Tomorrow Attorney General Jeff Sessions will announce the assignment of U.S. Attorney John Lausch to facilitate the production of documents from the DOJ (Horowitz/Huber) to the House Judiciary Committee, and Chairman Bob Goodlatte.

Mr. Lausch is a Trump appointed U.S. Attorney from outside Washington DC.  John Lausch currently heads the Northern District of Illinois which includes Chicago, and this specific U.S. Attorney has extensive experience in complex cases of conspiracy and political corruption; a key skill-set given the issues within the Horowitz/Huber investigation of potential politicization of the FBI and DOJ offices.

Accepting the OIG report is almost certainly the most complex undertaking of IG Horowitz career; and accepting the multitude of possible angles within each section of the investigative inquiry are so consequential; there’s a strong likelihood the report could come out in stages.

Just the sheer process of an ordinarily complex Office of Inspector General report with the inherent investigative fact-audit, draft-report review, reference fact-check, preliminary draft vetting, and subsequent final draft review and audit is exhaustive in itself.

Now imagine overlaying that report process atop each of the topics behind millions of pages of gathered evidence, thousands of pages of testimony and witness statements, on multiple investigative issues – all surrounding the FBI and DOJ-NSD conduct.

Each of these aspects is an investigation unto itself: •Clinton email, manipulated investigations with predetermined outcomes; •unlawful and coordinated media leaks; •false testimony to FBI, congress and under oath to IG; •manipulated FBI 302 reports; •Willful corruption by AD-Andrew McCabe, D-Comey etc.. and if that’s not complex enough to report about…. overlay the •issues with the FISA court; •false presentations; •source material (Steele Dossier); and well, you get the picture…. This is massive and complex.

There’s a phase in the OIG report process where statements of fact go through an exhaustive draft vetting process within agency. The “source vetting” or “reference-audit” phase is part of the target -and internal review audit- prior to final draft & ultimately publication.

The raw investigative information, used as the foundation for the report, has to be vetted, re-checked, verified and reviewed for placement and footnotes in the draft report, before ANY of that source information is released.

FBI Director Christopher Wray previously assigned 54 staff to go through the IG source draft information (investigative documents) to validate baseline facts prior to release to congress. This process also scans for classified information.

These FBI staff are vetting the underlying evidence that’s noted in Horowitz’s draft notification document. Remember, many of these elements are also potentially criminal actions individually; and quite likely, in the aggregate, also the broad outlines of a criminal conspiracy amid all of the participants.

However, given the reality that politicization of the FBI and DOJ underpins the origination of the investigation that generated the underlying evidence, in order to ensure any internal FBI conflicts do not arise amid document selection, John Lausch will be involved.

U.S. Attorney Lausch review will ensure the FBI does not hide, or marginalize any OIG investigative findings.

You can call it a soft-coup, or you can call it politicization of the DOJ and FBI, but the end result is the same – the intentional effort to manipulate, influence, and ultimately subvert an election for the presidency of the United States.

The first series of those DOJ/FBI document releases will likely happen tomorrow, April 9th, or shortly thereafter.  Another part of John Lausch responsibilities is likely to aide in separating the criminal evidence from within the document production. While these productions are *NOT* the IG report itself, these productions are some of the underlying evidence that underpins chapters of the IG report.

The fingerprints of criminal evidence might be noticed in the corners of the release(s); however, the direct evidence of criminal conduct will not be released. Part of Lausch’s independent responsibility will be to preserve the integrity of any needed criminal evidence. Nothing connected to the ongoing John Huber grand jury presentations will be released.

A very well informed Maria Bartiromo has an interesting interview with Trey Gowdy this morning.  In the first section of the interview Representative Gowdy reveals he has seen some of the originating “electronic communication” (EC) source material that initiated the 2016 counterintelligence operation against the Trump campaign.

