FT : ‘Why wear a copy when you can wear the original?’ — the vintage fashion dea

‘Why wear a copy when you can wear the original?’ — the vintage fashion dealer to the A-list
Want a classic YSL ‘smoking’ or a rare McQueen? Marie Blanchet will find it

“When Amal [Clooney] wore that dress, we had 500 Instagram followers in a few minutes. I thought there was a bug. I even called IT,” says Marie Blanchet, the Paris-based vintage dealer and founder of Mon Vintage. She’s referring to the 1999 beaded John Galliano dress she sourced for Clooney to wear to the premiere of her husband George’s film Ticket to Paradise in September last year.

A similar stir was caused by Rihanna when she appeared in a 1995 Galliano kimono cocoon coat; by Adwoa Aboah in a Tom Ford for Gucci gown; and by Meghan Markle in a Courrèges haute couture trapeze coat while pregnant, all sourced by Blanchet. Recently, a Grammy-nominated American rapper’s team asked Blanchet for two Hermès bags in time for Christmas — one, a particularly rare tricolour alligator Kelly from 1984, was valued at over €60,000.

Blanchet’s showroom in Paris’s Saint-Germain-des-Prés is an Aladdin’s cave of fashion treasures. Hanging from a Pierre Jeanneret screen is a museum-grade cream Balenciaga coat from 1955 and an original toile from Alexander McQueen’s Plato’s Atlantis collection, with dress pins placed by the designer himself. A blue-and-white Roberto Cavalli bustier gown, previously on display at the Met, lies languorously on a Charlotte Perriand day bed. There’s a Phoebe Philo for Céline pony-hair coat that never went into production.

By her own admission, Blanchet is a “Parisienne cliché”. When her showroom manager Marylou, smartly dressed in a striped Dior men’s shirt and Balenciaga tie, leads me in, Blanchet is smoking at her laptop, lighting her cigarettes with the Cire Trudon Madeleine candle that scents the space. Her three-legged bull terrier Snoopy, in a Saint Laurent bow, yawns in the corner. Later in the afternoon, she insists we take a champagne break (Ruinart Brut is kept at the showroom at all times for clients and special occasions).

Blanchet, in her thirties, has a cool, insouciant way of wearing high-value vintage. For our interview, she wears an early 1990s Saint Laurent two-button marine suit, black Balenciaga knife sock boots and a Line Vautrin 1930s bronze choker. “Every woman needs to have a Saint Laurent jacket in her wardrobe. And if you can, get a smoking,” she advises.

Blanchet’s love of vintage began in Paris’s Saint Ouen flea market and grew when she was offered the job of costume designer for the 2017 television mini-series Mata Hari. She trained with Parisian vintage legend Françoise Auguet, who could authenticate an unsigned dress by Coco Chanel just by studying the construction.

After a few successful shoe sales on Vestiaire Collective, Blanchet approached the luxury consignment website about creating a vintage category. The company did just that, and made her head of it. “It proved my point,” she says. “Why wear a copy when you could wear the original?”

She describes how she was then headhunted to be CEO of British boutique William Vintage. In 2020, while still in London, she opened Mon Vintage, and was invited to collaborate with Selfridges. “After Covid, we found that people wanted to touch and feel garments. Curation was important — it’s pieces that I truly believe tell a story about the designer and that feel relevant today,” Blanchet says.

Blanchet intended Mon Vintage to be a high-end service that departed from the regular ecommerce model. “We don’t have a website, all our pieces are available upon request through lookbooks. If clients are able to come to our showroom in Paris, they are invited by appointment only. We prepare a rack and do fittings with our couturier and with clients abroad, pieces are shipped, and fittings are done remotely.”

Blanchet and her team also source pieces on request, ranging from €120 for Levi’s to around €100,000 for a Thierry Mugler bustier that made its runway debut on Jerry Hall.

Pieces are generally delivered by hand after being painstakingly disinfected, dry cleaned and restored — a process that can take up to a month. “We never alter anything because we don’t want to lose the integrity of a piece, but we can adjust and tailor.”

Blanchet has an ongoing collaboration with The Row, which included providing rare Line Vautrin jewellery and decorative objects for its spring/summer 2023 show, which are available for purchase in the brand’s stores.

