During a questioning session by Rep. Jim Jordan, AG Bill Barr outlines a secondary, parallel, investigation ongoing by U.S. Attorney John Bash [@01:40 of video].  In his response AG Barr notes the breakout investigation assigned to Bash to review the unlawful unmasking of Donald Trump campaign officials.

Worth noting AG Barr explains the unmasking investigation is not limited to the post election period, transition and incoming administration.  The investigation extends further back in the government surveillance of Trump associates in the 2015/2016 campaign. That unmasking could, likely does, include the use of the FBI-NSA database where ‘unmasking’ is an analogous term with”minimization”.  {Go Deep}

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AGAIN, there is a name -a key person- that is never mentioned within these stories. One person, who no-one knows, whose name has never appeared, who is doing the larger investigative over-watch. The five member USAO team are on a separate, albeit parallel, track. That one key-person fuels my optimism [and please quit trying to guess – it’s futile].

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With the release of transcripts and the declassification of material from within the IG report, the Carter Page FISA and Flynn documents showing FBI activity; and with the recent release from Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsay Graham; there is a common misconception about why the intelligence apparatus began investigating the Trump campaign in the first place. Why was Donald Trump considered a threat?

In this outline we hope to provide some fully cited deep source material that will explain the origin; and specifically why those inside the Intelligence Community & DOJ began targeting Trump and using Confidential Human Sources against campaign officials.

During the time-frame of December 2015 through April 2016 the NSA database was being exploited by contractors within the intelligence community doing unauthorized searches.

On March 9, 2016, oversight personnel doing a review of FBI system access were alerted to thousands of unauthorized search queries of specific U.S. persons within the NSA database.

NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers was made aware.

Subsequently NSA Director Rogers initiated a full compliance review of the system to identify who was doing the searches; & what searches were being conducted.

On April 18, 2016, following the preliminary audit results, Director Rogers shut down all FBI contractor access to the database after he learned FISA-702 “about”(17) and “to/from”(16) search queries were being done without authorization. Thus begins the first discovery of a much bigger background story.

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Earlier today Sidney Powell filed a new supplemental brief (#2) [pdf here] in support of the unopposed motion to dismiss.  The supplement covers the defense position on the newly released information from USAO Jeff Jensen which includes: notes taken by Tash Guahar at a January 25, 2017 briefing; the FBI work product that was an outcome of that briefing; and later notes by acting DAG Dana Boente.

The notes and FBI briefing summary are also on pdf here and embedded below.  It’s a lot of granular information to consider – so it’s worth beginning with the filing by Sidney Powell to see how the evidence released pertains to the current status of the case.

On January 25, 2017, the day after Flynn was interviewed by FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Agent Joe Pientka (he’s the redacted name per his status under an ongoing protective order) the DOJ and FBI group assembled to discuss the Flynn interview and what steps they would take to frame Michael Flynn as part of their ongoing resistance operation.

Tashina Guahar from the DOJ-National Security Division was taking the notes.

Notes of then Deputy Assistant Attorney General Tashina Gauhar, reveal a January 25, 2017, meeting of ten officials including FBI General Counsel James Baker, Bill Priestap, Agent Peter Strzok, and [redacted]; from the National Security Division of DOJ: Mary McCord, George ZT, and STU; from the Office of the Deputy AG: Tash, Scott [Schools], and [redacted].

Additionally, when reviewing the notes and FBI briefing summary it’s worth remembering the release only covers the information pertinent to Michael Flynn; hence the non-Flynn material is redacted (even though some of the non-Flynn material we previously found). [Thanks to Techno Fog for that reminder]

One of the key aspects to the notes taken by Tashina Guahar relates to the group discussion of their own leaking of information to the media, which they worried had now alerted the Trump administration to the nature of their intelligence surveillance.

The resistance group’s media leaks, intended to undermine the Trump administration, “changed the dynamic” by informing the White House that FBI agents were intercepting communication from White House officials.

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Special Asst. to President Trump and National Security Advisor to Vice-President Mike Pence, Keith Kellogg, appears with Lou Dobbs to provide some background context into former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

As Lt. General Kellogg explains, Bolton came into the administration with a hidden personal agenda; perhaps organized by DC elements and and assisted by covert conservative media who were trying to eliminate the presidency.

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Apparently excerpts from former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s dossier have been released to the media.  The Bolton dossier makes some of the most outlandish claims imaginable; and only the most incredibly silly media would ever believe them.  So yeah, that’s exactly what’s happening.