An interesting aspect to this interview is how much ‘deep-weed’ background information Mrs. Bartiromo is aware of. [Obviously Maria has a direct network to some very specific information.]  WATCH:

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Representative Gowdy seems to using the Mamet Princple in this interview. Gowdy is obviously aware the DOJ cannot, and should not, release all evidence in their custody if some of that evidence outlines the basis for criminal referrals and will be used later by Prosecutor John Huber. So why does he demand access to it, and public release of it?

Gowdy’s presentation is almost enough to make a person wonder if he’s not trying to protect entities that might be at risk from sunlight or prosecution. It couldn’t be that perhaps there were/are 2016 republican political campaigns (*cough* Rubio), and/or uniparty leadership, who were in common-cause alignment with an operation that might eliminate Trump? Wait… wha?

Very interesting interview with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes earlier today.  Chairman Nunes discusses his current objective to gain the two-page “electronic communication” document that initiated the FBI and DOJ-NSD investigation into the campaign of presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Chairman Nunes is focusing more intensely on the use of FBI/DOJ counterintelligence operations a weaponized agencies against political opponents. As a result of that focus the origination documents gain increased importance along with the FISA Title-1 application used to conduct exhaustive surveillance on U.S. person Carter Page.

Another very interesting dynamic occurs toward the latter half of the interview where Chairman Nunes brings up the international allies, and specifically describes the origination of “The Alliance of the Orb“, against the backdrop of weaponized intel.

Every time the conversation expands to the political weaponization of domestic intelligence agencies (DOJ National Security Division and FBI) I cannot help but think back to an October 2016 presidential campaign speech by Donald Trump.  With hindsight, it would appear candidate Trump knew the apparatus of the FBI was weaponized against his election bid.

Read it, and see for yourself:

[…] For those who control the levers of power in Washington, and for the global special interests they partner with, our campaign represents an existential threat.

[…] This is not simply another 4-year election. This is a crossroads in the history of our civilization that will determine whether or not We The People reclaim control over our government.

The political establishment that is trying everything to stop us, is the same group responsible for our disastrous trade deals, massive illegal immigration, and economic and foreign policies that have bled this country dry. The political establishment has brought about the destruction of our factories and our jobs, as they flee to Mexico, China and other countries throughout the world. Our just-announced jobs numbers are anemic, and our gross domestic product, or GDP, is barely above one percent. Workers in the United States, were making less than they were almost 20 years ago – and yet they are working harder.

It’s a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth, and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.

[…] This is a struggle for the survival of our nation. This election will determine whether we are a free nation, or whether we have only the illusion of Democracy but are in fact controlled by a small handful of global special interests rigging the system.

This is not just conspiracy but reality, and you and I know it.

[…]  They control the Department of Justice, and they even clandestinely meet with the Attorney General of the United States – in the back of her airplane, while on the runway – for 39 minutes – to most likely discuss her reappointment in a Clinton Administration just prior to the Attorney General making a decision over whether or not to prosecute Hillary Clinton.

Likewise, they have corrupted the Director of the FBI to the point at which stories are already saying the great men and women who work for the FBI are embarrassed and ashamed to what he’s done to one of our great institutions. Hillary Clinton is guilty of all of the things that Director Comey stated at his press conference and Congressional hearings, and far more – and yet he let her off the hook, while others lives are being destroyed for far less.

This is a conspiracy against you, the American people. (link)

Knowing what we know now, those words from October 13th, 2016, rally in West Palm Beach Florida hold a different resonance today, no?

Imagine you are a candidate for the office of the presidency and you realize your political campaign is a very real existential threat to the system. As you begin to accept this reality you have to think entirely different now.

These people are political enemies.

As troubling as it is to accept, you have to face the reality of a weaponized intelligence community aligned against you; and a professional political class who will deny it exists.

The system, including the media, are now in synergy to eliminate the threat you represent.

(Hmmmmm…)

A few hours ago President Trump tweeted a curiously specific pair of tweets targeting the FBI, DOJ and FISA investigations as it relates to the House Judiciary Committee and Chairman Bob Goodlatte.  Something’s up:

Against the backdrop of the DOJ notifying the House Intelligence and House Senate committees last night of their ability to review the DOJ/FBI submission of the FISA Court application used to target U.S. person Carter Page, the specificity of POTUS Trump’s direction is curious.

