Former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama, Ben Rhodes, says any investigation of prior administration “will find nothing” that shows former President Obama or White House staff had any “involvement” in the origins of the surveillance of Trump campaign and Russia collusion investigation.

Prior to March 9th, 2016, the Obama-era political surveillance and spy operations consisted of using the FBI and NSA database to track/monitor their opposition. However, once the NSA compliance officer began initiating an internal review of who was accessing the system, the CIA and FBI moved to create ex post facto justification for their endeavors. [Full Backstory] Everything after March 9, 2016, became a cover-story.
Looking at White House engagement in the last half of 2016, The War Economy has done some excellent research on this period to contrast the reference of Ben Rhodes:

[Via TWE] […] On July 31, 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, ran by Director James Comey, opened an investigation into the Trump campaign titled “Crossfire Hurricane”, named after the Rolling Stones documentary of the same name. It focused on the actions of four members of the Trump campaign:

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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has written his resignation letter to President Trump (link to pdf).  His resignation is effective May 11th, 2019:

(pdf link)

National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow appears on Fox Business to discuss the latest strong economic numbers including GDP growth, rising wages, low inflation, and strong capital investment.  Additionally, Kudlow discusses current status of U.S. trade negotiations with China and a looming battle against the Decpeticons for USMCA.

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On the latest Op-ed by Iowa Decepticon Senator Chuck Grassley.  As I mentioned last week, the Grassley/Johnson letter to AG Bill Barr is exhibit “A” in how DC attempts to leverage their own financial interests against the outsider that is Donald Trump.
Senate Finance Chairman Grassley’s move last week was a shot across the bow, but generally only noticed by those who travel the deep weeds of corrupt DC leverage strategy.  Essentially, Grassley saying he won’t allow Trump to expose the deep state corruption unless Trump concedes to Wall Street’s demands on trade deals.
It only took a few days for the evidence of this leverage move to surface as Grassley, acting on behalf of his K-Street donors, writes an Op-ed stating if Trump doesn’t drop the Steel and Aluminum tariffs, then he can consider the USMCA “dead”.   An absolutely typical Decepticon move.
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With the background of Sally Yates involvement outlined, it does not seem coincidental that immediately after President Trump begins discussing the “coup” and “overthrow”  former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates surfaces.
Smug Ms. Yates is interviewed by Hillary Clinton’s primary media mouthpiece, Mrs. Alan Greenspan. This is eight minutes of deliciously paranoid projection and ass-covering; and Little Ms. Sanctimony fears the music stopping without access to an escape pod…

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Prior to March 9th, 2016, the political surveillance and spy operations of the Obama administration were using the FBI and NSA database to track/monitor their opposition. However, once the NSA compliance officer began initiating an internal review of who was accessing the system, the CIA and FBI moved to create ex post facto justification for their endeavors. [Full Backstory]
After the November 8th, 2016, election everyone within the Obama network associated with the Trump surveillance operation was at risk. This is the impetus for the “Muh Russia” collusion- conspiracy narrative that was used as a mitigating shield. Within a few days after the election ODNI James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan began pushing the Russia election interference narrative in the media.

Without notifying anyone, NSA Director Mike Rogers went to Trump tower on November 18th, 2016.  Despite his compartmentalization it appears Rogers identified the NSA database abuse as the likely underpinning for some form of political surveillance.
By mid-December 2016 the Obama administration was deploying a full-court-press using their media allies to promote the Russia conspiracy.  However, despite their public proclamations Clapper and Brennan were refusing to give any specifics to congress.
The hard narrative was that Russia interfered. That was the specific push from within the Obama intelligence apparatus writ large.  All IC officials, sans Mike Rogers (NSA), had a self-interest in pushing this narrative; after all, it was the defensive mechanism to justify their illegal spying operation throughout 2016.  This was their insurance policy.
The media was doing their part; and using the information leaked to them by those who were part of the 2016 operation(s) began battering the Trump transition team every hour of every day with questions about the Russia hacking narrative; thereby fertilizing the seeds of a collusion conspiracy.
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Obvious political games are afoot when House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler is more interested in the testimony of Attorney General Bill Barr about the Mueller report, while simultaneously ignoring author of the report, Robert Mueller, himself.

Additionally, House and Senate Democrats are refusing to read the classified and fully unredacted Mueller report unless it is made public.  This is all part of their ridiculous games.

(Via CNN) […] Nadler, wants to allow all members of his panel at Thursday’s hearing to have one round of questioning of five minutes each, according to the source. He also wants to allow for a subsequent round of questioning of 30 minutes for each side, allowing both parties’ committee counsels to also engage in questioning during their respective turns — which has turned into a key sticking point for the Justice Department.

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President Trump calls-in to Sunday Morning Futures for an early interview with Maria Bartiromo from the border.   [Unrelated, POTUS sounds like he’s in his pajamas, while Bartiromo looks like she’s in her pajamas] The topic is the crisis at the border.
The president answer questions about background of the problem; and then starts to discuss what Lindsey Graham is putting together. Additionally, the president discusses the Democrat 2020 candidates.

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Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham gave some brief remarks to local Dallas media discussing his summer agenda for the Judiciary Committee.  Graham notes he does not intend to question Robert Mueller -deferring to AG Barr- which is not surprising considering how lightly Mueller may have been involved in the investigation.
Graham also notes the separation between the legislative branch and judicial branch as a firewall for inquiry into the FISA court.  However, Graham explains his intent to discuss possible FISA abuse (manipulation from the executive branch) with Chief Justice John Roberts. It appears Graham is also waiting for the DOJ inspector general report.

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The rather alarming aspect here is the multiple layers of editorial review and approval this had to pass through.  This is not simply an example of bad judgement, this is a clear reflection of the ideology within the publication.  Not a single person involved in the process saw a problem with it, until after it was published.  Quite remarkable.

From the international edition of the New York Times: A blind kippah-wearing President Donald Trump being led around -or leading- a dog depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (enlarged below)
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The 2016 anti-Trump effort and 2017 soft-coup was not just an assembly created by Obama officials; there was/are a significant number of mutually aligned republican politicians willfully blind to the effort.
As a consequence, we see the administrative state holding a vested interest in retaining the originating Russia premise.
With President Trump openly stating “coup” and “overthrow“, those who participated in the coup and overthrow need to protect their involvement by substantiating the background lie they used to carry out the cover-up operation.  We note the media outlets used by the intelligence community never change. Cue the predictable:

New York Times – The F.B.I. director warned anew on Friday about Russia’s continued meddling in American elections, calling it a “significant counterintelligence threat.”
[…]  “We recognize that our adversaries are going to keep adapting and upping their game,” Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, said Friday in a speech in Washington, citing the presence of Russian intelligence officers in the United States and the Kremlin’s record of malign influence operations.

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