On June 14th, 2018, the DOJ Inspector General delivered a 568 page report on the DOJ and FBI handling of the Clinton investigation.
Those who reviewed the full report noted the executive summary was entirely disconnected from the body of material. Additionally, beyond the content disconnection, there was transparent coordination from the institutions of the DOJ and FBI which highlighted an unnerving sense of ongoing corrupt intent.
The IG report on FBI Clinton bias was released to the public Thursday June 14th, at approximately 1:00pm EDT.  Within 13 minutes Trey Gowdy released a public statement on the content.  Within 90 minutes the report was downloaded and shared by most media and investigation followers.  Within two hours the FBI announced a national press conference by FBI Director Chris Wray for 5:30pm EDT.  Four short hours after release.
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A clear example of the Administrative State’s seditious alignment with global financial interests and DC indulgences.  This is the deep state at its deepest and most statist.

Mrs. Susan Thornton, the former acting assistant secretary of state in the Trump administration, tells her Beijing audience to stop negotiating until President Trump is removed from office in 2020.

(BEIJING) […] “I want to be optimistic,” said Thornton, whose 27-year career in Washington ended in July. “I tell all our foreign counterparts they should keep steady, keep their heads down and wait. [They should] try to not let anything change dramatically.”
“If this skeptical attitude towards talking diplomacy continues in this administration, you might have to wait till another administration,” Thornton said at an event held by National Committee of US-China relations and Shanghai’s American Chamber. (read more)

There was a prescient article written in Politico when Thornton announced her exit from the State Department. (more…)

On her television show Laura Ingraham reported her ‘sources’ inform her President Trump will execute the declassification directive next week. [Video Tweet Link] If accurate, the timing –in advance of the OIG draft report– makes sense.
The declassification of documents central to previous congressional inquiry, that also encompasses the Inspector General review of the Carter Page FISA application, is the subject of great interest and speculation.  However, it would make sense for President Trump to authorize the declassification of documents in advance of the IG report release.

Likely Inspector General Michael Horowitz has reviewed all of the documents in question.  If Horowitz wants to include the classified content in his draft report for principle review; and later within the final report; those documents would need to be declassified or else they would be held back, footnoted and outlined in a classified appendix.
If the DOJ and President Trump want the information more broadly available to the public and media, it would make sense to declassify the documents – pending the review and approval of the participating intelligence agencies (DOJ, DOJ-NSD, CIA, NSA, State Dept., FBI, ODNI, DoD, etc.)
♦ The process without controversy – First, each of the executive branch intelligence agencies will have to sign-off on the declassification request, and/or explain to the Chief Executive (that’s Trump), through the ODNI, why their specific intelligence product should not be made public.
Generally speaking, now that the Mueller investigation is complete; and if there is no substantive risk to national security; the intelligence agencies will adhere/defer to the request of the executive.  This is where the alignment and support from U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr is critically important.
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Good discussion between Tom Friedman and Steve Bannon on the ‘big picture’ of the U.S. -vs- China geopolitical trade confrontation.   Friedman is an insufferable prog on methods, but he recognizes the President Trump approach is necessary.  Worth Watching:

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Where academic Friedman is helplessly naive is on the key point of how a coalition approach toward China is a pipe-dream.  When it comes to economics each entity has unique self-interests.  Put fifty self-interested governments together (ie. TPP) and you end up with paralysis of analysis and no action; as each entity fights to hold their own interest over the group interest….. While China grows in the background.
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Against the backdrop of media reports surrounding U.S. Attorney John Durham, and an investigation into potentially corrupt 2016 investigators, perhaps it’s worthwhile to pause, evaluate, reset the outlook and review the backstories.
There’s room for cautious optimism, but there’s also reason to temper expectations. First within the latest Fox News report, the following is noted:

Fox News – […] Durham, known as a “hard-charging, bulldog” prosecutor, according to a source, will focus on the period before Nov. 7, 2016—including the use and assignments of FBI informants, as well as alleged improper issuance of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants. Durham was asked to help Barr to “ensure that intelligence collection activities by the U.S. Government related to the Trump 2016 Presidential Campaign were lawful and appropriate.”

