An interesting panel discussion on Laura Ingraham’s television show.  In this segment Lee Smith (Real Clear Politics Investigations) brilliantly outlines the disparate self-interest of both Rod Rosenstein and Andrew McCabe.  I believe Smith has this spot-on.
The New York Times and Washington Post are both primary outlets for narratives scripted by the political intelligence community.   Against the backdrop of declassification, Team McCabe was advancing an anti-Rosenstein narrative with the NYT.  Team Rosenstein was advancing a defense of Rosenstein within the Washington Post; both narratives surrounded the risks within the declassification directive.
Watch the Lee Smith part which starts at 04:30:

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The declassification is a risk to both McCabe and Rosenstein. Both began constructing a pro-active defense. However, McCabe didn’t know Rosenstein was going to carve out a deal with President Trump (leveraging Horowitz) to protect everyone in the DOJ/FBI by reversing the declassification directive.
Andrew McCabe views his risk as the largest risk, and essentially is saying, through the network which includes media, that if he goes down he’s taking everyone down.
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The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Bob Goodlatte, tweeted today their intention to immediately subpoena the memos written by fired Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.   The memos were part of an article presented by the New York Times citing evidence of Rod Rosenstein making statements about President Trump.

The House Judiciary Committee announced on Friday that it intends to subpoena memos from former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe detailing reported comments made by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in which he proposed secretly taping conversations with President Trump and initiating a process to remove the president by invoking the 25th Amendment.  (read more)

However, the subpoena alone that’s not the revelation-angle within the story. There’s a bigger story as noted by judiciary committee Representative Jim Jordan: “Mr. Rosenstein, give Congress the McCabe memos that we asked for in July and all the other documents we’ve requested so we can all judge for ourselves.”
The bigger revelation here is how someone, some unknown FBI officials, kept the McCabe  memos from congress and subsequently from a previous internal INSD investigation of McCabe.
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A few days ago four democrat members of the intelligence oversight Gang-of-Eight demanded DNI Coats, DAG Rosenstein and FBI Director Wray block President Trump from his declassification directive.   Primarily most of the language was directed toward Rod Rosenstein. [Reminder Here]
Today, some element within the Administrative State, likely Andrew McCabe or Robert Mueller, is reported as a source for a New York Times article claiming Rosenstein told officials in Andy McCabe’s office that he was willing to “wear a wire”, and solicit members of the Trump cabinet (Jeff Sessions, John Kelly) to invoke the 25th amendment.

…”Well, what do you want me to do, Andy, wear a wire?”…

Could it possibly be that elements within the deep state are targeting Rosenstein for his willingness to comply and debrief, President Trump on the matter of the declassification directive?  Smells similar.  Here’s the pertinent parts of the article:

[…] Mr. Rosenstein made the remarks about secretly recording Mr. Trump and about the 25th Amendment in meetings and conversations with other Justice Department and F.B.I. officials. Several people described the episodes, insisting on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The people were briefed either on the events themselves or on memos written by F.B.I. officials, including Andrew G. McCabe, then the acting bureau director, that documented Mr. Rosenstein’s actions and comments.

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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes appears on Fox News this morning to discuss the ongoing battle between the corrupt elements within the DOJ and FBI who are working feverishly to hide information from the public.  This interview happens shortly before President Trump announces his decision to reverse course on the declassification request.

Moments after this interview President Trump tweets this:
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Fox News host Sean Hannity interviews President Trump moments prior to the beginning of a MAGA rally in Las Vegas, Nevada.   Very interestingly at 03:05 of the video below President Trump makes note of pro-active phone calls from two foreign governments (likely British and Australian) prior to fulfillment of the declassification releases of the FISA application used against Carter Page.  [ie. ‘spy-gate’]
As readers here are familiar, during the declassification process any potentially impacted intelligence entity or ally is contacted in advance as part of the declassification review.  It would appear, calls from U.S. intel to British and Australian intel precipitated calls from British and Australian leadership to President Trump.

Part of the declassification directive that would apply to the phone calls:

(3) all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications.

