Earlier today U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer messaged a warm birthday greeting to Mexican Foreign Secretary Louis Videgaray during ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Mexican trade teams (video below).

Canada is FUBAR. No-one quite knows how FUBAR Canada is, because no-one has  followed the brilliant Wolverine crew closely enough to spot the strategy.
At the strategic direction of President Trump; and it is a really brilliant workaround strategy; the U.S. and Mexican teams are approaching the current NAFTA negotiations from a position of bilateral trade.   Trade watchers, Wall Street experts, financial pundits and the entire media apparatus are missing what Team USA are doing right in front of their faces…. they’ve obviously never followed or studied Trump’s out of the box problem solving when it comes to complex deals.
I won’t rehash the NAFTA flaws; familiar CTH readers know them well.  However, the bottom line is NAFTA is NOT, repeat N.O.T being renegotiated. I was going to remain silent, but I think it’s safe, Lighthizer is close enough to a deal to explain what’s happening.
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The original Glenn Simpson conflict was actually noted on February 2nd, 2018, when HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes released the House memo outlining the conflicting statements between Glenn Simpson’s testimony, Christopher Steele, and the evidence of Bruce Ohr notes reviewed by congressional investigators.  However, until recently the public never had the actual Ohr notes.

Using the recently released Ohr documentary evidence Daily Caller journalist Chuck Ross now draws attention to the conflict:

(Via Daily Caller) Newly released Department of Justice records appear to conflict with testimony that Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson gave to Congress in 2017 about the timeline of his interactions with top DOJ official Bruce Ohr.
Simpson claimed in testimony to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Nov. 14 that he did not have contact with any FBI or DOJ officials regarding the infamous Steele dossier until after the 2016 election. But Ohr’s emails, which have been provided to Congress, show that he and Simpson were in contact as early as August 2016.

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In the past several days a name has resurfaced, only this time with some more attention than in prior reports.  The name is Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire who is likely much more of a central figure than previously explained.

Byron York recently outlined new documents showing the communication between Trump Dossier author Christopher Steele and DOJ official Bruce Ohr.  Within the early 2016 discussions, Chris Steele appeared to be advocating to Bruce Ohr on behalf of Oleg Deripaska who was banned from travel into the U.S. by the State Department.

(Byron York) Emails in 2016 between former British spy Christopher Steele and Justice Department official Bruce Ohr suggest Steele was deeply concerned about the legal status of a Putin-linked Russian oligarch, and at times seemed to be advocating on the oligarch’s behalf, in the same time period Steele worked on collecting the Russia-related allegations against Donald Trump that came to be known as the Trump dossier. The emails show Steele and Ohr were in frequent contact, that they intermingled talk about Steele’s research and the oligarch’s affairs, and that Glenn Simpson, head of the dirt-digging group Fusion GPS that hired Steele to compile the dossier, was also part of the ongoing conversation. (more)

I strongly urge you to read the York article because I’m going to expand on the Deripaska angle from the context of the reader understanding it.
From the emails it appears Steele and Ohr were discussing Deripaska during a period of February to May (ish) of 2016.  This is important context moving forward because this was the period during the presidential primary candidacy of Donald Trump as the GOP nominee was solidified; Trump won.   This is also the period when we know that “contractors” with the FBI were doing unauthorized searches of the NSA and FBI database for opposition research…. this connects to Fusion GPS.
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Interesting.  As previously said: the biggest takeaway from the documents today, showing the 2017 communication between Christopher Steele and Bruce Ohr, is the fact that Steele viewed Robert Mueller as part of the soft coup team.
In this interview Rudy Giuliani goes further than ever before in calling out the nature of the DOJ/FBI investigation; and specifically outlining the Robert Mueller team as part of the larger conspiracy group to take-down President Donald Trump.
According to Giuliani this information/evidence will surface over the next year to year-and-a-half, and will lead to a fundamental change in the institutions of the Department of Justice and FBI.

You can call it a soft coup, or you can call it politicization of the DOJ and FBI, but the end result is the same – the intentional effort to manipulate, influence, and ultimately subvert an election for the presidency of the United States.  ~SD

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There’s something about the construct of these releases that just doesn’t pass the proverbial sniff test.  John Solomon –SEE HERE–  Sara Carter –SEE HERE– and Byron York –SEE HERE– each writing articles from what appears to be the same sourcing and reference framework; however, each being very opaque in describing their sourcing and context.

