Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-PA) appeared on Fox Business to discuss the release of the sketchy Comey memos and the questions surfacing from the continuing book tour.
With Inspector General Michael Horowitz submitting a criminal referral for fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe; and with knowledge of federal prosecutor John Huber paralleling Horowitz for months within the investigation; it might be worthwhile going through the names of some officials likely to surface in the next few days/weeks.
The most interesting people in the ongoing investigation are those principals who clearly were in/around the center of 2015/2016 activity; were caught in 2017, yet remain 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 is therefore considered a cooperating co-conspirator for the FBI Inspection Division (INSD), IG Horowitz and likely prosecutor Huber.
A few hours ago the DOJ released five memos to congress from the files of fired FBI Director James Comey. The total number of memos and emails is uncertain, presumably seven, however the DOJ released five (full pdf below).
Several of the emails and memos are sent to the Former FBI chief legal counsel James Baker (now a cooperating witness with IG Horowitz and Federal Prosecutor Huber); and/or Comey’s chief-of-staff James Rybicki (he resigned after the Page/Strzok texts surfaced). The publicly released versions contain redactions due to their classified nature:
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Well, well, well…. details from last week’s trip by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to the White House are now surfacing in multiple news reports. Mark the date today, the media is exiting the ‘muh Russia’ narrative.
Deep-weeds-walkers, those who follow nuance carefully, will note that yesterday Jennifer Jacobs was given a question by POTUS Trump during the joint press conference with PM Shinzo Abe. Jacobs asked President Trump if he would still consider firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Not coincidentally, today Jennifer Jacobs reports that DAG Rosenstein informed the President he is not a target of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The media walk-back begins…. left-wing partisans going bananas. Multiple simultaneous splodey heads happening:
(Bloomberg) Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told President Donald Trump last week that he isn’t a target of any part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Rosenstein, who brought up the Mueller probe himself, offered the assurance during a meeting with Trump at the White House last Thursday, a development that helped tamp down the president’s desire to remove Rosenstein or Mueller, the people said.
Multiple media outlets are now confirming the DOJ Office of Inspector General, Michael Horowitz has sent the U.S. Attorney a criminal referral over the unlawful issues which led to the firing of FBI Asst. Director Andrew McCabe.
(Via CNN) The Justice Department’s inspector general has sent a criminal referral regarding former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to the US attorney’s office in Washington, according to a source familiar with the matter. A McCabe spokesperson, the Justice Department and US attorney’s office all declined to comment. (link)
In other words, Horowitz looked across the table and said: “start here John“. The Washington Post provides more background on the referral, noting the actual submission happened “some time ago” (hint – HUBER).
(Via WaPo) The Justice Department inspector general referred its finding that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe repeatedly misled investigators who were examining a media disclosure to the top federal prosecutor in D.C. to determine whether McCabe should be charged with a crime, according to people familiar with the matter.
The referral to the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office occurred some time ago, after the inspector general concluded McCabe had lied to investigators or his own boss, then-FBI Director James B. Comey, on four occasions, three of them under oath. (link)
Led by Representative Ron DeSantis congress has sent a criminal referral letter (full pdf below) to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Federal Prosecutor John Huber.
The identified targets of the referral include: •former FBI Director James Comey; •former Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe; •former Attorney General Loretta Lynch; •former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; •current FBI Agent Peter Strzok; and •current DOJ Attorney Lisa Page (former Special Counsel to Andrew McCabe).
The identified reasoning for each of the referrals is outlined in the letter below. However, the risk to James Comey is not simply contained within the letter, but also contained within the non-discussed fact that FBI chief-legal-counsel James Baker is a cooperating witness for IG Horowitz and Huber.
One of the lesser discussed aspects to the ongoing investigative overview is how a few key people, with direct and specific knowledge of the events that took place within the FBI and DOJ activity, remain inside the institutions as they are being investigated.
Those key DOJ and FBI officials have been removed from their position, yet remain inside with no identified or explained responsibility.
