$ hermes render --deck network-evidence-v2 --mode terminal

Dossier v2 / Evidentiary Network Analysis

Network Evidence Update

Three new evidentiary categories fundamentally change the network analysis: the Wire Backup “Axis of QAnon” group, the August 2024 WhatsApp exchange, and the VelvetBlade–Dilley private DMs.

$ evidence.status

Wire Backup “Axis of QAnon”

DEFINITIVE

Nov 13–16, 2021: Claudia Tietze / Farallon named as active participant alongside Laura Dilley, William Welna, and Arturo Tafoyovsky.

WhatsApp Confirmation

ACTIVE 2024

Aug 12, 2024: Dilley says she was meeting with Farallon, helping with a presentation and giving feedback.

VelvetBlade DMs

PRIVATE PIPELINE

Oct 27–28, 2023: private X DM screenshots show narrative management, social strategy, and adversary handling.

$ cat executive_summary.md

Executive Summary

Three categories change the analysis.

01 / Wire

Wire Backup “Axis of QAnon” group

Claudia Tietze / Farallon was a named, active participant in the Wire research group alongside Laura Dilley, William Welna, and Arturo Tafoyovsky. This group, which literally named itself “Axis of QAnon,” was the operational incubator for the QAnon paper published on arXiv in July 2022.

Tietze directed research, curated archives, managed Dilley’s PR, and coordinated investigative targets within this group. This is no longer “plausible adjacency” — it is documented operational collaboration.

02 / WhatsApp

August 12, 2024 exchange

Laura Dilley tells Arturo in a casual message: “I was just meeting with Farallon, helping her with a presentation, giving feedback.” When Arturo asks whether Tietze dislikes him, Dilley replies: “She likes you fine. She never said she doesn’t like you!”

This confirms the Farallon–Dilley working relationship was ongoing and active at least through August 2024 — nearly three years after first contact and ten months after the Arturo–Dilley separation.

03 / X DMs

VelvetBlade–Dilley private DMs

Screenshots from inside X’s DM interface confirm VelvetBlade and Laura Dilley have an established private relationship in which VelvetBlade actively advises Dilley on narrative management, social media strategy, and how to handle perceived adversaries — including Arturo.

The messages reveal VelvetBlade’s private character, including a degrading comment about a woman that Arturo once knew.

$ inspect farallon_llc --public-record

Part I

Farallon LLC & Claudia Tietze

Corporate profile, public-facing identity, opacity indicators, and new operational evidence from the Wire export.

Corporate Profile / Confirmed Public Record

ENTITY

Farallon, LLC — boutique OSINT consultancy

DOMAIN

farallon.io, registered 2023-05-22 via Withheld for Privacy ehf, Iceland / Namecheap

PRINCIPAL

Claudia Tietze — Director / Managing Director / Founder

HANDLES

LinkedIn: /in/supersecretsquirrel
Medium: @farallon

PUBLIC IDENTITY

“Part spy, part librarian, and part technologist”; “digital sniper”; former Creative Technologist; certified in forensic psychology, intelligence analysis, and fraud investigations, self-reported with no accredited-institution credentials publicly listed.

CORPORATE OPACITY

No state of LLC incorporation disclosed publicly; no federal contractor filings found; no public client list; no disclosed investors or board.

$ parse wire_backup.json --conversation "Axis of QAnon"

Wire Group Evidence / New Definitive

Axis of QAnon

The Wire backup export dated 2021-11-16T12:11:10.692Z for user Arturo Tafoyovsky @cheshire3301 contains 15 conversations and 377 messages/events. One group channel is named “Axis of QAnon” and contains 308 messages.

