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Friday, November 13, 2020

UPDATE: Did The US "Raid" Scytl And Seize The Election Server

UPDATE: No official confirmation to this point, although the three principle members of Trump's legal team have commented in one way or another. Rudy Giuliani declined to confirm whether or not he's had discussions with US intel officials. Sidney Powell and Lin Wood both appear to believe that there has been a seizure of election related servers at the Scytl facility in Frankfurt Germany. All we can do at this point is wait for confirmation.

To reaffirm what I say below and what I mentioned in an exchange with commenter Mike Sylwester, for the US to take possession of these servers the US agencies involved--which would ultimately, as I understand this to be a criminal investigation, would be DoJ/FBI--would need to satisfy German law. Alternatively, there could be some bi-lateral agreement between the two countries that the two countries would honor representations made by the other. The point is, the US would have to assert a justification for the seizure under either/both US and German law that would be equivalent to what we call "probable cause". German law could be easier or more difficult to satisfy as regards the evidentiary standard to be satisfied.

As a practical matter, DoJ would have had to examine allegations of fraud after the election and decide whether they were met a standard on which a criminal investigation could be predicated. That evaluation would need to be done specifically with regard to these servers in order to apply for a search/seizure warrant. 'Garden variety' voter fraud would not suffice--it would need to pertain to activity on the servers. At that point DoJ--and possibly DoS--could enter discussions with their German counterparts and, if all requirements were satisfied, arrange for the transfer/seizure of the servers into US custody.

The importance of this is that if, indeed, a seizure has been made, a prior evidentiary determination has been made--ultimately by Barr accepting it. That determination would not be dispositive of whether or not a crime occurred, but would be considered probable cause sufficient to get a search/seizure warrant--not a small thing.


As you know by know, Scytl is the company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, that has the servers that control and store the Dominion generated election data. (I probably haven't described that with 100% accuracy, but you'll get the picture.) We've all seen the highly improbable voting data for several swing states that strongly suggest computer driven manipulation, but without the data on the servers at Scytl proof--one way or another--may be lacking.

Earlier today there were reports that the US military had raided Scytl's facility in Frankfurt and seized the servers there. It was very difficult to track down the source of those reports, although Sidney Powell and Lin Wood--both on Trump's legal team--seemed to hint that those reports were true--I covered these early reports in I Can't Actually Confirm This.

Tonight there are additional reports confirming that the servers were seized by the US. Details remain sketchy and likely unreliable in some details, especially from a strictly legal standpoint. I offered my caveats on the other thread--that I believed DoJ (and probably the FBI, via its Legat Office in Germany) would need to be involved and would be required to go through some legal process before Germany would allow them to take custody of property that was on German soil. TGP offers what seems to me the most plausible explanation, if these reports are accurate, and confirms what I said on the other thread:


From our source: The US government, once they determined that this Dominion server was involved in switching votes, then the intelligence community began a search for the server and discovered that the server was in Germany. In order to get access to that server and have it available for use in a legal manner they had to have the State Department work in tandem with the Department of Justice. They had to request that the government of Germany cooperate in allowing this seizure of this server.

The appropriate documents required to affect that kind of seizure were put in place, signed off on, and it appears there was also US military support in this operation. The US military was not in the lead. But this helps explain why Esper was fired and Miller and Kash Patel were put in place — so that the military would not interfere with the operation in any way.

By getting ahold of the server they now are going to have the direct evidence of when they were instructed to stop counting. They will also discover who gave the direction to stop counting and who initiated the algorithm that started switching votes. The CIA was completely excluded from this operation.


Some observations--again with the caveat: If these reports are accurate.

First: "The CIA was completely excluded from this operation." This is a legal operation or, more precisely, it appears to be a criminal investigative operation, a search and seizure, and has to do with criminal violations of election laws in the US. The CIA has no role to play in such matters. Because this is a criminal investigation, that means--as TGP indicates--that this is being driven by DoJ, with FBI involved as well. State Department would be facilitating liaison between the Justice components of the two governments. It's not surprising that it's taken over a week to get this done, since each government had to jump through their own legal hoops.

Second: We read in the last paragraph the use of the pronoun "they". In my opinion, this must refer to DoJ, per what I just wrote. So, DoJ now has the evidence they will need for their investigation--the forensics being handled by the FBI or by others working at the direction of the FBI. DoJ and the FBI will be the ones finding out what happened.

