This is one of those instances where if CTH doesn’t write it down, our spidey senses tell us we shall regret it…  There is a mysterious case in Washington DC that has perplexed almost everyone; and now Chief Justice Roberts has injected an administrative stayagainst lower court punitive damages upon the defendant (likely a company).

The case is being heavily guarded by the DOJ and administrative state.  The case revolves around activity by state-owned company (unknown country); with a triggering illegal action external to the U.S.A; but harm to the U.S. was incurred.

… […] the matter “‘is based upon … an act outside the territory of the United States in connection with a commercial activity of the foreign state elsewhere’ and that the ‘act cause[d] a direct effect in the United States.’”  (link)

The case is also related in some manner to Robert Mueller’s team.

(Daily Caller) […] Though Mueller’s connection to the case has not been definitively established, several facts indicate the special counsel’s involvement: CNN saw senior Mueller lawyers return to the Justice Department immediately after the conclusion of a recent secret hearing in the matter — an entire floor of a Washington courthouse was sealed in advance of that proceeding, a highly unusual move.

On a separate occasion, Politico overheard lawyers and court officials discussing this matter with specific reference to the special counsel. (read more)

If the case didn’t involve Mueller’s team; and if the DOJ were not trying to protect Mueller’s team in the processing of the case; it might be U.S-DOJ action against a Chinese owned company.  However, because the case does involve Mueller’s team; and specifically because the courthouse activity appears to be focused on protecting Mueller’s team, not the defendant; the likelihood is the case revolves around a Mueller-targeted Russian company.

Justice Roberts issued an order, a stay, late Sunday night temporarily halting enforcement of a DC district court contempt order against the company, as well as financial penalties that were accruing daily against the company for failing to turn over subpoenaed documents requested as part of a grand jury proceeding.

Everything is filed under seal; nothing is public, and in the only public appearance of any lawyers in the matter the entire floor of the courthouse was cleared.

So, just to be clear, everything is speculation.

All of that said, CTH would not be surprised to discover the mysterious case is related to an earlier indictment against Mark Lambert, which involves TENEX.  In January of 2018 Lambert was charged [SEE HERE] with violations of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; including corruption, bribery and international money laundering.

The case involves Lambert providing bribes to a Russian official at JSC Techsnabexport (TENEX), a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation and the sole supplier and exporter of Russian Federation uranium and uranium enrichment services to nuclear power companies worldwide, in order to secure contracts with TENEX.

If you want to go digging here’s a link to take you to more links at DOJ.  *NOTE* there are several related cases (docket screengrab below):

  (Link to DOJ to to reach all links above – SEE HERE)

The case against Mark Lambert reaches back to touch previous cases in 2015, 2016 that involved Robert Mueller, DAG Rod Rosenstein and their handling of Uranium-One matters.   There are all kinds of deals, pleas and agreements for deferred prosecution within those former cases. It is quite a legal morass.

What CTH suspects is: the second page of the Mueller instructions from Rosenstein; the instructions written on August 2nd, 2017, three months after Mueller was appointed; contain broad instructions authorizing Mueller to intercede in Russian business interests within the U.S., and -likely by design- that authority overlaps into the TENEX case.  See below:

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

.

If this suspicion is correct Mueller would hold a motive toward the Russian interests within the underlying Lambert case, but not necessarily the originating case itself. If there is a history of sketchy DOJ behavior, Mueller would want to throw a bag over it.

We’ll have to wait and see what this is.  However, if Rosenstein and Mueller engaged in any, well, politically influenced decision-making by the DOJ toward the Uranium-One case…. then it would stand to reason each of them would have a motive to take custody of any tangential case that might surface organically outside Mueller’s control.

Clearing the entire floor of the courthouse just to have a hearing on a subpoena related to a grand jury doesn’t indicate the secrecy is toward defending the honor of the potential target.  Not with this corrupt DOJ it doesn’t.  Certainly not now.  Mueller’s weasels don’t care if they muddy the reputation of a target, an adversary.

No, what the special counsel-directed secrecy indicates is the opposite.  The secrecy is related to protecting Mueller’s small group of corrupt officials; and their motives/intents.

We will see where this goes.

It could be something entirely different.

Until we know… Suspicious Cat remains, well, suspicious.

Merry Christmas, he sez?  Always, with the “Merry Christmas”?…

Against the backdrop of a partial government shutdown (not really) Representative Mark Meadows (NC), Jim Jordan (OH) and Matt Gaetz (FL) discuss the ongoing budget appropriations standoff over border security and their meeting with President Trump.

CTH readers will know Brett McGurk; he is the departing U.S. state department envoy in-charge of the U.S./State Dept./Coalition de-ISIS campaign.  We have discussed his presentations at great length [See Here in 2017].

McGurk was scheduled to exit the State Department in less than two months (Feb ’19); as the 27-nation coalition “de-ISIS operation” is now complete, and has shifted into maintenance mode.  However, McGurk has announced he is resigning at the end of this year.  CBS takes this as an opportunity to present a political hit-job against President Trump’s decision to remove U.S. troops from Syria and allow regional allies to take over.

(Via CBS) […] Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, had been planning to exit his post in February 2019. But sources tell CBS News that he informed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he will accelerate his departure due to a strong disagreement with President Trump’s snap decision to withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria, effectively abandoning U.S. allies in the region.

