Attorney General William Barr quietly took the oath of office in the oval office today with Chief Justice John Roberts administering and officiating the swearing in. [link]

With the introduction of a fully empowered and confirmed U.S. Attorney General there is likely to be a great deal of speculation about how AG Barr will interact with the seditious conspiracy scandal known collectively as ‘spygate’.
No doubt the tick-tock-boom club will sell more books with declarations of soon to be announced indictments, grand juries, etc. However, as with all political horse trading in DC, the reality of accountability usually falls far away from headline predictions.
Attorney General Barr will be navigating a myriad of high-powered political interests through his office at the Justice Department.
If we presume William Barr is not intending to cover-up for the gross misconduct of the DOJ and FBI, which is a considerable presumption, it will be worth watching how the two camps, Team Obama and Team Clinton, react to the shifted DOJ landscape.
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Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe launches a pre-planned proactive media blitz timed to coincide with DOJ receiving a new Attorney General.  Say what you will about the duplicitous, lying, corrupt and conniving weasels – but they know how to seamlessly execute cunning self-preservation political objectives.
The strategy is as transparent as it is Machiavellian.  Andrew McCabe, James Baker and the Lawfare group (Benjamin Wittes, Michael Bromwich et al) had a planned defensive front waiting to roll out; today they pulled the trigger:

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Team McCabe always knew the biggest legal threat to their corrupt position would be if they lost control of the mechanisms within the DOJ and FBI.  The launch of a media blitz, surrounding a book and constructed defense narrative, positions them to claim that any legal action against them now comes from a retaliatory Trump administration and DOJ institution (Barr) carrying out the objectives of the President.
The best way to position themselves legally was/is to go on the attack and then use their attack as a shield from any accountability. This is what we are seeing today.
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U.S. Attorney General nominee William Barr has been confirmed by the senate.  The vote was 54-45 with three democrats voting to support Barr: Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Doug Jones (AL) and Joe Manchin (WV); with one republican, senator Rand Paul (KY), voting against the nomination.
Now that he is confirmed Barr is officially supervising the special counsel probe of Robert Mueller.  It is also likely that after a transition period Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein will depart.
One of Barr’s responsibilities will be to determine what, if anything, to tell congress about the Mueller probe once it is completed.  Perhaps the best way to think about the Mueller report is to think about your local police department (detective or DA) doing an investigation on a subject and completing that task.
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President Donald Trump again permits U.S. media to review the content of a cabinet meeting covering the majority of current national issues.  Most transparent administration in history.  [Full video and transcript]

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[Transcript] 11:54 A.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Thank you. Hi, Steve. So, maybe we can begin. I’ll ask Secretary Wilkie to say grace, please.
SECRETARY WILKIE: (Gives a prayer.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Secretary. Beautiful.
Thank you all for being here. Before we begin, we’re thinking about certain things that we’re just starting to look at. David Bernhardt is, as you know, going through the process — becoming Secretary of Interior, from Acting. He’s done a fantastic job. And I think it will continue, and we look forward to that.
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ABC conducted an extremely interesting interview with former Trump Attorney John Dowd that the media outlet will likely keep far away from their mainstream broadcast and print reporting.
The interview is exceptionally interesting because Dowd outlines how incredibly false all prior reporting has been surrounding the Mueller investigation and the background of the contacts and discussions between Trump’s legal team, Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein.
Additionally, within the interview itself, when you stand back and absorb the details of what he discusses, you can clearly see why there came a point when the Trump legal team needed to shift strategies and accept that Mueller and Rosenstein had allowed the politics of the ‘investigation’ to shape their direction. It’s quite a remarkable conversation.
The entire transcript is HERE.  I would strongly suggest listening to the podcast. I’m pulling some excerpts.
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Mark the calendars; today is an important date.  CTH has noted, repeatedly, how extremely difficult it would be for the media to walk-back over three years of false reporting on the insufferable and manufactured “Muh Russia” collusion narrative.
However, remarkably, today that process actually begins.  WATCH:

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There’s way more to this shift. WAY more. ABC News, home of the resistance insider operative George Stephanopoulos, is also starting to use an atypical process to control distribution of the let-down as they back toward the ‘muh Russia’ exits.
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The three month trial of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has ended with the New York jury finding the cartel leader guilty of all counts.

New York – A Brooklyn jury on Tuesday found Mexican kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman guilty of running a massive drug-trafficking operation.
The drug lord looked stunned as the panel handed down the verdict on its sixth day of deliberations — convicting him on all counts, including operating a continuing criminal enterprise, use of firearms and various charges of conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine, heroin and marijuana.

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A lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch has unearthed an email [full pdf below] from Clinton Lawyer David Kendall to FBI chief legal counsel James Baker on the day the FBI was forced to re-open the Clinton email investigation due to the Weiner laptop.
With the passage of time the inherent issues have become somewhat clouded, and most people have forgotten many of the inherent issues that showcased how the FBI and DOJ had decided in advance not to prosecute Hillary Clinton. However, the key takeaway from this latest FOIA finding is that Clinton lawyers directly contacted the FBI team that was investigating the Weiner laptop.  (Note: read email chain bottom to top)
[scribd id=399428924 key=key-yny559IL4sxvY3wIFNUv mode=scroll]
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The Weiner laptop emails were originally discovered by New York investigators and reported to the FBI office in Washington DC on September 28th, 2016. However, the FBI never took action to review the emails until a month later on October 28th.
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President Trump met with Homeland Security officials and national law enforcement earlier today prior to departing the White House for a speech in El Paso, Texas.
The president paused to discuss the issues surrounding the need for border security. Additionally, President Trump outlined the scale of criminal aliens being held in detention prior to deportation, and gave examples of some of the criminal actions as outlined by the DHS.

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The Michael Cohen testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), headed by Chairman Richard Burr and Vice-Chair Mark Warner [A Sketchy Couple], has been cancelled citing the medical condition of Mr. Cohen:

WASHINGTON – Michael Cohen has postponed his third scheduled congressional testimony, his lawyer said Monday, casting further doubt on the prospect of the former fixer for President Trump returning to Capitol Hill before reporting to prison next month.
“The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has accepted Mr. Cohen’s request for postponement of tomorrow’s hearing due to post-surgery medical needs,” his lawyer, Lanny Davis, said in a statement on Monday. Details of Cohen’s surgery were not immediately clear.

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