Epiphany IS a Christian Feast, but It's also Any Sudden Revelation and That's What AG Sessions Is Now Showing Us

SATURDAY IS THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY. • Many Christians around the world annually celebrate Epiphany on January 6. It is a public holiday in many countries and marks two events in Jesus Christ’s life, according to the Christian Bible. The first event was when the Magi -- the three wise men, or kings, visited infant Jesus. This is often referred to as the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles, represented by the Magi. The second event was when Saint John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Many Christian children like to dress up as the eastern Wise men who followed the star to Bethlehem. And, indeed, Epiphany, or Theophania as it is known in the Eastern and Orthodox Church, was first celebrated in the eastern Church and then made its way to Rome. Epiphany, which is 12 days after Christmas in the Gregorian calendar, marks not only the end of the Christmas holidays but also the start of the Carnival season, which climaxes with Mardi Gras. In some European countries, such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia, children dress as the three kings and visit houses. In their roles as the kings, or wise men, they sing about the birht of Jesus and pay homage to the “king of kings”. They are rewarded with praise and cookies. Dia de los Reyes Magos is the Latin American celebration of Epiphany. In many Latin American countries, it is the three wise men and not Santa Claus who bring gifts for children. Children write letters to the wise men telling them how good they were and what gifts they want. In France Le Jour des Rois (the Day of Kings), sometimes called the Fête des Rois, is celebrated with parties for children and adults. The galette des rois, or “cake of kings”, highlights these celebrations. This cake is round and flat, cut in the pantry, covered with a white napkin and carried into a dining room. Inside one piece is a feve, or little porcelain image of a person or animal from the cheche, and the one who gets the feve is honored by wearing a crown for the day. Children in Spain fill their shoes with straw or grain for the three kings’ horses to eat and place them on balconies or by the front door on Epiphany Eve. The next day they find cookies, sweets or gifts in their place. The “three kings” make an entry in many cities in Spain on Epiphany Eve, accompanied by military bands and drummers in medieval dress. Epiphany, which means “manifestation” or “showing forth,” is one of the oldest Christian feasts. It has been celebrated since the end of the second century, before the Christmas holiday was established and the Gregorian calendar was introduced. The kings are important because their visit illustrates that Jesus was the king of all kings who came for the Jews and the Gentiles. The three Magi gave gifts to Jesus -- Gold (fit for a king), Frankincense (used to worship at a temple), and Myrrh (used for embalming, as well as a salve for irritations such as diaper rash). • • • EPIPHANY ALSO MEANS A MOMENT OF SUDDEN GREAT REVELATION OR REALIZATION. And in this sense, there are a lot of epiphanies occurring at the beginning of 2108. • • • THE CLINTONS ARE FINALLY BEING HELD TO EQUAL JUSTICE. Not the justice reserved for the elites. LifeZette calls it the "The Two Clinton Issues That Could Shake America in 2018." • • • THE EMAIL CASE. The questions around the fact that Hillary Clinton has never been charged with mishandling classified national security documents during her four years as Secretary of State raise serious doubts about whether justice is applied equally to powerful and influential citizens, as well as everyday Americans. The email investigation was overseen by FBI Director James Comey, who succeeded Mueller as FBI Director. Revelations of Comey’s preferential treatment of Clinton and her top aides and his unprecedented absolution of her in July 2016 have prompted growing outrage among congressional Republicans. FBI chief Comey told the nation he would not recommend prosecution of Clinton, even though at least 22 emails on her private server were found to contain highly classified material, and federal law stipulates jail time and other stiff penalties for gross negligence in handling such documents. The intent of the person mishandling the documents is irrelevant under the law. In effect, according to former US Attorney Andrew C. McCarthy, writing in National Review the day Comey announced his decision, the FBI chief “rewrote the statute” to “give Mrs. Clinton a pass.” • BUT, the email issue isn’t going away for Clinton any time soon. Last week, the State Department released hundreds of emails from the Clinton server that were found by the FBI on a laptop owned by Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her estranged husband, former Representative Anthony Weiner. At least five of those emails contained highly classified information. “The fact that classified information has been found from Clinton and Abedin on Weiner’s laptop shows the urgent need for a criminal investigation by the Justice Department,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. The emails were made public in litigation brought against the State Department by Judicial Watch. • Even President Trump has noted the "special" treatment. Trump last Tuesday seemingly called for the Justice Department to look into Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s former aide, and James Comey, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations whne he tweeted : "Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others." Trump's tweet come after the report published last Monday by The Daily Caller said Abedin forwarded State Department emails, including passwords to government systems, to her private email account on Yahoo before it was hacked. Their analysis was based on emails obtained by Judicial Watch as part of a lawsuit. Abedin, the top aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, used her non-secure personal email provider to conduct sensitive work, guaranteeing that an account with high-level correspondence in Clinton’s State Department was impacted by one or more of a series of breaches -- at least one of which was perpetrated by a “state-sponsored actor.” The US later charged Russian intelligence agent Igor Sushchin with hacking 500 million Yahoo email accounts. The initial hack occurred in 2014 and allowed his associates to access accounts into 2015 and 2016 by using forged cookies. Sushchin also worked for the Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital, which paid former President Bill Clinton $500,000 for a June 2010 speech in Moscow. A separate hack in 2013 compromised three billion accounts across multiple Yahoo properties, and the culprit is still unclear. “All Yahoo user