Earlier this morning Senator Chuck Grassley (Senate Finance Committee Chairman), appeared with Maria Bartiromo to discuss conflicts for documents between the legislative oversight committees, and ongoing stonewalling efforts by current FBI Director Christopher Wray and current CIA Director Gina Haspel.

Senator Grassley and Senator Johnson are seeking the communication from former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and officials within the DOJ and FBI surrounding the investigative targeting of candidate Trump and President Trump.  [LINK] Additionally, both Grassley and Johnson are seeking internal documents connected to former CIA Director John Brennan and current CIA Director Gina Haspel.

During the interview Grassley states the non-compliance with oversight may be due to former and current officials participating in a conspiracy to target the office of the president:

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The proverbial rabbit hole deepens…

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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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Well, this is interesting….  very interesting…

U.S. Attorney John Bash, from the Western District of Texas, was given the responsibility by AG Barr of looking into the illegal unmasking by Obama-era officials in July of this year.  Not only the illegal unmasking of General Flynn, but more extensive unmasking.  Today Bash announced his abrupt resignation.  “Abrupt” because he announced today, and he leaves on Friday. However, he does say he informed Barr last month:

SAN ANTONIO, Tex. – U.S. Attorney John F. Bash announced today that he will resign from the Department of Justice on Friday, October 9, 2020, at 11:59pm. U.S. Attorney Bash issued the following statement:

This Friday—eight years to the day after I first joined the Department of Justice—I will step down as United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas.

Last month I accepted an offer for a position in the private sector and informed the Attorney General of my decision. I tendered formal letters of resignation to both the President and the Attorney General this morning.

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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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Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has transmitted evidence to the Senate Judiciary Committee showing notes written by CIA Director John Brennan that Hillary Clinton campaign advisors created a “proposal to vilify Trump by stirring up scandal claiming interference by Russian security services” on July 26th of 2016. [pdf link]

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This appears to be the explosive evidence referred to by Senator Lindsey Graham during recent public comments.  The date of the proposal to Brennan, July 26, 2016, is pertinent to the recent op-ed published by Brennan where he says he briefed President Obama two days later, July 28, 2016, where Brennan says in his own words:

[…]  on the afternoon of July 28, 2016, I informed [President Obama] in a hurriedly scheduled meeting that Russian President Vladimir Putin had authorized his intelligence services to carry out activities to hurt Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and boost the election prospects of Donald Trump. (link)

Hillary Clinton proposing the strategic deployment of a Russian collusion narrative on July 26, 2016, is additionally important because only one day earlier, July 25, 2016, Clinton campaign Manager Robby Mook advocated for this exact narrative on the first day of the 2016 Democrat National Convention in Philadelphia.

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Quite a bit of attention today to a release of information by Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham [LINK HERE].  However, missed in most reviews is a duplicitous motive for Graham to claim “the primary source for the Steele dossier was likely a Russian agent.”

In essence, Graham is promoting a defense previously explored by James Comey that investigative elements of the FBI were duped by a Russian disinformation campaign; and as a consequence their investigative efforts were done under the most honorable of motives, but they were just tricked by Russians.  Ergo, see the Russians did interfere in the election.

That’s the justification narrative, and now Lindsey Graham has positioned everyone to support it; because the alternative is the DOJ and FBI knew it was Russia-centric and were coordinating to achieve a goal provided by the use of that disinformation campaign as purposefully fed by Chris Steele.

Just to drive home the point: the FBI wasn’t duped.  The FBI knew all along the Steele Dossier was a bunch of junk nonsense from political opposition research; but they needed it, to underscore the Carter Page FISA…. which they needed to justify the surveillance.

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Michael Flynn defense attorney, Sidney Powell, calls-in to Lou Dobbs to discuss the explosive new evidence released to her by the DOJ.

In an update to briefings before the court Sidney Powell released today a set of previously hidden text messages within the FBI investigative unit highlighting the fraudulent and corrupt premise behind the targeting of her client [pdf link]. The documents are also embedded below.

