Within today’s reporting from the New York Times and NBC, a key aspect is how CIA analysts are worried about explaining and/or justifying the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA).  As such it is well worth remembering information about John Durham’s originating focus from June, 2019:
Against the backdrop of the DOJ admitting FBI investigators never had access to the DNC servers to verify a Russian hack; and with new information about the FBI receiving partial and redacted analysis from Crowdstrike; the review by U.S. Attorney John Durham toward the downstream assessment/claims of the CIA takes on new meaning.
CTH has previously outlined how the December 29th, 2016, Joint Analysis Report (JAR) on Russia Cyber Activity was a quickly compiled bunch of nonsense about Russian hacking.
The JAR was followed a week later by the January 7th, 2017, Intelligence Community Assessment. The ICA took the ridiculous construct of the JAR and then overlaid a political narrative that Russia was trying to help Donald Trump.
The ICA was the brain-trust of John Brennan, James Clapper and James Comey. While the majority of content was from the CIA, some of the content within the ICA was written by FBI Agent Peter Strzok who held a unique “insurance policy” interest in how the report could be utilized in 2017.  NSA Director Mike Rogers would not sign up to the “high confidence” claims, likely because he saw through the political motives of the report.
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Following their bilateral meeting, U.S. President Trump and Italian President Mattarella held a joint press conference.  President Trump disassembled the U.S. media preferred narrative on Syria.  [Video and Transcript Below]
Pay close attention to the remarks about trade and the WTO, big stuff is about to happen as the Brexit plans of Trump/Johnson kick in soon. Canadian election Oct 21st.  Watch the international trade moves over the next 45 days.  Things will shake out quickly. Bigly.

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. Today, it is my honor to welcome President Sergio Mattarella of Italy to the White House. We’ve known each other for a while. We’ve dealt with each other for a while. And we’ve had some really great conversations. We’ve had a very productive discussion throughout the day with our staffs and representatives. And I look forward to hosting the President and his daughter, Laura, at a reception for Italian-Americans this evening. I look forward to that very much.
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It is becoming clear the principals connected to the 2016 weaponization of the intelligence apparatus, DOJ and FBI are increasingly concerned about U.S. Attorney John Durham and Attorney General Bill Barr looking at the origins of “Spygate” and the Trump-Russia narrative.  Lawfare and their media outlets are leading their defensive-based offensive.
Remember, Stefan Halper (U.K.), Joseph Mifsud (Italy) and Alexander Downer (Australia) all played a key part in helping CIA Director John Brennan assemble his two-page Electronic Communication (EC) that initiated the FBI to start “Crossfire Hurricane.”

All of the Obama-era officials (specifically those who weaponized government in 2016 to target their political opposition) are using the “IC anonymous whistleblower” approach in an attempt to paint any current inquiry as Trump weaponizing the investigation of their coup effort.  Any effort by President Trump to expose the 2016 misconduct is now spun to be President Trump weaponizing his office to target his political opposition.
The latest visible example of the corrupt team anxiety surfaces via a counter-narrative in a New York Times article claiming President Trump asked Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to assist AG Bill Barr and his 2016 review.

WASHINGTON — President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call.

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Predictable in the extreme.  Now that the Lawfare Alliance has successfully advanced the new legal authority of claims “heard from others”, they shift into phase #2. Revisit prior claims that now have additional legislative usefulness amid constructed IC leaks.
It’s the transparency trap. Here comes the next demand for HPSCI investigative material:

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Today in a court filing, surrounding a FOIA case seeking access to the fully unredacted Carter Page FISA application, the DOJ clarified the position of the DOJ as it pertains to President Trump’s May 2019 declassification authority. (pdf available here)
The DOJ highlights that President Trump did not order AG William Barr to declassify anything.  Instead, according to the official position of the DOJ, President Trump “delegated authority” to the Attorney General to determine *if* anything should be declassified:

[Source – pdf]

Whether AG Bill Barr does actually declassify anything is open to debate.  The current odds remain slightly less than 50/50; however, those odds could diminish significantly if the impeachment effort is successful.
The current priority for the Dept. of Justice does not appear to be highlighting internal corruption that targeted President Trump.  The current institutional priority appears to be protecting Rod Rosenstein.  However, we should have a better idea exactly where this will all end when we see the IG Report on potential FISA abuses against Carter Page.
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The story of a “Russian spy” being exfiltrated from Russia over U.S. intelligence concerns about excessive media reporting on the Russian Conspiracy-Collusion.  Reporting that was driven by those same intelligence leaks is, well, sketchy as heck. However, at the 30,000 ft level there is a picture providing obvious possibilities.
First, the tenuous reporting from CNN, where they attempt to paint Donald Trump into the spy narrative, is transparently political opportunism by narrative engineer Jim Sciutto and the anti-Trump brigade.  You know Sciutto’s efforts are bad when even the Washington Post and New York Times undercut the CNN script.  The exfiltration had nothing to do with President-elect Trump, or President Trump.

