The sound of sad trombones echos through the halls of media networks today as a year of speculation, surrounding contacts between Don Trump Jr. and ‘blocked phone records’ before and after the oft-emphasized Trump Tower meeting, ends with congress identifying two long-time Trump friends and a major nothing-burger.
Three phone calls by Donald Trump Jr. to blocked numbers in June 2016 fueled rampant media speculation that DJT-Jr. was coordinating with his father, Candidate Trump, over the substance of the Trump Tower meeting, before and after it took place.
SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner and HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff both sold a suspicion narrative that candidate Donald Trump and Trump-Jr. were organizing, coordinating and colluding with “Russians”.   Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his primary investigative asset Andrew Weissmann fueled the Russian Conspiracy speculation with targeted leaks to allies in the media.  However, the truth comes out; and it is boring:

VIA ABC NEWS – Investigators on the Senate Intelligence Committee have learned the identities of three blocked phone calls with Donald Trump Jr just before and after the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016, three sources familiar with the calls told ABC News.
The calls to blocked numbers, which came on June 6, and after the meeting on June 9, were between Trump Jr.’s cell phone and two family friends — NASCAR CEO Brian France and real estate developer Howard Lorber, according to the sources.

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So far the joint house committee transcripts have been leaked to: John Solomon (The Hill), The Epoch Times, The New York Times, and now The Daily Caller.  Someone is trying to get additional traction to these structured transcripts.
The content is also interesting.  The only thing we knew previously about the testimony of Nellie Ohr was that she evoked ‘spousal privilege’ during her deposition.  However, now the Daily Caller is reporting that Nellie Ohr gave testimony about her research with Fusion GPS, to include doing research on Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr’s travels:

Daily Caller – The wife of a Justice Department official who worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 campaign told Congress in 2018 that one of her tasks at the opposition research firm was to research President Donald Trump’s children, including their business activities and travel.
Nellie Ohr, a former contractor for Fusion GPS, also told lawmakers during an Oct. 19 deposition that she recalls that Christopher Steele gave her husband, Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, materials from the infamous anti-Trump dossier funded by Democrats.

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There has been a great deal of debate and consternation surrounding how the Administrative State has boxed in President Trump through the use of the Mueller/Weissman counterintelligence probe, authorized by Rod Rosenstein, where President Trump is a target of the investigation.
A widely held supporter perspective is that President Trump can expose the fraudulent origination of the counterintelligence investigation; of which he is now a target; if he were to declassify a series of documents as requested by congress and allies of his administration. This approach would hopefully remove the sword of Damocles.
Because the issues are very complex, we begin a two-part CTH post to outline the issues and hopefully clarify the situation; as well as outline a possible solution that would minimize the risk.  This is part I.

The core issue within the debate surrounds two contradictory reference points: (1) President Trump has ultimate declassification authority.  (2) Yes; however, in this example President Trump is also the target of the investigation; so declassification could be viewed by elements within the investigation as ‘obstruction’. Both of these points are true.
Also true is the reality that both laws and politics come into play.
In November 2018 President Trump gave an interview where he discussed the situation as it is visible to him.  Democrats and opposition, writ large, are working earnestly to remove him from office.  Obviously President Trump is aware:
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Devin Nunes dropped a bombshell yesterday in an interview with Maria Bartiromo [Video Here].  Many people are overlooking the implications of his speculation; and, more importantly how Nunes statement answers just about every contradictory question people have carried.  Including:

• Why Rosenstein introduced Mueller to President Trump the day before he was appointed as Special Counsel?
• Why Mueller/Rosenstein are hiding the investigative origination letter?
• Why President Trump has NOT been able to declassify documents? and
• Why President Trump is, and will always be, hamstrung by the Mueller investigation?

In short, Devin Nunes speculated that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein put the substantive allegations from the Fusion-GPS/Ohr/Steele Dossier into his investigative instructions (full pdf below) that he gave Robert Mueller.
If it is accurate that Rosenstein charged Robert Mueller with investigating the dossier claims; and if Nunes is accurate that the DOJ investigative target, a derivative of the dossier, is Donald Trump; well, everything starts to make a hell of a lot more sense.
If the mandate given to Robert Mueller was to specifically investigate the sitting president of the United States as an active participant, and subsequent target, for a counterintelligence operation, then DAG Rod Rosenstein -and Mueller- would have to hide that mandate from everyone and anyone.
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Yes, the most corrupt Senate committee; at the epicenter of the legislative corruption within the ‘spygate’ fiasco; joins the resistance effort, and files a subpoena to compel testimony from Michael Cohen.

