In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe explains the scale of declassified evidence he has produced to special counsel John Durham.

Whether Durham or AG Bill Barr does anything with the evidence is an unknown; however, according to Ratliffe there is enough detail in the evidence provided to show gross abuses of power by the FBI, DOJ and intelligence community under the Obama administration.  This aspect becomes important as you realize almost all of Joe Biden’s executive staff is from the identical pool of former Obama officials.

WASHINGTON DC – “Between my predecessor Richard Grenell in an acting capacity and myself, we have declassified most of the intelligence community documents that would be suitable for the public to see, that wouldn’t jeopardize sources and methods,” Ratcliffe said in a phone interview with the Washington Examiner on Thursday. “There are others, many many documents — I think it’s been out there that I’ve provided literally thousands of documents to John Durham, but many of those do contain sources and methods that we can’t make public for a number of reasons, including to jeopardize any investigation that’s going there. So I think the level of cooperation — I’ve given them everything that they’ve asked for.”

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On June 3, 2020, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss his role in how Main Justice was operating while Andrew Weissmann’s special counsel was in charge.   What he said in that hearing never quite made sense until yesterday.

Those who closely followed the arc of the Weissmann/Mueller investigation; and those who joined us in following that investigation; already knew the SCO was in complete control from May 2017 to April 2019.  Everything taking place inside the DOJ in the two years of the Mueller/Weissmann probe was completely and unequivocally controlled by the Weissmann team.  Few journalists have ever grasped the ramifications of that control.

That control included every release and non-release of information during their two year tenure.  However, Rosenstein’s tone when questioned about the scope memos he authorized during the special counsel time-frame was very odd in that June hearing.

Rosenstein had a very guilty conscience and it was on full display as he attempted to justify his action.  You see, there was always a missing scope memo from October 20, 2017, that no-one in the DOJ ever discussed.  The nature of the scope memo was mentioned by Weissmann and Mueller in part of their Russia report; but until yesterday it was hidden.

Here is the only mention of the October 20, 2017, scope memo prior to yesterday:

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Former Vice President Joe Biden previously said he did not have anything to do with Hunter Biden’s sketchy dealings with Ukraine energy company Burisma.  Today the New York Post has released specific documents showing that claim was absolutely false.

New York Post – […] The never-before-revealed meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, allegedly sent Hunter Biden on April 17, 2015, about a year after Hunter joined the Burisma board at a reported salary of up to $50,000 a month.

“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure,” the email reads.

An earlier email from May 2014 also shows Pozharskyi, reportedly Burisma’s No. 3 exec, asking Hunter for “advice on how you could use your influence” on the company’s behalf.

The blockbuster correspondence — which flies in the face of Joe Biden’s claim that he’s “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings” — is contained in a massive trove of data recovered from a laptop computer. (more)

The emails come from a laptop computer reportedly dropped off for repair in Delaware that was never picked up.  The Delaware FBI took custody of the computer and it was eventually turned over to the U.S. Attorney Office in Delaware in December of 2019.  However, there was a duplicate of the hard-drive made by the repair shop owner.

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An interesting note from Catherine Herridge today outlines that DOJ official Bruce Ohr resigned from the FBI shortly before being terminated as a result of the IG report on his activity:

As TechnoFog notes, this resignation is likely tied to this Office of Professional Regulation announcement on July 24th of this year:

OPR received a referral from another Department entity regarding allegations that a senior Department attorney failed to apprise his supervisor of his interactions with a law enforcement agency and a source concerning the subject matter of an ongoing high-profile investigation.

Although the attorney eventually recognized the need to inform his supervisor, who was overseeing the investigation, of his involvement and provided some information about the general topic, the senior Department attorney failed to provide a complete disclosure of his role as a conduit of information between the source and the law enforcement agency. As a result, the supervisor was unaware of the attorney’s activities related to the investigation until learning of them through other means.

