Oh Lordy – Devin Nunes Will Get Eight FBI Witnesses This Month, Including Bill Priestap… | The Last Refuge

Oh Lordy – Devin Nunes Will Get Eight FBI Witnesses This Month, Including Bill Priestap…

…"Ever watch those nature documentaries on the cable?"  Yeah.  “See the one about lions?"…

Today we get details about the DOJ deal with Chairman Devin Nunes. Included in the report from Catherine Herridge there is some really good news:

According to the letter, committee investigators also will get access to eight key witnesses this month including FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who exchanged anti-Trump text messages during an affair and previously worked on the special counsel’s Russia probe; FBI general counsel James Baker, who was reassigned; FBI head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap, whom ex-FBI boss James Comey testified made the decision not to brief Congress about the Russia case during last year’s election; and Bruce Ohr, a DOJ official reassigned after concealing meetings with figures involved in the dossier.

That’s right. For the first time the ‘one who shall not be named‘ is going to have to face questioning from congress. Bill Priestap is the FBI head of counterintelligence who has been conspicuously absent from all previous conversations. All research, including prior testimony from FBI Director James Comey (March 20th, 2017), indicates Priestap is at the epicenter of the 2016 counterintelligence operation against the Trump campaign.

Here’s the full report:

WASHINGTON DC – House investigators will get access this week to “all remaining investigative documents" – in unredacted form – that they had sought as part of their Russia inquiry, under a deal between Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., according to a letter obtained by Fox News.

The letter, from Nunes to Rosenstein, summarizes an “agreement" reached on a phone call Wednesday evening and also says key FBI and Justice Department witnesses in the probe will be provided for interviews later this month.

“It is my hope that this agreement will provide the Committee with all outstanding documents and witnesses necessary to complete its investigations," Nunes wrote.

The agreement comes after the DOJ and FBI faced a Wednesday deadline to comply, under the threat of new subpoenas and even contempt citations. Under deadline pressure, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Rosenstein met Wednesday with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to discuss the demands from the intelligence committee.

Nunes’ letter outlines the terms of the deal reached, as he seeks information that could shed light on whether the controversial anti-Trump “dossier" was used to open the Russia probe and justify surveillance on Trump campaign officials.

Nunes wrote that the committee is “extremely concerned by indications that top U.S. Government officials who were investigating a presidential campaign relied on unverified information that was funded by the opposing political campaign and was based on Russian sources."

This is a reference to the dossier’s funding from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign. Opposition research firm Fusion GPS hired former British spy Christopher Steele to compile the document, which contained salacious allegations about Trump.

The congressman originally issued subpoenas for related records on Aug. 24 that remain in effect, but the committee was stonewalled by the Justice Department and FBI for months.

Nunes said committee investigators and staff will now have access to all remaining documents during a review at the Justice Department on Friday.

According to the letter, committee investigators also will get access to eight key witnesses this month including FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who exchanged anti-Trump text messages during an affair and previously worked on the special counsel’s Russia probe; FBI general counsel James Baker, who was reassigned; FBI head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap, whom ex-FBI boss James Comey testified made the decision not to brief Congress about the Russia case during last year’s election; and Bruce Ohr, a DOJ official reassigned after concealing meetings with figures involved in the dossier.

The witnesses are directly tied to allegations of political bias.

Nunes wrote that outstanding text messages between Strzok and Page will be delivered by Jan. 11.

The agreement could subject the DOJ and FBI to a level of scrutiny to which they are not accustomed.

“The FBI in particular is not used to having its inner discussions kind of brought to light, and I think that’s of huge concern for probably people at the FBI," former Justice Department official Robert Driscoll said. (LINK)

Bill Priestap is the head of the FBI Counterintelligence operation. He was FBI Agent Peter Strozk’s direct boss. If anyone in congress really wanted to know if the FBI paid for the Christopher Steele Dossier, Bill Priestap is the guy who would know.

In April 2016 Hillary Clinton and the DNC paid Glenn Simpson with Fusion-GPS to dig up dirt on Donald Trump.

April 19th 2016 Glenn Simpson’s wife, Mary Jacoby travels to the White House.

The wife of Glenn Simpson (Fusion GPS), Mary B. Jacoby, with years of Russia-angled reporting –including Donald Trumpvisits the White House in April 2016, at the same time as the DNC and Clinton hire Fusion GPS to conduct the opposition research on Donald Trump, surrounding Russia? This timeline is entirely too obvious to be coincidental.

