In order to present an accurate record of events, it is important to remain focused on specifics.  During the period from May, 2017, through April of 2019, Main Justice in Washington DC was split into two divisions.

In one division there was the Special Counsel Robert Mueller team in control of everything related to DOJ and FBI activity around the 2016 election, with emphasis on the Trump-Russia headlines.  This division handled 100% of everything that was sucking up the oxygen in Washington DC.  Andrew Weissmann was in charge of this division.

In the second division, there was everything else the DOJ was doing, which is to say not much. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was heading this division.

The liaison between both divisions was Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, who generally didn’t know what was going on inside the Mueller/Weissmann operation; but, as he later testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee [June 2020 link], Rosenstein had the job of signing off and authorizing everything Weissmann et al were doing.  Rosenstein authorized every request and not a single ‘ask’ from the Mueller team was ever denied – including expanding the scope of the Mueller investigation, twice.

Why does this matter?  It matters because everything happening in Main Justice from May ’17 to April ’19, activity that was grabbing every scintilla of media attention, was being done by the Mueller/Weissmann team.  Key word ‘everything.’

There was not a single action from Main Justice that was not controlled by Andrew Weissman and company.  This action includes the recent revelations of staff and congressional members from the House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) having subpoenas for their private emails, phone records, text message and communication.

Andrew Weissmann sent over 2,800 subpoenas for records [See 156-Pages of Examples Here].  Some of those subpoenas were sent to various telecommunications and social media platforms so they could monitor what congress was doing.

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During a broadcast this evening, journalist Michael Shellenberger gives a good encapsulation of his review of the Twitter Files {Direct Rumble Link}.

As noted by Shellenberger the FBI running internal domestic political operations against the American public should be the subject of a serious investigation. The problem becomes, when the national law enforcement agency is running corrupt political operations, who is left to investigate the FBI? WATCH:

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The timing of stuff and the context of the historic reference points matter when looking at any story involving the DOJ.  Failing to understand the background context leads to mistaken impressions, false assumptions, corrupt hidden actors getting away with prior misconduct and generally flawed analysis.  That is the accurate takeaway from a story that seems to have gained attention amid the professionally republican class of punditry.

Here at CTH we have dropped the pretending, focus on the evidence and call the baby ugly when warranted.

Today’s outrage du jour surrounds Kash Patel sharing documents with John Solomon about a subpoena dated November 20, 2017, targeting investigative staff from the House Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).  [Article Here] Dates matter. Redactions matter.

[Document Source]

Who redacted this document?…  Kash Patel?  John Solomon? or the DOJ?  It matters.

In November of 2017, everything related to the Trump-Russia operation was being handled at the Dept of Justice by lead DOJ Special Counsel official Andrew Weissmann under the auspices of what is commonly called the Mueller probe or ‘Mueller investigation‘.  On November 20, 2017, the main focus of Weissmann was the guilty plea of Michael Flynn which was at its apex and was later signed November 30, 2017.

The public battle on Capitol Hill November 2017, was between HPSCI and Main Justice.  Nunes -vs- Schiff -vs- FBI -vs- Main Justice -vs- White House -vs- Special Counsel.  Each entity competing for the public and political narrative.

In his later (June 2020) Senate testimony, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein testified that Weissmann/Mueller were in charge of everything at Main Justice and he was used as a go-between liaison between congress, the White House and the DOJ.  Rosenstein gave Weissmann/Mueller full autonomy, full authority, and never once questioned a request from them.  Put simply, Rosenstein said Mueller and Weissmann called every shot in the DOJ that had anything even remotely associated with Trump-Russia, which was essentially everything at Main Justice for two years.

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Matt Taibbi files a supplemental thread to his review of DHS/FBI instructions, through the still undisclosed portal.  [Twitter File Supplemental Here]

Just a reminder… how the ‘asks’ actually took place is still a mystery, Taibbi & Weiss et al are only privy to the internal actions and discussions after the inbound requests arrive.  Put another way, we are blind to the method of the DHS/FBI portal into the network.  I do not believe that secrecy is accidental.

[Twitter File Supplemental Here]

The essence of Taibbi’s supplemental report is based on a few internal emails amid the group following DHS/FBI and ODNI officials telling the Twitter rulers they were not cracking down hard enough on the platform content.

As Taibbi notes, “The questionnaire authors seem displeased with Twitter for implying, in a July 20th “DHS/ODNI/FBI/Industry briefing,” that “you indicated you had not observed much recent activity from official propaganda actors on your platform.”

Twitter official Yoel Roth then responded to the U.S intelligence community in a series of back-and-forth conversations, and internally to the Twitter censorship group.

As noted by Taibbi, “[Roth] was not “comfortable with the Bureau (and by extension the IC) demanding written answers.”  Taibbi then seems to pull out the pretending not to know things card and ponders, “the idea of the FBI acting as conduit for the Intelligence Community is interesting, given that many agencies are barred from domestic operations.”

Gee, ya think?  Go figure.

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On one hand I’m thankful incoming House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan is willing to explain who he intends to call before congress to answer questions. On the other hand, my appreciation is tempered knowing open discussion of the intended investigative approach assists Lawfare operatives in their preparation.

