A few hours ago the DOJ released five memos to congress from the files of fired FBI Director James Comey.  The total number of memos and emails is uncertain, presumably seven, however the DOJ released five (full pdf below).

Several of the emails and memos are sent to the Former FBI chief legal counsel James Baker (now a cooperating witness with IG Horowitz and Federal Prosecutor Huber); and/or Comey’s chief-of-staff James Rybicki (he resigned after the Page/Strzok texts surfaced).   The publicly released versions contain redactions due to their classified nature:

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/376855452/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-OzRxMFpl7rNk07sKZZlv

Fired FBI Director James Comey appears on CNN for an interview with Jake Tapper and states [@03:20] he doesn’t know how many memos he may have written? …What?

We can see the growing legal risk to James Comey by the severity of his professional obfuscation.  Despite flooding the media with interviews the overall Comey book tour is a significant narrative fail; he will find few defenders during an indictment.

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Institutional media quickly noted the public opinion shift on Comey as the American people’s BS-meter pegged Comey as condescending and self-interested.  Politically democrats are not attempting to utilize Comey because he’s a known toxic commodity. Comey is left drowning in his own sanctimony, and his lack of self-awareness is pathetic.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani previously served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.  Mr. Giuliani told the Washington Post:

“I’m doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because I have high regard for the president and for Bob Mueller,” Giuliani said in an interview.

Guiliani joining team to negotiate exit of Special Counsel Robert Mueller is confirmation of earlier analysis on Mueller “referee” intent. The investigative and indictment balance was always between Hillary Clinton allies and President Donald Trump.

Robert Mueller was recruited by Clinton and Washington DC allies and those within the small group; and was/is generally facilitating the investigation of Trump as leverage.

If you look at Robert Mueller from the position of trying to protect his cherished Deep State institutions from horrible Trump swamp draining…. things begin to take a more accurate context. The only way for Mueller to protect his Swamp Allies and Institutions, was to generate leverage against Trump.

Having established only political leverage, nothing factually unlawful or illegal, the Mueller investigation begins to dry up. Leverage diminishes.

Without direct leverage against President Trump, Team Mueller moved to position leverage against those Trump cares about… that’s a secondary approach; but the secondary leverage approach is fraught with public noting Mueller is on a “witch hunt”… the investigation into outlying Trump allies becomes transparent in motive. Support for Mueller erodes amid independent-minded people.

Enter Rudy Giuliani, a political and legal Subject Matter Expert – with direct knowledge of evidence held by NYPD and NY FBI field office of gross criminal conduct by Hillary Clinton. (Weiner Laptop etc) Buried by SDNY Clinton Allies.

With Special Counsel Mueller having exhausted most of his investigative leverage, Giuliani enters to negotiate Mueller’s exit and discuss his team’s path of retreat and image face-saving.

The discussion from Mueller’s perspective will not center around Trump, but rather center around how much risk to Hillary Clinton, and by extension political allies within FBI and DOJ – including Obama White House, Mueller will permit.

Mueller will be looking to protect the interests of Obama, Clinton, Lynch, Comey, Brennan, Clapper, etc. and negotiating degrees of risk to the institutions each represents. This is the political horsetrading phase. The leverage cards held by each participant are laid on the table for discussion. Low leverage officials will be sacrificed by Mueller to protect those holding more leverage.

Giuliani is a well qualified person to present the Trump administration position within these negotiations. They are essentially negotiating who faces criminal prosecution and who doesn’t.

Ultimately protecting Obama and Clinton will be of higher importance to Mueller. If Mueller doesn’t protect Clinton, he knows her team will destroy everyone if she goes down. That scorched earth approach is a historic part of Team Clinton’s leverage. The stronger the evidence is against Clinton the more people Mueller will have to give up to protect her. The stronger the evidence against the corrupt institutions, the bigger the officials Mueller will have to sacrifice to save them.

Negotiating all this with Robert Mueller will likely be Rudy Giuliani’s primary job.

Likely the general public will never know the ultimate deal decisions. We will only be able to gauge the scale of corruption by the officials Mueller agrees to sacrifice.

Led by Representative Ron DeSantis congress has sent a criminal referral letter (full pdf below) to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Federal Prosecutor John Huber.

The identified targets of the referral include: •former FBI Director James Comey; •former Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe; •former Attorney General Loretta Lynch; •former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; •current FBI Agent Peter Strzok; and •current DOJ Attorney Lisa Page (former Special Counsel to Andrew McCabe).

The identified reasoning for each of the referrals is outlined in the letter below.  However, the risk to James Comey is not simply contained within the letter, but also contained within the non-discussed fact that FBI chief-legal-counsel James Baker is a cooperating witness for IG Horowitz and Huber.

One of the lesser discussed aspects to the ongoing investigative overview is how a few key people, with direct and specific knowledge of the events that took place within the FBI and DOJ activity, remain inside the institutions as they are being investigated.

Those key DOJ and FBI officials have been removed from their position, yet remain inside with no identified or explained responsibility.

Peter Strzok (FBI), Lisa Page (DOJ/FBI), Bruce Ohr (DOJ) and James Baker (FBI) are still employed. Insofar as they are within the DOJ/FBI system it’s more than highly likely they are being retained for their cooperation in exchange for some form of immunity.

Other identified co-conspirators left their positions as soon as the IG discoveries began hitting the headlines in December ’17, and January ’18.

