An interesting DC storyline surrounding Senate Judiciary Vice-Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, and the lack of support for her based on party backlash, highlights an interesting shift in 2016 that few paid attention to. First, the current story:

(Via CNN) – Senate Democratic leaders on Tuesday pointedly refused to say if they supported California Sen. Dianne Feinstein staying in her post as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sidestepping questions about the veteran party elder after she praised Republicans’ handling of the confirmation proceedings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

[…] “I’ve had a long and serious talk with Sen. Feinstein,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters when asked if he was looking to make changes atop the powerful committee. “That’s all I’m going to say about it right now.” (read more)

2020 Democrats are not happy with Senator Feinstein for not pushing the party narrative to seek and destroy SCOTUS nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett.  This helps highlight the 2016 motive to remove Feinstein from the vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe appears on Fox Business News in an attempt to stop the false narrative that information coming from the laptop of Hunter Biden is a ‘Russian disinformation campaign.’

Ratcliffe explains the FBI is not approaching the evidence from a position of Russian involvement, and all the material discussed in the media so far has nothing to do with any Russian effort.  The disinformation campaign is from Democrats and the media.

Additionally, as it relates to the Biden material, DNI Ratcliffe states: “we haven’t shared any intelligence with Representative Adam Schiff or any member of Congress.”

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On June 3, 2020, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss his role in how Main Justice was operating while Andrew Weissmann’s special counsel was in charge.   What he said in that hearing never quite made sense until yesterday.

Those who closely followed the arc of the Weissmann/Mueller investigation; and those who joined us in following that investigation; already knew the SCO was in complete control from May 2017 to April 2019.  Everything taking place inside the DOJ in the two years of the Mueller/Weissmann probe was completely and unequivocally controlled by the Weissmann team.  Few journalists have ever grasped the ramifications of that control.

That control included every release and non-release of information during their two year tenure.  However, Rosenstein’s tone when questioned about the scope memos he authorized during the special counsel time-frame was very odd in that June hearing.

Rosenstein had a very guilty conscience and it was on full display as he attempted to justify his action.  You see, there was always a missing scope memo from October 20, 2017, that no-one in the DOJ ever discussed.  The nature of the scope memo was mentioned by Weissmann and Mueller in part of their Russia report; but until yesterday it was hidden.

Here is the only mention of the October 20, 2017, scope memo prior to yesterday:

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I’m not going to spend a great deal of time on this release, because the Ohr 302’s were previously released, except to point out some interesting aspects.

First, the timing, content and sequence of the specific documents being released are interesting.  Almost like someone is paying attention.  The original release of the Bruce Ohr 302 interview notes was in August 2019 to Judicial Watch. The release today is of the same information in a better quality.

Secondly, in both sets of released documents the name Dan Jones has been redacted.  It appears the redaction is made under the auspices of “sources and methods”; however, Jones was a former SSCI lead staffer, so the redaction appears to be one of institutional concern and self-preservation.

The last interview of Bruce Ohr (May 15th, 2017) took place two days prior to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Throughout the interviews Bruce was acting as the go-between from his both his wife Nellie at Fusion-GPS and Fusion’s contract agent Christopher Steele.

Third, The content of the December 2016 thumb-drive given to Bruce by Nellie is discussed within the interview notes but not released. 

Why? Possibility/Probability:

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An interesting note from Catherine Herridge today outlines that DOJ official Bruce Ohr resigned from the FBI shortly before being terminated as a result of the IG report on his activity:

As TechnoFog notes, this resignation is likely tied to this Office of Professional Regulation announcement on July 24th of this year:

OPR received a referral from another Department entity regarding allegations that a senior Department attorney failed to apprise his supervisor of his interactions with a law enforcement agency and a source concerning the subject matter of an ongoing high-profile investigation.

Although the attorney eventually recognized the need to inform his supervisor, who was overseeing the investigation, of his involvement and provided some information about the general topic, the senior Department attorney failed to provide a complete disclosure of his role as a conduit of information between the source and the law enforcement agency. As a result, the supervisor was unaware of the attorney’s activities related to the investigation until learning of them through other means.

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Earlier this morning Senator Chuck Grassley (Senate Finance Committee Chairman), appeared with Maria Bartiromo to discuss conflicts for documents between the legislative oversight committees, and ongoing stonewalling efforts by current FBI Director Christopher Wray and current CIA Director Gina Haspel.

Senator Grassley and Senator Johnson are seeking the communication from former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and officials within the DOJ and FBI surrounding the investigative targeting of candidate Trump and President Trump.  [LINK] Additionally, both Grassley and Johnson are seeking internal documents connected to former CIA Director John Brennan and current CIA Director Gina Haspel.

