An interesting DC storyline surrounding Senate Judiciary Vice-Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, and the lack of support for her based on party backlash, highlights an interesting shift in 2016 that few paid attention to. First, the current story:

(Via CNN) – Senate Democratic leaders on Tuesday pointedly refused to say if they supported California Sen. Dianne Feinstein staying in her post as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sidestepping questions about the veteran party elder after she praised Republicans’ handling of the confirmation proceedings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

[…] “I’ve had a long and serious talk with Sen. Feinstein,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters when asked if he was looking to make changes atop the powerful committee. “That’s all I’m going to say about it right now.” (read more)

2020 Democrats are not happy with Senator Feinstein for not pushing the party narrative to seek and destroy SCOTUS nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett.  This helps highlight the 2016 motive to remove Feinstein from the vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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Today in Prescott, Arizona, President Trump hit his victory stride for the home-stretch.  Go back and watch the entire rally if needed and you’ll see.

There are moments, inflection points per se’, that are not unique to President Trump but are uniquely President Trump.  We have now entered a very specific phase of the 2020 campaign with a confident, purposeful and focused candidate.  First, watch this:

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What President Trump expressed in that moment is very typically Trump.

Accepting that AG Bill Barr is likely to do nothing, he moves quickly through the disappointment phase, finds no value in dwelling there, and shifts into optimal solutions mode. This is a character trait of Donald Trump that has made him successful through life.

Several years ago, WolfMoon accurately described this trait as “optimal solutions” Trump. Assess, evaluate, move strategically, stride confidently.  This shift is specifically pertinent at this moment because it comes as an outcome of a very positive momentum shift.

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I’m not going to spend a great deal of time on this release, because the Ohr 302’s were previously released, except to point out some interesting aspects.

First, the timing, content and sequence of the specific documents being released are interesting.  Almost like someone is paying attention.  The original release of the Bruce Ohr 302 interview notes was in August 2019 to Judicial Watch. The release today is of the same information in a better quality.

Secondly, in both sets of released documents the name Dan Jones has been redacted.  It appears the redaction is made under the auspices of “sources and methods”; however, Jones was a former SSCI lead staffer, so the redaction appears to be one of institutional concern and self-preservation.

The last interview of Bruce Ohr (May 15th, 2017) took place two days prior to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Throughout the interviews Bruce was acting as the go-between from his both his wife Nellie at Fusion-GPS and Fusion’s contract agent Christopher Steele.

Third, The content of the December 2016 thumb-drive given to Bruce by Nellie is discussed within the interview notes but not released. 

Why? Possibility/Probability:

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An interesting note from Catherine Herridge today outlines that DOJ official Bruce Ohr resigned from the FBI shortly before being terminated as a result of the IG report on his activity:

As TechnoFog notes, this resignation is likely tied to this Office of Professional Regulation announcement on July 24th of this year:

OPR received a referral from another Department entity regarding allegations that a senior Department attorney failed to apprise his supervisor of his interactions with a law enforcement agency and a source concerning the subject matter of an ongoing high-profile investigation.

Although the attorney eventually recognized the need to inform his supervisor, who was overseeing the investigation, of his involvement and provided some information about the general topic, the senior Department attorney failed to provide a complete disclosure of his role as a conduit of information between the source and the law enforcement agency. As a result, the supervisor was unaware of the attorney’s activities related to the investigation until learning of them through other means.

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To provide some context for this letter, even beyond what is stated by Senators Grassley and Johnson, it is worthwhile remembering the 300 pages of text messages between FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and his DOJ lawyer Lisa Page were originally revealed in March of 2019.   Catherine Herridge reported on two of those pages.

Today Grassley and Johnson send a letter [pdf here] asking FBI Director Chris Wray to stop stonewalling congressional oversight and provide the text messages.  Within the letter the senators outline a few examples highlighting how McCabe and Page were coordinating FBI leaks to their media allies during a key and critical time-frame:

(source pdf – also embed below)

Those 2016 text messages were during the time when an internal argument was taking place about the need for McCabe to recuse himself from the reopening of the Clinton email investigation because he tried to bury the Weiner laptop emails for 28-days in October.

Here’s the letter from Grassley and Johnson:

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Earlier this morning Senator Chuck Grassley (Senate Finance Committee Chairman), appeared with Maria Bartiromo to discuss conflicts for documents between the legislative oversight committees, and ongoing stonewalling efforts by current FBI Director Christopher Wray and current CIA Director Gina Haspel.

Senator Grassley and Senator Johnson are seeking the communication from former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and officials within the DOJ and FBI surrounding the investigative targeting of candidate Trump and President Trump.  [LINK] Additionally, both Grassley and Johnson are seeking internal documents connected to former CIA Director John Brennan and current CIA Director Gina Haspel.

During the interview Grassley states the non-compliance with oversight may be due to former and current officials participating in a conspiracy to target the office of the president:

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The proverbial rabbit hole deepens…

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CBS News Catherine Herridge has obtained a 94-page spread sheet (pdf here) showing dates of media reports, dates of Steele reports on the same material, and the FBI effort to verify or validate the circular process.   In essence this is evidence of the process we initially shared almost three years ago; only now we know the names.