It must be remembered that SSCI Chairman Richard Burr and SSCI Vice-Chair Mark Warner, have previously admitted they are closely coordinating their efforts with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

(CNN) President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen was subpoenaed Thursday to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in mid-February, a source close to Cohen told CNN.
It is not clear how Cohen will respond. The source said that Cohen has the same concerns regarding the safety of his family that led him to postpone his scheduled public appearance before the House Oversight Committee next month. Senate Intelligence traditionally does their interviews behind closed doors, not publicly.

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Understanding that Michael Cohen is the first pre-planned Democrat House interview, first step, within a longer ‘impeachment’ strategy, it becomes easier to see why MSM are all-in to help build the false basis for the initial obstruction snowball.
In 2015/2016 Michael Cohen working for the Trump organization and exploring a business deal within Russia is nothing.  Democrats did not kick-off the public “Muh Russia” conspiracy narrative until October 2016.   In the aftermath of two years of creating the ‘Muh Russia’ planetary election conspiracy theory, a nothing-burger contact within Russia becomes a focus-point. [Ah-ha!, you were talking to Russians… ‘IMPEACH’! ]
However, for the impeachment cornerstone to take footing, Cummings, Schiff and Nadler need to present the optics of obstruction. House investigations need a plausible premise to justify the work. Media are working overtime to frame/support the ‘plausible premise’.

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It’s annoying as heck because the baseline (Russian Conspiracy) is nonsense; but creating the plausible premise is the goal of the media. This is how media help the resistance effort.
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There are two distinct narrative angles that are intersecting in the current weekend talk venues.  One is the government shutdown and how the resistance is attempting to gain maximum political benefit against the White House.  The second is how the larger ‘shutdown narrative‘ is being deployed as cover for revelations within prior testimony showing how the Obama DOJ and FBI weaponized against their political opposition.
In this regard, the shutdown (as planned by Speaker Nancy Pelosi) serves a dual purpose; it is helping to construct a larger oppositional narrative while burying a story the MSM are desperate not to cover.  The two narratives are intertwined and it would be against the interests of Pelosi, Cummings, Schiff and Nadler, to reach a shutdown agreement.
HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff appears after VP Mike Pence on FtN and highlights this intended dual purpose. Schiff immediately transfers from the shutdown into a discussion of using Michael Cohen: the two narratives are intertwined.

*Note*:  It’s important to remember the democrat strategy is planned out.  Oversight Committee (Cummings), builds to HPSCI Committee (Schiff) who ultimately leads to Judicary Committee (Nadler).   Jerry Nadler is where they hope to initiate the ‘impeachment‘ angle.
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While reading a great article by Mollie Hemmingway at The Federalist, something stands out that might lend a cautious amount of optimism toward ongoing ‘spygate’ investigative inquiries and accountability.  There are two distinct differences in the Bruce Ohr testimony as compared to all others released or revealed so far.
The known list of witnesses questioned by the joint House Judiciary and Oversight committees includes: James Comey, Andrew McCabe, James Baker, Lisa Page, Bill Priestap, Peter Strzok, and Bruce Ohr.

Until the release of the Ohr transcript all prior reports and leaks of witness testimony have been from the FBI side of ‘spygate’. Bruce Ohr is the first witness from the Main Justice (DOJ) side of the issue.
Within the released witness transcripts, lawyers from the FBI were interceding in the testimony and instructing witness not to answer questions; and/or blocking statements from the witness to the questioners.  This pattern exists in Comey, McCabe, Baker, Page, Priestap and Strzok statements.  However, there is a stark difference, a much more fulsome set of answers, obvious in the testimony from Bruce Ohr.  Example:
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Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova discuss how Justice Department official Bruce Ohr shared information from the dossier author in 2016 with DOJ prosecutors now working for special counsel Robert Mueller.

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Anastasia Vashukevich (27) is the Belarusian woman connected to Oleg Deripaska who was being held in a prison in Thailand under charges of recruiting women to act as prostitutes and escorts.  [Backstory]  Her name surfaced early in 2018 when CNN claimed she had dirt on Trump and “tapes” of some sort relating to Deripaska and his activities with contacts around the 2016 election.  [More Backstory]
While the outlandish aspects to the storyline pushed by initial media appeared ridiculous; there was something about Ms. Vashukevich’s connections to the larger Deripaska story that also appeared valid.  Ms. Vashukevich has been held in Thailand for almost a year.
Last week the Thai government agreed to release Ms. Vashukevich.  Today she was en route to Belarus when she was intercepted in Moscow:

MOSCOW — A model from Belarus who claimed to have recordings shedding light on the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia was detained at a Moscow airport Thursday on prostitution allegations, the police said.

The model, Anastasia Vashukevich, had been deported from Thailand earlier in the day after spending nine months in prison on charges of conspiracy and soliciting prostitution.

She was booked to fly to Minsk, Belarus, but was detained along with three others traveling with her as she changed planes at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport, according to her husband and another person traveling with her.

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