Laura

Dr. Laura C. Dilley, @laura_greenaura / @ProfDilley

Farallon

Claudia Tietze, Farallon LLC

William Welna

Co-author of the QAnon paper, later disavowed

Erie

Additional participant, handle not fully resolved in the export

Arturo Tafoyovsky

@cheshire3301

Peripheral

Additional peripheral participants

$ group.metrics

$ grep Farallon axis_of_qanon.log

Selected Farallon Messages / Verbatim From Wire Export

Operational message trace

Timestamp	From	Content
2021-11-14 01:50:03	Farallon	“I don't think these interactions are helpful. Just my two cents.”
2021-11-14 01:51:52	Farallon	“Not necessarily. Has anyone looked in Suzy's repo?”
2021-11-14 01:52:34	Farallon	“If I were he I'd put it there”
2021-11-15 06:04:19	Farallon	“Here. They seem to have deleted the tweets promoting it & asking for money [Tresorit link]”
2021-11-15 06:04:52	Farallon	“If you can grab it @William Welna I'd love a copy if it scans clean”
2021-11-15 06:23:24	Farallon	“Send them your 83 papers...”
2021-11-15 06:27:43	Farallon	“And any interviews you have done. Also... you should do a TedTalk. Not on the paper but maybe on this experience of attempts to silence academia”
2021-11-15 06:28:13	Farallon	“Or how you stay so chipper and your fav way to make coffee...”
2021-11-15 06:40:50	Farallon	“Yesterday I could go to Frontiers & search for QAnon. Today it redirects me to a sign in page”
2021-11-15 06:41:23	Farallon	“Does anyone have the direct url to the abstract handy?”
2021-11-15 06:50:30	Farallon	“Chad is friendly”
2021-11-15 06:52:26	Farallon	“@Laura what date did Sean reach out to you?”
2021-11-16 01:07:03	Farallon	“The abstract was posted October 14 if memory serves? Do you know who you shared it with pre Oct 14 & between 14-18?”
2021-11-16 01:20:05	Farallon	“Abstract was not posted Oct 15? But Sept 15?”
2021-11-16 09:59:40	Farallon	“Laura can I post that graphic showing you are kicking ass” ← LAST MESSAGE IN EXPORT

$ analyze axis_messages --role Farallon

Analytical Significance

Not passive adjacency.

Tietze’s role is not that of a passive observer or social-media follower. The message pattern shows active research direction, evidence handling, publication timeline management, PR coaching, rapport maintenance, and permission-seeking for promotional content.

DIRECTING

Directing investigation: “@Laura, what date did Sean reach out to you?”

ARCHIVING

Curating and archiving evidence through the Tresorit link to deleted tweets.

TIMELINE

Managing the paper’s publication timeline: “Abstract was not posted Oct 15? But Sept 15?”

PR

Coaching Dilley’s public image and media strategy: “you should do a TedTalk... Send them your 83 papers.”

RAPPORT

Maintaining cheerful rapport while doing so: “your fav way to make coffee.”

PROMOTION

Requesting permission to post promotional content on Dilley’s behalf: the final message.

The Wire group name “Axis of QAnon” was chosen by the group itself — this is not external framing. The researchers named their own operational channel after the subject they were investigating and positioning themselves against.

The November 2021 Wire conversations predate the paper’s arXiv upload by 8 months. The paper was uploaded July 11, 2022. Tietze was embedded in the paper’s research team during its active development phase.

$ decode whatsapp_august_2024.txt

WhatsApp Confirmation / August 12, 2024

Ongoing, active, operational.

On August 12, 2024, Laura Dilley messaged Arturo Tafoyovsky via WhatsApp. The exchange confirms the Farallon–Dilley working relationship was ongoing at least through mid-2024.

“I was just meeting with Farallon helping her with a presentation giving feedback. Told her I would jump back into the meeting”

Arturo: “Farallón... She doesn't like me, correct? It's ok”

Dilley: “She likes you fine. She never said she doesn't like you!”

3 YEARS

Nearly 3 years after first documented contact in the Wire group, Nov 2021.

10 MONTHS

10 months after the Arturo–Dilley separation in October 2023.

ACTIVE

Confirms the Farallon–Dilley working relationship was ongoing, active, and operational through mid-2024.

PEER ADVISORY

Dilley giving feedback on a Tietze presentation matches the advisory dynamic visible in Wire.

TENSION SIGNAL

Arturo’s question suggests awareness of possible tension or views about him expressed to Dilley.

$ grep -i "book\|qanon talk" whatsapp_august_2024.txt

The “Book” Competition Context / WhatsApp August 2024

Overlapping media projects.

