There has been a great deal of debate and consternation surrounding how the Administrative State has boxed in President Trump through the use of the Mueller/Weissman counterintelligence probe, authorized by Rod Rosenstein, where President Trump is a target of the investigation.
A widely held supporter perspective is that President Trump can expose the fraudulent origination of the counterintelligence investigation; of which he is now a target; if he were to declassify a series of documents as requested by congress and allies of his administration. This approach would hopefully remove the sword of Damocles.
Because the issues are very complex, we begin a two-part CTH post to outline the issues and hopefully clarify the situation; as well as outline a possible solution that would minimize the risk.  This is part I.

The core issue within the debate surrounds two contradictory reference points: (1) President Trump has ultimate declassification authority.  (2) Yes; however, in this example President Trump is also the target of the investigation; so declassification could be viewed by elements within the investigation as ‘obstruction’. Both of these points are true.
Also true is the reality that both laws and politics come into play.
In November 2018 President Trump gave an interview where he discussed the situation as it is visible to him.  Democrats and opposition, writ large, are working earnestly to remove him from office.  Obviously President Trump is aware:
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The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will be holding a public hearing today covering a variety of topics pertaining to ongoing “world wide threats”.
The participants of the hearing are: FBI Director Christopher Wray; CIA Director Gina Haspel; Office of the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats; Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency General Robert Ashley; National Security Agency (NSA) Director General Paul Nakasone; and Director Robert Cardillo National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).  The anticipated start time is 9:30am
SSCI Website Link HERE – Alternate Livestream Here

Well, here we are again; another leaked transcript, this time from DOJ Official Bruce Ohr. And as with the prior two transcript leaks, we don’t get the raw information.  So let me first, necessarily, reassert our CTH position on these “leaks”.
Leaking is bad, period; in all directions. Because *leaking* is simply a method, a mechanism, to direct and control the focus of sunlight upon illicit action. Regardless of whether you support or oppose the message within any individual leak; the leak itself does not expose corruption…. only full and unfiltered information can expose corruption.  That means we need the actual raw transcripts to make determinations for ourselves.
As a factual standard for honesty and sunlight, CTH would never describe a transcript where we could not provide the reader with the raw and underlying material.  We have held this standard for many years; most of you know that. The truth has no agenda.

That said, someone is leaking congressional transcripts and a current tug-of-war exists between two opposing narrative engineers.  The heavily promoted New York Times article last Friday, was based on leaks of James Baker Transcripts, from sources who were responding to the leaks from other sources that were given to the Epoch Times.   Each side in the DOJ/FBI corruption story is currently leaking to advance their interests.
Three congressional committees have requested the release of witness transcripts.  HPSCI via Devin Nunes (September 2018); and the joint House Judiciary/Oversight committee (December 2018).  Congressional allies of President Trump (Nunes, Jordan, Meadows and Collins) are being blocked by corrupt cabinet members within the current administration.
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Against the backdrop of a New York Times article attempting to justify the FBI opening a counterintelligence operation against Donald Trump the current narrative du-jour is to claim the investigation was considered as an outcome of the firing of James Comey in 2017.  This is factually false.
FBI Director James Comey outlined the specifics of when the counterintelligence operation began during his March 20, 2017 testimony. Pay close attention. FBI Director James Comey -together with NSA head Admiral Mike Rogers- testified to congress specifically about the timing and notification (first three minutes of the video):

Rep. Stefanik: [01:12] …”when did you notify the White House, the DNI or congressional leadership”?
James Comey: …”good question. Congressional leadership, sometime recently they were briefed on the nature of the investigation, as I said. Obviously the department of justice has been aware of it all along”…

Watch the first 3 minutes of that video. Notice the discomfort etc. We have previously outlined why THAT is such a big deal –SEE HERE– Comey is discussing the notification to congress that took place approximately a week earlier. Prior to that congressional notification FBI Director Comey admits to keeping congress in the dark “because of the sensitivity of the matter” from July 2016 through March 2017.
The issue of the counterintelligence timing becomes an even bigger deal when contrast with the recently exposed testimony from FBI attorney Lisa Page.  Pay attention to Lisa Page and then contrast it against CIA Director Brennan’s testimony:
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The leak wars have officially begun.  “Caveat emptor” (buyer beware) is the general warning to all interested followers of the story-lines.

In response to leaks of congressional testimony to The Epoch Times (Lisa Page and Andrew McCabe) damaging to the prior narratives of the DOJ and FBI; the opposing side of the political continuum begins leaking transcripts to the New York Times (James Baker) favorable to the DOJ and specifically FBI.  Damn these insufferable leakers, their agendas, and their weaponized political motives; all of them.
CTH suspected this bull sh*t was going to start as soon as we saw the first Lisa Page transcript leak.
As a result we are now reduced to reviewing information through the pre-filter of the media outlet delivering the analysis of the transcript; a process CTH hates with the passion of a thousand supernovas.
The New York Times leak-angle is to justify *why* the FBI contemplated opening an investigation on candidate, president-elect and president Trump . – SEE HERE –  That said, sticking with the Epoch Times leak-angle on Lisa Page testimony for a moment, there is an aspect to the CIA activity of John Brennan which confirms prior suspicions.
Here’s the part that pertains to earlier CTH research on the issue of Brennan, the CIA, and more importantly Fusion-GPS contract employee Nellie Ohr who we confirmed also worked for the CIA:
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It is hard to believe this was written a year ago; time flies.  However, we are repeating a FISA-702 explanation thread below because as the year has evolved; and understanding FISA-702 process abuse is now the specific focus of Inspector General Michael Horowitz; there is an aspect to the FISA-gate story that must be expanded.
The United States intelligence community, writ large, will likely never allow the structural abuse of the FISA-702 system by the Obama administration to surface.  Consider it a third rail of unspoken agreement. A similar motive for the DIA to keep the Flynn file under wraps.  However, before going into the complexities of the FISA conundrum, which would also envelop any Horowitz report, it is important to revisit the basics.

We’ll break down the term: “ FISA-702(16)(17) ” into the elements that will help make sense of this story in the future.

• FISA – Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
• 702 – An American caught up in the process of Foreign Surveillance
• (16) – A search query based on “TO” and/or “FROM”
• (17) – A search query based on “ABOUT” (now removed)

Again, to repeat, there are differing FISA rules for use of the NSA or FBI database depending on the originating intelligence compartment.
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Here’s the transcript (full pdf below) of the December 7th, 2018, deposition of former FBI Director James Comey to the joint house committee headed by Trey Gowdy and Bob Goodlatte:
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(Oversight pdf link – scribd pdf link)

This is breaking.  CTH analysis to follow…

As former President George H.S. Bush lies in state at the U.S. Capitol, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visit Capitol Hill and pay their respects to the former President.

Political analyst and commentator Dan Bongino has a great dot-connecting podcast today that outlines the players, motives, moves and intentions surrounding the ongoing Deep Administrative State battle.
It is an excellent presentation in all facets, with one minor gear slightly askew – which CTH will explain.  The content is very well presented. Everyone should listen to the podcast.  (Hit the little orange arrow):
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The only divergence CTH holds to the overall outline is below.
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