For over ten months we have been asking about one FBI official who has been mysteriously missing from the story within the DOJ/FBI ‘Small Group’ activity in the Counterintelligence operation, his name is E.W. “Bill” Priestap.
Bill Priestap is the FBI Asst. Director in charge of all counterintelligence operations.  Priestap was FBI Agent Peter Strzok’s boss; he is also at the epicenter of the story surrounding every action taken by the FBI in the Clinton investigation and the Trump campaign investigation.
Bill Priestap was copied on every email of consequence including the writing of the Clinton exoneration talking points delivered by FBI Director James Comey.  Priestap is the central figure on the FBI side of both Clinton and Trump operations.  “Bill” is mentioned in hundreds of text messages sent by Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
In short, Bill is everywhere – except where you would most likely expect to find him, in media discussion.
Priestap is so important that during FBI Director James Comey’s March 20th, 2017, congressional testimony Director Comey told congress it was Bill Priestap who recommended that congressional oversight should not be notified of the ongoing counterintelligence operations.  Priestap’s instruction was so important that despite the statutory rules violation FBI Director Comey followed his recommendation and kept congress in the dark.
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Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah delivers the White House press briefing for Thursday February 8th.  Anticipated start time 2:30pm EST
UPDATE: Video Added

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Earlier today President Donald Trump delivered remarks during the 66th annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC. (Video and Transcript)

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[Transcript] 8:48 A.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Charlie. (Applause.) Thank you very much. And thank you, Randy, for that very kind introduction. I want to thank you and Congressman Charlie Crist for serving as co-chairs this year.
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David Laufman was the Department of Justice, National Security Division, Deputy Asst. Attorney General in charge of counterintelligence, cyber security, counterespionage and export controls.
As most people are now aware the epicenter of the DOJ/FBI Clinton-Steele operation against candidate Trump stemmed from a collaborate “small group” effort of Main Justice officials within the National Security Division (John P Carlin – head), and officials within the FBI centered around the Counterintelligence Division (Bill Priestap – head).
According to the Washington Post, David Laufman resigned effective yesterday, Wednesday February 7th:

David Laufman, an experienced federal prosecutor who in 2014 became chief of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, said farewell to colleagues Wednesday. He cited personal reasons.

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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 †

The tangled web of corruption, deception and manipulation within the DOJ National Security Division (Lynch, Yates, Carlin, Ohr) and FBI Counterintelligence Unit (Comey, McCabe, Priestap, Strzok, Page and Baker), continues to pose issues of complexity when trying to outline the story.  Best advice is to ignore voices who position themselves too far ahead of known evidence. There is a lot of misinformation and disinformation.

Unlike some, we will not get ahead of the primary focus. For over a year CTH has focused on the demonstrable and provable foundation of the fraud; because the foundation brings down the entire apparatus.
Following that investigative path we have found ourselves paralleling a strategic plan as outlined by actions of congressional officials (Nunes, Grassley, Goodlatte, Horowitz), and the Trump intelligence community [Mike Rogers (NSA), Dan Coats (ODNI), Chris Wray (FBI) and Rod Rosenstein (DOJ)].
Four Corners of the demonstrable justice dept. conspiracy:

1. Exonerate Clinton
2. Investigate/execute, IC surveillance of Trump.
3. Collect and redistribute opposition research of Trump.
4. The Insurance Policy.

Following the exoneration of Hillary Clinton, the next phase, the “Trump Operation”, was the need for the DOJ/FBI “small group” to have access to surveillance of Hillary Clinton’s political opposition, Donald Trump.  This was the U.S. government conducting political opposition research through a weaponized intelligence apparatus (DOJ and FBI).
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[Remember the batting order!]  BRILLIANT !!
As the 10-page Democrat declassification request (Schiff memo) is being reviewed by the executive branch, NSC, OLC and FBI/DOJ intelligence community, media are beginning to report on a previously unknown January 16th request made by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte to the FISA Court that would render the Schiff memo entirely moot.  Media just now catching on.

Chairman Goodlatte has written a letter to Presiding FISA Court Judge Rosemary Collyer, requesting the FBI application documents that underwrite the October 21st, 2016, “Title 1” surveillance request against Carter Page.  Goodlatte is cutting to the chase and requesting the underlying FISC material directly from the court as provided by the DOJ and FBI.
The Goodlatte request presents a very interesting dynamic because Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer was the FISC Justice who wrote the extensive 99-page opinion (based on the reporting by NSA Director Mike Rogers and the admissions from the Department of Justice) that outlined the intentional abuse and misrepresentations to the FISA Court within the FISA-702 process.  [Her Opinion HERE]
Chairman Goodlatte is writing to FISC Judge, Collyer, who is clearly on record with strong admonitions toward the Obama administration for their duplicitous use of the FISA court. In April 2017 Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats declassified the opinion written by Judge Rosemary Collyer.  [We have discussed it at length.]
The exact details of Goodlatte’s FISC request are unknown.  For reasons you can clearly identify, and unlike all other team communication, Goodlatte didn’t publish this letter publicly.  Following Chairman Grassley’s incredible delivery last night, Chairman Goodlatte just gave a copy of his FISC letter to CNN, and they’re writing about it:
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Newly revealed text messages between FBI investigative officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page include an exchange about preparing talking points for then-FBI Director James Comey to give to President Obama, who wanted “to know everything we’re doing.” Page wrote to Strzok on Sept. 2, 2016, about prepping Comey because “potus wants to know everything we’re doing.” According to a newly released Senate report, this text raises questions about Obama’s personal involvement in the Clinton email investigation.

The new text messages begin around Page 119 of the pdf below:
[scribd id=371002694 key=key-rnGpaGY4OR6P8VD4nYT5 mode=scroll]

Senator Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has a very narrow focus on the DOJ/FBI ‘small team’ involvement into the 2016 election.  Johnson’s authority focuses on how the group inside the FBI worked to exonerate Hillary Clinton despite evidence of intentional wrongdoing.

However, within that investigative oversight, Chairman Johnson is bringing to light all of the communication within the ‘small group’ which includes the text messages between lead FBI investigator Peter Strzok and lead legal counsel Lisa Page during their efforts.
Toward that end, Chairman Johnson has released an interim report on findings (Senate Link Here), and as outlined below in the embedded pdf.
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