Chairman Lindsey Graham appears on late-night-interuptus to discuss his Senate Judiciary investigation into allegations of FISA abuse, etc.

The more important lead story of this article is buried within the outcome story of ICE agents using a private license plate database to capture illegal aliens. First the headline story:

WASHINGTON – Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been using over the past year a vast license plate database to identify the location of vehicles associated with immigrants who do not have legal status, according to documents released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
More than 9,000 ICE agents have been given access to the controversial database, which contains hundreds of millions of license plate scans from across the U.S., according to the documents obtained by the ACLU through a Freedom of Information Act request. ICE employees are able to use the database to obtain information on where individuals have been and when they were there, with data going back as far as five years.

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Well, well, well; he did it again.  Representative Doug Collins has released the transcript of testimony from former FBI Lawyer Lisa Page. [SEE HERE] The transcript is from two days of congressional testimony July 13th and July 16th, 2018.  Each day is a separate transcript:  Day One Transcript
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Day Two Transcript (below)
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The U.S. Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC) was created in 1973 and reports to the Attorney General through the Deputy Attorney General. The AGAC represents the U.S. Attorneys and provides advice and counsel to the Attorney General on matters of policy, procedure, and management impacting the Offices of the U.S. Attorneys.
The purpose of the AGAC is to ensure consistent interpretation and application of the Attorney General’s priority throughout the broad U.S. justice system. [28 CFR § 0.10]
As much as possible pay attention to the dates and names (highlighted) as they each play an important role in understanding what has taken place in the past two years.

• On February 8th, 2017, the Senate confirmed Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General.
• On November 13th, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed the first nine U.S. Attorney’s to serve on his Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC).
• NOTE:  Why AG Sessions waited nine months to appoint his Advisory Committee members is unknown.

Those November 2017 appointments included: U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama Richard Moore; U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah John W. Huber; U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie K. Liu; U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Justin E. Herdman; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina Robert Higdon; U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma Trent Shores; U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Joshua Minkler; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri Jeff Jensen; and Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska Bryan Schroder.

AG Jeff Sessions appointed Richard Moore (Alabama) as Chairman of the AGAC, and John W Huber (Utah) as Vice-Chairman.

“I am pleased to announce the first members of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee under this administration. These U.S. Attorneys will play an important role in carrying out the Department of Justice’s mission to reduce violent crime, combat transnational criminal organizations, secure our southern border, end the devastating opioid crisis, and return to the rule of law,” said Attorney General Sessions

Four months later, on March 12th, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the appointment of six additional U.S. Attorneys to serve two-year terms on the AGAC, joining the nine members previously selected on November 13, 2017.
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Judge TS Ellis sentenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison for tax evasion and bank fraud.  The sentence is considerably less than federal prosecutors had sought. The judge said he believed the recommended sentence of 19-24 years would be “excessive”.
(Via Associated Press) 6:59pm EST –  Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians.

Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed the sentence Thursday, capping the only jury trial following indictments stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
A jury last year convicted Manafort on eight counts, concluding that he hid from the Internal Revenue Service millions of dollars he earned from his work in Ukraine. (link)

HPSCI Ranking Member Devin Nunes appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo for a lengthy twenty minute interview on multiple subjects.  The first half of the interview surrounds Michael Cohen’s testimony and morphs into the Steele Dossier.
The second half discusses AG William Barr, possible accountability measures and ongoing issues with the FISA process.  The final segment touches on Chinese cyber-threats and issues.

While a letter from congress to the DOJ amounts to further process frustration for those who bear witness to the corruption that took place; there is a valuable dynamic at play  which may help answer whether AG William Barr is factually going to address corruption, or whether he is apt to just cover it up.
Representatives Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows send a letter (full pdf below) to AG William Barr questioning the independence of two members of the Mueller team, Zainab Ahmad and Andrew Weissmann.
Both Weissmann and Ahmad were involved in contacts and discussions with DOJ official Bruce Ohr as he transferred the Clinton/Steele dossier from his wife, Nellie Ohr, and from Fusion GPS into the FBI to advance a political investigation targeting Donald Trump.
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Over time evidence has surfaced showing how a small group of approximately eighteen officials within the DOJ and FBI worked in concert with media and political operatives to target Trump for the benefit of candidate Hillary Clinton.
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The appearance of long-time Trump confidante Lynne Patton at the congressional testimony of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen created a considerable stir amid Washington DC.   However, the context of her appearance takes on even more drama when considered against Patton’s Facebook post from January 18th of this year:

Lynne Patton: […] 3) Many of you may already know that I considered Michael Cohen to be one of my very best friends. Countless people can confirm that we were virtually inseparable during my employment at Trump – and that he is, single-handedly – responsible for introducing me to the Trump family and effectively changing my entire life. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that my heart still breaks for him and for his family, with whom I had grown extremely close.
4) What many of you may not be aware of is the fact that I can personally confirm that the ONLY reason Michael Cohen “turned on” the President of the United States is because Mueller threatened to throw his wife in jail for up to 30 years. Period. She is the co-guarantor of a $20M personal loan that Mueller discovered Michael secured back in 2015 by falsely inflating the value of his taxi medallions – effectively making her part & parcel to the federal charge of “Making False Statements to a Financial Institution,” to which Cohen ultimately plead guilty. This is also the reason why Cohen’s longtime taxi medallion partner, Evgeny “Gene” Freidman, was granted immunity. (read more)

This is a rather stunning statement.  However, it holds the elements of truth and explanation as to why the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller/Andrew Weissmann, would pass off their assembled Cohen prosecution to the Southern District of New York.
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Following the transparently predictable, pre-planned and organized schedule toward Pelosi’s insufferable impeachment scheme, Chairmen Adam Schiff (HPSCI) and Elijah Cummings (WH Oversight) announce they will be calling additional Trump officials and family members for testimony.

Remember, the testimony of Michael Cohen is the cornerstone of the effort.  Cohen’s  testimony was organized immediately following the 2018 mid-term election.  This nonsense is all sequenced by design:

(The Hill) The House Intelligence Committee plans to question Felix Sater, the longtime business associate of President Trump involved in efforts to build a Trump property in Moscow, in a public hearing in March, committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told reporters Thursday.
Schiff said the open hearing with Sater is scheduled for March 14 and would focus on the Trump Moscow discussions. (read more)

Additionally:
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Outgoing Deputy Attorney General delivered remarks to the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) audience in Washington, DC earlier today.  The majority of the prepared remarks [Transcript Here] centered around rule-of-law norms in the United States compared with legal systems abroad, including that of China.
However, part of Rosenstein’s remarks (during the Q&A) nudged up against aspects surrounding special counsel Robert Mueller and AG William Barr; and the media have drawn attention to those unscripted comments.  The full video of the presentation and the Q&A is below.  To save yourself time, the ten minutes that begin at 53:00 is the part that seems to be drawing attention: