They are called “decepticons” for a reason. McConnell is king, and Cornyn, Thune and Barasso are his praetorian guards.  {Go Deep}

Senator John Cornyn (TX), a key member of the Senate GOP leadership; and a member of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees; warns the White House that a vote to immediately dismiss articles of impeachment and avoid a trial won’t work.

“There’s some people talking about trying to stop the bill, dismiss charges basically as soon as they get over here. I think that’s not going to happen. That would require 51 votes,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday. “I think it would be hard to find 51 votes to cut the case off before the evidence is presented.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top Senate Republican, John Cornyn, said on Wednesday that should the U.S. House of Representatives vote to impeach President Donald Trump, he doubts a motion in the Senate to immediately dismiss the charges would succeed.

Cornyn, who spent years as the Senate’s no. 2 Republican, said such a motion would not receive the 51 votes necessary in the Republican-controlled Senate to pass. He said he was confident that ultimately, a vote in the Senate to remove Trump from office would fail. (read more)

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, is one Republican senator who previously hinted at the possibility of advancing a motion to dismiss the articles of impeachment. However, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told GOP colleagues during a lunch meeting last month any motion to dismiss would have to come from the president’s defense team after the impeachment managers deliver the articles to the Senate.

…Senate Republicans, even though they control 53 seats, don’t think there would be enough unity within their conference to dismiss charges against Trump before the prosecutors and defense have a chance to lay out their arguments and senators have a chance to ask questions and deliberate. (link)

One of the problems in the Senate trial is the participation of the SSCI within the network of interests working to eliminate candidate Trump and then President Trump from office.

SSCI Chairman Richard Burr doesn’t go on an political targeting expedition like that without the approval of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.   Yes, it really is that simple.

To remind ourselves how Minority and Majority Senator McConnell took down the threat of the Tea Party revisit these old articles:  CNN Part I and CNN Part II  both showcase how McConnell works.   Then do some research on how McConnell worked with Haley Barbour in Mississippi [SEE HERE].

The Tea Party was a risk to McConnell in 2010-2014 the same way MAGA coalition is to McConnell in 2016-2020.   Take nothing for granted.

The Washington Post jumps-in to the Horowitz ‘principal review’ timeline adding that some of the opportunities for witnesses to review the final draft report are “still being negotiated”, likely by the attorney’s for the principals.

Take all reporting on this two-week review phase with a grain of salt. Despite the NDA’s there will be a rush to control the narrative.  “People familiar with the matter” will start popping up in the Washington Post, New York Times, Politico, Buzzfeed and CNN.

There is likely to be a flood of spin from the PR teams behind each principal outlined in the report.  Lawyers for James Comey and Andrew McCabe will be using every angle of Lawfare imaginable to attempt to shape their clients image within the report.

Lawyers, Lawfare legal teams, and DC-based PR consultants for Sally Yates, John Carlin, Mary McCord, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Hillary Clinton, James Baker, Michael Kortan, Rod Rosenstein, Robert Mueller, Andrew Weissmann, Chris Steele, Glen Simpson, Nellie Ohr, Bruce Ohr, John Brennan, James Clapper and many more will all be working at courtroom rates to control any report damage for their clients.

The Obama administration will be working in the background, while Fusion-GPS takes in fees and pays their primary journalists and narrative engineers premium rates for column inches that protect their client interests.  This is one big confab of interests all positioning to control any negative impressions and highlight their magnanimous patriotic activity.

Watch and we will see full deployment of the justification defense and “outrage trap“.  After all, according to their predictable defenses, there was evidence, even if slight, that President Trump was a Russian asset belonging to Vladimir Putin…. it had to be taken seriously, etc.  Even the Republicans in congress were alarmed.

We are going to see the Intelligence Community Assessment deployed as a shield… see, even the entire intelligence community was concerned about Russia; so we had to use the FISA process…. because these were unprecedented times, unprecedented threats, etc.

Spying, surveillance, unmasking, electronic monitoring, all of it will be deemed as necessary because the system of our entire governmental apparatus was under attack…

You know the routine.

Watch for it in the next two weeks; watch who is protesting the loudest; and we will be able to identify where Horowitz’s report was targeting the hardest.  Look for the tell-tale signs of ‘justifications’ and who is deploying those justifications to excuse their involvement.

WaPo – The Justice Department inspector general has begun scheduling witnesses to review draft sections of his report on the FBI’s investigation of President Trump’s 2016 campaign — the clearest indication yet that the long-awaited document will soon be released publicly, people familiar with the matter said.

Several witnesses have been scheduled or are in talks to review sections of the report dealing with their testimony in the next two weeks, the people said on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. That could mean public release is imminent, though the witnesses will be allowed to submit feedback — which could spark more investigative work and slow down the process.

We finally have confirmation of a procedural process that allows us to anticipate the timing for public release of the FISA report from Inspector General Horowitz.

According to the Associated Press:

The Justice Department’s watchdog is nearing the release of its report on the early stages of the FBI’s Russia investigation, a document likely to revive debate about a politically charged probe that shadowed President Donald Trump’s administration from the outset.

The inspector general in recent days has invited witnesses and their lawyers who were interviewed for the report to review portions of a draft this week and next, a critical final step toward making the document public, according to multiple people familiar with the process who insisted on anonymity to discuss it.

As part of that process, the people will have opportunities to raise concerns or suggest potential edits, making it unclear precisely when in the coming weeks a final version could be ready for release. Inspector General Michael Horowitz told Congress in a letter last month that he did not expect a lengthy review period and that he intended to make as much of the report public as possible, with minimal redactions. (read more)

Generally speaking, and using the 2018 IG report on FBI conduct as a guide, the ‘Principal Review’ phase under Horowitz usually lasts 10 business days, or two weeks. All principals, and lawyers who review the report, are required to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Presuming this is principal review week one (seems certain), that would put the final report publication after the week of November 25th through November 29th. [NOTE: Thanksgiving day is November 28th]

The inspector general may allow principal comments to be added to the final report; however, the IG usually adds rebuttal information for any principal additions. Once the principal review and final OIG referencer check is complete the report moves to publication and public distribution.

In the example of  the 2018 report on FBI conduct in the Clinton investigation, the principal review was 10 days from start to finish.  It seems like Horowitz is following the same schedule.  With Thanksgiving on Thursday November 28th, it is likely the resport will be released the week after Thanksgiving week; however it is possible for the report to be released during Thanksgiving week if IG Horowitz limits principal additions.

Best guess is the week after Thanksgiving.