Third: If anyone wants to substitute "AG Bill Barr" for "DoJ" in what I've just written--go ahead. Barr is surely the person who has been driving this process. Once he understood what was needed and what role DoJ could play, he wasted no time doing it. DoJ's role is to conduct a  criminal investigation. Acquiring this server is the type of thing that DoJ can do quickly and efficiently. That would not be the case with trying to track down every instance of voter fraud across several states in the Midwest. The ins and out of election law will need to be handled by Trump's legal team.

Fourth: Note again that Powell and Wood, while hinting at these developments, are not fully in the know. That's because they are Trump's personal lawyers. DoJ is conducting this investigation on behalf of the US Government, not strictly speaking for Citizen Trump--although, depending on results, this could be of immense importance to Trump. Barr knows all that, knows what the stakes are for the government, knows all the deadlines, and will not dawdle. He also has the discretion to make what he learns public. He will also take every precaution to maintain the proper legal distinctions between the DoJ and Trump's personal legal team, which has no role to play in the criminal investigation--beyond offering information to DoJ/FBI.

 Finally: It's not surprising that this operation has been conducted in the strictest secrecy.


57 comments:

  1. Scytl website updated with "Learn More" disclaimer refuting it all. Reads like Adam Schaffer legal ease.

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    Replies
    1. Link? None of the links I've tried work at this time.

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    2. all their website links say 504 Error which means no server responding....hmmmm

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  2. I'll believe it when Barr's DOJ holds a press conference announcing it. Until then, it's the usual hoax story manufactured from disparate events sprinkled with grains of truth in a foreign disinfo boiler room.

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  3. I want to take one more step out onto this ledge. Lin Wood tweeted out tonight, "They also know the name Paragon, company which purchased Scytl."

    Paragon is the name of the company that operates the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) here in the US. They would know vacant homes (if they can be shown any time / unoccupied), who just sold a home, if someone just moved into state, if someone just left.

    It's too strange that would be the perfect repository of the exact kind of information that this scheme required.

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  4. Release The Kraken
    https://medium.com/@aomegaenergy/release-the-kraken-e736f8ce806d

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  5. With DOS involved in negotiating with the Germans to obtain the server, this could explain why SoS Pompeo was sounding confident in a second Trump term a few days ago. Not sure how he would know the contents at that point except perhaps from what had been gleaned from CONUS investigations.

    DJL

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  6. One sure way to know if this is a legit story or more wishful thinking is to see how the Democrat Media react. First tactic for them is to ignore or refuse to cover. Failing that, they will dismiss and denigrate without actually providing any factual denials. If we see the DM start up the propaganda machine on this Scytl story we know it's legit. The seriousness can be gauged by the volume and intensity of their reaction.

    Second, while DOJ may need to be circumspect and draw lines with the campaign, Trump's defenders absolutely must get vocal. They cannot alliw the uproar to die down or for people to get used to this silent revolution. I see some commenters here tempted to throw in the towel. It's understandable. Our minds hate uncertainty and tension. We try to resolve it asap. One way of doing that is to find comfort in alternatives like, "Well, in 2024 we will be back," or "At least we'll hold the Senate"..."Gee look how many House seats we picked up!" Mark is right. This is for all the marbles. The Democrats really did go all in on this, betting that conservatives wouldn't couldn't stand up to them. So far...it's on a knife's edge. Don't let your mind push you into giving up. If the Democrat Crime Syndicate wins this, their fraud will only get better and less detectable in the future. Pray like never before. The next weeks are critical.

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    Replies
    1. Praying for a miracle

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    2. I think you are right. As of today, 11/19/20, news outlets like ABC and the AP are “debunking” this. Eyes wide open👀

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  7. My Facebook page

    ========

    Thursday, November 12, 1t 9:58 PM

    Congratulations to our President Trump for winning the 2020 election! He will govern our country wisely for another four years!!

    Since President Trump has crushed "The Resistance" in our US Intelligence Community, he now can count on all our Intelligence organizations to prove that the Dominion company manipulated hundreds of thousands of votes.

    Dominion had not prepared for the the fact that Trump would get at least 10 million more votes than he got in 2016. Therefore, Dominion had to make unforeseen adjustments during and right after the election. Because of those adjustments, Dominion now is being investigated by the FBI, CIA and NSA.

