Representative Doug Collins has released the transcript of Peter Strzok [SEE HERE] from his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in June 2018. Working with a small group within the DOJ and FBI, agent Peter Strzok was at the center of a 2016 election effort to assist Hillary Clinton and remove Donald Trump.  Here’s the transcript:
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Earlier today President Trump welcomed Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar to the White House and held a mini press conference in the Oval Office.

Well, it is official.  Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke has reversed his prior position and has announced his intent to run for the 2020 Presidential Race.  His entrance narrows the lane currently occupied Bernie Sanders and is likely to fracture the college crowd.
O’Rourke has no experience as an executive; failed in an election run against Senator Ted Cruz; and is generally goofy, lacking any seriousness in disposition.
There is little reason to suspect he could offer much more than to shave a few points away from Bernie; which, not coincidentally, would be in alignment with the preferred objective of the DNC club.

But he also said he would no longer swear off hiring consultants, giving an example of a single mother in the Dallas area who was unable to join his Senate campaign because it would have required her to close her business.

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According to an NPR report, and confirmed by secondary sourcing, Andrew Weissmann is soon to depart the special counsel probe of Robert Mueller.  According to special counsel spokesman Peter Carr “Andrew Weissmann will be concluding his detail to the Special Counsel’s Office in the near future.”
The intensely political Mr. Weissmann is not just leaving the Special Counsel, he is also leaving his job at the Justice Department.  He will be teaching at NYU.

Additionally, this announcement happens just one day before the March 15th deadline by representatives Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows for new Attorney General William Barr to respond about numerous conflicts of interest surrounding Weissmann and his engagements with the 2016 DOJ election effort to stop Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON DC – One of the most prominent members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russia’s attack on the 2016 presidential election will soon leave the office and the Justice Department, two sources close to the matter tell NPR.

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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 †

The Epoch Times, via Jeff Carlson, has apparently gained access to the transcript of testimony from Nellie Ohr. Most of the back-story of Nellie Ohr working for the CIA as an Open Source Works contractor was previously discovered by CTH during earlier research; and again the transcript is not provided by Epoch.
However, while the transcript is not provided, there is a very intriguing implication within their description/interpretation of the testimony (emphasis mine):

[…] Beginning in September 2015, Ohr began working for Fusion GPS. Ohr told investigators that she “read an article in the paper that mentioned Glenn Simpson. And I remembered because he had been a Wall Street Journal reporter working on things like Russian crime and corruption, so I recognized the name. I was underemployed at that time and I was looking for opportunities.”
When later questioned as to her previous knowledge of Simpson, Ohr stated, “I had been at a conference that he was at. I don’t recall directly talking with him at that conference, and I don’t know whether he knew who, you know, who I was other than the fact that I attended that conference.”
Ohr acknowledged to congressional investigators that Simpson was acquainted with her husband, Bruce Ohr. (read more)

The implication here is that Nellie Ohr approached Fusion-GPS owner Glenn Simpson for a job; essentially to work on political opposition research files Fusion-GPS was assembling in 2015.  This is distinctly different from Glenn Simpson seeking out Nellie Ohr, and opens the entire background to larger ramifications.
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Chairman Lindsey Graham appears on late-night-interuptus to discuss his Senate Judiciary investigation into allegations of FISA abuse, etc.

A local news station, KTSM El Paso Texas, is reporting that Robert Francis O’Rourke will announce tomorrow he is officially running for President.
If accurate, Beto O’Rourke would be the eleventh official candidate.
While Robert Francis was expected to join the race (just not yet), and he is Obama’s likely pick for support, the timing is off and interesting.  First the article:

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Beto O’Rourke is running for President of the United States.
The former El Paso Congressman will make the announcement on Thursday morning, but he confirmed via text to KTSM Wednesday afternoon that he is seeking the Democratic nomination.

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The more important lead story of this article is buried within the outcome story of ICE agents using a private license plate database to capture illegal aliens. First the headline story:

WASHINGTON – Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been using over the past year a vast license plate database to identify the location of vehicles associated with immigrants who do not have legal status, according to documents released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
More than 9,000 ICE agents have been given access to the controversial database, which contains hundreds of millions of license plate scans from across the U.S., according to the documents obtained by the ACLU through a Freedom of Information Act request. ICE employees are able to use the database to obtain information on where individuals have been and when they were there, with data going back as far as five years.

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