We have a saying in the south: ‘hang around a one-legged man long enough and eventually you’re gonna start limping‘.  This interview is an example of how that cuts through the BS, spin and political chaff and countermeasures.  Steven Schrage should be trusted as far as you can spit into a hurricane – which is to say, not at all.

First, in an article to accompany his media effort, Schrage waxes philosophical and woefully about how his years-long good friend and phd supervisor, Stephan Halper, the one-legged character in the metaphor, turned out to be a politically motivated snake and spy.  Oh, but all the years previous this wasn’t noticed?  Not buying it.

Second, Schrage sat and watched Michael Flynn and Svetlana Lokhova get raked over the coals for three+ years only now, right now, to find his conscience bothered by his participation in assisting the lies pushed by his friend against them?  Isn’t that convenient timing?… Yeah, sure. I might have been born at night, but I wasn’t born last night.

Third, Schrage notes he was interviewed by John Durham. Horsepucky. Durham doesn’t interview anyone; someone else does, someone very specific; and the fact that Schrage has no clue who that person is implies an aspect to the side-show he now presents as total nonsense.  In short, this is a distraction story…. Look over there…. shiny things.

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I’ve watched and researched these intelligence characters for so long their M.O. screams like visible strings on marionettes. And yes, once you see the strings it’s impossible to return to a time when you did not see them. This interview is a purposeful ruse.

[His article here]

I also do not fault Matt Taibbi or Maria Bartiromo for falling for it.

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Today Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsay Graham released a set of talking points [full pdf below – AND here] from the FBI during a briefing on February 14, 2018 to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

The unknown FBI briefer is informing the SSCI about the reliability of Chris Steele’s primary sub-source, and whether he agrees with the Dossier content & conclusions:

At first blush the impression from the release; and indeed the expressed position as outlined by Graham in the release; is that some unknown entity from the FBI was misleading the SSCI in February of 2018 about Christopher Steele and the perspective of his primary sub-source. However, there’s a deeper story.

Within the release it must be noted the date of the briefing material is February 14, 2018. The unknown FBI briefer is saying, in essence, the primary sub-source doesn’t dispute the Dossier material. Obviously this position is demonstrably false given how the PSS said the Dossier was full of “rumor”, “gossip”, “innuendo” and “bar talk”.

The FBI briefer is misleading the Senate and so today we see the angry position expressed by Graham as he reveals this misleading briefing. However, five days prior to this briefing, on February 9, 2018, the text messages between SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner and Chris Steele’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, were released. This frames the accurate context to consider the position of the SSCI and FBI briefer on Feb 14, 2018.

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There’s a lot of debate about the timeline for John Durham’s investigation and when the information will likely become public. Toward that end here’s some food for thought.

First, *if* the “criminal investigation” (as confirmed officially by DOJ spox) resulted in evidence that would push toward a grand jury seating, it must be remembered that could not have started until after June 15, 2020:

The entire DC justice system was frozen in place until after June 15. Now considering a time-frame for typical GJ seating and processing, that would put evidence into the GJ around, say June 20th.

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HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes appears on Fox News with Liz MacDonald to discuss the testimony of former Deputy AG Sally Yates.

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The Senate testimony of former Deputy AG Sally Yates is ongoing. So far the Yates responses to questioning are predictable in the extreme.  [The Mistresses of Mirrored Halls – 2017 ]

It was always visible that when the Main Justice small group would be questioned they would deflect accountability by pointing blame toward the responsibilities of the FBI. That is exactly what Sally Yates is doing.

Senate Judiciary Livestream – Fox News Livestream – Fox Business Livestream

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I will have more on this later…. busy, busy.

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Here’s some stuff most of those who have followed the story just don’t know…. yet.

The special counsel team authorized and released the Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages to the public in December 2017.  It was a very smart Mueller team using a laser pointer to get their political opposition chasing remote controlled rabbits.  The special counsel team controlled the remote.

The special counsel team took control over and then filtered the FBI investigative file of FBI Washington Field Office Supervisory Special Agent, Brian Dugan.  The special counsel removed the evidence that James Wolfe leaked the FISA application on March 17th, 2017.

