HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes discusses the new Lee Smith book “The Plot Against The President” and how Fusion-GPS used distribution of protodossiers to the media prior to the assembly by Fusion contractor Christopher Steele.

One of the more remarkable aspects to the political weaponization of the intelligence apparatus was the complicity of specific journalists and specific outlets to advance the Russian collusion-conspiracy narrative.

HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes discusses the new Lee Smith book “The Plot Against The President” and how Fusion-GPS used distribution of protodossiers to the media prior to the assembly by Fusion contractor Christopher Steele.

One of the more remarkable aspects to the political weaponization of the intelligence apparatus was the complicity of specific journalists and specific outlets to advance the Russian collusion-conspiracy narrative.

In 2016 the creative leftists behind the Clinton campaign developed a campaign conspiracy theory that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump were conspiring to stop Hillary from ascending to her birthright, the presidency.

In 2017 a sketchy fellow within the U.S. Department of Justice, Rod Rosenstein, fueled the Cinton conspiracy by appointing a panel of Hillary sycophants to investigate the collusion.

In the most embarrassing episode in U.S. government history, more than twenty lawyers, fifty FBI agents, and a host of administrative enablers were assigned to the case.  A muttering semi-cogent former FBI official in the twilight of his cognitive capabilities was brought-in to give credibility. Leftist media proclaimed the assembly: a dream team.

Spending tens-of-millions of taxpayer funds, for two years the crew dispatched themselves across the globe to track down the trail of Vladimir and Donald’s grand plan for planetary conquest.  As customary, the leftist media never paused to look at the abject stupidity of it…. and so it continued.

At the end of the multi-year, multi-continent endeavor, the crew reassembled in Washington DC to debrief their findings and write a report about their jaw-dropping discoveries.  Unfortunately for the transfixed media the million-man-hour probe found nothing.  Their final report showed: no collusion, no conspiracy.

However, not to be denied the justice authority apportioned by the aforementioned Mr. Rosenstein, the hundred-person-strong investigative crew also said their target had tried too hard not to be found guilty of a conspiracy that never existed.

Ah-ha!  There’s the angle: Donald Trump was guilty of defending himself, and accused of  the most heinous political crime: “obstructing an officially-authorized false narrative while under construction”, impeach!

Now we fast-forward to late 2019 where the international chase for the horse thief and attempted hanging therein is under review.  The most recent discoveries include not only was there never a horse theft, in reality there was never a horse….

Alas two pathetic members of the remaining resistance just cannot accept all of that officially recognized and empowered investigative global effort by the biggest nation on the planet was a wild goose-chase spurred by the Clinton machine.  Yes, thirty years after the end of World War II, on some isolated island in the middle of the Pacific, there was unit of the Imperial Japanese army that never knew the war was over.

While a vertically and horizontally challenged member of congress named Jerry Nadler appeals for the details of the Mueller grand jury inquisition, a rather caffeinated fellow named Jason Leopold charges from his bunker at Buzzfeed to mount his final assault against General Douglas MacArthur….

DETAILS HERE

Today the DOJ files their surreply to the game-changing Flynn motion to compel Brady material filed by defense attorney Sidney Powell (full pdf below).  Within the DOJ filing the prosecution generally makes four arguments:

1. The government had no legal obligation to provide exculpatory Brady material prior to the plea agreement (Nov 30th, 2017).
2. After the plea agreement the government had no legal obligation to provide exculpatory Brady material that was not directly related to the evidence about the charge of Flynn lying to investigators during the January 24th, 2017, interview.
3. The government uses odd language to claim a draft of the Flynn interview report (FD-302) does not exist prior to their Feb 10th construct: “Even if an earlier draft of the [302] once existed, there is no reason to believe it would materially differ” from the agents’ notes.  Sounds sketchy, like they know an earlier draft does likely exist.
4. The government severely understates the conflict of interest created by the DOJ using the leverage of an incorrectly completed FARA submission to pressure the Flynn plea.

Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell will now be allowed to file a sur-surreply to the position of the DOJ prosecutors.

♦Taking the #4 bullet-point first, the DOJ is being profoundly obtuse.  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, in essence the DOJ was accusing Covington of 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 is a profound conflict. The DOJ downplays this conflict despite the DOJ taking copious and careful notes about it during the time they were using the FARA violation to compel the plea deal.

