Imran Awan pleaded guilty today to one count of bank fraud.  However, all of the more serious charges; that were based on intelligence compromises and national security; and that naturally would implicate members of congress; were dropped and dispatched by federal prosecutors.

Add in the date of the announcement today, when everyone is headed to a long July 4th holiday weekend, and voilà we see the all-too-familiar Potomac Two-Step:

(Via Daily Caller)  An assistant US attorney said Tuesday he would not prosecute Imran Awan, a former systems administrator for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other Democrats, for any crimes on Capitol Hill in a plea agreement that had him plead guilty to one count of bank fraud.

Only one person sat at the prosecutors’ table: J.P. Coomey, who unsuccessfully prosecuted New Jersey Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez for corruption and was only added to the case Monday. There was no sign of Michael Marando, who had previously led the prosecution.

Coomey did not object to the removal of Awan’s GPS monitor, said he would not oppose a sentence of probation, and agreed to drop charges against his wife, fellow former systems administrative Hina Alvi.  (continue reading)

Reminder Here

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte has filed a subpoena to compel open hearing testimony from FBI Agent Peter Strzok, July 10th, 2018 at 10:00am.

Chairman Goodlatte tweets notification (link); Committee Announces/Schedules (link)

Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, July 10, 2018 at 10:00 a.m., the House Committees on the Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform will hold a joint hearing on “Oversight of FBI and DOJ Actions Surrounding the 2016 Election: Testimony by FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok.” The House Judiciary Committee today issued a subpoena to Peter Strzok – a former senior official in the FBI’s counterintelligence division – to testify publicly before the Committees regarding FBI and DOJ actions surrounding the 2016 presidential election. (link)

Strzok’s attorney has indicated he would not comply with the request: “Having sharpened their knives behind closed doors, the committee would now like to drag back Special Agent Strzok and have him testify in public — a request that we originally made and the committee denied,” Goelman said. “What’s being asked of Special Agent Strzok is to participate in what anyone can recognize as a trap.”  (CNN Reports)

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks with a group of narrative engineers from the White House driveway.

The executive suite corporate media are making moves of journalists who all circle around the recently indicted senate intelligence committee staffer James Wolfe. The motivation for the moves is transparent.

James Wolfe has pleaded not guilty. A trial seems likely. It is virtually guaranteed that many, if not all, of James Wolfe’s media contacts will become part of the trial record if he takes his defense all the way to criminal court without coping a plea deal. That means there are potentially dozens of reporters, and corporate media outlets, who might find themselves -and their contacts with Wolfe- in the headlines as part of the evidence.

Anticipating this possibility, yesterday Brian Ross departed ABC and today the New York Times begins dealing with deep throat journalist Ali Watkins.

(Via NYT) The New York Times demoted a reporter who acknowledged a romantic relationship with a Senate staffer who is suspected of leaking information to journalists.

Times editor Dean Baquet said Tuesday he would reassign the reporter, Ali Watkins, from the paper’s Washington bureau to New York in the wake of revelations that she had been involved with James Wolfe, the former head of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee. Watkins covered the committee for a number of publications, although not the Times.

Interestingly, the Times is upset with Watkins not revealing the executed search warrant that seized her records.

A secondary issue for the Times was Watkins’s failure to tell her editors for nearly four months that federal prosecutors had seized her records as part of their investigation. The Department of Justice notified Watkins in February that her records were part of the investigation, but she withheld this highly unusual — and newsworthy — information on the advice of her attorney until early June.  (read more)

Here again the reasoning is simple. The indictment against Wolfe was sealed until June 7th, 2018. The feds nailed Wolfe on December 15th, 2017. Everything happening between December 15th and June 7th is six months of the FBI hunting leakers and connecting leaks to journalists.

Ms. Ali Watkins, was identified and an appropriate search warrant was authorized by the court.  Ms. Watkins was notified February 13, 2018.  [Document link]  No doubt part of that notification included her agreement, based on conversation with her lawyers, to keep quiet while the FBI continued the investigation; OR Ms. Watkins could be charged with interference and easily go from being a “subject in” to “the target of” an investigation…

Key word is “notified” on February 13th, 2018.  While it is difficult to gain a search and seizure warrant on a journalist, it is noted a judge authorized a very extensive search warrant against “Reporter #2”.  Cited statute  HERE and HERE

Why is the New York Times apoplectic about not being notified?  Because Ms. Ali Watkins was essentially a legal surveillance virus infecting all of her contacts at the newspaper for a period of four months.  All of her electronic communication was at risk of being monitored; including all of the contacts and instructions she was getting from her bosses at the New York Times HQ.

D’oh.

The Bigger Story Behind the James Wolfe Indictment HERE

By now everyone has reported about ABC journalist Brian Ross and his Producer Rhonda Swartz resigning from the network.  However, almost everyone pointing back to Ross’s fake news report on Michael Flynn in December; and almost no-one is pointing out the more obvious motive for the resignation.

Brian Ross was almost guaranteed to be “Reporter 4” in the federal indictment of Senate  former senior senate intelligence committee staffer James Wolfe.  The notorious Senate Intelligence “leaker”.

CTH originally pointed this out when the details of the indictment were released (full pdf below), and research was possible to determine each reporter.  It did not come as a surprise to see the staff from this specific committee leaking secret and top-secret classified information.  The committee rots from the head down.

