Required reading from around the web of the best, most interesting, or most though provoking things we’ve read:
Johnson: The Brennan factor revisited
“It is easy to forget the critical role played by Brennan in the still mysterious origin of the counterintelligence investigation that culminated in the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel. Kim Strassel focuses on Brennan in her weekly Wall Street Journal column today. She reviews the record to date: Mr. Brennan has taken credit for launching the Trump investigation. At a House Intelligence Committee hearing in May 2017, he explained that he became ‘aware of intelligence and information about contacts between Russian officials and U.S. persons.’ The CIA can’t investigate U.S. citizens, but he made sure that ‘every information and bit of intelligence’ was ‘shared with the bureau,’ meaning the FBI. This information, he said, ‘served as the basis for the FBI investigation.’ My sources suggest Mr. Brennan was overstating his initial role, but either way, by his own testimony, he as an Obama-Clinton partisan was pushing information to the FBI and pressuring it to act.More notable, Mr. Brennan then took the lead on. . .”
Lieu: Tony Podesta offered immunity to testify against Paul Manafort
“Podesta is the founder of the Podesta Group and brother of John Podesta, who was chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. […] The Podesta Group reportedly worked with Manafort — a former chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign — to lobby on behalf of Ukrainian interests in the United States, without properly registering at the time under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), Carlson said. […] ‘In other words, for a near identical crime, Bill and Hillary’s friend could escape and emerge completely unscathed while Paul Manafort may rot in jail,’ Carlson said.”
Seibler: Federal Court Hands Trump a Win, Brings Rogue Agency Under Tighter Control
“President Donald Trump will soon be able to use his famous catch phrase against the head of a troubled federal agency, the Fair Housing Finance Agency, which is led by a single Obama appointee with no meaningful oversight from the president.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the agency’s structure is unconstitutional. In Collins v. Mnuchin, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit issued a per curiam opinion holding that Congress unconstitutionally ‘insulated the [Fair Housing Finance Agency] to the point where the executive branch cannot control the [agency] or hold it accountable.'”