Aug 9 / Arturo

“Remember that's when you went to write the book and then those whole feelings started to brew up again”

Aug 9 / Arturo

“Now you want to compete over who gets the best book out, it's just so unfair”

Aug 25 / Arturo

“It's based on my research partially” about a project of Dilley's.

Aug 25 / Dilley

“Were you gonna be able to share the video intro you were making for my QAnon talk at some point?”

Significance

As of August 2024, Dilley and Arturo were both independently developing book/media projects about QAnon research that substantially overlap in subject matter — and both knew it. This competitive dynamic between the two researcher-partners, mediated by Tietze as Dilley’s ongoing advisor, provides important context for the escalating public conflicts from late 2024.

$ inspect wire_toc --network-position

Farallon’s Network Position / Extended and Confirmed

Channels, contacts, orbit.

ERIE

Active in the group, involved in evidence archiving and adversarial counter-analysis.

CAPPYCARLO

UUID ef4bd3a5 appears in sidebar conversation; mentions a Netflix McAfee documentary, a “$1.2 million lawsuit,” and scheduling a podcast with “Professor Laura” and Arturo — identifying CappyCarlo as a media professional or journalist in the same orbit.

FAITH FOSTER

Listed in the Wire TOC with 0 messages. Existed as a contact but no messages in this export window.

LAURA 1:1

Separate 1:1 conversation channel titled “Laura” with 42 messages. Arturo’s private direct Wire with Laura Dilley, separate from the group. Contains the exchange where Arturo shares Twitter API tokens with Laura and intimate messages confirming the romantic relationship.

FARALLON 1:1

Wire channel literally titled “Farallon 🦋” with 0 messages in this export window. Confirms Tietze had her own 1:1 Wire channel with Arturo, distinct from the group.

$ inspect laura_dilley --identity --hierarchy

Part II

Laura Dilley / @ProfDilley / @laura_greenaura

Dr. Laura C. Dilley, Associate Professor, Communicative Sciences & Disorders, Michigan State University. @ProfDilley = @laura_greenaura. PhD MIT/Harvard 2005. Primary research domain: psycholinguistics, prosody, speech perception. The QAnon paper is an outlier in her publication record.

The Dilley–Tietze Hierarchy: Now Evidenced

The Wire messages demonstrate a clear asymmetry consistent with what the “Investigating_Network_Connections_and_Control_Dynamics” analytical report calls a “handler-asset dynamic.”

Tietze directs. She asks Laura for specific investigation data, proposes PR strategy, and requests to manage Dilley’s public promotional content.

Dilley reports. She provides answers to Tietze’s questions about paper timeline and third-party contacts, and appears to receive Tietze’s suggestions receptively.

The dynamic is not collegial-equals. The message patterns in the Wire group show Tietze issuing directives and Dilley executing, not two academics co-developing a theory.

The analytical report’s framing — “if Tietze, as the Master Weaver, were to sever the intelligence feed, the Dilley node would instantly degrade from an authoritative insider to a hollow commentator” — is supported by the Wire evidence. Dilley’s OSINT capability is genuine, but her access to archival data, her investigation leads, and her PR positioning all run through or with Tietze.

$ correlate welna_disavowal --wire-context

Welna Disavowal Context

Wire evidence adds dimension.

The Wire group shows Welna actively participating in the same research infrastructure as Tietze — he’s in the same group, receiving the same Tresorit archive links from Farallon, and discussing the same investigation targets.

When Welna later says in February 2025 he could “no longer in good faith support or stand by” the work, citing “trolling, lawfare, and surrounding personal relationship issues,” the Wire context suggests he was aware from the beginning that the research was embedded in an active conflict with named adversaries — not purely academic inquiry.

$ open velvetblade_dm_screenshots --oct-2023

Part III

VelvetBlade (@VelvetBlade)

The two screenshot images from August 28, 2024 show Twitter/X Direct Messages between Laura Dilley and VelvetBlade. The DM interface header reads “VelvetBlade 🍺 ●”.

CONFIRMED

Private DM relationship with Dilley is confirmed by screenshots.

