The Silence of The Shams – "Some Witness Reviews Still Being Negotiated"…

The Washington Post jumps-in to the Horowitz ‘principal review’ timeline adding that some of the opportunities for witnesses to review the final draft report are “still being negotiated”, likely by the attorney’s for the principals.
Take all reporting on this two-week review phase with a grain of salt. Despite the NDA’s there will be a rush to control the narrative.  “People familiar with the matter” will start popping up in the Washington Post, New York Times, Politico, Buzzfeed and CNN.
There is likely to be a flood of spin from the PR teams behind each principal outlined in the report.  Lawyers for James Comey and Andrew McCabe will be using every angle of Lawfare imaginable to attempt to shape their clients image within the report.

Lawyers, Lawfare legal teams, and DC-based PR consultants for Sally Yates, John Carlin, Mary McCord, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Hillary Clinton, James Baker, Michael Kortan, Rod Rosenstein, Robert Mueller, Andrew Weissmann, Chris Steele, Glen Simpson, Nellie Ohr, Bruce Ohr, John Brennan, James Clapper and many more will all be working at courtroom rates to control any report damage for their clients.
The Obama administration will be working in the background, while Fusion-GPS takes in fees and pays their primary journalists and narrative engineers premium rates for column inches that protect their client interests.  This is one big confab of interests all positioning to control any negative impressions and highlight their magnanimous patriotic activity.
Watch and we will see full deployment of the justification defense and “outrage trap“.  After all, according to their predictable defenses, there was evidence, even if slight, that President Trump was a Russian asset belonging to Vladimir Putin…. it had to be taken seriously, etc.  Even the Republicans in congress were alarmed.
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Finally – AP Confirms Horowitz Report "Principal Review Phase" Underway – "Invitations" For Witnesses and Lawyers……

We finally have confirmation of a procedural process that allows us to anticipate the timing for public release of the FISA report from Inspector General Horowitz.

According to the Associated Press:

The Justice Department’s watchdog is nearing the release of its report on the early stages of the FBI’s Russia investigation, a document likely to revive debate about a politically charged probe that shadowed President Donald Trump’s administration from the outset.

The inspector general in recent days has invited witnesses and their lawyers who were interviewed for the report to review portions of a draft this week and next, a critical final step toward making the document public, according to multiple people familiar with the process who insisted on anonymity to discuss it.

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Senator Burr: "Senate Impeachment Trial Will Last 6 to 8 weeks"…

It looks like the House impeachment is now a foregone conclusion.  To wit the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) Chairman Richard Burr has announced the schedule outline for the upcoming Senate Impeachment Trial.
The trial of President Trump will run from 12:30pm to 6:30pm Monday through Saturday and will last approximately six to eight weeks:

Generally it appears the SSCI is positioning for a conclusion of a guilty verdict where President Trump will be removed from office and President Mike Pence will select Nikki Haley as his vice-presidential candidate for 2020. [Hence the book and MAGA narrative]
Senate Chairman Richard Burr’s forward-lean into the impeachment process takes us back to something previously outlined when it seemed like this was the preferred direction for the professional political class.

…A branch of the United States government (Legislative) is attempting a coup against the leader of another branch of government (Executive); by using the Senate Intelligence Committee and designated corrupt agents within the executive branch cabinet.

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Dirty Business – ICIG Atkinson Receives Ethics Complaint Against CIA 'Whistleblower', Goes to Schiff Basement for Talks…

ICIG Michael Atkinson is the link that connects Spygate to the Schiff Impeachment Effort

Chad Pergram noted that Intelligence Community Inspector General (IGIC) Michael Atkinson was spotted today going into HPSCI Chairman Schiffs’ basement bunker for discussions with the impeachment inquisitors.

This is interesting because it was reported today that ICIG Atkinson has now received an ethics complaint about a GoFundMe account set up by the CIA ‘whistleblower’ attorney, Mark S. Zaid, to finance the ongoing efforts of CIA operative Eric Ciaramella.
The dirty dealing is getting thick.  Attorney Mark Zaid has claimed to be working pro-bono for his CIA client.  Meanwhile Adam Schiff is threatening anyone and everyone about keeping the CIA client hidden and anonymous; and the media is all-in with efforts to support the protection.  A narrative created by a CIA operative favorable to the coup.
So what exactly is this current $228,000 for? (goal $300k) And who is this group “Values United” who is organizing it?  That’s where the letter to ICIG Atkinson comes in:
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Sean Hannity Provides Latest Tick Tock – IG Report Will Contain Criminal Referrals…

