There continue to be questions about the substance behind the pending release of the House Intelligence Committee memo.  With that release in mind, today it is worthwhile remembering this is the beginning of exposing the corruption within the DOJ not the end.

For several years the U.S. justice department has maintained an attitude of non-accountability within its ranks.  The Obama years elevated that attitude and provided multiple examples of a DOJ gone rogue.
A complicit media enables that attitude by engineering a false narrative the U.S. Justice Department was/is an independent fourth branch of government; unaccountable to congress and entirely separate from the executive branch.
The House Intelligence Memo is simply using the example of currently known FISA abuse to open the door and show the U.S. electorate how corrupt this unaccountable institution has become.  Behind that door are very uncomfortable realities for all of those who constructed the weaponized agency; and also those who have benefited from it.
Consider:
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It was announced this afternoon the lawyers representing, Rick Gates, the business partner of Paul Manafort, have withdrawn from the case.  The judicial notification is HERE, and details of withdrawal were filed under seal.
Amid the news cycle of the HPSCI memo release, and considering there could be ripple effects therein, lots of media speculations follows:

WASHINGTON DC – Three attorneys representing Rick Gates told a federal court Thursday they are immediately withdrawing as counsel for the former Donald Trump campaign aide, who is fighting special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of him on money laundering and other charges.
Lawyers Shanlon Wu, Walter Mack and Annemarie McAvoy said in a two-page motion that they would explain the reasons for their abrupt move in documents filed under seal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. (read more)

There is possibility the three lawyers could be withdrawing after discovery of the length of time the DOJ was investigating Manafort and Gates; and that might just dovetail into the FISA702 abuse story and the 2016 counterintelligence investigation of Donald Trump. I’ll try to explain.
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As anticipated, the Executive Branch, having completed a full review, has approved the declassification request from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and will deliver the Intelligence Memo, without redactions, back to the HPSCI for public release.

WASHINGTON DC – According to a Thursday afternoon pool report, a White House official confirmed upon arrival to West Virginia that the president “has read the memo.”
Trump will declassify the controversial four-page memo that reportedly details surveillance abuses by the Department of Justice and FBI, and send it back to House Intelligence for a Friday morning release.

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The Memo team have done a great job utilizing the media reporting to draw in interest to the content of the House Intelligence Memo on DOJ/FBI FISA abuse.  During a joint House and Senate  leadership press conference today, Speaker Paul Ryan again clarified the process and procedures.  [Video @08:28 Prompted]
Remember, what is contained in the full story of this DOJ and FBI activity, directly strikes to the heart of the two biggest and most defended people within the Democrat party: former President Obama, and former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The media are losing their minds over this, because of the consequential nature of the facts and what they represent.
https://youtu.be/27UyIehXN9M?t=8m30s
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Representative Mark Meadows appears on Lou Dobbs last night to discuss the four-page House Intelligence Committee FISA abuse memo currently under executive branch review. The HPSCI of the Legislative Branch has created a classified work product (the memo) and is requesting executive branch declassification.
After invited (executive) review by Christopher Wray on Sunday night, and two officials on Monday, the HPSCI voted to release to the executive.  The remaining executive branch (NSC, OLC, WH legal, CoS, etc.) is currently reviewing. Lou Dobbs is concerned about five FBI officials visiting the White House (w/ Chief-of-Staff Kelly).

Gotta love the professionally obtuse former DNI James Clapper.
As much as he is a stuttering doofus, and therein showcases his political value for the former administration; and to the extent that Clapper has previously stated there was no attempt by the DOJ/FBI to gain a FISA authorized approval for surveillance on any Trump campaign officials: “none that I’m aware of“; …it is always valuable to listen to Clapper because he has a tendency to, well, to let slip stuff that makes the black hats cringe.
Cue the audio visual “slippage.”  Inside tonight’s interview by Jake Tapper, former DNI James Clapper now unwittingly refutes his previous assertion of “no Trump FISA warrant“, and simultaneously lets it slip out that the Clinton/Steele dossier was not used in gaining origination authority for FISA-702 surveillance, but rather for an “extension” of a previous application for FISA-702 surveillance.  WATCH:

06:48 ..”as I understand it, this was simply an extension of uh, the original, uh, FISA request.  Meaning that, or implying, that apparently, there was information that was considered, uh, ‘valuable’, that was being obtained, via the initial FISA request.”
“FISA’s have, uh, finite dates. Uh, in other words they have deadlines; they aren’t indefinite… So when the time was up for the initial FISA report, FISA request, then it was time to get an extension. So on its face, I don’t know that the dossier played, very much, in this at all”…

Well, that’s interesting.  I wonder who gave Clapper the “as I understand it” part? Now let’s go back to March 5th 2017 and review what DNI James Clapper said about the Department of Justice getting FISA-702 surveillance authority on Trump campaign officials.
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On Monday night January 29th, 2018, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence met to discuss the release of a classified committee memo that outlined corruption within the U.S. Justice Department, and how the DOJ/FBI used fraudulent material to apply for FISA surveillance warrants on American citizens.
Below is the committee transcript from that meeting. Democrats (minority) opposed the release of the Intelligence Memo; Republicans (majority) supported it. The minority wanted to distribute a memo of their own; the majority supported the request of the minority so long as they followed the same process as previous.  (link to pdf)
[scribd id=370457752 key=key-ZxrY7RlW83UobxTBpOnN mode=scroll]
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There are multiple corrupt officials inside the U.S. Department of Justice.  This has never been in doubt since DOJ and FBI officials made direct admissions to the FISA court that they intentionally manipulated the court system for political purposes (April ’17 FISC pdf).
After the material admissions to the court; and against revelations from sunlight upon the activity showing the DOJ and FBI manipulated the FISC to gain surveillance authority to spy on Donald Trump campaign officials; the issue shifted toward disclosure of the activity, evidence of scale of abuse and ultimately, accountability.
Accountability for the weaponization of intelligence has been the ongoing goal of House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes.  Explaining what took place leads to Chairman Nunes creating the intelligence memo.  However, it is the underlying classified information behind the memo where evidence of ‘how’ the apparatus was weaponized will be found.

Current and former officials within the Department of Justice (national security division) and FBI (counterintelligence division) are at the heart of the malfeasance.  Those officials have a vested interest in trying to stop the public from seeing what took place.  They are aided by a political media apparatus who are attempting to shield the corrupt officials due to aligned political opposition against the current President.
The corrupt FBI officials -remaining inside the DOJ/FBI- know they can rely on their media allies to assist them in keeping what took place hidden from public review.  Today, those FBI entities attempt to cloud the Nunes memo and shape a narrative.  Their release:
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Well, well, well… Snap.  This is an interesting development, potentially quite explosive, and, perhaps, stunningly affirmational.

According to Catherine Herridge, after Chairman Nunes personally took FBI Director Christopher Wray to view the “Intel Memo” on Sunday night, and prior to the House Intel Committee vote to release the memo Monday evening, FBI Director Christopher Wray sent a Main Justice official and a “counterintelligence official” to view the content.
According to her report, those officials: “could not point to any factual inaccuracies.”

Catherine Herridge – Two senior FBI officials have now reviewed a controversial Republican staff memo alleging abuses of government surveillance programs during the 2016 presidential campaign, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News – adding that the officials “could not point to any factual inaccuracies.”

The two officials – one from the bureau’s counterintelligence division and the other from the legal division – followed up after an initial review of the memo during a rare Sunday trip to Capitol Hill by FBI Director Christopher Wray.

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The House of Representatives GOP leadership team held a press briefing earlier today.  During the Q&A Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, was asked about the House Intelligence Committee memo that has been released to the Executive Branch.The full presser is below.
The memo remarks by Speaker Ryan occur at 15:00 of the video.  Notice the appropriate, constitutional, and purposeful explanation of the process.  The executive branch (President Trump) and legislative branch (Ryan, Nunes, etc.) are continuing to emphasize the structural framework of U.S. government, and the seperation of powers therein, to return the rule of law during the Trump administration.  This is NOT accidental. [Video prompted to start @15:00]

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The prior administration weaponized the executive branch against its political enemies.  Repeat: The prior administration weaponized the executive branch against its political enemies.  U.S. citizens, Americans, were targeted by corrupt officials within the Justice Department for political purposes.  Never lose this critical reference point and context.
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