I’ve probably reviewed thousands of congressional letters, and intelligence committee letters from oversight, along with even more executive agency responses.  In fact, CTH has shared hundreds of outlines covering granular details within many of the internal memos and correspondences.  However, I have never seen anything like this before.
The combination of arrogance, hubris and desperation within a letter (pdf here) from the four Democrats on the intelligence oversight Gang of Eight, is palpable even in text format.
Legislative branch members: Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff and Mark Warner write a letter today to Director  of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and FBI Director Christopher Wray, demanding the executive branch cabinet members withhold information from the White House.
Perhaps more stunningly, and extra-constitutionally (meaning outside the framework of constitutional separation of power), within the jaw-dropping letter the four Democrats outline previous verbal conversations and current agreements with Coats, Rosenstein and Wray where the Cabinet officers agreed to keep information away from the White House Chief Executive, the President.
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Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) appears with Lou Dobbs tonight to discuss the importance of the declassification directive from President Trump.  Within the FISA application section Jordan says important information used to compile the dossier alleging Trump campaign ties to Russia were kept from the FISA court.

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Beyond the narrative engineering, NBC’s Ken Dilanian is reporting from his mutually aligned sources inside the DOJ and FBI.  The basic outline is the embed officials within the DOJ, FBI and larger intelligence community, are not happy about the White House declassification directive.  Why would they be?….
These are the same DOJ and FBI officials who, without justification, redacted the Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages.

First, the article:

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials, blindsided by President Donald Trump’s order that they make public highly sensitive files in the Russia investigation, are hoping the White House will allow them to conduct a formal declassification review and damage assessment before they are forced to release the documents, current and former officials tell NBC News.
Senior executives at the FBI, Justice Department and Office of the Director of National intelligence were scrambling Tuesday to respond after being taken by surprise by a White House press release Monday directing them to release classified material they had previously determined should not be made public. (more)

The biggest mistake people make is not accepting the influence of the worker-bee career officials, operating under the leadership structure, within the bureaucracy.
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House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes discusses the four categories of documents that will come as a result of the declassification directive from President Trump.  [More Here]
Most people already know what is behind the redacted segments of the FISA application, it will be good to see the specifics.  However, the directive to release all of the text messages without redactions is where many of the bombshell discoveries will be located.  Few people know the scale and importance of the redactions, because very few people even took the time to read all 450+ pages of text messages.

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A few days ago, September 13th, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes was given the Keeper of the Flame Award in Washington DC. Within his acceptance speech Chairman Nunes discusses the significance of this time in U.S. history.
In the days and months following Watergate, the HPSCI was given specific rules within their legislative branch oversight, which actually became the most significant tools -utilized for the first time- to uncover intelligence abuses by the former administration. Additionally, Chairman Nunes expands on the “next steps.”

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Representative Jim Jordan, member of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, appears on Fox News to discuss revelations about how the FBI used the media to support their investigative purposes.  In essence this “Media Leak Strategy” issue lies at the heart of the controversy behind the redacted “Sources and Methods” the FBI continues to hide.
The “sources and methods” within the FBI investigative material (now classified) reflects intentional leaks by the FBI to media, and journalists writing articles to bolster the investigation which were then cited as supportive material to continue the investigation.

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Frustratingly, what no-one seems to mention -during these debates- is how the Inspector General has already outlined the FBI ‘media leak strategy’ when he published his report on FBI conduct. There are two chapters of the IG report dedicated to outlining how grossly negligent FBI officials were collaborating with the media.
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Finally we are starting to see articles outlining the actual reality of the issues behind the congressional declassification request, and the challenges for President Trump. Last week we outlined “The Classification Conundrum“, it is complex.  If you have reviewed the prior outline today’s expanded and specific follow-up will make more sense.
The congressional request is for President Trump to declassify and release the Carter Page FISA applications (including specifically pages 10-12 and 17-34 and relevant footnotes), all of the Bruce Ohr 302s and other relevant documents, including exculpatory evidence regarding Carter Page and others, that were presented to the Gang of Eight, but not presented to the FISA Court.

There are officials within the executive branch who are against the declassification because there is an inherent risk for two agencies: The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).  Their self-serving anti-declassification position is bolstered by the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC); and conniving tricks previously played by internal usurpers within the DOJ Special Counsel “small group”.
First, within a Daily Caller article, which nibbles around the edges, you will note the following current state of the issues:

[Daily Caller] White House lawyers are actively reviewing controversial FBI and Department of Justice documents relating to the 2016 presidential campaign for possible declassification, multiple sources with knowledge tell The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The review process is being led by Emmet Flood of the White House Counsel’s office at the urging of an insistent president, two sources with knowledge of the process told TheDCNF. A source close to the president noted that Flood and his colleagues within the counsel’s office are generally opposed to declassification, out of the concern for the precedent it would set as well as any unintended consequences of making the information public.

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Joe diGenova called in to WMAL for a conversation about the latest developments in the Robert Mueller investigation.  Within the interview Mr. diGenova drops some rather interesting information from his own contacts and perspectives.

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As details and documents are pried from the grip of FBI officials intent on hiding the institutional malfeasance, one corrupt issue has become increasingly clear.  The FBI and DOJ intentionally leaked information to the media and then cited the subsequent media reports for their ongoing investigative purposes.
Within this circular approach journalists became “sources” and media reports became “methods”.  Thus, the FBI and DOJ are desperate to protect “sources and methods” because behind the familiar catch-phrase is an outline of procedural corruption. ie: “by the book“.
Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC) is one of the congressional investigators who, with greater document release, is beginning to outline this approach.
In a letter today to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (full pdf below) Mr. Meadows points to new discoveries of how FBI Lawyer Lisa Page and FBI Agent Peter Strzok were using leaks to the media in April 2017 to further the aim of eliminating President Trump.
The letter cites two specific examples:
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Bob Goodlatte is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; and also the lead chairman (w/ Gowdy) of the joint House Oversight and Judiciary Committee that is conducting the interviews of witnesses for the investigation into corruption by the FBI and DOJ.   The joint committee has interviewed: Bill Priestap, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Bruce Ohr; no transcripts released (likely to avoid coordinated testimony).
In this morning’s interview with Maria Bartiromo Chairman Goodlatte discusses the need to interview Nellie Ohr and Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson voluntarily or by subpoena.  Again, note the oft-repeated “sources and methods” declassification issue.

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Think about it.  What were the sources/methods for the Steele Dossier?  What were the sources/methods for the FISA application?  It’s the sources and methods that were/are corrupt. Declassification is futile without un-redacting the sources and methods.
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