Joe diGenova has a great deal of confidence in AG William Barr.  After the interview last night (w/ Hannity) where President Trump outlined the lack of investigative information from the DOJ and FBI to the executive office of the president, I’m not sure that confidence is deserved.

In this interview with Lou Dobbs, diGenova and Victoria Toensing discuss the currently suppressed Rosenstein scope memos issued to allow Weissmann and Mueller to expand their targeting of Trump; while simultaneously retaining optimism toward Bill Barr.

Additionally, both Toensing and diGenova discuss presidential candidate Joe Biden.

It could be possible that AG Bill Barr is keeping President Trump in the dark in order to (1) protect the office of the President, considering that President Trump was the target of a seditious plot to overthrow his administration…

However, it could also be possible that AG Bill Barr is using the concentric circles of protection around the office of the President for the reverse purpose…. (2) To protect the DOJ and FBI as institutions from the power of the executive office.

The #1 option is the optimistic outlook which requires all Trump supporters to have “hope” and “trust” in the Attorney General. The #2 option is professionally cynical, and contains the most currently visible evidence; and could explain why Barr wanted to neuter the risk of President Trump declassifying information by taking institutional control of it.

Honorable Barr, or Bondo Barr?… you decide.

Byron York has put down the crustless triangle sandwich and white wine spritzer long enough to finally discover the October 20th, 2017, scope memo written by Rod Rosenstein that authorized Weissman and Mueller to target Michael Flynn Jr.

[…]  The Justice Department has recently allowed members of some congressional committees to view the scope memos, and out of that has come the news that there was a third scope memo to Mueller. Dated Oct. 20, 2017, its contents remain a secret. But its very existence suggests something was going on behind the scenes in the relationship of Mueller and his supervisors at the Justice Department. (read more)

York continues… “At the moment, the third scope memo, like most of the second scope memo, remains a secret.“…  Good grief, seriously?  Funny how AG Barr is now letting congress look at the scope memos, meanwhile -despite the authorization to release provided by President Trump- the public is blocked from them.  I digress.

The October 20th, 2017, Rosenstein scope memo was specifically so that Weissmann and Mueller could target specific people for maximum political damage; including the targeting of Michael Flynn Jr. to generate leverage so that Flynn Sr. would have to accept a plea or see his family crushed under the weight of the weaponized special counsel.

The original authorization for the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller was May 17th, 2017. However, the released Weissmann/Mueller report shows there were two additional scope memos authorizing specific targeting of the Mueller probe. The second  scope memo was August 2nd, 2017, OUTLINED HERE, and is an important part of the puzzle that helps explain the corrupt original purpose of the special counsel.

The third scope memo was issued by Rod Rosenstein to Robert Mueller on October 20th, 2017. The transparent intent of the third scope memo was to provide Weissmann and Mueller with ammunition and authority to investigate specific targets, for specific purposes. One of those targets was General Michael Flynn’s son, Michael Flynn Jr.

As you review the highlighted portion below, found on pages 12 and 13 of the Weissmann report, read slowly and fully absorb the intent; the corruption is blood-boiling:

This third scope memo allowed Weissmann and Mueller to target tangentially related persons and entities bringing in Michael Cohen, Richard Gates, Roger Stone and Michael Flynn Jr. Additionally and strategically (you’ll see why), this memo established the authority to pursue “jointly undertaken activity“.

With Paul Manafort outlined as an investigative target in the original authorization and the second scope memo, the third scope memo authorizes expansion to his business partner Richard Gates and their joint businesses. This memo also permits the investigation of Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen and all of his interests; and in ultimate weasel sunlight, Rosenstein authorizes an investigation of his boss, AG Jeff Sessions.

Before getting to more targets, notice the underlined passage about starting with a lot of investigative material because the special counsel was picking up a Russian interference investigation that had been ongoing for “nearly 10 months.”

