Yup, the walls are closing in.
In a brilliant move of strategery, Senate Judiciary Chairman, Chuck Grassley, and Senate Judiciary member, Lindsey Graham, send a criminal referral of Christopher Steele to the DOJ for investigation.   But things are not what they seem…
Today Senators Grassley and Graham sent a letter of criminal referral to the Department of Justice, based on information -provided by the FBI- their investigation has uncovered.
However, the actual motive for the criminal referral is not exactly what it appears.

Highlighting two pertinent passages (emphasis mine) from the New York Times article will explain what’s really going on:

[…] Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a senior committee member, told the Justice Department they had reason to believe that a former British spy, Christopher Steele, lied to federal authorities about his contacts with reporters regarding information in the dossier, and they urged the department to investigate. The committee is running one of three congressional investigations into Russian election meddling, and its inquiry has come to focus, in part, on Mr. Steele’s explosive dossier that purported to detail Russia’s interference and the Trump campaign’s complicity.

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Several stories broke yesterday:
♦Senator Ron Johnson gains copies of the manipulated/edited FBI small group “talking points” that exonerated Hillary Clinton despite overwhelming evidence.  Johnson is a Senate Judiciary Committee member and remains focused on those specifics.
♦Senator Chuck Grassley has identified that former FBI Director James Comey leaked classified FBI information to the media to gain political leverage.  Additional questions are now raised by the Senate Judiciary Chairman.

♦The FBI has begun a new review of the Clinton Foundation pay-to-play network during Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Dept.  Investigators are questioning the people within the Clinton foundation about actions taken as a result of donations to the foundation.
♦A federal judge has ruled that Fusion GPS must turn over it’s bank records to the House Intelligence Committee.  Including records of financial payments to journalists and media outlets to push the Christopher Steele “Dossier” story.
♦House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes will be receiving all remaining DOJ documents, without redaction, that pertain to the 2016 DOJ/FBI FISA court application.  In addition eight key members of the FBI “small group” will be questioned by the committee.
♦The Dept. of Justice it reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email use; and how both Clinton and her aide Huma Abedin used, shared and stored classified documents on their personal servers and devices.
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…”Ever watch those nature documentaries on the cable?”  Yeah.  “See the one about lions?”…

Today we get details about the DOJ deal with Chairman Devin Nunes. Included in the report from Catherine Herridge there is some really good news:

According to the letter, committee investigators also will get access to eight key witnesses this month including FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who exchanged anti-Trump text messages during an affair and previously worked on the special counsel’s Russia probe; FBI general counsel James Baker, who was reassigned; FBI head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap, whom ex-FBI boss James Comey testified made the decision not to brief Congress about the Russia case during last year’s election; and Bruce Ohr, a DOJ official reassigned after concealing meetings with figures involved in the dossier.

That’s right. For the first time the ‘one who shall not be named‘ is going to have to face questioning from congress. Bill Priestap is the FBI head of counterintelligence who has been conspicuously absent from all previous conversations. All research, including prior testimony from FBI Director James Comey (March 20th, 2017), indicates Priestap is at the epicenter of the 2016 counterintelligence operation against the Trump campaign.
Here’s the full report:
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U.S. District Judge Richard J Leon ruled today that Fusion-GPS must turn over their banking records as required under the existing congressional subpoena.
Fusion GPS had sought an injunction from the federal court blocking the U.S. House Intelligence Committee from forcing them to provide banking records related to their 2016 opposition research work on Russia related matters.

In a 26-page-ruling (full pdf below) Judge Leon rebuked each of the Fusion GPS reasons for the injunction and ruled the subpoena from the congressional committee was appropriate, proper and lawful.
This is critical and presents a joint approach toward the entire scheme.  At the same time the Judicial Committees are focusing on the DOJ and FBI and how they used the FISA court, the House Intel Committee is focusing on the underlying documents, research and evidence behind the manipulated FISA warrant.  Splendid.
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As we have walked through the investigative deep weeds of corruption within the FBI (Counterintelligence Division) and DOJ (National Security Division), many people have asked why CTH has not pulled in the ODNI (Clapper) and CIA (Brennan) aspect of the total intelligence community involvement against candidate Donald Trump.  There’s been a good reason for that; actually two good reasons.
First, as many of you are aware, the people involved in the entire apparatus are following our investigative research (both sides).  We proceed carefully, trying to avoid provoking activity that creates defensive posturing, until the story reaches a point of non-deniability.
The public statements today highlighting the DOJ-NSD FISA warrant documents being delivered tonight to Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is an example of one of those thresholds crossed.

