Sundance of The Last Refuge[i] looks into something that also puzzled me: why were multiple FOIA requests for the emails of Dr. Anthony Fauci all released at the same time, and why now?  Using his time-tested technique of constructing timelines and comparing the current FOIA release with another key FOIA release, he constructs a thought-provoking theory.  As so often in the past, he sees a tacit plot behind the events that capture so much attention.

Fauci 6/03/21 on MSNBC (YouTube screen grab).

He constructs this sequence of recent events:

• A once beloved Bill Gates, the primary advocate for COVID vaccines, suddenly became a target by the political left.  It was quite a shift.
• The White House announces their support of investigation into the origin of COVID-19.
• Media report on State Dept investigators who were handcuffed during their research into the COVID origination.
• Suddenly discussion of the "Lab Leak Theory" was permitted by those who control the platforms of speech.
• Media then report of Anthony Fauci gaining a lucrative book deal.
• Joe Biden gives a speech in Oklahoma on Tuesday; and immediately thereafter the White House announces no more public appearances for the remainder of the week.
• The Fauci emails are released under the auspices of a FOIA fulfillment.

He asks: "Why would the Deep State release these emails, instead of just hiding them?"

Then he draws a comparison with another FOIA release, that of the FISA application for surveillance of Carter Page, released on July 23, 2018.  This was the first time in history that a top secret FISA application had ever been released, and

few people paused to ask why this "Top Secret" Title-1 Search and surveillance authorization document was released in the first place?  Requesting the public release of such a top secret document would have been the easiest FOIA request to deny... but the DOJ choose to release it.

He supplies an explanation for the release:

[T]he motive to hide/bury the much larger issue of President Obama's administration using the Intelligence Community to conduct surveillance on their political opponents. (snip)

Everyone was excited to read and discuss the content of the FISA application and exhaust thousands of column inches on the discussion as people took sides based on the DOJ/FBI justification for the FISA itself.

The Weissmann release had the intended effect… people stopped debating whether President Obama was conducting political surveillance on behalf of Hillary Clinton and their political alignment.  THAT debate was a much bigger issue that just disappeared with the emergence of the FISA application.

Similarly, in the current FOIA releases:

Perhaps the bigger story is the creation of the virus; perhaps the bigger story is an intentional release of a manufactured virus; or perhaps the bigger story is the manipulation of the virus — the creation of a fraudulent narrative — to achieve political goals.  Against the backdrop of "never letting a crisis go to waste", the latter seems much more likely.

Those political goals pre-eminently included driving President Trump to defeat in the 2020 election, and he lists the ways in which the virus was manipulated to enable a series of moves that accomplished that goal.

Recall that very early on:

On February 25, 2020, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, former DOJ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's sister, who was director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (link) held a conference call with reporters.  Messonnier's remarks were rogue and not approved by HHS secretary Alex Azar. Messonnier's remarks were made without authorization from anyone in the White House:

"We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare for the expectation that this could be bad." … "I understand this whole situation may seem overwhelming and that disruption to everyday life may be severe. But these are things that people need to start thinking about now." (link)

The alarming message from Dr. Messonnier was quickly picked up by most major news organizations and pushed into all reporting on the issue.  The COVID panic had begun.

While the attack weapons were previously being put into position it was Messonnier's alarm that triggered the first wave of political confrontation against the Trump administration. The narrative was triggered.  The alarms were sounded.  The crisis was officially being exploited and COVID was now fully weaponized to eliminate the Presidency of Donald Trump.

Having begun the panic narrative, that COVID-19 — with a mortality rate under 1% — was the worst pandemic ever, fanned by the media, the way was cleared for:

• The stalling of a fantastic economy that was benefiting every American voter.

• Deployment of mail-in ballots that can be used and manipulated to achieve fraudulent results.

• Controls over presidential debates to avoid a weak candidate being exposed or confronted.

• The deployed "excuse" for a very visible lack of voter enthusiasm for the puppet (Biden).

In Sundance's view, Fauci is being offered up as a distraction from the larger story that a fairly bad annual flu was weaponized as a means of taking down the re-election of Donald Trump, whose term up until the lockdown was a story of tremendous economic growth and diplomatic triumphs in the Middle East, making his re-election very probable.  The expression "fall guy" is not used by Sundance, but I think it applies, in that the focus on Fauci diverts blame from other parties.

I am not 100% convinced he's correct but find the theory worth considering.