Things are getting increasingly interesting and simultaneously obvious.  Thursday night the Washington Post reported that FBI Director Christopher Wray had relieved FBI Chief Legal Counsel, James Baker, of his responsibilities within the department.
Attorney James Baker accompanied FBI Asst. Director “Andy” McCabe to the Tuesday congressional hearing with the House Intelligence Community.  Curiously, in addition to other lines of inquiry, during the questioning McCabe was asked about whether James Baker was authorized to speak to the media about the Steele Dossier and the underlying ‘counterintelligence’ operation.  Asst. Director McCabe responded that Baker would not be authorized to take such action.
Following the HPSCI hearing, republican committee leadership announced their plan to subpoena James Baker for further questioning.  [Keep in mind Baker was there.]  Two days later, at the Thursday Judiciary and Oversight Committee hearings, James Baker did not accompany Andrew McCabe.   Hours later, James Baker is removed from his responsibilities as legal counsel within the FBI.  Cause: ‘unknown‘.

Back in July, 2017, it was reported that James Baker was under a criminal investigation for leaking classified information from within the FBI, although the details of the leak content were unknown.  Politico today reports that James Baker has been identified as the likely source that released information about the Fusion-GPS/Christopher Steele “Russian Conspiracy Dossier” to David Corn of Mother Jones in October of 2016:

(Via Politico) House Republicans are investigating contact between the FBI’s top lawyer and a Mother Jones reporter in the weeks before the left-leaning outlet broke the first news story about the existence of a disputed dossier alleging ties between President Donald Trump and the Kremlin, according to two congressional GOP sources who described documents linking the two men.
The GOP sources said the documents — made available recently to lawmakers by the Department of Justice — revealed that James Baker, the FBI’s general counsel, communicated with Mother Jones reporter David Corn in the weeks leading up to the November 2016 election. Corn was the first to report the existence of the dossier on Oct. 31 and that it was compiled by a former high-level western spy.

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There is widespread opinion that many of the officials enlisted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller are ethically challenged.  Critics point to Mueller team members like DOJ Attorney Andrew Weissman, Jeannie Rhee and Aaron Zebley as specific examples of players within Mueller’s investigative team who have a history of gross ethics violations and also carry jaw-dropping conflicts-of-interest.
Against that backdrop, a report today about conduct by the Mueller team of investigators gains additional levels of concerns.   According to reports, in August 2017 the Mueller team went around the Trump administration in their quest for documents, by directly demanding documents from the General Services Agency (GSA); the entity that hosted the communication network for the Trump transition team.  According to reports, the content of 12 email accounts was handed over to the Special Counsels’ office; consisting of thousands of pages of transition team communication.  Innocuous, ordinary transition stuff, but the method of procurement is jaw-droppingly unethical, possibly illegal.

However, as with all things disclosed and discovered recently, CTH would caution anyone toward weighting favor or disfavor on the underlying issue.  Additionally, I would again remind everyone to look at the timelines on any new information, overlay it against prior information, and consider how the timing of the event(s) -in relation to the whole- might change the first impression.
In this case, the reported action by the SC team took place in August 2017, four or five months ago.  Inside that exact same timeline, on August 16th 2017, FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Attorney Lisa Page were kicked off the Mueller team.  Coincidence? Dunno. Maybe.
Again, don’t get so stuck looking at the granules moving at your feet that you fail to notice the entire landscape around you is shifting.
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OK, before going further, we need to step back and take a look at how deeply enmeshed Deputy Head of Counterintelligence FBI Agent Peter Strzok was to this entire FBI investigative enterprise.

•Peter Strzok was the lead FBI agent in charge of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. •Agent Peter Strzok was one of a small group who interviewed Hillary Clinton. •Agent Strzok was also the FBI contact person to receive the Russian Dossier and interview the author Christopher Steele.  [Remember, Hillary Clinton’s team paid Christopher Steele (via Fusion GPS) to create the dossier.] •Agent Strzok was the primary counterintelligence investigator for the ‘vast Russian conspiracy’, narrative.  •Agent Strzok was then hired by Robert Mueller to lead the FBI investigative efforts into  the “Russian Election Collusion/Conspiracy.”  •Agent Strzok was removed from the Mueller Team after the anti-Trump/pro-Clinton content of his internal communications were discovered by the current Inspector General investigation….

…and today we discover that Deputy Head of Counterintelligence, FBI Agent Peter Strzok was the person who interviewed National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn on January 24th, 2017.  An interview, that blindsided Flynn because there was no advanced notification…. And an interview that was the basis for the recent Robert Mueller charging of Flynn.
Good grief, it’s no wonder why the FBI desperately tried to control a pending IG release by advance-scripting a narrative, via leaks to the New York Times and Washington Post.
If FBI Agent Strzok can be shown to have conflicting political and institutional bias, then every aspect of the investigation he was involved in comes into question… and Agent Strzok is at the EPICENTER of every angle, within every aspect, of EVERY investigation.

SARA CARTER – A supervisory special agent who is now under scrutiny after being removed from Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office for alleged bias against President Trump also oversaw the bureau’s interviews of embattled former National Security advisor Michael Flynn, this reporter has learned.

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It should not be forgotten that President Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice previously stated that Bergdahl: “served his country with honor and distinction.”  Now today:

ABC – Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy via his attorney Monday.
Bergdahl, 31, was charged after he disappeared from his base in Afghanistan in June 2009 and was held in captivity by the Taliban until May 2014.  A judge said Bergdhal’s maximum possible punishment would be life in prison, but he has not been sentenced yet. (read more)

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Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper appears on CNN last night to deny knowledge of the wiretapping of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
In March Clapper stated he would specifically have known if a FISA warrant was issued against any Trump campaign officials. Last night Clapper stated he held no knowledge of the FISA warrant. Clapper is walking through a legal minefield. WATCH:

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It is important to remember that FBI Director James Comey stated on March 20th 2017 he briefed the DNI (James Clapper) and the National Security Adviser (Susan Rice) on the details of the counter intelligence operation. By all intents and appearances the statement last night by Clapper denying knowledge is essentially refuting James Comey’s earlier testimony and throwing Comey under the bus.
They both cannot be telling the truth.
Either Comey told Clapper which means Clapper is lying.  Or Comey never told Clapper, which provides evidence of the FBI collusion with the White House; and the FBI working as a rogue intelligence agency for political targeting.
In the abstract the Obama authorized wiretapping of a Trump campaign official is alarming. However when these recent revelations are added to FBI James Comey admitting to keeping the investigations hidden from congressional oversight an even more alarming picture emerges.
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Former CIA Director John Brennan has been a long-time political operative with the Obama campaign and political apparatus.  First working on the campaign, then working for President Obama in the White House, then taking on the role of CIA Director.
•During the 2008 campaign Brennan’s firm, The Analysis Corp., was caught breaking into the State Department to cleanse the passport records of candidate Barack Obama. •As CIA Director John Brennan admitted to using his agency to spy on congress and apologized.
Everything John Brennan touches is weaponized for political benefit.

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Regarding this interview. There is a great deal of misinformation surrounding the JAR (Joint Analysis Report) or the “Russian Intelligence Report”:
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An interesting New York Times “correction“ appears today providing yet further evidence of a convenient retreat from six months of media propaganda.

The correction references a Russian Election Interference Joint Analysis Report, widely called the “Russian Intelligence Report”, which has been falsely used by most media to frame a narrative that 17 agencies within the U.S. intelligence community agreed that Russia attempted to interfere with the U.S. election:

(Link)

The Times Correction somewhat opaquely clarifies that only the CIA (Brennan), FBI (Comey) and NSA (Rogers) participated in the December Intelligence Analysis that underwrites the overall report.  ODNI (Clapper) is a hub for gathering and sharing information and does not generate intelligence as an entity in/unto itself.

It is not coincidental the two most politicized intelligence operatives, John Brennan (CIA) and James Comey (FBI), presented the information along with like-minded political traveler ODNI James Clapper. While Admiral Mike Rogers (NSA) is also included in the report authorship, it is largely overlooked that Rogers only held a “moderate confidence” in the overall report finding. It was only Brennan and Comey who claimed “high confidence” in the overall report content.

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There is a long-worded Washington Post story gaining lots of attention as the definitive article outlining the ‘vast Russian election conspiracy‘.  However, anyone who walks in the deep weeds of DC propaganda constructs will immediately note the Ben Rhodes styled fingerprints of obfuscation and disingenuous nonsense.

The article is transparently presented for several aligned purposes; all of them political, including the intensely political objectives of John Brennan and James Clapper, and all of them transparently spreading the truth-sauce way too thin.

As a deep weeds walker myself, and having inoculated against the nonsensical -albeit fashionable to believe- infection, here’s my take. [All emphasis mine]

(WaPo) Early last August, an envelope with extraordinary handling restrictions arrived at the White House. Sent by courier from the CIA, it carried “eyes only” instructions that its contents be shown to just four people: President Barack Obama and three senior aides.

Ah yes, the “just four people” dispatch from CIA Director John Brennan.  The small circle makes fiction much more difficult to disprove, and simultaneously stops the larger circle from refuting the entirety of the inherent false and political claims.  See how that works?

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Saif Gaddaffi is the son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddaffi who was killed by Hillary Clinton in October 2011. During the Islamist uprising Saif was arrested by Hillary’s Benghazi “rebels” as they worked their way across Libya from East to West eventually catching and killing his father.

However, it is being reported today by Jenan Moussa (very reliable journalist) that Saif al Islam al-Gaddaffi has been released by “rebels” from his prison in Western Libya (near Tunisia border).

1- Big big news. Saif al Islam al-Gaddafi has been released from prison by rebels in western Libya.

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Ousted FBI Director James Comey will testify today at 10:00am EDT before the Senate intelligence committee.  The much anticipated and heavily promoted testimony is being broadcast live on just about every cable news network and we have a few livestream options below:

UPDATE:  Full Video Added

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