uses people
    without them knowing…Jim Comey has denied your story but we have all come
    to know him as a untruthful person…
    Best Wishes

  11. Patrick,

    First of all, I never thought that having me you at train station on that cold day of 1rst Jan 2013 in the deep Switzerland will have me to land me in Salt Lake City, let alone to be in Peace Coliseum where Overstock is headquartered on your request to visit you on 21 August, some hours before you announced the news.

    Usually CEOs of listed companies brush people off their mind, and when written to they are never heard of. Most of the time, you got back to me, lent helpful hand to me.

    I pray (weird from one who hardly believes) that these horrible stories won’t take forever and a day to be gone.

    Much love, my fourth Brother Karamazov

  12. Thank you for “carefully” coming forward. I doubt you are the least bit naive but please be extra aware of the possibility Hillary Clinton was part of the political espionage targets made known to you to suggest a sense of fair and balanced when in fact actual targets were really just conservatives and/or Trump. In fact, Clinton connections may exist at the X-Y-Z top echelons.

    Also, there have been enough “mildly suspect” Barr actions that he being 100% reliable and trustworthy (outside the influence of entrenched powers out for their own global agenda) is a bit of stretch for some who root for the good guys. Please keep eyes and ears and more OPEN! TY.

  13. Patrick, please don’t turn this into an 18 week saga, and more importantly DO NOT TRUST the Justice Department to actually DO anything to the guilty parties.

  14. Dear Sir
    Didn’t you have some sort of relationship with Heidi Avery? Wasn’t she some kind of a deputy or assistant to then CIA Director John Brennan?
    Curious

      1. PS I lost track of Heidi nearly a decade ago. I was not aware of any relationship between Heidi and Director Brennan. Fill us in.

  15. OF COURSE THE DC SWAMP WILL TRY TO PUMMEL U TO DUST….IF BARR REALLY DOES HIS JOB YOU WILL BE VINDICATED JUST AS YOU WERE IN TAKING DOWN WALLSTREET. HOWEVER WALLSTREET WAS MUCH DIFFERENT.. THERE, MARKET FORCES ASSISTED ALONG WITH DEEPSTATE ACTORS TO SOFTEN THE BLOW OF THE MISDEEDS.. YOUR NEW REVOLATION IS MUCH BIGGER..AS YOU SAID IT INVOLVES POLITICAL ESPIONAGE WHICH WAS USED TO SUBVERT THE VERY NATURE OF OUR DEMOCRACY/REPUBLIC (OR WHATEVER U WANT TO CALL IT)..THANK GOD X,Y AND Z ARE NO LONGER IN PLACE. MY PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU AND MAY OUR CREATOR PROTECT YOU. I LOOK FORWARD FOR THE REST OF THE STORY AS IT UNFOLDS. PEACE

  16. I dont buy the story. Did you tell this young Russian girl you had untreatable asian Hep C before you used her for political pionts ? You say your father laid off 7000 employees in a 10000 employee insurance company and that he had the cold hearted gene which you inherited and Wareen Buffet liked so much he invested in your dads insurance company forming geico insurance and became billionaires. What happened to the 7000 families he fired to make money ? Your a jerk and you admitted to commiting espianage and it was no accident. You made the calls with the intent of destroying competition for your candidate Johnson in 2016. You heard that your name was being investigated so you through your companions in crime in the fbi to the dogs to save your arse. He who comes out first writes the story line. Coward and Traitor and womanizer.

    1. Bob Williams, I know of a Bob Williams and he is a Dumocrat snowflake and is constantly bashing Trump or anyone to do with him. Are all you Bob Williams the same? Time to wake up

  17. I really want to hear your story, and I see you as a patriot who more than likely was used in a lie unbeknownst to you. I just really have a hard time believing Hillary Clinton being brought into this as a innocent being blackmailed…I feel the FBI may have thrown her name in the mix to throw off any suspicion that the person they are really after to frame, to destroy was Trump and Trump alone, I believe our Intelligence Community has been taken over by Saboteur’s wanting to destroy this country, I believe we have had presidents both Democrat and Republican who have been involved in bringing this about, and I believe Obama/DeepState put it on steroids during his 8 years of rule, and we find ourselves where we are today in this country, and it is heartbreaking.