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Fred Fleitz is the President and CEO, Center for Security Policy; a former NSC Chief of Staff, CIA analyst and House Intel Com staff member. Tonight he appeared with Lou Dobbs to discuss the ongoing issues with the intelligence apparatus and the requests by President Trump to release all documents without redaction.

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Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe released the following statement today:

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Missouri U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen has provided additional information to the Flynn defense team highlighting a January 25th meeting between officials in the DOJ-NSD and FBI the day after Michael Flynn (code-named Razor) was interviewed in the White House.

The DOJ officials attending the meeting included: Mary McCord (NSD head), George Toscas (NSD principal deputy), Stu Evans, Tashina Guahar, and “Matt A” (possibly Matthew Axelrod (lawyer for the Deputy Attorney General).  Additionally, from the FBI there was: James Baker (chief legal counsel), Bill Priestap (CoIntel head) and a redacted name.  It is clear from the meeting notes the group was trying to find something to target Michael Flynn and brainstorming on what approach to take.

As noted they discussed the “Logan Act” yet found there was no reasonable way to use it and Flynn’s contact with Russian Ambassador Kislyak, during the transition, was normal.

FBI Legal Counsel James Baker asked how could you prosecute Flynn for a 1001 violation (lying to FBI officials) when you couldn’t prosecute any underlying crime because the contact with Kislyak was normal.

The “truth of something being falsely stated to the public” surrounds the January 15, 2017, CBS interview with Vice-President Mike Pence who conflated a question about contact with Russians during the election; with Flynn’s contact with Kislyak in the transition period.

John Dickerson: Just to button up one question, did any advisor or anybody in the Trump campaign have any contact with the Russians who were trying to meddle in the election?

MIKE PENCE: Of course not. And I think to suggest that is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy. (link)

The DOJ/FBI team was going to hang their hat on this conflation as a conflict between Pence and Flynn.   That’s the beginning of the Russian “blackmail” narrative.

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Counsel to General Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, comments on new unredacted information regarding the presidential transition scandal known commonly as ‘Russiagate,’ and the roles that President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may have played in the events in question. The interview is with Newsmax TV’s John Bachman

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President Donald Trump has transmitted an epic tweet-storm seemingly targeted toward all officials within the executive branch; and the intelligence apparatus writ large:

One important note of caution: there is a big difference between “authorized” and “ordered”.  On May 23rd, 2019, President Trump authorized AG Bill Barr to declassify all documents and despite much optimism nothing happened {Go DEEP}.  However, President Trump references that lack of inaction in the next series of tweets:

Presumably “people” who “acted very slowly” would pertain to AG Bill Barr, FBI Director Chris Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel, State Dept Secretary Mike Pompeo and former ODNI Dan Coats.   President Trump asks those agencies now to “Act!!!”

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CTH is delayed in analysis of this story because we are a stickler for source document origination. For some unknown reason the originating document source is identified as ODNI, yet the documents themselves are not officially released.  That is not comforting, and points toward controlled messaging.

According to reports today, most citations returning to [Federalist and Fox News], the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, has released the background documents (pertaining to an earlier declassification of documents) showing handwritten notes by CIA Director John Brennan briefing the White House and the CIA referral to the FBI -of Clinton coordinating the Trump-Russia narrative- for operation Crossfire Hurricane.

The two releases today would be connected to the earlier release (red boxes) to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Without an official originating source for the handwritten notes I am cautious to expand discussion.  The Federalist and Fox News appear to have received the notes.

The notes would pertain to a July 26, 2016, discussion between CIA Director John Brennan and an advisor to Hillary Clinton.  That discussion subsequently led Brennan to brief President Obama, Denis McDonough, Susan Rice and possibly James Comey on July 28, 2016, as noted by Brennan himself in a recent op-ed.

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Against several recent revelations, former FBI Director James Comey will testify today before the Senate Judicary Committee.  The anticipated start time is 10:00am ET.

[Livestream Links Below]

Fox News Livestream Link – Fox Business Livestream – Senate Judiciary Livestream

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