“We don’t see ourselves as archivists and, although we do work with the Palais Galliera, the Met and the Manchester Museum, we sell pieces that are going to have a second life on people who will wear them,” says Blanchet. “We also have collector clients who just want to invest in pieces, not wear them.”

Alexandre Samson, head of the contemporary design department at the Palais Galliera, Paris’s official fashion museum, first worked with Blanchet in 2018 when she lent a pair of Margiela shoes for an exhibition. “What sets her apart is her charisma, combined with a strong sense of current fashion and contemporary women’s needs,” says Samson. “She knows how to transcend the past and adapt it to the present.”

Blanchet keeps her sources — a worldwide network that she has nurtured over the past decade — to herself. “Some amazing pieces are getting rarer to find. And after Covid I noticed small vintage businesses opening through Instagram every day. It’s crazy! But people want curation, authentication, quality control and to know that they are buying from a safe source.”

Soon Blanchet will be heading to Florence to view a private collection of couture and tonight, after our interview, she and Marylou will visit an extensive personal archive of YSL Rive Gauche in Paris. So, if you happen to be in the market for something Saint Laurent and scarce, seek and she shall find.

Barrons : Why Falling Inflation Is a Problem for the Stock Market

Why Falling Inflation Is a Problem for the Stock Market

Generationally high inflation was the story of 2022. That’s not going to be the story of 2023. The boogeyman of disinflation—and even some deflation—is about to become the biggest risk to stocks, and investors are going to have to figure out how to position portfolios for falling prices.

U.S. consumer prices rose 6.5% year over year in December, the sixth consecutive month the pace of pricing gains decelerated. Investors were pleased. The S&P 500SPX +0.40% gained 2.7% for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial AverageDJIA +0.33% gained 672 points, or 2%. The Nasdaq Composite COMP +0.71% was the big winner, closing up 4.8%.

Inflation, while slowing, is still here, though it might not be for much longer. Signs of looming price declines are starting to show up. Take apartments, which about 40 million Americans call home. They felt the inflationary pain in 2022, with average rents up about 7% year over year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But those high prices have started to pinch, and now it seems like no one is looking to move.

Real estate service provider RealPage notes that demand had “all but evaporated” by the end of 2022. “Volume always precedes price,” says one real estate investor, and he’s right. Rents will have to fall to get people thinking about moving again.

Car prices are also too high. The average new-car price in the U.S. hit a record $49,507 in December, according to data provider Cox Automotive. Those prices are starting to hit demand as well, and forcing companies to reconsider. Tesla TSLA –0.94% (ticker: TSLA), for one, cut prices for some of its vehicles
Price Cuts, Downgrades, the Market. Why Tesla Stock Is Having a Very Bad Day.
Certain new models of the EV company's Model 3 and Model Y vehicles are eligible for a $7,500 tax credit on new electric cars and plug-in hybrids.
Continue reading by up to 20% this past week as inventory piled up and order rates took a dive.


Everywhere we look, the price of goods is coming down. Steel? Aluminum? Copper? Oil? Corn? They’re all down 30%, on average, from the highs reached last year.

The one thing that isn’t coming down is wages, thanks to a labor market that still looks strong, with job openings in the U.S. holding steady between 10 million and 11 million. The combination of falling product prices with a strong labor market isn’t great news for investors, because companies will have to pay more for workers but will receive less for what they sell. Profit margins “are going to compress,” says Brian Rauscher, head of global portfolio strategy at Fundstrat. “That’s a given.”

Savita Subramanian, BofA Securities’ head of equity and quantitative strategy, expects the same. S&P 500 earnings estimates for 2023 are roughly 15% too high “amid demand uncertainty and a tougher pricing environment,” she writes.

She’s hunting for areas of the economy that can produce “more margin” and says healthcare stocks are a good place to look. BofA analysts favor stocks such as Boston Scientific (BSX), Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), and Tenet Healthcare THC +1.13% (THC).

Demand uncertainty is starting to show up, as well. Rauscher points out that new orders—a leading indicator of demand—are falling. The Institute for Supply Management’s index of new manufacturing orders has been in negative territory for six of the past seven months. Its index of new service orders slipped into negative territory in December for the first time since the spring of 2020.

“There is going to be a pricing power issue as we move forward…[so favor] companies with stickier margins,” says Rauscher. He wants ones that can still raise prices, cut costs effectively, or both.