In May 2016 Fusion GPS hired Nellie Ohr, wife of DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr, to lead the opposition research effort. That same month, Fusion GPS contracted with retired British MI6 Agent Christopher Steele to write the ‘Trump Russia Dossier’.

On May 5, 2016, (Via Katica) FBI lawyer Lisa Page (FBI Peter Strzok mistress) was in an important meeting at the White House. On the same day, WaPo had a ‘sources say’ story about the meeting. The subject was Hillary’s emails.

Yup, “small group" FBI Lawyer Lisa Page worked on the email case, too. Here are the White House logs for the May 5th meeting:

The May 5th, 2016, meeting was after FBI Director James Comey initially drafted the exoneration letter and BEFORE James Comey met with President Obama on MAY 16th.

FBI Director James Comey met with President Obama on the morning of May 16, 2016 and by afternoon the draft letter was circulating to FBI leadership (not by Comey though).

In late June 2016 the first draft of the Steele Dossier was shared back with Fusion GPS and presumably Nellie Ohr was one of the recipients. According to Robby Mook, the partial dossier information was also given to the DNC and Clinton Campaign.

July 2nd, 2016 Hillary Clinton is interviewed by FBI investigator Peter Strzok. No transcripts or recordings of the interview are made.

July 5th, 2016, FBI Director James Comey exonerates Hillary Clinton.

In July 2016 candidate Donald Trump won the GOP nomination. That same month the FBI Counterintelligence Division began an investigation they later described as a counterintelligence operation looking at Russian interference in the U.S. election. However, from 10 months of researched documentation, much of it in the MSM, we now know it was an FBI counterintelligence operation against candidate Donald Trump.

Also in July 2016, immediately following candidate Donald Trump’s successful bid to win the GOP nomination, a FISA application was denied. The timing here is far too coincidental (the later narrower version clearly evidences), the FISA application was to wiretap, monitor and conduct surveillance on candidate Trump and his campaign.

In August 2016, the lead FBI Agent in charge of that counterintelligence operation, Peter Strzok told his FBI Attorney and mistress: “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office that there’s no way he gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40."

The “insurance policy" appears to be the ongoing counterintelligence operation that later utilized the Steele Dossier to get the FISA warrant and actually begin the wiretaps and surveillance. The conversation referenced between Strzok and Page took place in FBI Assistant Director Andrew “Andy" McCabe’s office.

All of this information is really just a recap. Everyone now sees this construct clearly. The Timelines are brutally obvious. Congress and DC investigators, including the years-long OIG investigation, are currently in the phase of nailing down the players and putting the final touches on the evidence. The outline is clear as day.

FBI Asst. Director in charge of Counterintelligence Bill Priestap was the immediate supervisor of FBI Counterintelligence Deputy Peter Strzok.

Bill Priestap is #1. Before getting demoted Peter Strzok was #2.

The investigation into candidate Donald Trump was a counterintelligence operation. That operation began in July 2016. Bill Priestap would have been in charge of that, along with all other, FBI counterintelligence operations.

FBI Deputy Peter Strzok was specifically in charge of the Trump counterintel op. However, Strzok would be reporting to Bill Priestap on every detail and couldn’t (according to structure anyway) make a move without Priestap approval.

On March 20th 2017 congressional testimony, James Comey was asked why the FBI Director did not inform congressional oversight about the counterintelligence operation that began in July 2016.

FBI Director Comey said he did not tell congressional oversight he was investigating presidential candidate Donald Trump because the Director of Counterintelligence suggested he not do so. *Very important detail.*

I cannot emphasize this enough. *VERY* important detail. Again, notice how Comey doesn’t use Priestap’s actual name, but refers to his position and title. Again, watch [Prompted]

FBI Director James Comey was caught entirely off guard by that first three minutes of that questioning. He simply didn’t anticipate it.

Oversight protocol requires the FBI Director to tell the congressional intelligence “Gang of Eight" of any counterintelligence operations. The Go8 has oversight into these ops at the highest level of classification. In July 2016 the time the operation began, oversight was the responsibility of this group, the Gang of Eight:

Obviously, based on what we have learned since March 2017, and what has surfaced recently, we can all see why the FBI would want to keep it hidden that they were running a counterintelligence operation against a presidential candidate. After all, as FBI Agent Peter Strzok said it in his text messages, it was an “insurance policy".