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According to sources responding to The Daily Caller, Nellie Ohr and James Baker are refusing to willingly testify to the joint House Oversight and Judiciary committee chaired by Bob Goodlatte.   Nellie’s husband Bruce Ohr, a current DOJ official, previously testified to the committee; however Nellie Ohr is not in government and may have to be subpoenaed if Chairman Goodlatte wants her testimony. She was originally schedule to appear tomorrow.

UPDATE – “The Committee continues to seek the testimony of Nellie Ohr and Jim Baker and will compel their testimony if necessary.”

Nellie Ohr was a FusionGPS employee and a bridge of contact between FusionGPS and Christopher Steele.  There are strong indications Nellie Ohr may have actually authored a considerable portion of the Steele Dossier for use by the FBI.  In prior testimony FusionGPS founder, Glenn Simpson, was less than forthcoming about Nellie Ohr’s engagements; and generally misled -direct and by omission- both the Senate and House intelligence committees about Mrs. Ohr.
Additionally, The Daily Caller is reporting that former FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker is also refusing to cooperate.  Mr. Baker was removed from his position in December 2017, and left the FBI May 4th, 2018, after spending five months in employment limbo.
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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has seen all of the intelligence documents, and as a Gang-of-Eight intelligence oversight member he has also received the briefing material behind the origin of FBI’s operation “Crossfire Hurricane.”
Devin Nunes was also the person who led the FISA legislative reauthorization and initiated some of the preliminary reforms surrounding the 702 process.  So Chairman Nunes is essentially the key subject matter oversight expert on the nature of the information within the declassification directive:

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There is nuance within the directive for declassification by President Trump.  The sets of documents are not identical in the way they are classified within the intelligence apparatus.  There are distinct differences and conflicting reports [Bloomberg Report and Washington Examiner] perhaps based on conflation and miss-identification of those differences. First, Sara Carter:

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Breaking down the presidential directive to the four component parts helps  understanding the issue(s), and the likelihood for redactions within the release(s):

• (1) pages 10-12 and 17-34 of the June 2017 application to the FISA court in the matter of Carter W. Page;
• (2) all FBI reports of interviews with Bruce G. Ohr prepared in connection with the Russia investigation;
• (3) all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications.
• (4) publicly release of all text messages relating to the Russia investigation, without redaction, of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr.

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John Solomon and Buck Sexton interviewed President Trump on Tuesday September 18th, 2018, in the Oval Office.  The interview covered a variety of subjects and Solomon has posted the transcript [SEE HERE]. The interview reveals some new information, such as President Trump’s 2016 gut instinct to fire FBI Director James Comey, and his advisors –likely Steve Bannon– talking him out of it.
Additionally, within the interview President Trump notes he has not seen the content of the documents he had directed to be declassified; he is relying on the group within congress -Nunes, Jordan, Goodlatte, Meadows, Zeldin, etc.- who have investigated the details and made the requests to the executive office for declassification.

Perhaps the most important aspect to the interview is President Trump putting to rest his direct, brutally honest and forthright opinion of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

(Via The Hill) Buck Sexton: Mr. President, why haven’t you replaced your attorney general, given all the things you’ve said and everything else that’s come out about his actions, or inactions?
President Trump: I’m so sad over Jeff Sessions because he came to me. He was the first senator that endorsed me. And he wanted to be attorney general, and I didn’t see it. But he came very strongly he really wanted to be. And, I let him be.

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I’ve probably reviewed thousands of congressional letters, and intelligence committee letters from oversight, along with even more executive agency responses.  In fact, CTH has shared hundreds of outlines covering granular details within many of the internal memos and correspondences.  However, I have never seen anything like this before.
The combination of arrogance, hubris and desperation within a letter (pdf here) from the four Democrats on the intelligence oversight Gang of Eight, is palpable even in text format.
Legislative branch members: Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff and Mark Warner write a letter today to Director  of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and FBI Director Christopher Wray, demanding the executive branch cabinet members withhold information from the White House.
Perhaps more stunningly, and extra-constitutionally (meaning outside the framework of constitutional separation of power), within the jaw-dropping letter the four Democrats outline previous verbal conversations and current agreements with Coats, Rosenstein and Wray where the Cabinet officers agreed to keep information away from the White House Chief Executive, the President.
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