Andrew McCarthy discusses the origin of the feces.  Specifically, how Robert Mueller was not assigned a criminal investigation, but instead given instructions to continue the FBI counterintelligence investigation originated by FBI Agent Peter Strzok in 2016.

This investigative framework is what Judge T.S. Ellis III (EDVA) challenged on Friday morning.  The special counsel originated their Russian conspiracy investigation through exploitation of a Title-1 FISA warrant against Carter Page.  The special counsel then seeks to merge the results of that 2017 Russia investigation authority into Title-3 criminal cases that have absolutely nothing to do with Russian investigations; see: Paul Manafort and 2004 and 2007 banking and tax issues(?).  None of it makes a lick of sense.

Quietly, almost invisibly today, National Security Agency Director Navy Admiral Mike S Rogers turned over his command to Army General Paul Nakasone.

Together with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan, a small but formal ceremony was held at Fort Meade, Maryland, on the same day the U.S. Cyber Command was elevated to become the nation’s 10th unified combatant command.

https://videopress.com/embed/3aqMSV1Y?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0.

It does not seem coincidental that today, in the background of events, there is also a great deal of activity within the aggregate intelligence community (FBI/DOJ).  As DNI Dan Coats and NSA Director Mike Rogers are together in a formal and official capacity for the final time, the FBI was purging usurping agents (Page, Baker). Indeed with Admiral Rogers exit from service, he is now able to testify regarding his knowledge of prior FISA issues.

The Send-off: Friday May 4, 2018, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats delivers the colors of the United Cyber Command to General Paul M Nakasone as Admiral Mike Rogers beams with pride in the background.

You might remember it was DNI Dan Coats and NSA Mike Rogers who worked together to investigate the FISA abuses and declassify the FISA court opinion presented by Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer in April 2017.  It was also Mike Rogers who went to see President Elect Donald Trump in November of 2016 and alerted him to the counterintelligence surveillance being conducted by FBI and DOJ officials within the Obama Administration.

At the official ceremony today Army General Paul M. Nakasone officially replaced Navy Admiral Michael S. Rogers as commander, and as director of the National Security Agency and Central Security Service.

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Thank You Admiral Mike Rogers

The New York Times is now reporting  former FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker has resigned from the FBI.  This follows a similar announcement for Lisa Page.

James Baker and Lisa Page were part of the “fab five” (Baker, Page, Strzok, Ohr, Priestap) previously suspected as cooperating with IG and FBI INSD investigators in exchange for some form of process leniency.  James Baker was removed from his position as FBI Chief Legal Counsel on December 21st, 2017.  He has been holding down some previously unknown position inside the FBI until today.

WASHINGTON — Two top F.B.I. aides who worked alongside the former director James B. Comey as he navigated one of the most politically tumultuous periods in the bureau’s history resigned on Friday.

One of them, James A. Baker, served as the F.B.I.’s top lawyer until December when he was reassigned as the new director, Christopher A. Wray, began installing his own advisers. Mr. Baker had been investigated by the Justice Department on suspicion of sharing classified information with reporters. He has not been charged.

[…] Mr. Baker said in a telephone interview that he would be joining the Brookings Institution to write for Lawfare, its blog focused on national security law. (read more)

The New York Times (Michael Schmidt) focuses a great deal of energy attaching James Baker’s current perspective to James Comey as opposed to Andrew McCabe.  Remember, Schmidt was the leak recipient from Comey via Benjamin Wittes (loyalty articles etc.).

Additionally, Baker going to work for Wittes at Lawfare..

(Hi Ben!)

….indicates he has NOT been granted prosecutorial immunity.   If James Baker had immunity as part of his cooperation deal he would not be going to work for Wittes at Lawfare blog.

Additionally x2, this relationship solidifies our previous analysis that the Lawfare group was/is far more involved in the overall conspiracy scheme than all other reporting was highlighting.  The Lawfare group were the ‘outside government’ team who were coaching the DOJ/FBI “small group” on how to execute the “Insurance Policy”.

It is transparently obvious from the way this NYT story is framed (Schmidt), that James Baker is seeking to hug up against James Comey for all pending legal issues.  This puts Andrew McCabe on the outside of the circled-wagon defenses.

Big news.

Additionally x3, this also indicates the IG report is rapidly moving toward its conclusion, and also indicates that federal prosecutor John Huber is not granting immunity to the cooperating group.