REMINDER – FBI Agent Strzok to FBI Attorney Page:

“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office that there’s no way he gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40."

So there we have FBI Director James Comey telling congress on March 20th, 2017, that the reason he didn’t inform the statutory oversight “Gang of Eight" was because Bill Priestap (Director of Counterintelligence) recommended he didn’t do it.

Apparently, according to Comey, Bill Priestap carries a great deal of influence if he could get his boss to NOT perform a statutory obligation simply by recommending he doesn’t do it.

Then again, Comey’s blame-casting there is really called creating a “fall guy". FBI Director James Comey is ducking responsibility in March 2017 by blaming FBI Director of Counterintelligence Bill Priestap for not informing congress of the operation that began in July 2016. (9 months prior).

At that moment, that very specific moment during that March 20th hearing, anyone who watches these hearings closely could see Comey was creating his own exit from getting ensnared in the consequences from the wiretapping and surveillance operation of President Donald Trump. In essence, Bill Priestap is James Comey’s shield from liability.

But more curiously for current discussion, there has been NO MENTION of Bill Priestap in any of the recent revelations, despite his centrality to all of it.

Bill Priestap would have needed to authorize Peter Strzok to engage with Christopher Steele over the “Russian Dosssier".

Bill Priestap would have needed to approve of the underlying documents that were used for both FISA applications (June/July and Sept/Oct).

Bill Priestap would be the person to approve of paying, or reimbursing, Christopher Steele for the Russian Dossier used in their counterintelligence operation and subsequent FISA application.

Without Bill Priestap involved, approvals, etc. the entire Russian/Trump Counterintelligence operation just doesn’t happen. Heck, James Comey’s March testimony in that regard is also evidence of Priestap’s importance.

So we all can see that Bill Priestap is a central figure. •FBI Director James Comey defers to him; •2016 Acting Attorney General Sally Yates relied on him; •FBI Special Agent in Counterintelligence Peter Strzok reports to him. Yet there was absolutely no mention of Bill Priestap in any of the explosive investigative story-lines. Why?

Bill Priestap is the FBI Director of Counterintelligence. There’s no way he hasn’t been caught inside the investigative net.

Bill Priestap’s boss, Andrew McCabe has been caught. Bill Priestap’s subordinate, Peter Strzok, has most certainly been caught. And in March 20th 2017 FBI Director Comey pushed Priestap directly in front of the congressional oversight bus.

On the home-front: FBI Director of Counterintelligence Bill Priestap is married to Sabina Menschel a self-employed “consultant" with a history of donations to Democrat candidates, specifically to Hillary Clinton.

Bill’s wife Sabina comes from a Goldman Sach’s connected family, which must be why Bill and Sabina can afford to live in a $3.2 million home in Washington DC.

Would be a little difficult to afford a $3,000,000.00 mortgage on a G-Man’s payroll.

Just sayin’…

BIG UGLY

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RESOURCES:

 

 

IG Stimulated Releases of Information:

♦Release #1 was the FBI Agent Strzok and Attorney Lisa Page story; and the repercussions from discovering their politically motivated bias in the 2015/2016 Clinton email investigation and 2016/2017 Russian Election investigation.

♦Release #2 outlined the depth of FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page’s specific history in the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton to include the changing of the wording [“grossly negligent" to “extremely careless"] of the probe outcome delivered by FBI Director James Comey.

♦Release #3 was the information about DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr being in contact with Fusion GPS at the same time as the FISA application was submitted and granted by the FISA court; which authorized surveillance and wiretapping of candidate Donald Trump; that release also attached Bruce Ohr and Agent Strzok directly to the Steele Dossier.

♦Release #4 was information that Deputy Bruce Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, was an actual contract employee of Fusion GPS, and was hired by F-GPS specifically to work on opposition research against candidate Donald Trump. Both Bruce Ohr and Nellie Ohr are attached to the origin of the Christopher Steele Russian Dossier.

♦Release #5 was the specific communication between FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page. The 10,000 text messages that included evidence of them both meeting with Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe to discuss the “insurance policy" against candidate Donald Trump in August of 2016.