UPDATE: 10:15pm EDT – James A. Wolfe, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s former director of security has been indicted by a Grand Jury.(INFO)  Federal law enforcement officials secretly seized years’ worth of a New York Times reporter Ali Watkins phone and email records this year in an investigation of classified information leaks. (INFO)

As suspected last night….  The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating a “former staffer” from the corrupt Senate Intelligence Committee.  There’s a possibility the “former staffer” is Dan Jones, the senior staff aide to Senator Dianne Feinstein when she was Vice-Chair of the committee and Gang-of-Eight member.

(VIA CNN) The Justice Department has opened an investigation into a former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer who allegedly disclosed classified information, prompting the Senate panel to share information related to the federal probe.

The identity of the former committee aide under investigation has not been disclosed, but sources say prosecutors appear to be preparing charges soon against the individual.

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Inspector General Michael Horowitz has informed the Senate Judiciary Committee (full pdf below) the anticipated final publication date for the IG report on how the Obama DOJ and FBI handled the Clinton investigation will be Thursday June 14th, 2018.

The fact-based draft report to the principals was submitted on May 16th.  Following the two week period for input from the principals outlined in the draft report, the IG “referencer” within the DOJ-Office of Inspector General then determines which responses will be added for the final report. The report is anticipated to be 400 to 500 pages.

As customary for Michael Horowitz, his office adds the approved responses and then outlines additional IG replies to those responses in the final report.  Apparently, due to the scale of the report, the response and reply phase has been extensive.

Mr. Horowitz informs congress today the final report will be publicly available on Thursday June 14, and he will accommodate oversight with an appearance before congress on Monday June 18, 2018 to discuss the findings.

Here’s the letter from Inspector General Horowitz:

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While no-one has yet to see the actual Inspector General Mike Horowitz report outlining how the DOJ and FBI handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation, the media are beginning to shape the narrative.

In a summary of Bill Priestap’s testimony, via The Hill, the narrative begins by focusing on James Comey:  “Priestap “completely” backed up everything that Comey said, according to a source familiar with his testimony.”  The narrative construct gains clarity with a report from ABC highlight James Comey as “insubordinate”:

(Via ABC) The Justice Department’s internal watchdog has concluded that James Comey defied authority at times during his tenure as FBI director, according to sources familiar with a draft report on the matter.

One source told ABC News that the draft report explicitly used the word “insubordinate” to describe Comey’s behavior. Another source agreed with that characterization but could not confirm the use of the term.

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UPDATE: 7:45pm – According to email from congressional staff, participation at the closed hearing was limited to only those selected by Committee Chairman (Gowdy, and Goodlatte).  The hearing was not available to all committee members.  Only Jordan, Meadows and Krishnamoorth were allowed to participate. 

Yesterday FBI Director of Counterintelligence E.W. “Bill” Priestap testified to a joint session of the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees.

The hearing was a matter of strong public interest.  Mr. Priestap was questioned for approximately seven hours.  However, journalist Olivia Beavers covering for The Hill dropped a detail that most, including myself, might find rather curious:

(The Hill) […] Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), however, said he felt that Priestap didn’t say anything that would indicate there was “political bias that motivated the Hillary Clinton email investigation.”

Priestap “completely” backed up everything that Comey said, according to a source familiar with his testimony.

Only three lawmakers — Jordan, Meadows and Krishnamoorthi — attended the hearing, which took place on the first day after a weeklong recess.

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Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) discusses FBI agent Peter Strzok’s involvement in the Clinton email probe and the Russia investigation; along with the anticipated DOJ-OIG report:

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The backstory is important here.  Two days ago internet researcher Nick Falco discovered a potentially damning text dated December 28th 2015 within a previously released set of Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages.  The original text was redacted in one section (Page #31); however, somehow further down the release (Page #159) the same text was not redacted.  It is presumed the FBI redacted the word “lures”, whereas the IG did not.

In one release (page #31) the word “lures” was redacted.  In the second release (page #159) it was NOT redacted.

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Chairman Ron Johnson, released over 500 pages of documents and texts.  On page #159 (pdf here) the unredacted version of the following message appears:

(Link to pdf – page #159)

“You get all our oconus lures approved?”

“OCONUS” means Outside Continental U.S.  “LURES” in this context is ‘spies’; or as Chris Farrell discusses, likely double agents.  The messages were December 28th, 2015.