The most interesting people in the ongoing investigation were those principals who clearly were in/around the center of 2015/2016 activity; were caught in 2017, yet remained inside the FBI and DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD) ie. Main Justice.

♦James Baker – The former FBI chief legal counsel and close adviser to FBI Director James Comey.  In addition to coordinating the “small group” activity to exonerate Hillary Clinton, Baker was also a recipient for some of the Comey Memos of recent release. This puts Baker in a position to understand the “insurance policy” described by FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Counsel Lisa Page. Additionally, Baker would be able to identify the level of knowledge and participation of Director Comey, and is therefore perhaps the biggest risk to Comey specifically.  December 21st, 2017, Baker was removed from any responsibility but remains inside the FBI in some capacity; he was therefore considered a cooperating co-conspirator for the FBI Inspection Division (INSD), IG Horowitz and likely prosecutor Huber.

♦Lisa Page – The former designated counsel from Main Justice assigned to assist Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.  We know from open-sourced information; from her own released text messages; and from congressional releases, that Lisa Page was the person who provided the text messages to INSD and the Inspector General. Page’s account of the media leak instructions she received from McCabe conflicted with her boss, and ultimately led to the proof of McCabe’s false statements.  Lisa Page was the connective bridge within the team joining the DOJ-NSD to the FBI operation.  Obviously Page and FBI Agent Peter Strzok were working closely at the heart of the “small group” activity.  They were the footsoldiers carrying out the orders passed down from Lynch/Yates (DOJ) and Comey/McCabe (FBI).   After cooperating with the INSD and IG investigation, Page quit the Mueller team in June of 2017.

The Daily Caller is reporting Lisa Page has resigned from the FBI.  If accurate this would indicate her internal investigative usefulness has run its course.  This would align with those who expect the IG report to come out soon [likely May 18].

DAILY CALLER:  The FBI attorney who exchanged anti-Trump text messages with another bureau official resigned on Friday, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

The FBI confirmed that the lawyer, Lisa Page, tendered her resignation.

Page has faced months of scrutiny over the text messages, which she exchanged with Peter Strzok, the former deputy chief of the FBI’s counterintelligence division. (more)

Lisa Page was assigned to be Special Counsel to FBI Deputy Andrew McCabe in 2015.  It was Lisa Page’s testimony to FBI Inspection Division (INSD) investigators and the DOJ Inspector General that ended up delivering her text messages on July 20th, 2017.

Page was instrumental in the initial phases of the internal investigation.  During mid-summer questioning about leaks to media former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said he did not authorize Lisa Page to talk to media.  This contradicted Mrs. page.  To prove her side of the story Lisa Page provided the text messages. Thus the first investigative thread was pulled, eventually revealing massive internal corruption at the top levels of the DOJ and FBI.

In broad measure the DOJ-OIG investigation into the politicization and weaponization of the DOJ and FBI has three basic frames of reference:

♦The internal investigation of intelligence leaks to media by FBI and DOJ officials.
♦The internal investigation into the politicization of the Clinton email investigation, and the results therein. This is the central investigation.
♦The internal investigation of politically motivated abuse/fraud upon the FISA court.

•The first outcome ended with an OIG report and criminal referral of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for his leaks to media. •The next outcome will be the long-awaited IG report on the Clinton investigation. •The last IG release in this series will encompass the DOJ-OIG internal review of applications to the FISA court.

Today, there is some new information: the congressional testimony of Inspector General Horowitz has been postponed due to new discoveries in relationship to the Clinton investigation. It is our suspicion the ‘new investigative review‘ specifically pertains to the how DOJ and FBI officials handled the issues stemming from the Huma Abedin/Anthony Weiner laptop; and how Andrew McCabe took specific action to hide the content therein between September 28th, 2016 and the eventual re-opening of the investigation on October 28th, 2016.  In essence the background of the “non-investigation”.

Those new IG discoveries would most certainly encompass FBI and U.S. Attorney contacts from New York to Main Justice and FBI HQ in Washington DC; and include what actions each of the participants took therein.

Additionally today there are some responsive letters to congress which deserve to be highlighted.  As many people are aware, much of the information we can assemble to understand the location of the investigation(s) comes from these public letters and the content therein.

