Last Thursday it was announced that U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras was mysteriously recused from the Special Counsel case against General Mike Flynn, five days after Judge Contreras accepting the initial pleading.  No explanation as to ‘why’?

(Reuters) The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia judge presiding over the criminal case for President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has been recused from handling the case, a court spokeswoman said on Thursday.  (read more)

One might think the media apparatus, or pundit proletariat writ large, might be curious about why a U.S. District Court Judge would be recused.  Alas One would be wrong.  The recusal angle is transparently missing from any follow-up by media; and apparently the judicial cat also has stolen the tongue of congressional curiosity.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.
The story has been memory holed into the concentric whirlpool of nothingness.
We have speculated that U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras was recused, either by himself or by challenge, because he is also a FISA Court Judge and could have signed off on the October FISA warrant that led to the wiretapping and surveillance of General Flynn.  However, we have received information that it wasn’t ‘by challenge’, leaving the preponderance of the motive for recusal directly upon Judge Contreras personal decision.
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USTR Robert Lighthizer is attending the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit in Argentina.

[…] Ahead of the meeting, the United States blocked efforts to draft a joint statement emphasizing the “centrality” of the global trade system and the need to aid development. Its opposition has raised concerns that the WTO will not be able to accomplish even modest goals, such as addressing fishing and agricultural subsidies, at the conference. (Reuters)

The Ambassador’s opening remarks to the conference are below and include Lighthizer rightly informing the WTO that the Trump administration believes they have strayed far away from trade issues and are now, essentially, uni-focused on litigation.  He’s right.

[Transcript] “I would like to start by thanking the government of Argentina for hosting MC11, and Minister Malcorra, Director General Azevedo, and their staffs for their excellent work. We appreciate all the effort over many months that go into creating a conference of this magnitude.
In the brief time I have, I would like to make a few basic points.
First, the WTO is obviously an important institution. It does an enormous amount of good, and provides a helpful negotiating forum for Contracting Parties.  But, in our opinion, serious challenges exist.
Second, many are concerned that the WTO is losing its essential focus on negotiation and becoming a litigation-centered organization. Too often members seem to believe they can gain concessions through lawsuits that they could never get at the negotiating table. We have to ask ourselves whether this is good for the institution and whether the current litigation structure makes sense.
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In an otherwise well-buried interview between former interim CIA Director Mike Morell, (the temp director following Petraeus ouster used during initial Benghazi cover), there’s an admission by Morell about the politicized Deep State Intelligence leadership targeting candidate Donald Trump.
What this interview tells CTH is that the Intelligence Community, writ large, is on the precipice of massive institutional change -perhaps high level firings of remaining mid level operators and management- and those who participated in the historic politicization are now attempting to shape an explanation.

[Via Politico] QUESTION: Was that a mistake?
Mike  Morell: So, I don’t think it was a mistake. I think there were downsides to it that I didn’t think about at the time. I was concerned about what is the impact it would have on the agency, right? Very concerned about that, thought that through. But I don’t think I fully thought through the implications.
And one of the ways I’ve thought about that, Susan, is—okay, how did Donald Trump see this? Right? And from—it’s very important—one of the things we do as intelligence analysts is make sure that our guy—the president—understands the other guy. Right?

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Things are beyond brutally obvious in this entire ‘muh Russian conspiracy’ narrative.  Last week it was revealed DOJ Assoc. Deputy Attorney General Bruce G Ohr was demoted because he had working relationships with dossier author Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS, and did not reveal his October 2016 contacts with current officials.
Today, the ongoing saga gets more sketchy as it is revealed Bruce G Ohr’s wife, Nellie H. Ohr, actually worked for Fusion GPS and likely helped guide/script the Russian Dossier.

JAMES ROSEN – A senior Justice Department official demoted last week for concealing his meetings with the men behind the anti-Trump “dossier” had even closer ties to Fusion GPS, the firm responsible for the incendiary document, than have been disclosed, Fox News has confirmed: The official’s wife worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 election.

Contacted by Fox News, investigators for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) confirmed that Nellie H. Ohr, wife of the demoted official, Bruce G. Ohr, worked for the opposition research firm last year. The precise nature of Mrs. Ohr’s duties – including whether she worked on the dossier – remains unclear but a review of her published works available online reveals Mrs. Ohr has written extensively on Russia-related subjects. HPSCI staff confirmed to Fox News that she was paid by Fusion GPS through the summer and fall of 2016.

