In December we began to construct the anticipated timeline, and structure, for the weaponization of House committees toward the larger resistance objective to remove their political opposition, namely President Donald Trump.
In the past week some of the Democrat resistance timeline has gained clarity from: (1) within Speaker Pelosi’s rules, structure and committee deadlines; and (2) today the extension of team Rosenstein/Mueller’s ‘small group’ grand jury endeavors:
Washington DC – A federal grand jury being used by the team of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been extended, Fox News has learned. The original term of 18 months for the Washington, D.C.-based jury expired on Friday.
Sources close to Chief Judge of U.S. District Court in Washington, Beryl Howell, tell Fox News she has extended the grand jury term.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the extension is for another six months.
A grand jury may serve more than 18 months only if the court, having determined that an extension is in the public interest, extends the grand jury’s service. An extension may be granted for no more than 6 months, except as otherwise provided by statute.
Mueller, 74, took over the federal government’s probe into alleged collusion between President Trump’s campaign and Russian officials in May 2017. Already, his investigation has led to charges for multiple Trump campaign associates, though none of the charges are directly related to any misconduct by the president’s campaign. (read more)
Additionally, following discovery of Pelosi’s committee modifications there has been some chatter amid the Lawfare group about the possibility of an interim Mueller report to be used as the backdrop for Ejijah Cummings (Oversight of White House), Adam Schiff (HPSCI); and Jerry Nadler (House Judiciary).
It’s important to note when we use the term “Mueller” in these contexts, CTH is discussing the special counsel team and not the individual. Also when we approach the term “impeachment” we are not discussing it as the technical and legal approach for removal of a President; but rather the political use of the process to damage President Donald Trump.
Professional political Democrats would not be using “impeachment” in the constitutional sense of the process; but rather weaponizing the process -as a tool itself- to target the executive office.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi giving a new, much more narrow, mandate to Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, to target the White House exclusively, is evidence of that political fine-tuning and House intent.
As we can see from Pelosi’s outlined rules above, she is giving Cummings until April 15th, under his narrow focus, to deliver a schedule for congressional hearings. We can infer from that schedule the background material for Cummings will be gathered prior to his setting out the calendar dates for the narrowly tailored Oversight hearings.
Following that path, and anticipating three key backdrop events [¹Cohen appearance, ²Mueller Report (interim?) and ³Horowitz report], we should slightly modify the previous expectation; while keeping in mind that Pelosi also changed the rules for subpoenas and depositions – Cummings, Nadler and Schiff no longer need to coordinate with their minority (Republican) committee counterparts.
The Democrat committee chairs, and investigative staff, can now conduct background investigations (depositions etc.) without notification and/or participation of the minority membership. In essence they have a lot more room for rapid action against any arbitrary target.
As a result, Chairman Cummings (w/ Nadler and Schiff consult) will likely take a deposition from Michael Cohen prior to Cohen reporting to federal prison on March 6th. This will help Cummings frame and schedule the substance of the hearings prior to his deadline on April 15th, 2019. That part of the original outlook remains unchanged.
However, if the Lawfare chatter is correct; and it makes sense that it would be; there is now a greater likelihood that Mueller’s team will present an interim report, also prior to April 15th, in order to accommodate Cummings need to plan out the hearings.
It would make sense, under the faux-auspices of explaining why they are expending so much time, taxpayer money and effort, for team Mueller to present an interim report on ‘muh Russia‘, while continuing down the expanded investigative path authorized by Rosenstein: ie. “any matters that may arise as a result of the investigation”.
If the Lawfare chatter is accurate, CTH would predict the narrative around an interim report would be the honorable team of Robert Mueller: (1) justifying their magnanimous investigative work; (2) a responsibility to share their current status/findings with a new congress (considering leadership changes); and (3) because they are such honorable stewards of taxpayer funds they owe it to the American public to give a status report. Blah, blah, blah… well, you get the picture.
This approach by Rosenstein/Mueller would give Democrats the best of both worlds. A report they can use to begin oversight hearings; and yet the Mueller investigation continues without any end in sight. So long as any special counsel investigation is ongoing, Mueller’s primary objective is retained:
♦(1) Create an investigation – Just by creating the investigation it is then used as a shield by any corrupt FBI/DOJ official who would find himself/herself under downstream congressional investigation. Former officials being deposed/questioned by IG Horowitz or Congress could then say they are unable to answer those questions due to the ongoing special counsel investigation. In this way Mueller provides cover for ideologically aligned deep state officials.
♦(2) Use the investigation to keep any and all inquiry focused away from the corrupt DOJ and FBI activity that took place in 2015, 2016, 2017. Keep the media narrative looking somewhere, anywhere, other than directly at the epicenter of the issues. In this way, Mueller provides distraction and talking points against the Trump administration.
♦(3) Use the investigation to suck-up, absorb, any damaging investigative material that might surface as a result of tangentially related inquiry. Example: control the exposure of evidence against classified leak participants like SSCI Director of Security, James Wolfe; and/or block IG Horowitz from seeing material related to the FISA abuse scandal and “spygate”. In this way Mueller provides cover for the institutions and the administrative state.
In all of these objectives the Mueller special counsel has been stunningly effective.
If Mueller, the team not the person, can continue their investigation AND congress can simultaneously begin using Mueller’s material to start publicly broadcasting congressional hearings, well, the aggregate resistance effort is amplified.
This approach means the Democrats can continue the ruse/narrative about why they lost the 2016 election. This approach feeds their base unlimited narrative fuel.
Again, there is very little doubt the approach has already been mapped out in post-election meetings between: Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, the Democrat committee heads, allies in the lawfare community, political allies inside the executive branch (IC, DOJ, FBI etc.), along with feedback from political networks, DNC (Perez) and major resistance donors.
♦Key Committee Structure – The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) will be Chairman Adam Schiff and ranking member Devin Nunes. The House Judiciary Committee will be Chaired by Jerry Nadler and ranking member Doug Collins. The House Oversight and Reform Committee will be Chairman Elijah Cummings and ranking member Jim Jordan.
♦Gang of Eight (IC Oversight) – The Go8 line-up will be radically different in 2019 and far more adversarial to the executive branch. Ranked by influence over IC:
- Nancy Pelosi (D) – Speaker of House.
- Adam Schiff (D) – Chair, HPSCI
- Senator Mitch McConnell (R) – Senate Majority Leader
- Senator Richard Burr (R) – Chair, SSCI
- Kevin McCarthy (R) – Minority Leader House.
- Senator Chuck Schumer (D) – Senate Minority Leader
- Devin Nunes (R) – Ranking Member HPSCI
- Senator Mark Warner (D) – Vice Chair, SSCI
♦The Broad Political Alliances – Overlaying the DC political alliances within the intelligence community Gang of Eight you see a resistance ratio of 7:1 against the executive branch.
Pelosi, Schiff, McConnell, Burr, McCarthy, Schumer and Warner all allied with the overall UniParty resistance objective; and only Devin Nunes as an ally to the White House. That’s a ration of 7:1 in favor of “The DC Resistance” against the Executive Branch.
That’s the landscape.
Additionally, Nancy Pelosi has the new House Counsel, Douglas Letter, set up to massively expand as a mini-doj,… and by using the pretense of defending Obamacare, the new unaccountable legal unit [likely allied interests from Lawfare] can receive unlimited taxpayer funding.
A smart, albeit Machievellian construct.
Background Resources:
The first step in defeating the enemy is to discover their plans.
