While Democrats and their media friends natter on about impeachment and quid pro quos, trying to deflect from the the obvious corruption of Biden & Son and the imminent — at some point anyway — appearance of the IG report on FISA and the Steele Dossier — the real action, as it often is, is elsewhere.

In this case, it is the surprising news that two cellphones belonging to Joseph Mifsud — the mysterious Maltese professor at the heart of the Russia probe (aka Spygate) — have suddenly materialized. The Epoch Times reports:

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has obtained two phones of Joseph Mifsud, one of the central figures of the 2016 Russia investigation, and the lawyer of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has requested them, saying they likely contain exculpatory evidence. The phones, two BlackBerry models, “only recently” came into the government’s possession, said Flynn’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, a former prosecutor, in an Oct. 15 court filing (pdf).

Data and metadata on the phones “is material, exculpatory, and relevant to the defense of Mr. Flynn,” she said.

Mifsud — for those who may have been on a long vacation on Alpha Centauri – is the man who supposedly told George Papadopoulos the Russians had Hillary’s missing emails to share with the Trump campaign and therewith launched a thousand Russia probe ships. The Mueller report implies Mifsud was a Russian agent, but other indications are that he was one of ours, in which case the whole Russia probe was the most outrageous, indeed evil, misuse of U.S. intelligence in our history.

It doesn’t take the proverbial rocket scientist to figure out how these phones suddenly materialized. Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham were in Italy recently, one of Mifsud’s favorite bailiwicks — Link Campus University in Rome — and his last known whereabouts before he vanished. It’s unclear who gave Mifsud these phones and why, but, unlike others that were hammered, these particular BlackBerrys appear to be intact, their data ready for inspection or already being inspected.

After the disappointment — to put it mildly — of Jeff Sessions, many were nervous that Barr would not really follow through with his investigation. Once bitten, as they say. But the appearance of what seems like genuine evidence is a strong indication the man is for real. And this evidence wouldn’t even have to have been leaked covertly to Ms. Powell because, given what it is, there’s reason to view the phones as “Brady material” (i. e. exculpatory evidence indicating possible prosecutorial misconduct).

(Yet another indication of Barr’s strength of character worth examining is the extraordinary speech the attorney general delivered at Notre Dame last week. You should read it, if you haven’t.)

Meanwhile, one can only imagine the cold civil war going on inside the DOJ, the FBI, the CIA, and other talons of our intelligence community, the redactions being demanded in the IG report under cover of putative “national security,” not to mention the potentially far more onerous report from Durham. Many oxen live in fear of being gored.

The redoubtable Tom Fitton writes on Twitter that FBI director Christopher Wray “Wants 26 months to turn over 13,000 Strzok-Page Docs. And was trying to hide Clinton spy Steele docs in order to protect Steele’s ‘privacy.’ … Is Comey still running the FBI?”

No, Wray is, but it seems to be, as Fitton implies, another distinction without a difference. What is the director hiding here? We’ve already seen enough of Strzok-Page to know who they are — a pair of Deep State, immoral nitwits not smart enough to know that text messages are indelible. As for Steele, enough has been said about this bad fiction writer. (The dossier was so absurd only a reporter for Mother Jones or BuzzFeed would believe it, not that the truth would matter to them if the propaganda value were there — and it was.)

Wray should realize that by stonewalling he is only cementing the perception of many that the FBI is a corrupt and even nefarious organization, not ever to be trusted, the very opposite of how it should be considered. And if he was watching any of the Dallas Trump rally Thursday night, he might get a sense, by the immense size of the crowd, the startling number of people watching from outside as if this were the Super Bowl or the World Series, just how many people truly disrespect, probably even despise, what the FBI has done and what it has become. Only transparency — real transparency and the consequent punishments — will save it.

Finally, an interesting conundrum for the Graham Greene/John LeCarré wannabes out there (including me): Who gave Joseph Mifsud his marching orders and just how much did he or she tell the Maltese? And who gave the marching orders to that person, Stefan Halper or whoever it was? And so on up the line…? Perhaps, some day, Messrs. Durham and Barr will tell us. I want the movie rights.

For a somewhat less complicated story, but still with plenty of twists and turns and a lot more humor, try PJ Media co-founder Roger L. Simon’s new novel The GOAT. Have no fear – the reviews are good.