Republican representative Doug Collins is the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee.  Collins is responsible for releasing the witness transcripts from testimony to congress.

Rep. Collins and Chris Wallace discuss the Mueller report and the position of the key republican leadership in congress.

Chris Wallace was thrilled this morning to have his comrade, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, appear to discuss OrangeManBad and the Russians.

Chairman Nadler is one of the worst Machiavellian types in the swamp… he’s the brains behind the Pelosi scheme.  As expected Nadler wants all of the speculation, innuendo and damaging information he can extract to from the Mueller probe.

According to most media reporting AG William Barr is meeting with Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein today and reviewing the completed Mueller report.  At the end of this review, according to statute, AG Barr will commission a “Principle Conclusion” summary report that he will deliver to congress.  As of 4:00pm EST, the White House has not been privately briefed on the Mueller findings.

The summary report from AGBarr will be given to House and Senate judiciary oversight committees before wider dissemination. The Chair of the House Judiciary Committee is Jerry Nadler (ranking member Doug Collins); the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee is Lindsey Graham (Vice-Chair Dianne Feinstein).  AG William Barr may also brief those committees, or he may assign DAG Rosenstein to the briefing.

Depending on conversations between the DOJ and congressional leadership, there’s also a possibility of a more extensive briefing covering details within the Mueller investigation.  However, that briefing would likely be reserved for the intelligence oversight group known as the “Gang of Eight”: Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy, Adam Schiff, Devin Nunes, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Richard Burr and Mark Warner.

Due to the politics surrounding the Barr report, it is likely the White House will be given the Principle Conclusion Summary around the same time as congress.  The White House (executive branch) may also be able to review the full underlying documentation behind the summary…. that’s likely where the political fight for the ‘narrative’ will take place.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi tipped her hand at the Democrat approach during a strategy meeting today.  According to early reporting Pelosi will refuse to attend any ‘Gang of Eight’ briefing and will demand the full investigative file be declassified:

This Pelosi approach aligns with what we suspected the Democrats would demand.  They want the full Mueller investigative file including: every wiretap, every recording, every intercepted communication; every interview, every transcript, every FBI note (FD-302 report), every conversation, every lead, every tip, everything the Mueller team did to investigate President Trump and every member associated therein.

“It is imperative for Mr Barr to make the full report public and provide its underlying documentation and findings to Congress,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said late Friday in a statement, adding that Barr should not give Trump any “sneak preview.” (link)

With the investigation spanning 22 months, over multiple continents, that full investigative file would be like a massive grand jury library of evidence.  Likely millions of pages of documents, multiple reports, interviews etc.

Keep in mind this file also would include wiretaps, electronic intercepts and physical/electronic surveillance.  Most of that file would be innuendo, supposition, suspicion and investigative lines of inquiry.   That file would hold the seeds for weaponizing unfounded accusations etc; that’s why Pelosi and Schumer would want it.

Also keep in mind Mueller’s team is almost guaranteed to have been telling their allies about all of the juicy accusations they were investigating.

It’s highly likely Pelosi, Schumer and the Lawfare community already know, in summary, what is deep inside the Mueller Team’s investigative file.  The majority of that file is unfounded speculation that was researched; but it would be the holy grail of opposition research for weaponization; including the possibility of wiretaps inside the White House.

Having spent the past two years claiming that any republican declassification request was undermining the institutions and intelligence agencies of our government, the Democrats will now flip positions and demand transparency and declassification to save the institutions of and intelligence agencies from corruption.  Their hypocrisy is boundless.

This will likely be the battle-space for the next several weeks/months that AG William Barr will have to navigate. The Democrats and their allied media will accuse him of covering-up for high crimes and misdemeanors….  We will also likely see the members of the Mueller team providing the feeder material for this effort.

Each of the Mueller team members will be leaking information, and building innuendo narratives about their investigative activity, to the Lawfare community and media.  The ‘small group‘ effort will certainly work in concert with political allies in congress and the DNC.  This is just how they roll.

Keep in mind the larger picture and most likely political sequence:

1. Mueller report.
2. Chosen One.
3. Cummings Impeachment Schedule, known as “oversight plans” (April 15)
4. Horowitz report

#2 and #3 are not sequence specific; they may reverse.  However, the larger objective of the resistance apparatus will remain consistent.