accounts were affected by the August 2013 theft,” the company said in a statement. According to an FBI report, Abedin regularly forward government emails to her Yahoo account. In August 2009, the emails forwarded to her private account included one that contained password information for her government laptop. Comey said in 2016 that emails of Clinton associated had been compromised : "We do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private email accounts of individuals with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her private account.” • Lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee who attended a December 21 closed-door briefing by FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe say he confirmed that the Hillary email investigation and charging decisions were controlled by a small group in Washington headquarters rather the normal process of allowing field offices to investigate possible criminality in their localities. The Clinton email server in question was based in New York. Republicans on the committee say the findings and revelations have left them more convinced than ever that FBI leadership rigged the outcome to clear Clinton. Well, well. On January 2 we learned that Congressional investigators have found "irregularities" and "contradictions" inside the FBI’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server. For the first time, investigators say they have secured written evidence that the FBI believed there was evidence that some laws were broken when the former secretary of State and her top aides transmitted classified information through her insecure private email server, lawmakers and investigators told TheHill. That evidence includes passages in FBI documents stating the “sheer volume” of classified information that flowed through Clinton’s insecure emails was proof of criminality as well as an admission of false statements by one key witness in the case, the investigators said. • And, on January ' we learned from the Washington Examiner that the Department of Justice has "caved to pressure from the White House" and is reportedly reopening the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. According to the Daily Beast, there is a new effort in the DOJ to get new details on how Clinton and her aides -- including former top aide Huma Abedin -- handled classified material. The effort will look at how much classified information was on her private email server, and how that information got there. The previous FBI investigation resulted in no criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton for her use of the email server. • And, in the first quarter of 2018, the Justice Department Inspector Deneral is expected to release initial findings in what has become a wide-ranging probe into the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email case as well as whether agents and supervisors had political connections, ethical conflicts or biases that affected their work. • The FBI has confirmed that a key witness, the computer technician who deleted Clinton emails from her server in March 2015 after a congressional subpoena had been issued for them, originally lied to the FBI during his interviews, memos show. The witness's name was redacted from documents released by the FBI but he was identified as an employee of a computer firm that helped maintained Clinton’s email server. The computer employee originally told the FBI in a February 2016 interview that he did not recall making any deletions from Clinton’s server in March 2015, FBI records show. But then on May 3, 2016, the same employee in a subsequent FBI interview told agents he had an “oh sh*t moment” and in late March 2015 deleted Clinton’s email archive from the server, according to FBI documents reviewed by TheHill. Lying to the FBI is a federal felony, a crime that former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn recently pleaded guilty to. But the FBI decided not to pursue criminal charges against the witness, and instead gave the technician an immunity deal so he could correct his story, congressional investigators said. • Republican investigators say the most glaring irregularity they have found is the decision to begin drafting a statement exonerating Clinton before much of the investigative interviewing and evidence gathering was even done. While the first draft of the statement was dated May 2, 2016, FBI records gathered by congressional investigators show agents were still receiving evidence responsive to grand jury subpoenas well after that, including documents and other evidentiary items logged on May 13, May 19 and May 26. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley's staff says 17 witnesses, including Clinton, were interviewed after the decision was already made. Grassley said : “Making a conclusion before you interview key fact witnesses and the subject herself violates the very premise of good investigation. You don't lock into a theory until you have the facts. Here the evidence that isn't public yet shows they locked into the theory and then edited out the facts that contradicted it.” • A senior law enforcement official directly familiar with the investigation, speaking only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, told TheHill that the FBI “did have evidence of statutory violations” but the decision not to prosecute was driven by a belief that there wasn’t enough proof Clinton and aides intended to violate those laws or even knew they were violating them." • • • THE RUSSIA DOSSIER. Fox News reported on January 4 that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said Wednesday that an invitation for the research company behind the “Trump Dossier” to testify in public remains “on the table” -- while outlining the chairman of the firm’s reluctance to do so. Grassley was responding to a New York Times op-ed in which Fusion GPS founders Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch accused congressional Republicans of refusing to release testimony to the public, but leaking certain details to friendly outlets. But, Grassley spokesperson Taylor Foy said in a statement that Grassley “has always been and remains for transparency” and that certain “investigative factors” must be considered to protect information during an ongoing inquiry. Foy added that Simpson has previously used his Fifth Amendment right to push for a closed-door interview. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, on whether a new special counsel should be appointed to investigate whether the anti-Trump Dossier was used in Russia investigation, said the President has 'great concern' over some of the conduct that has taken place and would like it looked at. • And, on January 4 we learned from Fox News that two top Republican Senators -- Grassley and Graham -- have formally recommended that the Justice Department and FBI investigate the author of the controversial anti-Trump “dossier,” in the first known criminal referral from Congress as part of lawmakers’ Russia probes. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Senator Lindsey Graham made the referral in a January 4-dated letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray. The move ramps up congressional Republicans’ investigation of the salacious document and those involved in creating it, as Special Counsel Robert Mueller continues to probe Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump associates. In their brief letter, the GOP lawmakers cited potential violations for false statements “the Committee has reason to believe Mr. Steele made regarding his distribution of information contained in the dossier.” Senator Geessley told reporters : "I don’t take lightly making a referral for criminal investigation. But, as I would with any credible evidence of a crime unearthed in the course of our investigations, I feel obliged to pass that information along to the Justice Department for appropriate review." Their letter cited potential violations of a section of the criminal code pertaining to making false statements or concealing facts. A committee tweet said investigators had reviewed material that revealed "significant inconsistencies in statements provided to authorities." • • • THE CLINTON FOUNDATION. The Clinton Foundation began in 1997 as the former President’s library but became the $2 billion entity described by nonprofit expert Charles Ortel as “the biggest charity fraud ever.” Ortel believes former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, especially during her tenure as President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, used the family foundation as a vehicle for selling their influence and becoming wealthy in the process, thanks in great part to the lack of politically independent regulation of charities soliciting funds and operating programs in multiple countries around the globe. Ortel claims “the sad truth is that international charities are perfect vehicles for influence-peddling, and for financial mischief, especially when they are overseen by conflicted directors/trustees, and ‘audited’ by under-resourced professional firms." And, it could be the Clinton Foundation’s illegal international fundraising and operations that prove to be its undoing in 2018, according to Ortel. A major French government investigation has been in progress for months, and a similar probe is shaping up in Sweden, he said. The Foundation has received millions of dollars from both governments and from private entities in those countries. The French and Swedish investigations are in addition to the two known to have been conducted by the Department of Justice and the FBI. The first was during then-President George W. Bush’s first term and was overseen by then-FBI Director Robert Mueller with his then-chief deputy, James Comey, in 2004 and 2005. Nothing came of the Mueller-Comey probe -- Surprise! The second US investigation was first reported by the Daily Caller in a March 9, 2016, story that cited former US Attorney Joseph diGenova and an unnamed former FBI agent. That investigation was reportedly being conducted by the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Division. • And, this week Fox News has confirmed that the Justice Department has launched another investigation into allegations the Clinton Foundation used "pay to play" politics while Hillary Clinton was US Secretary of State. Sources close to the investigation told Fox News the probe, led by the US attorney’s office and the FBI in Little Rock, Arkansas, has been ongoing for months. Fox News has learned that investigators have already conducted multiple interviews associated with the probe. Fox News also has learned investigators are looking into whether the Clinton Foundation violated tax law. Accusers of "pay to play" have claimed the foundation promised favors in exchange for donations or pledges of cash or gifts. TheHill, which broke the story Thursday evening, added that FBI agents have taken the lead in the investigation and have interviewed at least one witness in the last month. The witness said that agents inquired specifically about donations to Clinton entities and official government actions during Clinton's leadership of the State Department under President Obama, according to TheHill, which also reported that law enforcement officials said there will be "additional activities" relating to the investigation in the coming weeks. • In a statement to Fox News, Clinton Foundation spokesman Craig Minassian suggested that the organization had done nothing improper : “Time after time, the Clinton Foundation has been subjected to politically motivated allegations, and time after time these allegations have been proven false. None of this has made us waver in our mission to help people." Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill told Fox News that the investigation is an attempt by the Trump administration to distract the public : "Let’s call this what it is: A sham. This is a philanthropy that does life-changing work, which Republicans have tried to turn into a political football. It began with a long-debunked project spearheaded by Steve Bannon during the presidential campaign. It continues with Jeff Sessions doing Trump’s bidding by heeding his calls to meddle with a department that is supposed to function independently. The goal is to distract from the indictments, guilty pleas, and accusations of treason from Trump’s own people at the expense of our justice system’s integrity. It’s disgraceful, and should be concerning to all Americans." • Late last year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions told prosecutors to evaluate “certain issues” raised by congressional Republicans cocerning alleged unlawful dealings related to the Clinton Foundation, leading to speculation about the potential appointment of another special counsel. In September, Judicial Watch said that emails from Clinton aide Huma Abedin's account showed Clinton Foundation donors requesting and receiving favors from the State Department. • • • DEAR READERS, these new revelations are an epiphany -- after 18 months nothing happening in the Clinton email case or the pay-for-play scheme of the Clinton Foundation while Hillary was Secretary of State, we are getting some action from the FBI and the DOJ. And, as I have hoped and prayed for all along, it seems that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is doing his job. And, based on the fact that we have not had leaks about most of the work his attorneys nadstaff have been engaged in during the past year, it seems Sessions has also tightened up the DOJ's loose and leaking lips and it is now doing what it should -- saying nothing until the investigation reaches maturity and a direction is decided on. That is a real epiphany.