Representative John Ratcliffe appears with Maria Bartiromo to answer questions about the fraudulent information within an intelligence briefing last week and the House democrats weaponizing a false narrative.  Ratcliffe points fingers toward Adam Schiff for manufacturing the false media assertions & perpetuating a hoax on the American people.
Additionally Mr. Ratcliffe notes the upcoming reauthorization of FISA authority is taking place under a cloud of abuse by government officials and a host of deep state resistance interests who do not want to admit abuse within the FISA system.

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In December of 2019 congress buried the short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act.  As a result of the FISA CR inclusion the terminal deadline was pushed to March 15, 2020. [Backstory]

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Against the backdrop of a then pending OIG FISA report, in December of 2019 buried deep in the congressional budget Continuing Resolution (CR) was a short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act.
As a result of the FISA CR inclusion the terminal deadline was pushed to March 15, 2020:

FISA Court judges Rosemary Collyer (declassified 2017) and James Boasberg (declassified 2019) both identified issues with the NSA bulk database collection program being exploited for unauthorized reasons.  For the past several years no corrective action taken by the intelligence community has improved the abuses outlined by the FISA court.  The sketchy programs, and abuse therein, needs more public attention.
However, there is now a confluence of events highlighting a likelihood congress and the intelligence apparatus writ large want to reauthorize the FISA surveillance and collection authorities without further sunlight and without public input. Here’s what’s going on….
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Sending shockwaves through the intelligence community, it was reported yesterday that newly appointed Acting DNI Richard “Ric” Grenell asked the intelligence community, specifically including Shelby Pierson, to produce the underlying intelligence within the briefing she gave to the House Intelligence Committee.
Well, what do you know…. All of a sudden today, anonymous intelligence officials are reporting to CNN that Ms. Pierson “overstepped” her position, was “misleading” in her briefing, and “mischaracterized” the underlying intelligence.   Imagine that.

Washington (CNN)-The US intelligence community’s top election security official appears to have overstated the intelligence community’s formal assessment of Russian interference in the 2020 election, omitting important nuance during a briefing with lawmakers earlier this month, three national security officials told CNN.

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Sooner or later Ms. Bartiromo is going to have to call Senator Graham to task for his delays, obfuscations and can-kicking.   During an interview this morning Maria Bartiromo asks Lindsey Graham about whether he is actually going to hold the hearings he has discussed for over six months.  Graham’s response isn’t exactly inspiring confidence.
One of Graham’s “problems” per se’, is the reality that many members of the Senate, including John McCain, Richard Burr, Dianne Feinstein, Harry Reid and later Mark Warner, participated in the events in/around the intelligence targeting of candidate -then President- Donald Trump.  About mid-way through this interview it appears Bartiromo recognizes Graham is professionally can-kicking once again. WATCH:

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Kash Patel previously worked as Devin Nunes’ senior staffer on the House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI).  It was Patel who was the lead author of the Nunes memo exposing corrupt conduct of the FBI and DOJ officials during Crossfire Hurricane.

Patel joined the National Security Council’s International Organizations and Alliances directorate last February and was promoted to the senior counterterrorism role at the NSC mid-summer 2019.  According to recent reporting Patel is now joining Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell as a Senior Advisor and Catherine Herridge is reporting the objective is to ‘clean house‘.

Last night it was reported that President Trump was considering Doug Collins amid a group of four names for the Director of National Intelligence.    However, Collins is currently running for a Georgia senate seat.
Appearing on Fox Business with Maria Bartiromo this morning Rep. Collins outlines he is appreciative of the consideration but not interested in the position.

The dynamic for the Georgia senate seat is another example of Mitch McConnell and the Club -vs- grassroots MAGA voters.  Georgia doesn’t have a Senate primary vote, so the November senate election will be a jungle ballot.
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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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If you stay out of the weeds and look at the bigger picture it is clear to see the media are all-in, desperate to retain the Big Lie that Russia was responsible for hacking the DNC servers and releasing the DNC emails.  The reason is simple: the ‘Russia hack of the DNC’ is the foundation for the Russia election interference narrative.
Any review, discussion or investigation (Durham) that starts to question the fraudulent foundation is immediately controversialized.  Today is no different.

(Via NBC) It is being reported that lawyers for Julian Assange noted in court arguments that U.S. officials had offered a potential pardon in exchange for Assange telling the truth about how he obtained the DNC emails.  Immediately the media goes bananas.
President Donald Trump offered a pardon through an intermediary to Julian Assange if the WikiLeaks chief agreed to say that Russia was not involved in hacking emails from Democrats during the 2016 presidential election, a lawyer for Assange reportedly told a court in London on Wednesday.

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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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