McGurk submitted his resignation on Friday, just one day after Defense Secretary James Mattis quit his post citing fundamental disagreements with the commander-in-chief — including one over the importance of honoring U.S. alliances.

The special envoy was publicly left in the lurch by the president’s sudden declaration on Wednesday that he was pulling U.S. forces out of Syria, against the advice of his top national security advisers and without consulting U.S. allies.

As leader of the counter ISIS mission, McGurk had been in the region to meet with coalition partners including Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani last week when Mr. Trump made his sudden decision to pull U.S. support. According to Barzani’s office, he had raised concern about the fate of Kurds in Syria including the Kurdish-led group of fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). They have been the ground troops in the fight against ISIS and receive help from U.S. advisers, weapons and air strikes.  (read more)

So McGurk leaving now is horrible; bad Trump…. but McGurk leaving as scheduled a month from now was, well, okay or something?

See the insufferable nonsense?

The bottom-line is ISIS in Syria has been defeated; that was our purpose for being there. The current issues and arguments surround who should stay in the region as part of the “maintenance” operation.

President Trump has made the decision to allow the regional allies, closest to the actual conflict, to take charge of the maintenance operation.  As noted, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will be the primary regional team supporting coalition forces and ensuring the safety of Kurdish allies. The DC machine wants the U.S. military to remain in Syria indefinitely to control maintenance operations.

The de-ISIS campaign has been successful. The policy argument surrounds: who should remain in Syria to maintain the status-quo?

CBS obviously has an agenda to sell via narrative engineer Margaret Brennan.

It should be noted that Brett McGurk was also the envoy used by President Obama in 2016 for secret negotiations (pallets of cash) with the Iranians.

I would not be surprised to see deep state actors within the United States CIA and State Department begin covert black-op missions to attack the Kurds, as an excuse to force U.S. re-engagement.  Watch for it in 3,.. 2,…

The FBI has responded to a request for declassification review of witness transcripts from the Joint House Committee headed by Chairman Bob Goodlatte.   The FBI is refusing to comply with the declassification review; and, entirely as expected, outlines the decision-maker for releasing any testimony is ultimately Robert Mueller.

(Link to letter)

…proving, yet again, the purpose of the special counsel probe is to control and mitigate the risks from any investigative inquiry.  This is how Robert Mueller protects the corrupt officials and corrupt institutions within government.

Despite their claims, don’t be tricked into thinking it’s about timing, and/or a workload, and/or the holidays.  How do we know this? Well, remember, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chaired by Devin Nunes, made a similar request for release of their transcripts on September 26th, 2018.  The ODNI, DOJ, FBI and Special Counsel have refused to comply for three months.

Mueller’s investigation always held an ulterior purpose:

♦(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.

The efforts of Rosenstein, Wray, Bowditch, Boente et al, to cover-up the institutional corruption extends far beyond their blocking activity of the declassification requests; and shows up in the lack of substance behind the Wolfe plea agreement when compared to the devastating evidence within the original indictment.

There is a clear pattern.  In addition to the disparity of outcome within the Wolfe indictment/plea deal we exhibit: ♦redactions in material evidence provided to congress; ♦refusal to release material to congress; ♦fighting declassification of documents that would be damaging to the previous officials; ♦refusal to discuss events with congress by officials who hide behind the shield of the Mueller investigation; the list is long.

Additionally, the Mueller control agenda also extends into the two previous IG reports submitted by DOJ Inspector Michael Horowitz.

With Robert Mueller in charge of an ongoing investigation, the two previous IG reports (1. Investigation of McCabe and 2. Clinton email/FBI bias) could not outline anything tangentially connected to the Mueller investigation without first passing through his teams approval and review.

That level of Mueller influence kept the most severe elements of investigative sunlight away from public review.

These officials defending the administrative state are still in place.  We know they are in place because their influential conduct is visible. Three of them are inarguable:

(1) By redacting innocuous, albeit highly damaging information, within the Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages and emails.  Officials within the agencies are hiding information and even eliminating the most damaging material.

(2) By controlling what records IG Horowitz has access to; in addition to who he is interviewing. The IG is only as effective as the material he has to review.

(3) By shaping the executive summaries of the two previous IG reports to ensure the specific material within the report is diluted as much as possible in the summary and conclusions.

In essence, and against the understanding of how these officials manipulated the recusal of AG Jeff Sessions; DAG Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Deputy FBI Director David Bowditch, FBI Chief Legal Counsel Dana Boente, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the affiliated network of political operatives within the DOJ/FBI; this crew has held free reign to shape everything in the past two years.

That is why there has been ZERO progress.

It’s been a complete con-job by the current officials within the DOJ and FBI.

FUBAR

Somehow, despite 85-year-old Justice Ginsburg being incapacitated by surgery and intensive care recovery, the supreme court voted 5-4 to allow a lower court block on President Trump’s asylum restrictions to remain in place.  Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the three resistance activists and the unknown puppeteer for Ginsburg.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court won’t let the Trump administration begin enforcing a ban on asylum for any immigrants who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

Chief Justice John Roberts joined his four more liberal colleagues Friday in ruling against the administration in the very case in which President Donald Trump had derided the “Obama judge” who first blocked the asylum policy.

New Justice Brett Kavanaugh and three other conservative justices sided with the administration.  There were no opinions explaining either side’s votes.  (read more)