    Several state legislatures will refuse to certify their states' Electoral College delegates. Therefore, Biden will not get 270 Electoral College votes, and therefore the President will be elected by the US House of Representatives. Each state will get one vote in the House vote. In that situation, the Republicans enjoy a clear majority in the House.
    Therefore, the US House of Representatives will re-elect President Trump to a second term.

    Image of "Emergency Democrat Votes"


    ==========

    Friday, November 13, at 2:20 PM

    Mike Pompeo promises a "smooth transition to a second Trump administration". Pompeo is the former CIA Director and the current Secretary of State.

    Pompeo knows that the US Intelligence Community is hot on the trail of the foreigners who manipulated hundreds of thousands of votes by means of the Dominion voting software.

    Several state legislatures will refuse to certify their Electoral College delegates, thus depriving Joe Biden of a 269-vote majority. Then the US House of Representatives will vote (each state gets one vote) to re-elect Trump to his second term.

    Link to video of Pompeo remarks

    ========

    Saturday, November 14, at 12:53 AM

    The US government, once they determined that this Dominion server was involved in switching votes, then the intelligence community began a search for the server and discovered that the server was in Germany. In order to get access to that server and have it available for use in a legal manner they had to have the State Department work in tandem with the Department of Justice. They had to request that the government of Germany cooperate in allowing this seizure of this server.

    The appropriate documents required to affect that kind of seizure were put in place, signed off on, and it appears there was also US military support in this operation. The US military was not in the lead. But this helps explain why Esper was fired and Miller and Kash Patel were put in place — so that the military would not interfere with the operation in any way.

    By getting ahold of the server they now are going to have the direct evidence of when they were instructed to stop counting. They will also discover who gave the direction to stop counting and who initiated the algorithm that started switching votes. The CIA was completely excluded from this operation.

    Link to Gateway Pundit article

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The election going to the House is, I think, the most likely scenario for 2 reasons. One, it's possible but unrealistic to think that judges or Justices will have the courage to throw out enough ballots in these key states to give Trump the 270 needed. Instead it's more likely they will throw it back to the various state legislatures to act under Artile II. Secondly, it's unlikely that state legislatures will have the courage to pick a slate of electors for Trump. Instead they will either call fir audits in hopes of getting clarity or in desperation throw up their hands and refuse to certify or block certification, denying electors to either candidate. That punts it to the House.

      Delete
    2. "the Republicans enjoy a clear majority in the House."
      No, they have a plurality, with two delegations (MI & PA) split evenly.

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    3. Only if each of the split delegations each are considered to be 1/2 of a vote, would DJT get a majority.
      I doubt that case law exists, providing for such 1/2 votes.

      Delete
  8. https://www.lenorathompsonwriter.com/beyondnarcissism/scytl-scuttled-election-fraud-servers-seized-by-huge-us-army-force-in-frankfurt

    https://www.lenorathompsonwriter.com/beyondnarcissism/trumps-double-play-voter-fraud-sting-operation-and-election-winbrilliant

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  9. I suppose that a Scytl or Dominion insider has snitched or confessed.

    The US Government is not just doing a fishing expedition here.

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    Replies
    1. Mike, one way or another the US would have had to come up with enough justification (call it probable cause if you want, the English/US term) to satisfy the Germans.

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    2. I suppose also that NSA collected incriminating communications.

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    3. The problem there is how that data could be used in a criminal case here in the US. I'm only guessing, but two things are at play. One is that Scytl is located outside the CONUS and operates internationally. As such, NSA is probably entitled to collect on them. The other is the national security angle. This could be construed to be a cyber attack on the US, conceivably with the knowledge and/or cooperation of foreign powers (technical definition). That would probably bring CIA into play, as well. Pretty much uncharted waters, but I believe these would be the factors under consideration.

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    4. German lawyer here. A couple of observations from my point of view:

