Adopted today by unanimous consent:

• A Summons to the White House notifying them of the impeachment trial will be issued by the Senate and delivered by Saturday January 18th, 2020, 6:00pm,
• The House of Representatives (impeachment managers) have a deadline of 5:00pm Saturday, January 18th, 2020, for the filing of their impeachment brief to the Senate.
• The White House (defense lawyers) have a response deadline of 5:00pm Monday, January 20th, for their response to the House impeachment brief.
• The House of Representatives (impeachment managers) have a deadline of Noon Tuesday, January 21st, for their rebuttal brief to the White House defense brief.
• The Senate Trial begins at 1:00pm Eastern, Tuesday January 21st, 2020.

Senators will not be allowed to bring their cell phones or any electronic device into the Senate chamber while the trial is underway.

Following Thursday’s senate swearing-in and administration of oath, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he will try to force votes on witnesses on Tuesday.  Democrats have called for subpoenaing four witnesses including former National Security Advisor John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is keeping the construction of the senate impeachment resolution, laying out the rules, quiet.  As of this moment no-one knows the details of the resolution being assembled by the Senate majority.

CTH has been warning those who are interested, since last year, not to underestimate the scheming and planning of the Democrats and Lawfare in the Senate phase.  The entire apparatus of the resistance network within government is aligned with the impeachment effort.  Nothing is happenstance and everything unfolding in the media is pre-planned.

Just like the media worked hand-in-glove with the DOJ, FBI, CIA and intelligence officials to construct the fraudulent Russia conspiracy case against Trump; and just like those same administrative state officials and media worked hand-in-glove with the Mueller investigation to advance the fraudulent special counsel effort; those exact same participants are working together to frame the appearance of criminal conduct within this impeachment effort.   Same people, same purposes and intents.

All of the media headlines are pre-scripted by narrative engineers who have been given advanced notification and copy of the needs.  All of the players within the headlines are working in unison; this includes the resistance operative inside government offices such as the DOJ.   All media stories are pre-engineered, sequenced, and scripted with a template provided by political operatives.

It took a long time for President Trump’s allies to realize the 2018 Pelosi rule changes were directly connected to the 2019 activity and the construction of a fraudulent whistle-blower complaint.  Many people, unfortunately including most on our side, just don’t grasp the amount of time and energy the resistance operatives put into the pre-planning.

The recent discovery of Mary McCord working on behalf of the impeachment effort should have been a bucket of cold water in the face of those who keep downplaying the risk.  I hope the independent researchers and new-media have awakened to the reality that surrounds all of us.

Today begins the official Senate trial of President Donald John Trump. Chief Justice John Roberts will be swearing-in all senators to begin the impeachment trial at 2:00pm ET.

First there will be a call of the roll to ensure all senators present; then the arrival of Chief Justice Roberts; then the oath of duty administered by Senator Grassley to the ¹Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts; then Justice Roberts will swear-in all standing Senators to their oath of duty for trial.

Following the affirmation of oath, all senators will affix their signature or mark to the Senate “oath book” documenting their declaration and affirmation.    Video Added:

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¹NOTE: Chief Justice John Roberts is not the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; in his official duties he is the Chief Justice of the United States of America.

Livestream Link – Alternate Livestream Link

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Sickening.  Earlier today Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a media event signing ceremonycomplete with commemorative pens for dozens of her Democrat colleagues, and initiated the parade ceremony for the march across the Capitol with the articles.  Upon arrival at the upper chamber of congress, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell accepted delivery and began the process of organizing the procedure through a series of rules by unanimous consent.

[McConnell] “A few minutes ago, the Senate was notified the House of Representatives is finally ready to proceed with their articles of impeachment. So, by unanimous consent, we’ve just laid some of the groundwork that will structure the next several days.”

• We have officially invited the House managers to come to the Senate tomorrow at noon to exhibit their articles of impeachment.
• Then, later tomorrow afternoon at 2:00pm, the Chief Justice of the United States will arrive here in the Senate. He will be sworn in by the President Pro Tem, Senator Grassley.
• Then the Chief Justice will swear in all of us senators. We will pledge to rise above petty factionalism and do justice for our institutions, for our states, and for the nation.
• And then we will formally notify the White House of our pending trial and summon the President to answer the articles and send his counsel.

‘So the trial will commence in earnest on Tuesday.