Former SSCI staffer Dan Jones, former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson, and Simpson’s crew at Fusion-GPS, pitched and planted phony Trump-Russia evidence with the media and simultaneously gave those fake points to Chris Steele to supplement the dossier.  Using the same method of Ezra Klein’s “JournOList” replication, Dan Jones and Fusion-GPS paid the journalists to run the stories.

…”media reports on FBI reports of media reports”…

Steele then used the same information from Jones and Fusion in his Dossier and cited the planted media reports; as evidence to substantiate.  The Dossier is then provided to the FBI.  The journalists then provide *indulgences* to the FBI as part of the collaboration.

The FBI, specifically Lisa Page, Peter Strzok and public information office Mike Kortan, then leak the outcomes of the FBI Dossier investigative processes to the same media that have reported on the originating material.   It is all a big circle of planting and laundering the same originating false material; aka a “wrap up smear.”

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A fantastic catch by Twitter user “15poundstogo” highlights a key phrase within the Senate Select Intelligence Committee (SSCI) Russia Report Volume-5, showing how the SSCI allowed those who created the Trump-Russia narrative to avoid questioning:

[SSCI Volume-5 Link, Page 23]

This is a very important detail to underpin the report we shared yesterday about former Dianne Feinstein top staffer Dan Jones attempting to avoid a subpoena from U.S. Attorney John Durham.  [SEE BACKGROUND HERE]  This key highlight from the SSCI is evidence of how the attempted coup against President Trump was coordinated by people outside government and inside government.

Dan Jones left the SSCI prior to the 2016 election and went to work pushing the Trump-Russia narrative through his media contacts.  Jones took over funding Fusion-GPS and Chris Steele in 2017 at the same time Senator Mark Warner took over as SSCI vice-chairman. Dan Jones and Mark Warner coordinated the efforts outside and inside government on the same objective.  The Senate Intel Committee was part of the effort.

As a result of their alignment and common purpose the SSCI didn’t investigate the origin of the Trump-Russia narrative; and instead positioned themselves as a shield to block any investigative inquiry into what took place.  THIS IS A BIG DEAL !

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First, let me set the stage for new readers. No-one is more cynical of DC operations and manipulations than me. I do not sell nor promote ‘hope porn’, and I am not confident that anything is close to being revealed. Indeed, given the scale and scope of what took place in the last eight years, yes eight years; I have expressed doubts that anyone in government would ever actually expose it.

That said, in addition to my own cynicism I have been deep in this “spygate” or “Russiagate” rabbit hole; factually and physically inside the DC network; long enough to see the map of an investigative trail bringing up the rear.

During one great conversation a lawyer said to me: “All of this you know; all of this you have evidence for; but we don’t have the badges”. Thus began my 2020 effort, ultimately a successful effort, to drag the badges into the hole.  That’s the background for an update with new information:

A very important article was written yesterday in the New Yorker [SEE HERE]. While the topic of the article spotlights the ridiculous conspiracy theory surrounding Alfa bank, and the insufferable nonsense about Trump Tower servers having contact -electronic touch signals- with servers from the Russian banking organization, there are aspects to the story that show where the Durham probe has been forced to travel.

Within the article –which everyone should read– some names are very important. The article is framed around defending the New Yorker’s previous reporting on the Alfa Bank conspiracy theory, so the intent of the article is defensive. However, the events being described in the article, and more importantly the people being outlined in the article, are accurate. Especially Daniel Jones and his lawyer William Taylor; and the connection of both to Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson.

According to the article there are two parallel efforts underway to untangle the background of how the false Alfa Bank story was originated. One effort is a set of civil lawsuits by the owners of Alfa bank against those who created the fraudulent story that flowed through Fusion GPS, into Chris Steele’s dossier, into the FBI, and ultimately into the Buzzfeed reporting therein. The owners of the bank are taking all of these entities into court and demanding discovery of sources who framed/created the false impression.

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CTH is delayed in analysis of this story because we are a stickler for source document origination. For some unknown reason the originating document source is identified as ODNI, yet the documents themselves are not officially released.  That is not comforting, and points toward controlled messaging.

According to reports today, most citations returning to [Federalist and Fox News], the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, has released the background documents (pertaining to an earlier declassification of documents) showing handwritten notes by CIA Director John Brennan briefing the White House and the CIA referral to the FBI -of Clinton coordinating the Trump-Russia narrative- for operation Crossfire Hurricane.

The two releases today would be connected to the earlier release (red boxes) to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Without an official originating source for the handwritten notes I am cautious to expand discussion.  The Federalist and Fox News appear to have received the notes.

The notes would pertain to a July 26, 2016, discussion between CIA Director John Brennan and an advisor to Hillary Clinton.  That discussion subsequently led Brennan to brief President Obama, Denis McDonough, Susan Rice and possibly James Comey on July 28, 2016, as noted by Brennan himself in a recent op-ed.

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