The narrative around the Mueller investigative material will launch the chosen DNC candidate (possibly Biden).  The professional political class will work to lift this candidate by exploiting the Mueller investigative file as ammunition against President Trump.

As pre-planned within Speaker Pelosi’s rules, House Oversight Chairman has until April 15, 2019, to deliver his schedule for congressional hearings to Speaker Pelosi.  That hearing schedule is based around witnesses they can extract from the Mueller material.

Nothing happens organically.  All of the broad strokes are planned well in advance, and the democrats just fill in the details as they successfully cross pre-determined tripwires.  Once we know where the tripwires are located, their behavior becomes predictable.

(Pelosi Plan)

A good working relationship between Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham and President Trump will now become more important.

As Pelosi and Schumer wage their political battle and attempt to weaponize the Mueller report for maximum damage, Senator Graham will be exploring the DOJ and FBI corruption of the FISA court and spygate.  That angle is a risk to multiple Obama-era administration officials.

President Trump and team have genuine political ammunition that includes FISA abuse, the ‘spygate’ surveillance scandal and an upcoming OIG Horowitz report.

Speaker Pelosi and team have the fabricated political ammunition of the Mueller probe to weaponize.

Both teams will now go to battle on the road to 2020.

Leftists might not have lost all their marbles, but there’s definitely a hole in the bag.

With the release of yesterday’s Mueller report news, the left-wing media voice behind AOC’s rising star, Cenk Uygur, is now saying President Trump colluded to win the 2016 election after the election…  Goofy!

(Link)

Not a Tick-Tock

All day long, even before the Mueller news broke, Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge has really been leaning-forward, giving insight into the pending Inspector General report by OIG Michael Horowitz. Herridge is one of those reporters who is careful not to get out in front of her skis.  Ms. Herridge is not a book-selling member of the tick-tock community of pundits.

We noted earlier how the specific emphasis of Ms. Herridge seemed to indicate the Horowitz report was closer to the surface of completion than previously thought.

Immediately after the Mueller news broke (around 5pm EST), Herridge filed her first live report providing details of the Mueller report.  Within that first report Herridge stated she was previously bound to “confidences” until the Mueller probe was complete.

In subsequent reporting we begin to see what those confidences are, and how they connect to her exclusive reporting on text messages between Andrew McCabe and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page.

Ms. Herridge is strongly emphasizing a few key points that need additional emphasis:

♦ First, IG Horowitz is looking into the leaking of memos that contain classified information by “Senior FBI Executives”.  This bullet-point directly relates to the James Comey memos that were leaked to the New York Times by Comey himself.  On this first point, that would mean Comey is under investigation by the DOJ for those leaks.

♦ Second, IG Horowitz is following up on his own investigative finding where he found FBI officials were taking gifts from media.  This violates FBI policy and could be a bigger ethical issue depending on the details.  Interestingly, connecting this path to bullet-point #1, Herridge says: “by those same Senior Executives.”  That would indicate former FBI Director James Comey, and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe would be under investigation for taking gifts from media.

♦ Third, Herridge reports on what we already knew.  IG Horowitz is investigating FISA surveillance abuse that stems from the fraudulently obtained FISA Title-1 surveillance warrant gained on Carter Page.   This third point we knew about; however, Herridge then drops a bombshell...

Herridge notes she has exclusively gained 40 pages of text messages and communication between Andrew McCabe and Lisa Page.   Her reporting from earlier today only revealed two of those pages.

Additionally, Herridge reveals these McCabe/Page messages were not provided to congressional oversight while republicans were in charge of the committees.  This is huge, because this speaks to two key issues:

#1) corruption that existed inside the FBI (2017, 2018) that was/is keeping information from congress; and…

#2) the possibility of AG William Barr changing the dynamic so those same corrupt officials can no longer hide the information.

On both of those points, everyone following the story closely has noted that current DOJ and FBI officials were actually part of the corruption.  Those officials were responsible for deleting text messages, and redacting text messages damaging to the institutions.

With Mueller completing his two-year probe, we might see those corrupt officials no longer able to hide damaging details.  At least this seems to be the overall tone behind how Catherine Herridge is conveying her reporting (ie. prior confidences now removed).

Unfortunately Fox News has not uploaded the Herridge segments.  However, the key segment is available below prompted to 29:18  WATCH:

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(IG Report – DOJ/FBI Misconduct)

Perhaps there’s reason for cautious optimism that AG William Barr might provide the change needed to finally start seeing some measure of accountability.