The republican led House Judiciary Committee will be opposed by the White House, the Senate including the Senate Judiciary and Senate Intel, DHS, FBI, ODNI, DOJ-NSD, Main Justice, the Lawfare group, corporate media, Big Tech social media oligarchs and the entirety of the national security state apparatus.  Navigating through this minefield of opposition will take a brutally confrontational approach.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan discusses the landscape as he currently sees it. {Direct Rumble Link} The last point about Mitch McConnell running blocker for the Democrats in relationship to the budget is a good example of the opposition the Republican House will face. – WATCH:

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Independent journalist Matt Taibbi has released the sixth installment after review of more Twitter File data [SEE HERE].  Keep in mind, the research group containing Mr. Taibbi are only seeing the consequences side of the content removal process.  What specifically happened in/around the portal of information flowing into Twitter HQ is a different division.  Taibbi et al are only seeing the consequences from the requests that entered the Twitter system.

[Twitter Release #6, Here]

The first section of Taibbi’s analysis is the most interesting.  Having tracked the issue for several years, I would modify some of the descriptive language Taibbi presents yet agree with the overall context of his presentation.

Taibbi begins by noting, “Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary.”  I would safely take that a step further, yes there is a subsidiary relationship; however, as years of government involvement continued by 2016 Twitter became the subsidiary of DHS, not vice-versa.  This dynamic within the relationship explains some of the more curious elements that Taibbi struggles to fully understand.

Notice the timing of escalation by DHS/FBI: “The FBI’s social media-focused task force, known as FTIF, created in the wake of the 2016 election, swelled to 80 agents and corresponded with Twitter to identify alleged foreign influence and election tampering of all kinds.”

As we have noted from the lead into and out of the 2016 election, the surveillance state took action specifically to protect itself from President Trump.   This activity included the NSA, FISA court, FBI, DOJ-NSD, CIA, ODNI while specifically and purposefully enmeshing the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).

Protecting Washington DC from the risk President Trump represented was a whole of government approach.  The executive and legislative branches worked together and weaponized national security claims to involve the judicial branches in the effort.  In the aftermath of the 2016 election outcome, now we see social media being pulled further into the approach.

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During a podcast Matt Taibbi describes the big picture takeaway of the data they have been permitted to review so far. {Direct Rumble Link}

Interestingly, Taibbi notes the silo effect within Twitter as the division in charge of taking action on requests is not necessarily the division that receives the requests.  There is an inflection point between two silos. Taibbi notes the current data set does not include access to the inbound requests and instructions from government officials, they are limited to only seeing what happens after the request is received.

They are also limited in only seeing the activity that is taken within the action division where the accounts are restricted.  The division within Twitter that was in the process of amplifying or boosting accounts, is a different silo.

Additionally, as Taibbi also notes, if the scale of what they are seeing in Twitter is representative of outside contacts to other social media platforms, then he is sure Facebook, YouTube, Google, Microsoft, Instagram, Apple etc. also have a process to receive and act upon these inbound DHS/FBI instructions.  WATCH:

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In essence, everything Taibbi is seeing is fully in line with Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop.

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Former House Intelligence Committee lead investigator Kash Patel appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast to discuss the Twitter Files. {Direct Rumble Link} Within the interview Mr. Patel asks the obvious question: Why are we not seeing the document trail where the FBI is making contact with Twitter?

The contacts are noted within the Twitter File release, but the specific methods, people and documents or email requests from the U.S. government into Twitter are not being released. Kash Patel asks Elon Musk to release these documents and asks why are we not seeing them? WATCH:

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Patel’s point is well taken because insofar as the U.S. government contacts around the 2020 election would be important, the volume of contact and documents surrounding the COVID-19 control issues will be exponentially more intense and larger.

Release the government 2020 election contact information now, and then do the same thing when Twitter releases the substantive files about censorship related to COVID-19 and the vaccines.   Let the American people see who, what and how this DHS-Twitter ‘trusted partnership‘ portal was exploited.

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I’m not going to write extensively about this because I respect your intellectual ability to see the obvious.  Questions have been raised about why the Twitter File releases appear to have been structured in a fashion to protect government interests.

Well, the new Bari Weiss website that was set up to launch as an exclusive outcome of the Twitter File release, includes a current contributor and former 2020 control officer of the DOJ who would have facilitated the DHS/FBI contact with social media; the stuff that is transparently missing from the Twitter File releases.

[ SOURCE ]

Yes, former AG Bill Barr is a content partner with Twitter File narrative engineer Bari Weiss.  Gee, I wonder how that happens?

Oh look, and what a coincidence… they are both promoting Ron DeSantis.

Wait… Elon Musk is also promoting Ron Desantis… and Mr Musk is simultaneously promoting the Bari Weiss website that promotes Ron DeSantis… and contains Twitter File releases that are conspicuously missing the discussion angle of FBI influence in the 2020 election… Almost as if… wait, nah, that would be conspiracy talk.  Just ordinary coincidences everywhere, for sure.

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The timing is transparent, given all of the political donations organized by FTX Cryptocurrency CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for politicians, mostly Democrats, in office.

On the day before he was scheduled to give testimony to congress, a testimony likely to be entertaining with representatives asking specific questions about political contributions by the known fraud MBS to other specific members of congress, the cryptocurrency executive is arrested in the Bahamas.

(Via Daily Mail) – Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former CEO of FTX, has been arrested. 

The crypto billionaire, 30, was arrested in The Bahamas – where he has been hiding out since his $32 billion empire came crashing down last month – and he is now facing criminal charges in the US.

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