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Fox News is back in action with the single most ridiculous, psy-op engineered, agenda polls in the last several years…. and coming from a CTH community that has reviewed hundreds of media polls in the past 5 years, that’s quite a statement.  Consider:

(Emerson Poll Link)  -vs-  (Fox News Poll Link)

Both of these cannot be correct.  The margin of error claimed is +/- 2.5%.  There is a NINETEEN point difference between both Alabama Polls.  However, only ONE is a media driven agenda poll.  Can you guess which one?
Yes, once again, the Rupert Murdoch clan are up to their media-polling tricks utilizing Daron Shaw.  Shaw and Associates, is more appropriately identified as a political action committee of the GOPe, and have been used by Fox News, exhaustively and exclusively, for years to engineer narratives on behalf of the republican establishment.   This time the narrative is so obvious Fox News deserves public humiliation.
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After spending a reasonable amount of time looking at the recent CNN Fake News story surrounding Donald Trump Jr; and accepting the leak that spurred that fake news story stemmed from inside the House Intelligence Committee; and after applying a reasonable amount of common sense to how it occurred; CTH believes Adam Schiff was the most likely source of the leak to CNN’s Congressional Correspondant, Manu Raju, that led to the fraudulent story.  Today’s discussion with Jake Tapper confirms that assertion:

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CNN’s ‘Vast Russian Conspiracy‘ sellers and their cast of leakers below.
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There are obviously multiple investigative angles stemming from all the stories within investigations into the previous administration’s politicization of the FBI and DOJ.  One of those angles is the system of applying for FISA warrants and surveillance of U.S. persons.
Against the backdrop of FISA court judge Rudolph Contreras mysterious recusal from the Mike Flynn case; and against increasing sunlight upon FBI investigative agent Peter Strzok, yesterday House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, discussed his ongoing concerns about abuse within the FBI and DOJ process.

WASHINGTON DC – House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told Fox News on Friday that his investigators have already uncovered evidence of “abuse” in the U.S. government’s surveillance practices.

“I believe there’s evidence that abuses have occurred,” Nunes said in his first interview since the House Ethics Committee dismissed allegations he had wrongly released classified information as part of the panel’s Russia investigation.

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In an effort to ridicule President Trump, Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel tweeted a fake news picture from last night’s MAGA rally in Pensacola Florida; obviously attempting to frame a narrative that the rally was poorly attended.

Except the picture was entirely FAKE NEWS, and President Trump just called Dave Weigel out on Twitter:

…Along with actual pictures from the rally:
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By now everyone is likely aware of the Fake News story run by CNN on Friday surrounding an email received by Donald Trump Jr.  The email was part of the investigative evidence shared with the House Intelligence committee; and later leaked from within that committee to CNN – thereby initiating the false reporting on the content.
The central issue in the CNN story was the date of an email.
It was leaked from within the committee, and later reported by CNN, that the date was “September 4th, 2016”; a date convenient for a collusion narrative between Trump Jr and WikiLeaks.
However, the real date, on the actual email, was “September 14th, 2016”; a day after Wikileaks published the content of their DNC leaks and a date that makes the entire CNN report a ‘nothingburger’.
However, CNN reports that two independent sources originally leaked to them the contents of what they had seen on the email in question.  But CNN never saw the email, until later in the day.
Think about this carefully.
♦Two “independent sources” both looked at an email, and both came away from reading that email with the wrong date?   How is that possible?
It has been CTH contention for several weeks that a counterintelligence sting operation has been going on within the IC community.  False trails of information, seeded by ‘White Hat’ investigators, intended to be captured by ‘Black Hat’ leakers – and delivered to their usurping allies in media.  The stories are fake, the leaks are real.
All investigative documents, relating to the witness, are provided to the congressional committees prior to the interviews with the witnesses; or, if the information is classified, each committee member has an opportunity to review the documents via a controlled SCIF environment when no physical copies are allowed as part of the evidence.
The Don JR./Wikileaks email could very easily be part of a ‘sting’.  The date was intentionally seeded as incorrect.  The resulting story is fake. The leak, however, is real.
Each nugget of disinformation exposes a specific leaker.  Each trail used in the sharing of that disinformation exposes the enabling media.  The White Hat plants the fake news seed, and then watches to see where, when, how, to-whom, and from-whom, it shows up.
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[Transcript] “Help me, Dad.”
Those were the last words spoken by Kate Steinle as she lay dying on a San Francisco pier a precious young American woman killed in the prime of her life.
Kates death is a tragedy that was entirely preventable. She was shot by an illegal alien and a 7-time convicted felon who had been deported five times but he was free to harm an innocent American because our leaders refused to protect our border, and because San Francisco is a Sanctuary City. In Sanctuary States and Cities, innocent Americans are at the mercy of criminal aliens because state and local officials defy federal authorities and obstruct the enforcement of our immigration laws.
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