While the media banter relentlessly about their latest resistance angle du jour; it is perhaps a more beneficial discussion to remind and outline the larger strategy at play. Honing the political skills.
The baseline here is that everything the institutional-left does, is sequential and planned. This is what they do.  This is all they do.  None of the characters within the institutions of professional leftism create anything; build anything; have a life purpose for anything, other than organizing their efforts to exploit control of others via politics.  This is all they know how to do.  When you develop your skills to see their patterns you can then see the predictability behind it.

Prior Example: Former FBI Director James Comey briefs president-elect Trump on the two-page salacious dossier aspect; Former DNI James Clapper, knowing the briefing, then discusses the dossier briefing with CNN… this opens the door for the media who are waiting. Once the narrative door is opened, Buzzfeed enters and transmits the story of the unfounded and uncorroborated Steele Dossier. The key point to understand is that everything from the briefing, to Clapper, to CNN, to Buzzfeed, was scripted and planned. This is the pattern. As we have mentioned the pattern becomes predictable.
This predictability is how CTH was able to state in December 2018 that Michael Cohen would most likely be the centerpiece of the first ‘impeachment’ block; and from knowing how the script rolls, CTH was able to predict the exact timing (Thursday after Superbowl, 2/7/19); and the exact committee (Cummings, House Oversight); for the first hearing that will exploit Michael Cohen.
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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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John Solomon has a well-written article at The Hill outlining the leaked transcript from Bruce Ohr together with his own sources.  The key point Solomon focuses upon is how Bruce Ohr warned DOJ and FBI officials about the political intents and specifics behind the inbound information from Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS.  [Read Here]

(L-R) Christopher Steele – Bruce Ohr – Glenn Simpson

The primary aspect to Ohr’s testimony is how strongly he warned officials at the FBI (Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, James Baker, Peter Strzok, Joe Pientka), and officials in DOJ Main Justice (Andrew Weissmann, Bruce Swartz, Zainab Ahmad), about the political intents and purposes behind the information that eventually became “The Steele Dossier”.
In essence Bruce Ohr told the FBI and Main Justice, right at the outset of their Crossfire Hurricane operation, that Chris Steele’s work product was an assembly of political opposition research specifically paid for by the Hillary Clinton Campaign.
Under all ordinary circumstances this under oath revelation would be a game changer; particularly because two of those in Main Justice who knew about the political construct, Zainab Ahmad and Andrew Weissmann, are currently officials directly on the Robert Mueller probe.  However, in the highly partisan era of Trump-hate, the media will completely ignore the scale of this admission by Bruce Ohr.
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Another day, another leaked congressional transcript.  This time George Papadopoulos.

(You Can Read Here)

Once again the actual transcript is not released, only the Epoch Times authors’ interpretations of the content of the leaked transcript. *Note* the author, Ivan Pentchoukov, does not reveal the name of the “alleged spy”.
Previous leaked transcripts from:

1. Lisa Page
2. Andrew McCabe
3. Bruce Ohr

Three congressional committees have requested the release of witness transcripts.  HPSCI via Devin Nunes (September 2018); and the joint House Judiciary/Oversight committee (December 2018).  Congressional allies of President Trump (Nunes, Jordan, Meadows and Collins) are being blocked by DOJ/FBI officials within the current administration. So each side in the DOJ/FBI corruption story is currently leaking to advance their interests.
 

President Trump’s AG nominee William Barr testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee about his legal views and perspectives.  Overall post-testimonial punditry converges on the outlook Mr. Barr will be easily confirmed with broad bipartisan support.
Rather than agree or disagree with various opinions CTH is providing a full video of the Barr hearing below with a recap video as presented by Global News:

