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Why The Delay in Public Release of Key Documents?…

The possibility of U.S. Attorney John Durham exploiting/using documents declassified by his boss, AG Bill Barr, could suggest some of the material may not be made public; indeed that’s the inference from Representative John Ratcliffe three weeks ago as he outlined to Maria Bartiromo.

If accurate, it is worthwhile considering what *could be* publicly declassified by AG Barr, and yet not run afoul of any investigative value for Durham.   Example: the declassification of the Rosenstein scope memos to Robert Mueller (no longer a reason to be hidden) would not seem to materially affect the investigative intents of Durham.
So considering investigative value, what documents could be made public that would not impede Durham?
Here’s the list of material possible for declassification. This was the original list as outlined in 2018:
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DOJ Appears to Block Manafort Transfer to Rikers Island…

An interesting and moderately positive development in the ongoing fiasco surrounding the prosecution of Paul Manafort.  According to the New York Times, Attorney General William Barr’s top deputy, Jeffrey Rosen, sent a letter to New York state prosecutors saying Main Justice was monitoring the planned transfer of Mr. Manafort.
Following the DOJ letter, the decision to transfer Manafort to Rikers Island was reversed.

(Via New York Times) … [L]ast week, Manhattan prosecutors were surprised to receive a letter from the second-highest law enforcement official in the country inquiring about Mr. Manafort’s case. The letter, from Jeffrey A. Rosen, Attorney General William P. Barr’s new top deputy, indicated that he was monitoring where Mr. Manafort would be held in New York.

And then, on Monday, federal prison officials weighed in, telling the Manhattan district attorney’s office that Mr. Manafort, 70, would not be going to Rikers.

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Reminder: John Durham Questioning CIA Officials About Intelligence Community Assessment…

Against the backdrop of the DOJ admitting FBI investigators never had access to the DNC servers to verify a Russian hack; and with new information about the FBI receiving partial and redacted analysis from Crowdstrike; the review by U.S. Attorney John Durham toward the downstream assessment/claims of the CIA takes on new meaning.
CTH has previously outlined how the December 29th, 2016, Joint Analysis Report (JAR) on Russia Cyber Activity was a quickly compiled bunch of nonsense about Russian hacking.
The JAR was followed a week later by the January 7th, 2017, Intelligence Community Assessment.   The ICA took the ridiculous construct of the JAR and then overlaid a political narrative that Russia was trying to help Donald Trump.
The ICA was the brain-trust of John Brennan, James Clapper and James Comey. NSA Director Mike Rogers would not sign up to the “high confidence” claims, likely because he saw through the political motives of the report.
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DOJ Admits FBI Never Saw Crowdstrike Report on DNC Russian Hacking Claim…

The foundation for the Russian election interference narrative is built on the claim of Russians hacking the servers of the Democrat National Committee (DNC), and subsequently releasing damaging emails that showed the DNC worked to help Hillary Clinton and eliminate Bernie Sanders.
Despite the Russian ‘hacking’ claim the DOJ previously admitted the DNC would not let FBI investigators review the DNC server.  Instead the DNC provided the FBI with analysis of a technical review done through a cyber-security contract with Crowdstrike.

The narrative around the DNC hack claim was always sketchy; many people believe the DNC email data was downloaded onto a flash drive and leaked.  In a court filing (full pdf below) the scale of sketchy has increased exponentially.
Suspecting they could prove the Russian hacking claim was false, lawyers representing Roger Stone requested the full Crowdstrike report on the DNC hack.  When the DOJ responded to the Stone motion they made a rather significant admission.  Not only did the FBI not review the DNC server, the FBI/DOJ never even saw the Crowdstrike report.
Yes, that is correct.  The FBI and DOJ were only allowed to see a “draft” report prepared by Crowdstrike, and that report was redacted… and that redacted draft is the “last version of the report produced”; meaning, there are no unredacted & final versions.
Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot!
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23 House Republicans Suspect DOJ Cover-up in Progress? – Request "Prompt" Declassification from President Trump…

Twenty-three House republicans request declassification of documents directly from President Trump as soon as possible.  Despite the executive office directive to AG Bill Barr, the republican group seemingly do not trust the DOJ and FBI institutional interests.
It’s a smart move to keep the pressure on.
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President Trump Uses Mark Warner and Adam Schiff Examples to Highlight Foreign Contacts….

