User:Geo Swan/John Mark Dougan
John Mark Dougan is an American who fled to Russia in 2016 to evade an investigation into allegations that he was a hacker.[1] Dougan is a former Marine and former law enforcement officer with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
In 2019 the New York Post described Dougan as an "IT consultant", and said he had fled to Russia when he was under investigation for "hacking".[1]
In 2005 Dougan was a Palm Beach Sheriff's deputy with access to the initial investigation into allegations Jeffrey Epstein had sexually exploited women and girls who were below the legal age of consent.[1] Craig Unger's 2021 book, "American Kompromat" addresses whether or not Russian intelligence agencies had acquired evidence that could have been used to blackmail or compromise President Donald Trump.[2] However, it also covered claims that Dougan had brought with him evidence that could be used to blackmail friends of Epstein in addition to Trump. The New York Post, citing The Times of London, reported that Prince Andrew is one of the individuals against whom Dougan is believed to have evidence.[1]
On June 13, 2022, Dougan interviewed Daria Dugina, a prominent political analyst, and aide to her father, Aleksander Dugin, as they elebrated Russia's capture of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.[3] He appeared to agree to hear claims that Ukrainians were committing war crimes, against their own civilians, with NATO support. He noted the similarities in their surnames.
In 2018, the Daily Beast reported he had created a persona known as “БадВолф”, or, in English, “Bad Wolf” or “BadVolf”.[4] The Daily Beast reported Dougan had been "waging a relentless campaign against his former employer, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office", for years.
The Daily Beast's reporting described Dougan combining completely legal investigative tools and high-tech trickery, in his whistleblowing.[4] They reported he used his first-hand knowledge of the Office's policies and procedures, and the perfectly legal tools to access public records. They said he also acquired recordings of officials engaging in sexually compromising conversations, by using a voice modification tool, and presenting himself as a sexually available woman.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Dougan became one of the westerners to join the "International Public Tribunal on Ukraine".[5] This organization is run by Russians, in Russia. Justin Ling, of CBC News, named Maxim Grigoriev as the primary Russian organizer of the Tribunal.
According to Ling, the primary activity of the foreigners on the Tribunal is to echo the Russian narrative that Ukraine is being run by racist Neo-Nazis, who are using ordinary Ukrainians as human shields.[5]
Ling reported, in the Daily Beast, in March 2022, that Dougan said he was going to Russia occupied Ukraine to document that the USA was quietly funding biolabs developing "germ warfare" in Ukrainian labs.[6]
In February 2022 both Forbes magazine and Newsweek magazine identified Dougan as one of the Westerners who aided Russia's disinformation campaign, by evading YouTube's ban on footage from Russian news agency Russia Today.[7][8] Dougan and those other westerners, make extensive use of Russia Today's footage, lightly wrapped in the their own commentary, to get around the propaganda ban.
In July 2023 Ling reported Dougan told him he was going to train Putin's soldiers in how to use captured Javelin missiles - something he knew how to do from his time as a reservist, in the USA.[9]
In December 2023 the BBC News reported that a video with a false narrative Dougan had produced had a serious impact on a Congressional debate over continued funding of Ukraine's resistance to Russia.[10] Controversial Congressional Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Senator Tom Tillis had both taken at face value a claim Dougan made that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used $75 million in US aid money to purchase two luxury yachts. Other commentators pointed out that the two yachts Dougan named, Lucky Me and My Legacy, had not been sold, and were still listed as for sale.[11]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lia Eustachewich (2019-09-25). "Ex-Florida cop accuses FBI of covering up Prince Andrew’s role in Jeffrey Epstein scandal". NewJYork Post. https://nypost.com/2019/09/25/ex-florida-cop-accuses-fbi-of-covering-up-prince-andrews-role-in-jeffrey-epstein-scandal/. Retrieved 2022-08-21. "John Mark Dougan worked as a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy in 2005, the year the department launched an investigation into the pedophile financier, who died in a jailhouse suicide in August."
