Having read, re-read and re-re-read, the recent FISA application release, here’s my take at both the 30,000 ft and granular level.
First, the elevated review is actually more interesting than the granular, which is remarkably odd considering how far we have traveled with this story.

Why publicly release the FISA application?  After all, even with the voluminous redactions, it is very unusual and it would have been exceptionally easy to deny any FOIA request under the auspices of national security.  To highlight this question, consider how stunned Fran Townsend was at the release: “Having run The Justice Dept office responsible for #FISA The release of these documents is irresponsible & will irreversibly weaken counterintelligence & Counterterrorism investigations going forward.”
Here is where a similar, I would say parallel, release will be overlooked.  Remember, it was April 2017 when ODNI Dan Coats released the 99-page FISA Court ruling/opinion on the historic 2015/2016 FISA abuse by the FBI and DOJ-NSD.  That release, like this one, while also heavily redacted, seemed out-of-custom for the intelligence apparatus.  Coincidentally FISA Court Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer is a central figure in both releases.
In the 2017 FISC abuse opinion release, Judge Collyer wrote the ruling.  In this 2018 FISA application release, Judge Collyer was the authorizing FISC authority granting the Title-1 search warrant.  In an odd way, there’s a particular appearance of connectivity here.  For those who are unfamiliar, FISA material is not subject to FOIA; everything connected to FISA and the FISC is considered “classified” at the origination. [Remember that.]
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We shared a discussion thread several months ago about how the media are enmeshed within the story of the DOJ and FBI corruption. The media engagements with the parties swirling around the FBI, DOJ and Clinton-Steele Dossier are so pervasive they cannot reasonably report on any aspect of the story without exposing their own duplicity.
Michael Isikoff highlighted that point in February when he admitted his reporting was being used by the DOJ and FBI to advance the political objective.  Additionally, FBI investigator Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page were shown in their text messages to be leaking stories from the Clinton Investigation, the Trump investigation and the Mueller investigation to journalists at Politico, The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. –SEE HERE–

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was busted by the Inspector General for leaking stories to the media and then lying about it to INSD and IG investigators.  FBI Director James Comey admitted to leaking stories to the New York Times, and even hired his friend Andrew Richman (off-the-books), gave him access to FBI and NSA databases, and then leaked information to Richman along with another friend Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare blog.
Lest we forget, the IG report on how the FBI handled the Clinton investigation revealed that dozens of FBI officials were actually taking bribes from the media for information:

IG REPORT – We identified numerous FBI employees, at all levels of the organization and with no official reason to be in contact with the media, who were nevertheless in frequent contact with reporters. Attached to this report as Attachments E and F are two link charts that reflect the volume of communications that we identified between FBI employees and media representatives in April/May and October 2016. We have profound concerns about the volume and extent of unauthorized media contacts by FBI personnel that we have uncovered during our review.

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FBI director Chrisopher Wray says Moscow continues to engage in ‘malign influence operations‘; however, China is the biggest current counterintelligence threat. Fox correspondent Catherine Herridge reports from the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

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It is becoming increasingly obvious there are two larger motives for the Obama IC officials current disposition; two parallel operations which present a risk if exposed:
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At first glance saying: yesterday was a very good day, might sound like spin. However, for those who have been frustrated about the lack of righteous push-back from the executive office; the attacks from the former “spygate” co-conspirators might be just what is needed to trigger President Trump to declassify the underlying material.
Consider the tweets from James Comey (former FBI), John Brennan (former CIA), Sally Yates (former DOJ), and statement from Ash Carter (former DoD).

Think about the bigger questions: Why would former administration officials feel the need to engage in such discourse? What exactly does their response say about their personal attachment to current events?  …and more importantly, what do they all have in common?
If you note they are all connected to the intelligence apparatus, and more specifically the well documented FISA abuse, well, yeah, things start making a lot of sense.  After all, at the center of all the intelligence corruption in 2015/2016 is the exploitation of FBI/NSA databases for political opposition research and weaponization.
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Back in March 2018, we initially outlined a strong likelihood about the origin of the material used in the FISA application; and how it appeared to emanate from “contractors” with access to the NSA/FBI database, Fusion GPS, Nellie Ohr, Christopher Steele and ultimately to Nellie’s husband Bruce Ohr and back into the FBI.   Later CTH described that as an “intelligence laundry operation“.
Today, while necessarily needing to hold on to an official position that the FBI only began investigating candidate Trump on July 31st, 2016, FBI agent Peter Strzok inadvertently confirmed every aspect of our previous suspicions.

Here’s the full backstory:  Senator Chuck Grassley letter to Rod Rosenstein (Page 5, footnote #5) outlines the FBI interviews of twice demoted DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr:
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There is a very important article posted last night on The Daily Caller [SEE HERE] The article surrounds a discovery that Robert Mueller’s lead attorney Andrew Weissmann worked with four AP journalists on both the story of Paul Manafort’s business interests; and, more importantly, and jawdroppingly, the evidence for Mueller to use against Paul Manafort.
Read the article HERE.  I’ll try to explain why this appears so important.

