WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT – Prosecutor Brandon Van Grack sends a letter to Flynn’s defense team today containing a stunning, almost impossible to comprehend, admission of a mistake central to the claims of the prosecution.  In March 2018 the FBI presented notes taken by agents Pientka and Strzok, now they say they made a ‘mistake’.

For almost two years the DOJ misidentified, misattributed, and never corrected that the authors of the Flynn interview notes were actually reversed.  All of the notes attributed to FBI Agent Peter Strzok actually were taken by FBI Agent Joseph Pientka, and vice-versa:

(LINK)

What kind of f**kery is this?  The DOJ never confirmed the authorship of the FBI notes that are central to the FD-302, upon which the entire prosecution claim of Flynn lying to investigators is based? …Seriously?

The entire FBI case against Flynn; meaning the central element that he lied to FBI investigators (he didn’t); is predicated on the FD-302 interview reports generated by the two FBI agents; later discovered to have been edited, shaped and approved by Andrew McCabe….  And for almost two years the entire outline of their documented evidence has been misattributed?

C’mon man.  This is sketchy as heck.

Obviously what triggered this re-review of the notes was a smart sur-surreply from the defense that highlighted how Peter Strzoks notes were far too neat, organized and well constructed to have been written during an actual interview. [SEE HERE]

For the prosecution to now reverse course and say the agent attribution was transposed, is either the biggest screw-up in a high profile case…. OR, the prosecution now needs to reverse the note-takers due to the exact, and common sense, reasons highlighted by the defense.

This is so far beyond sketchy the light from where sketchy emanates won’t reach this sketchy location for a year.

This ain’t no ordinary ‘whoops, my bad‘…. move along, move along folks.

So the prosecution didn’t change authorship of the individual FD-302 reports, but now changes authorship of the agent notes that underwrite the FD-302 reports?

Sorry, I ain’t buying what they’re selling.

Hopefully, at the very least, Judge Sullivan requests Agent Strzok and Agent Pientka to appear in his court and asks them to swear to the authorship.   This is nuts.

Voters in Kentucky, Mississippi, Virginia and New Jersey are voting today to select new Governors and state legislators.  President Trump has rallied in support of Matt Bevin (Kentucky) and Tate Reeves (Mississippi), while Democrats have spent millions on Virginia.

Mississippi Election Results – Clarion Ledger HERE

Mississippi Election Results – Decision Desk HQ HERE

Kentucky Secretary of State – Election Results HERE

CNN Election Results: MS, KY, VA – HERE

New York Times (All States/All Races) – Election Results HERE

The transcripts of the closed-door deposition of Kurt Volker and Gordon Sondland were released today by the Lawfare impeachment organizers and Adam Schiff.   Both pdf’s are below; however, first it is worth reestablishing a bigger, more important, context.

In the fall of 2016, long before the term “spygate” reached the lexicon of political followers, CTH research discovered the background use and weaponization of the intelligence apparatus.  This was before the November 2016 election. We didn’t exactly know who was involved, but we outlined what appeared to be a coordinated effort amid the intelligence community, current and former officials, politicians (both parties), and media.

Immediately after the November election, when CTH noted NSA Director Mike Rogers unscheduled visit to Trump Tower & the immediate moving of the Trump transition team, our review took on a more narrowed focus.  It was at that point when CTH outlined a simplistic 30,000 ft. explanation ‘black hat’ and ‘white hat‘ ops. [I regret those terms]

In the year that followed, CTH was blasted for outlining what appeared to be a planned, organized, and very concerted effort within a network of DC interests, to conduct spy and surveillance operations against candidate Trump, president-elect Trump and President Trump. We were labeled conspiracy theorists by both sides of the political spectrum.

We outlined how the Evelyn Farkas’ inadvertent admissions on MSNBC spoke to a coordinated effort that no-one was paying attention to.  However, it wasn’t until March 20th, 2017, when James Comey testified before the HPSCI and took an unanticipated series of questions from then freshman representative Elise Stefanik, and CTH outlined the specifics behind the admissions made by the FBI Director, that people started to realize what we had been saying for the past six months was indeed structurally evident.

By the end of 2017, people started to see clarity amid a picture we had been painting for over a year.  By mid-spring 2018 admissions within the apparatus of government, and released documents from Devin Nunes solidified the evidence.

Yes, there was political surveillance; yes, there was political spying; yes, there actually was an intelligence operation to remove President Trump being coordinated with involvement by a group within the IC, politicians, DC operatives (Fusion-GPS) and a network of specific media.

