Several stories broke yesterday:

♦Senator Ron Johnson gains copies of the manipulated/edited FBI small group “talking points” that exonerated Hillary Clinton despite overwhelming evidence. Johnson is a Senate Judiciary Committee member and remains focused on those specifics.

♦Senator Chuck Grassley has identified that former FBI Director James Comey leaked classified FBI information to the media to gain political leverage. Additional questions are now raised by the Senate Judiciary Chairman.

♦The FBI has begun a new review of the Clinton Foundation pay-to-play network during Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Dept. Investigators are questioning the people within the Clinton foundation about actions taken as a result of donations to the foundation.

♦A federal judge has ruled that Fusion GPS must turn over it’s bank records to the House Intelligence Committee. Including records of financial payments to journalists and media outlets to push the Christopher Steele “Dossier” story.

♦House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes will be receiving all remaining DOJ documents, without redaction, that pertain to the 2016 DOJ/FBI FISA court application. In addition eight key members of the FBI “small group” will be questioned by the committee.

♦The Dept. of Justice it reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email use; and how both Clinton and her aide Huma Abedin used, shared and stored classified documents on their personal servers and devices.

♦Paul Manafort sues Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his probe due to a claim of overreach and operating outside the scope of his legal authority from congress.

Additionally, the DOJ Office of Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, is anticipated to deliver 1.2 million documents, from a year-long investigation into the FBI/DOJ, to House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte on January 15th.

It is easy to get stuck in the weeds on any individual storyline within the larger network of ongoing investigations. However, the bigger picture is found in the commonality all of these investigations hold.

The single thread that binds all of these stories together is the political use of the FBI and DOJ by former and current officials within each department….

In addition to the FBI and DOJ leadership, a small group of around 20 people participated in the weaponization of the FBI Counterintelligence Unit, the DOJ National Security Division, and later the Robert Mueller Special Counsel investigation. All of the investigative headlines surround the former political use of the FBI and DOJ.

Chairman Devin Nunes (Intelligence Committee), is looking specifically at the unlawful use of federal intelligence agencies for political purposes; including domestic spying operations on political opponents, and the unlawful use of FISA 702(16)(17) captures by operators within all divisions of the intelligence community.

Chairman Bob Goodlatte (House Judiciary Committee), and Chairman Chuck Grassley (Senate Judicial Committee), both have oversight over the FBI and DOJ. They are looking at the overall political activity of the DOJ and FBI.

On January 1st I expressed optimism because I can see how this methodical investigative approach makes the most sense. There is a clear plan, a coordinated plan, visible within the sequencing. The current headlines solidify that perspective.

As Devin Nunes gets specific information from the DOJ and FBI for his overall intelligence investigation, Goodlatte and Grassley continue gathering their information. Directly related to the release of documents to Chairman Nunes, I would advise everyone to remember the ongoing leak investigations and the sting operations as previously cited.

In the coming ten days do not be surprised to see numerous leaks to the Washington Post, New York Times or CNN that are the outcome of those continuing operations. Look for a pattern within the leaks. It would not be surprising to see variations (fake news/real leaks) of the same documents used as tracers. All of the inbound information to congress only increases the likelihood of leaks. However, we are also in the phase where the congressional leakers will have to wonder if they are a target.

Sometime this month, after the initial Inspector General Michael Horowitz release (Jan 15th), House Judiciary Chair Bob Goodlatte and Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley will likely call for a Special Counsel to investigate the upper-level management of the FBI and DOJ, all divisions.

We should support that approach. The SC can quickly put a Grand Jury together and start presenting the IG investigative evidence from Horowitz, as well as enforceable subpoenas for witnesses.