After initially stating a DNC lawyer was a source of information to the FBI for use in their counterintelligence operations against the Trump campaign, the name of the lawyer from the DNC law firm of Perkins Coie has now been revealed as Michael Sussmann.

According to Catherine Herridge reporting  testimony from former FBI legal counsel James Baker revealed that Michael Susmann, representing the Clinton team, was feeding information to the FBI for use against the trump campaign.  While this is an explosive confirmation, it is not necessarily surprising.
In March and April 2016, around the same time when NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers was shutting down “contractor access” to FBI and NSA databases [an effort to stop the frequent FISA-702(16)(17) search abuses that were taking place], Michael Sussmann met with FBI Counsel James Baker – Global Privacy Summit, April 5th, 2016.
Researcher TWE put a lot of the details of how Sussmann lines-up within the larger story on a twitter thread – SEE HERE –  With his former DOJ national security credentials Michael Sussmann integrated himself with the DNC’s cyber security team; and following the DNC ‘hack’ (aka Seth Rich leak) Sussmann introduced the DNC to CrowdStrike.   The DNC goal was to identify the intrusion and the extent of the compromise.
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The DOJ-NSD and FBI are holding a press conference today at 9:30am.  The topic is unknown, but the timing coincides with a document production subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee for McCabe Memos, the “Woods File” supporting the Carter Page FISA application, and Gang-of-Eight documents on the Russia investigation.
In related news, former FBI chief legal counsel, James Baker, delivered testimony to the Joint House Committee yesterday in the ongoing investigation of corrupt FISA processes and “spy-gate”.   Fox News and The Hill both have reports.

There has been some speculation James Baker is a willing/cooperating witness within this ongoing investigation. I would urge skepticism and caution toward that view.  Baker is currently a participating member of Lawfare; he is not likely to testify in opposition to his DOJ and FBI ideological allies despite their corrupt activity.  Indeed, Mr. Baker attended the closed-door hearing with lawyers to protect all interests, including James Baker.
One of the more interesting leaks from the testimony is found in a report from John Solomon of The Hill where he outlines a Jim Baker admission that lawyers from the DNC (Perkins Coie) met with FBI officials in the run-up to the Carter Page FISA application used against the Trump campaign.
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In a letter released last night from a former boyfriend of Christine Blasey-Ford, there was a name curiously not redacted. The name of Monica L McLean was revealed as a life-long friend who Ms. Ford helped with polygraph preparation.
The media has begun to focus on the letter as outlining a lie told by Ms. Ford during recent congressional testimony… But the backstory to Ms. Monica Lee McLean is an even bigger story.
First the letter from the boyfriend:

In addition to boyfriend noting Ms. Monica L McLean in the current letter, Ms. Monica Lee McLean was also one of the signatories of another letter from the Holton-Arms class of 1984 bolstering the credibility of Ms. Blasey-Ford.
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Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Trey Gowdy appears on Sunday Morning with Maria Bartiromo to discuss his upcoming meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

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Fusion GPS is a political research firm and network of political operatives who sell their mercenary services to anyone willing to pay.  Fusion has resources inside and outside government and the capability to exploit FBI and NSA databases containing information about U.S. citizens.  Fusion then uses a secondary network of media outlets who they pay to write articles shaped for their purposes. Fusion GPS is operated by Glenn Simpson.
In April 2016 Hillary Clinton hired Fusion GPS to target her presidential campaign opponent, Donald Trump.
Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson then assigned Russian expert and CIA research analyst Nellie Ohr to the Trump project.  At the time Nellie Ohr’s husband, Bruce Ohr, was the #4 ranking official inside the DOJ National Security Division.  Simultaneous to Nellie Ohr’s assignment, Fusion GPS also sub-contracted with Christopher Steele for additional material and internal collaboration with Mrs. Ohr.

Glenn Simpson, Nellie and Bruce Ohr then worked with Christopher Steele on the “Steele Dossier” and the promotion of the content therein to media and FBI allies.  The FBI then closed the loop by exploiting the information within “the Dossier” to gain a Title-1 FISA surveillance warrant on the Trump campaign.  All of this activity is now a matter of public record; none of it is disputed.
This network of activity has gained a great deal of sunlight over the past nine months as witnesses have given testimony to congress, and documents have been released showing how it all came together.
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There are two warring camps: Team Rosenstein and Team McCabe.  Team Rosenstein consists of current officials: Jeff Sessions, Dana Boente et al; and Team McCabe has former officials: Lisa Page, James Baker, Mike Kortan et al.
Each camp has a media outlet to push their narrative.  Team Rosenstein has The Washington Post; Team McCabe is using The New York Times.  Sources for NYT reporting are from team McCabe; Sources for WaPo reporting are from Team Rosenstein.  Understand this, and the reporting narrative context makes more sense.

