[Remember the batting order!]  BRILLIANT !!

As the 10-page Democrat declassification request (Schiff memo) is being reviewed by the executive branch, NSC, OLC and FBI/DOJ intelligence community, media are beginning to report on a previously unknown January 16th request made by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte to the FISA Court that would render the Schiff memo entirely moot.  Media just now catching on.

Chairman Goodlatte has written a letter to Presiding FISA Court Judge Rosemary Collyer, requesting the FBI application documents that underwrite the October 21st, 2016, “Title 1” surveillance request against Carter Page.  Goodlatte is cutting to the chase and requesting the underlying FISC material directly from the court as provided by the DOJ and FBI.

The Goodlatte request presents a very interesting dynamic because Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer was the FISC Justice who wrote the extensive 99-page opinion (based on the reporting by NSA Director Mike Rogers and the admissions from the Department of Justice) that outlined the intentional abuse and misrepresentations to the FISA Court within the FISA-702 process.  [Her Opinion HERE]

Chairman Goodlatte is writing to FISC Judge, Collyer, who is clearly on record with strong admonitions toward the Obama administration for their duplicitous use of the FISA court. In April 2017 Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats declassified the opinion written by Judge Rosemary Collyer.  [We have discussed it at length.]

The exact details of Goodlatte’s FISC request are unknown.  For reasons you can clearly identify, and unlike all other team communication, Goodlatte didn’t publish this letter publicly.  Following Chairman Grassley’s incredible delivery last night, Chairman Goodlatte just gave a copy of his FISC letter to CNN, and they’re writing about it:

CNN – […] The request, a rare demand to the surveillance court, mirrors issues spotlighted in the memo released last week by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, which alleged that the FBI abused its authority in its request to monitor a member of the Trump campaign.

Goodlatte’s letter, sent last month and provided Tuesday to CNN by his office, asks for any court records related to the application for surveillance of Carter Page, the former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser whose ties to Russian officials have become a flashpoint in the ongoing debate over the special counsel probe into 2016 election meddling.

“I am shocked by media reports that the FBI may have relied upon an unsubstantiated ‘dossier’ which makes ‘salacious and unverified’ claims against President Trump,” Goodlatte wrote in his January 16 letter to Judge Rosemary Collyer.

“As the Presiding Judge of the FISC, you must be similarly concerned that the Executive Branch allegedly used an unverified dossier as evidence showing probable cause that someone connected with the Trump campaign, Carter Page, was an agent of a foreign power,” Goodlatte wrote.

Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, also wrote that he has “serious questions” about whether any other surveillance requests against Trump campaign officials were made before the court based on allegations in the dossier.

The FISA court’s rules authorize it to share its classified records with members of Congress, but under the government’s separation of powers, the court would not be required to produce any documents.

Goodlatte sent a similar request for documents last Thursday to the heads of the Justice Department and FBI, at the same time as the Nunes memo was being reviewed for a public release by the White House. (read more)

Given that Judge Collyer has been provided clear evidence of multiple misrepresentations to the FISA Court (October 2016); and accepting the U.S. Department of Justice was forced to admit material misrepresentations to the FISA Court; and accepting that Judge Collyer was clearly unappreciative of the abuse of the court…. will she release?

We wait and see.

Oh boy, this is Big Timber….

Goodlatte is at the plate flexing 18″ forearms, measuring up and digging in.

Judge Rosemary Collyer 99-page prior opinion below:

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/349542716/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-72P5FzpI44KMOuOPZrt1

Newly revealed text messages between FBI investigative officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page include an exchange about preparing talking points for then-FBI Director James Comey to give to President Obama, who wanted “to know everything we’re doing.” Page wrote to Strzok on Sept. 2, 2016, about prepping Comey because “potus wants to know everything we’re doing.” According to a newly released Senate report, this text raises questions about Obama’s personal involvement in the Clinton email investigation.

The new text messages begin around Page 119 of the pdf below:

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/371002694/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-rnGpaGY4OR6P8VD4nYT5

Senator Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has a very narrow focus on the DOJ/FBI ‘small team’ involvement into the 2016 election.  Johnson’s authority focuses on how the group inside the FBI worked to exonerate Hillary Clinton despite evidence of intentional wrongdoing.

However, within that investigative oversight, Chairman Johnson is bringing to light all of the communication within the ‘small group’ which includes the text messages between lead FBI investigator Peter Strzok and lead legal counsel Lisa Page during their efforts.

Toward that end, Chairman Johnson has released an interim report on findings (Senate Link Here), and as outlined below in the embedded pdf.

WASHINGTON DC – U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released a majority staff report Wednesday titled “The Clinton Email Scandal And The FBI’s Investigation Of It,” along with text messages between two agents that shed light on the investigation.

The report details the congressional investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server and the oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s involvement with their investigation of Secretary Clinton’s private server.

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/371001146/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-wPO2i7VBs9qTcBOINCtL

The report outlines how information available to the committee at this time raises serious questions about how the FBI applied the rule of law in its investigation. The majority staff report found that:

• The FBI did not use a grand jury to compel testimony and obtain the vast majority of evidence, choosing instead to offer immunity deals and allow fact witnesses to join key interviews.