That could mean trouble for the stock market overall, despite the strong start to the year. He recommends holding higher-quality companies with better balance sheets and strong management teams.

That’s a solid strategy for any market—and it’s especially wise when prices start to drop.

Barrons : Mining Giant Glencore Has 2 Ways to Win

Mining Giant Glencore Has 2 Ways to Win

Mining and commodities trading giant Glencore was one of the FTSE 100’s top performers last year, and it could be set to repeat the trick in 2023.

Glencore (ticker: GLEN.UK) was the third-best performing stock in 2022, behind defense giant BAE Systems (BA.UK) and publisher Pearson (PSO), climbing 47%, largely driven by record thermal coal prices.

The miner’s exposure to coal is also what makes it an attractive proposition in 2023, while China’s reopening should push metals prices higher, adding to Glencore’s upside. Over the longer term, its status as one of the world’s leading producers and marketers of copper leaves it well placed to benefit from the global transition toward greener energy.

Record coal prices, largely a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and a subsequent natural-gas shortage helped Glencore’s earnings jump by $10 billion to a record $18.9 billion in the six months to June 2022. The company said around $8 billion of that increase came from its coal business. With coal prices remaining high, Glencore’s full-year earnings next month could be another catalyst for the stock.

Glencore is winding down its coal assets. The company described its policy as a “responsibly managed decline and stewardship of our coal business” at an investor day last month.

“Glencore’s sticking by thermal coal has proven to be a major advantage over its peers,” Liberum analyst Ben Davis says. He adds that “prices have the potential to remain elevated far above marginal cost of production in the long term.” Davis has a Buy rating on the stock with a 6.70 pound sterling ($8.17) target price, 23% above Monday’s price. The stock is up 10% since this column last wrote about the company in mid-August.

The policy has led to some environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, concerns, with a number of institutional investors filing a shareholder resolution earlier this month asking Glencore to explain how it fits in with the Paris Agreement and its own net-zero commitment. Glencore said it will publish its next climate report in March to update on progress since its 2020 strategy.

At the other end of the ESG scale, Glencore continues to invest in what it calls “key transition metals” such as copper, nickel, and cobalt, which it says will support global decarbonization.

“Glencore’s copper and cobalt exposure remains attractive in the long term, and the near-term upside offered by thermal coal more than offsets the long-term outlook at this point,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Alexander Pearce says. He has an Outperform rating on the stock, with a £6.50 target price.

The company announced “top up” returns of $4.5 billion in the first half of 2022, through a special dividend and a $3 billion share buyback program. In keeping with Glencore’s strategy to return surplus capital to investors, there could be more to come. “This narrative could build up in the stock going into the full-year earnings,” Citi analysts said last month. They have a Buy rating and a £7 price target.

China’s reopening, as it shifts away from its zero-Covid policy, should also benefit miners, though for how long is less certain. J.P. Morgan analysts note that the risks mount into the second and third quarters, citing potential Covid spikes and weaker iron ore seasonality. Glencore is one of the bank’s top mining picks to play China’s reopening.

Despite its bumper year of gains, the stock still looks cheap, trading at 6.5 times 2023 earnings estimates, below the industry average of 11 times, according to FactSet data. While Glencore is somewhat at the mercy of commodities prices, there’s enough to suggest that this undervalued stock is worth digging into.

Barrons : Consumer Staples Stocks Look Played Out. Where to Invest Now.

Consumer Staples Stocks Look Played Out. Where to Invest Now.

If 2022’s stock market could be described as brutal, 2023’s might best be described as befuddling. Thankfully, there is a portfolio for that.

What’s so befuddling? It’s not just that there is uncertainty around inflation, growth, profits, margins, and even Covid, which continues to linger around the globe. It’s also that there’s no uncertainty about how experts view the market. All the talking heads believe the first half of 2023 will be bumpy, with things looking better by year end. “It’s a real uber-consensus,” says Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC, who counts herself among the talking heads.

Everyone thinking the same thing is scary, and not simply because the consensus is bound to be wrong. It also means that investors end up positioned the same way in the same sectors and stocks, and that’s a recipe for volatility and disappointment as conditions change.