Earlier today President Trump hit back against a ridiculous media and political narrative that in a series of tweets:
The example of Mark Warner is particularly poignant. In 2017 Senator Mark Warner was texting with lawyer/lobbyist Adam Waldman about setting up a covert meeting with British intelligence operative and dossier author Chris Steele.  Waldman is a lobbyist/lawyer with a $40,000 monthly retainer to represent the U.S. interests of Russian billionaire Oleg V. Deripaska.
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Devin Nunes and Mark Meadows Discuss Corruption Within FBI/DOJ and "New Whistle-blowers" Coming Forward……

HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes appears with judiciary committee member Mark Meadows to discuss today’s HPSCI hearing, corruption within the DOJ/FBI, and the current NYT story about AG Bill Barr questioning the CIA construct of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment.
Notice in Mr. Nunes statements: “corrupt rank and file“? {CURIOUS}; also Fusion GPS and the FBI operating on “parallel tracks“? {CURIOUS x 2}  Additionally, from Rep. Mark Meadows we hear this:

“We are now getting a lot of whistle-blowers” … “people who knew this was wrong are coming forward now” …


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Also from Nunes, confirmation that Rosenstein’s original scope memo was based on empowering/authorizing Weissmann and Mueller to investigate (ie. ‘utilize’) the dossier manufactured by Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson, Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele.
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Report: John Durham Questioning CIA Officials About Intelligence Community Assessment…

The New York Times has a report this evening surrounding U.S. Attorney John Durham questioning CIA officials about the origination of the Trump-Russia investigation.
However, a closer look at the substance underneath the NYT reporting and it doesn’t actually look like Durham is questioning the CIA about the investigation itself; rather it appears he is questioning the CIA about how they came to the conclusions within the January 7th, 2017, Intelligence Community Assessment, or ICA.

(New York Times) […] Mr. Barr wants to know more about the C.I.A. sources who helped inform its understanding of the details of the Russian interference campaign, an official has said. He also wants to better understand the intelligence that flowed from the C.I.A. to the F.B.I. in the summer of 2016.

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Senator Lindsey Graham Discusses FISA Court and Ongoing Inquiry…

Inspector General Horowitz is doing a FISA review based on the Carter Page application. However, if Michael Horowitz has started looking deeply into the DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD), via their historic use of FARA definitions to submit Title-1 surveillance warrants against U.S. persons…. well, there’s a strong possibility such an IG investigation would take much longer than expected.
Additionally, if the Obama DOJ-NSD was using the appearance of FARA violations as the predicate for FISA warrant authority (now seems likely); and that sketchy predicate was the basis for keeping all OIG oversight away from the NSD (again, likely); then the entire political system in/around Washington DC would be opened as a target for surveillance.
Anyone targeted under such a sketchy legal predicate for lobbying violations, would unknowingly be carrying their Title-1 surveillance virus into every interaction.  The downstream ramifications are almost beyond imagining….


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Jordan and Gaetz Expose Pelosi and Nadler's Ridiculous Political Impeachment Stunt…

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Judicary Chairman Jerry Nadler constructed a political hearing to kick-off their impeachment narrative and fuel their base.  In an effort to create the appearance of hearing credibility the plan was to use testimony from former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean.  The plan failed, miserably…  Dean was showcased for what he is, a political prop for the left-wing base of MSNBC moonbats.
Committee members Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz spotlight the ridiculous positions of Mr. Dean by highlighting his ideological history and presenting questions which showcase the absurdity of it all.  First up, Jim Jordan:


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Following Mr. Jordan, representative Matt Gaetz: “the ghost of Christmas past“….
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