President Trump appointed Richard “Ric” Grenell to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the surprise appointment begins immediately.  Within minutes the media intelligence apparatus displayed apoplexy at the announcement.
All of the right administrative state interests are visibly triggered by the appointment; and it appears this could be a key turning point in President Trump’s push-back against the permanent intelligence apparatus that has targeted his administration for three years.

It does not seem accidental the appointment of Ric Grenell as Acting DNI comes after AG Bill Barr publicly displayed his weakness in managing the DOJ and FBI.  When the U.S. Attorney General chooses to complain about POTUS tweets making it “impossible to do his job” via public statements, the underlying message is an AG unwilling to do his job.
The challenge for the Office of the Presidency has been executive leadership unwilling to confront visible corruption within the DOJ, FBI and Intelligence Community (IC).
Failed executive leadership includes Jeff Sessions (DOJ), Rod Rosenstein (DOJ), Chris Wray (FBI), David Bowditch (FBI), Dana Boente (FBI), Michael Horowitz (OIG) Mike Pompeo (CIA), Gina Haspel (CIA), Michael Atkinson (DOJ-NSD/ICIG), Matt Whitaker (DOJ), Dan Coats (DNI), Rex Tillerson (DoS), James Mattis (DoD), the list is long.
The evidence of ongoing efforts to undermine the presidency have surfaced in everything from the FBI not addressing rampant politicization, to an Intelligence Community Inspector General (Michael Atkinson) willing to facilitate an impeachment effort.
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UPDATE:  Appointment Confirmed
Lots to unpack here.  Maggie Haberman is warning resistance allies in the Senate to prepare all defensive weapons against a possible Trump appointment of Ric Grenell as  Director of the Office of National Intelligence (ODNI).
Grenell currently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany.  He can serve as “acting” ODNI, but to become permanent ODNI he would need to survive confirmation railroading by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), Chairman Richard Burr and Vice Chair Mark Warner.  The SSCI is deep swamp and and participated in the coup effort against the office of the president.  The SSCI has a vested interest in controlling the ODNI position; hence their prior blocking of Representative John Ratcliffe.

[Via New York Times] … Mr. Grenell, whose outspokenness throughout his career as a political operative and then as ambassador has prompted criticism, is a vocal Trump loyalist who will lead a group of national security agencies often viewed skeptically by the White House.

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First, the “report” comes from the pathetic beltway crowd of journolist narrative engineers; so there’s likely little-to-no substance to the construct.  However, that said, if Bill Barr is so weak, pathetic and incapable of doing his job, that he needs to threaten to resign if President Trump tweets his opinion, then Barr is in the wrong profession.
…Unless, of course, President Trump’s pressure on Bill Barr is actually forcing the Attorney General to do something the AG is predisposed not to undertake.  Which, given the background history of Bill Barr, is also entirely possible.

Right around this moment-in-time is where a multitude of mutually aligned beltway quisling pundits will declare that Bill Barr’s delicate sensibilities are being wounded by a President who demands forceful accountability; ie. traditional DC republican pundits [insert Laura Ingraham and Max Boot here].
The bottom line is President Trump is doing absolutely nothing to impede Bill Barr from doing his job; if the U.S. Attorney General is factually intent on doing that job.
Ever since he assumed office the Attorney General has been praising the likes of Rod Rosenstein, Robert Mueller and Christopher Wray.  Given the nature of what is widely available in review, that level of logical disconnect is not representative of an individual who possesses reasonable judgement in the quest for deliberate justice…. just sayin’.
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Oh this is sketchy as hell.  The notorious activist DC Judge Amy Berman Jackson announced today she will deliver the sentence for Roger Stone on Thursday; however, she will immediately postpone execution of that sentence until the issues around the request for a new trial are resolved.   Here’s what appears to be happening….
Judge Amy Berman-Jackson doesn’t want to deal with; and doesn’t want the optics of; the serious issue surrounding the activist jury foreperson, Tomeka Hart, prior to delivering her sentence.

Within the process to deal with Stone’s motion for a new trial, judge Berman-Jackson knows the petition would involve bringing in Tomeka Hart to her courtroom for questioning.  The judge doesn’t want that damaging political optic prior to delivering her sentence.  Obviously, such an appearance begs the question of how poorly Judge Berman-Jackson handled jury selection.  This CYA is a seriously political and sketchy decision.
Judge Amy Berman-Jackson will pass her sentence on Stone, and then take up the issue of a new trial *AFTER* the sentence is announced.  As a consequence the judge will not carry out execution of the sentence until the Tomeka Hart issues are addressed.  FUBAR.

