With the congressional year now effectively over Bob Goodlatte and Trey Gowdy are retired.  With that in mind they submit a joint letter to the DOJ and Senate saying, essentially: ‘wish we could have done more… but, oh well, c-ya‘.
Outta’ there like a couple of fat kids playing dodge-ball.

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McClatchy journalists Peter Stone and Greg Gordon are once again attempting to prop-up the most disproven allegation in the Chris Steele/Nellie Ohr dossier about Michael Cohen making a trip to Prague.  They appear to stir this false story approximately every six months.  [See Here]  This iteration is framed around cell-phone tower pings.
Michael Cohen has denied the claim for years.  Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, has clearly denied the claim.  The special counsel has reviewed and walked-away from the claim.  The Washington Post spent months trying to substantiate the claim, and could find no evidence [See Here].  According to WaPo reporter Greg Miller, the CIA and FBI have refuted the claim.  It simply did not happen.

However, that said, the Cohen mistake within the Dossier continues to point toward how the FISA-702 FBI/NSA database was likely exploited by government intelligence ‘contractors’ to extract political opposition research.  Their FISA(16)(17) “about” queries of the database simply returned a result of the wrong Michael Cohen.
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Representative John Ratcliffe discusses ongoing congressional appropriations battle and his interview last week of James Comey.
Mr. Ratcliffe points out that congressional investigators have taken the inquiry into the DOJ and FBI corruption as far as possible; it is now up to the DOJ to hold those corrupt officials accountable for weaponizing their offices.

Paul Sperry has an interesting report posted at RCP-Investigations outlining numerous interviews with DC politicians and would-be witnesses, if any actual DOJ investigation of the FBI and DOJ misconduct was taking place.  What Sperry discovers is the year-long narrative around John Huber and Michael Horowitz is factually false. [SEE HERE]

Just like the false framework surrounding the long-forgotten U.S. Attorney John Lausch; the guy who was supposedly hired to facilitate DOJ record production but actually did nothing of the sort; Sperry discovers the framework around U.S. Attorney John Huber was manufactured by career officials inside the DOJ to tamp down problematic demands for a second special counsel.
Worse still, and absolutely confirming information from our own contacts within the OIG, Paul Sperry outlines how Michael Horowitz has not interviewed key people who would be part of any authentic FISA abuse inquiry.  [READ HERE]
Unfortunately, this information is directly in-line with information received by CTH in September of 2018.  According to people with knowledge of DOJ-OIG operations, and restrictions upon the IG imposed by chain-of-command authority, Horowitz’s investigation has been limited by Mueller’s team.
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The FBI has responded to a request for declassification review of witness transcripts from the Joint House Committee headed by Chairman Bob Goodlatte.   The FBI is refusing to comply with the declassification review; and, entirely as expected, outlines the decision-maker for releasing any testimony is ultimately Robert Mueller.

(Link to letter)

…proving, yet again, the purpose of the special counsel probe is to control and mitigate the risks from any investigative inquiry.  This is how Robert Mueller protects the corrupt officials and corrupt institutions within government.
Despite their claims, don’t be tricked into thinking it’s about timing, and/or a workload, and/or the holidays.  How do we know this? Well, remember, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chaired by Devin Nunes, made a similar request for release of their transcripts on September 26th, 2018.  The ODNI, DOJ, FBI and Special Counsel have refused to comply for three months.
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The sentencing guideline for the single count of lying to federal investigators was: 0 to 6 months. After a rather sketchy plea deal, DOJ Prosecutors had requested an upward revision to two-years incarceration based on the severity of the conduct.

Moments ago US District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson sentenced James Wolfe to a two-month prison term.

The judge rejected the request for an upward revision of sentencing; and she rejected a victim impact statement from Carter Page outlining the damage to him caused by James Wolfe’s leaking…   In essence, James Wolfe became the benefactor of a corrupt FBI/DOJ trying to protect the Senate Intelligence Committee from scrutiny.

Backstory Below

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From research we know what is known as the “Steele Dossier” was a collaborative effort between Fusion-GPS contract employee Nellie Ohr, and a British intelligence asset named Chris Steele; also hired by Fusion.  According to inferred congressional testimony, Nellie Ohr’s co-author, Chris Steele, was also an employee of Russian influence agent Oleg Deripaska.
Within a court filing today (full pdf below) there’s an outline of a network of NeverTrump republican allies who received the dossier directly from Christopher Steele. Including: David Kramer (for John McCain), Representative Adam Kinzinger, Paul Ryan’s chief-of-staff John Burks, and various British and U.S. intelligence officials.

It was David Kramer, on behalf of Senator John McCain, who gave the Dossier to Buzzfeed to publish.  The first 10-pages of the filing outline the distribution network.
Considering the relationship between Oleg Deripaska and Christopher Steele, ultimately what the dossier and distribution reflects is a Russian propaganda document created by Fusion-GPS Nellie Ohr (herself an expert on Russia) and Chris Steele – then funneled to the U.S. intelligence apparatus for use against an American presidential candidate.
Rather ironic eh?
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Ever heard the term: “physician heal thyself“?  Judge Sullivan revokes Michael Flynn’s passport and imposes travel restrictions with major financial ramifications.

(Source Link)

At first blush this would appear to be a judge with a vendetta against Michael Flynn.  However, CTH would disagree.  As Robert Barnes stated earlier: “How does a judge try to torpedo a plea deal and get a defendant to withdraw their plea? They threaten to use the charges they avoided within the plea deal as the basis for their sentence.”
Sullivan deploys a strategy we know as “extreme compliance“.  In essence delivering ramifications toward the judicial status quo in order to change the status quo.

Former FBI Director James Comey appeared December 17th, 2018, for a second round of questions by a joint House committee oversight probe into the DOJ and FBI conduct during the 2016 presidential election and incoming Trump administration.
The Joint House Committee just released the transcript (full pdf below):
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This was just released.  Analysis to follow.

Without cameras in the courtroom we are constrained to understand the Flynn sentencing hearing today through the perspectives of others. The Daily Caller has an article [See Here] and a thread on the events [is Here] and a great video recap of the events by Will Chamberlain [is HERE].
That said, there is much speculation and punditry delivered opinion on what took place; and how the hearing ended with Judge Emmet Sullivan delaying the sentencing of Michael Flynn for 90-days. While we await the transcript from the court, here’s my view.

Last night, while contemplating the possible outcomes of the hearing, there was a strong likelihood of exactly what happened today…. but only if Judge Sullivan was aware of the conflicted position of Michael Flynn, and approached the hearing from that perspective.
Flynn took the guilty plea of lying to investigators to avoid Mueller charging him over the Turkish lobbying issues (FARA).
Happily, it appears Judge Sullivan is well aware of this very specific dynamic and the issues therein. Special Counsel Robert Mueller used the unregistered foreign lobbying charges, and -more importantly- the devastating narrative that can be drawn from those FARA violations, as leverage over Flynn. Based on the comments from Judge Sullivan, it is clear he is aware of this dynamic.
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