I would also note that our CTH research indicates all of the illegally extracted FISA-702(16)(17) database search results would be part of this pre-existing investigative file available immediately to Weissmann and Mueller. However, in order to use the search-query evidence, Weissmann and Mueller would need to backfill some alternate justification; or find another way to “rediscover” the preexisting results….. I digress

The four identified targets within the original July 2016 investigation, “Operation Crossfire Hurricane”, were George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and Carter Page. (See HPSCI report):

General Flynn was under investigation from the outset in mid-2016. The fraudulent FBI counterintelligence operation, established by CIA Director John Brennan, had Flynn as one of the early targets when Brennan handed the originating electronic communication “EC” to FBI Director James Comey.

The investigation of General Flynn never stopped throughout 2016 and led to the second investigative issue of his phone call with Russian Ambassador Kislyak in December 2016:

Back to the Page #12 October 20th Scope Memo:

The first redaction listed under “personal privacy” is unknown. However, the second related redaction is a specific person, Michael Flynn Jr.

In combination with the October timing, the addition of Flynn Jr to the target list relates to the ongoing 2016/2017 investigation of his father, General Michael Flynn, for: (1) possible conspiracy with a foreign government; (2) unregistered lobbying; (3) materially false statements and omissions on 2017 FARA documents; and (4) lying to the FBI.

This October 20th, 2017, request from Weissmann and Mueller aligns with the time-frame were special counsel team lawyers Brandon L. Van Grack and Zainab N. Ahmad were prosecuting Michael Flynn and attempting to force him into a guilty plea.

Getting Rosenstein to authorize adding Mike Flynn Jr. to the target list (scope memo) meant the special counsel could threaten General Flynn with the indictment of his son as a co-conspirator tied to the Turkish lobbying issue (which they did) if he doesn’t agree to a plea. Remember: “jointly undertaken activity“.

The October 20th, 2017, expanded scope memo authorized Mueller to start demanding records, phones, electronic devices and other evidence from Mike Flynn Jr, and provided the leverage Mueller prosecutors Weissmann, Van Grack and Ahmad wanted. After all, Mike Flynn Jr. had a four month old baby.

The amount of twisted pressure from this corrupt team of prosecutors is sickening. A month later, General Flynn was signing a plea agreement:

President Donald Trump granted a three-day exclusive and extensive interview to ABC News ¹propagandist, and narrative engineer, George Stephanopoulos.

[¹You might remember Stephanopoulos was actually deployed by the DNC in 2012 to ask GOP primary candidates in an ABC debate about the constitutionality of requiring insurance companies to pay for birth control pills. A totally out of left-field goofy question that no-one understood until two-days later when the DNC trotted out Sandra Fluke]

Well, here’s Stephanopoulos again, somehow granted access (likely by a person inside the White House coordinating with Nancy Pelosi). The final broadcast will be heavily edited, manipulated and presented for distribution and maximum political damage; with the intent to assist Nancy Pelosi and the impeachment narrative at 8:00pm this evening.

In an effort to gain maximum publicity ABC has released some preview segments to stimulate interest by a national audience.

.

[Transcript at 10:38]  President Trump: “It’s very simple; very simple.  There was no crime. There was no collusion. The big thing is collusion. Now, there’s no collusion. That means they set — it was a setup. In my opinion, and I think it’s going to come out.”

Stephanopoulos: “Who set it up?”

President Trump:  “We’re going to find out very soon, because I really believe it’s going to come out.  When you look at Strzok, these FBI guys that were low-lifes. When you look at – because the FBI’s the greatest- but these top people were absolute low-lifes. When you look at Strzok and Page, and they’re talking about an insurance policy ‘just in case she loses’, that was the insurance policy.”

Stephanopoulos: “You know I’ve heard you talk about”…

President Trump: “George, I went through the insurance policy.”

Stephanopoulos: “I understand that, but if they were determined to prevent you from becoming president, why wouldn’t they leak it before hand?”