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Once again the New York Times is getting out ahead of the story to reveal Attorney General Bill Barr has instructed U.S. Attorney John Durham to review the origins of the 2016 DOJ and FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign. [Durham Background Here]
The appointment looks like a way to keep the sensitive inquiry within Barr’s control as opposed to appointing a special counsel.  John H Durham, the U.S. attorney from Connecticut, has handled previous investigations into the intelligence community.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut to examine the origins of the Russia investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter, a move that President Trump has long called for but that could anger law enforcement officials who insist that scrutiny of the Trump campaign was lawful.

John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, has a history of serving as a special prosecutor investigating potential wrongdoing among national security officials, including the F.B.I.’s ties to a crime boss in Boston and accusations of C.I.A. abuses of detainees.

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Good China -vs- Bad China

Michael Pillsbury discusses the ongoing U.S-China trade negotiation and notes the internal dynamic within China as their primary negotiator Vice-Premier Liu He was stripped of his title: “Special Envoy of Chairman Xi Jinping”.

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There’s a remarkable political restructuring happening on the other side of the Atlantic. Nigel Farage has led the U.K. Brexit Party into the leading political force in a matter of weeks.

With frustration over the intransigent unwillingness of the political elites who control power in the U.K. to deliver on the Brexit referendum, the grassroots “Brexit Party” was formed.  According to recent polling the movement now leads in advance of upcoming EU Parliament elections.  It’s possible another political earthquake is about to happen:

(Via Breitbart Media) New polling for the upcoming European Parliament elections shows another astonishing surge in support for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, while the governing Conservatives have crashed to fourth place on just 11 per cent.
The Opinium poll of 2,004 people, conducted online between the 8th and 10th of May, showed support for Mr Farage’s weeks-old party up 6 points to 34 per cent, more than Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour — down seven points to 21 per cent — and Theresa May’s Conservatives — down three points to just 11 per cent — combined.

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Boy howdy, Maria Bartiromo has the big picture of the 2015/2016 political weaponization of the intelligence apparatus exactly right.  In this interesting interview with Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham both Bartriromo and Graham discuss the scale and scope of the 2015/2016 effort to stop Trump.
Interestingly, in a shift of tone, Senator Graham outlines what this surveillance operation means when contrast against the structures of our constitutional government.

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Traditionally Lindsey Graham would bury any issue adverse to the institutions of the DC administrative state.  So there’s two possibilities here:  (A) Graham has fundamentally changed his outlook toward the dangers of the institutions within government; or, (B) Graham is doing a full ‘Castellanos‘ and embracing the controversy in order to control the risk to the administrative state with intent to protect it. [The latter is tradition]
The best way for DC to protect itself from the mob’s approach is to lead it themselves. The modern GOPe club has used this defense sending agents to the front of the grassroots anger in order to control the outcome. [Fast-n-Furious, IRS targeting, Benghazi, etc.]
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In two separate court filings Roger Stone is challenging the DOJ to produce evidence of their predicate claim the Russians “hacked” the DNC servers.
The first filing is a motion to compel [SEE HERE] and requests the DOJ provide unredacted documents to support their framework of evidence that Russian’s “hacked” the DNC.  The second filing is a motion to suppress [SEE HERE] any downstream evidence, extracted by the use of search warrants, built upon upon the predicate claim of Russians “hacking” the DNC.

In essence Roger Stone is challenging the U.S. government to prove the DNC was hacked by Russians; and further he is refuting the validity of the FBI using a private organization, Crowdstrike, as a valid investigative and determinative body.
The suppress motion argues it was the responsibility of the FBI to secure and investigate the hacking evidence and not rely upon the word of a private party hired by the DNC (an opposing political entity). If the government cannot prove the Russian’s hacked the DNC, and subsequently attempted to work with Wikileaks for the distribution therein, then the basis for government claims about Stone seeking to engage with Wikileaks diminishes.
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