Those who quit include, but not limited to:  James Comey’s chief-of-staff, James Rybicki (resigned); FBI Director of Communications Michael Kortan (resigned); DOJ-NSD Asst Attorney David Laufman (resigned).  Each of those officials was named and outlined within the Page/Strzok text messages as a key participant, and quit as soon as the scope of the internal Inspection Division (INSD) investigative material was identified by media.

Prior to the IG/INSD release, other resignations were earlier: DOJ-NSD head Mary McCord (April ’17) and DOJ-NSD head John Carlin (Oct 16).

Dana Boente, the current FBI chief legal counsel was inside Main Justice and specifically inside the DOJ-NSD apparatus the entire time the 2015, 2016 and 2017 political schemes were happening.  Therefore Boente has the full scope of understanding and dirt on Sally Yates, John Carlin, Mary McCord et al.  Boente’s understanding obviously bolstered by DOJ-NSD Deputy Attorney Bruce Ohr, who, not coincidentally, is also removed from position but still remains employed.

Mr. Boente’s understanding of the DOJ-NSD activity, and the sentiment of the “small group” toward him, is represented by the actions they all took to try and diminish Boente during the transitional phase between the Obama and Trump administrations.

However, regarding the current congressional criminal referral of James Comey, the key element of risk is FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker.  Baker was a central figure connecting the activity of both Comey and McCabe to the officials underneath that were carrying out the agenda.

To repeat, James Baker was removed from his responsibilities (replaced by Boente) but he remains employed in some function within the FBI.  It’s almost a guarantee Baker is only there because he’s cooperating in exchange for a “deal” of some form.

Lastly, the issue of James Comey’s memos is a trending item, but there’s an angle being missed by most.  James Comey and Andrew McCabe both leaked to the media.

The self-interested leaking by Andrew McCabe clearly outlined in the recent IG report, originates with contradictory statements from McCabe’s appointed lawyer at the time, Lisa Page.

The self-interested leaking by James Comey about his “loyalty” conversation with President Trump will likely surface with statements from Comey’s chief legal counsel, James Baker.  There’s a clear parallel, and James Baker is still inside the FBI (doing something).

Here’s the referral:

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/376738736/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-FFZ6Rq14NwApiGZkM0Q6

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U.S. Attorney John Lausch had previously explained his specific role is to coordinate document production from the DOJ-OIG with specific focus on evidence documents that pertain to the “original” Horowitz investigation path.  That only includes documents pertaining to the politicization of the DOJ/FBI relating to the Clinton investigation.

U.S. Prosecutor John Huber is paralleling IG Horowitz on all investigative findings that fall into potentially criminal conduct.  The evidence being culled into the Huber files are not going to congress because they are potentially evidence in ongoing criminal cases.  The Huber evidence contains grand jury material and evidence of likely criminal conduct.

Yesterday, in response to congressional committee demand by Chairman Goodlatte (Judiciary), Chairman Nunes (Intel) and Chairman Gowdy (Oversight), for the memos written by James Comey, some of which were leaked to media, Asst. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has asked for additional time for DOJ review.

According to Gregg Re:

“Department officials are consulting with the relevant parties … one or more of the memos may relate to an ongoing investigation, may contained classified information, and may report confidential Presidential communications, so we have a legal duty to evaluate the consequences of providing access to them,” he wrote. (link)

There is some speculation Rosenstein’s notation of memos relating “to an ongoing investigation” would indicate James Comey’s legal risk might be: (1) part of the discussion; and (2) part of the criminal evidence in the larger review by John Huber.

In January, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley sent a letter to Rod Rosenstein inquiring whether James Comey had improperly leaked classified memos to his friend Daniel Richman.

“According to press reports, Professor Daniel Richman of Columbia Law School stated that Mr. Comey provided him four of the seven memoranda and encouraged him to “detail [Comey’s] memos to the press,’” Grassley wrote.

“If it’s true that Professor Richman had four of the seven memos, then in light of the fact that four of the seven memos the Committee reviewed are classified, it would appear that at least one memo the former FBI director gave Professor Richman contained classified information,” the letter continued.

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/376672425/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-y7Q0ysQQ8zPlmUilVwjp

A month after Senator Grassley requested the information from Rod Rosenstein about which memo’s James Comey sent to his friend Professor Richman, a FISA judge blocked the release of those memos to the public. {Reminder Here}

I still have the nagging unanswered question: How was Richman the source for the May 11th, 2017, New York Times “loyalty story”, if Daniel Richman didn’t have the Comey memos until May 16th?

So, you see…. there might be a very good reason for Prosecutor Huber to want to keep those Comey memos as “criminal evidence.”  One reason is the leaking of classified information by Comey; another is the conflict with Richman leaking a story he did not initially have the memo to support.

PS.  Bill Priestap is working. (Yesterday):

Terry J. Albury, a former Special Agent of the FBI, pleaded guilty today in the District of Minnesota in connection with his unauthorized disclosure and retention of classified national defense information.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick foar the Eastern District of Virginia, and Assistant Director Bill Priestap of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division announced the plea. The plea was entered before U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright.

[…] “Mr. Albury was entrusted by the FBI with a security clearance, which included a responsibility to protect classified national defense information. Instead, he knowingly disclosed that material to someone not authorized to receive it,” said Assistant Director Priestap. “The FBI will work tirelessly to bring to justice those who would expose America’s secrets. Today, as the result of the hard work of dedicated special agents, analysts, and prosecutors, Mr. Albury has taken responsibility for his illegal action.”  (link)