Batting Order: Chairman Nunes (aggregate IC focus) got a leadoff single by strategically presenting the classified documents in a 4-pg summary form.  Next up came Chairman Chuck Grassley (FBI focus).  As Grassley questioned the FBI, Nunes stole second with release of the House Intel memo.  Grassley remains at the plate comfortably ahead in the count; while Chairman Goodlatte (Justice oversight) is on on deck circle sending signals:

Washington, D.C. — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) released the statement below regarding reports indicating that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Deputy Director Andrew McCabe will step down from his position.  Additionally, Chairman Goodlatte today sent a letter urging FBI Director Christopher Wray to preserve Mr. McCabe’s emails, and all other communications, before his official departure from the agency:

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As widely anticipated the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has voted to release the majority ‘FISA Memo’ as led by Chairman Devin Nunes.  According to reports it was a party-line vote.  The memo now goes to the executive branch for release approval.
Additionally, the politically constructed counter-memo, led by minority leader Adam Schiff, received a supportive committee vote making it available to the full house of representatives.  However, following the same procedural process as before – the Schiff Memo was not approved for public release (via executive branch), until the full house has an opportunity to review it.
Because the Schiff Memo was not released to the public; and because the committee is making Schiff follow the same rules applied to Nunes; and because the content of the approved release is adverse to Democrats corrupt interests; Adam Schiff rushed to the microphones to complain.

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You can generally tell when the house of cards begins collapsing by how deep CNN’s Jake Tapper is forced to reaches into his bag of disingenuous tricks.

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As David Mamet famously stated, in order for liberal ideologues to retain their narrow views, against mounting evidence to the contrary, they must pretend not to know a lot of things. Mr. Tapper’s default position is disingenuous, cognitive dissonance.
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According to most media reports the Justice Department viewed the House Intelligence Committee memo yesterday; and with Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe being removed, there’s a myriad of reasons why FBI Director Wray and Deputy AG Rosenstein could be visiting the White House.

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Two possibilities include:
•Candidate recommendations for replacement of FBI Deputy Director.
•Discussion with NSC, or OLC, about House Intel memo content/release.
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Paul Sperry is breaking some news that will generally be lost on most who are not deep in the weeds; however, this news is exceptionally important and explains the back-story to why Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley called the FBI’s bluff.

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It is important to understand what Chairman Chuck Grassley has done with the criminal referral and how he is calling out the FBI.  Taken at it’s face value, which is what the tweet does, it seems that Christopher Steele lied to the FBI by saying the “dossier” information was not shared with media, therefore the dossier was not opposition campaign research.
The intent of this FBI claim (to the FISA court) is to give the “dossier” enhanced value as source material for a FISA warrant (request for surveillance authority). However, the underlying facts behind the FBI assertion are false; and it’s not Steele making the claim.
The FBI is the entity attempting to inflate the credibility of the application by claiming  Steele never shopped the dossier, ergo it is not political opposition research.  There is ZERO evidence Steele made any such claim to the FBI. There is ample evidence from the senate testimony of Glenn Simpson (Fusion GPS) to the contrary.
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On Sunday night the Justice Department was granted access to view the House Intelligence Committee memo known as the ‘Nunes Memo’.  In unusual timing, last night FBI Director Christopher Wray went to the secure facility (SCIF) in the basement of the House of Representatives to view the content of the House Intel Committee memo.
Today, the FBI releases an announcement saying Deputy FBI Director Andrew “Andy” McCabe has stepped down (been removed) from his position effective immediately.

Narrative engineers immediately began applying a typical spin to the announcement away from recent discoveries of corrupt behavior of the FBI, and inferring President Trump’s admonishments of Deputy Director McCabe were the impetus for removal.

Via NBC [Andrew McCabe] … served a brief stint as acting director of the bureau after Trump fired ex-FBI chief James Comey, will remain on the payroll until March, when he is eligible to retire with full benefits, NBC said. He had been expected to leave.

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Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivers the White House press briefing for Monday January 29th, 2018.  Anticipated start time 1:15pm EST
UPDATE: Video Added:

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Imagine that despite your always knowing the DC swamp was deep (dangerous and full of terrors), corrupt, and generally horrible, you decided to do it anyway. You “just had to”.
Imagine you have spent years thinking about it; thinking about every angle within it; thinking and talking to people who know almost everything about it, well, from their perspective anyway; and ultimately you decided to do it.
Imagine that even though you knew it was bad, it wasn’t until you actually began running that you discovered the depth of the corrupt nature with it. –SEE HERE– You see things in the campaign you never expected; things no-one ever talked about.
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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 †