President Trump: “You’d have to ask them.”…

Stephanopoulos: “Have it come out before the election”..

President Trump: “Oh, they tried.  They tried – and you know what, had that gone out before the election, I don’t think I could have – I don’t think I would have hand enough time – to defend myself.”

Stephanopoulos: “You clearly believe there was a group of people working against you. Do you think President Obama was behind it?”

President Trump: “I would say that he certainly must have known about it because it went very high up in the chain. But you’re going to find that out. I’m not going to make that statement quite yet. But I would say that President Obama had to know about it.”

.

Reminder:

George Stephanopoulos always operates with an agenda.  Most have forgotten a Jan ’12 New Hampshire debate when Stephanopoulos asked Mitt Romney a very carefully worded and scripted question, seeming to come out of left field, about whether states have the right to ban contraception. Exactly two weeks later Sandra Fluke and the DNC 2012 campaign attack narrative “Romney’s War On Women” began.  WATCH:

.

The 2019 version of Stephanopoulos has all the same characteristics, purposes and intents as the 2012 version of Stephanopoulos.

In 2012 he set up: “war on women”.  In 2019 he is setting up: “Trump impeachment”.

How the White House did not know that George Stephanopoulos would be used to position the Pelosi impeachment narrative is beyond my ability to comprehend.

Against the backdrop of the DOJ admitting FBI investigators never had access to the DNC servers to verify a Russian hack; and with new information about the FBI receiving partial and redacted analysis from Crowdstrike; the review by U.S. Attorney John Durham toward the downstream assessment/claims of the CIA takes on new meaning.

CTH has previously outlined how the December 29th, 2016, Joint Analysis Report (JAR) on Russia Cyber Activity was a quickly compiled bunch of nonsense about Russian hacking.

The JAR was followed a week later by the January 7th, 2017, Intelligence Community Assessment.   The ICA took the ridiculous construct of the JAR and then overlaid a political narrative that Russia was trying to help Donald Trump.

The ICA was the brain-trust of John Brennan, James Clapper and James Comey. NSA Director Mike Rogers would not sign up to the “high confidence” claims, likely because he saw through the political motives of the report.

(New York Times) […] Mr. Barr wants to know more about the C.I.A. sources who helped inform its understanding of the details of the Russian interference campaign, an official has said. He also wants to better understand the intelligence that flowed from the C.I.A. to the F.B.I. in the summer of 2016.

During the final weeks of the Obama administration, the intelligence community released a declassified assessment that concluded that Mr. Putin ordered an influence campaign that “aspired to help” Mr. Trump’s electoral chances by damaging Mrs. Clinton’s. The C.I.A. and the F.B.I. reported they had high confidence in the conclusion. The National Security Agency, which conducts electronic surveillance, had a moderate degree of confidence. (read more)

Questioning the construct of the ICA is a smart direction to take for a review or investigation. By looking at the intelligence community work-product, it’s likely Durham will cut through a lot of the chatter and get to the heart of the intelligence motives.

Apparently John Durham is looking into just this aspect:  Was the ICA document a politically engineered report stemming from within a corrupt intelligence network?

The importance of that question is rather large.  All of the downstream claims about Russian activity, including the Russian indictments promoted by Rosenstein and the Mueller team, are centered around origination claims of illicit Russian activity outlined in the ICA.

If the ICA is a false political document…. then guess what?

Yep, the entire narrative from the JAR and ICA is part of a big fraud. [Which it is]

Information available as of 29 December 2016 was used in the preparation of this product.

Scope: This report includes an analytic assessment drafted and coordinated among The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and The National Security Agency (NSA), which draws on intelligence information collected and disseminated by those three agencies. It covers the motivation and scope of Moscow’s intentions regarding US elections and Moscow’s use of cyber tools and media campaigns to influence US public opinion. The assessment focuses on activities aimed at the 2016 US presidential election and draws on our understanding of previous Russian influence operations. When we use the term “we” it refers to an assessment by all three agencies.