• There were substantial edits to former FBI Director James Comey’s public statement that served to downplay the severity of Secretary Clinton’s actions, and that the first draft of the memo was distributed for editing two months before key witnesses were interviewed.

• Director Comey stated that he had not consulted with the Justice Department or White House, when text messages among FBI agents involved in the investigation suggest otherwise. Two key investigators discuss an “insurance policy” against the “risk” of a Trump presidency, and “OUR task.”

• Messages discuss “unfinished business,” “an investigation leading to impeachment,” and “my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.” The messages strongly underscore the need to obtain still-missing text messages and other information regarding the FBI’s actions and investigations into the Clinton email scandal and Russian involvement in the November 2016 election.

• Senior FBI officials—likely including Deputy Director Andrew McCabe— knew about newly discovered emails on a laptop belonging to former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner for almost a month before Director Comey notified Congress.

Sharyl Attkisson does a great job staying at a high-level and focusing on the big picture of how the DOJ and FBI are subordinate to the oversight of congress.   The intelligence apparatus is not a 4th branch of government, they a part of the Executive Branch and subject to the oversight of the Legislative Branch (Intelligence Committee and Judiciary Committee in this example).

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Focusing on the FISA “Title 1” surveillance application, and the use of the “Clinton-Steele Dossier”, is much more important than most media are willing to outline. Attkisson knows how many more relevant implications and discoveries are within that application.

The FBI corrupt use of FISA surveillance authority, writ large, is also why Chairman Nunes began with the FISA “Title 1” application; and why Grassley is enhancing the HPSCI investigative memo with more validation and details. The FISA surveillance application against Carter Page, and the combination of the Clinton-Steele Dossier therein, is how all of that gets exposed.

There is a deluge of information now coming out of months-long parallel investigations by the House (Nunes and Goodlatte), and Senate (Grassley and Johnson), along with DOJ Inspector General Horowitz.  It can be easy to get lost amid the deluge.

Representative Jim Jordan gives a solid summary of how the information intersects amid the “small group” within a corrupt upper-tier of FBI officials.  WATCH:

A very confident House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes appears on Fox News with Laura Ingraham to discuss the HPSCI Memo and the latest declassified release from Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley.

The latest revelation(s) from the declassified Grassley memo show how the sketchy Clinton-Steele Dossier, essentially political opposition research, was used as the centerpiece of evidence presented to the FISA Court to gain a “Title 1” retroactive surveillance warrant against Carter Page, and -by extension- the 2016 campaign of Donald Trump.

A few moments ago Senator Chuck Grassley released an updated version of his memo which substantiates his prior Criminal Referral, against Christopher Steele, to the Department of Justice.

Last Friday Chairman Grassley asked FBI Director Chris Wray to remove the prior redactions and declassify the underlying supportive documents; known as the “Grassley Memo”.  FBI Director Wray did not remove all redactions; but did remove most.  Here is the newest version (pdf link here):

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/370918981/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-4FYurQaOGkqAtR5CXj4u

BACK-STORY BELOW:

With the HPSCI memo now in the rear-view mirror, and the content in the bloodstream of the U.S. electorate, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is next.

Toward the end of December, the FBI provided the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, with FBI investigative documents (likely FD-302’s) from their contacts with Christopher Steele. According to most reasonable timing we can discover Steele met with FBI officials sometime around October 1st, 2016.

From the U.K. lawsuit against Christopher Steele (pdf here), Steele admits to having shopped the Clinton-Steele dossier to U.S. media outlets “in person” in late September (New York Times, WaPo, New Yorker and CNN), and mid-October, 2016 (New York Times, WaPo, and Yahoo News), per instructions from Glenn Simpson (Fusion GPS):

(Source – Page #8, pdf)

Additionally, in late October, 2016, Christopher Steele briefed Mother Jones via Skype.

According to the released HPSCI intelligence memo, the FBI sought a FISA application based on the Steele Dossier on October 21st, 2016. From those UK court records at least two briefings with reporters, containing five outlets, took place prior to the FBI using the Clinton-Steele dossier in their FISA application.

The “late September” briefings with the New York Times, Washington Post, Yahoo News, New Yorker and CNN took place prior to Christopher Steele meeting with FBI officials early October. The implication therein is that the FBI had to know prior to their October 21st, 2016, court application that the information they were presenting to the FISA court was being heavily shopped to media outlets. This would be immediately disqualifying.

However, in the released HPSCI memo, it is noted that Christopher Steele lied to the FBI about those media engagements taking place. See:

The HPSCI memo notes the FBI relationship with Christopher Steele was terminated after the FISA application (Oct. 21st, 2016), as a result of the Mother Jones article from October 30th, 2016. Media contact by an FBI material witness is immediately disqualifying.

The question is: did the FBI submit the FISA application under false pretenses? Did the FBI actually know Christopher Steele was shopping the dossier to the media prior to their FISA court submission?