As we previously discussed the DOJ allowing expanded congressional oversight over the FISA application, against the backdrop of a previously announced IG review of this specific FISA application, would indicate Inspector General Michael Horowitz and Federal Prosecutor John Huber signed-off on, or perhaps directed, last night’s approval.

There are several angles that loom as possibilities, including the beginning of a process to make this specific FISA application declassified and available to the general public.  There’s also the outstanding issue, a very serious issue, of the application currently in the FISA court being different from the FBI/DOJ version shared with congress (Nunes memo).  That unresolved issue is ongoing, and specifically involves Chairman Goodlatte.

Additionally, accepting the OIG report is almost certainly the most complex undertaking of IG Horowitz career; and the multitude of possible angles within each part of the investigative inquiry are so consequential; there’s an increased likelihood the report is coming out in stages.

Just the sheer process of an ordinarily complex OIG report with the inherent fact-audit, draft-report review, fact-check, and preliminary draft vetting of all references is exhaustive in itself.

Now imagine overlaying that process atop the tentacles behind millions of pages of gathered evidence on multiple investigative issues surrounding the FBI/DOJ conduct: •Clinton email, manipulated investigations with predetermined outcomes; •unlawful and coordinated media leaks; •false testimony to FBI, congress and under oath to IG; •manipulated FBI 302 reports; •issues with Andrew McCabe etc.. and then if that’s not complex enough to report about…. you overlay the •issues with the FISA court; •false presentations; •source material (Steele Dossier); and well, you get the picture…. This is massive and ¹complex.

[…¹and that still leaves the unmasking and state dept issues for a special prosecutor]

In my opinion, part of the reason why FBI Director Christopher Wray doubled the size of the staff assigned to the congressional fulfillment is specifically because there’s a phase in the OIG process where initial statements of fact go through an exhaustive OIG draft vetting process within the targeted agency.  The “source vetting” or “referencer” phase is part of the target response -and internal review audit- prior to the final draft and ultimately publication.

I don’t think all 54 of those FBI staff Director Wray assigned to this task are simply vetting for declassification needs.  Think about it, and contrast against the formal process. More likely a significant number of these staff are vetting the underlying evidence that’s noted in Horowitz’s draft notification document.  Remember, many of these elements are also potentially criminal actions individually; and quite likely, in the aggregate, also the broad outlines of a criminal conspiracy amid all of the participants.

You can call it a soft-coup, or you can call it politicization of the DOJ and FBI, but the end result is the same – the intentional effort to manipulate, influence, and ultimately subvert an election for the presidency of the United States.

So with all of that in mind, for Inspector General Horowitz and Prosecutor Huber to be signing-off on releasing the Carter Page FISA application; there has to be something more there.  Something in addition to the end-stages of an IG report that is almost guaranteed to come in chapters or stages.

This is where I would draw your attention to EW “Bill” Priestap.  The head of Counterintelligence Division of the FBI who was present for the entire time, and is still in place today.

It would be intellectually dishonest in the extreme not to accept that any investigative approach taken by Michael Horowitz and John Huber, that is in any way related to the DOJ-NSD and FBI intelligence apparatus – including specifically the FISA court, has not been directed as an outcome of extensive interviews with the head of the FBI counterintelligence agency.

Horowitz and Huber ain’t fishing in uncharted waters.  They have a subject matter expert guiding them to the exact epicenter location of the fish.

So yeah, this looks very curiously specific:

Until today the only people allowed to review the full Title-1 FISA application were Trey Gowdy, Adam Schiff, Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Rep John Ratcliffe.

In an interesting development, the Department of Justice has responded to HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes notifying him the DOJ will allow all members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees full access to review the unredacted FBI/DOJ FISA application used to gain a Title-1 surveillance warrant against U.S. citizen Carter Page.

