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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Today is likely to be a very busy news day.  President Trump will appear on Fox and Friends at the same time the Bureau of Labor and Statistics releases the August jobs report. RESULTS: Total employment increased by 201,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.9 percent (data here)
Additionally, there’s the congressional requests (legislative branch) for President Trump (executive branch) to declassify redacted portions of the DOJ/FBI FISA application.  So it is worthwhile discussing the “declassification conundrum” beginning with this interview:

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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.
At first glance it appears to be a simple request right? However, it is anything but simple for a lot of reasons.
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There are some interesting overlays amid a Washington Post report just published which outlines that a Grand Jury is hearing witness testimony in a criminal probe of former FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
You might remember it was April 19th, 2018, when the initial criminal referral from the Office of Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, was first made public.  The actual timing of the referral, to a “D.C. U.S.Attorney” took place some time prior to April 19th.

The original IG referral to the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office was after the inspector general concluded McCabe had lied to investigators and possibly his own boss, then-FBI Director James B. Comey, on four occasions, three of them under oath.   The details were outlined in the first IG report into the conduct of Andrew McCabe [See Here]
Within today’s Washington Post report they specify a grand jury has been hearing from witnesses surrounding that referral and potentially other matters, in an effort to “lock down” witness statements.

WaPo – Federal prosecutors have for months been using a grand jury to investigate former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe — an indication the probe into whether he misled officials exploring his role in a controversial media disclosure has intensified, two people familiar with the matter said.

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After the Michael Cohen guilty plea. his attorney Lanny Davis began pitching a claim that the longtime Trump loyalist/lawyer had information Trump knew of the Russian hacking of Democratic emails ahead of time.
Davis said: “I believe that Mr. Cohen has direct knowledge that would be of interest to Mr. Mueller that suggests -I’m not sure it proves- that Mr. Trump was aware of Russian government agents hacking illegally, committing computer crimes, to the detriment of the candidate who he was running against, Hillary Clinton.”  And the media ate it up, and put Davis on just about every possible TV show imaginable.
However, in an interview with the Washington Post this weekend, Mr Davis not only walked back that claim, he entirely retreated from it:

(Via Washington Post) An attorney for Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, is backing away from confident assertions he made that Cohen has information to share with investigators that shows Trump knew in 2016 of Russian efforts to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

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Last Wednesday Michael Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, crushed an earlier July 27th CNN story about President Trump having advanced knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a group of Russian lobbyists.
According to CNN’s anonymous sources, Cohen claimed that Trump approved his son taking part in the meeting. That report has now been completely and thoroughly debunked; yet CNN is intentionally ignoring any correction.  WATCH:

Michaels Cohen’s attorney clarified the record, saying his client does not know if President Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting (out of which came nothing!). The answer is that I did NOT know about the meeting. Just another phony story by the Fake News Media!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2018

The refusal of CNN to walk back their earlier claim is further evidence of how far the media are enmeshed and invested within the ‘Muh Russia’ nonsense.  However, only recently did we discover the media engagements were not just pervasive, they were/are participatory.  Several media outlets were actually working with corrupt officials.
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Earlier today President Trump tweeted a message to the invisible U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions: “C’mon Jeff, you can do it.”

The evidence of severe DOJ/FBI corruption is visible everywhere. Congress has unearthed it (FISA abuse); the DOJ Inspector General has outlined it (McCabe, Strzok); current FBI investigators have showcased it (SSCI James Wolfe); and yet, Jeff Sessions is entirely absent from doing anything about it….

…”Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!”…

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Earlier today Senator Lindsey Graham provided a pathway for President Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions after the mid-term election. To further bolster this likelihood, Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley affirmed he could now make room for a replacement confirmation in the lame-duck congressional session between the November election and January 2019.
The statement by Senator Graham is a considerable reversal given his prior admonishment that firing AG Sessions would result in “hell to pay”; and further underlines an increasingly visible acceptance by high-profile republicans that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been an abysmal failure.

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The Attorney General has been strong and effective on border security and immigration issues, mostly due to effective support for Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS). However, on the needed institutional reform Sessions has been frustratingly inept. Many who understand Main Justice politics openly say AG Jeff Sessions is actually scared of the apparatus under his authority.
Against the abject failure of the DOJ to accept oversight and commit to reform amid the obvious chaos from a highly politicized previous administration, in May of this year House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes threatened to hold Attorney General Sessions in contempt of congress.
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Yesterday President Trump sat down with Fox News morning host Ainsley Earhardt for an extensive interview surrounding current events.
During the interview President Trump expressed his frustration with current Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray, and the lack of focus on cleaning up the corruption within both organizations. Additionally, President Trump talks about wanting to stay uninvolved with the agencies, but will likely declassify documents so the American people can better understand the scale and scope of the corruption.

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In response to the criticism that AG Jeff Sessions “never took control” of the DOJ, the Attorney General put out a statement:
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The Associated Press published an interview with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr today where the intensely corrupt Senator Burr tries to reverse all his prior positions, publications and manipulated committee findings, against President Trump.

“Sorry bro, gotta bail”…

As the tide changes; and with DOJ and FBI officials delivering testimony; combined with communication between U.S. co-conspirators (Bruce Ohr, Glenn Simpson) and foreign actors (Chris Steele, Oleg Deripaska) gaining sunlight, the larger united effort between the intelligence apparatus and politicians starts to become a risk to elected individuals.
Remember, the background here is: currently indicted Senate Intelligence Committee Security Chief, James Wolfe, through his lawyers, having already stated they intend to subpoena Intel Committee members as part of Wolfe’s defense for leaking classified information to the media and lying to the FBI.

(AP) […]  Burr said there is “no factual evidence today that we’ve received” on collusion or conspiracy between Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign. But he said he’s still open on the issue and hasn’t personally come to any final conclusions, since the investigation isn’t finished.

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The media institutions that are the central players in advancement of the two-year-long corrupt scheme against candidate Trump, now President Trump, all listed themselves as a “Media Coalition” on court documents demanding the names and addresses of the Manafort Jury:

Fortunately, Judge T.S. Ellis denied the motion by the media.
Shortly before 3:00pm this afternoon Judge Ellis said he personally had received threats and would keep the names of jurors a secret for their safety despite the media demand their names be made public.
The judge is being protected full time by the U.S. Marshals and shared with the court: “I won’t tell you what threats I’ve received,” he said, “but I have the Marshals’ protection. Where I go, they go. I had no idea this case would excite these emotions,” the judge said.
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