From the latest court filing by Special Counsel John Durham, we learn that Robert Mueller’s FBI investigators interviewed Christopher Steele’s primary Source, Igor Danchenko, on June 15, 2017.
In addition to being on the payroll of the FBI since March as a confidential informant, exactly two weeks later, June 29, 2017, the Robert Mueller special counsel renewed the Carter Page FISA application to continue their exploitation of the comprehensive title-1 surveillance warrant against the Trump administration.
Additionally, within the court filing against Igor Danchenko, we find that FBI personnel from Robert Mueller’s team interviewed Christopher Steele:
Now consider this specific line of questioning of Robert Mueller, conducted on July 24, 2019, after the Mueller special counsel published their report. The questioning is from New York Representative Elise Stephanik to Robert Mueller on the specifics of the special counsel questioning Christopher Steele and/or his source, Igor Danchenko.
First, a follow-up. In further support of CTH view of the Trump legal strategy, a bolstering prior media notation is worthy. In regard to the intent of the Trump -v- Clinton lawsuit a lawyer for President Trump told media: “Habba later said she might appeal the decision, and also that Trump had told her that the case would ultimately not be a winner and she should just drop it. “I said no. We have to fight. It’s not right what happened. And you know, he was right.” {source} This expressed perspective from Trump -via a member of his legal team- supports our contention that creating the lawsuit as a vehicle to legally share documentary evidence and establish a silo (attny-client privilege) was the goal, not the actual outcome of the lawsuit itself.
Remember, the DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD) was created by Barack Obama and Eric Holder to weaponize a relationship between Main Justice (DOJ) and the Intelligence Community (IC). Within this structure, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) now used their newly created agency to monitor domestic political opposition under the guise of domestic threat surveillance. [The Eye of Sauron]
Within the system they created, the DOJ-NSD collaborates with the newly established authorities of the DNI, which includes their unilateral authority to define documents they consider “classified.” The intent is to conduct lawfare against the domestic target while both agencies shield their efforts under claims of national security.
That is the encapsulated modern mission and relationship between the DOJ-NSD and the Intelligence Community (ODNI). These are the two main pillars of the corrupt national surveillance state that exist based on collapsed oversight, as a result of ideological support from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. This is the weaponized fourth branch of government.
Now we turn to today. Lawyers for President Trump submit a responsive filing to counter the DOJ effort to stay court order for a ‘special master.’ [Motion pdf Here].
The position of the DOJ-NSD, a position that should be considered in alignment with the ODNI, is that no outsider should be permitted to review their work product. The DOJ does not want a court appointed special master to review what they are unilaterally declaring as “classified national security documents.”
Now you are going to see why it was necessary to write the previous article about the Trump -v- Clinton lawsuit.
We must stop pretending. Everyone, including everyone who reads here and specifically SSCI Chairman Mark Warner, already knows what is in those documents from Mar-a-Lago. Those documents contain the evidence of the collective government effort to target candidate Trump and then effectively remove President Trump. THAT effort included the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Stop pretending.
Senator Mark Warner was at the heart of the legislative branch effort in the aftermath of the failed attempt to stop candidate Trump from winning the 2016 election. Senator Warner specifically instructed Senate Security Director James Wolfe to leak the Carter Page FISA application, with an intent to further the effort to install a special counsel to help cover-up the pre-election activity. Warner is enmeshed in the corruption created by the false Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy nonsense.
With Warner’s instructions to Wolfe in mind, there is a specific statement in this ridiculous effort at narrative construction called an interview, that is just exponentially hubris, [@6:16] “The record of our intelligence committee of keeping secrets secret, that’s why the Intelligence Committee shares information with us,” Warner claims.
No, the direct ideological alignment between the corrupt intelligence apparatus and the SSCI that is why the Intelligence Committee coordinates with the Senate. WATCH:
[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: For a closer look now at the evolving threats to the homeland, we begin this morning with the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner of Virginia. Good morning to you, Senator.
U.S. District Judge from the Southern District of Florida, Aileen M. Cannon, has ordered a special master to “review the seized property, manage assertions of privilege and make recommendations thereon, and evaluate claims for return of property,” related to the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. [pdf Ruling Here]
There are interesting aspects outlined within the 24-page ruling that deconstruct the position of the Dept of Justice and media, including a footnote [fn5] stating Trump lawyers asked for a special master appointment on the morning after the raid.
Within the ruling [pg 9] Judge Cannon outlines the issues at the heart of the legal matter, including the government taking President Trump’s personal medical records which has nothing to do with the nature of the warrant.