All of the aligned interests; and specifically all of the granular activity throughout 2018 – including activity within the DOJ and FBI under the Trump administration; which encompassed the Weissmann-Mueller effort; were working on a cover-program where defeating republicans in the 2018 mid-term election was part of a plan to: (a) protect their interests; (b) defend themselves from discovery of prior activity; and (c) hopefully continue the endeavor.  The election loss of the House was not accidental or organic political activity, it was purposeful.  [Uniparty GOP reps retiring was purposeful; ballot harvesting was purposeful; nothing was happenstance.]

Why does that background matter now?

In the aftermath of the 2018 election, CTH highlighted how top-level operatives immediately began working with Pelosi to construct the forward plan.  House rules were changed; Lawfare members were contracted; specific committees were redesigned and re-purposed following a road-map of sorts.  This 2018 activity was, as we stated, a continuum of the program that initiated before the 2016 election.

Immediately after the 2018 mid-terms, in preparation for the “impeachment” strategy, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler hired Lawfare group members to become House committee staff. Chairman Schiff hired former SDNY U.S. Attorney Daniel Goldman (link), and Chairman Nadler hired  Obama Administration lawyer Norm Eisen and criminal defense attorney Barry Berke (link).  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi then hired Douglas Letter as House General Counsel – all are within the Lawfare network.

Again, CTH was blasted for outlining what seemed ridiculous… Too many interests would have to be working together in order for our December 2018 outline to be accurate.

We continually warned: ‘do not underestimate the scale of planning‘.  However, by September 2019, it was -unfortunately- no longer deniable; the Lawfare/Pelosi plan was being executed and now it was directly staring everyone in the face.

Again, why does this background matter now?

This is the part everyone needs to think about to reset reference points: What is happening now with Adam Schiff and Daniel Goldman, was designed last year.  The current HPSCI legislative impeachment process, and every little aspect within it, is the execution of a plan, just like the DOJ/FBI plan was before it.

The use of a ‘whistle-blower’ was pre-planned long ago.  The agreements between Schiff, Lawfare and the CIA ‘whistle-blower’ were pre-planned.  The changing of whistle-blower rules to assist the plan was designed long ago.

Adam Schiff and Daniel Goldman are executing a plan concocted long ago. None of the testimony is organic; all of it was planned a long time ago, long before anyone knew the names Marie Yovanovitch, Kurt Volker, Gordon Sondland or Bill Taylor.   All of this is the coordinated execution of a plan.

The anti-Trump members of the National Security Council and U.S. State Department were always going to be used.  Throughout 2018 and 2019 embeds in the ‘resistance’ network were awaiting instructions and seeding evidence, useful information, to construct an impeachment narrative that was designed to detonate later.

When Bill Taylor is texting Gordon Sondland about a quid-pro-quo, and Sondland is reacting with ‘wtf are you talking about’, Taylor was texting by design.  He was manufacturing evidence for the narrative.  This was all a set-up. All planned.

When Marie Yovanovitch shows up to give her HPSCI deposition to Daniel Goldman with three high-priced DC lawyers: Lawrence Robbins, Laurie Rubenstein and Rachel Li Wai Suen, having just sent her statements to the Washington Post for deployment immediately prior to her appearance, Yovanovitch is doing so by design.  All planned.

….And the most interesting aspect to all of this is the only person (besides us) who appears to recognize the bigger, much bigger, big picture; is the same person who questioned FBI Director James Comey on March 20th 2017 when no-one had a clue about the scale and scope of their operations.  WATCH:

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Here’s the Transcripts:

VOLKER

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SONDLAND

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Lawfare 2018

Yesterday the possibility of adding Rep. Jim Jordan to the HPSCI was raised. Jordan has been an effective questioner and communicator for the republicans in the House, and moving him to HPSCI would allow him to participate in the public impeachment hearing controlled by Adam Schiff.

Jordan responded to that possibility earlier today on Fox News.

Journalist and author Lee Smith sits down for a lengthy interview with Jan Jekielek about his new book “The Plot Against The President”:

Oh, this is funny.  Fox News host Steve Hilton is well versed in the issues where U.S. government officials sent money to Ukraine and then received personal financial benefit from a return of those funds to their own interests.  A circle of corrupt money.

