For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis, the election, and more, subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown regales us with news of the weird today:

I’ve been saving the best part for last, of course Jailed Russian sex guru Alex Leslie’s (now deleted) @fondskolkovo bio said his center was “supported by” @DARPA + @NASA grants and he worked w/Boeing + other US/China/W. Euro artificial intelligence system entities pic.twitter.com/xvCSkY8zyx — Elizabeth Nolan Brown (@ENBrown) March 19, 2018

Leslie/Lesley is “the self-help author/seduction coach/international harem leader now imprisoned in a Thai jail.”¹ But it turns out he’s also the director of a Russian AI research group. And his group was supported by DARPA. And he says he has dirt on Russian involvement in the 2016 campaign. And the FBI wants to talk to him but Thai authorities won’t let them.

In the age of Trump, it’s not common for someone to out-weird the master. So I thought I’d share.

¹Among other things, he’s the self-published author of Kindle books called Life Without Panties: Skills of Seduction and The Game of Master and Huntress.