    Thank you for bringing this out, and I wait to hear more.

  18. Your association with a suspected foreign agent would likely have lead to issuance of FISA warrants for electronic and physical surveillance. I think thats the new twist in the Russia investigation being forthcoming: disclosure of other matters that have been investigated and uncovered during their FISA surveillance’s and investigations. I’m particular interested in whether you have connections to Christopher Steele, the infamous Dossier, Fusion GPS and to British and Israeli Intelligence.

    On another note, one of the DOJs investigations is named “Operation Oath Hypocrite” and targeting professional licensees using their professional licenses as cover to commit crimes. I’m aware that the DEA is front and center of Hypocrites, and am curious if other agencies than the DEA have similar indictments to be unsealed. Should we expect major announcements from the SEC, FINRA, FBI, IRS, US Postal Service and DHS?

  19. The overlords at twitter have locked my account again for tweets supporting Patrick Byrne having the courage to speak truth to power.

    I never posted threats,curse words or graphic images.

    I’m so tired of the corrupt media/tech/finance giants and politicians but I will NEVER give up.

    Please share the link posted below via text/email/social media if you agree and care about people who have the courage to speak truth to power.Thank You

    https://stocktwits.com/truthfreedompeace/message/175533956

      1. What happened was I posted a reply on Jordan Peterson’s page asking others to support you and then noticed that twitter was shadow banning my post.I then replied to my own post mentioning I was being shadow banned and then twitter locked my account again.lol

        This has become like a game as I have had my account locked by twitter at least 10 times in the past.Each time I set up a new account knowing that the new account won’t last long.Keep in mind I never post threats,curse words,personal insults to other twitter users or graphic images.

        I usually post things such as links to posts like these:
        -Suggested Action Plan for immediate change https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/943148464663228416?referrer=truthfreedompeace

        -Advocating for an end to the War on Drugs https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/960655834362368000?referrer=truthfreedompeace

        The first time I was shut down on twitter was likely because I had tweeted a post in support of offering Julian Assange a pardon that was retweeted by Julian’s mom. https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/910893465478406144?referrer=truthfreedompeace

        Anyway,thank you for your courage and hopefully you will also someday soon post about more fun things like basic philosophy and humanity,music,food,favorite life experiences etc.

        Have a good one

      2. My previous reply I sent 10 hrs ago did not show up here,but what happened is I noticed a post I tweeted asking people to support you was being shadow banned.I sent another tweet mentioning that this post was being shadow banned so twitter locked my account again.lol

        Twitter has shut down my account at least 10 times.Each time I set up another account knowing it won’t last long.Keep in mind I never posted threats,curse words,personal insults or graphic images.The censorship at twitter is disgraceful.The only reason I still attempt to use twitter is only to spread an action plan to others such as the ones I have posted here.

        Of course,there are people impersonating you and many others on twitter but those accounts are still there.Go figure.

        It seems the biggest offense to the twitter overlords is posting political opinions they disagree with or proposing solutions or action plans to deal with current problems such as the war on drugs,censorship,surveillance,bribery,corruption etc.

        Have a good one.

      3. Patrick, you liked multiple of my tweets with your super secret acct, and now my acct is locked. No coincidence. If they don’t comply with my appeal to reinstate without giving in to their laughable authoritarian “reasons” for locking it, I will approach some journalists with the evidence of their bias and suppression

  20. The overlords at twitterhave locked my account again for tweets supporting Patrick Byrne having the courage to speak truth to power.

    I never posted threats,curse words or graphic images. I’m so tired of the corrupt media/tech/finance giants and politicians but I will NEVER give up.

