A very interesting dynamic today, with a motive that may not be as transparent as initially appears. The New York Times and Washington Post are both reporting the FBI’s internal Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has recommended to AG Jeff Sessions that FBI Asst. Director Andrew McCabe should be fired.

The reason for the recommendation surrounds the DOJ Inspector General discovering that FBI Asst. Director Andrew “Andy” McCabe intentionally leaked information about the Clinton investigation to the media, and coordinated the leaks therein.  The IG referred the issue to the FBI’s internal OPR for review and recommendation to the Attorney General. The Times and Post are leaking information of the determination by the OPR that Andrew McCabe should be fired.

(NYT) […] Now, Mr. Sessions is the final arbiter of Mr. McCabe’s dismissal, shortly before his retirement takes effect Sunday. Though no decision has been made, people inside the Justice Department expect him to be fired before Friday, a decision that would jeopardize his pension as a 21-year F.B.I. veteran. (link)

If AG Jeff Sessions fires McCabe for cause, the former FBI Deputy could, likely would, lose his pension and benefits.  McCabe is scheduled to retire with those benefits on March 20th, six days from now.

The dynamic is interesting.  An OPR recommendation for disciplinary firing puts AG Jeff Sessions into a box; he has two options:  Option #1 is fire McCabe.  Option #2 is set aside the OPR ruling and allow McCabe to retire.  Sessions has to take one of those two actions.

On one hand you could make an argument the Office of Professional Responsibility’s disciplinary recommendation is (Good Guys) trying to hit and punish McCabe at the last moment possible.  However, on the other hand you can look at this leaked disciplinary recommendation as Machiavellian characters (Bad Guys) within the FBI setting up AG Sessions, painting him into a corner, to create yet another controversial storyline.

My guess as to the FBI OPR motive is the latter, not the former, and here’s why.

First, the OPR recommendation is leaked.  We are all too familiar with the IC leaks to the New York Times and Washington Post being 100% constructed by illicit schemers within the intelligence community who are against the Trump administration.  This truism is transparent from the history of the leaking.  All leaks frame a narrative that only goes in one direction. All leaks are against the people’s president, Donald Trump.

Second, and perhaps more convincingly, the recommendation is coming from the Office of Professional Responsibility inside the FBI.  Think about that carefully.

If there was an actual OPR office – containing any semblance of professional watchdog intent – then where the hell were they over the past few years while the entire organization was engaged in brutally corrupt activity.

Now, only RIGHT NOW, the FBI-OPR has issues with McCabe et al?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

Where was the OPR while the entire administrative apparatus of the FBI was leaking to the media, constructing false witness, assembling fraudulent investigative materials, conducting sham investigations with predetermined outcomes; blocking congressional oversight, and generally behaving like a rogue political intelligence apparatus?

Seriously, where was the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility then?

No.  Sorry.  Not even beginning to buy the angle of a decent department watchdog doing their level-best to bring justice upon the head of a corrupt FBI political operative, Andrew McCabe.  I’m not buying it.

The motive for this FBI watchdog leaked internal story today, and the OPR recommendation therein, is most likely to create yet another antagonistic controversy.  The FBI Machiavelli schemers are still doing their duplicitous crap.

If Attorney General Jeff Sessions fires McCabe, the controversial narrative is that he’s desperately doing the bidding of President Trump who has tweeted about McCabe being corrupt and unaccountable.

If Attorney General Jeff Sessions doesn’t fire McCabe, the controversial narrative is that Session’s is showing more evidence of his own weakness and motive to protect the swamp creatures; which will make Sessions seem like he is in alignment with McCabe and simultaneously anger the President and all his supporters.

The FBI-OPR has painted Sessions into a narrative of controversy either way…. and the leak about it seems to prove the FBI’s internal Machiavellian intent.

See how that works?

