There are a lot of moving parts in the investigative phase, which has lasted more than a year, to uncover a massive conspiracy, which reached the highest levels of the intelligence community. The overlapping investigations by a variety of entities has often caused confusion and consternation by observers who have been tracking the progress of said investigations.
The Investigations: Committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives have been conducting multiple investigations. The DOJ Inspector General has been investigating a variety of allegations into wrong-doing on the part of FBI and DOJ officials, current and former, since January 12, 2017. The DOJ IG, in the course of his investigation, uncovered unrelated possible criminal conduct, which he was obligated to reveal to officials in the DOJ, FBI as well as special counsel Robert Mueller in order to have those individuals removed from their positions. His investigation also led to the announcement on March 28, 2018 to another investigation into further corruption. Last but not least, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has pulled in a prosecutor from outside DC to work "in cooperation" with the DOJ IG, to lead a group of senior federal prosecutors in investigating even more possible corruption and criminal actions on the part of intelligence community members.
The investigative phase, while still ongoing, has largely been conducted, which is why we are seeing the first of the criminal referrals beginning, starting at the bottom of the heap. Calling Andrew McCabe, subject of the most recent IG criminal referral,"bottom of the heap," considering his position was FBI Deputy Director before he was forced into terminal leave, then fired, indicates just how high up the chain of command the deep state managed to infiltrate.
Note- On Thursday, those Comey memos were finally turned over to Congress after members had threatened to subpoena the DOJ for refusing to hand them over. They are embedded below, and as can be seen by the multiple redactions, because of their classified nature and their potential use in ongoing investigations, it becomes apparent that by leaking them to his friend, Comey shared classified information improperly with someone that did not have the security clearance to see them and with the specific purpose to have them leaked to the press.
Note- There is also a separate investigation being conducted by the DOJ federal investigators into the Obama-Era Uranium One deal and donations to the Clinton Foundation by Russian Officials. The DOJ is also investigating"whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of State," according to The Hill.
Loretta Lynch, Obama's former Attorney General, is being referred for potentially violating 18 usc 1505 (obstruction) and 18 USC 1515b, for threatening a former FBI informant with reprisal when he tried to come forward with information in 2016 about the Uranium One deal.
Peter Strzok and Lisa Page are being accused of interfering in the Hillary Clinton investigation into her use of a private server, citing the same obstruction violations and McCabe, Comey and Lynch were referred for.
Item 6 listed in the Congressional criminal referral is listed as "Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI personnel connected to the compilation of documents on alleged links between Russia and then-presidential candidate Donald Trump known as the 'Steele dossier,' including but not limited to Former FBI Director James Comey, Former Acting Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, and former Acting Attorney General Dana Boente.
Congress is suggesting all of the above and others responsible for signing the Carter Page FISA warrant application of violating 18 USC 242 - Deprivation of rights under color of law, and the obstruction federal code.
As a very interesting footnote (17) on the Congressional criminal referrals, they state "Due to the possible involvement of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in signing an application for continued surveillance on Carter Page, Rosenstein should be recused from any examination of FISA abuse. Accordingly, neither U.S. Attorney John Huber nor a special counsel (if appointed) should report to Rosenstein."
This whole can of worms was opened with the initiation of review from January 12, 2017, and everything that has been made public has not stemmed from leaks within the DOJ's Office of Inspector General (OIG), but from his obligation to report any criminal activity uncovered in the course of his investigation.
Conservative TreeHouse explains that obligation succinctly, stating "The DOJ Inspector General (Michael Horowitz) has an obligation to notify his superiors when he/she discovers illegal activity, or conduct that is likely unlawful, while conducting an internal investigation. The IG cannot sit on knowledge or evidence of likely criminal conduct, just because he/she is conducting an investigation. This is the same reason why IG Horowitz had to inform Special Counsel Robert Mueller in July of 2017 of the potentially unlawful conduct of members on his team (Lisa Page and Peter Strzok).
BOTTOM LINE
The IG's criminal referral against McCabe represents the first Domino being tipped over, the following dominoes are highlighted in the Congressional criminal referral, which as can be seen leads higher and higher up the chain.
To be honest the Republicans in generating their referral most likely jumped the shark as the expression goes, as the IG, working in cooperation with Huber, is following a systematic process of taking it a one step at a time, starting with what they most likely see as the weak link, McCabe. The Congressional Republicans may have just given their ultimate endgame target away by listing clinton in their criminal referral.
The reason we see McCabe as the weakest link, the catalyst that could knock all the dominoes down, was explained by Sara Carter, who has done an outstanding job of uncovering information from her sources well before any of it became public knowledge, such as the early reports that McCabe would be fired before becoming eligible for his lifetime pension.
On March 16, 2018, Carter was on The Ingraham Angle, as the story broke, after she predicted events would happen just as they did, where she told the panel and Ingraham that McCabe threatened that if he went down "I'm taking everybody else with me."
CARTER: He lied. Plain and simple he lied. A lot of former FBI agents that I spoke to say I hope he's fired. Is he going to get fired today? That's all I kept hearing all day because they realize if they had done this, they would have been fired too.
And there's a lot of ongoing investigations right now. This is not just about Michael Horowitz at the DOJ right now. Remember, there's a prosecutor looking into the unmasking, the FISA abuse that has been taking place with Carter Page in particular.
So, we have a number of investigations and McCabe is worried. He's said over and over again, if I go down, I'm taking everybody else with me.
With McCabe's criminal referral, along with his threats to take everyone else down with him, that appears to have the deep state members of the intelligence community scrambling, because as second in command under former FBI Director James Comey, McCabe most likely has plenty of incriminating information on all of them, starting with Comey, to do exactly as he said he would.
Comey and McCabe gave conflicting statements to the IG before Horowitz issued his report on McCabe, with Comey claiming McCabe never told him about the media leaks, and McCabe claiming he did, and on the day of the IG criminal referral on McCabe, Comey went on television and claimed there is an "organized campaign" to target him [Comey]. McCabe is being quoted as being "upset and disappointed" in Comey's public statements.
If these people are already turning on each other publicly, just imagine what they are telling federal investigators privately.
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