With the Mueller probe coming to a close, there is increased focus on congress (Lindsey Graham and/or Devin Nunes), along with President Trump, beginning a process toward accountability for those who constructed the Russia collusion/conspiracy hoax. However, amid the increased calls for sunlight and accountability, there are well-intended voices walking perilously close to an outrage trap.

The issue(s) surround President Obama and high-ranking Obama intelligence officials, notably: Comey, Clapper, Brennan and Yates, intentionally lying and/or misrepresenting issues to president-elect Donald Trump and the transition team in/around the transition period and shortly after the January 20, 2017, inauguration.
Some of the misinformation stems from intelligence officials telling direct lies (ex. telling President-elect, and President Trump he was not under investigation).  Other aspects were lies of omission surrounding the Steele Dossier during the January 6th, 2017, intelligence briefing session with the President-elect in Trump Tower.
In essence, there were many misleading and false statements, with varying scales of severity, during the period from November 9th, 2016, through mid-May 2017 when President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.
The FBI, DOJ, ODNI, CIA and intelligence officials were intentionally not being direct and honest with President Trump and key members of his new administration.  Obviously their lack of honesty was a serious issue, and in some cases had serious ramifications.
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There’s a somewhat sketchy background here that’s a little bit more granular and important than is being outlined. The redacted Comey memos were originally released to congress and the media.  However, the unredacted memos -and more importantly the reason for the redactions– has never been held up to scrutiny.
As noted by Fox News: “Washington District Court Judge James E. Boasberg — an Obama appointee who was also tapped by Chief Justice John Roberts for a seat on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court — issued an order Wednesday demanding the FBI hand over “clean and unredacted copies of the documents in dispute here,” apparently including the Comey memos and documents relating to the declarations.” (more)

However, as “Undercover Huber” has noted, Judge Boasberg has previously seen the Comey memos back in 2017 when the original arguments were made by Mueller’s team to keep them redacted from public review.

[…] the main issue now isn’t “handing over the Comey memos” (the Judge already saw them long ago), but whether to publicly release the FBI/DOJ justifications for NOT releasing the Comey memos to the public AND release the Comey memos completely unredacted.
The FBI/DOJ filed those justifications against releasing the Comey memos “in camera” & “ex parte” with the court on Oct 13 2017 & Jan 19 2018 They were written by the then FBI lead on Mueller’s team, David W. Archey (who replaced Peter Strzok, he led all FBI agents from Sep-17).

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Former CIA Director John Brennan lies at the heart of the intelligence community decision to weaponize against Donald Trump.  In this outline I will make the case for a possible criminal referral by Devin Nunes.

The FBI’s formal origination of the counterintelligence investigation into candidate Donald Trump known as “Operation Crossfire Hurricane”, begins with a two-page memo submitted by former CIA Director John Brennan to former FBI Director James Comey.
The two page origination memo is known as an “EC” or “electronic communication”.  This classified origination memo is one of the key documents requested by congress for declassification by President Trump, to be shared with the American people.
According to House Intelligence Committee member Devin Nunes; who is also a member of the intelligence oversight ‘Gang-of-Eight’; that EC contains intelligence material that did not come through “official intelligence channels” into the U.S. intelligence apparatus.
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U.S. Senator Rand Paul posts a text today that has caught attention. The issue surrounds the Clinton/Steele Dossier and the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) from January 2017.

(Tweet Link)

While the public statement from Rand Paul is new, the backstory is one we have discussed before.  Yes, John Brennan put the Steele Dossier into the ICA, and he enlisted FBI Agent Peter Strzok as the author to facilitate the narrative.
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Speaking with “Fox & Friends” after the Mueller report found no evidence of a Trump-Russia conspiracy, President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, issued a cryptic warning Monday that whoever convinced the FBI to pursue the Russia collusion investigation into the Trump campaign will soon be outed.
Giuliani was asked whether someone tricked the FBI into opening the original investigation.  Mr. Giuliani also called for President Trump’s “shameless ” critics to apologize for their false claims.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham holds a press conference after receiving the Principal Conclusion notification from AG William Barr.  Within this presser Lindsey Graham starts the process toward public discussion of investigations against the FBI and DOJ around the fraudulent FISA application against Carter Page.

The Mueller investigation was cited to President Trump, by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, as a specific reason not to declassify certain documents.  Here’s a link to the General Principles of declassification [SEE HERE] Yes, the President can declassify anything; however, there is a process that must be followed.

With the completion of the Mueller investigation, it would appear that President Trump could now declassify the documents as requested by congress on September 6th, 2018.  Additionally, after the original declassification request, there were other documents added to the list.  Perhaps it is worthwhile remembering what those declassification documents are:
♦ The first item(s) is/are the Carter Page FISA applications (including specifically pages 10-12 and 17-34 and relevant footnotes).  This request was modified to include the last 22 pages of the third renewal of the FISA application (dated July 2016).
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Fox News ran a special report on the Mueller investigation concluding with several key interviews.  ♦Devin Nunes discusses the recent revelations around the McCabe text messages, and material he wants to see declassified, along with his intent to submit several criminal referrals. ♦David Bosse discusses the political ramifications of the Mueller probe. ♦Gregg Jarrett discusses the issues within the DOJ and FBI. ♦Alan Dershowitz discusses the FISA court and possible abuse.

According to most media reporting AG William Barr is meeting with Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein today and reviewing the completed Mueller report.  At the end of this review, according to statute, AG Barr will commission a “Principle Conclusion” summary report that he will deliver to congress.  As of 4:00pm EST, the White House has not been privately briefed on the Mueller findings.

The summary report from AGBarr will be given to House and Senate judiciary oversight committees before wider dissemination. The Chair of the House Judiciary Committee is Jerry Nadler (ranking member Doug Collins); the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee is Lindsey Graham (Vice-Chair Dianne Feinstein).  AG William Barr may also brief those committees, or he may assign DAG Rosenstein to the briefing.
Depending on conversations between the DOJ and congressional leadership, there’s also a possibility of a more extensive briefing covering details within the Mueller investigation.  However, that briefing would likely be reserved for the intelligence oversight group known as the “Gang of Eight”: Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy, Adam Schiff, Devin Nunes, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Richard Burr and Mark Warner.
Due to the politics surrounding the Barr report, it is likely the White House will be given the Principle Conclusion Summary around the same time as congress.  The White House (executive branch) may also be able to review the full underlying documentation behind the summary…. that’s likely where the political fight for the ‘narrative’ will take place.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi tipped her hand at the Democrat approach during a strategy meeting today.  According to early reporting Pelosi will refuse to attend any ‘Gang of Eight’ briefing and will demand the full investigative file be declassified:
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Not a Tick-Tock

All day long, even before the Mueller news broke, Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge has really been leaning-forward, giving insight into the pending Inspector General report by OIG Michael Horowitz. Herridge is one of those reporters who is careful not to get out in front of her skis.  Ms. Herridge is not a book-selling member of the tick-tock community of pundits.

We noted earlier how the specific emphasis of Ms. Herridge seemed to indicate the Horowitz report was closer to the surface of completion than previously thought.
Immediately after the Mueller news broke (around 5pm EST), Herridge filed her first live report providing details of the Mueller report.  Within that first report Herridge stated she was previously bound to “confidences” until the Mueller probe was complete.
In subsequent reporting we begin to see what those confidences are, and how they connect to her exclusive reporting on text messages between Andrew McCabe and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
Ms. Herridge is strongly emphasizing a few key points that need additional emphasis:
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