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It is easy to get lost in the weeds if you don’t follow the details closely; however, last night James Clapper appeared on CNN to defend himself against mounting evidence he leaked, and falsified the content of a presidential briefing of an Intelligence Discussion -including the “Steele Dossier”- to CNN January 9th or 10th 2017. [Full Recent Backstory]

Before getting to the CNN/James Clapper video, it’s important to revisit the specific sequence of events. It is difficult to spot lies if you don’t have events to reference. Here’s a recap of the exact timeline of events from 2017:

♦Friday January 6th – DNI James Clapper, CIA John Brennan, FBI James Comey and NSA Mike Rogers briefed President-Elect Trump on their Joint Analysis Report of the Russian Election interference. (link) [POTUS-Elect released a statement]
♦Tuesday January 10th – CNN runs an explosive story (Jake Tapper) and article about Intelligence Officials briefing President Trump about the Steele Dossier. (link)
♦Tuesday January 10th – (Moments later) At 5:20pm Buzzfeed uses the CNN story as an excuse to publish the Steele Dossier.
♦Wednesday January 11th – The Trump transition team states the content of the CNN story [claiming President-Elect Trump was briefed on the Dossier] was false.
♦Wednesday January 11th – (same day) President Trump blasts CNN for pushing “fake news” about their story; P-Elect saying he was not briefed on the “dossier”.
♦Wednesday January 11th – (same day) NBC independently refutes the content of the prior day CNN story. Trump wasn’t briefed on dossier the Friday prior. (link)
♦Wednesday January 11th – (same day) FOX News independently refutes the content of the prior day CNN story. Again, Trump wasn’t briefed on dossier. (link)
♦Wednesday January 11th – (same day – EVENING) DNI James Clapper puts out a press release and affirms he only told the President-elect of the IC position on the Steele Dossier moments before. (January 11th – NOT January 6th) (link)

That’s the cited sequence of events, and the copy of the Press Statement by ODNI James Clapper for verification [Archived Link Here]  Pay close attention to the wording above.

Recapping: On Tuesday January 10th, 2017, CNN stated President-Elect Trump was briefed on the dossier.  An hour later Buzzfeed was publishing the dossier. The next day, Wednesday January 11th, President Trump said he was not briefed on the dossier.  NBC confirmed Trump wasn’t briefed.  Fox News confirmed Trump wasn’t briefed. Later that night, again Wednesday January 11th, DNI James Clapper notes in his statement he just briefed the President-elect on the dossier moments before.

Now, here’s James Clapper last night (March 12th, 2018) talking to CNN’s Don Lemon. It is important to pay attention to the details of this denial and the transparent motive behind why Clapper would try to cloud the events. Here’s the Clapper Interview:

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The two things you’ll immediately note are that Clapper has the dates wrong, likely intentionally wrong, and Clapper is intentionally misleading on the sequence.

Clapper stated to Don Lemon POTUS-Elect Trump blasted the media on January 10th prior to the CNN/Buzzfeed story.  This is false.  The Trump Media “Nazi” Press Conference was Wednesday January 11th, the day AFTER the CNN story ran and Buzzfeed put out the dossier. For a reminder Watch:

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Is Clapper “lying” or is he “intentionally misleading”, your choice on the definition.

However, given the nature of his adverse relationship with the truth -and Clapper’s motive to lower his risk as an identified intelligence leaker- he no longer gets the benefit of the doubt.  James Clapper is intentionally lying.

Lastly, and very importantly; please look closely at the highlighted sentence within this January 11th, 2017, James Clapper press release:

Note: “The IC has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable”.

This was January 11th, 2017.   How does that statement from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper square with the Intelligence Community using that  “document”, the “Steele Dossier”, to the FISA Court three months prior, on October 26th, 2016, to obtain a FISA Title-1 surveillance warrant?

If the IC had not found the information in the document reliable by January 11th 2017, then what the heck were they doing using it for a FISA warrant in October 2016?

This is probably the single most important (and clear-cut) piece of evidence that proves the DOJ and FBI were falsifying the validity of the Steele Dossier to the FISA Court.

Any questions?

This story today from Sara Carter is really interesting because CTH outlined the foundation of this back in January of 2017.  According to an article published today by Sara Carter her congressional sources have told her of an investigation into former ODNI James Clapper and his leaking of “intelligence information” to CNN in an orchestrated effort to damage the incoming Trump administration.