With Mueller now out of the way it would appear the impediment to President Trump declassifying the FISA documents has been removed.

With the Mueller Report completed; and with massive ‘splodey heads (beyond election night level) happening throughout leftist punditry and political analysts; there has been some last-gasp desperate clinging-to-hope speculation of looming “sealed indictments” that might exist in DC.

Unfortunately, Laura Jarrett (daughter of Valerie Jarrett) delivered the bad news to her colleagues on CNN.  After she spoke directly with a DOJ Official, and asked them if there was any possibility of sealed indictments existing/remaining. Alas, the answer was: “no, it’s over; everything is over; it’s done.“…   WATCH:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has completed his two-year-long investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 election, and submitted his report to Attorney General William Barr.

In a letter to congress (see below) AG Barr states: “I write to notify you pursuant to 28 C.F.R. 600.9(a)(3) that Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III has concluded his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and related matters.”

A DOJ official says Justice let the White House know it had the report at roughly 4:35pm. The report was delivered earlier this afternoon, per Justice official. It delivered to Deputy Attorney General’s office and within minutes the Attorney General William Barr.

The club sure is testing this one hard:

The pontificating, smug, condescending and sanctimonious former FBI Director; who appointed himself the arbiter of all moral virtue; is apparently attempting to steer his high-horse toward the exit of a Mueller narrative he created.

In typical leftist fashion, James Comey now attempts to distance himself from the damage he created; and position his sheeple followers to accept the lack of actual substance behind his prior snake-oil promises.

What an absolute fraud this guy is.

It is stunning to think he once was the Director of the FBI… Then again, the 2.0 version in Christopher Wray isn’t much of an improvement.  I digress.

JAMES COMEY […]  But not everyone knows what it “must” say. Even though I believe Mr. Trump is morally unfit to be president of the United States, I’m not rooting for Mr. Mueller to demonstrate that he is a criminal. I’m also not rooting for Mr. Mueller to “clear” the president. I’m not rooting for anything at all, except that the special counsel be permitted to finish his work, charge whatever cases warrant charging and report on his work.

President Trump’s constant attacks on the special counsel, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department over the past two years raised the prospect that he would interfere to stop the special counsel’s work. It is deeply concerning that the president of the United States would try to protect himself by torching the institutions of justice. But he hasn’t used his authority to end Mr. Mueller’s work. (That would have been a crisis of a different order — shutting down the investigation, rather than just trying to undermine its credibility.) So we are in a position to wonder and hope about the report’s content.

[…]  I have no idea whether the special counsel will conclude that Mr. Trump knowingly conspired with the Russians in connection with the 2016 election or that he obstructed justice with the required corrupt intent. I also don’t care.

I care only that the work be done, well and completely. If it is, justice will have prevailed and core American values will have been protected at a time when so much of our national leadership has abandoned its commitment to truth and the rule of law. (read more)

With a few exceptions CTH is not a big fan of expecting congressional letters to deliver results and information.  However, that said, I hope this is one of the exceptions.

Representatives Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows send a letter (full pdf below) to Attorney General William Barr wanting to know what is the status of the criminal referral for fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

The referral was made April 19th, 2018, approximately five days after the OIG published their report outlining McCabe’s lies.

The McCabe criminal referral was made to Jessie K. Liu (above right), the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia who is also a member of the Attorney General Advisory Council (AGAC). According to reporting from last year there was a grand jury impaneled in/around July 2018.

Grand Jury testimony and activity is generally kept quiet; there have been no leaks and no public activity noted in the past eight months.  However, Mr. McCabe has recently been highly visible on his book tour.  Adding to speculation the grand jury may no longer exist, U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu is expected to be nominated to the #3 spot at the DOJ.

Given the distance from the original McCabe grand jury investigation (8 months); and accepting the current high-profile book tour by Andrew McCabe; and considering Ms. Liu is soon to exit as U.S. Attorney for DC; it would appear Mr. Jordan and Mr. Meadows are inquiring about whether or not the legal issues around McCabe still remain.

Here’s the letter:

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/402595528/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-ASs5d0vOGC2uibm1UDLP

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(IG Report on McCabe)

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/376296306/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-IkIgjc3szdKINfgMHWaC