The HPSCI memo gives the FBI the benefit of doubt by presuming the FBI were unaware or “lied to“. The FD-302’s (FBI investigative interview notes), which appear to have been turned over to Senate Chairman Chuck Grassley, would contain the evidence to support the FBI being duped – OR – show the FBI knew, and proceeded in using the dossier despite disqualifying knowledge of media involvement.

The answers to those important questions appear to be the looming in the FBI classified documents behind the Grassley criminal referral.

In an effort to get the answer to those questions into sunlight; and with the understanding that Chairman Grassley has the FBI documents; Grassley has produced a memo for declassification that facilitates understanding how the FBI used the Clinton-Steele dossier.

Like the underlying documents behind the HPSCI (Nunes) memo, the Grassley memo cannot declassify the underlying information (ie. the FBI FD-302’s). However, unlike the process in the House, Senator Grassley cannot declassify the memo and submit it for public review without approval from the DOJ, Rod Rosenstein, and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

On January 5th, 2018, The Grassley Memo approach surfaces. Grassley issues a statement on the reason for the criminal referral. He lets us know that he ALSO has a classified memo that he is trying to get released! Unlike Nunes he needs to go through DOJ:

January 24th, 2018, Grassley Speech: “Hiding From Tough Questions” – In his 17 minute speech Grassley reveals important details about his investigation into Steele and the FBI.

Thanks to the brilliant work of DaveNYviii we can walk through this carefully, and watch the outline in a logical sequence.

FIRST – The Criminal Referral:

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SECOND – The Discrepancies: “If those [FBI] documents are not true, and there are serious discrepancies that are no fault of Mr. Steele, then we have another problem—an arguably more serious one.

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THIRD – The Grassley Memo: “Judiciary Cmte has access to the same information that House Intel Cmte saw before drafting ITS SUMMARY MEMO. Our committee doesn’t have the same authority to release classified information. We have to rely on the agency to review & potentially DECLASSIFY OUR MEMO”:

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In his speech, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley lets us know that unlike Devin Nunes and the HPSCI he has to get agency approval (DOJ) to declassify his memo.

Chairman Nunes had the clearance and a process to release his memo to the Full House, Executive Branch and then to the public. Senator Grassley does not have that same process or clearance availability… Yet.

Earlier today President Trump hosted a roundtable discussion with law enforcement, Homeland Security, border security and immigration officials.

[White House] A THREAT TO AMERICAN COMMUNITIES: MS-13 has brought violence, fear, and suffering to communities across the country.

• MS-13, short for Mara Salvatrucha, is a violent transnational gang primarily composed of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from El Salvador.
• MS-13’s motto is “mata, viola, controla” which means “kill, rape, control.”

They commit shocking acts of violence to instill fear, like machete attacks, execution-style murders, gang rape, and human trafficking.

• MS-13 has more than 30,000 members worldwide, including more than 10,000 in the United States.
• The violent gang recruits middle- and high-school students, primarily immigrants, and uses fear of retribution to keep their recruits from leaving
• The gang is known to regularly conduct activities in at least 40 states and the District of Columbia.
• MS-13 primarily generates income through extortion, prostitution, membership dues, and illicit trafficking.

As revealed by recent investigations, MS-13 gang leaders are known to send representatives across the United States border to take control of local MS-13 “cliques,” local units, and connect the local members to gang leaders abroad.

• MS-13 gang leaders have directed American MS-13 cliques to become more violent in order to control territory.
• In recent years, MS-13 has taken advantage of the large flow of foreign nationals from Central America and Mexico into the U.S. by hiding in these populations.
• MS-13 has preyed on American communities, committing horrendous acts of violence.
  Approximately 38 percent of all murders in Suffolk County, New York, between January 2016 and June 2017, were linked to MS-13.
• COMBATING MS-13: President Trump’s Administration has undertaken serious efforts to bring the violent criminals of MS-13 to justice.

President Trump spoke on the threat posed by MS-13 in his remarks on the State of the Union and described the bravery of our Nation’s law enforcement officers who continue to combat this violent gang.

• Attorney General Jeff Sessions designated MS-13 as a priority for the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces in October 2017.
• Under President Trump, DOJ has worked with partners in Central America resulting in the filing of criminal charges against more than 4,000 members of MS-13.
• ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) made 4,818 criminal arrests related to gang activity in FY 2017, as well as 892 administrative arrests that resulted from gang investigations.
• HSI arrested 796 MS-13 gang members and associates in FY 2017, an 83 percent increase from FY 2016.
• In FY 2017, U.S. Border Patrol Agents arrested 536 gang-affiliated illegal aliens, of whom 228, more than 40 percent, were affiliated with MS-13.

SECURING OUR BORDERS: President Donald J. Trump has released an immigration framework which includes border security measures vital to preventing the entry of criminal aliens like MS-13 members into the United States.

President Trump has proposed an immigration framework that includes the tools and resources required to secure our borders and close legal loopholes exploited by cartels and criminals.

The President has made clear that, as a part of our efforts to curb illegal immigration, we must ensure criminal aliens, gang members, violent offenders, and aggravated felons are detained and quickly removed from the United States.  (WH LINK)