In the Day #2 transcript released today FBI chief legal counsel James Baker was asked about a specific series of Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages on the evening President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.
Comey was fired on May 9th, 2017.  Later that night Peter Strzok and Lisa Page had the following text conversation:

5/9/17 8:14pm And we need to open the case we’ve been waiting on now while Andy is acting.
5/10/17 05:29am We need to lock in [REDACTED] in a formal chargeable way. Soon.
5/10/17 05:30am I agree. I’ve been pushing and will reemphasize with Bill [Priestap].

(link to texts)

FBI chief legal counsel James Baker’s response to questions about this text message exchange indicates that President Trump (‘Trump’ or ‘POTUS’) was the name under the redaction.
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Earlier today President Trump delivered remarks during an energy and infrastructure event in Crosby, Texas. [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – 4:07 P.M. CDT – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much. (Applause.) And one of my all-time favorite governors is right here. Greg, thank you very much. Greg Abbott. (Applause.) Great, great job.
I’m thrilled to be here in Crosby, Texas, with the incredible members of the International Union of Operating Engineers. (Applause.) I know you well. I know you well and I also know who most of you voted for, and I appreciate it. (Laughter.)
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Boy howdy this video snippet of Maxine Waters is apropos of the bizarre results we get when voters put democrats in office. Ms. Maxine is Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee.  In 2010, as part of the Obamcare law, the U.S. federal government took over all federal student loans.  Apparently Chairwoman Waters was unaware of this….
WATCH:

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Quite incredible those banking executives didn’t start laughing. Strong self control.
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With the Mueller probe complete; with AG Barr announcing a focus to review the intelligence operation in 2016; with Devin Nunes submitting criminal referrals; with Lindsey Graham probing CIA, DOJ and FBI conduct; with Doug Collins releasing ‘Spygate’ transcripts; with Inspector General Michael Horowitz closing in on the final stages of his FISA abuse investigation; and with President Trump contemplating declassification of documents applying sunlight on the Russia collusion/conspiracy hoax; there is an outrage trap which must be avoided….

The issue(s) surround President Obama and high-ranking Obama intelligence officials, notably: John Brennan, James Comey, James Clapper and Sally 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.
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Attorney General William Barr delivered stunning, albeit obviously honest, remarks during congressional testimony today in response to Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen about his intent to review prior intelligence activities in targeting the Trump campaign.
Before getting to the video and transcript, it is important to note how this line of questioning surfaces.  The professional political apparatus, primarily Democrats – but also Republicans, who participated in the ‘soft coup’ effort are attempting to gauge the landscape of their risk by identifying AG Barr’s intention.  This line of questioning is NOT organic or random; it is deeply purposeful and scripted. You can smell the fear.
Shaheen is being asked by allies within the Administrative state, including interests no longer holding political office, to do advanced query…. this is political reconnaissance intended to give corrupt officials and media allies the background to: (a) scale their risk; and (b) plan their defense narrative.  They are nervous now. Very nervous.

Here’s the important transcript, (all emphasis mine):

Senator Shaheen: News just broke, today, that you have a special team looking into why the FBI opened an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. I wonder if you can share with this committee: who is on that team; why you felt the need to form that kind of a team; and what you intend to be the scope of their investigation?

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Georgia Congressman Doug Collins releases transcripts of day #2 testimony from former FBI chief legal counsel James Baker (full pdf below).  Baker was the legal advisor to FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe during the investigation candidate Donald Trump; a key FBI small group insider during the soft-coup construct.
[scribd id=405792617 key=key-HCxOBj560ZTt3KScLpCl mode=scroll]
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President Trump delivers remarks to the media as he departs the White House for a trip to Texas.  [Video and Transcript]

[Transcript] – 9:28 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: The economy is doing very, very well. We have numbers coming from companies that are beyond expectation. The tax cuts are working very, very well. So we’re very proud of the economy. Job numbers are as good as we’ve ever had, and more people are working right now than ever worked in our country before. We’re doing really well.
I’d like to congratulate Bibi Netanyahu. It looks like that race has been won by him. It may be a little early, but I’m hearing he’s won it and won it in good fashion. So, he’s been a great ally and he’s a friend. I’d like to congratulate him. That was a well fought-out race, I can tell you. But it looks like Bibi has won that race.
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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Something is coming… something delicious.  How can we tell?  Well, whenever a bombshell is about to drop on the corrupt Intelligence Community, the New York Times does a quick narrative dump to get out ahead of the story.

All the way down, buried deep, in a NYT story about Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s FISA investigation and AG Barr’s review of DOJ and FBI activity… they drop the following two paragraphs (emphasis mine):

[…] The inspector general is also scrutinizing another early source of information for the Russia investigation, the people said: Mr. Horowitz’s investigators have been asking questions about the role of Stefan A. Halper, another F.B.I. informant, and his prior work for the bureau.

Agents involved in the Russia investigation asked Mr. Halper, an American academic who teaches in Britain, to gather information on Mr. Page and George Papadopoulos, another former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser. (read more)

Oh?  NYT now saying FBI agents asked help from intelligence asset Stefan Halper to go gather information on Carter Page and George Papadopoulos?
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