The solution to all this is to go where others aren’t. That means preferring utilities to consumer staples when looking to play defense. The S&P Composite 1500 Staples Index is trading at about 21 times estimated 2023 earnings, according to FactSet. That’s roughly a 10% premium to its own history and a 30% premium to the S&P 500 SPX +0.40% multiple. There is a long way to fall if investors sour on staples stocks. “I don’t want to own staples because of peak positioning and peak valuations,” adds Calvasina. “I want to be out of the staples when the market turns because they’re going to get crushed.”

Utility stocks look much better. They trade for about 19 times estimated 2023 earnings—a premium to the market and about a 12% premium to their history, similar to staples, but less than a 20% premium to the S&P. What’s more, the growth outlook for utilities is a little better than it has been in the past because they are adding more renewable power generation to their portfolios and are able to earn a regulated rate of return on the new investment, providing a boost to growth.

“Guess what I want to own in a sluggish economic backdrop?” asks Calvasina. “Anything with secular growth.”

That includes industrial stocks, which could get a boost thanks in part to all the new spending generated by the Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Even energy firms have a place in the portfolio, thanks to more-disciplined management teams, dividends, and buybacks, and because many investors seem to want to avoid them after a fantastic 2022. Funds have been flowing out of energy ETFs for the past few weeks. What’s more, “they probably won’t blow you up,” adds Calvasina.

And that’s an attractive feature in a market this confusing.

>>> Weekly Market Update

Weekly Market Update: Early 2023 optimism persists another week

The promising 2023 start for global equities continued this week. EU stocks moved back within 10% of all-time highs while the S&P climbed back above 4,000, testing its 200-day moving average. China’s reopening and improving inflation data were the underlying drivers. The December Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index registered the largest annualized decline in the series’ history, ahead of Thursday’s CPI data. The US dollar continued to retreat as markets became more comfortable with the expectation that the Fed will downshift to 25 basis point rate hikes. Oil and copper prices rose after the Chinese economy officially reopened and Beijing continued to talk up the need to support growth. Natural gas prices stayed volatile, but held at the lowest levels since the summer of 2021, resulting in analysts revising higher their outlook for European growth this year.

US CPI data showed inflation continued to slow in December. Shelter costs remained the major driver to the upside, while services continued to run hotter than the Fed wants to see. Nevertheless, headline inflation fell on a month over month basis for the first time since May 2020. The general trend in the economic data has led a growing number of FOMC members to express support for raising rates by only 25 basis points at the February 1st meeting, and Philadelphia Fed President Harker added to that tally following Thursday’s CPI print. Futures markets quickly solidified around expectations for a 25 bps hike next month. The US Dollar index held near a 7-month low, while gold prices approached fresh 6-month highs, breaking above $1,900. The Greenback lost more than 3% against the Yen amid a growing belief the BOJ will formally switch course by the time leadership changes hands at the end of Q1. The US 2-year yield fell below 4.2% and the 10-year retreated below 3.5%. For the week, the S&P gained 2.7%, the DJIA was up 2%, and the Nasdaq surged 4.8%.

Investors poured over a litany holiday sales updates signaling some caution around consumer discretionary spending. Swedish appliance giant Electrolux reported weak preliminary Q4 results, citing larger than expected inventory reduction activities. Bed Bath & Beyond reported another terrible quarter amid steady reports that the company is preparing for bankruptcy imminently. Retailer Abercrombie & Fitch bucked the trend, boosting its Q4 guidance based on better than expected holiday sales. JP Morgan and Bank of America reported strong quarterly results, while Citigroup lagged a bit behind its Wall Street rivals. Shares of Delta American Airlines soared, as Delta said momentum has continued in 2023 following strong Q4 results, while American raised guidance substantially ahead of its quarterly report. In another positive sign on the inflation front, Tesla dramatically slashed prices on its most popular vehicle models, reversing most of the price increases implemented over the last two years. Shares of Disney rose steadily throughout the week as it appointed former Nike CEO Mark Parker as its Chairman and addressed an activist push from Trian’s Nelson Peltz. The WWE remained the center of M&A speculation, with some reports suggesting a deal could be done by mid-year.

>>> US Close Dow 0,33% S&P +0,40% Nasdaq *0,71%

Closing Stock Market Summary

The stock market opened to weakness today due to some profit taking activity following a big run recently. Some of the early weakness could be pinned on mixed earnings results from several influential banks that all featured increased provisions for credit losses. 