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My own personal view is that William Barr will likely reset the DOJ ‘status quo‘ to the institutional construct that existed prior to the Obama DOJ (Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch) era. That is to say: Barr will attempt to remove obvious weaponization and overt political motives behind every action taken by the U.S. Justice Department.
However, it also appears the most purposeful goal for Mr. Barr, in direct alignment with his close personal friend Robert Mueller, will be the preservation of the DOJ institution as a historic apparatus. That “preserve-the-institution” at all costs means Barr will necessarily have to bury any/all systemic corruption to achieve a larger institutional goal.
I Do not anticipate Barr will deliver any sunlight to expose how badly corrupted the DOJ has become. Instead he’ll likely apply bondo to cover the rot and apply a fresh coat of paint.
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Well, here we are again; another leaked transcript, this time from DOJ Official Bruce Ohr. And as with the prior two transcript leaks, we don’t get the raw information.  So let me first, necessarily, reassert our CTH position on these “leaks”.
Leaking is bad, period; in all directions. Because *leaking* is simply a method, a mechanism, to direct and control the focus of sunlight upon illicit action. Regardless of whether you support or oppose the message within any individual leak; the leak itself does not expose corruption…. only full and unfiltered information can expose corruption.  That means we need the actual raw transcripts to make determinations for ourselves.
As a factual standard for honesty and sunlight, CTH would never describe a transcript where we could not provide the reader with the raw and underlying material.  We have held this standard for many years; most of you know that. The truth has no agenda.

That said, someone is leaking congressional transcripts and a current tug-of-war exists between two opposing narrative engineers.  The heavily promoted New York Times article last Friday, was based on leaks of James Baker Transcripts, from sources who were responding to the leaks from other sources that were given to the Epoch Times.   Each side in the DOJ/FBI corruption story is currently leaking to advance their interests.
Three congressional committees have requested the release of witness transcripts.  HPSCI via Devin Nunes (September 2018); and the joint House Judiciary/Oversight committee (December 2018).  Congressional allies of President Trump (Nunes, Jordan, Meadows and Collins) are being blocked by corrupt cabinet members within the current administration.
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There’s a vastly different opinion amid some who review the action of Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller.  CTH has noted a common corrupt theme amid the DOJ and FBI that crosses both the Obama and Trump administrations: A priority to preserve the institution; regardless of how corrupt the institution is; and regardless of how much collateral damage those system administrators will create in their effort toward that preservation goal.

Within the larger discussion, sometimes comments hit the proverbial nail. I think this one does exactly that:

RTLW – “Not ALL FBI Agents are moral pariahs. 60% are good American patriots who joined the Agency in good faith expecting to serve their Country and put bad people behind bars.

The other 40% are Peter Strozk and Lisa Page. ALL of FBI HQ is populated by the Strozk/Page types. Recruitment of this type of Agent started under Mueller and continued under Comey. Mueller drove out all of the old school “Brick Agents” shortly after he became Director.

Mueller implemented an “up or out” policy where all SSAs were required to move to DC and do Headquarters time or lose their GS 14 pay grade. This policy change by Mueller purposely targeted the most senior Agents in the FBI who had finally earned the right to move their family to a medium sized office in fly over country, had teenage kids and were living a comfortable life.

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The creep vibe on this interview with U.S. Democrat Senator Mark Warner is off-the-charts.   The only thing more disturbing than the background possibility of three teenage boys tied up in his basement is the structural way he can blatantly lie to the camera; and how the perpetually furrowed brow of Jake Tapper doesn’t call him out on it.
Warner begins by saying: “I’m not going to to talk about what we may have been briefed in the gang-of-eight when these investigations opened.”  Well, um, duh.  You see, as Warner continued: “that throughout that whole summer [of 2016]”etc…. senator Mark Warner wasn’t a gang-of-eight member.
Senator Mark Warner didn’t become a Go8 member until Senator Dianne Feinstein abdicated her Senate Intelligence Chair position in January 2017.   Kinda hard to talk about briefings he never participated in…. It’s all made up from there.  Watch:

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The gang of eight in 2015 and 2016 was: Devin Nunes, Adam Schiff, Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein.
I think even the perpetually perplexed Tapper knew Warner was talking from inside the manufactured rabbit hole because furrowed-brow followed up with questions about the counterintelligence origination [July 2016] he knew Warner was not a part of.
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