‘But first, Mr. President, some important good news for the country: ‘We anticipate the Senate will finish the USMCA tomorrow and send this landmark trade deal to President Trump for his signature. A major victory for this administration, but more importantly, for American families.

‘Let me close with this. This is a difficult time for our country. But this is precisely the kind of time for which the framers created the Senate. I am confident this body can rise above short-termism and factional fever and serve the long-term best interests of our nation.

‘We can do this. And we must.’

~ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

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As the House debated the fiasco of their vote to submit two articles of impeachment to the Senate chamber, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy rises in opposition:

Today Nancy Pelosi announced seven House “impeachment managers” who will transmit the two articles of impeachment from the House to the Senate.

Speaker Pelosi selected: Adam Schiff (HPSCI Chairman – lead), Jerry Nadler (HJC Chairman), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX).

It does not seem accidental that Pelosi’s team of Lawfare advisors selected Adam Schiff and Zoe Lofgren who are two of the key people who helped construct the fraudulent whistle-blower complaint; and both of whom would be fact witnesses if the ‘whistle-blower’ is called into question. By announcing them as prosecutors for the House Pelosi is attempting to isolate them from testimony.

As we predicted in early 2019, the democrats will use great fanfare to create a spectacle of delivering the physical impeachment articles to the Senate.  Remember Pelosi with the parade and big gavel in 2010 on the day they passed the partisan Obamacare bill?

Today’s grand optical parade will be promoted for the same intents and purposes.

There was a major discrepancy in the Inspector General report on FISA abuse, that appears to have been overlooked and casts a considerable cloud upon the DOJ Office of Inspector General and Michael Horowitz.

In chapter ten of the report, on page #312 you will find the following information.  The claim is that no-one in the FBI initiated any use of “Confidential Human Sources” into the campaign prior to opening the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.  Read Carefully:

(Page #312 – pdf link)

“In our review, we did not find any evidence that the FBI used CHSs or UCEs to interact with members of the Trump campaign prior to the opening of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”…

However, in the very next chapter (#11, page #400), in the original IG report as released on December 9th, 2019, you will find the following statement:

(Page #400 – pdf link)

The two statements are completely contradictory.

Carter Page and George Papadopoulos started working for the Trump campaign in early March 2016.  The Crossfire Hurricane investigation began on July 28th, 2016.

If the FBI tasked CHS’s before and after they were affiliated with the Trump campaign, that was certainly before the opening of Crossfire Hurricane.   That statement was also included in the original Executive Summary (page xvi) as below:

The IG report was modified after publication to change this paragraph to:

“We determined that the Crossfire Hurricane team tasked several CHSs and UCEs during the 2016 presidential campaign, which resulted in multiple interactions with Carter Page and Papadopoulos, both during and afterthe time they were affiliated with the Trump campaign”…

However, that still presents an issue with this statement:

“In our review, we did not find any evidence that the FBI used CHSs or UCEs to interact with members of the Trump campaign prior to the opening of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.  All of the members of the Crossfire Hurricane team told the OIG that no investigative steps of any type were taken prior to receipt of the predicating information for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation on July 28, 2016, and we found no evidence to the contrary.

If no investigative steps “of any type” were taken prior to July 28th, 2016, then how does George Papadopoulos run afoul of meeting(s) being monitored in March 2016 with the “overseas professor” Joseph Mifsud (DOJ Statement of Offense – Papadopoulos):

Indeed the original IG report text would indicate that George Papadopoulos was subject to Confidential Human Sources (CHS’s) and/or Undercover Employees (UCE’s) during the earliest part of his activity with the Trump campaign (literally within a week), and would refute the claim “we did not find any evidence that the FBI used CHSs or UCEs to interact with members of the Trump campaign prior to the opening of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation” (July 31st, 2016).

That revelation and conflict is likely why the IG had to modify the text of the report after publishing it.

By modifying the language to “during and after“, the tasks against Papadopoulos could be somewhat reconciled…. so long as the IG report also stated that Mifsud was not a tasked source against Papadopoulos in March…. however, how did the DOJ know about the content of the conversation in order to use it against Papadopoulos in 2017?

The FBI sticking to the statement that: “all of the members of the Crossfire Hurricane team told the OIG that no investigative steps of any type were taken prior to receipt of the predicating information for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation on July 28, 2016” is a very strong motive to bury Maltese Professor Joseph Mifsud.

Is that why Mifsud was disappeared?

