Last night Chairman Devin Nunes appeared on Fox News to discuss the release of the OIG report and investigation into fired Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Additionally Chairman Nunes discusses his request for the immediate release of five memos written by former FBI Director James Comey.
A flood of DOJ/FBI moves, leaks and details this week highlight the desperation of an aligned group of Obama officials and ideologues which began with the FBI raid on the offices and home of Michael Cohen. All of the subsequent activity is connected.
This week began with a dramatic early-morning raid on the home, office and hotel room of a sitting U.S. president’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. The week ended in equally dramatic fashion, in a packed courtroom, following numerous media leaks from New York U.S. Attorneys and FBI investigators about the content of their Cohen raid. In the big picture all of this week’s activity appears related to a coordinated propaganda strategy.
Looking up from the granules, we can see a clear and comprehensive plan to flood the zone with propaganda narratives to distract, dilute and obfuscate.
If we look at the big picture the stylistic content of the James Comey book; the timing of the release; the timing of the raid on Cohen; the leaks of scraped material from the raid to the media; all of this falls into a pattern. A strategy that was originally outlined by James Comey’s friend back in October of 2016. SEE HERE. We knew the DOJ/FBI raid on Cohen was likely a larger strategy to gather opposition research.
With the OIG reports coming rapidly to a conclusion, and with the IG reports being so detailed in their fact-outline, the “small group” is at an inflection point where their risk is growing. A larger awakening is taking place.
Knowing the connection between the FBI, DOJ-NSD, Fusion-GPS, Clinton Campaign and Christopher Steele political activity in 2016, we also pondered if the larger motive behind the raid might be connected to the use of DOJ and FBI databases to conduct searches on political opposition, and the need to hide therein.
Earlier today I wrote on Twitter: “The raid on Michael Cohen’s home and office was gov. directed political opposition research. The FBI/DOJ officials who carried out the raid will leak the content to media to damage POTUS & engineer narratives for election(s). That was the intent of the raid.”
Allow me to provide the fact-based argument behind that statement. Beginning with a very basic baseline fact:
You can call it a soft-coup, or you can call it politicization of the DOJ and FBI, but the end result is the same – the intentional effort to manipulate, influence, and ultimately subvert an election for the presidency of the United States.
It is an inarguable reality that ideologues within the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation used their positions to conduct a political operation against the candidacy of President Trump. There is currently an Office of Inspector General investigation by Michael Horowitz to discover the scale of that basic truth.
The ongoing OIG investigation has already released some of the investigative evidence proving the motives of the participants. Additionally, through records and releases stemming from outside the OIG investigation, it is a fact the intelligence apparatus within the national security divisions of the DOJ and FBI used their databases to conduct unlawful searches of political opposition; and allowed ‘contractors‘ to do the same.
These clear facts exist regardless of opinion or sentiment therein.
Oh, heck yes. This is exactly what we have been talking about. In an interview with Neil Cavuto, Senator Rand Paul shares his opinion that President Trump should respond to the coordinated political attacks by FBI and DOJ operatives by declassifying the information underneath all their shenanigans.
Good advice. Without interfering with the IG Horowitz and parallel Proseuctor John Huber approach, President Trump should immediately begin declassifying the documents surrounding the FISA abuse scandal.
Start by declassifying the 99-page opinion of FISA Court Presiding Judge, Rosemary Collyer. Remove all the redactions and let us see who the FBI/DOJ officials were allowing to have access to the NSA database to conduct searches. Then declassify the full FISA Title-1 surveillance application used by the FBI and DOJ against U.S. person Carter Page.
If these releases of information create a need for prosecution of the people, entities and former officials behind the documents, then so be it. These documents are unrelated to the issues of the FBI conduct review of IG Horowitz, and extend outside the DOJ. WATCH:
Alan Dershowitz and Joe diGenova appeared tonight on Sean Hannity to discuss the ramifications to the political FBI raid on Michael Cohen’s office and residence along with the ongoing Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigation. Additionally, they discussed fired FBI Director James Comey and current Asst. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Last night House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes threatened to impeach FBI Director Christopher Wray and Asst. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, if not granted access to review the two-page intelligence community origination document that kicked-off the 2016 FBI counterintelligence operation against candidate Donald Trump.