ADVISORY ROLE

VelvetBlade advises Dilley on narrative management, social media strategy, and handling perceived adversaries.

CRISIS WINDOW

Messages are from Oct 27–28, 2023, the precise window of the Arturo–Dilley separation.

$ cat velvetblade_dilley_dm_excerpt.txt

Verbatim DM Content / Oct 27–28, 2023

Private narrative channel.

Oct 27, 11:06 PM — Dilley to VelvetBlade

“Hm. I would say these things prompted it: (1) I already spilled the beans in the interview with Cullen Hoback; (2) My therapist encouraged that I might consider going public with it and that it could be helpful to people; (3) Arturo managed to get some charges to hit my bank account in the last couple days for, of all things, a dating site membership, which just means he continues to prey on women but on my dime. The gall! (I called in the fraudulent charges.)”

Oct 28, morning — VelvetBlade to Dilley

“You don't need to address Kaidinn. No one looks except those who know she is batshit. Addressing it at all just spurs her to do it more [twitter.com/laura_greenaur...]”

Oct 28, 9:28 AM — Dilley to VelvetBlade

“Ironically, Arturo doesn't think she's batshit, he always thought she was solid 😂”

Oct 28, 9:31 AM — Dilley to VelvetBlade

“She was a potentially fuckable female so it makes sense”

Oct 28, 9:45 AM — VelvetBlade to Dilley

“Well you know what I think about his discernment between reality & ego” 🔥 [fire emoji reaction]

$ analyze velvetblade_dm_significance --items 5

Analytical Significance

Five signals in the DMs.

01

Private, established, emotionally close

VelvetBlade is advising Dilley on social media opponents and characterizing a third party using harsh language. This is a trusted advisor relationship, not a public follower.

02

Financial claims disclosed

The allegation that Arturo charged a dating site membership to her account originates in a private DM exchange with VelvetBlade. VelvetBlade was in the loop before it went public.

03

Degrading comment about women

Dilley delivers a dismissive sexual reduction about a third-party woman. This contrasts with her public presentation as a counter-disinformation academic and feminist-coded political commentator.

04

Private framing matches public attack

VelvetBlade’s closing assessment of Arturo is consistent with the September 2024 public attack tweet. The private framing and public attack are the same voice, same conclusion, 11 months apart.

05

Timing

These DMs are from October 27–28, 2023, the precise window of the Arturo–Dilley separation. VelvetBlade was brought in as confidant and strategic advisor at the moment of breakdown.

$ correlate public_attack --private_dm_context

September 2024 Public Attack Chain

Private confidant → public attacker.

Read against the October 2023 DMs, the pattern is clear: VelvetBlade received Dilley’s private narrative about Arturo in October 2023, processed it, and deployed a public attack campaign based on that narrative eleven months later.

“I have seen my share of grifts, cons & money grubbing manipulators but this takes the cake. It is an insult to all of us who have lost someone to suicide. You don't lie about it to grift, threaten, harass & get $$ I have no clue where this sick & small man can go from here.”

“First it's both wrists, now it's one. First it's ‘I've been living off my savings & never asked for money’, then it's [paid because I did not have money]. You claim to take responsibility but you manage to blame everyone else. You are not credible.”

Sept 15, 2024 Public X Record Pattern Confirmed

$ status velvetblade_identity

VelvetBlade Identity Status

Unresolved legal-name attribution.

UNIDENTIFIED

Still not identified by legal name from public records.

PRIVATE RELATIONSHIP

Long-standing private relationship with Dilley predating the October 2023 breakup.

STRATEGIC ADVISOR

Active during and after the breakup as strategic advisor.

KNOWLEDGE BASE

Knowledge of Dilley’s financial claims, relationship claims, and adversary management.

VOICE MATCH

Consistent private voice matching the public attack persona.

PRIORITY TASK

@VelvetBlade / @VelvetBIade account swap from “l” to capital “I” is a known identity-preservation tactic on X and remains a priority unresolved identification for the book.

$ inspect laura_array --wire-structural-dimension

Part IV

The “Laura” Array

The Wire backup adds a structural dimension to the analytical report’s Twitter-based clustering of accounts named “Laura” around VelvetBlade’s operational activities.