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/375730245/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-7BQe9fJzvsXo7bSB3dRh

According to CNN: ‘Separately, Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said the department on Monday will supplement its document production to the House Judiciary Committee by producing another 1,000 pages of materials in response to a subpoena issued by committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte.’

This is an interesting development for several reasons:

♦This will be the first opportunity for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes to see the underlying highly classified documentary evidence that underpins his FISA Memo. Previously only one majority member (Gowdy), and one minority member (Schiff), from the HPSCI was permitted to review the heavily classified and unredacted FISA application.

♦Allowing the full House and Senate intelligence committee to review the FISA application is the first step in getting the application declassified. It would be enormously interesting if the public could see the full application as submitted by the FBI and DOJ. There is a significant public interest in knowing exactly how strong the underlying evidence was for the FISA Court to grant such extensive surveillance authority.

♦There has been some discussion of a possibility the FISA application held by the Department of Justice, and used to structurally create the Nunes memo, may not be the same FISA Title-1 application held by the FISA Court per Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer. Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte has requested the FISA Court application. That issue remains unresolved.  (link)

If, and this is a big “if”, there are actually two versions, the consequences are astronomical. Almost immediately Loretta Lynch, Sally Yates, James Comey and Andrew McCabe would be indicted.

Lastly, the willingness of the DOJ (Sessions, Rosenstein) to allow expanded access to the FISA application, at the same time the IG has expanded his investigation therein, would indicate IG Michael Horowitz and Federal Prosecutor John Huber have completed their review of the evidentiary weight therein…. and this release exactly backs up what we previous noted:

Horowitz was not announcing this investigative avenue from a position of only just now starting to gather evidence; he already has the evidence. He was announcing the context for him to drop a report summarizing findings of content from the investigation; a report that has nothing to do with the original launch of the OIG investigation.

In essence he announced the need to write a report based on investigative material he has already gathered. Horowitz already has the FISA material, he needed a reason to include it.

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/375057764/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-NYmo48DEK5qpIU5c62Yb

…. Or, Huber/Horowitz could also be setting a trap.

“WHY” – The first video highlights the historic backdrop of DOJ/FBI FISA court abuses:

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“HOW” – The second video highlights the specific example of how the DOJ and FBI used false information to the FISA Court to secure a fraudulent ‘Title-1’ surveillance warrant:

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“WHO” – The third video highlights who the primary players were within the scheme:

Most of the ‘vast-Russian-conspiracy‘ media presentations seem to start with a discussion of intelligence gathering beginning in July of 2016. The GOP convention to nominate Donald Trump was July 18-21st of 2016.

Adding to the July 2016 origination narrative FBI Director James Comey stated the counterintelligence operation against candidate Trump began in July 2016.   However, not a single MSM entity has looked at the FISA-702(16)(17) abuses by the FBI and DOJ-NSD outlined by the FISA court and NSA well before July 2016.

It is a matter of unclassified public record the FBI and DOJ-NSD were allowing “contractors” to conduct searches of the FBI and NSA databases, and extract raw intelligence, throughout 2015 until April 28th 2016 when NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers shut down all access and initiated a compliance review.

Any objective review of that time period indicates (strongest likelihood) the search activity was political ‘opposition research’ for the 2016 presidential election.  With hindsight of the FBI and DOJ’s political intents, ‘opposition research’ was almost certainly the motive.

Surrounding the nomination that stunned the geo-political world almost every foreign government was trying to figure out who and what Donald J Trump was all about; and more specifically: how would his run for the presidency impact their specific interests.

2017- WASHINGTON NYT — American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence.

[Paragraph #5] The information collected last summer was considered credible enough for intelligence agencies to pass to the F.B.I., which during that period opened a counterintelligence investigation that is continuing. It is unclear, however, whether Russian officials actually tried to directly influence Mr. Manafort and Mr. Flynn. Both have denied any collusion with the Russian government on the campaign to disrupt the election. (link)

The New York Times should win a Pulitzer for undermining their own ‘Russian Conspiracy’ headline narrative within the fifth paragraph. [It’s a trend] I digress.