An interesting release from the spokesperson for Robert Mueller comes against the backdrop of the renewed ‘Michael Cohen travel to Prague’ story being pushed by Fusion-GPS and Glenn Simpson.
According to the Washington Times via Robert Mueller:
“What I have been telling all reporters is that many stories about our investigation have been inaccurate,” the Mueller spokesperson said. “Be very cautious about any source that claims to have knowledge about our investigation and dig deep into what they claim before reporting on it. If another outlet reports something, don’t run with it unless you have your own sourcing to back it up.” (read more)
The issue stems from last weeks McClatchy story where a reporter claimed Mueller had evidence of Michael Cohen traveling to Prague. That trip is an unproven intelligence point cited by Fusion-GPS in the ‘Steele Dosser’.
Interesting radio interview earlier this morning with Joe diGenova on WMAL. Mr. diGenova discusses his review of the James Comey interview and at 12:30 of the audio he enlarges the discussion of Scooter Libby with an interesting perspective of Trey Gowdy.
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Don’t forget the Office of Inspector General Horowitz, 39-page report on Andrew McCabe, is only the first of multiple OIG reports that will soon be released. The main report will cover the overall politicization of the Clinton investigation(s) by the DOJ and FBI; and the FISA court abuse by those same officials will follow thereafter.
A very good overall review of the Office of Inspector General report into the conduct of former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is provided by Twitter writer NameRedacted7.
CTH is sharing the extensive review below with some minor editorial adjustments to expand on abbreviations and remove the ‘twitterism’ for clarity. The full thread is HERE:
[Via NameRedacted7] I’m taking my time reading the McCabe report from [JusticeOIG] and so far I’m floored. This is a 30+ page report on misconduct by fired Deputy Director Andrew McCabe; I intend this thread to be a work in progress as I make my way through it & will supplement work done by others.
I’ve just finished retweeting [tracybeanz] thread from today, and [Nick_Falco] & [The_War_Economy] have extensive research on this as well.
From page 1-6, the [JusticeOIG] lays out exact verbiage & statements McCabe made to FBI Inspection Division whom the investigation of his conduct originated with. This is a crucial data-point to understanding these events.
Within the first six pages, it is detailed what McCabe told investigators at each date and time; and relevant data regarding phone calls with DOJ officials, his aide Special Counsel Lisa Page, Director Comey, and Deputy Asst Dir Peter Strzok. Dates are noted.
The Inspector General report first describes McCabes lack of Candor. This is the act of not telling the complete truth, leaving out details, deliberately lying about details, or hiding key facts. (more…)
A very interesting development is unfolding as a result of internet researcher TracyBeanz [Twitter HERE – YouTube HERE] and some insightful dot connecting by those following.
The outline begins via a relatively under-reported accusation about former Attorney General Loretta Lynch by former FBI Director James Comey in his upcoming book.
According to ABC News Comey writes in “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” that he became the public face of the investigation partly because of a mysterious development which he felt could cast “serious doubt” on Lynch’s independence.
“Had it become public, the unverified material would undoubtedly have been used by political opponents to cast serious doubt on the attorney general’s independence in connection with the Clinton investigation,” Comey writes, according to ABC. He calls the material a “development still unknown to the American public to this day.” (ABC Link)
It seems rather odd for James Comey to be making such an accusation against Loretta Lynch in the book. Why add that aspect? ..and why do so without expanding the details?
Well, keep in mind, that at the time the book was written, Mr. Comey had no idea exactly where the ongoing Inspector General investigation might lead; nor did he know the timing of release. Hence, the notation without expanded citation is likely explained.
However, with part of the OIG report released, within the Andrew McCabe background there’s a trail of evidence to the AG involvement James Comey was alluding toward.
On page six of the IG report (point number 4) we find a conference call between Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe and the FBI field office in New York where the subject of the Weiner/Abedin/Clinton laptop findings overlap with: the Clinton Foundation (CF) investigation; the Clinton Email investigation; pressure for Asst. Director McCabe to recuse himself, and Washington DC via Loretta Lynch using DOJ Main Justice leverage from the Eric Garner case against the NY FBI office and New York Police Department.