WASHINGTON – […] In a 12-minute conference call with the defense and prosecution teams on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she will still hand down Stone’s sentence at Thursday’s hearing, but indicated she plans to defer the execution of the sentence until the court addresses Stone’s request for a new trial.

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Lawyers representing Michael Flynn presented a strong argument today (pdf below) in reply to the governments’ continued efforts to refute prosecutorial wrongdoing.
Within the reply motion Sidney Powell highlights the conduct of prosecutor Brandon Van Grack and hypocrisy within the government arguments: “Mr. Van Grack’s contention that he satisfied the government’s obligations by providing this information before Mr. Flynn’s sentencing now proves the point that he suppressed it when it was most important to Mr. Flynn: before his guilty plea on December 1, 2017, and before what was scheduled to be his sentencing on December 18, 2018.”

Prosecutor Van Grack suppressed evidence to protect… “the prosecutors, his team, and the cadre of malfeasant FBI agents from the discovery of their negligence, crimes, and wrongs.”

The tone of the reply motion reads like the Flynn defense is chomping at the bit to take this case to trial. Perhaps that is a strategy to add weight to their dismissal argument; or perhaps that is a reflection of defense confidence they can highlight all of the abuses at trial.
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When the FISA Court responded to the DOJ Inspector General report in December and January 2020 they requested an action plan from the DOJ and FBI to respond to the issues raised about misrepresentations to the court.
The DOJ/FBI replied to the FISA Court admitting the last two FISA renewals (April, June ’17) used against Carter Page were insufficiency predicated while withholding opinion on the original application (Oct ’16) and first renewal (Jan ’17).
To address the consequences of fraudulently obtained FISA warrants the DOJ and FBI informed the court they would begin a process to “sequester” all collected evidence from all four FISA warrants. [FISA COURT LINK]
Sequestering the evidence is essentially a search for what investigative material the FISA warrants were used to obtain; ie. the search for the fruit of the poisoned tree; and then a review of all DOJ/FBI cases that may have utilized that investigative material.
In late January the DOJ contacted the FISA court and asked for an extension to the deadline.  The FISA court granted an extension until February 5th [LINK]  The response from the DOJ has not yet been declassified or released by the FISC for public review.
However, with recent media reporting of AG Barr using “outside prosecutors” to review current, former and ongoing cases, it simply makes sense this ‘outsider’ effort is part of the DOJ/FBI sequestration review.
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Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham has submitted a list of people he wishes to call as FISA-gate witnesses to Attorney General Bill Barr.  Tonight Sean Hannity invites Senator Graham to his Fox television show to listen to Hannity talk about it.

Lou Dobbs doesn’t suffer fools easily; he prefers to cut through the filibuster and get to the heart of the matter.  That approach is one reason his show is highly successful.
Within a similar outlook… Where we are now is the direct result of bad decisions where we came from. Going forward on the same corrupt path only takes us further in the wrong direction. This natural truism is the current dilemma for AG Bill Barr.
During his show tonight Lou Dobbs takes the audience back to a very specific decision by the DOJ; a fork-in-the-road decision that put the department on path traveling further and further away from justice. The specific moment outlined was the DOJ decision to bury the intelligence leak by SSCI Security Director James Wolfe.

[BACKSTORY HERE]

However, amid all the chaff and countermeasures there is good news. When you realize that continuing forward on a path initiated by corrupt decisions only takes you further and further from the truth; you realize there are signs showing the DOJ is indeed reversing course back to the moment when the wrong path was selected.
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The media PR firm for the FBI and DOJ objectives is the New York Times.  The media PR firm for the State Department is CNN.  The media PR firm for the CIA is The Washington Post.  This pattern has existed for several years.
The Washington Post is very concerned about a growing possibility the investigation into the origin of intelligence community work may expose the fraudulent nature of the entire ‘Russian Election Interference Collusion-Conspiracy‘ narrative.  Very concerned.

The WaPo/CIA express concern by stating that President Trump is attempting to “rewrite history”; disingenuously skipping the part where Trump isn’t attempting anything.  For more than three years President Trump has simply pointed out the obvious. It is is the media and the intelligence apparatus that set up a fictitious narrative for political needs.

WASHINGTON POST – […] As his reelection campaign intensifies, Trump is using the powers of his office to manipulate the facts and settle the score. Advisers say the president is determined to protect his associates ensnared in the expansive Russia investigation, punish the prosecutors and investigators he believes betrayed him, and convince the public that the probe was exactly as he sees it: an illegal witch hunt.

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Representative Matt Gaetz appeared with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the ongoing issues within the DOJ and FBI.  Additionally, Gaetz outlines some questions he would consider for the Attorney General during his upcoming testimony to congress March 31st.