On January 25th Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley sent a lengthy letter to the FBI asking about multiple investigative issues including, the Clinton investigation, DOJ Special Counsel to Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, and FBI Agent Peter Strzok. [SEE HERE]

An alarming response letter (full pdf below) from the FBI to Chairman Chuck Grassley today tells the senator most of the answers to the questions presented will soon come forth within the IG report.  However, the FBI also tells Grassley the internal investigation of Lisa Page and Peter Strzok did not encompass the collection of their private devices used in their communication:

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/378226882/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-lPEvEDLlQgo6sX7aAIDQ

(screen-grab link)

This is very frustrating.  Why wouldn’t the FBI look at the personal devices of Lisa Page and Peter Strzok and their use of GMail for their communication?   This is particularly troublesome because we know from the last batch of text messages that Page and Strzok were intentionally manipulating the method of communication in order to escape review.

Their efforts to hide their communication was clearly outlined in the prior public releases of information.  Why wouldn’t the FBI Inspection Division and Office of Inspector General demand access?

Chairman Grassley asks these exact questions in his reply to the FBI:

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/378227398/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-dFBfGH751AbvwhmIdcri

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Well, well, well…. they say timing is everything.

Today U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III appears to have caught on to an explosive issue CTH noted yesterday.  In building the case against Paul Manafort, special counsel Robert Mueller’s team used the pre-existing FISA Title-1 warrant that was originally applied to U.S. person Carter Page and the Trump campaign.

Under normal criminal investigation any search warrant or surveillance warrant would normally proceed through U.S. courts, under Title-3, were the Mueller team would need to show probable cause for a warrant.  However, by using the Title-1 warrant from the FBI counterintelligence operation, as extended by AAG Rod Rosenstein, Robert Mueller was able to use far more intrusive and unchecked searches and seizures for his criminal probe.

The media, and broad media-consumption public, are currently unaware the Mueller probe was simply a continuance of the 2016 FBI counterintelligence operation. Most people think the special counsel investigation is a separate issue. It’s not.

However, in addition to a scathing rebuke of the underlying prosecutorial premise, ie.  Mueller trying to keep the originating structure hidden, Judge Ellis demanded today that Mueller unredact the August 2, 2017, instructions from AAG Rosenstein.  That removal will expose the use of the FISA Title-1 warrant use that drove the investigative origin.

WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Friday harshly rebuked Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team during a hearing for ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort – suggesting they lied about the scope of the investigation, are seeking “unfettered power” and are more interested in bringing down the president.

“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort,” U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III told Mueller’s team. “You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever.”

Further, Ellis demanded to see the unredacted “scope memo,” a document outlining the scope of the special counsel’s Russia probe that congressional Republicans have also sought. […] The Reagan-appointed judge asked Mueller’s team where they got the authority to indict Manafort on alleged crimes dating as far back as 2005.

The special counsel argues that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein granted them broad authority in his May 2, 2017 letter appointing Mueller to this investigation. But after the revelation that the team is using information from the earlier DOJ probe, Ellis said that information did not “arise” out of the special counsel probe – and therefore may not be within the scope of that investigation.

“We don’t want anyone with unfettered power,” he said.

Mueller’s team says its authorities are laid out in documents including the August 2017 scope memo – and that some powers are actually secret because they involve ongoing investigations and national security matters that cannot be publicly disclosed.

Ellis seemed amused and not persuaded.

He summed up the argument of the Special Counsel’s Office as, “We said this was what [the] investigation was about, but we are not bound by it and we were lying.”

He referenced the common exclamation from NFL announcers, saying: “C’mon man!”  (read more)

The Mueller team saying: “some powers are actually secret” is a direct reference to their use of the FISA Title-1 warrant, which they took over from the FBI counterintelligence operation and applied to their criminal investigation.

With the third 90-day extension of the FISA warrant, issued by AAG Rod Rosenstein (July 18, 2017), Mueller’s team were obviously using the FISA warrant from May through October of last year.  [The FISA warrant expired 90 days from July 18.]

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/375478974/content?start_page=1&view_mode=&access_key=key-4DaehSp6U38EiB8eNVXS

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♦ Michael Caputo discusses the scope of the Mueller Evidence – HERE

♦ The timeline of Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller – Available HERE

This afternoon President Donald Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech at the National Rifle Association leadership forum.  Anticipated start time 2:00pm EST

WH Livestream Link – RSBN Livestream Link – NBC News Livestream Link