I believe a "self-extracting thumb drive" is a bit of sarcastic poetic license.  It's his way of saying there was no hack, but rather a leak with a thumb drive. Regarding Webb, I've watched a bit of him.  He goes pretty far down his rabbit holes.  I consider myself pretty discerning, but I can't figure out if he's legit or not. The Imran Awan reference caught me by surprise as well.  The only obvious connection I can see is that DWS was his main sponsor and she was the head of the DNC.  That's all I've got.