Was Mifsud disappeared because the DOJ and FBI needed to cover-up the use of any CHS prior to the official opening of Crossfire Hurricane on July 31st?

Is that why Mifsud went into hiding?

Is that why Mifsud recorded a police statement with his attorney before he went into hiding?

Is that why AG Bill Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham went to listen to that recording?

Keep in mind this is AG Bill Barr’s DOJ inspector general now saying no CHS’s were used prior to the opening of Crossfire Hurricane.

Is that why U.S. Attorney John Durham said:

“I have the utmost respect for the mission of the Office of Inspector General and the comprehensive work that went into the report prepared by Mr. Horowitz and his staff. However, our investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department.

Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.”(link)

Was the original IG report correct when it said twice that: “we determined that the Crossfire Hurricane team tasked several CHSs and UCEs during the 2016 presidential campaign, which resulted in multiple interactions with Carter Page and Papadopoulos, both before and after the time they were affiliated with the Trump campaign” ?

It seems unlikely a mistake of that importance, on a key and very specific issue, could be made twice in an heavily reviewed inspector general report.  However, if the IG didn’t change the text then this statement would be a lie:

The FBI wouldn’t try to lie and cover-up to protect themselves right?

Right?

Boy, if the FBI is lying to the IG about predictation that would put Durham and Barr in a precarious position.

Preserve the institution, or highlight that FBI leadership have lied?

Is that why FBI Agent SSA-1, Joseph Pientka, the primary culprit in this mess, was shipped to San Francisco and then scrubbed?

I mean we’re putting a ton of ‘hope’ on the moral character of John Durham and Bill Barr to tell the truth here…. and there are clear and present signals the current FBI backstory is full of lies, bigger than what is currently known.

Joseph Mifsud is the key.  No surprise he disappeared.

What would the intelligence community, especially the CIA and FBI, do to retain their lies?

Unfortunately, I think we all know the answers to most of those questions.

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I think what we don’t see happening is shouting at us….

….the question is: are we brave enough to hear the silence.

Do Laura Ingraham and Mary McCord have a history together in/around Washington DC schools, law firms, clerks, social circles etc?

Because obviously Ingraham doesn’t want Devin Nunes to discuss the revelations about former DOJ-NSD head Mary McCord now working with Adam Schiff on the impeachment agenda.  WATCH [@02:50]

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Then again, it could be her typical Hannitus Interruptus style of self-important talking that destroys the opportunity for decent information. :::Sigh:::

The key to understanding the corrupt endeavor behind the fraudulent “whistle-blower” complaint, doesn’t actually originate with ICIG Atkinson. The key person is the former head of the DOJ National Security Division, Mary McCord.

Prior to becoming IC Inspector General, Michael Atkinson was the Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division, Mary McCord.

It is very safe to say Mary McCord and Michael Atkinson have a working relationship from their time together in 2016 and 2017 at the DOJ-NSD. Atkinson was Mary McCord’s senior legal counsel; essentially her lawyer.

McCord was the senior intelligence officer who accompanied Sally Yates to the White House in 2017 to confront then White House Counsel Don McGahn about the issues with Michael Flynn and the drummed up controversy over the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak phone call.

Additionally, Mary McCord, Sally Yates and Michael Atkinson worked together to promote the narrative around the incoming Trump administration “Logan Act” violations. This silly claim (undermining Obama policy during the transition) was the heavily promoted, albeit manufactured, reason why Yates and McCord were presumably concerned about Flynn’s contact with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. It was nonsense.

However, McCord didn’t just disappear in 2017 when she retired from the DOJ-NSD. She resurfaced as part of the Lawfare group assembly after the mid-term election in 2018.

THIS IS THE KEY.

Mary McCord joined the House effort to impeach President Trump; as noted in this article from Politico:

“I think people do see that this is a critical time in our history,” said Mary McCord, a former DOJ official who helped oversee the FBI’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and now is listed as a top outside counsel for the House in key legal fights tied to impeachment. “We see the breakdown of the whole rule of law. We see the breakdown in adherence to the Constitution and also constitutional values.”

“That’s why you’re seeing lawyers come out and being very willing to put in extraordinary amounts of time and effort to litigate these cases,” she added. (link)

Former DOJ-NSD Head Mary McCord is currently working for the House Committee (Adam Schiff) who created the impeachment scheme.

