Representative John Ratcliffe was/is a key member of the House who has investigated the details of the DOJ and FBI intelligence abuse during the 2016 election.  Factually, Ratcliffe is one of only a few high-clearance House members who had seen all of the unredacted and classified documents associated with the DOJ and FBI activity.
Representative Ratcliffe appears for a discussion with Maria Bartiromo and states his confidence that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe will be indicted for lying to internal investigators.  Additionally, and perhaps more interestingly, Ratcliffe outlines how SSCI Chairman Richard Burr working together with Majority leader Mitch McConnell, blocked his nomination to the Office of Director of National Intelligence.
There are always a few interviews and discussion per month that are more important than the general DC banter.  This is one of those insightful interviews:
https://youtu.be/1qFMj46Yp2c?t=25m24s
Long before most realized how specifically rigged and corrupt the current political system is, CTH was sharing research -very specific examples- highlighting the origin of the most consequential corruption.  Thankfully the election of Donald Trump helped to open many more eyes. People now see what years of ‘Last Refuge‘ discussions were all about.
Years of research indicated the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) was always the epicenter of the DC swamp; where an over-powerful and extra-constitutional group of UniParty senate power brokers gather ‘black files‘ on politicians, lobbyists and government officials for use in leveraging votes, support and changes in behavior for various corporate interests.  This intelligence exploitation is worth BILLIONS.
The potential for John Ratcliffe as ODNI to disrupt those long-constructed exploitation(s) of the intelligence apparatus [writ large] is exactly why he was kept out.
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Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan held a sealed ex parte hearing with Michael Flynn’s defense counsel, Sidney Powell, today.  An “ex parte hearing” is a judicial review of an emergency request, in which the other party may or may not be present. [ie. a discussion between Flynn’s counsel and the court. The content was ‘sealed‘.]

(Hat Tip Techno-Fog)

As an outcome of today’s discussion, the court (Judge Sullivan) stated he will first reconcile issues surrounding allegations of Brady violations (unethical concealment of evidence favorable to the defendant), before proceeding to issues around the DOJ’s refusal to grant defense counsel with security clearances.
The ex parte hearing was prompted by a filing from Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell, (reposted below).  From the court’s response today it would appear Judge Sullivan will address the Brady concerns first, during the hearing scheduled for September 10th. (more…)

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes appears on Fox News with the Tick-Tock club to discuss a lawsuit he has filed (full pdf below) against Fusion GPS.
The Nunes lawsuit alleges Fusion GPS participated in racketeering and conspiracy smear campaign Nunes and the House Intelligence Committee; in an attempt to impede the committee investigation of coordination between the Clinton campaign, Fusion GPS and the FBI.  [Cloud Link to lawsuit – Scribd Link to lawsuit]

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According to the Tick-Tock club everyone must work together with Senator Lindsey Graham because the “Deep State” will attempt to obfuscate, hide information, block oversight and impede any effort to highlight damaging institutional information.
In essence what they are saying is that U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr is incapable of releasing the information.  CTH does not agree. AG Barr is capable, he’s just not delivering; quit defending his inaction. Stop the nonsense.  Here’s the lawsuit:
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Greg Craig was accused by special counsel Robert Mueller and lead litigator Andrew Weissman of  FARA (Foreign Agent Registration Act) lobbying violations; and later charges he lied when questioned about them.
The Greg Craig FARA pursuit was similar to special counsel accusations made against Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, and special counsel threats toward the same objective against George Papadopoulos.
The sketchy use of potential FARA violations to capture targets was a specific technique deployed by Weissmann.  However, the difference between Manafort and Flynn was Greg Craig decided to fight (including fighting claims he lied about the lobbying construct) instead of taking a high-pressure DOJ plea deal.  Today a jury rejected the accusations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Prominent Washington lawyer Greg Craig was found not guilty Wednesday of lying to the Justice Department about work he did for the government of Ukraine in a case that arose from the special counsel’s Russia investigation and that centered on the lucrative world of foreign lobbying.

The jury deliberated for less than a day before clearing Craig, a White House counsel in the Obama administration, of a single count of making false statements to federal investigators.

