The Christopher Steele dossier was called “Crown Material” by FBI agents within the small group during their 2016 political surveillance operation. The “Crown” description reflects the unofficial British intelligence aspect to the dossier as provided by Steele.

Recently, former House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy stated there are emails from former FBI Director James Comey that outline instructions from CIA Director John Brennan to include the “Crown Material” within the highly political Intelligence Community Assessment.
Specifically -as outlined by Gowdy- the wording of the Comey email is reported to say:

…”Brennan is insisting the Crown Material be included in the intel assessment.”

However, on May 23rd, 2017, in testimony -under oath- to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) John Brennan stated [@01:54:28]:

GOWDY: Director Brennan, do you know who commissioned the Steele dossier?
BRENNAN: I don’t.
GOWDY: Do you know if the bureau [FBI] ever relied on the Steele dossier as part of any court filing, applications?
BRENNAN: I have no awareness.
GOWDY: Did the CIA rely on it?
BRENNAN: No.
GOWDY: Why not?
BRENNAN: Because we didn’t. It wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done. Uh … it was not.

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Tonight President Donald J. Trump will be holding a high-energy MAGA rally at the Energy Aviation Hangar in Montoursville, PA. (North-Central PA)  The President is expected to speak at 7:00pm EDT with pre-event speakers ongoing.
RSBN Livestream Link – GST Livestream Link – NBC Livestream Link

Louisiana congressional representative and house minority whip Steve Scalise discusses current trade and economic initiatives from President Trump’s agenda.  Representative Scalise outlines the importance of the challenge to China and the benefits within the USMCA agreement.
Beyond the economics, Scalise notes the recent report about running for Louisiana governor stemmed from a short, off-the-cuff, conversation with President Trump and he dismisses the seriousness of the discussion.

Most media have avoided highlighting how Jerry Nadler has not demanded testimony from presumed author of the special counsel report, Robert Mueller.  It is likely the Judiciary Committee’s lack of interest surrounds the fact they know Mueller was a figurehead with no substantive control over the small group led by Andrew Weissmann.  The special counsel probe, with sunlight upon Mueller, would be a risk to Nadler.
AG Bill Barr has no issue with Mueller testifying; likely because he too knows Mueller appearing for testimony without his “small group” handlers could lead to a full collapse of the special counsel/media narrative. Meanwhile, the White House delivers a response to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler following his subpoena for former White House Counsel Don McGahn:

WHITE HOUSE – At the President’s direction, the White House has been completely transparent with the Special Counsel’s investigation. The Special Counsel received more than 1.4 million documents and hours and hours of interviews from White House officials, including more than 30 hours from former Counsel to the President, Don McGahn. The Democrats do not like the conclusion of the Mueller investigation – no collusion, no conspiracy, and no obstruction – and want a wasteful and unnecessary do-over.

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Last month President Trump accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a state visit to Japan May 25th through 28th. The Japanese government is honoring President Trump as the first state guest of the Reiwa Era, introduced with the coronation of Emperor Naruhito.
The official visit itinerary will include the first formal state banquet hosted by the Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako.  The visit is a big honor intended to convey the importance of the relationship between the U.S. and Japan.

Today Reuters is reporting that U.S. Trade Ambassador Robert Lighthizer will be heading to Japan (in advance of President Trump), to meet with Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.  It seems there’s a possibility Trump and Abe have something planned….

(Reuters) – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will visit Japan on May 24 to meet Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi to accelerate trade talks ahead of a leaders’ summit a few days later, two sources with direct knowledge of the plan said on Monday.
After a late-April meeting between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump had said it was possible for the two allies to reach a new bilateral trade deal by the time he visits Tokyo in late May.

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Mark Meadows is John Solomon’s primary source.  During this interview Mark Meadows discusses transcripts and recordings of George Papadopoulos which were part of the ‘SpyGate’ operation.  The transcripts were first revealed by former congressman Trey Gowdy yesterday.

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 †

President Trump gave a lengthy interview to Steve Hilton on a variety of topics.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has to be the coolest cat in the crew. On May 15th at 6:00pm Ross blacklists Chinese Company Huawei, requiring Commerce Dept. licensing prior to any “American technology transferring to a company or person on the Entity List.” An hour later… Wilbur Ross is chillin’ in the East Room at a black tie dinner:

President Trump […] … And Wilbur had a very big day today. You probably have read about it. It came out at about 6 o’clock in the evening. So, we’re surprised to see you here, Wilbur. You should be working right now, Wilbur — (laughter) — wherever you are. (link)

The Chinese communists hate U.S.T.R. Lighthizer, but I bet they tremble more over Ross.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday, in a blow to the Chinese technology company that the U.S. government has sought to blacklist around the world.

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