Not surprisingly, the media, which spent years repeating the false Russian collusion claims, is doing a full-court press to kill the story. Yet, many of these key figures are retaining counsel in anticipation of the unfolding investigation. Many previously secured contracts with MSNBC or CNN, or book deals, where they doubled down on the false claims detailed in these new documents. Here are just a few of the usual suspects:

Brennan is arguably the most at risk in the new disclosures, which appear to contradict his prior testimony before Congress. On May 23, 2017, Brennan testified that the infamous Steele dossier "wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done."

However, the new material shows that Brennan was the key figure insisting on the inclusion of the Steele dossier in an intelligence assessment, suggesting that the Russians did influence the election in favor of Trump.

Brennan not only intervened to include the dossier but overruled the CIA’s two most senior Russia experts, who said it "did not meet even the most basic tradecraft standards." One analyst recounted how "[Brennan] refused to remove it, and when confronted with the dossier’s main flaws, responded, ‘Yes, but doesn’t it ring true?’"

James Clapper, former DNI under Obama, is expecting the worst and said that he has "lawyered up." Clapper was in the briefing in July 2016 when Obama was told that Clinton was planning to create a Russian conspiracy narrative. In November 2016, Clapper received an assessment from the intelligence community that Russia was "probably not trying … to influence the election by using cyber means." He also received talking points from staff on Dec. 7, 2016, "Foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on election infrastructure to alter the US Presidential election outcome."

Clapper later joined Obama with Brennan, Susan Rice, John Kerry, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe and others, in a meeting where a new assessment was ordered that would detail the "tools Moscow used and actions it took to influence the 2016 election." Brennan then reportedly handpicked the analysts who seemed to flip the earlier assessments without any credible intelligence.

James Comey would use this contrived intelligence to green-light the investigations that overwhelmed the first Trump term.

Comey repeatedly testified to a lack of memory on key decisions made in the Russian investigation. However, documents show that it was Comey who pushed back on a planned statement by Clapper, stating that they had not determined the dossier to be reliable.

Andrew McCabe, now a CNN contributor, was fired after career Justice Department officials found that the former acting FBI director not only lied to investigators but deserved to be fired. That recommendation was reportedly embraced by the career officials in the inspector general’s office. He was accused of lying four times, including twice under oath.

Not surprisingly, McCabe makes appearances in the new disclosures. He is not only present at critical meetings, but it also appears that McCabe was allegedly responsible for blocking congressional investigators from interviewing the FBI analysts who supported Brennan and drafters of the controversial ICA. Congress alleged that at least 30 FBI employees associated with the dossier were walled off by McCabe. LINK