"Did Steele do anything illegal? Not that we are aware of. "

The Steele piece in this is interesting, and still a little unclear. Pubs have said that Steele lied to the FBI. This would show the FBI was seriously incompetent and clueless in following Steele, and presenting some of his stuff to the FISA court. OTOH, we know the FBI says they ended their relationship with Steele and lost confidence in him.
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"But Steele's employer at the time, opposition research firm Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, testified to Congress that Steele ended his relationship with the FBI because he was concerned that the bureau wasn't doing enough to look into the Trump-Russia connection. "
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Conservative Kim Strassel kind of lays out the options below. Comey repeatedly described Steele as a "reliable source", but I've always wondered if the FBI really thought so, given that Steele was not acting as a British spy, but as a freelancer, now using previous experience and contacts for personal gain.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/did-steele-really-snooker-the-fbi-1517777715


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/02/05/republicans-are-uniting-to-impugn-ex-spy-christopher-steele-but-to-what-end/?utm_term=.e215f007f0b8

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The Flynn judge recused himself (no reason given) a week after getting the plea deal. New judge that is a stickler...well, this piece kind of outlines things; the conservative take (hope), as well as point out that lawyers from either side agree that the sentencing delay is unusual.
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“The judge on his own, not in response to any application from General Flynn’s lawyers says, ‘By the way, I want all exculpatory evidence, evidence that could help Flynn or hurt the government turned over to Flynn’s lawyers,'” Napolitano said on Fox News Tuesday.
“Why would he we want that after General Flynn has already pleaded guilty? That is unheard of. He must suspect a defect in the guilty plea. Meaning, he must have reason to believe that General Flynn pleaded guilty for some reason other than guilt.”
Other legal experts cautioned that it would be premature to make such a conclusion based on the court order alone.
They pointed to Sullivan’s past work overseeing the trial of former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), in which the judge faulted prosecutors for misconduct in failing to turn over exculpatory evidence.
Still, experts acknowledged that such an order would typically be seen as unusual, especially in cases in which the defendant has already pleaded guilty.
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http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/374730-judicial-order-in-flynn-case-prompts-new-round-of-scrutiny

Hmm, I didn't know that. But there could be any reason for the initial recusal, for example personally knowing someone involved as a witness, etc.

Might be premature to start weaving the "conservative hope" narrative into the proceedings, when it could be purely procedural.

One good thing about things like this is it's educational. People with no detailed understanding of these kinds of legal cases are suddenly doing a lot of Wikipedia reading! (myself included).

Looks like it may soon be Comey Time. Here's some of the Comey content from a Time piece on real problems in the FBI...yes, Trump is a big one.

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"The Justice Department’s Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, will soon release a much-anticipated assessment of Democratic and Republican charges that officials at the FBI interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign. That year-long probe, sources familiar with it tell TIME, is expected to come down particularly hard on former FBI director James Comey, who is currently on a high-profile book tour. It will likely find that Comey breached Justice Department protocols in a July 5, 2016, press conference when he criticized Hillary Clinton for using a private email server as Secretary of State even as he cleared her of any crimes, the sources say. The report is expected to also hit Comey for the way he reopened the Clinton email probe less than two weeks before the election, the sources say."
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"Many of the bureau’s woes developed on Comey’s 3½-year watch. They extend beyond the most visible controversies, like the Clinton email and Russia investigations, to his costly confrontation with Apple over unlocking an iPhone used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino, Calif., shooting in 2015, and beyond. Critics say Comey’s penchant for high-profile moral fights has, ironically, undermined the bureau’s reputation. Trump himself has used that line of argument to challenge the FBI."
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http://time.com/5264153/the-fbi-is-in-crisis-and-america-is-paying-the-price/?xid=tcoshare