Some Sunday Russiagate

Kind of of weak this morning. Could it be fading, or is it just taking a break while the Reign of Pain (government shutdown) sorts itself out?

Sundance at CTH reacts to the news that the Mueller Grand Jury Term has been Extended Another Six Months…

. . . Additionally, following discovery of Pelosi’s committee modifications there has been some chatter amid the Lawfare group about the possibility of an interim Mueller report to be used as the backdrop for Ejijah Cummings (Oversight of White House), Adam Schiff (HPSCI); and Jerry Nadler (House Judiciary).

It’s important to note when we use the term “Mueller” in these contexts, CTH is discussing the special counsel team and not the individual. Also when we approach the term “impeachment” we are not discussing it as the technical and legal approach for removal of a President; but rather the political use of the process to damage President Donald Trump.

Professional political Democrats would not be using “impeachment” in the constitutional sense of the process; but rather weaponizing the process -as a tool itself- to target the executive office.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi giving a new, much more narrow, mandate to Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, to target the White House exclusively, is evidence of that political fine-tuning and House intent.

So forget oversight of the executive branch as a whole, now the committee will focus solely on the President? At least their being honest about it. If you look at the whole executive branch, you might accidentally trip over some of the illegal activities of the resistance.

As I've said before, I would be in favor of a permanent office of Special Counsel, always composed of partisans from the other side, directed to find any available dirt on the President, always, of course, starting at the next change in administration. But now that Pelosi claims to the be the head of a co-equal branch of government, shouldn't we extend the same courtesy to the Speaker of the House? If she has nothing to hide . . .

As for the report that the Mueller team would provide the interim report to help the Democratic oversight?

If the Lawfare chatter is accurate, CTH would predict the narrative around an interim report would be the honorable team of Robert Mueller: (1) justifying their magnanimous investigative work; (2) a responsibility to share their current status/findings with a new congress (considering leadership changes); and (3) because they are such honorable stewards of taxpayer funds they owe it to the American public to give a status report. Blah, blah, blah… well, you get the picture.

This approach by Rosenstein/Mueller would give Democrats the best of both worlds. A report they can use to begin oversight hearings; and yet the Mueller investigation continues without any end in sight. So long as any special counsel investigation is ongoing, Mueller’s primary objective is retained:

1. Create an investigation – Just by creating the investigation it is then used as a shield by any corrupt FBI/DOJ official who would find himself/herself under downstream congressional investigation. Former officials being deposed/questioned by IG Horowitz or Congress could then say they are unable to answer those questions due to the ongoing special counsel investigation. In this way Mueller provides cover for ideologically aligned deep state officials.
2. Use the investigation to keep any and all inquiry focused away from the corrupt DOJ and FBI activity that took place in 2015, 2016, 2017. Keep the media narrative looking somewhere, anywhere, other than directly at the epicenter of the issues. In this way, Mueller provides distraction and talking points against the Trump administration.
3. Use the investigation to suck-up, absorb, any damaging investigative material that might surface as a result of tangentially related inquiry. Example: control the exposure of evidence against classified leak participants like SSCI Director of Security, James Wolfe; and/or block IG Horowitz from seeing material related to the FISA abuse scandal and “spygate”. In this way Mueller provides cover for the institutions and the administrative state.

A testable prediction? How novel! I'm looking forward to Attorney General Barr taking charge of the Mueller team. Related, Michael Isakoff via AOL House 'will open up money-laundering inquiry' into Trump-Russia ties, says key Democrat

A key Democrat on the House intelligence committee said the panel plans to start the new session of Congress by aggressively investigating President Trump’s finances, contending that there is already “probable cause” to believe his business was complicit in money laundering from Russia dating back to the early 2000s.

“We will open up a money-laundering inquiry as to whether the Russians were laundering money through the Trump organization,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., a member of both the House intelligence and judiciary committees, on the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery. “To use a prosecutor’s phrase, I think we have probable cause to do that, based on the Trump family’s own admissions that they had money coming in from Russia.”

The comments by Swalwell, who has represented California’s 15th District since 2013 and says he is seriously considering a run for president in 2020, are the most specific yet to outline how Democrats on the intelligence committee plan to pick up a Russia investigation that was cut short by the panel’s previous Republican leaders last year.

And on the issue of Paul Whelan, arrested by the Kremlin for spying, in what could be retaliation for the coerced confession of Maria Butina for for the crime of unregistered lobbying (although, in the press you will always see it written up as being a "Russian agent"), Moscow says FBI arrested Russian a day after it detained ex-U.S. Marine

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday the United States had detained a Russian citizen, a day after Moscow arrested the former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan on suspicion of spying.

The ministry said the United States detained Russian citizen Dmitry Makarenko on Dec. 29 on the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific Ocean, and had transferred him to Florida.

“... Makarenko, born in 1979, has arrived on Saipan Island with his wife, underage children and elderly parents. He was detained by FBI personnel at the airport right after his arrival,” the ministry said.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow could not immediately be reached for comment. A State Department spokesman in Washington referred a request for comment to the Department of Justice, which did not immediately respond.

Well, it could be unrelated, but it could also be part of the great game.