“According to the Privilege Review Team’s Report, the seized materials include medical documents, correspondence related to taxes, and accounting information. … The Government also has acknowledged that it seized some “[p]ersonal effects without evidentiary value” and, by its own estimation, upwards of 500 pages of material potentially subject to attorney-client privilege.”
The DOJ was previously questioned in court about justice dept leaks to media creating an unfair and prejudicial bias against President Trump. The DOJ lawyers denied leaking yet admitted the media reports were evidence that someone within the organization was leaking information to the media, thereby creating a framework of public opinion the defendant cannot easily refute. Cannon writes:
“the Court takes into account the undeniably unprecedented nature of the search of a former President’s residence; Plaintiff’s inability to examine the seized materials in formulating his arguments to date; Plaintiff’s stated reliance on the customary cooperation between former and incumbent administrations regarding the ownership and exchange of documents; the power imbalance between the parties; the importance of maintaining institutional trust; and the interest in ensuring the integrity of an orderly process amidst swirling allegations of bias and media leaks.”
Judge Cannon also cited examples of the DOJ review team failing in their duty to separate attorney-client privilege material.
According to the Washington Times, and further confirmed by John Solomon via contact with Chuck Grassley, the lead FBI Washington Field Office Special Agent in Charge, Tim Thibault, was removed from his position and reportedly escorted out of FBI headquarters on Friday; although his employment status is unknown.
FBI Special Agent Tim Thibault is one of the people at the center of FBI whistleblower allegations claiming the agent was politically biased and ideologically motivated in his FBI investigative duties.
…”Mr. Thibault was seen exiting the bureau’s elevator last Friday escorted by two or three “headquarters-looking types,” according to eyewitness accounts provided to one of the former officials.”
WASHINGTON – A senior FBI official in the bureau’s Washington field office has abruptly resigned after coming under congressional scrutiny for suspected political bias in handling the investigation of Hunter Biden’s computer laptop.
The Washington Times learned that Timothy Thibault, an assistant special agent in charge, was forced to leave his post according to two former FBI officials familiar with the situation.
Mr. Thibault was seen exiting the bureau’s elevator last Friday escorted by two or three “headquarters-looking types,” according to eyewitness accounts provided to one of the former officials.
Here we go… It was only a matter of time before the DOJ-NSD architects of the Trump targeting operation came out from the shadows. This is the moment long-time readers of CTH should have been waiting for. For the past five years Mary McCord has been one of a small and select lawfare group organizing the targeting of President Trump.
Mary McCord led the support team who created the Carter Page FISA warrant using the Steele Dossier to replace the required ‘Wood’s file’. McCord was the DOJ-NSD official who traveled with DOJ Deputy AG Sally Yates to talk to former White House counsel Don McGhan which weaponized the Flynn-Kislyak call to remove Trump’s National Security Advisor.
Mary McCord was the person who organized Alexander Vindman and Eric Ciaramella to construct the first impeachment effort. Additionally, it was Mary McCord along with her former legal counsel, turned Intelligence Community Inspector General, Michael Atkinson, who changed the ICIG whistleblower rules allowing an anonymous complaint to underpin the false accusations from Ciaramella against Trump.
It was also Mary McCord who was appointed by FISA court Judge James Boasberg as an amici curia to the court, intercepting issues of false information in filings from the DOJ-NSD to the court as constructed by Kevin Clinesmith.
It was Mary McCord who then took up the lead congressional position within the impeachment construct created by Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler, and it was Mary McCord who then joined the January 6 Committee in the committee fight to obtain President Trump’s white house records.
Mary McCord surfaces today with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos to outline what her team has currently constructed, including the specific targeting approaches her DOJ-NSD and Lawfare crew have put together.
As noted by McCord, the ‘obstruction of justice’ angle is a repeat of the threat used by the Deep State to keep the criminal conduct of the DOJ-NSD from being exposed. WATCH:
When the Carter Page FISA application was originally assembled by the FBI and DOJ, there was initial hesitancy from within the DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD) about submitting the application, because it did not have enough citations in evidence (the infamous ‘Woods File’). That’s why the Steele Dossier ultimately became important. It was the Steele Dossier that provided the push, the legal cover needed for the DOJ-NSD to submit the application for a Title-1 surveillance warrant against the campaign of Donald J. Trump.
Amid a series of documents released by the Senate Judiciary Committee in April of 2020 [SEE HERE] there is a rather alarming letter from the DOJ to the FISA Court, dated July of 2018, that highlights a direct and unequivocal institutional cover-up. [Link to Letter]
Before getting to the substance of the letter, it’s important to put the 2020 release in context. After the FISA Court reviewed the DOJ inspector general report on the Carter Page FISA application assembly (2019), the FISC ordered the DOJ-NSD to declassify and release documents related to the Carter Page FISA application.