One example within the Bolton Dossier comes from John Bolton himself as he wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal.  Before citing the Bolton article it’s worth remembering CTH was following every detail of the Osaka G20 meeting closely. We took notes on every background and foreground contact and meeting, because the U.S-China Osaka meeting was at a very critical juncture.   [My favorite picture from Osaka, Japan]

Bolton puts this goofball framework to the Osaka, Japan, G20:

(Wall Street Journal) […] In their meeting in Osaka on June 29, Xi told Trump that the U.S.-China relationship was the most important in the world. He said that some (unnamed) American political figures were making erroneous judgments by calling for a new cold war with China.

Whether Xi meant to finger the Democrats or some of us sitting on the U.S. side of the table, I don’t know, but Trump immediately assumed that Xi meant the Democrats.

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Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell discusses his prior approach toward declassifying documents behind the Obama administration’s efforts to disrupt the incoming Trump administration.

As Grenell notes the prior administration was politically focused on targeting Donald Trump and weaponizing the intelligence apparatus to disrupt the Trump administration. Grenell discusses the over-classification of documents as a tool to hide intentional wrongdoing and corrupt intent.

It’s worth noting the interview is heavily edited; which, given Ms. Bartiromo’s granular insight on the issues, may indicate some of the conversation extended beyond what would be comfortable for the current investigation to be seen in public. (Just a hunch).

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DNI John Ratcliffe has declassified the Appendix to the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). [Source Document Here] The appendix known as “Annex A” was the material the FBI and CIA did not include in the body of the ICA; however, it was used to brief congress.  [NOTE: the document quality/clarity is very poor as released]

There was always suspicion that “Annex A” was the ridiculous claims by FBI source Christopher Steele; those suspicions are confirmed today.  The ICA was written in late December ’16 & early January 2017, and the purpose was to politicize intelligence by making outlandish claims of the Trump-Russia conspiracy the official position of the U.S intelligence apparatus (CIA, FBI, DOJ and NSA).

[Link to Original pdf]

The “Annex A” supporting the narrative was made out of claims by Christopher Steele. The two-page document is stunningly obtuse by design; and despite the FBI knowing the purpose of Christopher Steele, the Annex pretends not to know his agenda.

By keeping the ridiculous Steele claims in the annex the FBI was able to use the claims and yet afford themselves plausible deniability under the pretense of non-verification.  When James Comey briefed President Trump about the claims he pretended not to know the political intents of the information; and worse still, he covered-up that Clinton’s campaign had paid for the information.  A stunningly political move based on deception.

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Long term CTH readers will not find this surprising, but it’s nice to see it starting to be said/admitted openly:

(Source)

State Dept. and Defense Dept. embeds primarily operate through CNN.  CIA embeds primarily operate through The Washington Post. FBI embeds primarily work through The New York Times; and Politico carries a blend.  Fox is the controlled opposition.

Researchers who travel the deep weeds of U.S. politics have noted this very predictable pattern has been very visible for well over two decades.

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You may have recently noticed that Susan Rice has called for the release of the transcript of the conversation between Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak:

(Source and Full Statement)

However, what many people do not realize is the motive for Susan Rice to call for the release of this transcript.  This aspect of the intercepted communication is very interesting.

First, there is nothing damaging in the content of the Flynn-Kislyak call.  We know there is nothing damaging in the transcript because the call was made on December 29, 2016; and the FBI investigators who intercepted the call reviewed the call content; and five days later on January 4, 2017, the same Washington DC field office of the FBI wanted to close the investigation of Michael Flynn having “found no derogatory information.”

If there had been something damaging within the call to either the incoming Trump administration, or Michael Flynn himself, the FBI would not be saying they have found nothing derogatory and they were closing the Flynn investigation five days after the call.

Additionally, we also know there was nothing damaging or inappropriate within the call because Robert Mueller’s investigators outlined the content:

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It is quite remarkable how quickly the senate can move on a confirmation vote when there is a heavy dose of self-preservation in play.   Only two days after the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) voted to advance the nomination of John Ratcliffe as Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the full senate takes up the nomination and ‘presto’… Ratcliffe is confirmed.  [Vote Tally Here] Huh, funny that.

Perhaps another way to look at it….  two days after the SSCI cried uncle in an attempt to rid themselves of the atomic sledgehammer of transparently perpetual sunlight known as Ric Grenell, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell rushed the quick dispatch.

Seriously, it’s a little unfair to cast a great man like John Ratcliffe as ‘less than’, because he truly is not less than anyone; however, boy howdy the deep state couldn’t get rid of their nemesis Richard “Ric” Genell quickly enough.

Mr. Grenell quietly brought more declassified sunlight upon the swamp than decades of prior transparency efforts; and he did it with a very deliberate flair, quite fun.

DNI John Ratcliffe will do an excellent job, and I seriously doubt this is the last we have seen of the Mr. Grenell.

FBI Director Grenell does have a nice ring to it.

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