- ↑ Mickey Friedman (2021-03-04). "BOOK REVIEW: Craig Unger’s ‘American Kompromat’". The Berkshire Edge. Archived from the original on 2022-08-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20220802032126/https://theberkshireedge.com/book-review-craig-ungers-american-kompromat/. Retrieved 2022-08-21. "Then, just in case you haven’t had enough of the rabbit hole, Unger tells the story of the former Palm Beach deputy sheriff John Mark Dougan who ends up in Moscow with some of Epstein’s tapes." mirror
- ↑ John Mark Dougan (2022-06-13). "As you asked! An interview with Daria Dugina, Alexander Dugin's Daughter" (video). You Tube (Mariupol). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azn8X1e9xtE. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kevin Poulsen (2018-07-12). "The Saga of ‘BadVolf’: A Fugitive American Cop, His Russian Allies, and a DNC Hoax". Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 2022-08-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20220818152846/https://www.thedailybeast.com/fugitive-cop-says-hes-behind-the-dnc-leaks-its-his-latest-hoax. Retrieved 2022-08-21. "He was a disgruntled ex-cop named John Mark Dougan who for years had been waging a relentless campaign against his former employer, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office."
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Justin Ling (June 2022). "The Westerners helping Putin’s propaganda war on Ukraine" (video). CBC News. Archived from the original on 2022-07-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20220712071602/https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2049527363712. Retrieved 2022-08-21. "When it comes to pushing propaganda about the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladamir Putin has help from a group of Westerners with long histories of peddling disinformation, including John Mark Dougan and Canadian Eva Bartlett."
- ↑ Justin Ling (2022-03-17). "American Ex-Cop Goes to Ukraine on Twisted Mission to Vindicate Putin". Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 2022-07-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20220716052438/https://www.thedailybeast.com/florida-fugitive-john-mark-dougan-heads-into-ukraine-war-zone-to-prove-bioweapons-conspiracy. Retrieved 2022-08-21. "John Mark Dougan is an increasingly prominent figure in a burgeoning movement of conspiracy theorists who are trying to put meat on the bone of the baseless idea that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was done, at least in part, to destroy U.S-funded biolabs developing deadly pathogens to unleash on the Russian people." mirror
- ↑ Emma Woollacott (2023-02-23). "Russia Floods YouTube With RT Videos". Forbes magazine. Archived from the original on 2024-02-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20240212151347/https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2023/02/23/russia-floods-youtube-with-rt-videos/?sh=632fce7e7a5d. Retrieved 2024-02-12. "One channel sharing the RT content is run by Mike Jones, a British 'journalist' and former YouTube gamer living in Russia; another by ex-US police officer John Mark Dougan."
- ↑ Eva Maitland, Madeline Roache, Sophia Tewa (2023-03-09). [https://web.archive.org/web/20230504041255/https://www.newsweek.com/2023/03/17/misinformation-monitor-february-2023-1786205.html "Misinformation Monitor: February 2023 BY EVA MAITLAND, MADELINE ROACHE, AND SOPHIA TEWA, NEWSGUARD ON 03/08/23 AT"]. Newsweek magazine. Archived from the original on 2023-05-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20230504041255/https://www.newsweek.com/2023/03/17/misinformation-monitor-february-2023-1786205.html. Retrieved 2024-02-12. "The film, posted on YouTube by ex-U.S. cop turned pro-Russia conspiracy theorist John Mark Dougan, uses footage of civilian casualties and an interview with a grief-stricken widow to blame Ukraine for killing the civilians, citing as evidence a widely debunked claim that a serial number filmed on a Tochka-U missile proves that the Ukrainian army was to blame for one of the attacks."
- ↑ Justin Ling (2023-07-06). "What will become of Putin’s useful idiots?". Unherd. Archived from the original on 2023-09-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20230925211304/https://unherd.com/2023/07/what-will-become-of-putins-useful-idiots/. Retrieved 2024-02-12. "Take Dougan. He told me last year that he planned to help train the Russian-backed separatists."
- ↑ Olga Robinson, Shayan Sardarizadeh, Mike Wendling (2023-12-20). "How pro-Russian 'yacht' propaganda influenced US debate over Ukraine aid". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2024-02-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20240206133041/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67766964. Retrieved 2024-02-12. "Research by Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren, disinformation researchers at Clemson University, shows that DC Weekly was started by John Mark Dougan, a former US Marine and Florida police officer who moved to Russia in 2016."
- ↑ Melissa Goldin (2023-12-04). "Ukraine’s Zelenskyy did not purchase two luxury yachts in October. They’re still up for sale". Associated Press News. Archived from the original on 2023-12-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20231204193309/https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-zelenskyy-luxury-yachts-75-million-067680385163. Retrieved 2024-02-12. "BehneMar, another luxury yacht company, similarly called claims about its listing for Lucky Me “totally wrong and false,” writing in a statement that it “can confirm that the yacht has not been sold and is still for sale with BehneMar as the exclusive listing company.”"
