It turns out that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has not been asleep at the wheel of the Department of Justice, allowing Robert Mueller to be the only federal prosecutor investigating the potential criminality around the 2016 election.  News has been leaked to the Washington Post that a grand jury has been working for months, hearing witnesses in its investigation of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.

Matt Zapotosky writes:

Federal prosecutors have for months been using a grand jury to investigate former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe – an indication the probe into whether he misled officials exploring his role in a controversial media disclosure has intensified, two people familiar with the matter said.

The presence of the grand jury shows prosecutors are treating the matter seriously, locking in the accounts of witnesses who might later have to testify at a trial.  But such panels are sometimes used only as investigative tools, and it remains unclear if McCabe will ultimately be charged. ...

The allegations against McCabe come largely from Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, whose office concluded in a detailed report McCabe lied at least four times, three of them under oath, and he approved a media disclosure to advance his personal interests over those of the Justice Department.

Andrew McCabe (credit: Wikimedia Commons).

[Cough!] I wrote this almost half a year ago:

While there have been calls for a special counsel to investigate the DOJ and FBI scandals, and many conservatives have been outraged at the seeming passivity of "Gentleman Jeff" Sessions (aka Sessionzzz in some quarters), it now is clear (as I have already figured) that a grand jury far outside the Beltway already is hearing evidence dug up by DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz, whose report is now believed to be coming in April.  Following release of that report, expect heads to explode all over the media, all over the Deep State, and among NeverTrumps.  

The first hint that the wheels of justice already are turning came on March 7, when A.G. Sessions revealed to Shannon Bream:

I have appointed a person outside of Washington, many years in the Department of Justice to look at all the allegations that the House Judiciary Committee members sent to us; and we're conducting that investigation.

This effort outside D.C. appears to be a separate investigation from that being carried out by the "person outside D.C." that Sessions revealed but that the national media ignored.

Clarice Feldman comments:

If the WaPo has the news on the McCabe GJ, it must be almost at its conclusion.  And if it is, there's no reason to keep from releasing the unredacted FISA materials.  Nor for any further delay on the next Horowitz report,

I love it when a plan comes together.

I have long stressed that President Trump, as the master of reality television, understands the importance of a story arc.  In long form drama, a Big Reveal that comes later in a narrative can shock audience members into realizing they have been looking at the situation in question through the wrong end of a telescope.  They experience the revelations as especially full of meaning because they personally bought into the fiction for a while, before all the facts were made evident.

At some point, the phony storyline that Trump conspired with Putin to steal the election will be replaced by the storyline that a cabal of high Obama administration officials conspired with Russian sources for the phony dossier and illegitimately utilized the electronic monitoring capabilities of the NSA to spy on the Trump campaign, transition team, and first months of the administration.

Last night, former U.S. attorney for the District of Columba Joe DiGenova revealed on Fox News that sources had told him that McCabe is not alone in being under investigation.  The target he revealed: Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein.  (Hat tip: DC Whispers.)

Stay tuned.  The declassification process is underway for documents that will change everything.