Things are proceeding swimmingly.  How is it possible to outline the biggest political corruption scandal in modern U.S. history; which utilized the full weight of the institutions of government and the vast intelligence community; against the predictable tide of a mainstream U.S. media apparatus who will shout ‘conspiracy theory’; while every single entity associated with the collaborative effort will protect the group behind the scandal?

There’s the challenge.  How do you introduce the scale and scope of corruption to almost half the country who have relied upon the false narrative delivered by fake news for the past two years?

Answer: You assemble a strategic communications team, timed to activate when a key series of events takes place.   Joe diGenova is part of that strategic communications team. The triggering event is the OIG release.  The purpose of the team is to help the news consumer digest the corruption elephant one bite at a time.

As each individual indictment is parsed and delivered, there will be tens-of-thousands of pages of evidence, multiple witness statements, and a tsunami of investigative supporting material that needs to be unpacked -per person- and understood against the backdrop of the bigger story.

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Harvard Law Professor Emeritus, Alan Dershowitz, appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the DOJ firing FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. It’s a wide-ranging interview hitting on multiple angles of the ongoing issues at the top of the FBI and Dept of Justice.

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One of the common misunderstandings as highlighted within the interview is the 1.2 million investigative documents held by the Office of Inspector General, Michael Horowitz.

First, a massive amount of the ‘pages’ are likely transcripts from the Peter Strzok and Lisa Page text messages; as well as the likelihood of emails and other communications within the “small group” (co-conspirators) inside the DOJ and FBI.

Second, everyone seems to overlook that much of the evidence collected by IG Horowitz may also be evidence of criminality by those within the “small group”. As such the criminal evidence would NOT be, and SHOULD NOT be, released to congress because the assigned prosecutor would be using it for cases against those outlined in the investigation.

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Senator Chuck Grassley letter to Rod Rosenstein (Page 5, footnote #5) outlines the FBI interviews of twice demoted DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr:

Ohr FD-302 12/19/16 (interview date 11/22/16);
Ohr FD-302 12/19/16 (interview date 12/05/16);
Ohr FD-302 12/19/16 (interview date 12/12/16);
Ohr FD-302 12/27/16 (interview date 12/20/16);
Ohr FD-302 01/27/17 (interview date 01/27/17);
Ohr FD-302 01/31/17 (interview date 01/23/17);
Ohr FD-302 01/27/17 (interview date 01/25/17);
Ohr FD-302 02/08/17 (interview date 02/06/17);
Ohr FD-302 02/15/17 (interview date 02/14/17);
Ohr FD-302 05/10/17 (interview date 05/08/17);
Ohr FD-302 05/12/17 (interview date 05/12/17);
Ohr FD-302 05/16/17 (interview date 05/15/17).

Notice: DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr was interviewed after the election four times [November 22nd, December: 5th, 12th, 20th, 2016] by the Obama FBI.

During those four 2016 interviews: President Obama, James Comey (FBI), Andrew McCabe (FBI), Loretta Lynch (DOJ), Sally Yates (DOJ), James Baker (FBI), Peter Strzok (FBI), Lisa Page (FBI), Jim Rybicki (FBI), Mary McCord (DOJ), Mike Kortan (FBI), Bill Priestap (FBI) and David Laufman (DOJ) were all still in place. The Inspector General investigation had not yet begun.

Question(s):

Why was the FBI interviewing Bruce Ohr in 2016?

Who was interviewing Bruce Ohr in 2016?

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What has become increasingly visible is the largest political scandal in the history of U.S. government.  A political conspiracy at the highest levels of the prior administration and across multiple agencies within the U.S. intelligence apparatus.  The scale of corruption being exposed is astounding.

The investigative effort to unravel and bring justice is almost overwhelming.  It is also very likely the issues surrounding Andrew McCabe are only just beginning.

Within the response letter from Michael Bromwich, the attorney representing fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, you might note the following (emphasis mine):

[…] The investigation described in the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report was cleaved off from the larger investigation of which it was a part, its completion expedited, and the disciplinary process completed in a little over a week. Mr. McCabe and his counsel were given limited access to a draft of the OIG report late last month, did not see the final report and the evidence on which it is based until a week ago, and were receiving relevant exculpatory evidence as recently as two days ago. (pdf link)

Within the Office of Professional Responsibility guidelines for Attorney Representation you might also note the following (again, emphasis mine):

The majority of OPR investigations are administrative in nature, and employees are not entitled to counsel as a matter of law. However, counsel may be permitted if counsel does not interfere with or delay the interview. Counsel must be actually retained by the employee as his legal representative, not as an observer. Counsel are not permitted access to certain confidential criminal investigative information and may not be permitted access to grand jury information.. (link)

Put both of those statements together, along with the underlying issues that Inspector General Michael Horowitz was investigating, and there’s even more likely evidence of the “outside Washington DC” prosecutor noted in the following statement from Attorney General Jeff Sessions:

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There are so many threads of information surrounding the 2016 operation to conduct political surveillance on the Trump campaign by various officials and offices within corrupt structures of government it’s easy to get lost. However, if we take all the various bits of information and place them together a less confusing picture emerges.

