John Solomon writing for The Hill, presents an important article highlighting the current corruption within the DOJ and FBI that began under the Obama administration (Lynch/Comey) and continues today within the Trump administration (Sessions/Wray).

After breaking the story that in 2016 DNC lawyer Michael Sussmann was providing information to former FBI General Counsel James Baker for exploitative use against the Trump campaign, Solomon goes back to the HPSCI report on Russian Active Measures in the 2016 election [pdf here] and connects the Sussmann/Baker dots to an FBI redaction in the HPSCI report.

What Solomon shows is how the redaction, made by current DOJ/FBI officials under the ruse of national security, was nothing more than a current year effort to protect the activity and interests of the former politically motivated DOJ and FBI officials.

(Via The Hill) […] It was the same DNC, along with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, that funded the unverified, salacious dossier by a British intel operative, Christopher Steele, that became a central piece of evidence used to justify the FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign in the final days of the election.

And it was the same law firm that made the payments for the dossier research so those could be disguised in campaign spending reports to avoid the disclosure of the actual beneficiaries of the research, which were Clinton and the DNC.

And it was, in turns out, the same meeting that was so heavily censored by the intel agencies from Footnote 43 in the House report — treated, in other words, as some big national security secret.

What makes this so extraordinary is that the FBI and the DOJ would have Americans believe that a contact with a lawyer for a political party during the middle of the election is somehow a matter of national security that should be hidden from the public.

Well, that argument was proven to be a lie by the very way the interview with Baker played out last Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Baker was not interviewed in a “SCIF” — a “sensitive compartmented information facility” routinely used to discuss super-secret, highly sensitive information. There was no claim of classification over any information he provided Congress that day.  (read more)

The big picture behind this specific point of irrefutable evidence is that current DOJ and FBI officials are redacting information to protect former DOJ and FBI officials.  This is the essential point CTH has been pointing out in recent days, weeks and months.

Current officials within the DOJ (Sessions/Rosenstein), and current FBI (Wray/Bowditch/Boente), are protecting Obama administration officials and manipulating, redacting, hiding and controlling evidence to block full public review of prior events.

Solomon goes on to connect the redactions within the Page/Strzok messages to the issue of redacting the name and contact of Michael Sussmann within the HPSCI report.  None of it has anything to do with national security; all of it is directly related to hiding the corrupt behavior that took place in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

These examples highlight the ongoing problem and specifically cast sunlight upon Trump administration officials who are continuing the institutional corruption.

There is no reason for current FBI Director Christopher Wray to continue these efforts to hide information except for his intentional decisions to participate in covering up the historic abuse.  The only other option is that he is completely clueless about the activity of the officials under his authority and is blind to their ongoing efforts under his nose.  Neither of those two possibilities is good.

As Solomon ends his discovery article:

The Founding Fathers intended government to be open and transparent except when national security was at risk. They never intended national security to be used to hide old-fashioned politics.

So, Mr. President, when you weigh those DOJ/FBI arguments against declassification, please don’t forget the ruse of the redaction that was Footnote 43.  (link)

So how did we get here?

Start with how Rod Rosenstein was hired:

03:15 “[Rosenstein] was hired by Jeff Sessions. I was not involved in that process because, you know, they go out and they get their own deputies, and the people that work in that department and Jeff Sessions hired him.”

~ President Donald Trump

I post this recent interview with President Trump because so many people keep claiming some complex strategy surrounding President Trump hiring/nominating Rosenstein etc.

President Trump brought the CEO perspective to the White House. Part of that perspective is to let Department Executive Officers (ie. cabinet members) select their own deputies. Attorney General Jeff Sessions wanted Rod Rosenstein as Deputy AG. That’s why President Trump nominated Rosenstein. Nothing more. Not strategic Machiavellian deep state chess nonsense. Sessions wanted him, so Trump nominated him.

This is not difficult to ascertain. It is not complex. It is quite simple.

So the question becomes why did President Trump select Jeff Sessions as Attorney General?

Again, not a difficult question to answer. President Trump has repeatedly said why he selected Jeff Sessions. (His biggest mistake).

(SOURCE)

Senator Jeff Sessions told President-elect Trump he wanted to be the Attorney General. Senator Sessions lobbied P-E Trump for the job. Trump gave Sessions the position out of appreciation for his campaign support.

There wasn’t a political strategy behind selecting Senator Jeff Sessions, other than thinking he would likely do a good job. President-elect Trump did not know Sessions was going to recuse himself from the biggest drain on his term in office, and create two-years of DOJ chaos.

Senator Jeff Sessions wanted to be the U.S. Attorney General, President-elect Trump gave the position to him. AG Jeff Sessions wanted Rod Rosenstein as his Deputy AG; President Trump gave Rosenstein to him.

These are not complex multidimensional strategic decisions. These are straightforward reasons for what transpired. Not complex. That’s why we are here, where it all stands today.

DAG Rosenstein then hired former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel. In part due to the recommendation of FBI Legal Counsel Jim Baker and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

All current DOJ and FBI officials need to be removed and replaced because evidence clearly shows they are participating in the cover-up; either directly, or through acts of willful blindness.

FUBAR.