    Please share the link posted below via text/email/social media if you agree and care about people who have the courage to speak truth to power.Thank You

    https://stocktwits.com/truthfreedompeace/message/175533956

  21. Amazing TV interviews. I was unfamiliar with Patrick and do not know if his jaw-dropping charges are true or if he is having a breakdown or both or neither. I have spent hours researching him the last few days and it has been quite an adventure. Obviously he is very brilliant and accomplished. I wish him well and believe him to be a truthful man. His story is a lot like following a mystery. I wish he had a Twitter account so I could follow his every word. But the main thing is his safety and that must trump everything else. Take care and keep us informed if you can. You are appreciated.

  22. Lieber Patrick,

    As a long term shareholder of Overstock.com(OSTK) inclusive of trying to make a difference as part of your good fight or Jihad with Wall Street, I must ask, were these jet setting trysts which must have posed as great distractions to running the business you were responsible for, paid for entirely with shareholder dollars?

    I know you weren’t paid an annual salary for many years, and ultimately a menial one at 100K per year, but an entertainment account like you describe probably cost hundreds of thousands maybe even seven digits per year in aggregate with the descriptions you are citing. It would probably be an interesting cash ledger line item to examine. Nice living while you continue to beat the cancer diagnosis knowing how tomorrow is guaranteed to no one, so live it up on shareholders’ today?

    I remember a story about Warren Buffett almost being late for a plane because he was afraid to use change that he considered shareholder money, and was squabbling with the idea of going or not going to the pay phone as a result, but it was something he needed to do before getting on that plane and he finally made the plunge of coins into phone’s clanging receptacle! You have traveled a long distance since your partial mentor’s earliest days of guarding shareholder capital–pun intended.

    Most importantly, today, it seems as though you have begun to diminish your role in what led you to resign from your company, as possibly only playing a tiny part in what may be coming down pike all at the same time you pay tribute to what are clearly dubious and dangerous people who work insidiously as extensions of our government in keeping Americans fat, dumb and manipulated?

    As much as I know you to be a most intelligent, highly gifted, extremely talented man in so many respects, you are also a sensationalist who continues to go down with a whimper with respect to the lack of “value” reflected in the historical twenty year old “price” of your company’s stock. At a more sophisticated level, you resemble Jerry Quarry in the fighting ring, another one who would never be champ.

    Your former company’s stock price remained volatile during these periods where you become the main attraction on The Street, but it’s never “sustainable” or long lasting in developing a market capitalization that grows repeatedly, and exponentially over time. Why is that if you have or had the most lean, most well managed, most profitable Etailer “in der Welt,” as you have stated many times?

    One would think that with all the good deeds that you have done for these “Men in Black” and the Halls of Justice in D.C. where you have shared your stories, that the monkeys who continue to crawl all over your company’s back would have been mitigated, or eliminated entirely if you were delivering the correct goods they seek to measure. Those goods being, growing unfettered free cash flows to be valued by those Wall Street bean counters who continue to price your company significantly less than other Etail counterparts in the public marketplace along with your Medici block chain companies at zero, or less.

    Politically speaking, we must disagree and say that your affinity towards Russians is also misaligned even when feeling sorry for their battlefield losses in WW2 knowing that in some quadrants of the world, there are people who believe Stalin made Hitler look tame comparatively, and you also know that Germany and Germans suffered excessively when Russia sought to save itself by aligning with the U.S. and Great Britain. It wouldn’t have been unwise for Patton to have finished them off like he wanted to after V Day. Of course, he became marginalized from the very top as a result of his views, and experienced an untimely, accidental death in a jeep rollover experience. It’s not unfair to say that Russians remain barbarians–even today–compared to Germans in almost every aspect of life, especially “culture.”

    I have a feeling you are better sticking to your Irish history and I don’t mean their centuries old struggle with Mother England inclusive of Brexit today, rather, with their ability to tell stories and gifts to gab which they commonly refer to as “Blarney” also known as hyperbole.

