While Volodymyr Zelenskyy was on tour banging his tin cup for NATO donations, apparently his top government officials were skimming the books and building an extravagant life on the backs of the U.S. taxpayers.  Slava Ukraini!  However, on a brutally obvious note, I mean the wife of Zelenskyy went Christmas shopping in Paris and spent over €40,000 in a few hours on ritzy Avenue Montaigne.  Where did people think she got that money?

In an effort to stop the embarrassing revelations of internal corruption from weakening support for the inbound flows of cash from corrupt U.S. officials, the government of Zelenskyy has begun getting rid of the officials who were stealing the war money.

But hey, don’t worry, remember, President Zelenskyy decreed rules making it illegal for any political opposition to exist; so, there’s nothing to worry about – just a seating rotation of the same corrupt group.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Several senior Ukrainian officials, including five front-line governors, lost their jobs Tuesday in a corruption scandal plaguing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government as it grapples with the nearly 11-month-old Russian invasion.

Ukraine’s biggest government shake-up since the war began came as Poland formally requested permission from Germany to transfer a modest number of its Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine. Germany builds the high-tech armor, and Warsaw needs Berlin’s permission to send them to a non-NATO country.

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House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries has resubmitted Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff to be placed on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), despite notice from House Speaker Keven McCarthy that Swalwell and Schiff would not be permitted.

Due to the sensitivity of the House intel committee, there are special rules permitting the Speaker to assign or reject nominations without a House vote, so this effort by Jeffries is political posturing.

WASHINGTON DC – The head of House Democrats has submitted Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) to sit on the powerful Intelligence Committee, setting up a battle with Republican leaders who are vowing to keep them off the panel.

Separately, Democrats this week are also expected to seat Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, according to a source familiar with the Democrats’ plans, which will likely prompt GOP leaders to hold a floor vote to remove her.

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There is A LOT going on inside this story, and the pair of indictments only scratch the surface.

[WaPo – New York Times – ABC News]

According to the DOJ, “A former Special Agent in Charge of the FBI New York Counterintelligence Division [Charles F. McGonigal, 54, of New York City] and a former Soviet and Russian diplomat [Sergey Shestakov, 69, of Morris, Connecticut] were arrested Saturday on criminal charges related to their alleged violating and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and conspiring to commit money laundering and money laundering.

Interestingly, there are two sets of indictments.  The first is in New York related to the U.S. sanctions against Russia, specifically Oleg Deripaska  [SEE HERE].  The second is in DC related to money laundering, payments from Deripaska [SEE HERE].  The New York case is related to post retirement activity in 2021.  The DC case is related to activity when Charles F McGonigal was taking money from Russians, and apparently others, while simultaneously investigating Donald Trump, “from August 2017 and continuing through and beyond his retirement from the FBI in September 2018.”

It would appear, Main Justice in DC is concerned about the timeline and are structuring the money laundering prosecution to keep tight control in Washington DC, for the period when McGonical was a special agent in charge.   However, given the backstory of the players involved, and known 2021 FARA filings that hit on the organizations involved, the FBI and DOJ have known about this issue for quite some time, at least 18 months prior to the indictments today.

These indictments are a rabbit hole that runs sideways from the Trump-Russia collusion nonsense and includes the use of “contractors” in 2021 that McGonigal had to know from his time in the FBI counterintelligence operations.

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Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes appears on Fox News to discuss the release of Twitter File #14 which was centered around the legislative branch attempting to censor his “Nunes Memo.” {Direct Rumble Link Here}

The essence of Twitter File #14 was how the Senate Intelligence Committee, senators Feinstein (D-CA) and Warner (D-VA) along with House Intel Committee Adam Schiff (D-CA) pressured Twitter to remove content that supported the assertions of HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes.  WATCH:

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You know things are squirrely when you find yourself listening to a rather unorthodox presentation of political events and agreeing with Russell Brand.

Someone shared this with me asking for my opinion.  The presentation is a little over-the-top, but the message conveyed is ultimately accurate; remarkably so.  WATCH:

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Just a quick post to draw attention to the latest Twitter File #14 drop by Matt Taibbi [REVIEW HERE].  Thankfully, Taibbi is using the Twitter files to provide historical context against events that were happening at the time the documents are now revealing in hindsight.  Cheers to Taibbi.

[Twitter File #14 HERE]

Essentially, as Taibbi is pointing out, various DC politicians were working feverishly in early 2018 to maintain the fraudulent narrative around the Trump-Russia investigation.