Within the “Axis of QAnon” Wire group, the member named “Laura” (= Dilley) is tagged with an abbreviated identifier (@Laura) used both by Farallon and William Welna when directing specific questions to her — indicating she was the central information hub of the research group, just as @laura_greenaura is the central hub on Twitter.

The “Laura array” documented on Twitter, including @REELPOLITIK_LA, @LauraMiers, @lauracosta_13, @ellemm47, @LauraKarr333, etc., may represent organic clustering around Dilley as an influential hub node, or may represent a more organized amplification structure.

The Wire evidence does not resolve this question but confirms that Dilley herself functions as a network node with direct connections to multiple independent researchers, each contributing domain-specific intelligence to the same research agenda.

@REELPOLITIK_LA @LauraMiers @lauracosta_13 @ellemm47 @LauraKarr333 organic cluster? amplification structure?

$ compare rauhauser_era farallon_era

Part V / Historical Context Updated

Rauhauser / Mensch / Troy

Structural note: The “Investigating_Network_Connections_and_Control_Dynamics” report correctly frames Farallon as the institutionalized, sanitized successor to the operational style pioneered by Rauhauser.

Rauhauser era (2010–2014)	Farallon era (2021–present)
Anonymous sockpuppet swarms	Curated OSINT practitioner network
DailyKos blog posts / raw Twitter ops	Medium essays / corporate LLC facade
Exposed via court filings, R.S. McCain, etc.	Largely insulated by corporate structure
Brett Kimberlin litigation vehicle	QAnon paper / arXiv preprint vehicle
Chaotic; ultimately self-destructive	Managed; strategically persistent

The “Dilley as Mensch parallel” holds

Both are prominent amplifiers in the counter-disinformation space whose narrative power is derived entirely from a backend intelligence feed. The critical difference: Mensch was an independent operator who burned out her credibility; Dilley is a managed asset whose credibility is maintained precisely because Tietze controls the information supply chain and keeps wild speculation out.

Dave Troy

The Wire group notes from Nov 15, 03:32:38 by “Erie” include a quote of an external tweet mentioning @jimstewartson and @davetroy: “Thank you Z. Both Z, and I have been in touch with international media and handed over clear and irrefutable evidence for them to vet.”

This is the earliest Wire-proximate reference to Dave Troy in the same conversation thread as the “Axis of QAnon” group — though it is quoting an external tweet, not a Wire participant. It suggests the Dave Troy connection to the broader network was known to the group members in November 2021.

$ grep "Cullen Hoback" velvetblade_dms.txt

Part VI / New

The Cullen Hoback Connection

“(1) I already spilled the beans in the interview with Cullen Hoback.”

Cullen Hoback is the director of HBO’s Q: Into the Storm documentary series, a significant QAnon investigation.

This reference suggests Dilley gave Hoback an on-camera or recorded interview discussing personal matters, presumably the relationship with Arturo and/or the paper’s backstory, at some point prior to October 27, 2023.

This interview has not surfaced publicly but represents a potential media artifact that could become relevant to any future publication or legal proceedings.

$ render network_map.svg

Updated Network Map

Documented paths and adjacent nodes.

$ cat updated_timeline.csv | render

Updated Timeline

Evidence chronology.

Nov 13–16, 2021

Axis of QAnon Wire group active

Dilley, Farallon/Tietze, Welna, Erie, Arturo Tafoyovsky. Farallon directs investigation, manages PR, archives evidence, asks Laura: “@Laura, what date did Sean reach out to you?” Last message: “Laura can I post that graphic showing you are kicking ass.” Source: Wire backup export.

Nov 2021

Separate Wire channel “Farallon 🦋” exists

1:1 with Arturo, 0 messages in export window but confirms direct channel. Source: Wire backup export.

June 2021

Dilley–Arturo relationship begins romantically

Source: State News, Apr 2025.

Feb 2022

Engagement

Source: State News.

Jul 11, 2022

QAnon paper uploaded to arXiv

8 months after Wire group operations. Source: arXiv:2207.05118.