Both Andrew McCabe and Rod Rosenstein took corrupt and illegal action to try and take down the President of the United States.  However, generally speaking, McCabe’s actions were specifically intended to facilitate a soft-coup; whereas Rosenstein was more of a willingly facilitating useful idiot in the grand scheme.
Example 1:  Former FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker and Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe worked together to assemble the post-election “small group”, which eventually gained legitimate legal authority when Baker and McCabe convinced Rosenstein to hire Robert Mueller.
Baker and McCabe were intentionally manipulating the events; DAG Rosenstein was the patsy going along because he wasn’t inside the team in 2016 when it all began.
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The media were going bananas this morning with proclamations of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on the cusp of being fired and headed to the White House.
Firing is not how leverage works.
According to both President Trump (via tweet), and DAG Rod Rosenstein (via statement), the President and Deputy AG had a meeting last week to discuss the declassification directive.  Within that meeting it is almost certain that part of the conversation circled around Rosenstein being unable to fulfill his responsibilities at the DOJ if the substance of the information underneath the declassification directive was released.
Understanding the institutional corruption hidden by the DOJ and FBI classification and redaction, it is predictable that Rosenstein would become the target for Trump media allies and supporters when the circumstances, evidence and details surrounding the soft-coup attempt are exposed.
Whether the Deputy AG  participated/facilitated the soft-coup attempt directly, indirectly, or through willful blindness, there’s no way that Rosenstein could stay on.   So within that conversation last week, it is almost certain the DAG advanced his resignation *IF* the declassification directive went forward and exposed the usurping details.
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British intelligence, apparently seeking to protect Robert Hannigan, the former Director of GCHQ; and Australian intelligence intelligence seeking to protect Alexander Downer, Foreign Affairs Minister and Ambassador to the U.K; have asked President Trump Trump NOT to release un-redacted FISA documents.
Chairman Devin Nunes discusses the involvement of the U.K and Australia, along with the conflict between DAG Rod Rosenstein and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe ‘s attempt at a Coup d’état to impeach President Trump.

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The latest *claim* (defensive positioning) from the camp of Rod Rosentein, is that the Deputy AG enlisted Robert Mueller because Rosenstein viewed McCabe as intent on abusing his office to take down the president.  This inherent risk is the reason team McCabe leaked the damaging information on Rosenstein to the New York Times.
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The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Bob Goodlatte, tweeted today their intention to immediately subpoena the memos written by fired Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.   The memos were part of an article presented by the New York Times citing evidence of Rod Rosenstein making statements about President Trump.

The House Judiciary Committee announced on Friday that it intends to subpoena memos from former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe detailing reported comments made by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in which he proposed secretly taping conversations with President Trump and initiating a process to remove the president by invoking the 25th Amendment.  (read more)

However, the subpoena alone that’s not the revelation-angle within the story. There’s a bigger story as noted by judiciary committee Representative Jim Jordan: “Mr. Rosenstein, give Congress the McCabe memos that we asked for in July and all the other documents we’ve requested so we can all judge for ourselves.”
The bigger revelation here is how someone, some unknown FBI officials, kept the McCabe  memos from congress and subsequently from a previous internal INSD investigation of McCabe.
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There is nuance within the directive for declassification by President Trump.  The sets of documents are not identical in the way they are classified within the intelligence apparatus.  There are distinct differences and conflicting reports [Bloomberg Report and Washington Examiner] perhaps based on conflation and miss-identification of those differences. First, Sara Carter:

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Breaking down the presidential directive to the four component parts helps  understanding the issue(s), and the likelihood for redactions within the release(s):

• (1) pages 10-12 and 17-34 of the June 2017 application to the FISA court in the matter of Carter W. Page;
• (2) all FBI reports of interviews with Bruce G. Ohr prepared in connection with the Russia investigation;
• (3) all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications.
• (4) publicly release of all text messages relating to the Russia investigation, without redaction, of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr.

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