Those who haven’t followed the backstory might not catch what Nunes is saying.  However, if you followed closely, and accept that Rosenstein was part of the problem, then you see how FBI Director Christopher Wray came into office; and, more importantly how/why Wray selected former DOJ-NSD head Dana Boente to shift from main justice to be legal counsel for the FBI.
Boente took over for former chief legal counsel James Baker, after the discoveries around Baker and McCabe could no longer be hidden. After being removed from responsibility eventually Baker resigned and went to work with the Lawfare group.  Boente’s job at FBI was/is to bury information, block congressional inquiry, and protect the crew. Boente, along with Christopher Wray, is still there.
In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Nunes said “someone at the FBI” appears to have been “determined to hide” then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec’s notes from both the FISA court and Congress.  Our research identified that “someone” as Dana Boente and crew more than a year ago.

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[*Note* There’s a snap-load of mistaken and ‘steered’ reporting by a bunch of people who have dined on the buffet of controlled leaks. Hopefully, that will all become clear soon.  Bookmark this ⇓ and prove me wrong]
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The U.S. Department of Justice announces an 18-count superseding indictment (full pdf below) against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Criminal prosecution of Assange is being sought under the espionage act.

(Via U.S. DOJ) […] The superseding indictment alleges that Assange was complicit with Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, in unlawfully obtaining and disclosing classified documents related to the national defense.

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Perhaps the weaponization of the NSA database was the biggest research project we ever took on.  That said, CTH prudence requires a lack of commentary.  For a background on this story see the [“SIDE NOTE“] previously presented HERE.  “The candle is not worth the flame.”

(WASHINGTON DC) The National Security Agency has recommended that the White House abandon a U.S. surveillance program that collects information about Americans’ phone calls and text messages, saying the logistical and legal burdens of keeping it outweigh its intelligence benefits, according to people familiar with the matter.

The recommendation against seeking the renewal of the once-secret spying program amounts to an about-face by the agency, which had long argued in public and to congressional overseers that the program was vital to the task of finding and disrupting terrorism plots against the U.S.

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HPSCI Ranking Member Devin Nunes appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo for a lengthy twenty minute interview on multiple subjects.  The first half of the interview surrounds Michael Cohen’s testimony and morphs into the Steele Dossier.
The second half discusses AG William Barr, possible accountability measures and ongoing issues with the FISA process.  The final segment touches on Chinese cyber-threats and issues.

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The second half of the interview is below:
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Okay, now USTR Robert Lighthizer’s cautiously worded enforcement testimony starts to take on a fuller context.  When Ambassador Lighthizer was testifying before the mostly decepticon House Ways and Means Committee, he started to outline his newly designed trade enforcement mechanism… but he stopped; he didn’t want to reveal too much.
Now listen to Larry Kudlow describe “enforcement”.  WATCH:

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If you watched the USTR testimony you would have seen how the “enforcement” mechanism within the U.S-China trade negotiations was the priority for Lighthizer’s focus; and he specifically mentioned “layered” enforcement triggers, specific to each sector, and issue.
CTH has never seen a U.S. Trade Representative so structurally willing to clear-cut the entire bamboo forest if needed. Lighthizer is intensely focused on enforcement.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the cyber threat from China and ongoing trade negotiations, along with concerns over Iran’s threat to stability in the Middle East, ‘ISIS bride’ Hoda Muthana, the decision to pull troops out of Syria and nuclear talks with North Korea.

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Today Senator Chuck Grassley has sent Attorney General Jeff Sessions an extensive 29-page criminal referral (full pdf below) requesting an investigation of sketchy Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick and her Creepy Porn Lawyer, Michael  Avenatti.

Chairman Grassley outlines three potential violations: (1) Providing False Statements; (2) Obstructing Congressional Investigations; and (3) Mueller and Rosenstein’s favorite DOJ charge: “Conspiracy”.

WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley today referred Julie Swetnick and her attorney Michael Avenatti to the Justice Department for criminal investigation relating toa potential conspiracy to provide materially false statements to Congress and obstruct a congressional committee investigation, three separate crimes, in the course of considering Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States.

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If there was a five-click dial available as a severity meter between the U.S. and China, something happened internally in Beijing, over the last 72 hours, because that dial just triggered movement from 3 to 4… Keep watching everything in the world of geopolitics with a mental 360° radar sweep looking for Chinese influence/interests.

Nuance and subtlety is everything in China. Culturally harsh tones are seen as a sign of weakness and considered intensely impolite in public displays between officials; especially within approved and released statements by officials representing the government.
Therefore, when we see China publicly use strong language – it indicates a level of internal disposition beyond the defined western angst. Big Panda becomes Red Dragon; there is no mid-status or evolutionary phase.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s state media on Monday lashed out at the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump in an usually direct attack, accusing him of “starring in his own carefully orchestrated street fighter-style deceitful drama”.
Trump’s wish for others to play along with his drama is “wishful thinking,” the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper said in an editorial.

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A new release from the FBI Vault on the Hillary Clinton email investigation reveals the Anthony Weiner/Huma Abedin laptop containing Clinton emails (350,000) and Blackberry communications (344,000) was never reviewed for intrusion prior to the 2016 election.

Here’s how we discover. However, first, the frustrating context:

From the Boston Marathon bombing investigation through the San Bernardino terrorist attack; passing the Garland, Texas cartoon terror shooting; and continuing through Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub; and then through the Parkland shooting and into Las Vegas -via the Mandalay Bay- we always knew something was wrong with the apparatus, the institutional apparatus, of the FBI… but it wasn’t until 2017 with James Comey, Andrew McCabe and the transparently corrupt Clinton exoneration and candidate Trump set-up scheme that we fully grasped the scale and scope of the corruption.
It is disconcerting to accept that the institution of the FBI is corrupt, soup-to-nuts, including every aforementioned field office and participant therein.  But reality doesn’t care about feelings; it just stares you in the face until we accept it.
Talking heads always approach the issue with a co-dependent and enabling qualifier: “we’re not talking about the field agents”, they say.  Um, no; that’s nonsense.  If the institution is corrupt, then every entity within it is corrupt – until such time as the corruption is removed.
Enter FBI Director Christopher Wray…
FBI Director Wray seems like an affable person who is, by all reasonable evaluations, entirely way-over-his-head in dealing with the systemic rot, cancer and corruption.
Sound harsh?  Go back and WATCH the post IG report (Clinton email investigation) press conference; it’s not harsh.   It takes a particular kind of corruption manager to stand in front of a national audience and tell the world there was no bias in the Clinton email investigation… yet, he’s going to put every employee of the FBI through “bias training”?
Yeah, un huh.
No bias… but everyone needs bias training.  Gotcha.
Perhaps a more nonsensical statement was declared somewhere…. but I couldn’t remember one… until…. well, until the same DOJ/FBI released the FISA application constructed by the institution of the FBI.  This is where we read:
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There is a particular transparency in timing as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announces indictments from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ‘Russian Interference in U.S. Election‘ investigation on the same day as the FBI is forced to admit they made massive mistakes from reports against the Parkland Florida school shooter.

The thirteen indictments are based on very weak structure. Here’s the DOJ Announcement; and here is Rod Rosenstein’s press conference. Specific wording is used tactically to generate maximum value; however, when you peel back the onion skin and look at the actual indictment itself (full pdf below) there’s not much ‘there’ there:

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The indictment itself is full of fluff and clearly presents itself as political posturing.  The Mueller investigation had to find something, anything; and what they came up with reflects how little substance exists.  This is one of those examples where it pays to read the actual indictment; and contrast the facts laid out against the method of salesmanship and parseltongue. It is not a difficult read – even Boris and Natasha could do it.

Example: “unwitting Trump campaign official” is really  – A single New York volunteer campaign worker agreed to give some signs to a pro-Trump rally.

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