Today Rosenstein and Wray allowed Chairman Nunes and Trey Gowdy to review the origination document, also known as the “electronic communication” (EC). House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes issued the following statement today:
“After numerous unfulfilled requests for an Electronic Communication (EC) related to the opening of the FBI’s Russia counterintelligence probe, Chairman Trey Gowdy and I met this afternoon with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. During the meeting, we were finally given access to a version of the EC that contained the information necessary to advance the Committee’s ongoing investigation of the Department of Justice and FBI. Although the subpoenas issued by this Committee in August 2017 remain in effect, I’d like to thank Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein for his cooperation today.” (link)
The two-page electronic communication (EC) is essentially the intelligence report from CIA Director John Brennan, that started the FBI Counterintelligence Operation against the campaign of Donald Trump.
A key DIA official from within the White House National Security Council has resurfaced today as reports show Ezra Cohen-Watnick has been hired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to assist on issues surrounding counterintelligence and counterterrorism.
WASHINGTON — A former American intelligence official who came under intense scrutiny during a stint at the White House last year is returning to government as the national security adviser to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, according to a person familiar with the decision.
The official, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, will play an important role at the Justice Department, advising Mr. Sessions on counterintelligence and counterterrorism. (NYT Link)
Before getting to the big picture of Cohen-Watnick, let’s look at a few recent granules which at first might seem disconnected – but they are not.
During an interview with Fox News host Harris Faulkner today U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) discussed a response letter he received from FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Senator Paul inquired with the FBI Director about whether reassigned FBI Agent Peter Strzok and DOJ/FBI Attorney Lisa Page still retained their Top Secret FBI clearances.
According to Senator Paul, the FBI director would not respond to specific agent inquiry, however, Wray did affirm that all existing FBI officials retain Top Secret clearances.
In essence, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, despite being removed from investigative authority over their role in the political efforts to target President Trump, retain employment within the DOJ/FBI apparatus in an unknown capacity and thereby their clearances.
This information by Rand Paul dovetails into an increasingly obvious storyline where Lisa Page and Peter Strzok remain employed because they are cooperating with the internal investigation by Inspector General Michael Horowitz and parallel federal prosecutor John Huber.
Representative Matt Gaetz sent out a tweet today that is absolutely accurate. You can call it a soft-coup, or you can call it politicization of the DOJ and FBI, but the end result is the same – the intentional effort to manipulate, influence, and ultimately subvert an election for the presidency of the United States…. and that’s what the DOJ is trying to hide.
If you peel the skin off the onion, and get down to the substantive core issue that represents the biggest risk to the entire collective group who worked to subvert the 2016 presidential election, you get to the FISA-702(16)(17) and Title-1 surveillance abuse that was carried out by the Obama Intelligence Community, DOJ-NSD and the FBI.
The actions taken by ‘inside’ government officials and ‘outside’ ideological cohorts is exactly what all of their collective “resistance” activity is about. Attacking the Office of the Presidency is a strategy to keep sunlight from their previous action.
When we absorb the full scope and scale of the political effort from inside and outside government, then we understand everything happening. Additionally, I would strongly suggest this is also where Attorney General Sessions is going wrong.
To understand the dynamic it becomes important to separate the FISA/FISC issues from the other issues within the IG Horowitz and Prosecutor Huber investigations.
Tomorrow Attorney General Jeff Sessions will announce the assignment of U.S. Attorney John Lausch to facilitate the production of documents from the DOJ (Horowitz/Huber) to the House Judiciary Committee, and Chairman Bob Goodlatte.
Mr. Lausch is a Trump appointed U.S. Attorney from outside Washington DC. John Lausch currently heads the Northern District of Illinois which includes Chicago, and this specific U.S. Attorney has extensive experience in complex cases of conspiracy and political corruption; a key skill-set given the issues within the Horowitz/Huber investigation of potential politicization of the FBI and DOJ offices.
Accepting the OIG report is almost certainly the most complex undertaking of IG Horowitz career; and accepting the multitude of possible angles within each section of the investigative inquiry are so consequential; there’s a strong likelihood the report could come out in stages.