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Tonight Lou Dobbs, admitting his own frustration, asked former Acting AG Matthew Whitaker “where are the scope memos”? And a conversation began; and within that conversation, Dobbs mentions the number of the scope memos… To wit, Whitaker had a very curious and deflective response. WATCH:

Focusing only on the ‘scope memo’ aspect, why do you think Matthew Whitaker deferred from responding about them?… wouldn’t even put a number to them?
It’s a straightforward, curiously overlooked (until Dobbs) and seemingly inconsequential part of the overall issue.  The Mueller investigation is long-since over; so why haven’t we been permitted to see the memos, which Rod Rosenstein created, that authorized the targeting within the investigation by Robert Mueller?
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In the aftermath of the IG report covering the conduct of former FBI Director James Comey, HPSCI Ranking Member Devin Nunes appears on Fox News to discuss the existing legal risk that surrounds Mr. Comey.

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Something not passing the sniff test here.  With a pre-existing, and more comprehensive, declassification of documents request already submitted by GOP leaders in the House of Representatives, why would Lindsey Graham develop a less comprehensive list?
I find it curious the Senator Graham list only relates to the DOJ/FBI corruption that can be specifically pinned on President Obama officials; and avoids requests that would show corruption in the DOJ/FBI after President Obama left office.
Note:  no-one is looking for -or demanding- the obvious stuff; like the ‘clean and unredacted’ text messages between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok; or the instructions Rod Rosenstein gave to Robert Mueller, etc.

Today Senate Judiciary Committee Chair, Lindsey Graham, has sent a letter to Attorney General Barr requesting nine categories of documents for declassification, from the IG FISA abuse investigation.
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Oh boy… how federal Judge Emmet Sullivan will handle this latest motion from Mike Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell is an unknown; however, the content is delicious.
In an explosive response filing today, which includes the phrase”sunlight is the best disinfectant”, attorney Sidney Powell has outlined the soup-to-nuts construct of the malicious government action taken during their targeting her client Michael Flynn.


In the 19-pages (full pdf below), Ms. Powell walks through the history of the DOJ, FBI and intelligence apparatus weaponization against Mr. Flynn and lays out the background behind everything known to have happened in 2016, 2017 through today.
From the corrupt DOJ lawyers who were working with Fusion-GPS and Chris Steele, including Mr. Weissmann, Mr. Van Grack and Ms. Zainab Ahmad; to the 2015/2016 FISA database search abuses; to the CIA and FBI operation against Flynn including Nellie Ohr; to the schemes behind the use of DOJ official Bruce Ohr; to the corrupt construct of the special counsels office selections; to the specifics within the malicious conspiracy outlined by hiding FBI interview notes of Mike Flynn,… all of it…. Is a stunning filing that many CTH readers are well prepared to understand.
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There was a scheduled joint status filing due today between DOJ prosecutors and the Mike Flynn defense team led by Sidney Powell.
As Mr. Flynn’s cooperation has ended in all other aspects related to the former special counsel, there are apparently many issues still to be resolved prior to Flynn’s sentencing.
In a filing today (full pdf below) Flynn’s defense lawyer, Sidney Powell, notes two significant issues: (1) Ms. Powell is being denied a security clearance she needs to review all of the documents in the case; and (2) the DOJ is refusing to provide the original FBI notes from their interview of Michael Flynn on January 24th, 2017.

(Source – Page #2 pdf link)

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Having just completed a first review of the IG Report on James Comey, with numerous highlights for further overlay and research, here’s my thoughts upon initial review.
First, there is absolutely no doubt James Comey used his memos akin to FD-302 investigative reports from an FBI agent. Meaning, from beginning-to-end he considered himself an investigative agent against the President-elect and then President Trump.

Note: His recording of his encounter with the target, President-elect Trump should be “treated like FISA derived information in a counterintelligence investigation.”  During this January 6th operation, Comey was the active FBI agent gathering evidence for later use.  The collected intelligence would be shared with the team via memo #1.
Remember the Lisa Page Texts from the same date?
The FBI redacted almost all of that text because it outlines the distribution of the evidence Comey was collecting.   Comey’s memos were essentially FD-302 reports, and the officials within the DOJ and FBI didn’t want that exposed.  Lisa Page text was heavily redacted because it would have shown the January 6th encounter was an operation against Trump.
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