The Christopher Steele dossier was called “Crown Material” by FBI agents within the small group during their 2016 political surveillance operation. The “Crown” description reflects the unofficial British intelligence aspect to the dossier as provided by Steele.

In May 2019 former House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy stated there are emails from former FBI Director James Comey that outline instructions from CIA Director John Brennan to include the “Crown Material” within the highly political Intelligence Community Assessment.
Specifically outlined by Gowdy, the wording of the Comey email is reported to say:

…”Brennan is insisting the Crown Material be included in the intel assessment.”

However, on May 23rd, 2017, in testimony -under oath- to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) John Brennan stated [@01:54:28]:

GOWDY: Director Brennan, do you know who commissioned the Steele dossier?
BRENNAN: I don’t.
GOWDY: Do you know if the bureau [FBI] ever relied on the Steele dossier as part of any court filing, applications?
BRENNAN: I have no awareness.
GOWDY: Did the CIA rely on it?
BRENNAN: No.
GOWDY: Why not?
BRENNAN: Because we didn’t. It wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done. Uh … it was not.

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After the DOJ/FBI advanced their defensive efforts last weekend via the New York Times and NBC, now the CIA/ODNI faction step forth with the same intents and purposes.
CIA defending journalist Natasha Bertrand has been participating in the multi-year PR effort which helped frame the CIA/ODNI talking points against President Trump, and she is deployed again in the latest effort within Politico.   The timing here is predictable.

(Via Politico) President Donald Trump’s obsession with former CIA director John Brennan could be on a collision course with an ongoing Justice Department probe as Attorney General Bill Barr takes a more hands-on approach to examining the intelligence community’s actions in 2016.
[…] Durham’s report is likely to land well after the results of an inquiry by the Justice Department’s Inspector General, who is examining the FBI’s applications to a secret court in 2016 and 2017 to obtain surveillance warrants on a Trump campaign aide.

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The back-story here is likely worse than the obvious.  In a tweet today Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announces his resolution warning President Trump not to remove troops from Syria or Afghanistan.  [Not coincidentally the two countries visited by Speaker Pelosi and Adam Schiff last weekend.]

(Source)

Of course the obvious, albeit unwritten “or else” part, is Senator McConnell threatening to join with with Senator Lindsey Graham and support President Trump’s impeachment.
We cannot say we were not warned [ SEE HERE ] it was obvious immediately after the Democrats won the House in 2018 that McConnell was breathing a sigh of relief.  [Also reminder, the SSCI doesn’t run an operation against the President and the Leader of the Senate not know about it…. just sayin’.]

In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Stephanie Grisham Twitter @StephGrisham45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

President Trump sat down for an extensive interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.  Here’s the interview as broadcast (transcript will follow):

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Finally….. Senator Rand Paul directly calls-out Senator Lindsey Graham, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee for doing absolutely NOTHING.  At a certain point it becomes necessary to accept willful blindness for what it is…. Senator Graham wants to protect the Deep State more than Senator Graham wants to protect a constitutional republic.
It’s worth noting that Senator Rand Paul’s statement comes out at the same time Senator Lindsey Graham has said he will support the impeachment of President Trump as soon as the articles reach the Senate for trial.

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Nancy Pelosi released a “fact sheet” outlining her justification for the impeachment process.  Within the justification Speaker Pelosi/Lawfare intentionally conflates investigating past political corruption/interference (2016) with the current 2020 election.

Speaker Pelosi’s self-serving position boils down to: any effort by the executive branch to investigate prior political corruption is grounds for presidential impeachment.  READ:
[scribd id=431368353 key=key-r7R3psuHttr35Dvqc0eJ mode=scroll]

UPDATE – RESULTS: Everyone Declared Victory.

Justin Trudeau celebrated an overwhelming victory following the results of the Canadian election – SEE RESULTS HERE –  The Liberal party lost 21 seats but remained the majority parliamentary winner albeit without a majority. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a “solid mandate from the election results.”  The Conservative party gained 27 seats and the most national votes, but remain the losing party.  The New Democrat Party lost 15 seats and declared the 2019 election a major success for their agenda.
It’s all weird.
During their post election speeches the Liberals (Trudeau), Conservatives (Sheer), New Democrat Party (Singh) and the Green Party (May), all declared victory.  It seemed like a hot mess of political messaging; but hey, that’s Canada.
Congratulations, I guess.
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Earlier today President Trump held a cabinet meeting and permitted the U.S. media to stay in attendance for the first hour.  No U.S. President has ever allowed this level of transparency in government.  After brief statements, the president took multiple questions from the assembled press pool. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Thank you very much. We have a Cabinet meeting. We’ll have a few questions after grace. And, if you would, Ben, please do the honors.

SECRETARY CARSON: Our kind Father in Heaven, we’re so thankful for the many blessings that you have bestowed upon us in this country. And we’re thankful for the people of courage who have been here before us, who have fought hard for the rights of our country.

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