Bank of America (BAC 35.23, +0.76, +2.2%), JPMorgan Chase (JPM 143.01, +3.52, +2.5%), Wells Fargo (WFC 44.22, +1.39, +3.3%), and Citigroup (C 49.92, +0.83, +1.7%) opened to mixed price action following their earnings reports, but like the broader market, recovered noticeably from levels seen at the start of the session. 

Buyers were quick to jump on the opening weakness and controlled the price action for nearly the entirety of today's session. Just about everything reversed from the opening weakness and finished on an upbeat note. The S&P 500, which broke through technical resistance at its 200-day moving average (3,981), closed just shy of the 4,000 level, which is an area it hasn't seen since mid-December. 

Resilience to early selling efforts, along with strength in the mega cap space, fueled today's turnaround. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) had been down 0.9% at this morning's low before settling the session with a 0.7% gain. The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) logged a more modest 0.2% gain while the S&P 500 rose 0.4%. 

Tesla (TSLA 122.40, -1.13, -0.9%) went against the grain today after The Wall Street Journal reported the EV maker cut prices in the U.S. for some of its cars by close to 20%, although it stormed back from an opening 6.4% loss. 

Despite Tesla's underperformance, the S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector (+1.0%) closed at the top of the leaderboard among the 11 sectors. The financials sector, led higher by the banks that reported earnings, closed just behind the consumer discretionary sector with a 0.7% gain. 

Only three sectors -- real estate (-0.6%), utilities (-0.4%), and industrials (-0.1%) -- remained in negative territory by the close. 

The 2-yr Treasury note yield rose nine basis points to 4.22% and the 10-yr note yield rose six basis points to 3.51%, giving way to selling interest after a strong start to the year. 

  • Russell 2000: +7.1% YTD
  • S&P Midcap 400: +6.2% YTD
  • Nasdaq Composite: +5.9% YTD
  • S&P 500: +4.2% YTD
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average: +3.5% YTD

Reviewing today's economic data:

  • December Import Prices 0.4%; Prior was revised to -0.7% from -0.6%
  • December Import Prices ex-oil 0.4%; Prior was revised to -0.3% from -0.4%
  • December Export Prices -2.6%; Prior was revised to -0.4% from -0.3%
  • December Export Prices ex-ag. -2.7%; Prior was revised to -0.7% from -0.6%
  • January Univ. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment - Prelim 64.6 (consensus 60.5); Prior 59.7
    • The key takeaway from the report is that consumer sentiment picked up in January on better feelings about personal finances that stemmed from higher incomes and easing inflation.

As a reminder, bond and equity markets are closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr Day. 

Looking ahead to Tuesday, economic data is limited to January Empire State Manufacturing survey (consensus -8.5; prior -11.2) at 8:30 ET.

The Epoch Times : Internal Documents Show Prominent Democrats Knowingly Pushed R

Internal Documents Show Prominent Democrats Knowingly Pushed Russiagate Lie

The latest Twitter Files release shows how prominent Democrats knowingly pushed a false Russiagate-related narrative about “Russian bots” promoting a key House Intelligence Committee memo that detailed efforts to spy on the Trump campaign, despite the lawmakers being told by Twitter executives that it wasn’t true.

The 14th instalment of the Twitter Files was released on Jan. 12 by journalist Matt Taibbi, who explained in a series of posts that, at a key moment in the Trump-Russia investigation, Democrats alleged that “Russian bots” were spreading an explosive report from then-Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).

“At a crucial moment in a years-long furor,” Taibbi explained in one of the posts, “Democrats denounced a report about flaws in the Trump-Russia investigation, saying it was boosted by Russian ‘bots’ and ‘trolls.’”

“Twitter officials were aghast, finding no evidence of Russian influence,” Taibbi continued.

In support of this take, Taibbi shared screenshots of correspondence from Twitter executives to several Congressional Democrats, including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), confirming that they had “not identified any significant activity connected to Russia with respect to Tweets posting original content to this [#ReleaseTheMemo] hashtag.”

The #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag spread like wildfire on Twitter, topping its trending list starting on Jan. 18, 2018 and reflecting the widespread call to publicly release a then-classified memo submitted by Nunes, who at the time was the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Widely referred to as the Nunes memo (pdf), it was later declassified under then-President Donald Trump’s order on Feb. 2, 2018.

