Social media lit up upon seeing a carefully crafted CNN article outlining that sometime in “the spring” of 2018 team Mueller referred democrat lobbyist Tony Podesta, former Minnesota Republican Rep. Vin Weber, and former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig to the Southern District of New York. A cursory review indicates many people are looking at this story with an eye toward a possible prosecution…. But not so fast.
In the aggregate CNN supports the political objectives of the Mueller team; and CNN has invested millions in selling the anti-Trump ‘Russian Conspiracy’ narrative.

When you read the article closely, with eyes wide open, a more reasonable takeaway -based on the historic pattern- is that CNN is attempting to protect Robert Mueller and frame his highly-political legal team as bi-partisan in their investigative endeavors.
President Trump has focused a great deal of sunlight on the one-sided approach of Team Mueller; and a majority portion of the U.S. electorate now see the Mueller investigation for what it is, a political ‘witchhunt’.
Against the backdrop of a trial against Paul Manafort beginning; which is an in-your-face contrast to how his business partner Tony Podesta has been handled; only amplifies the one-sided-nature of the Mueller team’s collective intention.
Enter CNN, for a necessary assist.
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Former DOJ lawyer, and special counsel assigned to former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, testified before congress on her knowledge of the issues and details surrounding the Trump investigation known as “spygate”.  As a result of that testimony, House Oversight and Judiciary Committee members are now seeking additional documents from the DOJ.
It is likely the documents relate to the State Department’s involvement in the overall counterintelligence investigation;, as well as McCabe’s role in coordinating the activity by FBI agent Peter Strzok.

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It is worth noting that Andrew McCabe originally contradicted Lisa Page about the media leaks he was coordinating. It was Lisa Page presenting evidence to support her version of events that led to the Page/Strzok text messages being delivered to IG and INSD investigators.
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Connecting the Wolfe indictment to the recently released Carter Page FISA application it becomes obvious in March 2017 Senate Staffer James Wolfe sent reporter Ali Watkins a copy of the 82-page FISA Title-1 origination application.   Here’s how we know:
On/around March 16th, 2017, the Senate Intelligence Committee requested a copy of the FISA application used against Carter Page. How do we know this? Because a part of the indictment against James Wolfe tells us what took place.
Page #5 of the Wolfe indictment (unsealed in June 2018) describes Reporter #2 Ali Watkins.

Page #6 describes one of the leaks; one of the very specific leaks by Wolfe to Watkins. Read carefully:
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House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte is deeply connected to the investigation on the specifics of the FISA abuse.  The House Judiciary Committee has primary oversight over the FISA Court and the use therein by the DOJ.   Additionally, Bob Goodlatte and FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer have exchanged letters, and inquiries, relating to the FISA application against U.S. Person Carter Page.  We now know Collyer was the original FISC judge who approved the sketchy and misrepresented FISA application.
Earlier today Goodlatte joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures to discuss the Carter Page FISA Warrant, all it’s redactions, and plans to proceed. Additionally Chairman Goodlatte discusses John Brennan, James Comey, and Loretta Lynch being sought for questioning on their actions during the 2016 Presidential Election; as well as compliance responses from Peter Strzok, Rod Rosenstein and Lisa Page.

The current DOJ and FBI elements of the intelligence community are only slightly less corrupt internally than they were prior to the Trump inauguration. Institutionally they are still full of corrupt individuals; and administratively they are managed by people concerned about retaining/protecting the institutions – not eliminating the corruption. In our ongoing opinion this institutional emphasis is misplaced and misguided at best, and complicit at worst; likely more the latter.
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Please permit my indulgence to stand alone and state an entirely different context:

Despite the popular and repeated presentation, the FISA application release was not the result of a FOIA lawsuit; rather, the existence of a FOIA lawsuit provided the opportunity for the release of FISC documents.

Now, here’s uncomfy Alan Dershowitz:

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Be careful what you wish for Mr. Dershowitz, you might not like where it ends.
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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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The U.S. Department of Justice and FBI have released the 412 page FISA application used to gain a Title I surveillance warrant against U.S. Person Carter Page in 2016 while he was working as a low-level unpaid adviser for the campaign of Donald Trump.  [The full pdf is available here – and embedded below]

The October 2016 application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to wiretap Mr. Page, along with several renewal applications — was released to The New York Times and several other news organizations that had filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to obtain them.  [Link to source pdf here]
The application is heavily redacted, but there’s enough information available to seriously impact the prior narratives as written by the media.  As we review the content carefully, CTH will have much more on this in the coming hours/days.  However, here’s the FISA application – please add your comments on the content therein:
[scribd id=384380664 key=key-V5JqoILhPOBEswhMeqyl mode=scroll]
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There is a ton of new information within this version of the application. More later…
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Former DOJ/FBI Attorney Lisa Page testified to a closed joint-committee on July 13th and July 16th. Has anyone else noticed how democrats are not demanding a release of the Page transcript?

With the exceptional help of John Spiropoulos we investigate a conflict completely ignored by media and congress. Peter Strzok, the FBI’s lead Investigator in the Clinton email investigation, never intended to investigate the laptop before the election. The evidence, in his own words, is in the report by the Inspector General. In addition, the IG report includes a jaw dropping contradiction regarding the investigation of the laptop. Strzok says one thing; the FBI’s computer experts say another. It calls into question the entirety of the laptop investigation.  WATCH:

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There is a great deal of inconsistent application of law surrounding the DOJ/FBI investigative authority during 2015 and 2016. There is also a great deal of fatigue surrounding discussion of those inconsistent applications. Contradictions, inconsistency and obtuse justifications are as rampant in our midst as the political narratives shaping them. Perhaps that’s by design.
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When it was first discovered Tuesday that Robert Mueller had filed a motion (full pdf below) to grant limited immunity to five witnesses; and simultaneously seal the court records -protecting them- therein; the benefactors of that immunity request were predictably expected to include: Tony Podesta, and/or John Podesta, and/or Kimberley Fritts and/or Rick Gates; in exchange for their testimony against Paul Manafort.
The reason is simple, Paul Manafort was a business associate working with Tony Podesta lobbying on behalf of Ukraine; Kimberley Fritts was Podesta’s CEO.  Paul Manafort was not a registered lobbyist, violating FARA rules; however, neither was Tony or John Podesta.  Manafort and the Podesta brothers were all guilty of the same crime.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller only prosecuted Paul Manafort, he did not prosecute Tony Podesta.  That is an example of bias…. but wait, it gets worse.  According to the motion, Tony Podesta was refusing to give testimony to Mueller and invoking his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination.  So what does Mueller do?
Well, according to Tucker Carlson exclusive reporting tonight, Robert Mueller is giving Tony Podesta immunity…. yeah, go figure.
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Representative Louie Gohmert appeared on Fox News to discuss the second day of closed-door testimony delivered by former DOJ/FBI Lawyer Lisa Page.  Mrs. Page was the special counsel assigned to former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.  Lisa Page resigned from the DOJ on May 4th of this year.

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One of the more interesting aspects of Lisa Page congressional appearances is the current FBI sending lawyers to control her testimony. Mrs. Page is not an employee of the DOJ or FBI, yet current officials consider her remarks a risk.  We know from the insufferable press conference given by current FBI Director Christopher Wray (following the IG Report on the Clinton investigation), that current FBI officials are working to protect the former FBI leadership.  As a consequence the institution of the FBI is corrupt, not just the officials.
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