•Peter Strzok asking Lisa Page:  Did you get all our outside U.S. spies approved?
•Lisa Page responds: “No, it’s just implicated a much bigger policy issue. I’ll explain later. Might even be able to use it as a pretext for a call…”

The implication is this could have been the pre-planning for #Spygate. This is what Lou Dobbs and Chris Farrell are discussing; and apparently President Trump noticed:

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Wait, what?  We’ve obviously come a full 180° from the place where Democrats were proclaiming McCabe’s innocence; and we’ve entered the phase where McCabe is requesting criminal immunity in exchange for testimony about what he knows of the corrupt FBI operations in 2016 and 2017. [Worm Turning Speech Increases]

In a series of letters going back and forth between Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Michael Bromwich, the attorney for fired Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Bromwich is requesting criminal immunity in exchange for cooperation.

On May 31st, 2018, Chairman Grassley invited Andrew McCabe to testify [SEE HERE]; On June 4th Bromwich responded [SEE HERE]  Grassley is requesting emails McCabe said he sent to Comey about talking to the media.  According to McCabe, despite his false statements to FBI and INSD investigators (under oath), his conduct was with the full knowledge of FBI Director James Comey.  Grassley was asking for proof.  Bromwich responded by saying McCabe doesn’t have the emails, the current FBI does.

Here’s the response letter:

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FBI Director of Counterintelligence E.W. “Bill” Priestap has been delivering testimony to a joint congressional committee for more than seven hours.

This is Bill Priestap’s first testimony to congress.  Previously all of Priestap’s statements have been made to FBI and INSD (Inspection Division) investigators.  This is also likely the first time many congressional members will have heard of the scale and scope of the abuse by the DOJ-NSD and FBI.

The joint House Judiciary and Oversight Committee has been hearing testimony from Bill Priestap all day. A tweet from Chad Pergram notes: “Colleague Catherine Herridge rpts a mbrs familiar w/Hse closed-door i-view w/FBI espionage chief Bill Priestap has been cooperative. But says FBI Agent Strzok played an more central role than previously known in Clinton email/Russia investigations beyond Strzok/Page text messages.”

It appears there will be confirmation of prior research.  There was always a strong suspicion FBI Agent Peter Strzok was working around his boss Bill Priestap and reporting directly to Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and to a lesser extent FBI chief legal counsel James Baker.  Activity in both the Clinton email and Russia investigations that was outside normal chain-of-command structure.

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As previously discussed, FBI Director of Counterintelligence E.W. “Bill” Priestap, FBI Head of National Security Division, Michael Steinbach, and the former head of the FBI National Security Division, John Giacalone, are all scheduled to testify to congress this month.

The three FBI officials will be testifying to a joint congressional committee of the Judiciary and House Oversight members.  The joint committee was formed by Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy.  The first testimony is tomorrow; and FBI Director of Counterintelligence Bill Priestap will go first.   This will be Priestap’s first congressional testimony.  Unfortunately, the testimony will be behind closed doors.

FBI Asst. Director of Counterintelligence, Bill Priestap, is central to all of the activity that was happening in both the Clinton investigation and the Trump investigation. Bill Priestap was FBI Agent Peter Strzok’s immediate boss. However, as noted in the text messages Strzok often worked around Priestap at the behest of the person giving him political instructions – FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

The timing of the testimony also speaks to the timing of the upcoming Inspector General report regarding the politicization of the DOJ and FBI surrounding the Clinton investigative outcomes.  Some of the most significant releases have come while President Trump is outside of Washington DC; and with the G7 on June 8th – 9th in Canada; it would seem likely the IG report is to be made public anytime over the next 72 hours.

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On January 27th, 2017, after over a year of covert surveillance on Trump campaign officials [via FISA searches, FISA(702) Title-1 surveilance, SIGNIT and HUMIT), the FBI first sat down to interview low level campaign aide George Papadopoulos. (likely FBI Special Agent Jennifer Zelski Edwards, and/or FBI Agent Peter Strzok, participated)

Six months later, July 27th, 2017 the FBI arrested George Papadopoulos at the airport and charged him with giving false information to FBI investigators during that interview. The very next day, July 28th, 2017, the DOJ filed a motion to seal with the DC federal court to hide the arrest. (FBI Agent Jennifer Zelski Edwards)

From evidence that surfaced AFTER the motion to seal was removed (October 5, 2017) we discover the charges, motions, pleadings, and case information (ASSEMBLED DOCKET HERE). This is now the reference point for a historic review, including the TRANSCRIPT of the October 30th guilty plea hearing. All needed references are within the DOCKET.

From the motion to seal, we discover Robert Mueller leveraged the July 27th, 2017, charges against George Papadopoulos to make him a cooperating witness for the special counsel. The July 28th, 2017, motion to seal was transparently intended to disguise the arrest of Papapdopoulos and his subsequent role as a “proactive cooperator”:

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