As Mr. Hilton expands on the issues of corrupt U.S. officials using Ukraine as a piggy-bank for their own affluence, he highlights examples of both Joe Biden and former Secretary of State John Kerry.   Former State Dept. Spokesperson Marie Harf, is shocked, s.h.o.c.k.e.d, at the allegations…. and then, they are all saved by the bull-Shiff bell.  WATCH:

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Too funny.  Well done Mr. Hilton.

Slightly longer version (video embed in tweet):

In the case against Lt. General Michael Flynn, his lawyer Sidney Powell previously filed a motion to compel (MTC) Brady material from the prosecution (here).  Because the MTC raised stunning, potentially game-changing, legal and ethical issues the prosecution requested the opportunity to file a surreptitious reply to the court; a “surreply”. (here)

Judge Sullivan directed the prosecution to file their surreply, and then granted the defense the opportunity to file a sur-surreply, a response to the prosecution’s last argument. Today Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell filed that response (full pdf below).

Having read thousands, perhaps tens-of-thousands, of legal filings, motions and court documents presenting arguments of material consequence, this sur-surreply to the arguments of the prosecution is artful in its succinct intent of getting to the nub of it.

What makes this articulate reply to the court so effective, in addition to the declared truth within it, is how it is written to both Judge Emmet Sullivan and the public.  This is a motion deserving of a read by anyone who has followed the travesty of the Flynn inquisition in detail or in summary. Do not cheat yourself out of the enjoyment; read it.

The response to the prosecution argument cuts through the chaff and countermeasures and identifies the ridiculous and necessary schemes played by the prosecution, starting with their preposterous position that Flynn’s plea did not require the government to provide exculpatory, Brady, evidence.  Page One:

Flynn’s defense calls out the ridiculous.  The prosecution argues it had no obligation to tell the target about any material favorable to the defense while the prosecution was piling-on pressure to generate a plea agreement.   Then, once the plea was coerced, the prosecution claims they have no obligation to provide Brady material because the target signed a plea.

Flynn’s defense points out the ridiculous nature of the prosecution claiming they don’t possess any FD-302 draft prior to the lengthy back-and-forth, discussion and editorial process within the FBI small group that resulted in the February 15th “official” FD-302 report.

Just because prosecutor Van Grack doesn’t have the original draft in his pocket, “if it did exist”, does not mean the government does not have access to produce the 302 draft everyone knows exists within the FBI’s electronic filing system.

Flynn’s original defense lawyers (firm: Covington, Kelner, Anthony, and Langton Inc.) were the attorneys who advised Flynn on how to complete the FARA paperwork/filing.  When the DOJ threatened to use the FARA filing as evidence against Flynn, and then later against Michael Flynn Jr., in essence the DOJ was accusing Covington of participating in the manufacturing false documentation.

The Covington lawyers held a material interest in the DOJ dropping the FARA aspect to their prosecution; and by extension the Covington lawyers recommending that Flynn accept a plea agreement to remove that legal issue was a profound conflict.

In their surreply the DOJ downplayed this conflict despite the prosecution taking copious and careful notes about it during the time they were using the FARA violation to compel the plea deal.  The defense team does not allow the DOJ to be so obtuse in their sur-surreply.

Every page is filled with articulate facts and sound legal justification that deconstruct the position of an ethically challenged prosecution.  However, this footnote is particularly cogent in outlining the question everyone, including Judge Sullivan, holds in the back of their mind.

The defense team notes the profound conflict of interest that was carried by Mr. Flynn’s original defense team during their interview sessions prior to the plea agreement; and the defense appropriately puts that defense conflict into context amid the pressure simultaneously being applied by the government.

In essence: ‘Nice family you have there Mr. Flynn, it would be a shame if something happened to them; by the way, how’s that new grand-baby getting along?’…

The defense articulates that sometime in the future they will likely file a motion to dismiss this case…. However, in the interim the defense is proceeding on a proper course to determine the scale, scope and backroom shenanigans that took place throughout the FBI and DOJ effort against their client.

The sur-surreply is truly a great read and this motion presents Judge Sullivan with information that not only supports the original Motion to Compel, but also provides important context for how this abusive case metastasized within a special counsel who was purposed on a precondition that targeting Michael Flynn was a priority.

For the prosecution in this case, the continuation of the brady process to discover the background information/evidence might just be a worse option than withdrawing the charges.

Please read the full filing:

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Lt. General Michael Flynn is very well represented.   It will be interesting to see how Judge Emmet Sullivan responds to these latest developments.