Resuming Regular Russiagate

After a weekend off, it's sort of hard to figure out where to dive back in. Let's start with John Bolton. Jerry Dunleavy, WaEx, ‘Attack on the First Amendment’: Bolton asks judge to toss Justice Department lawsuit to block book.  As I expected, Federal Judge Denies Trump Administration Attempt to Block Bolton Book (Rich Moran, PJ Media). Prior restraint  is a tough road. But Bill Barr thinks If Bolton Doesn’t Complete Review Process For Book, He ‘Forfeits’ Its Proceeds To Government. Ooo, that hurts. We'll see if he can make that stick. For his part Jerry Nadler Says: Impeaching Bill Barr Would Be a “Waste of Time”… “Instead Will Do What We Have to Do”… (sundance at CTH). They'll just harass him with document requests and subpoenas.

By using his committee to attack Bill Barr, chairman Nadler positions himself to impugn the Attorney General as a defensive strategy against any sunlight from the ongoing “outside” USAO investigations, which includes John Durham. However, Nadler doesn’t want to provide a platform where Barr can use those attacks to trigger his releases.

AG Barr brought in five+ outside U.S. attorney’s to review all of the Mueller cases as an outcome of the FISA court order to conduct a sequestration review of any/all evidence that might have been used as an outcome of the fraudulently obtained Carter Page FISA warrant.

As CTH noted at the time…. “If you consider that several DOJ offices may be involved with the material under review, including the Southern District of New York; The Eastern District of New York; The Eastern District of Virginia; The Washington DC District, and even Main Justice itself; it makes sense that outside DOJ personnel would be needed for this review.”

There’s no direct evidence the recent DOJ moves are connected to the sequestration review, but with USAO John Durham looking deeply into the background of DOJ and FBI activity surrounding the effort to target candidate Trump, and later President Trump, there could be a possibility that several lanes are merging.

Obviously, AG Barr feels very confident to make the moves and subsequent recommendations to President Trump for replacements.

Which segues nicely into the Matter of Jeffrey Berman, the head prosecutor of Southern District of New York, who has been carrying on a resistance campaign against the President, harassing him and his friends, and who was just fired by Attorney General Barr. Andrea Widburg at AmThink, The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York forgets Trump is his boss

Because President Trump is the People’s chosen Big Boss, the employees in the Department of Justice serve at his pleasure. This means that, subject to a few judge-made limitations, Trump and his agent, the Attorney General, have ultimate control over hiring and firing. Members of the swamp, however, no longer believe that they are constrained by statutory or constitutional limitations. They believe that their jobs are permanent benefices of the type that made the British government one of the most corrupt in the world at the end of the 18th century.

All of which gets us to Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. During the Obama administration, the Southern District exerted itself to prosecute people who made Obama uncomfortable. Famously, it went after Dinesh D’Souza, a ferocious Obama critique, for a campaign finance contribution issue in an amount so small no one had previously been hounded into prison for such a sum. Of late, the same district has dedicated itself to harassing Trump and anyone connected with him.

On Friday, Attorney General Barr announced that Berman would be stepping down so that the President could nominate Jay Clayton to serve in his place. That same evening, Berman announced, “Not so fast, Buster. I’m not leaving and you can’t make me.”

Probably true, but not helpful, Rudy Giuliani says Trump may have fired US attorney over ‘bullsh--’ investigations: report Sundance, Attorney General Bill Barr Removes SDNY Attorney Geoffrey Berman – UPDATE: Berman Refuses to Leave… and then AG Bill Barr Responds to Berman: President Trump Fired You Effective Today – UPDATE Berman Responds: “I’m Leaving”…. Of course, most of the rest of the snakes are still in the den, but this may prompt them to keep their heads down.

The AG can, likely has, achieved this mechanism by baiting Democrats and media into framing him as being political. Reacting to the demands, Barr then releases his investigative findings as an outcome of accusations against him; while simultaneously saying it wasn’t his idea to bring this stuff to the surface, but he is being forced to by the false narrative(s) framed to impugn his motive.

This approach captures the attention of the public and positions political and media opposition in a way they can’t accuse Barr of improper motive because it is their claims and accusations that have driven the need for sunlight. The opposition are the initiators.

The Democrats and Media will have thrown Br’er Barr into the briar patch, and now Barr is forced to explain all of the background material so that everyone can understand.

Sundance also sends Sunday Talks: AG Bill Barr Lengthy Interview With Maria Bartiromo: COVID-19 Stopped Durham Probe…

Watch Ms. Bartiromo’s glasses after she asked about Mifsud (at 11:38)

Sundance also issues a challenge, Professor Joseph Mifsud Was Activated by Israeli Intelligence – Prove Me Wrong…

Ric Grenell, the gift that keeps on giving, from Red State, Richard Grenell Gets CNN’s Erin Burnett So Flustered That She Tries to Lie to Cover

.@RichardGrenell just nuked @CNN pic.twitter.com/w1KSz5Pgz2

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 20, 2020

Vicky Taft at PJ Media, Intelligence Analyst Is Going to Prison for Leaking Classified Intel to NBC. Is Comey Watching?

A former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst is going to federal prison for as long as 30 months for leaking classified intelligence to his girlfriend at NBC News.

Is it a precursor to what may become of former FBI Director James Comey if he ever faces the courts for his leaking to the media and lying?

In a news release, the Department of Justice says that Henry Kyle Frese held a Top Secret//Sensitive Compartmented Information intelligence security clearance. He lived with his girlfriend in the D.C. area and gave her leaked materials to help with her job. He even retweeted her stories on Twitter, according to the DOJ.

The Washington Examiner reported that the defense attorney for Frese says the 31-year-old analyst leaked the intelligence information to help out his girlfriend, whose career at NBC was stalling out.