The transparent lack of providing the sourcing context (who is providing the information/documents and why are they providing it), for their seemingly coordinated articles has the historic hallmark of controlled narrative distribution.  I’ll come back to that….  for now, let’s look at the Solomon release where he provides the documents to support his authorship.  Go read it HERE.
The key takeaway within the 2017 communication between Bruce Ohr and Chris Steele, seemingly glossed over amid the granular presentation, is that Christopher Steele viewed Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of the “small group team.”   The fact that Steele viewed Mueller as an extension of the Strzok, Comey, Page and McCabe objective is a rather big deal, yet generally not given much attention.

You can call it a soft-coup, or you can call it politicization of the DOJ and FBI, but the end result is the same – the intentional effort to manipulate, influence, and ultimately subvert an election for the presidency of the United States.  ~SD

Here are the documents as provided to, and released by, John Solomon:
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The most corrupt part of congress is the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).  The SSCI is the center of the deepest part of the Deep State swamp.
The SSCI never, ever,  E.V.E.R… does anything that does not protect and advance the self-interest of the corrupt Washington DC professional political class.

Apparently the SSCI wants to interview WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, in a closed session.

WASHINGTON— The Senate Intelligence Committee wants to interview WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
That’s according to WikiLeaks, which tweeted Wednesday that a letter was delivered to Assange in London seeking a “closed interview” with committee staff at a “mutually agreeable time and location.”

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According to Chuck Ross reporting: “Congress recently got a trove of Bruce Ohr emails which include exchanges with Chris Steele and others. Source says emails show that Ohr is more significant player in dossier component of FBI/DOJ investigation than originally thought.”
Additionally, John Soloman has an article at The Hill detailing some of the released communication – SEE HERE. Solomon is also saying he will post the leaked documents shortly.

(The Hill) […] They show Bruce Ohr had contact with Steele in the days just before the FBI opened its Trump-Russia probe in summer 2016, and then engaged Steele as a “confidential human source” (CHS) assisting in that probe.
They also confirm that Ohr later became a critical conduit of continuing information from Steele after the FBI ended the Brit’s role as an informant.
“B, doubtless a sad and crazy day for you re- SY,” Steele texted Ohr on Jan. 31, 2017, referencing President Trump’s firing of Sally Yates for insubordination.
Steele’s FBI relationship had been terminated about three months earlier. The bureau concluded on Nov. 1, 2016, that he leaked information to the news media and was “not suitable for use” as a confidential source, memos show.

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Today U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced the second tranche of tariffs on Chinese imports (full list pdf below).
The 25% tariff mostly includes chemical compounds and material parts used in the manufacture of finished goods.

Washington, DC – The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) today released a list of approximately $16 billion worth of imports from China that will be subject to a 25 percent additional tariff as part of the U.S. response to China’s unfair trade practices related to the forced transfer of American technology and intellectual property.  This second tranche of additional tariffs under Section 301 follows the first tranche of tariffs on approximately $34 billion of imports from China, which went into effect on July 6.
The listcontains 279 of the original 284 tariff lines that were on a proposed list announced on June 15.  Changes to the proposed list were made after USTR and the interagency Section 301 Committee sought and received written comments and testimony during a two-day public hearing last month.

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The Chairman of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, gives an extensive interview to C-SPAN discussing his life, his career and his role in the White House.
Those who have followed the granular details of the how President Trump put together his team -to carry out decades-long discussed policy- will find this interview interesting. Kudlow has evolved in the past year from a MAGAnomic supporter to a MAGAnomic advocate.

Today the White House ends the initial 90-day period for the JCPOA withdrawal, and reveals the structure of the reinstatement of U.S. sanctions against Iran.
White House: REIMPOSING TOUGH SANCTIONS: President Donald J. Trump’s Administration is taking action to reimpose sanctions lifted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

♦President Trump made clear when he ended United States participation in the JCPOA that his Administration would be reimposing tough sanctions on the Iranian regime.
♦In connection with the withdrawal from the JCPOA, the Administration laid out two wind-down periods of 90 days and 180 days for business activities in or involving Iran.
♦Consistent with President Trump’s decision, the Administration will be reimposing specified sanctions after August 6, the final day of the 90-day wind-down period.
On August 7, sanctions will be reimposed on:
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