Sara Carter – Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper allegedly leaked information to CNN early last year regarding the classified briefings given to then President-Elect Donald Trump and President Barrack Obama on the salacious dossier claiming the Russians had compromising information on the president-elect, according to government sources, who noted the evidence of the leak was collected during the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation. (keep reading)

Here’s why it’s particularly interesting.  Back in January of 2017, we noted a series of events between James Clapper (ODNI), John Brennan (CIA) and Jake Tapper (CNN) that appeared transparently obvious about creating a specific narrative.  CTH Timeline:

♦ January 10th, 2017 – CNN Frames “Russian Narrative” – The anatomy of a media smear (link).
♦ January 11th, 2017 – President Trump confronts CNN – “You are fake news” (link)
♦ January 12th, 2017 – Confronted by the Trump Transition Team, independent NBC and Fox News Reporting, CNN’s Anderson Cooper attempts to defend CNN Propaganda (link)
♦ January 15th, 2017 – Bob Woodward calls out CNN, Jake Tapper, John Brennan and James Clapper for false statements and indefensible politicization of institutional U.S. intelligence agencies (link)

In essence the week beginning January 10th, 2017 was the origin of the vast ‘Muh Russia’ conspiracy/collusion narrative against the incoming administration.  The CNN report pushed by Jake Tapper was also the distribution of leaked information James Clapper and John Brennan.  This false narrative was specifically the origin of the “collusion” angle.

James Clapper appeared nervous and playing CYA when he released a statement trying to cover-up his leaking of information to CNN.  Remember this?

(LINK)

Yeah, ODNI James Clapper was protesting his innocence a little too much.  The narrative was noted almost immediately:

January 15th, 2017 “[…]Four political operatives at CNN (Jake Tapper, Jim Scuitto, Evan Perez and Carl Bernstein), colluded with two highly politicized top level Obama administration intelligence officials, ODNI John Brennan and CIA Director John Brennan, under the auspices of leaks from “anonymous senior intelligence officials” – on the construct of Russian narrative to undermine the incoming presidency of Donald Trump.

After being called onto the carpet, and doused in sunlight for their endeavors, CNN has been rabid in their attempts to obfuscate the construct of the intentional hit job and defend the indefensible.

CNN has spent the better part of every single broadcast for the past six days trying to justify their role in carrying out the synergistic political objectives of the politicized intelligence community and media propaganda.  They have failed.

Well, well, well…. Now let’s fast-forward to today, March 12th, 2018:

[…]  according to government sources Clapper, who is not mentioned in the report released Monday, had spoken to CNN at roughly the same time Jake Tapper broke the first story regarding the briefings conducted by senior intelligence officials with Trump and Obama on the dossier. Tapper’s story, which published in January 2017, created a snowball effect of allegations in the media that Trump’s campaign had allegedly colluded with the Russians in the 2016 election and that Russia had compromising material on Trump, sources with knowledge of the investigation concluded.

Clapper was one of four senior Obama administration officials to brief Obama and Trump on the dossier in December 2016. FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan and National Security Administration Director Mike Rogers were also present at the December briefings.

Clapper nor Tapper could be immediately reached for comment.

The dossier, which was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, at the behest of embattled research firm Fusion GPS, was already being shopped around by Steele to journalists in Washington as early as the summer of 2016, according to reports. At the time, journalists who had heard of the dossier were reluctant to publish the findings because of its unverified content.

“[Clapper] gave the dossier legs and news agencies began to publish its contents because it had now become official news…”

But it was when CNN published the first report that Trump and Obama had been briefed the dossier’s findings that other news agencies began to report on it. The committee found evidence that Clapper, who is now a contributor at CNN, contacted CNN shortly before the story was published by Tapper, Evan Perez, and Jim Sciutto. The story detailed the briefings given to Trump by the senior officials on the contents of the dossier and “gave the dossier legs and news agencies began to publish its contents because it had now become official news,” one congressional source told this reporter. Shortly after CNN published the report, Buzzfeed made the decision to post the entire 35-page dossier and referenced the CNN report in its decision to publish it, according to the website.  (read more)

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has announced the completion of their year-long investigation. –SEE HERE-Texas Congressman Mike Conaway appeared on Fox News at 6:00pm to make the announcement (Video):

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HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes statement:

“After more than a year, the Committee has finished its Russia investigation and will now work on completing our report. I’d like to thank Congressmen Trey Gowdy, Tom Rooney, and especially Mike Conaway for the excellent job they’ve done leading this investigation. I’d also like to recognize the hard work undertaken by our other Committee members as well as our staff. Once the Committee’s final report is issued, we hope our findings and recommendations will be useful for improving security and integrity for the 2018 midterm elections.” (link)