During the interview Grassley states the non-compliance with oversight may be due to former and current officials participating in a conspiracy to target the office of the president:

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The proverbial rabbit hole deepens…

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A fantastic catch by Twitter user “15poundstogo” highlights a key phrase within the Senate Select Intelligence Committee (SSCI) Russia Report Volume-5, showing how the SSCI allowed those who created the Trump-Russia narrative to avoid questioning:

[SSCI Volume-5 Link, Page 23]

This is a very important detail to underpin the report we shared yesterday about former Dianne Feinstein top staffer Dan Jones attempting to avoid a subpoena from U.S. Attorney John Durham.  [SEE BACKGROUND HERE]  This key highlight from the SSCI is evidence of how the attempted coup against President Trump was coordinated by people outside government and inside government.

Dan Jones left the SSCI prior to the 2016 election and went to work pushing the Trump-Russia narrative through his media contacts.  Jones took over funding Fusion-GPS and Chris Steele in 2017 at the same time Senator Mark Warner took over as SSCI vice-chairman. Dan Jones and Mark Warner coordinated the efforts outside and inside government on the same objective.  The Senate Intel Committee was part of the effort.

As a result of their alignment and common purpose the SSCI didn’t investigate the origin of the Trump-Russia narrative; and instead positioned themselves as a shield to block any investigative inquiry into what took place.  THIS IS A BIG DEAL !

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First, let me set the stage for new readers. No-one is more cynical of DC operations and manipulations than me. I do not sell nor promote ‘hope porn’, and I am not confident that anything is close to being revealed. Indeed, given the scale and scope of what took place in the last eight years, yes eight years; I have expressed doubts that anyone in government would ever actually expose it.

That said, in addition to my own cynicism I have been deep in this “spygate” or “Russiagate” rabbit hole; factually and physically inside the DC network; long enough to see the map of an investigative trail bringing up the rear.

During one great conversation a lawyer said to me: “All of this you know; all of this you have evidence for; but we don’t have the badges”. Thus began my 2020 effort, ultimately a successful effort, to drag the badges into the hole.  That’s the background for an update with new information:

A very important article was written yesterday in the New Yorker [SEE HERE]. While the topic of the article spotlights the ridiculous conspiracy theory surrounding Alfa bank, and the insufferable nonsense about Trump Tower servers having contact -electronic touch signals- with servers from the Russian banking organization, there are aspects to the story that show where the Durham probe has been forced to travel.

Within the article –which everyone should read– some names are very important. The article is framed around defending the New Yorker’s previous reporting on the Alfa Bank conspiracy theory, so the intent of the article is defensive. However, the events being described in the article, and more importantly the people being outlined in the article, are accurate. Especially Daniel Jones and his lawyer William Taylor; and the connection of both to Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson.

According to the article there are two parallel efforts underway to untangle the background of how the false Alfa Bank story was originated. One effort is a set of civil lawsuits by the owners of Alfa bank against those who created the fraudulent story that flowed through Fusion GPS, into Chris Steele’s dossier, into the FBI, and ultimately into the Buzzfeed reporting therein. The owners of the bank are taking all of these entities into court and demanding discovery of sources who framed/created the false impression.

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Fred Fleitz is the President and CEO, Center for Security Policy; a former NSC Chief of Staff, CIA analyst and House Intel Com staff member. Tonight he appeared with Lou Dobbs to discuss the ongoing issues with the intelligence apparatus and the requests by President Trump to release all documents without redaction.

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Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe released the following statement today:

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Missouri U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen has provided additional information to the Flynn defense team highlighting a January 25th meeting between officials in the DOJ-NSD and FBI the day after Michael Flynn (code-named Razor) was interviewed in the White House.

The DOJ officials attending the meeting included: Mary McCord (NSD head), George Toscas (NSD principal deputy), Stu Evans, Tashina Guahar, and “Matt A” (possibly Matthew Axelrod (lawyer for the Deputy Attorney General).  Additionally, from the FBI there was: James Baker (chief legal counsel), Bill Priestap (CoIntel head) and a redacted name.  It is clear from the meeting notes the group was trying to find something to target Michael Flynn and brainstorming on what approach to take.

As noted they discussed the “Logan Act” yet found there was no reasonable way to use it and Flynn’s contact with Russian Ambassador Kislyak, during the transition, was normal.

FBI Legal Counsel James Baker asked how could you prosecute Flynn for a 1001 violation (lying to FBI officials) when you couldn’t prosecute any underlying crime because the contact with Kislyak was normal.

The “truth of something being falsely stated to the public” surrounds the January 15, 2017, CBS interview with Vice-President Mike Pence who conflated a question about contact with Russians during the election; with Flynn’s contact with Kislyak in the transition period.

John Dickerson: Just to button up one question, did any advisor or anybody in the Trump campaign have any contact with the Russians who were trying to meddle in the election?

MIKE PENCE: Of course not. And I think to suggest that is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy. (link)

The DOJ/FBI team was going to hang their hat on this conflation as a conflict between Pence and Flynn.   That’s the beginning of the Russian “blackmail” narrative.

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