Today the DOJ files their surreply to the game-changing Flynn motion to compel Brady material filed by defense attorney Sidney Powell (full pdf below).  Within the DOJ filing the prosecution generally makes four arguments:

1. The government had no legal obligation to provide exculpatory Brady material prior to the plea agreement (Nov 30th, 2017).
2. After the plea agreement the government had no legal obligation to provide exculpatory Brady material that was not directly related to the evidence about the charge of Flynn lying to investigators during the January 24th, 2017, interview.
3. The government uses odd language to claim a draft of the Flynn interview report (FD-302) does not exist prior to their Feb 10th construct: “Even if an earlier draft of the [302] once existed, there is no reason to believe it would materially differ” from the agents’ notes.  Sounds sketchy, like they know an earlier draft does likely exist.
4. The government severely understates the conflict of interest created by the DOJ using the leverage of an incorrectly completed FARA submission to pressure the Flynn plea.

Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell will now be allowed to file a sur-surreply to the position of the DOJ prosecutors.
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Representative John Ratcliffe appeared on Fox News to discuss the latest developments within the one-side, partisan, effort to remove President Donald Trump from office.
Having sat through all of the closed-door basement testimony so far, Ratcliffe outlines how Adam Schiff created the appearance of impropriety through an orchestrated effort with embedded political officials.  “At the end of the day, the truth will defend itself.”

Representative Doug Collins appears on Fox News with pumpkin-head for a Halloween interview about today’s impeachment inquiry vote.

I’m going to attempt to remove the legal linguistics and explain what appears to be a highly predictable process most are ignoring.
BASELINE – After the 2018 mid-terms, and in preparation for the “impeachment” strategy, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler hired Lawfare group members to become House committee staff…. Chairman Schiff hired former SDNY U.S. Attorney Daniel Goldman (link), and Chairman Nadler hired  Obama Administration lawyer Norm Eisen and criminal defense attorney Barry Berke (link).  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi then hired Douglas Letter as House General Counsel – all are within the Lawfare network.
♦On October 25th DC Judge Beryl Howell granted the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) request for legal authority to receive 6e grand jury material underlying the Mueller report.
Additionally, within the Howell decision she officially recognized the HJC effort was predicated on a constitutional impeachment process.
In essence Howell’s opinion granted the HJC with “judicial enforcement authority.”
♦The DOJ moved to appeal the decision and requested a “stay” pending appeal.  Judge Howell rejected the “stay” motion.
The DOJ appealed to the DC Court of Appeals.  A panel of three judges issued an “administrative stay”, blocking enforcement of the Howell ruling while the appeal was reviewed.
The temporary administrative stay was granted to freeze the status quo while the court considers whether to grant a longer stay that would remain in effect until the DOJ appeal is argued or decided (deadline tomorrow).  The outcome is pending.  Judge Merrick Garland is the Chief Judge of the DC Appeals court.
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Senator Lindsey Graham, who has increasingly come under pressure for doing nothing as the powerful Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announces today that he will be abdicating his chairmanship immediately after the 2020 presidential election:

(Via Politico) Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) plans to hand the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee back to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) in the next Congress.  Graham took over the panel this year from Grassley, who left to chair the Senate Finance Committee.

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House republican and democrat leadership both held press conferences today immediately after the successful passage of the House Impeachment Inquiry Resolution.
Republicans:

The White House responds to Pelosi’s successful House vote authorizing rules of the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

[White House] The President has done nothing wrong, and the Democrats know it. Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats’ unhinged obsession with this illegitimate impeachment proceeding does not hurt President Trump; it hurts the American people.
Instead of focusing on pressing issues that impact real families, like reducing gun violence, passing the USMCA, improving healthcare, lowering prescription drug costs, securing our southern border, and modernizing our aging infrastructure, the Democrats are choosing every day to waste time on a sham impeachment—a blatantly partisan attempt to destroy the President.

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Repost by Request – with intro:   After the 2018 mid-terms, and in preparation for the “impeachment” strategy, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler hired Lawfare group members to become House committee staff.
Chairman Schiff hired former SDNY U.S. Attorney Daniel Goldman (link), and Chairman Nadler hired  Obama Administration lawyer Norm Eisen and criminal defense attorney Barry Berke (link).  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi then hired Douglas Letter as House General Counsel – all are within the Lawfare network.

[Barry Berke, left and Norm Eisen, right – pictured exiting the HSCI scif with Jerry Nadler on the same day Pelosi’s “Impeachment Inquiry” Resolution was released, 10/29/19]

After Goldman, Eisen, Berke and Letter were hired in late 2018, Pelosi then went about changing the Rules of the House in January ’19.  Few were paying attention until recently.
In the last month many people have surmised that Pelosi and Schiff moved to utilize the Ukraine/NSC impeachment angle *after* the Mueller angle for impeachment ran into trouble. However, CTH research (widely criticized in 2018) doesn’t reflect the Whistle-blower impeachment plan as an ‘add-on’.  Instead, what we see is the use of the HPSCI; and the use of embeds within National Security Council staff; by design.  The Schiff events of today were always part of a prior planned design.
Only two committees hired Lawfare staff in 2018: Judiciary (Eisen & Berke) and HPSCI (Goldman).  This evidences a 2018 plan to use the Judiciary and HPSCI for the impeachment process as designed by the Lawfare contractors.  This design is also outlined in the year of public advice from the mother-ship, Lawfare.
They impeachment crew always planned to use the House Intelligence Committee; and they always planned to use activated sleeper cells within the National Security Staff.  None of this is organic; none of this current action was contingent upon a Trump phone call.  The whistle-blower approach was always going to be used; the only issue was: ‘how’?
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Paul Sperry from RealClearInvestigations has outlined the CIA “whistle-blower” who originated the hearsay complaint against President Trump as Eric Ciaramella.
According to the researched outline, Ciaramella worked closely with Democrat operative, Alexandra Chalupa in 2016 to advance the anti-Trump effort; and this year Ciaramella worked closely with HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff’s staff to continue his efforts.

(RCPI) […] Federal documents reveal that the 33-year-old Ciaramella, a registered Democrat held over from the Obama White House, previously worked with former Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan, a vocal critic of Trump who helped initiate the Russia “collusion” investigation of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.
Further, Ciaramella (pronounced char-a-MEL-ah) left his National Security Council posting in the White House’s West Wing in mid-2017 amid concerns about negative leaks to the media. He has since returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

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Lee Smith has a new book about “The Plot Against The President” that is selling like hot-cakes.  Today he appeared with Maria Bartiromo to discuss how the ongoing impeachment effort is actually just another step on the removal continuum.