    The other reason I remain almost 100 percent sure of this, is that if your “Rabbi” believed your business was worthy of investment knowing all he knows about you and your family ties for almost half a century, you wouldn’t have needed to gamble with Asian capital pools during the most volatile political, economic, and military time our two nations are encountering each other for all the “trading marbles.”

    Your humble passive shareholder sitting next to you for the first time, sort of.

    Auf Wiederhören, Herr Byrne!

      1. Cute. We will take it as a compliment since whether you might call it shareholder activism or purely agitation when seeking “accountability,” it is intended to be constructive criticism for those objective enough with themselves to learn when it contains merit.

        Dr. Byrne never could accept criticism, historically, for reasons he would have to explain–ego or otherwise–including the disappointment these shareholders expressed after he accepted what remains a small legal settlement in the case of Rocker/Cohodes relative to the expectations he established and the crimes they committed up to and leading into 2009.

        https://investors.overstock.com/news-releases/news-release-details/rocker-pays-5-million-overstockcom-settle-lawsuit

        But he and Cohodes are friends now, right? Yeah, right! We did notice his tZero top lieutenant twittering around with Cohodes pre-and post Dr. Byrne’s resignation, so it will remain interesting to see where Cohodes really lands in his new found love with being “long” Overstock.com.

        1. I’m confused, you’re acting all butthurt and talking about a billionaire using some money. That’s weird. I mean he came from means, it’s very peculiar to ASSume he used any shareholder money for anything, ludicrous even.

          Now, if you’ve been such a long term shareholder, I’m frankly marveling at how you didn’t make out OK when they stock did an irrational exuberance moonshot in sympathy with the bitcoin lunacy move when it went to the Futures?

          (if we want to start a conversation about manipulation….), how could you not have take some off the table when it did that ? You have no one to blame but yourself.

          1. Patrick can answer for himself whether the high stakes living along with jet setting he explains in his tryst with this Russian gal, was paid for by his company, personally, or by the U.S. Government emboldening him to do so, can’t you, Patrick?

            Impossible to decipher under normal accounting by investors without “cash ledgers” that are not available to them. Byrne has made it a topic of investigation by his own admission of this lifestyle being maintained, and during what can be assumed may or may not have related to company business.

            We are “Capitalists” like Mr. Buffett, and will always “trade” accordingly. We are under no obligations to share our historical trading book with strangers, since we are always on guard to accepting any “kindness from strangers.”

            Currently we see significant undervaluation, but remain leery of the hedge cabal connecting to Cohodes who has gotten his way or wish of removing PB from the equation. We will be happy to be proven wrong if OSTK and block chain takes off.

            Not happy to see JJ suck another 650K for value destruction which continues unabated, however.

            Who will you blame for underestimating the strength in price, and value still being unrecognized since the prior bitcoin peak in January, 2018?

            If it were any other Wall Street supported company with the potential cash flows this juggernaut has in front of it, the value would be $3.6B in the market already “today.”

          2. Can’t reply to your, guess the threads can only go so deep.

            Your accusations are bizarre man. He didn’t open himself up to anything, he went on some vacations and participated in some extracurricular patriotic activity? He does other things besides run his business *gasp*.

            If it’s undervalued, buy it, hold it, shut it. You sound absurd. If you were a long time holder and you watched that mountain form and sat there doing nothing about it, even though it was patently obvious (to me) that Bitcoin was getting ramped up to the moon so the criminals could short it in the Futures when it went live, then again… You have no one to blame but yourself. Now DYODD, except your own risks, and stop looking like a moron claiming a wealthy patriot must have misappropriated company funds because he took vacations LOL

          3. Was ist das, ich verstehe nicht? Du bist ein Troll von Yahoo Land. Aussehen! Das ist sehr, sehr wichtig. Geh weg, bitte!

