A FISA FULL OF DOLLARS

According to John Ratcliffe, the DOJ Inspector general probe of FISA abuse is complete. It is important to note that John Ratcliffe is a former US Attorney and he is one of the most serious people in Washington. Unlike people like Adam Schiff, when Ratcliffe talks, people in both parties listen. He reported that this investigation is complete and they are drafting the report.

These types of reports seldom to turn out as strong as one hopes or as weak as others fear. The final product seems to always end up somewhere in the middle. But in this case, there are some important differences. One is that if Horowitz had found that the FISA warrants were properly documented, he would have reported that. That would seem to indicate that the big question is not whether they are deficient but rather why this happened.

Even if Horowitz only finds that the FISA warrants were deficient but there was no evidence of bad faith that is a huge problem for the Mueller investigation. It would mean that there was inadequate support for the investigation from day one. But, if Horowitz determines that the FISA warrants were fraudulent or that they failed to include exculpatory evidence, the results would be monstrous. That could literally render invalid all of the Mueller investigation. There are numerous court cases on this subject. If there is an investigation without a basis in probable cause there is a potential none of the evidence can be used. If there was fraud or material misrepresentation in obtaining a warrant, nothing obtained by that warrant, directly or indirectly is admissible.

Yesterday, Mike Pence cancelled an out of town appearance at the last minute. The White House is very cryptic about this, but said we will all know in a few weeks. We do not know if these two events were related. However, we do know that William Barr already has seen the unredacted report and odds are so has President Trump. The delay is in getting redactions processed. That impacts what will be reported to the public.

This caused me to ask simple questions? What would be important enough to drag Pence back to the White House that did not involve health and did not involve national security? The only previous occasions I recall where this happened was when the President was going to have an operation and be under general anesthesia. The VP was called back to provide continuity of government.

That does not appear to be happening here. There is zero evidence of a health issue with Trump. Then I asked: “What if the DOJ was about to announce indictments of people like Brennan, Comey, Clapper and perhaps even Susan Rice, or even Loretta Lynch or Hillary Clinton.” If Trump was the one who announced these decisions it would immediately turn into a political circus. The MSM would immediately attack the messenger, Trump, in a desperate attempt to distract public attention. But what if Mike Pence was the one who handled this instead? That would make it much harder for the MSM to pull that stunt. In addition, Pence is more disciplined than Trump and would be certain to stick to the message.

I only know this. Horowitz is done, a report is coming and no one is talking about this. It is often quietest just before the really big storm.

TDM