Lo and behold, immediately after Wray saw the document, it is reported that by Monday FBI Deputy Director McCabe has stepped down, effective immediately. McCabe had previously announced he would be stepping down in March, meaning this was not scheduled to occur on Monday, January 29th, suggesting that after reading the FISA abuse memo, Wray, who had reportedly balked at removing McCabe prior to seeing the memo, had a change of heart.
The memo purports to show abuses at the highest levels of the DOJ and FBI, and given the fact that it took less than a day after FBI Director saw the four-page memo, to see McCabe early leave, indicates the malfeasance documented within the memo is as "explosive," and "jaw-dropping" as House members have been asserting since January 18th when the House Intelligence Committee voted along party lines to allow the full 435 members of congress to access the classified memo.
According to Rep. Trey Gowdy who has seen not only the memo, but is one of the few members of congress that has seen all the underlying documentation to support the assertions in the memo, "If you … want to know whether or not the dossier was used in court proceedings, whether or not it was vetted before it was used. … If you are interested in who paid for the dossier … then, yes, you'll want the memo to come out,” Gowdy told “Fox News Sunday." (Source - Fox News)
One of the first concerns of mine upon learning of McCabe's exit was that the FBI Director would lose "control" of the embattled now-former Deputy FBI Director, but upon further research we learn that while he is leaving, and will no longer have the ability to taint, or otherwise do any damage within the agency, he will be on "terminal leave," meaning still on payroll, which some might not appreciate, but it does prevent him from turning "rogue" to the point where he can deliberately do damage via press leaks about classified, or push anti-Trump propaganda.
This begs the question of whether he will be allowed to stay on payroll until he is eligible to retire with his pension, or if this is a way to keep him under control until charges can be brought, before March 2018. We will be keeping a close eye on that concern throughout the next weeks.
HEADS ARE ROLLING - NOW SESSIONS HAS A ROSENSTEIN/MUELLER PROBLEM
The last name "leaked" to the Daily Beast that is supposedly specifically mentioned in the House Intelligence Committee FISA abuse memo is Rod Rosenstein, and here is where things get dicey. Rosenstein is the Deputy AG, and is also the same man that appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel in the Russia collusion probe. New reports show that Rosenstein is also the person that signed off on on the FISA application to extend surveillance on Trump campaign team member Carter Page.
In the classified memo that has become the object of a #ReleaseTheMemo campaign, it is reportedly bullet points, gathered from classified documentation that shows the discredited and unverified, Kremlin sourced Steele dossier, that was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC, was used to obtain the original FISA court approval to surveil Trump campaign members.
Since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation on the advice of the Ethics division, that leaves Rosenstein responsible for oversight on Robert Mueller's investigation, so if he is compromised, there are limited options as to what moves need to be taken to prevent his association with an investigation.
Option One: Sessions removes Rosenstein and replaces him with someone else, that person would then need to get caught up as well as unraveling the mess as to what Mueller investigation evidence is tainted under the Fruit of the Poisonous Tree doctrine, because if any of it was compiled from a FISA warrant that was obtained under false pretenses, than all information gathered using said warrant and surveillance is thereby tainted.
Option Two: Sessions un-recuses himself so that he can provide adequate oversight into the Mueller investigation, which would set off howls from the left and Democrats about "obstruction" of the Russia investigation.
Option Three: Remove Rosenstein, replace him, then remove Mueller and name another special counsel, since Mueller's association and long-standing friendship with Comey provides the grounds to remove because of conflict of interest.
It is noteworthy that after months of the Mueller investigation, with the key mandate to investigate whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign team and Russia, not only has no evidence of collusion been found, but the four indictments from Mueller to date have been "process crimes," completely unrelated to any collusion narrative. Two were lying to the FBI and the other two were charged with issues completely unrelated to the Trump campaign.
The point here is that AG Sessions has a Rosenstein problem, which is about to become very public when the House Intelligence Committee releases the four-page memo to the general public, and Sessions is going to have to decide what to do with Rosenstein given the "perception" that Rosenstein has been compromised by his approval of the FISA extension, (among other issues) on Carter Page, when it is being asserted that the original FISA warrant was obtained using information that had not, and still has not, been verified.
BOTTOM LINE
While many are talking about McCabe suddenly stepping down, effective immediately, the fact that he is doing so just one day after FBI Director Wray accessed the four-page House Intelligence Committee's FISA abuse memo, suggests that the information contained within the memo implicates McCabe in the FISA abuses.
Also note that McCabe was also highlighted by the Senate Judiciary Committee document demand, where they are requesting "all communications to, from, copying, or relating to," 40 individuals or groups, from March 2016 through January 2017, from The Democratic National Committee (DNC), Hillary for America (HFA), Former DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Former DNC Chair Donna Brazile, HFA Chair John Podesta, and HFA Chief Strategist Joel Benenson.
It is hitting the fan ladies and gentleman and this is just the beginning.....