Obviously, attempting to understand the policies of outsider Donald Trump, Russia would be asking these same questions along with China, France, England, the larger EU and every nation in every continent. It would be silly to claim otherwise.

Ergo a diplomatic mission by Russian governmental officials surrounding the GOP convention to understand the Trump orbit is no different than a Chinese, European or Arab-Asian effort for the same reason.

However, the international interest did necessarily initiate a bunch of foreign officials making contact with anyone and everyone who would be associated with Trump-world regardless of concentric circle distance from the epicenter.  That intellectually honest understanding highlights how much of the post convention (July 2016) raw intelligence gathering began so easily.

The CIA simply monitoring chatter amid foreign diplomats, their customary job, turns into raw data provided to the FBI which in turn becomes the subject matter of frequent FISA searches/warrants to explore the U.S. contacts on the other side of that chatter.

The FISA searches/warrants turn into intelligence reports and that begins the entire process now known as “unmasking” etc. Nothing within this process so far is even in question. However, this is also the backdrop for intelligence reports to be weaponized for political purposes.  In May 2017, CIA Director John Brennan testified to this exact process before congress.

What was not reported by any media outline is John Brennan, understanding actions taken by the Obama administration in 2016 created his own exit from the controversy.

Former CIA Director John Brennan gave very specific testimony to congress where he noted he provided the raw intelligence to FBI Director Comey – FULLSTOP. Where “fullstop” directly and immediately indicates Brennan’s throwing the responsibility for all that came next upon FBI Director James Comey.

John Brennan structured his self-defense with great specificity: (@13:35)

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“Again, in consultation with the White House, I PERSONALLY briefed the full details of our understanding of Russian attempts to interfere in the election to congressional leadership; specifically: Senators Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein and Richard Burr; and to representatives Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff between 11th August and 6th September [2016], I provided the same briefing to each of the gang of eight members.”

“Given the highly sensitive nature of what was an active counter-intelligence case [that means the FBI], involving an ongoing Russian effort, to interfere in our presidential election, the full details of what we knew at the time were shared only with those members of congress; each of whom was accompanied by one senior staff member.”… (link)

Shorter version: don’t try pinning this unsubstantiated Russia investigation to no-where, and the illegal leaks, on me; I just provided the raw intelligence.

It is important to emphasize here the possibly illegal “unmasking“, and the certainly illegal “leaking“, were all based on intelligence reports generated from raw intelligence, and not the raw intelligence itself.

It was the FBI (Comey) and ODNI (Clapper) generating the intel reports, including the Presidents’ Daily Briefing (PDB).

The CIA provided raw intel, and the NSA generated the raw monitoring intelligence from the characters identified by the CIA and approved by FBI FISA warrant submissions.

The FBI were running the counter-intelligence operation and generating the actual reports that were eventually shared with the White House, Susan Rice and the Dept of Justice. After the November election, those reports, or interpretations of the report content, were eventually leaked to the media in a coordinated effort to undermine the incoming administration.

During the time James Comey’s FBI was generating the intelligence reports, Comey admitted he intentionally never informed congressional oversight: “because of the sensitivity of the matter“.

In his may 2017 testimony John Brennan tried to take himself out of the picture from the perspective of the illegal acts within the entire process. ODNI James Clapper, while rubbing his face and scratching his head, had taken the same route earlier. That left the majority of scrutiny for the anti-Trump intelligence operation upon James Comey.

This explained why Comey changed his mind on testifying to congress until he had the opportunity to talk to newly appointed special counsel Robert Mueller.

Former FBI Director James Comey is not stupid.  He is, however, intensely political.

James Comey completely understood the legal risks he was  facing within the faux “Russian conspiracy story” and the “subsequent leaking” of his political FBI reports.

Fox News Catherine Herridge reports today, per her FBI investigative sources, it was an investigative interview with FBI Attorney Lisa Page, in July 2017, that contradicted FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and ultimately led to his firing.