The memo showed how the FBI under the Obama administration used unverified opposition research—the infamous “Steele Dossier” funded by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee—to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page as part of an investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The claims made in the Nunes memo were confirmed by Justice Department Inspector-General Michael Horowitz in his report, released on Dec. 9, 2019.

Push From Democrats, Media Outlets
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) had introduced the #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag on Jan. 18, 2018, and on the following day, joined a group of 65 House Republicans calling for the declassification of the memo. Many of the lawmakers, who collectively represent millions of voters, also sent out the hashtag on Twitter.

Just days later, on Jan. 23, 2018, Democrat lawmakers, including Feinstein and Schiff, wrote an open letter to then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to investigate allegations of “Russian bots and trolls surrounding the #ReleaseTheMemo online campaign.”

The letter from Feinstein and Schiff led Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to himself issue a letter (pdf) that also alleged the hashtag was a part of Russian disinformation campaigns.

“We find it reprehensible that Russian agents have so eagerly manipulated innocent Americans,” he wrote in a letter issued later that day—even though before the letter’s issuance, Twitter’s staff told the senator’s staffers they did not believe Russian bots were behind the hashtag, Taibbi reported.

Multiple legacy outlets also did the same, claiming Russian bots and trolls were behind the effort. All had cited the same source—the Hamilton 68 dashboard, a project with the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD), an organization that tracks 600 Twitter accounts it claims are linked to the Russian government or repeat its news.

According to Taibbi, executives inside Twitter at the time complained that “Hamilton 68 seemed to be everyone’s only source, and no one was checking with Twitter” to verify the claims.

Twitter Internally Disputed ‘Russian Bots’ Claims
Taibbi shared an email from Emily Horne, who was at the time the global policy communications director of Twitter. The email, shared internally on Jan. 23, said that “it is extraordinarily difficult for outside researchers, who do not have access to our full API and internal account signals, to say with any degree of certainty that they believe an account is behaving suspiciously is 1) automated and 2) Russian.”

Yoel Roth, who was Twitter’s trust and safety chief at the time, reportedly told colleagues: “I just reviewed the accounts that posted the first 50 tweets with #releasethememo and … none of them show any signs of affiliation to Russia.”

Taibbi reported that “outside counsel from DC-connected firms like Debevoise and Plimpton” had advised Twitter to respond to lawmakers by using language like: “With respect to particular hashtags, we take seriously any activity that may represent an abuse of our platform.”

According to an email screenshot shared by Taibbi, Twitter was also advised to say something to the effect of: “Our initial assessment indicates that these [hashtag] trends are driven primarily by organic, non-automated activity [if true], but we are continuing to analyze the data and … will inform Congress about what we find.”

“Despite universal internal conviction that there were no Russians in the story, Twitter went on to follow a slavish pattern of not challenging Russia claims on the record,” Taibbi wrote.

Absent any such challenge, “[a]s a result, reporters from the AP to Politico to NBC to Rolling Stone continued to hammer the ‘Russian bots’ theme, despite a total lack of evidence,” he reported.

“Russians weren’t just blamed for #ReleaseTheMemo but #SchumerShutdown, #ParklandShooting, even #GunControlNow—to ‘widen the divide,’ according to the New York Times,” Taibbi added.

Meanwhile, inside Twitter, staffers acknowledged that both the #SchumerShutdown and #ReleaseTheMemo hashtags “appear to be organically trending.”

“NBC, Politico, AP, Times, Business Insider, and other media outlets who played up the ‘Russian bots’ story—even Rolling Stone—all declined to comment for this story,” Taibbi said. He added that staffers of Feinstein, Schiff, and Blumenthal also declined to comment.

Nunes, who has since departed Congress and is now the CEO of Trump’s TruthSocial platform, told Taibbi: “Schiff and the Democrats falsely claimed Russians were behind the Release the Memo hashtag, all my investigative work.”

Nunes added: “By spreading the Russia collusion hoax, they instigated one of the greatest outbreaks of mass delusion in U.S. history.”

Taibbi remarked: “This #ReleaseTheMemo episode is just one of many in the #TwitterFiles. The Russiagate scandal was built on the craven dishonesty of politicians and reporters, who for years ignored the absence of data to fictional scare headlines.”

The Twitter Files disclosures are a series of revelations based on internal company communications provided to journalists by Elon Musk, who took over the platform several months ago and has pledged to reduce censorship and political bias on Twitter.