Why is this timeline important, because retention of the fraudulent Trump-Russia narrative was critical to support the predicate of the Robert Mueller (Andrew Weissmann) Special Counsel.  As Taibbi notes, “On January 18th, 2018, Republican Devin Nunes submitted a classified memo to the House Intel Committee detailing abuses by the FBI in obtaining FISA surveillance authority against Trump-connected figures, including the crucial role played by the infamous “Steele Dossier.”  The entire DC apparatus was going bananas about the Nunes memo because it undermined the predicate assumptions of the Trump-Russia probe.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) was the specific stakeholder institution intent on retaining the Trump-Russia fraud, because the SSCI was one of the institutions who helped construct it.  Again Taibbi, “On January 23rd, 2018, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) published an open letter saying the hashtag [#ReleaseTheMemo] “gained the immediate attention and assistance of social media accounts linked to Russian influence operations.” The intelligence community politicians were furious that various Twitter accounts were tearing apart their precious, and false, story.

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There is nothing about the U.S. relationship with Ukraine, coordinated by the U.S. State Dept and Intelligence Community, that is anything other than pure propaganda being foisted on the American public.  Everything about this is theatrical, staged, presented and produced to script a narrative.

President Zelenskyy showing up in khaki pants looking like a UPS driver; not only disrespectful, but also part of the ‘schtick’ and uniform within the World War Reddit production.  Zelenskyy is in the U.S. to bang his tin cup for another $45 billion in support from U.S. taxpayers, and he’s almost guaranteed to get it.  WATCH:

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White House occupier Joe Biden welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, they will hold a meeting, likely a press conference and later an address Congress.  All theater, all staged, all scripted and produced…. and if you recognize this production for the manufactured fraud it represents, you are a Russian propagandist.  Sickening.

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Nope, it’s not the border crisis and millions of people unlawfully flowing into the United States.  Nope, it’s not the collapsing economy or massive inflation that crushing the working class.  Nope, it’s not the skyrocketing cost of fuel, energy, oil and gasoline as the direct result of catastrophic energy policy….

…”Providing assistance for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians, that’s the #1 priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans.  That’s sort of how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment.”… 

Those are the direct words of Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.  WATCH:

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Tell me again how the Republican party is salvageable?

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Picking up checks from congress along with some supplemental Christmas shopping likely a high priority.  Because, why not.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be in Washington DC on Wednesday to deliver a speech to a joint session of congress and visit with Joe Biden at the White House.

WASHINGTON DC – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine intends to make a surprise visit to Washington on Wednesday, the first time the leader has left his war-torn country since Russia invaded 10 months ago.

Zelenskyy’s plans to address a joint session of Congress and at the White House as the Biden administration plans to announce the delivery of a Patriot missile battle system to help Ukraine with its air defenses, according to two people familiar with the plans but not authorized to publicly discuss them because of security concerns.

The trip is not certain to happen, the people cautioned. Zelenskyy was still in Ukraine on Tuesday evening, and there are concerns about his ability to leave his country and then return again.

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The timing of stuff and the context of the historic reference points matter when looking at any story involving the DOJ.  Failing to understand the background context leads to mistaken impressions, false assumptions, corrupt hidden actors getting away with prior misconduct and generally flawed analysis.  That is the accurate takeaway from a story that seems to have gained attention amid the professionally republican class of punditry.

Here at CTH we have dropped the pretending, focus on the evidence and call the baby ugly when warranted.

Today’s outrage du jour surrounds Kash Patel sharing documents with John Solomon about a subpoena dated November 20, 2017, targeting investigative staff from the House Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).  [Article Here] Dates matter. Redactions matter.

[Document Source]

Who redacted this document?…  Kash Patel?  John Solomon? or the DOJ?  It matters.

In November of 2017, everything related to the Trump-Russia operation was being handled at the Dept of Justice by lead DOJ Special Counsel official Andrew Weissmann under the auspices of what is commonly called the Mueller probe or ‘Mueller investigation‘.  On November 20, 2017, the main focus of Weissmann was the guilty plea of Michael Flynn which was at its apex and was later signed November 30, 2017.

The public battle on Capitol Hill November 2017, was between HPSCI and Main Justice.  Nunes -vs- Schiff -vs- FBI -vs- Main Justice -vs- White House -vs- Special Counsel.  Each entity competing for the public and political narrative.

In his later (June 2020) Senate testimony, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein testified that Weissmann/Mueller were in charge of everything at Main Justice and he was used as a go-between liaison between congress, the White House and the DOJ.  Rosenstein gave Weissmann/Mueller full autonomy, full authority, and never once questioned a request from them.  Put simply, Rosenstein said Mueller and Weissmann called every shot in the DOJ that had anything even remotely associated with Trump-Russia, which was essentially everything at Main Justice for two years.

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