That revelation is exactly what we anticipated was the origin to Inspector General Michael Horowitz gaining the text messages between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok.  The issue is actually more stunning than presented.  However, first here’s the report from Herridge (emphasis mine):

Fox News – Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired last month for committing three violations of the bureau’s ethics code, an investigative source told Fox News on Thursday.

The violations initially were uncovered by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General and confirmed by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility. They included lack of candor under oath, lack of candor when not under oath, and the improper disclosure of non-public information to the media about the FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

The violations stemmed from McCabe’s response to an October 2016 Wall Street Journal report about sizeable campaign donations from Democrats to McCabe’s wife, Jill, during her campaign for the Virginia State Senate. The investigation found that McCabe instructed FBI lawyer Lisa Page and FBI public affairs chief Michael Kortan to work with the Journal’s reporter to set the record straight.

The source said Page’s statements to investigators were “critical” because they directly contradicted her boss, McCabe.

According to the source, McCabe’s lack of candor about the contact with the Journal reporter led to his firing. The source added that Page’s testimony about the matter contradicted McCabe’s. Then-FBI Director James Comey claimed he never authorized the leak to the Journal.  (read more)

A picture was initially clear in March once we had the full timeline of the interviews with Andrew McCabe that led to his firing.  This Fox News report only confirms the obvious; however, it’s important to review the events to fully understand the scope of McCabe’s lying and also understand the reason for Lisa Page to be so angry.

Remember, Lisa Page was a DOJ attorney assigned to the office of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe specifically to provide legal guidance.  Imagine how pissed off she was when she discovered (July 2017) the Deputy FBI Director who told her to leak a story -on his behalf- to the Wall Street Journal, denied ever telling her to leak the story.

It’s no wonder why Ms. Page told FBI Agent Peter Strzok to “never text her again”, and she quit working for the Mueller team several weeks before IG Horowitz informed Mueller about the conspiracy issues (which led to Strzok’s removal).

Here’s the timeline from an assembly of media reporting and investigative releases to congress.

Andrew McCabe was first interviewed about the media leaks in May 2017.  He denied.  “A couple of months later” he was interviewed by Inspector General Horowitz, and he again denied.  On July 20th of 2017 Inspector General Horowitz gained the Peter Strzok and Lisa Page text messages.

•May 2017 McCabe denies leaking for WSJ story to FBI investigators (link).

•July 2017 McCabe denies again; to Inspector General Horowitz.

•July 2017 Lisa Page admits to Horowitz she was told to construct the Wall Street Journal story (Devlin Barrett, journalist).  This conflicts with McCabes repeated denials. (link)

•July 20th 2017 Horowitz gets Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages (link). Proving McCabe constructed the WSJ story.

(Full back-story to text message discovery)

•August 2017: After Horowitz gets the proof McCabe was lying – McCabe follows up on the two denials saying “he may have allowed FBI officials to speak with the newspaper”. (link)

•August 2017:  FBI re-interviews McCabe based on new admissions.

•November 29th 2017: One day before SC Mueller indicts Michael Flynn, IG Horowitz interviews McCabe again.  Apparently this time McCabe admitted to constructing the leak. (link)

In May, June and July 2017, while FBI Deputy Director Andrew “Andy” McCabe was lying to FBI investigators and the Inspector General, Lisa Page was working for McCabe as his legal counsel.

Therein lies the heart and origin of the motive for Lisa Page to flip against the conspiracy group when she discovered Andrew McCabe lying to investigators about his instructions to her.  IG Horowitz then interviews Page in July and she tells the truth, thereby contradicting McCabe.

However, Ms. Page had the evidence – The Text Messages delivered July 20th.

Alan Dershowitz and Joe diGenova appear on Sean Hannity TV show to discuss the latest revelations in the Robert Mueller ‘Muh Russia’ collusion investigation.

Against yesterday’s backdrop discovery of the secret instructions from Asst. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Joe diGenova goes full wolverine.

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/375478974/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-4DaehSp6U38EiB8eNVXS