      1. To legally seize computer equipment in Germany would require formal action by the DOJ via State Department -> AA (German foreign ministry) -> German judiciary (warrant by a judge). Even if done in expedited manner, this normally takes some time. I am not saying that it could not have been done this quickly, but difficult to achieve. The legal requirements would not be high for such a warrant (for instance suspicion of illegal tampering with computer records).
      2. The allied forces in Germany still have retained powers with regards to telecommuncations, surveillance and state security (counterintelligence) according to "Occupation Statute (1949, 1955) and "Treaty on the final settlement with regard to Germany of 1991". The official reading is that these powers are not used any more but no-one really believes that. There is no transparancy here, this would all be "top secret" and if they are lucky the parliament's intelligence supervision commitee would get a report afterwards when all is done. Or they don't even get that, who can look for somethings that they don't even know about?
      3. The US forces have large presence in Frankfurt in the vicinity of the servers.
      4. US Military police have certain powers, but not normally used outside the bases and acting there in collaboration with local/state police. But could be overridden in emergency.
      5. It is an open secret that the German counterparts of the CIA (BND/Federal Intelligence Service) and the BfV (Counterintelligence Agency) will do a lot of things for their US partners "inofficially", even if it goes against the manual. Either with silent approval combined with plausible deniability of their Government chaperones, or maybe even clandestinely ignoring and contravening government orders. Difficult for politicians to reign in intelligence services. BND would do not neccessarily out of generosity or loyalty, but with an understanding of "I scratch your back, and you scratch my back." The services often rely on each other, despite rivalry and sometimes different agendas. The Germans need the CIA because they're the larger service with almost unlimited funding and resources, the US services can make good use of BND who appear to have good sources and operations in countries that the US need and have limitations (Iran, Arab countries, Eastern Europe to name a few).
      6. I speculate that the phrasing "seized by the US Army" might come from a mis-translation of an original report in German language. In colloquial German the words "army" and "military force" are interchangeable and not correctly specifying the branch of the military. So the report could just mean an "military forces", or it could also just be that staff of any kind in foreign uniforms or fatigues was in attendance, and that the person reporting could not distinguish which service they belonged to. And perhaps just "in attendance" and not the driving force in charge of the operation.
      7. I have no reliable confirmation that the story is based on facts. It could be that it is disinformation, but my hunch is that something was really done there.

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    5. Thanks very much for the input.

      Re #6, this is what I had in mind. While the FBI has a legat presence I'm not sure whether that presence would be large enough to conduct a search and seizure of this sort--their presence in Germany would be intended more as liaison with German agencies. In that circumstance it might be that other agencies of the government would be enlisted to help out and, as you say, observers would not be able to differentiate among those personnel.

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    6. "The US Government is not just doing a fishing expedition here."

      You're right, because there was no "raid" by the US Army in Germany on a private company. The whole story is a hoax. You should be asking who concocted it and what they hoped to accomplish.

      183X

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    7. I can attest to #5.

      183X

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  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. Suppose that this investigation soon produces much evidence that votes were changed, deleted and added.

    In this complicated situation, various state governments might decide to refuse to certify any Electoral College voters.

    If Biden thus falls short of 260 Electoral College votes, then it's my understanding that the decision goes to the US House of Representatives, where each state gets one vote.

    No court has to be convinced that the cheating changed the voting results. Instead, the decision will be made by the US House of Representatives.

    The US House's deadline to complete the investigation and to vote will be January 20, 2021.

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    Replies
    1. Correction:

      If Biden thus falls short of 269 Electoral College votes,

      Delete
    2. Correction:

      If Biden thus falls short of 270 Electoral College votes,

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  12. One thing in this analysis jumps out at me and causes me to be skeptical: I agree that it would require cooperation from the German government. That the Merkel government would cooperate when it is doing cartwheels over the prospect that Biden will be president seems highly questionable.

    Hope I'm wrong; but not getting my hopes up until more comes out one way or the other.

    Andy S.

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    1. I forget the technical term for bilateral legal agreements/treaties of the sort I described, but for Merkel to refuse to honor that would be a very serious matter. It's not a matter of 'do I feel like cooperating or not?' Such a refusal would amount to a breach of a treaty and could be made public.

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    2. I don't pretend to know what the agreements are. I agree that there is probably a bilateral agreement or perhaps a Geneva Convention Treaty that many have signed on to. But, all Merkel had to do is pretend to cooperate while delaying. "Sorry, it appears your papers are not in order . . ." Etc. And if Biden then becomes president, I'm sure the breach would be overlooked or an official diplomatic apology would be accepted.

      Andy S.

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    3. The U.S. Practically Runs The German Intelligence Agencies....Lol...So...?

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    4. "Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America
      on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters"
      https://www.bgbl.de/xaver/bgbl/start.xav?start=//*%5B@attr_id=%27bgbl207034.pdf%27%5D#__bgbl__%2F%2F*%5B%40attr_id%3D%27bgbl207034.pdf%27%5D__1605390659067
      (bilingual German/English)

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    5. Thanks. I was too lazy/busy to look it up but knew that there would be some such treaty/compact.