Sara Carter appears on the nightly meeting of the Tick Tock club to promote her latest tick-tock article claiming the Horowitz report will contain a criminal referral for James Comey. Once the tick-tock material du jour is implanted, the tick-tock committee begins debating the importance of the latest tick and tock.  There seems to be a pattern to this.
If you haven’t watched a tick-tock discussion in the past six months, tonight’s tick-tock might seem like a re-run, it’s not. Tonight, amid prior tick tock claims, and the frequency of tick-tockers over-promoting the ticks and the tocks, ringmaster Hannity expresses both tick-tock frustration and tick-tock certainty:


 
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Sunday Talks: Devin Nunes Uninterrupted…

In a refreshing change from Fox News Interruptus interviews, where the pundits talk more than the guests, HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes appears for an interview with Mike Huckabee on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) to discuss the impeachment dynamic.
Within the interview Mr. Nunes walks through the Chairman Schiff impeachment team and then expands with details of the prior witnesses brought to the committee.


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House Republicans Deliver List of Eight Witnesses Requested for Impeachment Inquiry….

Chairman Adam Schiff is leading the impeachment inquiry into President Trump and told republicans they had a deadline of yesterday for any requests for witnesses for the upcoming public hearings.
Schiff has stated he will arbitrarily approve or deny any request from the House republicans.
Today House republicans released a list of eight witnesses they want to see called to testify as part of the impeachment inquiry (full pdf below).  Included in the list is the anonymous CIA “whistleblower”, Hunter Biden, Alexandra Chalupa (DNC operative who met with Ukrainian officials in 2016), and Nellie Ohr who was doing the Fusion-GPS 2016 opposition research using Ukrainian contacts and sources.
[scribd id=434181420 key=key-YLU3Zjze5CgFeBpJHm1h mode=scroll]
 
The full list includes: Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, Alexandra Chalupa, Tim Morrison, David Hale, Kurt Volker, Nellie Ohr and the “Whistleblower”.  [Direct House pdf Link]
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Benjamin Wittes 'White-knights' For Lisa Page…

Earlier today Lawfare founder Benjamin Wittes sent a curious tweet appearing to defend former DOJ lawyer Lisa Page; who was previously assigned to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.   The tweet comes out of the blue; and there’s nothing currently in the public sphere or headlines about Ms. Page.   It seems rather odd:

(Link to Tweet)

My hunch is Ms. Page may have spoken honestly to Horowitz or Durham about her experience as part of the ‘small group’.  If accurate, and considering McCabe threw Page under the bus to protect himself against an internal investigation about his media leaks, Ms. Page’s current disposition may very well be adverse to the interests of the coup plotters.   [Additionally, Ms. Page had no involvement with the FBI FISA construct.]
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Is Pending IG Report on FISA Abuse Being Held-Up To Facilitate NSA Bulk Data Re-authorization That Expires December 15th?…

With impeachment headlines absorbing most attention, there is a quiet background story happening in DC where re-authorization of the USA Freedom Act is needed prior to expiration on December 15th. Techno Fog points out the bulk NSA data collection and FISA(702) surveillance programs are part of this reauthorization.
Just yesterday, November 6th, the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the reauthorization.  “Senators expressed their displeasure Wednesday with the Trump administration’s inability to answer questions about the National Security Agency’s collection of data records” (link). Which begs the question:

Is the current Inspector General report on FISA abuse being delayed due to the need for congress to reauthorize the very same programs the IG is about to criticize?


For context to this question, and considering the potential for some surprising revelations within the IG report on FISA, it is worth noting the Office of the Director of National Intelligence held back the the findings of FISA Judge James Boasberg that strongly criticized the FISA-702 process for a year.
The Judge Boasberg report was written in September of 2018 but not released (redacted) until last month.
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diGenova and Toensing on Upcoming IG Report: "it's going to be worse than you can imagine"…

Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing appeared on Fox News to discuss issues surrounding the ongoing investigations of Inspector General Michael Horowitz and U.S. Attorney John Durham. Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing bring the tick-tock hammer to the audience.
According to Ms. Toensing the upcoming IG report is going to be “very bad for people in the Obama administration.”  Toensing went on to say, according to her sources, “it’s going to be worse than you can imagine.”
Mr. diGenova went on to say: “it’s going to be devastating” … “it’s going to ruin careers” etc.  Mr diGenova has a great deal of confidence in AG Barr, Horowitz and Durham.


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