May 22, 2023

farallon.io domain registered

Source: WHOIS via ScamAdviser.

Oct 2023

Arturo–Dilley separation

Source: State News.

Oct 27–28, 2023

VelvetBlade–Dilley private DMs

VelvetBlade advises on handling @Kaidinn; Dilley shares financial allegations about Arturo; VelvetBlade reduces woman to sexual object. Source: DM screenshots.

Nov 2023–present

VelvetBlade tweets against Arturo escalate publicly

Source: Twitter/X archive.

Jun 2024

Volatile relationship continuation

Arturo–Dilley WhatsApp exchanges show volatile relationship continuation. Source: WhatsApp export.

Aug 9–10, 2024

Overlapping book projects

WhatsApp references show both Arturo and Dilley developing book projects on overlapping QAnon material. Source: WhatsApp export.

Aug 12, 2024

Dilley meeting with Farallon

“I was just meeting with Farallon, helping her with a presentation, giving feedback.” Arturo asks if Tietze dislikes him; Dilley defends Tietze. Source: WhatsApp export.

Aug 25, 2024

Dilley project based partially on Arturo research

Arturo notes Dilley’s project “it’s based on my research partially”; Dilley asks for “the video intro you were making for my QAnon talk.” Source: WhatsApp export.

Sep 15, 2024

VelvetBlade public attack tweet

Against @Tafoyovsky: calls him “sick & small man” who lies about suicide to grift. Source: Twitter/X public record.

Feb 15, 2025

William Welna disavows QAnon paper

Source: Public statement.

Mar 22, 2025

Schoenberger v. Dilley/MSU filed

Michigan Court of Claims, Case 25-000045-MM. Source: Court filing.

Apr 2025

State News publishes investigation

Source: The State News.

$ diff verification_gaps_v1 verification_gaps_v2

Key Verification Gaps / Revised

One primary gap closed. Six remain.

The previous dossier’s primary gap — “no documented Farallon–Dilley operational link” — is now closed by the Wire backup and WhatsApp evidence.

01

VelvetBlade real-name attribution

The DM screenshots confirm the private relationship but do not identify VelvetBlade by legal name. Highest priority remaining OSINT task.

02

Farallon LLC state of incorporation

The Wire evidence establishes Tietze’s operational role; corporate structure remains undisclosed.

03

The Cullen Hoback interview

Dilley references it in the Oct 2023 DM as having already happened. What did she disclose, and is footage public or archived?

04

Erie’s full identity

Active Wire participant who archives, directs evidence collection, and coordinates adversarial counter-intel.

05

The Dilley book project

As of August 2024, Dilley was actively developing a QAnon book and requesting Arturo’s creative contributions. Current status, publisher, and Farallon acknowledgement remain unknown.

06

Federal contractor / NGO / think-tank attributions

The Wire evidence does not resolve this. A SAM.gov / USASpending search for “Farallon” remains the recommended next step.

$ render strongest_book_frame.txt

Strongest Book Frame / Updated

Civilian counter-disinformation when no one is watching.

A commercial OSINT firm, its founder, a tenured MSU professor, a pseudonymous social media operative, and a team of civilian researchers operated an active digital intelligence group — self-named “Axis of QAnon” — for at least three years.

Their flagship product, an arXiv preprint mischaracterized as peer-reviewed 44 times on Twitter, became the subject of a defamation lawsuit and a public disavowal by one of its co-authors. Their private communications reveal hierarchical control, narrative management, coordinated adversarial targeting, and a willingness to deploy personal and sexual contempt as weapons. This is what civilian counter-disinformation looks like when no one is watching.

$ cat source_manifest.txt

Dossier v2

Source manifest

All primary source documents archived. For legal review before publication.

Citations Listed in Source Content

Wire backup export
Arturo Tafoyovsky, @cheshire3301, 2021-11-16

WhatsApp Chat with Laura Dilley export

Twitter/X DM screenshots
IMG_20240828

arXiv:2207.05118

The State News
Apr 2025

Michigan Court of Claims
Case 25-000045-MM

farallon.io

WHOIS via ScamAdviser

Medium @farallon

primary docs archived legal review before publication deck complete