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    6. See "Article 11, Search and Seizure" (page no. 1625) in the link above

      There is another similar Treaty between the European Union and the US for mutual legal assistance (2011 I think). This would be applicable as well for a request from the US to the Germans. I don't know which are the differences, but you would just use the treaty that goes further in the issue at hand.

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  13. @Mark
    Yes, there is so much happening. For your Saturday reading pleasure (while we wait for further developments) I might offer:

    [Apologies to the extent some of this has already been posted]

    1. Ray McGovern on the possible fate of John Brennan: https://consortiumnews.com/2020/11/13/ray-mcgovern-what-is-john-brennan-so-worried-about/

    2. A twitter thread on the ‘amazing’ connections between Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, James Comey, Bob Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, Lois Lerner and Lisa Barsoomian: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1326199537267040257.html


    3. Much more background on Scytl and yesterday’s raid, some of it unverified at this point, of course: https://twitter.com/orijonal/status/1327277595583414274

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  14. More reading material.

    [Apologies if this has already been posted]

    Washington Examiner: "Legal scholar Jonathan Turley said there are "rumors" about secret materials obtained by U.S. Attorney John Durham."

    Here's the link: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/john-turley-rumor-has-it-john-durham-has-material-undisclosed-by-special-counsel-or-doj-watchdog

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    Replies
    1. Washington Examiner: "Legal scholar Jonathan Turley said there are "rumors" about secret materials obtained by U.S. Attorney John Durham."

      The QAnon message on November 13

      Delete
  15. Russ Ramsland
    https://youtu.be/k4UKHAX_0Xw?t=2116

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  16. Nothing in German media.

    ReplyDelete
  17. SMOKING GUN

    I have posted this link several times already. I am posting it again.

    She knew. She knew! SHE KNEW!

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/hillary-clinton-says-biden-should-not-concede-2020-election-under-n1238156

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. “I loved hearing Joe Biden talking about bringing people together and leading us into the light,” she said

      Be gone, Lucifer!
      -----------

      >Trump, for his part, has been saying for months that massive fraud will occur in the election because of widespread mail-in voting,

      Aged well! Heart attack funny!

      Delete


  18. Fact Checking Regarding US Elections: Debunking Fake News
    November 13, 2020 | General

    Following several erroneous statements that have been published in digital and social media, Scytl would like to clarify the following:

    The technologies implemented by Scytl in the US are both hosted and managed within the US, by a local subsidiary, SOE Software, based in Tampa, Florida.

    We do not tabulate, tally or count votes in the US

    We do not provide voting machines in the US

    We did not provide online voting to US jurisdictions for the US elections.

    We do not have servers or offices in Frankfurt

    The US army has not seized anything from Scytl in Barcelona, Frankfurt or anywhere else

    We are not owned by George Soros and have never been connected to him

    We are not tied to Smartmatic, SGO, Dominion or Indra

    We have no ties with Russia either

    ReplyDelete
  19. Totally O/T (but maybe not)

    I've been thinking the real pandemic the Dems are promoting is a pandemic of lying. Its nothing new, but have you ever seen so much of it?

    I'm going to speculate that identity politics is greatly responsible for this. If I'm a 'victim', it really doesn't matter whether what I say is true or not. Right?

    And if I hate Trump I have a free pass, right? The ends justify the means...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And right up there with it being ok to lie, is printing press money.

      Put them together and I don't have to work or save and I don't have to tell the truth.

      Pretty much equals the Dems' come on.

      Delete
  20. Let’s see how this one unfolds. Appreciate the digging here. Curious on Germany’s actual willingness to help topple Biden. Wonder when this comes out. If anything, Trump needs to address the nation with the facts once known. Make this something the MSM cannot ignore.

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  21. I just read this article. The FBI's Records Management branch is located in Ashburn, Va.
    https://creativedestructionmedia.com/investigations/2020/11/14/what-we-know-about-reported-raid-on-scytl-server-in-germany/

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    Replies
    1. I'm not sure that's correct. See if you can confirm that. There is no Records Management Branch, at least not under that name. There is an Information and Technology Branch. The Information Management Division--which reports directly to the Director--is located in Winchester, VA. In any case, I doubt that Records Management would handle anything like this.

      Re Ashburn, VA, per Wiki:

      Ashburn is a major hub for Internet traffic, due to its many data centers. Andrew Blum characterized it as "bullseye of America's Internet".

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