Paul Sperry has an interesting article today at Real Clear Politics outlining the amount of expenditures by special counsel Robert Mueller during his two-year investigation.  Sperry notes many in DC are wondering who the “contractors” are that were paid by Mueller:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller spent more than $732,000 on outside contractors, including private investigators and researchers, records show, but his office refuses to say who they were. While it’s not unusual for special government offices to outsource for services such as computer support, Mueller also hired contractors to compile “investigative reports” and other “information.”  (read more)

Strongly suggest reading the above article.
Sperry outlines the breadcrumb trail which seems to indicate that Glenn Simpson (Fusion GPS) and Chris Steele may have been paid.  One of the key aspects lending weight to this likelihood is the part of Mueller’s specific mandate, as delivered by DAG Rosenstein, that the special counsel investigate the claims within the Steele Dossier.
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This is the big one.  This is the inflection moment.  Tonight around 5:00pm Chinese Vice-Chairman Liu He will engage with team U.S.A. on the substantive issues around the future of the U.S-China trade relationship.   Trillions at stake.
At midnight tonight the tariffs on Round One of Chinese goods are scheduled to increase from 10 percent to 25 percent.  Round Two is yet determined.  The background for the disposition of TEAM USA was outlined HERE.

Mnuchin – Trump – Lighthizer and Ross

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnunchin previously worked a 150-page outline agreement with China on seven chapters of trade issues covering: Theft of U.S. intellectual property; protection for trade secrets; forced technology transfers; competition policy; access to financial services; and currency manipulation.  Last week China reversed course on all of the substantive agreements. 
Today Vice-Chairman Liu He is going to try to justify to President Trump why China can no longer accept the commitments they made over the past three months.
It cannot be overstated how everything in/around DC must first be filtered through the prism of this inflection point.  At the heart of U.S. politics, the majority of the Senate Chamber is aligned with the Chinese through purchased multinational lobbying interests. Again, there are trillions at stake.  Wall Street through K-Street has paid the Big Club to defend their multinational/financial interests from President Trump.
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Ranking Member Representative Doug Collins discusses the House Judiciary impeachment scheme, and the “desperate move” to discredit Attorney General Bill Barr.
Rep. Collins notes that former Special Counsel Robert Mueller is unlikely to appear before the committee and there is no appearance currently on their schedule:

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There are numerous media reports about the Senate Intelligence Committee filing a subpoena for additional testimony from Donald Trump Jr.  However, there’s something a little, well, ‘off’ about how the story is being presented…. zero official verification.

Without any verification, and with only vague references to anonymous sourcing, CTH would advise to wait-and-see on this one.  DJT-jr has been used more than once for leak hunting.   The AP Article is HERE.  That said, Trump Jr. did retweet this message:

Dan Bongino appears with Lou Dobbs to discuss the insufferable debate over the word “spies”.  Bongino accurately outlines the issues with current FBI Director Christopher Wray and his institutional motives.

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FBI Director Wray lost all credibility in June of 2018 when he participated in a structured press conference intended to diminish the IG report on the institutional issues with the FBI.   It was then obvious Wray was committed to the institutional cover-up of gross misconduct by former and current DOJ and FBI officials.
At the conclusion of that June 14, 2018, press conference an earlier unscheduled meeting on January 3rd, 2018, between Christopher Wray, Rod Rosenstein and House Speaker Paul Ryan then began to make a lot more sense.
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USTR Robert Lighthizer has filed the official notification with the federal register for the increase in Section 301 tariffs from 10% to 25% effective Friday (full pdf below).  Additionally Reuters has exclusive details of the collapse in U.S-China trade talks.
As most CTH readers are aware, Lighthizer has focused heavily on the enforcement mechanisms within the trade talks. [Previous Bookmark] Apparently, when the 150 page draft agreement was presented to the Chinese politburo, Beijing balked at allowing the U.S. to hold controlling enforcement over the trade agreement terms.

The fallback presentation from Vice-Chairman Liu was: we cannot put the binding enforcement mechanisms in writing, you’ll have to ‘trust us’ to honor the agreement; at which time Lighthizer said no-way.

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – The diplomatic cable from Beijing arrived in Washington late on Friday night, with systematic edits to a nearly 150-page draft trade agreement that would blow up months of negotiations between the world’s two largest economies, according to three U.S. government sources and three private sector sources briefed on the talks.
The document was riddled with reversals by China that undermined core U.S. demands, the sources told Reuters.

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During the House Judiciary Committee farce debate toward a pre-written impeachment resolution, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan outlines the political motives of House democrats to try and avoid the looming investigation by Attorney General Bill Barr.

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A full contempt vote normally follows the creation of the contempt resolution; which is an outcome of the debate.  However, to showcase just how ridiculous and political the agenda of Nadler has become, the actual contempt resolution was already written – SEE HERE.
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A win for the Trump administration in the ongoing effort to stem the influx of migrants crossing the U.S-Mexico border seeking asylum.  The ninth circuit federal appeals court ruled (full pdf below) that the Trump administration can continue returning Central American migrants to Mexico while their requests for asylum in the U.S. are adjudicated.

The Ninth Circuit decision is a victory for the administration.  The ruling stays the effect of a decision last month by a judge who blocked the policy while it was being challenged.

(WSJ) […] The policy, officially named the Migrant Protection Protocols, is more commonly known as “Back to Mexico” or “Remain in Mexico.”
While Tuesday’s court action isn’t a final decision on the merits of the case, the appeals court held that several legal factors favored allowing the Trump administration to administer the policy while the litigation continues.

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On January 22nd, 2018, eleven months prior to the mid-term election, lawyers from the special counsel’s office told Judge Boasberg in a sealed-courtroom why they needed to keep James Comey’s memos from being released.
Special Counsel Attorney Michael Dreeben informed the court the special counsel was charged with investigating an obstruction case against President Trump from the beginning. President Trump was the target of their investigation from the outset.

The previously sealed court transcript was released today – SEE HERE
Despite Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein and Special Counsel Mueller assuring the President and his lawyers he was not the target of the investigation, they were lying.
As soon as the court was told Trump was the target (hearing January 22, 2018) the court agreed to seal everything relating to the journal of James Comey. [BACKGROUND]

John Solomon has a new article at The Hill centered around this email from State Department official Kathleen Kavalec after her October 11, 2016, interaction with dossier author Christopher Steele.
The substantive point of the article is how the email proves the political motives of Steele two weeks prior to the FBI/DOJ seeking a FISA application using his work product, the dossier.  Despite knowing the bias motive, the FBI/DOJ persisted in using the dossier for a Title-1 FISA warrant against U.S. person Carter Page on October 21, 2016.

A second issue, perhaps more alarming, surrounds: (1) how the current DOJ and FBI kept the email hidden from congressional investigators; and (2) how the current DOJ and FBI have recently redacted the email, highlighting an ongoing institutional cover-up.
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