♦On the issues of there not being a pre-Feb 10th 302 report: on its face that seems absurd.  The interview was January 24th, the FBI standard dictates a 302 report to be written as soon as possible (within 24 hours) upon completion of the interview.  The prosecution hides the Page/Strzok texts showing a narrative process under construction:

The 302 was edited, shaped, approved and entered into the system on Feb 11th and Feb 14th.  This was a deliberative process, Andrew McCabe was approving (per “launch 302”) and Lisa Page did some of the edits.

We know there was a deliberative process in place, seemingly all about how to best position the narrative, because we can see the deliberations in text messages between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok: See above/below (note the dates):

The text message conversation above is February 14th, 2017.  The Michael Flynn FD-302 was officially entered into the record on February 15th, 2017, per this version of the FBI FD-302 report released June 6th, 2019:

Oddly, in the reply today which included the DOJ providing the FD-302 as “Exhibit 3“, the DOJ provides another FD-302 report with the entry date February 14th, 2017?   WTF?

In a letter from prosecutor Van Grack to Judge Sullivan last year he said there was only one edit after the date of entry; and that edit took place in May 2017.

Whoopsie, based on what we just outlined above, it would appear Mr. Van Grack was previously lacking candor with Judge Sullivan. I shall digress….

Here is today’s filing from the DOJ:

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Enjoy your weekend….

Representative John Ratcliffe appeared on Fox News to discuss the latest developments within the one-side, partisan, effort to remove President Donald Trump from office.

Having sat through all of the closed-door basement testimony so far, Ratcliffe outlines how Adam Schiff created the appearance of impropriety through an orchestrated effort with embedded political officials.  “At the end of the day, the truth will defend itself.”

Representative Doug Collins appears on Fox News with pumpkin-head for a Halloween interview about today’s impeachment inquiry vote.

I’m going to attempt to remove the legal linguistics and explain what appears to be a highly predictable process most are ignoring.

BASELINE – After the 2018 mid-terms, and 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 hiredDouglas Letter as House General Counsel – all are within the Lawfare network.

♦On October 25th DC Judge Beryl Howell granted the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) request for legal authority to receive 6e grand jury material underlying the Mueller report.

Additionally, within the Howell decision she officially recognized the HJC effort was predicated on a constitutional impeachment process.

In essence Howell’s opinion granted the HJC with “judicial enforcement authority.”

♦The DOJ moved to appeal the decision and requested a “stay” pending appeal.  Judge Howell rejected the “stay” motion.

The DOJ appealed to the DC Court of Appeals.  A panel of three judges issued an “administrative stay”, blocking enforcement of the Howell ruling while the appeal was reviewed.

The temporary administrative stay was granted to freeze the status quo while the court considers whether to grant a longer stay that would remain in effect until the DOJ appeal is argued or decided (deadline tomorrow).  The outcome is pending.  Judge Merrick Garland is the Chief Judge of the DC Appeals court.

After the full House voted to authorize the ongoing “impeachment inquiry” today, Nadler’s team immediately opened a second legal front.

♦Using the baseline predicate of Howell’s recognition of HJC impeachment authority; and now using the full House vote as further affirmation therein; the HJC is now moving to another Judge, Ketanji Brown Jackson, an Obama appointee to the federal district court in D.C., requesting judicial enforcement authority to compel testimony from former White House legal counsel Don McGahn:

WASHINGTON DC – Lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee urged a federal judge on Thursday to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress about President Trump’s possible obstruction of justice, arguing that his refusal to comply is harming House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

Democrats’ counsel said that even though McGahn’s role in the obstruction investigation carried out by former special counsel Robert Mueller was described at length in Mueller’s report, lawmakers still need to independently evaluate his testimony. (more)

The HJC objective is simple: gain judicial enforcement authority for their subpoenas so their targets cannot legally refuse to give testimony.

The premise for both fronts [(1) document subpoena 6e material, and (2) testimony from McGahn] is predicated on penetrating a constitutional firewall that exists within the separation of powers.

Under existing SCOTUS precedent, the White House can be compelled to deliver Executive Branch documents and testimony so long as an official legislative branch impeachment process is underway.

Judge Beryl Howell was the first person in the judicial branch to recognize and accept the HJC position that such an official impeachment process was ongoing.  Judge Brown Jackson will likely be the second. The House vote today is fuel for that twisted-legal approach.

Some have asked for my opinion on where this is going…. My opinion is not outlining success or failure, merely the likely approach they are taking with this scheme:

It would appear that Nadler and his Lawfare group are collecting evidence for their Impeachment Managers.  The decision to impeach was reached long ago; these moves by the HJC are moves to gather evidence for the Senate trial.