According to the indictment Wolfe was notified by the FBI of a classified intelligence leak investigation on/around October 30th, 2017.  From the indictment we see that Wolfe was interviewed and confronted by FBI investigators on December 15th, 2017.  After admitting he lied to those FBI investigators Wolfe resigned from his position.

On December 15th, 2017 Wolfe was busted; the FBI had him dead-to-rights.  However, the grand jury proceedings didn’t start until May 3rd, 2018; and the indictment was sealed until June 7th, 2018.   That means six months of investigative work was taking place between busting Wolfe on Dec. 15th, and indicting Wolfe on June 7th.

On December 15th, according to the indictment, the FBI investigators were aware of four specific journalists, “reporters”, who participated in the leak material.  The FBI likely had more to choose from, but selected those four reporters -with specific intents and purposes- during the interview with Mr. Wolfe.  The four reporters are not named, but their activity is outlined enough to make it possible to determine who is who.

From the indictment [Note Male-1 is Carter Page]:

• Reporter #1 is likely Manu Raju of CNN.
• Reporter #2 is definitely Ali Watkins of New York Times.
• Reporter #3 is likely Marianna Sotomayor of NBC
• Reporter #4 is likely Brian Ross of ABC

Accepting there has been a great deal of work on the leak investigation; and accepting the purpose therein; the Wolfe indictment appears strategic in that it captures four of the largest media outlets within the net.  Four mainstream media enterprises are now on notice.   With more than six months of investigation, and with the timing of the indictment becoming public, it’s likely the FBI leak task-force caught more than just Wolfe.

Wolfe is simply the first to be identified. Suspicion: Wolfe will likely lead to Dan Jones.

On December 15th, with the evidence and admissions therein; and specifically noting the FBI showed Mr. Wolfe photographic evidence (he was also under physical surveillance); James Wolfe opened the door to an investigative path that was almost certainly followed.  In essence, anyone in contact with Wolfe would now be inside the investigative review.

[*Side-note* Consciousness of Guilt – On the day before this December 15th interview, Reporter #2 Ali Watkins (NYT), announced she would no longer be covering the Senate Intelligence Committee.]

This is important because Wolfe wasn’t arrested until six months after he was clearly busted. Within this time-frame other people would be under investigation.

The FBI would be able to use the information gathered from Wolfe, and exploit his compromise, for search and surveillance warrants on other participants within his contact circle.  The investigators would not want the downstream participants to know.

Hence, while it is difficult to gain a search and seizure warrant on a journalist, it is noted Reporter #2, Ms. Ali Watkins, was identified and an appropriate search warrant was authorized by the court.  Ms. Watkins notified February 13, 2018.  [Document link]

Interview 12/15/17; one search warrant executed Jan-Feb 2018; grand jury seated May 2018; indictment/arrest June 2018.

Another key aspect also seems confirmed.  Following the timeline from the start of the leak investigation (August 2017, per AG Jeff Sessions); to the FBI notification of Wolfe on Oct 30, 2017; and the subsequent interview Dec. 15, 2017.   The Black Hat Hunting is clear.

We suspected a sting operation because it was entirely too coincidental how the media were getting false information. Look at the timeline and you can see where the FBI was  coordinating false leaks to track:

•Dec. 01, 2017 Reporter #4 (ABC Brian Ross) gets fake news leak about Michael Flynn. later retracted and Brian Ross suspended.  [LINK]

•Dec. 04, 2017 Fake news leak about Manafort broadcast by ABC.  Later retracted [LINK].

•Dec. 05, 2017 Fake News leak about Duetsche Bank subpoena for Trump bank records. Reported by Bloomberg; later retracted. [LINK]

•Dec. 08, 2017 Reporter #1 (CNN Manu Raju) gets fake news leak about WikiLeaks and Don Trump Jr. email.  The date on the email was wrong.  Broadcast by CNN, later retracted.  [LINK – and Follow Up]

Dec. 15, 2017 – James Wolfe interview with the FBI.

Overlay the details and the big picture emerges.  There is no doubt the operation to catch the DC intelligence leakers is a carefully executed FBI task-force effort.   The capture of James Wolfe in December, 2017, opened the door to six months of surveillance on all contacts. Remember, he was not charged with the most serious aspects of his leaking of classified intelligence.  He was charged with lying to the FBI.

No doubt some kind of deal was structured where the FBI investigation would continue and Wolfe would stay quiet.  Those investigators have been working from that door being opened December 15th, all the way to today. We haven’t seen the full outcomes yet, but suffice to say with the June 7th public indictment, the investigators are now comfortable enough to visibly shake the tree.

Lastly, notice the direction of all the stories.  Each leak, and the subsequent story therein, was/is designed to undermine the Trump presidency and reinforce opposition to the president.  Notice how no leaks ever flow in the other direction; all leaks frame a narrative against the administration.

Stay tuned….

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/381310366/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-Dc7NS5aX0Co0rYCNkHbw

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller has asked for yet another delay in the sentencing of former National Security Advisor General Mike Flynn.

(LINK)

The Friday filing indicates the Special Counsel requests the court to begin preparation of a pre-sentencing report.  Lawyers for both sides proposed a status update of Aug. 24th.

However, later, in a minute-order, Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the parties to explain by noon Monday July 2nd, the reason why the Court should depart from the normal practice of getting all the sentencing issues/dates done at the same time. (h/t Techno Fog)

(source)

The House Judiciary Committee has primary oversight authority over the DOJ.  House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte discusses the testimony from FBI Agent Peter Strzok, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, along with the next steps.