Now it becomes critical to overlay that detail with how the “whistle-blower” complain was organized. Mary McCord’s former NSD attorney, Michael Atkinson, is the intelligence community inspector general who brings forth the complaint.

The “whistle-blower” had prior contact with the staff of the committee. This is admitted. So essentially the “whistle-blower” almost certainly had contact with Mary McCord; and then ICIG Michael Atkinson modified the whistle-blower rules to facilitate the outcome.

There is the origination. That’s where the fraud starts.

The coordination between Mary McCord, the Whistle-blower and Michael Atkinson is why HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff will not release the transcript from Atkinson’s testimony.

It now looks like the Lawfare network constructed the ‘whistle-blower’ complaint aka a Schiff Dossier, and handed it to allied CIA operative Eric Ciaramella to file as a formal IC complaint. This process is almost identical to the Fusion-GPS/Lawfare network handing the Steele Dossier to the FBI to use as the evidence for the 2016/2017 Russia conspiracy.

Atkinson’s conflict-of-self-interest, and/or possible blackmail upon him by deep state actors who most certainly know his compromise, likely influenced his approach to this whistleblower complaint. That would explain why the Dept. of Justice Office of Legal Counsel so strongly rebuked Atkinson’s interpretation of his responsibility with the complaint.

In the Justice Department’s OLC opinion, they point out that Atkinson’s internal justification for accepting the whistleblower complaint was poor legal judgement. [See Here] I would say Atkinson’s decision is directly related to his own risk exposure:

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Michael Atkinson was moved from DOJ-NSD to become the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) in 2018. What we end up with is a brutally obvious, convoluted, network of corrupt officials; each carrying an independent reason to cover their institutional asses… each individual interest forms a collective fraudulent scheme inside the machinery of government.

Michael Atkinson and Mary McCord worked together in 2016/2017 on the stop-Trump surveillance operation (FISA application via DOJ-NSD). Then, following the 2018 mid-term election, in 2019 Mary McCord and Michael Atkinson team up again on another stop-Trump operation, each in a different position, and -working with others- coordinate the House impeachment plan via the ‘whistle-blower’ complaint.

While Devin Nunes is focused on the false statements of ICIG Michael Atkinson, the key is the contact between the ‘whistle-blower’ (Eric Ciaramella) and the House Intelligence Committee via Mary McCord.

There’s a very strong likelihood this entire impeachment construct was manufactured out of nothing.

National Security Council resistance member Alexander Vindman starts a rumor about the Trump-Zelenskyy phone call, which he shares with CIA operative Eric Ciaramella (a John Brennan resistance associate). Ciaramella then makes contact with resistance ally Mary McCord in her role within the House. McCord then helps Ciaramella create a fraudulent whistle-blower complaint via her former colleague, now ICIG, Michael Atkinson….

…And that’s how this impeachment operation gets started.

Moments ago, citing prosecutorial vindictiveness and the DOJ changing their position on sentencing, lawyers for Lt. General Michael Flynn filed a motion to withdraw the guilty plea. (pdf link – PDF embed link below)

This is good news.  Withdrawing the plea will now force the government to prove its case.

(link to cloud pdf)

Prosecutor Brandon Van Grack knowingly sought to induce false statements from Flynn relating to his FARA registration.  When Michael Flynn refused to lie about the FARA registration and other material matters related to his business partner Bijan Rafiekian (Flynn Intel Group), the government retaliated against Mr. Flynn.

“Only after new counsel appeared, did the government for the first time demand an admission and testimony from Mr. Flynn that he knew and intended when he signed the FARA registration form that it contained several material false statements.  Not only was that demanded testimony a lie, but also, the prosecutors knew it was false, and would induce a breach.”

[…] “The government’s stunning and vindictive reversal of its earlier representations to this Court are incredible, vindictive, in bad faith, and breach the plea agreement.”

It is worth noting federal Judge Anthony J Trenga previously threw out the conviction of Mike Flynn’s partner Bijan Rafiekian (Flynn Intel Group) and granted the defendants’ motion to acquit. (link)  As noted in both cases the DOJ-NSD framed their special counsel case on sketchy FARA violations and dubious legal theories.

Here’s the full filing today from Flynn:

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Here’s the supplemental appendix contrasting the claims of false statements against the governments’ own previous statements, filings and declarations:

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Yesterday’s ridiculous, albeit proactive, New York Times narrative about Russians hacking Burisma now makes sense.  Today the Lawfare team (Mary McCord et al) within Adam Schiff’s impeachment crew send additional files of evidence (pdf below) to be included in the impeachment articles constructed by HJC Chairman Jerry Nadler.