The Pelosi-Schiff optics of open House impeachment hearings is a pantomime, intended to give the illusion of customary and traditional impeachment proceedings taking place.  The impeachment report Schiff’s Lawfare group will deliver to the HJC Lawfare group is meant only to bolster the pre-existing conclusions from Barry Berke and Norm Eisen.

In essence, the usurpers began with the end in mind, and they are now back-filling the pre-scripted articles of impeachment with supportive evidence.   The HJC subpoenas are intended to do that back-filling along with the Schiff committee product.

Unfortunately, I do not foresee the DOJ succeeding in their appeals.  The DOJ has put their weakest lawyers (half-hearted attempts) into the fight.  As an outcome it looks like the Judiciary is aligned in favor of the constitutional predicate claimed by the HJC.

Ultimately it will take a much stronger republican house effort to stop Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler and their host of Lawfare contracted agents.  Simultaneously it would take a much stronger team in the DOJ fighting to retain the executive branch position.  Neither is currently present.

Show me an action by U.S. AG Bill Barr to change the impression the DOJ is intentionally tanking the external fight and I will change my opinion.  However, so far the push-back from the DOJ has been very weak considering the stakes.  [Too weak to be accidental]

Thus my opinion: despite the strength of their constitutional position, the DOJ will fail to protect the office of the presidency.  It’s a gut-sense impression; but we should be able to get a better feel of DOJ motive from their approach toward the appeals court.

♦ That brings up the Senate trial.   From a review of their signaling and positioning, it appears to me the objective of the Lawfare group, via the impeachment managers, will center around modifications to Senate Impeachment Rules and the use of a Senatorial Trial Panel.

The senate rules on impeachment processes can be changed and modified [Example here from 1986].  Additionally there is nothing in the constitution that requires an established number of senators to sit or convict during the trial [Constitution, Article 1, Sec 3]:

This is my interpretation of what the Lawfare group will attempt.

“Concurrence of two-thirds of the members present“

The Democrats will argue their 2020 candidates cannot spend all this time on a Senate trial…. the media will be sympathetic….. Because the constitution is ambiguous to the construct…. and intentionally differential to the size of the Senate…. the democrat approach will be to empanel a bipartisan jury of an unknown number of Senators to sit for the trial “under oath and affirmation.”

There is nothing in the constitution that would stop the Senate from assembling a jury of 10 republican senators and 10 democrat senators. It would then require “two-thirds” or thirteen for a conviction.  Or the jury could be 40 or (fill_in_blank).

This type of a senate construct is what the left has been hinting about in their discussions.  This is what Lawfare has been discussing since they successfully gained the Nixon Impeachment Roadmap during their lawsuit a few months ago.

Senator Lindsey Graham, who has increasingly come under pressure for doing nothing as the powerful Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announces today that he will be abdicating his chairmanship immediately after the 2020 presidential election:

(Via Politico) Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) plans to hand the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee back to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) in the next Congress.  Graham took over the panel this year from Grassley, who left to chair the Senate Finance Committee.

In an interview Thursday, Graham said Grassley asked to come back after his tenure on the Senate Finance Committee. Graham responded “absolutely.”

“Love Chuck Grassley. That’s the way the Senate works,” Graham said. “He took the Finance Committee so I could be chairman, and he’ll come back and fill out his time, and I’ll come back, and somebody else will come along.” (read more)

Obviously this announcement begs the question:

Did Graham -who has done nothing promised- assume the Chair for 2019 and 2020 as a designed effort to protect the backroom interests of the upper-chamber?

Despite some initial side-eye to the cynicism, the premise would actually not be that far fetched.  Such a plan was laid out by GOPe political consultant Alex Castellanos [SEE HERE].  […]  “The best way to do it is how Brutus killed Caesar. Get real close, snuggle up, and shiv him in the ribs.” (link)

The Senate Judiciary Committee could be questioning a myriad of people from the DOJ, FBI and national security apparatus that have been identified as participating in a lengthy scheme to usurp the office of the presidency; however, Senator Graham has done nothing.

Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko presented US Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham with the Order of Freedom and the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise respectively, ahead of a US delegation meeting in Kiev, 2016.  WATCH:

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The Senate Judiciary Committee will have structural organizational responsibilities for an upcoming senate impeachment trial after the House impeachment managers deliver their articles of impeachment.

House republican and democrat leadership both held press conferences today immediately after the successful passage of the House Impeachment Inquiry Resolution.

Republicans:

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Democrats:

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