The part where the story becomes interesting is: (A) the timing; and (B) that DC journalists know who the “spy” is.  Indeed the claimed “spy” and his family have been living under his real name in Washington DC.  This fact doesn’t fit the outline of a retracted spy living in an era of imminent danger.
Heck, it doesn’t take more than a few minutes on the internet to discover who this “spy” might be. Obviously, if the media know all about him; well, that speaks volumes.
So what is the likely scenario here?
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Former CEO Patrick Byrne has given four primary interviews where he outlines his knowledge of a 2015 and 2016 political espionage operation being run by the FBI.

Fox News, MacCallum – Fox Business #1 – Fox Business #2 – CNN, Cuomo

After a review of the interviews, and extracting specific points therein, here’s an overview.
The substance of Mr. Byrne claims does seem to align with what we already know about the DOJ and FBI activity during the 2016 election cycle, including the FBI operations.

First, Patrick Byrne claims he has spoken to the DOJ on April 5th, 2019, and again on April 30th, 2019.  Mr. Byrne states he told the DOJ all of the information he was aware of during those two interviews covering approximately seven hours of questioning.
The current public statements Mr. Byrne is making are not with the approval of the DOJ or any investigators therein.  His decision to go public with this information comes as a result of conversations with a life-long mentor and confidant, Warren Buffett.  Mr. Byrne states he has known Warren Buffett since Byrne was a teenager and Mr. Buffett was in his mid-forties.
According to his CNN interview Byrne talked to Buffett in June of 2019 about how he could be a witness in the DOJ investigation authorized by Attorney General Bill Barr and being conducted by U.S. Attorney John Durham.  After listening to the details, Buffett recommended Mr. Byrne go public with the story.
However, in order to go public Byrne would need to separate himself from his role as CEO of Overstock, the company Byrne founded.  Mr. Byrne resigned yesterday, August 22nd.
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In a rather curious and quirky interview, Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne describes a related aspect to the DOJ/FBI operations against candidate Donald Trump in 2016.
Byrne enters the story due to his romantic relationship with Maria Butina, a person charged by Robert Mueller as being a Russian intelligence operative.  In/around 2015 Byrne met and started a relationship with Butina, and later was enlisted by the FBI for assistance in their investigation of her.  [Sara Carter Backstory Here]
Mr. Byrne now describes all of that FBI activity as somewhat of a political espionage operation to spy on several 2016 candidates, collect dirt, and seemingly gain operational leverage.  WATCH:

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Good news for those who want accountability.  Bad news for those who were counting on deep state Sue Gordon to hide the corrupt intelligence behavior. As a result we can expect the usurping group and their media allies to go bananas.

No love… Move along… Out. Get Out!

The departure of Sue Gordon (above left) along with Dan Coats (above right) means President Trump will have the opportunity to place a new acting DNI, Joseph Maguire by the end of next week.   Hopefully this will speed up the process toward sunlight.
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HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes appears on Fox News Weekend to discuss the upcoming congressional testimony of special counsel Robert Mueller.  Additionally, Nunes discusses the aggregate issues with the FBI and DOJ.
The Gang-of-Eight meeting Nunes notes McCabe attempted to get him removed from was the May 17th, 2017, meeting by Rod Rosenstein and Andrew McCabe where they briefed the Go8 on the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel prior to the public release.
During that 3/17/17 meeting DAG Rod Rosenstein and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe were concerned that Devin Nunes would support President Trump’s position when McCabe and Rosenstein launched the corrupt and fraudulent Special Counsel.

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For deep-weed CTH readers: After listening to Nunes strongly implying he expects a full DC cover-up of the entire weaponized DC operation against candidate, president-elect and President Trump. I started a new intelligence research project to identify what might lie at the center of that concern.
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