            How does former FBI agent, Peter Strzok, and his wife, SEC Associate Director Enforcement, Melissa Hodgman, connect to the Overstock.com open investigation that has weighed on its stock price in more ways than one?

            Horribly manipulated Overstock.com shareholders need to know.

            https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/08/23/details-behind-patrick-byrne-allegations-of-fbi-political-espionage/#more-168898

      2. With Byrne seemingly gone–primary short thesis, historically–and Wall Street willing to embrace block chain, along with Etail being the most undervalued 20 year old respected brand in the space, while Medici including tZero has a stranglehold on “patents” for establishing an exchange that crooks and robber barons can no longer falsify, fools like that Seeking Alpha author yesterday dismissing the multiple BILLION market capitalization in front of us, are getting what they deserve. The switch has been turned on after being “OFF” or out of favor for too long. Das ist Wahrheit.

        https://seekingalpha.com/article/4290784-overstock-com-thoughts-sec-investigation

  23. During the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army conscripted 29,574,900 men in addition to the 4,826,907 in service at the beginning of the war. Of this total of 34,401,807 it lost 6,329,600 killed in action (KIA), 555,400 deaths by disease and 4,559,000 missing in action (MIA) (most captured). Of these 11,444,000, however, 939,700 rejoined the ranks in the subsequently liberated Soviet territory, and a further 1,836,000 returned from German captivity. Thus the grand total of losses amounted to 8,668,400. https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-size-of-the-Red-Army-during-world-war-2-and-when-was-it-the-largest

    1. “subsequently liberated Soviet territory”

      Thank you, but I’m Ukrainian, and we could do without your liberation, Russification, and the 7-10 million dead from the artificial famine you imposed on us, and the millions more from NKVD, it’s predecessors and successors.

      If this is what one can expect from our “brothers”, then the life-story of Brian Williams has sad parallels in history.

      And if that is to change, for the better. It must be now.

      1. You are full of it. “7-10 million dead from artificial famine”, “millions more from NKVD”, “russification” – pure and utter B.S. Back to school, study real history, not artificial one.

  24. “the Naziis killed 20-30 million citizens of the Soviet Union”

    Is that more or less than the the number of their own citizens the Soviets killed?

  25. Long ago we learned that, figures don’t like, rather, liars figure. But even more important than that is the fact that the “winner” of global conflict has the power of the pen for “writing history” as they see fit.

    Death toll numbers relating to wars across history are hardly an exact science.

    https://www.ihr.org/books/harwood/dsmrd08.html

  26. Kalashnikov didn’t invent AK-47. AK-47 is almost DIRECT copy of STG-44. Sturmgewehr – STG-44 is German end of WW2 machine gun. The whole story about WW2 is just Hollywood trash and Russians know same version of WW2 a KOSHER-Hollywood trash story. German inventor of STG-44 was in Russia gulag where he was forced to give up ALL his secret. In his words; “They bled me dry.”
    The Russians doesn’t know the truth about communist revolution and WW2, because the media and education is still in control of perpetrators who murdered more than 100 million Russian Christians.

    https://www.thoughtco.com/world-war-ii-sturmgewehr-44-stg44-2361247
    http://www.military-today.com/firearms/stg_44.htm

  27. You were intrigued by a hot intellectual who might or might be a Russian spy and who might or might not be into you. I get it.

  28. Your life is quite the story. Not the world I travel in. But someONE has to do it, eh? KUDO for your willingness to stick your neck out like you have, both with Maria and the Wall Street(USG) gang. Stay the course Doc! Best of health too. Sorry to hear about those struggles!

  29. What happened to Maria is a tragedy! She should never have been sentenced to any time, especially to the conditions she endured. If she truly is an advocate for Classical Liberalism, how could she be an asset to the current Russian government and consequently guilty of promoting a Russian, political agenda in the US? It makes zero sense. We’ve abused a young Russian who did us no harm.

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