The {Go Deep Threads} look like this: The FISA-702(17) ‘About Queries’; the political opposition research of Fusion-GPS and Glenn Simpson; the DOJ officials and FBI officials; Bruce and Nellie Ohr; the U.S. State Department and U.N Ambassador Samantha Power; the Clinton-Steele Dossier and Christopher Steele; the FISA Title-1 surveillance warrant; and the unmasking by former Senior White House officials: Lisa Monaco and Susan Rice.

Here’s the basic overview of how all those threads come together to paint a picture.

The FBI group was participating in a plan to exonerate Hillary Clinton. That same FBI group was simultaneously conducting opposition research on candidate Donald Trump and the larger construct of his campaign team. Those FBI officials were allied by entities outside official government structures. The ‘outside group’ were “contractors”. It is likely one of the contractors was Fusion-GPS or entities in contact with Fusion-GPS. {Go Deep}

The contractors were using FBI intelligence databases to conduct opposition research “searches” on Trump campaign officials. This is where the use of FISA-702(16)(17) “To/From” and “About” queries comes in. {Go Deep} This FISA abuse was the allowed but unofficial process identified in early 2016 by NSA internal auditors.

This is where NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers steps in on April 18th, 2016, and stops the FBI contractors from having any further access. {Go Deep}

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CTH has a hunch the OIG report is going to come in multiple phases, containing multiple investigative facets, following the investigative mandate initially outlined when IG Horowitz began (also listed below for reference).  The first release will likely surround McCabe and (bullet point #4) “Allegations that department and FBI employees improperly disclosed non-public information.” I’m working on some summary information therein.

Lots to chew.

Former FBI Deputy Director James Kallstrom appeared on Fox News for an interview with Maria Bartiromo earlier today.  He conveys a common set of perspectives and concerns.

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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) is one of the top three people throughout the entirety of congress with a comprehensive knowledge of the events surrounding the investigations of the FBI and DOJ.  Chairman Goodlatte is one of only four people outside the DOJ who have read the full DOJ FISA application used for a Title-1 Surveillance warrant of Carter Page.

The House Judiciary Committee holds the primary statutory oversight over the U.S. Department of Justice.  Additionally, Chairman Goodlatte is the congressional office working closest with DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.  In short, Goodlatte is the center of all ‘oversight’ information circling the investigations into the DOJ and FBI.

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Sometimes the most interesting and fresh insight comes from placing an atypical interviewer with a subject of strong interest.  This interview by Jesse Waters of Devin Nunes is one such example.  Really good interview, extracting a surprising amount of insight and perspective:

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In an effort to protect himself from criminal indictment fired Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe centered his defense last night around politics. This is the same ongoing approach deployed by fired FBI Director James Comey.

Within the McCabe statement he attempts to hug Comey tightly:

… […]  The OIG investigation has focused on information I chose to share with a reporter [Devlin Barrett] through my public affairs officer [Michael Kortan] and a legal counselor [James Baker].

As Deputy Director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the Director [James Comey], were aware of the interaction with the reporter [Devlin Barrett].  (read full statement)

Which begs the question, if the intent to shape a more favorable narrative for McCabe “was not a secret” then why did the resulting article quote only innocuous “according to FBI officials” citations as oppose to quoting the actual people delivering the information?

It should be noted in the October 23rd, 2016, WSJ article – the overall narrative being sold by Andrew McCabe through Mike Kortan, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok was the decision to drop the Clinton investigation rested entirely on James Comey.  In essence, FBI Asst. Director McCabe was attempting to distance his sketchy financial ties to Hillary Clinton from the decision to drop the investigation.

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Beyond the thirst for clicks, ratings and perpetual outrage there’s an aspect to the Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Rudolph Contreras story that deserves some attention.

♦First, the DOJ wasn’t withholding anything from congress. The DOJ told congress they (or their staff) could review any of the documents, including Strzok and Page texts, at the DOJ in their totality; as a consequence of the ongoing oversight.

However, if congress -or their staff- wanted to take possession of the documents, they would only be allowed to *remove* redacted copies.

The outrage machine shouts “cover up“, etc.

No. Not quite.

Why?

Because the IG investigative documents, in addition to being part of an internal review, are also evidence within an ongoing criminal investigation. Hence, the earlier statement by AG Jeff Sessions.  The statement everyone, sucked-into and/or participating within the outrage machine, loves to ignore.

Again, before grabbing your Sean Hannity branded pitchfork, think.

With a dual track within the IG investigative findings: ¹“internal wrongdoing” and ²“potential criminal conduct”, you realize that evidence collected by the IG -that may have prosecutorial value- will be closely protected by the investigative unit, including the Sessions assigned prosecutor, and not released.

It is not hard to see the “why” when you set aside emotion and ignore the outrage machine.

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