In the cover letter for this specific release to the Senate Judiciary and Senate Intelligence committees, the DOJ, then being run by AG Bill Barr, cites the January 7, 2020, FISA court order:
Keep in mind that prior to this release only the FISA court had seen this letter from the DOJ-National Security Division (DOJ-NSD). As we walk through the alarming content of the letter, I think you’ll identify the original motive behind the FISC order to release it.
First, the letter in question was sent by the DOJ-NSD to the FISA Court on July 12, 2018. It is critical to keep the date of the letter in mind as we review the content. The Weissmann/Mueller team was in full control of Main Justice.
The specific level of GOPe misinformation; a constructed narrative currently advocated by Karl Rove; surrounding the release of the FBI affidavit justifying the raid on President Trump’s home, is very telling.
I’ll have more on that later; suffice to say, it’s clear now the republican wing of the DC UniParty knew the plan all along, and yes, the downstream consequences align with the instructions to the created Trump alternative, Ron DeSantis. This is all organized.
Review Techno Fog article for the legal perspective on the affidavit [SEE HERE]. From my perspective it becomes important to talk about the bigger picture of what lies behind this entire operation.
First, as to the documents themselves, the general public is clueless about how classified documents exist. Some even believe classified documents are never copied, which is stunningly false. All source material is held at the originating agency in its original form. All versions of documents that are provided to stakeholders in government, including the President are copies.
A well-known example of multiple copies of classified documents -as assembled- is the Daily Presidential Brief. The president is never given the originating source classified document of anything. The president, like all other users of classified material, would receive a copy for review. Declassification is done by declassifying the copy and then the declassification directive travels back to the originating agency for them to change the classification status of the original.
We know now, with direct information from both media and the shape of the DOJ/FBI statements, that the documents held by President Trump in his Mar-a-Lago home are documents showing malfeasance and targeting by the DOJ and FBI surrounding the false accusations of a Trump-Russia collusion case.
[Jan 19, 2021 – Presidential Memorandum Declassifying Trump-Russia Documents] In essence, the documents are the evidence behind the Trump targeting operation, and the collusion network between Main Justice and U.S. media. This should not be a surprise.
It simply makes sense. The legislative oversight group known as the “Gang of Eight” want to see the documents confiscated by the DOJ National Security Division from the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The reason and motives are simple.
If Donald Trump has evidence of the corruption in the Trump-Russia collusion fabrication and targeting effort, there would be evidence of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) participating in joint-effort with the DOJ and FBI. When the FBI launched their 2016 targeting operation against candidate Donald Trump, it was the SSCI who coordinated with them.
The group of congressional leaders charged with reviewing the most sensitive intelligence information has asked the Biden administration for access to the documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s private residence in Florida, according to two people with direct knowledge of the request.
The inquiry from the so-called “Gang of 8” comes as lawmakers from both parties seek to learn more about the unprecedented investigation into the former president. And it suggests that Congress is unwilling to be a bystander in the political and legal fallout following the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.
Reading all the professional political chatter from both wings of the uniparty bird about the DOJ position on the Trump raid in Mar-a-Lago, something sticks out to me that readers here will relate to, but others, likely not so much. Consider this written to all the reasonable and intellectually honest people.
You see, there is an actual mechanism that is being ignored by members within the professional DC silos and the DC ‘outrage’ stenographers. I was reminded of it when reading the professional obfuscation in the Wall Street Journal as they outlined how Merrick Garland “weighed the raid on Mar-a-Lago for several weeks” prior to August 8.
Technically there is a mechanism for executive branch conflict resolution that involves actual transparency, not the political talking points of the illusion of transparency. However, when the Fourth Branch of Government was created, the conflict resolution measure that provides oversight and escape from accusations of unequal application of law was dispatched. It was dispatched because, well, the unequal application of the law was the intent.
What I am talking about is the legislative branch oversight mechanism known as the Gang-of-Eight. Whenever the executive branch runs into a conflict that involves sensitivity within an issue they define as “national security,” the executive branch is supposed to use the tool of the legislative branch to extricate themselves from the conflict.
Quite simply the DOJ/FBI could have briefed the Go8 on the nature of the sensitive ‘national security’ issue, and this bipartisan briefing to both democrats and republicans removes Main Justice from the appearance of political impropriety. If, later on, the nature of their investigation is ever questioned, Main Justice (the representatives of the executive branch) have the shield of telling the American public that congress was notified.
That is essentially the intent of the Gang of Eight construct. Leaders and key officials within both parties are informed of ongoing investigative activity that involves the national security of the United States. That’s the mechanism for the DOJ and FBI to avoid the appearance of political targeting.