The special counsel team released the Adam Waldman text message capture to the SSCI as a head’s up after likely informing SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner it was coming.  On February 9, 2018, Warner had his pre-scripted defense in place.  It appears Warner gave the Go8 the text documents knowing it would be leaked to media.  Smart maneuver.

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I’m going to attempt to clear up some information and speak as directly as would be deemed prudent as of 8/3/20.  This will likely jump around quite a bit.

♦ USAO John Bash – Lots of discussion amid multiple circles about what West Texas USAO John Bash might be looking into.  Is he looking back in time into the FISA(702) abuses that took place during the 2016 primary season?…. That would be in addition to the familiar “unmasking” aspect?…  and, if yes, what would that indicate?

Short answer is: no-one is certain.  AG Barr did mention that Bash is looking backward on the unmasking issues beyond the timeline scope of the 2016 presidential election.  That would indicate surveillance “unmasking” and FISA “minimization” would meld because essentially the terms are synonymous depending on the type of intelligence exploitation.

Prior Obama officials were “unmasking” names associated with FBI investigations simply to dirty them up to give fuel to the fraudulent basis of “Trump-Russia”; that’s the political weaponization of intelligence.  This did happen and Bash is cited with authority to review this carve-out of the ongoing DOJ investigation into DOJ/FBI intelligence manipulation.

However, if Bash is going into the issues of the NSA database being exploited for political opposition research via FISA-702 authorities (the intentional extraction of information with intentional non-minimization) well, that’s a more expansive kettle-of-fish than would seem to be possible to fully outline before the November election.

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A more detailed post is going to come out later this morning highlighting what we know of the current positioning and status of the DOJ, as we move ever closer to execution of ‘phase-2’, a full public briefing and delivery mechanism.  However, in the interim something to keep in mind…

Almost no-one that I talked to in Washington DC, media, congress or research staffers in either the House or Senate ever bothered to actually watch Rod Rosenstein’s June testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.   Yes, you read that correctly.  If you are counting on DOJ, Barr or Durham, keep this factoid in mind…  Approximately 9 out of 10 beltway people have absolutely no idea what Rosenstein said.  This includes all chief-of-staff’s for most GOP senators, and every single House and Senate staffer (including Senior Staff) assigned to assist the congressional investigations…  Let that sink in as you watch this.

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This video is another fine snippet by our friend John Spiropoulos. Think about how this would play-out if mainstream media, including the tick-tock club, were paying attention.

The former Deputy Attorney General, a man who AG Bill Barr has praised vociferously, testifies two months ago that the Steele Dossier IS NOT in the FISA application to spy on Team Trump. As Spiropoulos outlines, contrast that position with what the Inspector General and the documents already said. This is what we are up against.

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Never attribute malice to that which can be explained by the bureaucracy of the system; perhaps that is the biggest lesson learned from my recent travels and briefings.

As incredible as it might sound, those who run government investigations do not necessarily have their arms around the specifics, or the bigger picture.   It is quite amazing to talk to people who have been in the proverbial weeds for years only to realize the rag-tag-misfits have more comprehensive information systems than multi-million government enterprises.

So too should this message serve as a warning. Again, as incredulous as it sounds, do not ever believe those who control the levers of power have more information than you.  This is a jaw-dropping experience on the level of disconnect.

Perhaps it would be apropos to think of information as a kiosk map in a large mall.  Lots of data, but if the “you are here” dot is missing; it is not much benefit.  The briefing material starts from the ‘you are here‘ and explains the events.  Everything reconciles.  Everything is documented, attested and sworn.  Unfortunately, I have yet to encounter anyone who put it all together….. until now.

Perhaps when/if a book is ever written about this time, the most compelling story-line will come from how a dedicated small team with a few thousand dollars were able to go up against tens of millions of corrupt interests.  Oh, and we have TRUTH, so we are indeed winning despite the scale.

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HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes appears on Fox Business with Jackie deAngelis to discuss the latest developments in the Michael Flynn case and the John Durham investigation.  WATCH:

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Additionally (Hat Tip Techno-fog) who helps connect some dots left during recent comments by DOJ Spokesperson Kerri Kupek about “delays in proceedings” and what might be the most likely cause.  Good stuff, that makes buckets of sense.

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