[Incidentally, and directly related to the release of documents to Chairman Nunes, I would advise everyone to remember the ongoing leak investigations and the sting operations as previously cited. In the coming days do not be surprised to see leaks to the Washington Post, New York Times or CNN that are the outcome of those continuing operations.  It would not be surprising to see variations of the same documents used as tracers.  We are in the phase where the intelligence leakers will have to wonder if they are a target.]
Secondly, it is challenging to absorb the construct of the larger 2016 political operation against the Trump campaign unless it is in digestible portions.  Some of this stuff is in the deepest of deep weeds.  Today we take a deep research dive into the larger IC aspect of the 2016 Trump Operation. Specifically into the deeper story of the FISA warrant and the use of unlawful FISA 702(17) spying operations.  As customary all citations are provided and some of this will take time to explain.
I’m calling the backstory to this 702 enterprise by the Obama administration “Operation Condor”.  Those of you familiar with the film “Three Days of The Condor” will note how the real life (lame-duck) timeline almost mirrors the Hollywood film. For the real life version, NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers plays the role of “Condor”.
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Devin Nunes just released a statement following a discussion with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.  According to the statement, Nunes will get all the requested documents and be given a schedule for the interviews with FBI Agent Peter Strzok, FBI Attorney Lisa Page and DOJ Deputy Attorney Bruce Ohr.  Whoot. Giddy up.

It appears the meeting earlier today between FBI Director Chris Wray and DOJ Asst. AG Rosenstein with House Speaker Paul Ryan was, as we suspected, a matter of briefing Ryan on production content and following the political protocols in advance of formal release.

The most dangerous time for a rescue swimmer is the moment he reaches a desperate drowning man…

Former FBI Director James Comey is sending out signals for anyone to back him up. He’s desperate.  The sunlight is too intense now.  Note the inherent elitist perspective he openly transmits toward being “independent”, or put another way: “above the law”.

The mindset here is the same he carried while in office. That mindset claims the FBI is above scrutiny, a system of law unto itself, and we must blindly owe it respect. THAT is exactly the view that fertilizes the seeds of politicization of offices.  His arrogant and condescending viewpoint is exactly what allowed FBI gross misconduct to happen.
Contrast that perspective with Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, one of the two representative committees that hold oversight over the FBI and DOJ.
Years of being held hostage to the ‘James Comey view’ (Obama, Jarrett, Holder, Yates) has crushed many people under the weight of ‘Battered Electorate Syndrome’.  However, though we might not yet want to admit it, we are winning now.  Righteousness is rising.  Deception is on its heels… there are more of us than them.
Solidarity !  The Potemkin Village is collapsing. Toto Trump has pulled back the curtain. Accept the winning…. My God, you -above all others- deserve these moments to enjoy.
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Against today being the deadline from House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to turn over responsive documents to the committee, Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray head to Speaker Paul Ryan’s office for an unscheduled meeting.
It’s important to remember, though it might not be pertinent to this meeting, that Nunes and Ryan are both Go8 members. As such they are both allowed to receive and discuss the most confidential intelligence information from any intelligence agency.  They, along with six others are at the top of the intelligence oversight pyramid.

FBI Director Christopher Wray attending the meeting with Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein represents to top of both the FBI and DOJ side of the intelligence gathering system within the Department of Justice.  Presumably the meeting is Rosenstein instead of Sessions because the subject matter surrounds something Sessions has recused himself from.
Accepting the recused Sessions angle, the meeting between Speaker Paul Ryan, Wray and Rosenstein is then almost guaranteed to be about the Devin Nunes demand for the material that led the National Security Division of the DOJ to assemble a FISA request; ie. the application content, and did it hold information surrounding the Steele Dossier etc.
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O’boy, things are fun now. We’ve gone from a small peep hole in the rat-filled barn wall letting in the sunlight, to rapid cannon-fire knocking holes the size of bowling balls.  Whoo doggies… look at em’ scatter.
A few days ago CTH advised of a few good people to keep an eye on.  Yes, there are a few people inside the Swamp with a laser painting the target.
Ohio Representative Jim Jordan flying through the chaff and countermeasures while carrying a MOAB of truth. Head’s up, he’s quickly approaching the target:

1) Did the FBI pay Christopher Steele, author of the dossier?
2) Was the dossier the basis for securing FISA warrants to spy on Americans? And why won’t the FBI show Congress the FISA application?
3) When did the FBI get the complete dossier and who gave it to them?

•Dossier author Christopher Steele?
•Fusion GPS?
•Clinton campaign/DNC?
•Sen. McCain’s staffer?

4) Did the FBI validate and corroborate the dossier?
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It’s every man and woman for themselves as the collective groups of architects behind the entire FBI Counterintelligence Operation, that brought us the 18-month-long ‘vast Russian conspiracy’ narrative, now attempt to back-track from all previous assertions.
Two days ago we shared very strong confidence the joint FBI (counterintelligence) and DOJ (National Security Division) scheme was going to come out.  The reason is simple, they left too big a trail of factual and provable evidence of their activity.

It is not coincidental that just as scrutiny over the 2016 FBI FISA court application gains traction in congress and media, the insider intelligence community started leaking to the New York Times about the insignificance of the Steele Dossier as it relates to the FISA court application.  Look, over there, it was George Papadopoulos; not the DOJ FISA construct that was used by the FBI to launch surveillance upon candidate Trump. Swear.
Laughable.
Predictable.
For more than a year the Steele Dossier was the most valuable evidence to the Russian narrative; then, poof, in the blink-of-an-eye, not so much – it became a risk.  Funny that.  The transparency of motive is brutally obvious, too many FBI and DOJ people at risk now. The trail is too easy to follow.
It was only a matter of time before Fusion-GPS spoke up toward the same goal of track-covering.  Yesterday Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch [Hi Glenn] posted an Op-Ed in the New York Times attempting further distance.
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