Ms. Powell discusses the stunning nature of the release and how the texts and documents show a targeted effort against candidate Trump, President-elect Trump, President Trump and her client Michael Flynn who was the incoming National Security Advisor. This release is perhaps the most damning so far.  WATCH:

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The corrupt units within the FBI and CIA even went so far as to purchase professional liability insurance after the election because they knew their prior activity could lead to criminal, civil and financial lawsuits. A stunning internal admission.

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The Washington Examiner has an interesting article based on a book excerpt by Washington Post journalist Devlin Barrett: “October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election.”

CTH readers will remember Devlin Barrett was Lisa Page & Peter Strzok’s favored journalist to receive FBI leaks from Clinton email investigation known as the “mid-year-exam;” during the time when the ‘small group’ was framing the preferred narrative.

According to the article the NY FBI Agent who raised the alarm bells was a man named John Robertson.  Robertson was cited in the IG report, but not named.  According to the recent discoveries…

“Robertson wrote a “Letter to Self” in late October after an Oct. 19, 2016, meeting, during which he implored Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Kramer of the Southern District of New York to push FBI leadership to look at the thousands of emails he had unearthed.”

“I have very deep misgivings about the institutional response of the FBI to the congressional investigation into the Hillary Clinton email matter. … Put simply: I don’t believe the handling of the material I have by the FBI is ethically or morally right. But my lawyer’s advice — that I simply put my SSA on notice should cover me — is that I have completed CYA [Cover Your Ass], and I have done so,” Robertson wrote. “Further, I was told by [Kramer] that should I ‘whistleblow,’ I will be prosecuted.” (read more)

Robertson fills in the background to our earlier research.  CTH identified how the FBI never actually investigated the emails, as the FBI and specifically former FBI Director James Comey, claimed: “due to the wizardry of technology.”

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Senator Marco Rubio appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss a variety of issues and subjects from the 2020 election to the current policies toward China and social media surveillance.

However, at the mid-point of the interview Bartiromo asks the SSCI Chairman about the committee refusal to provide Senators Grassley and Johnson with documents and transcripts from testimony previously given to the SSCI in their Russia investigation.

While explaining the reason for the refusal to share transcripts, Senator Rubio shares that all prior testimony to the committee was provided with the expressed agreement that none of the witness testimony would be shared with anyone else. A remarkably self-serving construct with the deliberate outcome of allowing strategic leaks and narrative assembly without sunlight on the actual questioning.

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An additionally revealing aspect from this Rubio segment is the statement that Chairman Burr and Vice-Chair Warner have constructed committee rules that both parties must be in agreement with any process within the committee – before any action is taken. This is a key facet when we consider that Senator Warner made covert contact with Chris Steele’s lawyer Adam Waldman in 2017.

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A very interesting release by ODNI John Ratcliffe [LINK] highlights a June 25, 2020 response from the FISA court to the DOJ.  There are five issues queried by the DOJ seeking guidance from the FISC.  Each issue points to a specific path being taken by the DOJ in general… and the John Durham probe specifically.

Today, the ODNI, in consultation with the Department of Justice, releases a June 25, 2020, opinion by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) evaluating and approving limited circumstances under which the Government may temporarily retain, use, or disclose information that was unlawfully acquired pursuant to a FISC order. (more)

Important note:  We are looking at this in hindsight.  The response from the FISC was dated June 25, 2020, so the request for opinion from the court was before June 25th.

The court opinion tells us for the first time, the DOJ is admitting/stating that ALL FOUR of the Carter Page FISA applications were corrupt upon origination.   This is a big deal. In previous filing with the court (January 2020) DOJ only refuted the predication for the second and third renewal.

Within the FISC reply we see the DOJ stating all four submissions contained material omissions and violations of “the duty of candor” (ie. lying)  by the FBI investigative unit and the DOJ team that assembled the application(s).

As we look closely at the response we see some very specific language that tells a story.

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