The gist of the story is that Andrew Weissmann was meeting with AP reporters in April of 2017, approximately a month prior to the formal construct of the Robert Mueller investigation.  The information from the meeting, which was essentially based on research provided by the “reporters” about Paul Manafort, was then later used in the formation of the underlying evidence against Manafort to gain a search warrant.
To understand the implications we must overlay a set of facts that has perplexed CTH for almost a year.  Back in April 2017 Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, declassified a FISA court ruling that had/has massive potential implications.  The 99-page ruling, written by FISA Court Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer, outlined structural issues and admissions by the DOJ and FBI about violations of search queries within the NSA and FBI database.
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Way back when CTH first began the deep dive into the systems and processes that were deployed in the 2015/2016 election cycle we eventually came to the conclusion that everything of substance, within the larger intelligence abuses, revolved around DOJ and FBI abuses of the FISA process.
As an outcome of multiple research deep-dives we then focused on a specific foundational block of that usurpation, the fraudulent application presented to the FISA Court by officials within the FBI and DOJ-NSD (National Security Division).  The October 21st, 2016, application to the FISA Court for surveillance authority upon U.S. person Carter Page; and by extension the Donald Trump campaign.
Throughout all further inquiries this central component remains at the center of the issue.  Unlawful surveillance is the originating principal behind Operation Crossfire Hurricane; it is also the originating issue within the Peter Strzok “insurance policy”; additionally, it is the originating aspect to the Clinton/Steele dossier; etc. etc. the list is long.  Chase any of the corrupt threads back to their source of origin and you eventually come back to the surveillance authority within the FISA processes.

As an outcome of those concentric circles CTH continued to say: stay focused on the FISA fraud, and by extension the FISA application, and by extension the dossier.  Every outbound surveillance ripple can be traced back to the use of FBI and NSA databases to conduct unlawful surveillance of political opposition.  Not a scintilla of discovery within the past two years modifies that reality.
Why is that important?  Here’s where things get FUBAR.   FISA is a process, and when used appropriately, within all guidelines, is essentially a surveillance tool.  However, it is a tool that is entirely subject to the honor of the user.  If the user is corrupt, or holds corrupt intent, the tool easily becomes a weapon.  That’s what happened in 2015, 2016 and likely long before that.  The weaponization is so easy to initiate that NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers admitted the intelligence community could not adequately prevent it.  So Rogers went about eliminating massive aspects to it, completely.
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Three rather significant events surface today that might seem disconnected; but are actually related.  1) Trump NSA Tweet – 2) Scott Schools Removal – 3) Corrupt Senate Intelligence Committee [report released.]

Following Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein’s testimony to the House Judiciary Committee CTH has been mostly quiet on issues surrounding SpyGate and the DOJ/FBI corruption investigations. The reason was/is: during the Rosenstein testimony something became obvious.
In mid 2017 the DOJ-NSD small group executed a strategy to continue their Insurance Policy efforts; the FISC was a critical component and Rosenstein was a participant, wittingly or unwittingly, in the outcome.  More on that will follow later.
However, today, the downstream consequences from the Rosenstein revelations, missed by almost all who follow the details closely, begin to surface.  This is going to take a great deal of explanation; and believe me – there is no fun in writing this outline.
FLAK ♦It starts with a seemingly ‘out-of-nowhere’ tweet from President Donald Trump about the NSA and a data purge.  This tweet was actually anticipated; or, well, at least a few of us were looking for a signal that would confirm the ramifications to Rosensteins’ earlier testimony.
Remember, the NSA and FBI database abuse is at the heart of the FISA abuse story:
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Due to the ongoing and unresolved scale of corruption within the administrative offices of the DOJ (Sessions/Rosenstein) and FBI (Wray/Bowdich), it is no longer possible to provide any benefit-of-doubt regarding their obstruction of oversight.   The IG report; the manipulation (red-lining) of the draft content therein; and the subsequent DOJ/FBI willful blindness toward the remaining content; affords no leniency toward motive.
In essence, if we are to honestly call the baby ugly, we are also to admit: there is an ongoing and institutional cover-up taking place. Yes, even by Trump officials.

In the latest development(s); and against the backdrop of previously unknown subpoenas from several House committees (HPSCI, Judiciary and the useless House Oversight/Reform committee), the FBI sends two compliance letters to congressional leadership.
It should be noted, lest we leave any transparent motive unspoken, the FBI responses are not from U.S. Attorney John Lausch, the *supposed* Sessions appointed facilitator of congressional requests and the person *reportedly* in charge of compliance production. I digress.
Backdrop: On June 15th, Paul Ryan, Devin Nunes, Trey Gowdy and Bob Goodlatte met with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Chris Wray.  According to later media statements, the House congressional group notified Rosenstein and Wray of their intent to hold Rosenstein and Wray subject to “House Floor Measures”. That is  codespeak for *contempt of congress*, and/or *impeachment*.
What we did not know (they never said publicly) was that Ryan, Nunes, Gowdy and Goodlatte filed a compliance subpoena as an outcome of that June 15 meeting, listing a myriad of document requests previously ignored by the DOJ, specifically the FBI.  We discover this aspect in the response letter(s) from the FBI Acting Asst. Director, Offfice of Congressional Affairs, Jill Tyson.  (both pdf’s below)  [John Lausch, ::crickets::]
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One of the interesting aspects of the IG report is the documented use of personal email by participants within the FBI “small group” Mid-Year-Exam (MYE) team. [pg 424]

One of those documented examples involves FBI Agent Peter Strzok downloading the content of the sealed Anthony Weiner Indictment, October 29, 2016, to his personal email address. Unauthorized extraction of a ‘sealed SDNY indictment‘, and transmission to a non-secure system, is a felony.

(From summary pg vii) We found that Strzok used his personal email accounts for official government business on several occasions, including forwarding an email from his FBI account to his personal email account about the proposed search warrant the Midyear team was seeking on the Weiner laptop.

==> This email included a draft of the search warrant affidavit, which contained information from the Weiner investigation that appears to have been under seal at the time in the Southern District of New York and information obtained pursuant to a grand jury subpoena issued in the Eastern District of Virginia in the Midyear investigation. <==

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