Oh, this is rich….  Shifty and hyper-partisan Adam Schiff, quite possibly the world’s slimiest human, writes a letter (as below) to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, demanding legislative branch authority over executive branch declassification.  The scale of obtuse, hypocritical and self-serving protestation is off-the-charts.
First, the executive branch controls the declassification process unilaterally.  The legislative branch can request briefings; and customarily the executive informs the ‘gang of eight’ (when needed) on matters of intelligence releases.  However, the legislative branch has no authority over the independent decisions/purposes of the executive in that regard.
Second, Shiff-for-brains, claims the Declassification Directive is inappropriate because President Trump has empowered the U.S. Attorney General with discretionary decision-making; while Schiff simultaneously avoids/manipulates the inherent conflict avoided by President Trump in granting discretionary decision-making authority to the AG.
In material fact, President Trump is likely the target/victim of the underlying extra-constitutional and corrupt overreach by a seditious “small group” within the FBI, DOJ and intelligence community; and as a consequence prudence would dictate the abdication of declassification decision to the investigative agency, that’s Barr.  If Trump didn’t grant AG Barr the unilateral decision-making authority, the same Adam Schiff would start shouting that President Trump carried a conflict.  [Also, Schiff knows this – he’s playing politics.]
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This is rather stunning.  In letters from Representative Doug Collins to Inspector General Horowitz and AG Bill Barr, Collins identifies Deputy Asst. Director Peter Strzok as the official who leaked grand jury information to the media and yet the DOJ refused to prosecute.  Incredible.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, today sent letters to the attorney general [HERE]  and inspector general [HERE] regarding the Office of the Inspector General’s investigation summary into misconduct by a former FBI deputy assistant director. The letter to the inspector general raises questions about the identity of the deputy assistant director in question, and the letter to the attorney general inquires about the status of criminal referrals made by the inspector general to the Justice Department. (link)

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U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr gave a 48 minute interview to CBS on a variety of issues related to recent events. The interview is packed with insight about the ongoing DOJ investigations of prior DOJ and FBI conduct in the 2016 election.
Rather than post the edited excerpts of the interview as broadcast, the full audio and transcript is below. Very interesting. [Hit orange play arrow to begin]:
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[Transcript] JAN CRAWFORD: Mr. Attorney General, thank you very much for sitting down with us. So, obviously we saw the special counsel yesterday make that statement, he analyzed 11 instances where there were possible obstruction and then said that he really couldn’t make a decision- conclusion on whether or not the president had in fact committed obstruction because of the existing OLC opinion in the legal counsel’s office. Do you agree with that interpretation that that legal opinion prevented him from making a conclusion?
WILLIAM BARR: I am not sure he said it prevented him. I think what he said was he took that into account plus a number of other prudential judgments about fairness and other things and decided that the best course was not for him to reach a decision. I personally felt he could’ve reached a decision but–
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White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders discusses the urgent need for action to solve the crisis at the southern border.  The Chamber of Commerce Decepticon Club (Grassley etc.) is not happy with tariffs on Mexican goods.

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As Wall Street’s Big Club politicians go bananas over the pending tariffs on Mexico, House Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins appears on Fox morning to discuss his own visit to the border, the growing crisis and the political intransigence in DC.

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AMLO knows there is no way for Mexico to begin retaliating against the U.S. after President Trump demanded they step-up migration travel enforcement or face U.S. tariffs on Mexican imports.  There’s no way for Mexico to take on Trump economically; and they would be foolish to try…  All business interests in Mexico will take a financial hit as soon as the stock market opens tomorrow: [Tweet Link]
No doubt Mexican Foreign Minister Jesus Seade will reach out to Jared Kushner for relief/assistance; but don’t look for President Trump to change on this issue until he sees substantive actions taking place.  Trump knows AMLO has a tendency to play political games with immigration; he’s made hollow promises before; and now Jesus Seade is in a very tenuous position.

(Reuters) […] The announcement rattled investors who feared that worsening trade frictions could hurt the global economy. The Mexican peso, U.S. stock index futures and Asian stock markets tumbled on the news, including the shares of Japanese automakers who ship cars from Mexico to the United States.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Representative Devin Nunes responds to Robert Mueller’s national impeachment address:

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It sure would be great if someone, anyone, could get Robert Mueller to publicly testify and face questioning… Unfortunately the UniParty rules the swamp.
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The White House gave some advanced information about President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s upcoming state visit to the United Kingdom; which includes trips to Ireland and France.  [Trip Date: June *3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th.]

[*Anticipate Pelosi announcing “impeachment inquiry” on Monday June 3rd]

[White House] PRESS OFFICER: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much for joining us for this background call on the President’s upcoming trip to the UK, Ireland, and France. This will be on background, attributable to a senior administration official.
Joining us today is [senior administration officials]. They will provide a brief trip overview at the start, and then we’ll be able to take your questions.
So at this point, I’ll turn it over to [senior administration official].
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you so much. I’ll just make a couple of brief remarks and then turn over to my colleague for some of the details.
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