President Trump delivers remarks during the First Step Act Bill Signing.  The president talks about border security, the border wall and the likelihood of a government shutdown.
The FIRST STEP Act was championed by Jared Kushner, and passed through Congress with bipartisan support. President Trump saluted his allies in the White House and in Congress who fought for the bill, and added a personal thanks to the Senate and House Minority Leaders. “I want to thank Nancy and Chuck, as I say affectionately. I do. I want to thank everybody.”

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The sentencing guideline for the single count of lying to federal investigators was: 0 to 6 months. After a rather sketchy plea deal, DOJ Prosecutors had requested an upward revision to two-years incarceration based on the severity of the conduct.

Moments ago US District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson sentenced James Wolfe to a two-month prison term.

The judge rejected the request for an upward revision of sentencing; and she rejected a victim impact statement from Carter Page outlining the damage to him caused by James Wolfe’s leaking…   In essence, James Wolfe became the benefactor of a corrupt FBI/DOJ trying to protect the Senate Intelligence Committee from scrutiny.

Backstory Below

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From research we know what is known as the “Steele Dossier” was a collaborative effort between Fusion-GPS contract employee Nellie Ohr, and a British intelligence asset named Chris Steele; also hired by Fusion.  According to inferred congressional testimony, Nellie Ohr’s co-author, Chris Steele, was also an employee of Russian influence agent Oleg Deripaska.
Within a court filing today (full pdf below) there’s an outline of a network of NeverTrump republican allies who received the dossier directly from Christopher Steele. Including: David Kramer (for John McCain), Representative Adam Kinzinger, Paul Ryan’s chief-of-staff John Burks, and various British and U.S. intelligence officials.

It was David Kramer, on behalf of Senator John McCain, who gave the Dossier to Buzzfeed to publish.  The first 10-pages of the filing outline the distribution network.
Considering the relationship between Oleg Deripaska and Christopher Steele, ultimately what the dossier and distribution reflects is a Russian propaganda document created by Fusion-GPS Nellie Ohr (herself an expert on Russia) and Chris Steele – then funneled to the U.S. intelligence apparatus for use against an American presidential candidate.
Rather ironic eh?
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Ever heard the term: “physician heal thyself“?  Judge Sullivan revokes Michael Flynn’s passport and imposes travel restrictions with major financial ramifications.

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At first blush this would appear to be a judge with a vendetta against Michael Flynn.  However, CTH would disagree.  As Robert Barnes stated earlier: “How does a judge try to torpedo a plea deal and get a defendant to withdraw their plea? They threaten to use the charges they avoided within the plea deal as the basis for their sentence.”
Sullivan deploys a strategy we know as “extreme compliance“.  In essence delivering ramifications toward the judicial status quo in order to change the status quo.

Former FBI Director James Comey appeared December 17th, 2018, for a second round of questions by a joint House committee oversight probe into the DOJ and FBI conduct during the 2016 presidential election and incoming Trump administration.
The Joint House Committee just released the transcript (full pdf below):
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This was just released.  Analysis to follow.

Without cameras in the courtroom we are constrained to understand the Flynn sentencing hearing today through the perspectives of others. The Daily Caller has an article [See Here] and a thread on the events [is Here] and a great video recap of the events by Will Chamberlain [is HERE].
That said, there is much speculation and punditry delivered opinion on what took place; and how the hearing ended with Judge Emmet Sullivan delaying the sentencing of Michael Flynn for 90-days. While we await the transcript from the court, here’s my view.

Last night, while contemplating the possible outcomes of the hearing, there was a strong likelihood of exactly what happened today…. but only if Judge Sullivan was aware of the conflicted position of Michael Flynn, and approached the hearing from that perspective.
Flynn took the guilty plea of lying to investigators to avoid Mueller charging him over the Turkish lobbying issues (FARA).
Happily, it appears Judge Sullivan is well aware of this very specific dynamic and the issues therein. Special Counsel Robert Mueller used the unregistered foreign lobbying charges, and -more importantly- the devastating narrative that can be drawn from those FARA violations, as leverage over Flynn. Based on the comments from Judge Sullivan, it is clear he is aware of this dynamic.
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Prosecutor Brandon Van Grack filed a cover letter attempting to explain the reason for the Flynn interview on January 24th, and the official filing of the interview notes (FD-302) on February 15th, and then again on May 31st.  To explain the delay, he claims the report “inadvertently” had a header saying “DRAFT DOCUMENT/DELIBERATIVE MATERIAL”  (screen grab)

What the special counsel appears to be obfuscating to the court is that there was factually a process of deliberation within the investigative unit, headed by FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, surrounding the specific wording of the 302 report on the interview.
Prosecutor Brandon Van Grack is attempting to hide the length of the small group deliberations. It seems he doesn’t want the court to know Andrew McCabe was involved in shaping how the fd-302 was written.
We know there was a deliberative process in place, seemingly all about how to best position the narrative, because we can see the deliberations in text messages between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok:  See below (note the dates):

The text message conversation above is February 14th, 2017.   The Michael Flynn FD-302 was officially entered into the record on February 15th, 2017, per the report:
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This is interesting.  On the eve of Michael Flynn’s sentencing hearing tomorrow, judge Emmet Sullivan has ordered Robert Mueller’s office to publicly file a redacted version of  the original 302 (interview notes) that FBI Agent Joe Pientka prepared after Flynn’s Jan. 24, 2017 interview (full pdf below).

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  The FD-302 that is submitted by the Mueller team in response to the Sullivan order is here.  Written by FBI Agents Joe Pientka and Peter Strzok:
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[Cloud Link to pdf – SCRIBD link to pdf]

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Former FBI Director James Comey speaks to the media at the conclusion of his second day of testimony before a joint House committee conducting DOJ and FBI oversight.

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By prior agreement the transcript of the hearing will be made public within 24 hours.  So we should be able to read the testimony sometime tomorrow.
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Michael Flynn is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow by Judge Emmet Sullivan.  Former constitutional law professor Alan Dershowitz discusses his opinion on the possibility that Judge Sullivan could throw out the case.

Mr. Dershowitz has an opinion piece today at THE HILL going over this issue – SEE HERE –

The media is asking the wrong question about the Michael Flynn case. They are asking whether Flynn lied or the FBI acted improperly, as if the answers to those two questions are mutually exclusive. The possibility that both are true, in that Flynn did not tell the truth and that the FBI acted improperly, is not considered in our hyper partisan world where everyone, including the media, chooses a side and refuses to consider the chance that their side is not perfectly right and the other side not perfectly evil. Read More