It is all coordinated. The “new evidence” relates to information turned over by Lev Parnas, an SDNY indicted former associate of Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.  The Lawfare purpose is to bolster their premise that President Trump was trying to force Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s corrupt activity around the Ukrainian company Burisma.

The Lawfare crew behind Schiff waited until the last minute to push the new “evidence” because they didn’t want republicans to deconstruct it during the impeachment evidence gathering phase. Aditionally, the Lawfare crew anticipate a Trump impeachment defense surrounding actual evidence of the Biden corruption, which makes the Trump request to Zelensky valid.

So the proactive democrat strategy was/is to use the New York Times presentation of Russia hacking Burisma to negate the provenance of the evidence against the Bidens.  In essence, to cast doubt upon any documents that would show Joe and Hunter Biden participating in an actual influence and money-laundering scheme.

Here’s the letter and documentary evidence from Adam Schiff (House Link Here):

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The SDNY created legal leverage upon Lev Parnas using the familiar strategy of charging “FARA violations”, as noted in the background of the House explanation.

The purpose was/is to extract anything from Parnas that could be twisted or construed to show evidence that Rudy Giuliani was working on behalf of President Trump to pressure Ukraine into investigating Burisma, Joe Biden and Hunter Biden.

To counter any evidence that would highlight the truth that Hunter and Joe Biden were indeed participating in a pay-to-play influence and money laundering scheme for personal financial benefit, the same democrat operatives created a 2020 Russian ‘hacking claim’ using former Crowdstrike employee Blake Darché and his colleague Oren Falkowitz.

NYT – […] The hackers fooled some of them into handing over their login credentials, and managed to get inside one of Burisma’s servers, Area 1 said.

“The attacks were successful,” said Oren Falkowitz, a co-founder of Area 1, who previously served at the National Security Agency. Mr. Falkowitz’s firm maintains a network of sensors on web servers around the globe — many known to be used by state-sponsored hackers — which gives the firm a front-row seat to phishing attacks, and allows them to block attacks on their customers. (link)

Blake Darche’ and Oren Falkowitz formed a new cyber-security company named “Area-1 Security”.  It is analysis from this group that the New York Times uses to push the Russia hacking of Burisma narrative.  It’s all the same players, just switching around the subject.

• The 2016 Lawfare group is now 2020’s Just Security;
• the 2016 CrowdStrike group is now 2020’s Area-1 Security;
• and the 2016 Russia DNC hack is now the 2020 Russia Burisma hack… 

It’s the same players, the same story, the same approach.

Go deep on Oleg Falkowitz and Oren Falkowitz HERE

In February 2008, Oleg Falkowitz was hired as the Iran Mission Manager and Special Assistant For Policy and Cybersecurity at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

In February 2009, Oleg Falkowitz left his position at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

In August 2010, Oleg Falkowitz was hired as Director of Technology and Data Science Program (J2 — Intelligence) at the United States Cyber Command.

In July 2012, Oleg Falkowitz left his position at both the United States Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.

The same month, Oren Falkowitz co-founded the organisation sqrrl and became the Chief Executive Officer.

In January 2013, Falkowitz left his position at sqrrl.

In November 2013, Oren Falkowitz, Blake Darché and Phil Syme foundedthe organisation Area 1 Security.

Blake Darché published the article “Once a Target, Always a Target” in Medium, which was about “Cozy Bear”.

Between July 17–19, 2017, Oren Falkowitz, John Brennan, Andrea Mitchell and David Sanger attended the Fortune Brainstorm Tech Conference in Aspen, CO.

LINK to Background

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell holds a press availability today and notes the USMCA vote will take place this week.  Additionally, if the House sends the impeachment articles to the Senate tomorrow the Senate would take some preliminary steps this week, which could include call-over Chief Justice Roberts to swear in senators as jurors and take care of other housekeeping measures by consent.

If the process follows the timeline outlined by the majority leader the Senate could begin the impeachment trial next Tuesday.

Leader Mitch McConnell, Majority Whip John Thune, Chairman John Barrasso, Vice-Chair Joni Ernst, Republican Policy Committee Chairman Roy Blunt, and NRSC Chairman Todd Young deliver remarks to the media.  WATCH: