Thread by @EpochTimes

#DOJ internal investigation reveals that an #FBI special agent—who interviewed @GenFlynn and was supervisor of #CrossfireHurricane—played key role in problematic #FISA application.

Article by Jeff Carlson @themarketswork (Thread👇) theepochtimes.com/fbi-agent-who-…

One of the special @FBI agents who interviewed Lt. @GenFlynn at the @WhiteHouse in Jan 2017 played a much bigger role in the #FBI’s #CrossfireHurricane counterintelligence investigation than previously assumed, the #HorowitzReport reveals. justice.gov/storage/120919…

@FBI @GenFlynn @WhiteHouse The agent was first introduced into the public in a May 11, 2018 letter from Sen. @ChuckGrassley, who was inquiring about the @FBI’s interview with @GenFlynn.

“Make Special Agent Joe Pientka available for a transcribed interview with Committee staff,” Grassley said.

In the #IGReport, the role of an unidentified @FBI supervisory special agent (SSA)—described in #Horowitz’s report as “SSA 1”—was featured prominently throughout.

On Dec. 13, #Pientka was confirmed as being “SSA 1.”

@FBI On page xviii of the #IGReport, it was disclosed that #JoePientka was running the @FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign as its supervisor.

#Pientka was also the agent who provided defensive briefings to the Trump and Clinton campaigns in August 2016:

@FBI Sen. @LindseyGrahamSC, during #Horowitz's testimony, noted the @FBI used this meeting as an opportunity to effectively #Spy on the Trump campaign and gather further info.

Horowitz also said in his testimony he was concerned about this practice:

@FBI @LindseyGrahamSC #Horowitz noted in his report that #Pientka was specifically selected to “provide the FBI briefings, in part, because Flynn, who was a subject in the ongoing Crossfire Hurricane investigation, would be attending the Trump campaign briefing.”

It also appears that Pientka was in charge of selecting the Confidential Human Sources that were used against @GeorgePapa19, @CarterWPage, #PaulManafort and @GenFlynn:

@GeorgePapa19 @carterwpage @GenFlynn The #IGReport describes “a consensually recorded meeting in August 2016 between Carter Page and an FBI CHS.”

But it appears that important information from this meeting was left out of the #CarterWPage #FISA application.

@GeorgePapa19 @carterwpage @GenFlynn It also appears that #Pientka had some concerns and advanced warnings regarding the media contacts by #ChristopherSteele, specifically in regards to the Sept. 23, 2016, @YahooNews article by Michael @Isikoff:

@GeorgePapa19 @carterwpage @GenFlynn @YahooNews @Isikoff There were further concerns regarding #Steele’s credibility that were relayed to Pientka relatively early on that were never transmitted to the #FISACourt:

@GeorgePapa19 @carterwpage @GenFlynn @YahooNews @Isikoff Pientka appeared to personally vouch for #Steele to the OI, responding “that: (1) the FBI has had an established relationship with the source since 2013; (2) the source was generating reporting well before the opening of Crossfire Hurricane and the leaks concerning the…

…DNC emails, and therefore this was not a situation where a source was attempting to steer an ongoing investigation; and (3) Steele was not a U.S. citizen and therefore had no vested interest in the outcome of the election.”

The #IGReport also noted @FBI emails made clear that #Pientka was fully aware that the investigative firm hired by @DNC was the same firm that hired #Steele to “conduct his election-related research,” and noted that “We found no evidence that this information was shared with OI.”

@FBI @DNC Pientka’s Role in Reviewing the Facts in FISA Application

It appears that #JoePientka also had direct involvement in the review of the #WoodsFile for the @CarterWPage #FISA application and subsequent renewals.

The #IGReport notes: “SSA 1, was responsible for confirming that the Woods File was complete and for double checking the factual accuracy review to confirm that the file contained appropriate documentation for each of the factual assertions in the FISA application.”

According to the #IGReport, Pientka “said he found that each factual assertion was supported by documentation in the Woods File, and he had no concerns with how the Woods Procedures were completed.”

Pientka also told the IG that he did not personally review the entire document:

The #IGReport identified “at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Page FISA applications, and many additional errors in the Woods Procedures.”

On the original @CarterWPage #FISA application, #IGHorowitz noted 7 specific errors:

@carterwpage All of these errors, along with 10 more identified by the #IGReport, appear to have had at least some direct overlap with #Pientka’s work and his oversight. theepochtimes.com/horowitz-repor…

@carterwpage Pientka’s Contact With Bruce Ohr

#BruceOhr, the highest-ranking career official in the #DOJ in 2016, played a crucial role in passing on unfounded allegations against Trump from #Steele and #FusionGPS co-founder #GlennSimpson to the @FBI—specifically to Pientka.

#JoePientka was assigned as Ohr’s initial @FBI “handler.”

#Pientka summarized their conversations in FBI FD-302 forms—which were obtained by @JudicialWatch and made public in August 2019. judicialwatch.org/wp-content/upl…

@FBI @JudicialWatch On Nov. 21, 2016, Ohr was introduced to Pientka during a meeting with #PeterStrzok and #LisaPage—both key players in the #FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign.

The next day, Ohr met alone with Pientka and the sequence of 302’s stemming from these ongoing interviews began.

In that Nov. 22, 2016 interview, Ohr relayed a large amount of vital info to Pientka—most of which was never relayed by @FBI to the #FISACourt.

Notably, #FBI had already terminated #Steele as a source at the start of November 2016 because of his communications with the media.

@FBI Specifically, Ohr told Pientka that #GlennSimpson had been hired by “a lawyer who does opposition research.”

Simpson’s firm, #FusionGPS, had been hired by law firm Perkins Coie on behalf of the @HillaryClinton campaign and the @DNC in April 2016. Source: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4116…

@FBI @HillaryClinton @DNC According to the #IGReport, this information was already known to Pientka back on Aug. 2, 2016:

@FBI @HillaryClinton @DNC #BruceOhr, according to the report, also told Pientka of #Steele’s bias against Trump during his first interview in November 2016, noting that Steele was “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being the U.S. President.”

This strong bias on #Steele’s part wasn’t relayed to the #FISACourt.

Ohr also told Pientka about a meeting between #Steele and @YahooNews reporter Michael @Isikoff, which resulted in a Sept. 23, 2016, article on Trump campaign adviser @CarterWPage, “U.S. Intel Officials Probe Ties Between Trump Adviser and Kremlin.” yahoo.com/news/u-s-intel…

@YahooNews @Isikoff @carterwpage The redacted name is almost without doubt a reference to #ChristopherSteele.

Read more: judicialwatch.org/wp-content/upl…

@YahooNews @Isikoff @carterwpage @Isikoff’s article would be used by @FBI in the @CarterWPage #FISA application.

#FBI told the #FISACourt that it “does not believe that Source #1 (Steele) directly provided this information to the identified news organization that published the September 23rd News Article.”

@YahooNews @Isikoff @carterwpage @FBI Notably, the @FBI would cite @Isikoff’s article, along with the inaccurate disclaimer, in each of the 3 subsequent #FISA renewals, despite knowing since at least Nov. 22, 2016 via Pientka’s communications with Ohr, that #Steele had been the source for Isikoff’s piece.

@YahooNews @Isikoff @carterwpage @FBI Around 2 weeks later, during a Dec. 5, 2016, @FBI interview, Ohr told Pientka that his wife, #NellieOhr, had worked for #FusionGPS from October 2015 to September 2016.

During a Dec. 20 interview, he provided #FBI with a thumb drive containing “the totality of the work…

…Nellie Ohr conducted for Simpson.”

Additionally, #BruceOhr provided the @FBI with a dossier on former Trump campaign chairman #PaulManafort titled, “Manafort Chronology” that had been compiled by #NellieOhr.

5 days later, during a meeting on Dec. 10, 2016, Ohr met with Simpson, who gave him a memory stick that Ohr believed contained the #SteeleDossier. Ohr then passed the memory stick to Pientka two days later.

Ohr repeatedly stated in congressional testimony that he never vetted any of the info provided by either #Steele or Simpson.

He simply turned it over or relayed it to the @FBI—usually to #Pientka.

What Ohr didn’t know was that #Pientka was transmitting all the information directly to @FBI Agent #PeterStrzok. dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcoll…

@FBI #IGHorowitz, in his testimony, seemed genuinely surprised at Ohr’s role and @FBI’s ongoing use of him as a conduit to #Steele.

This was made apparent during questioning that took place during #Horowitz’s Dec. 11, 2019 testimony with Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.):

@FBI The FBI’s Gen. Flynn Interview

On Jan. 24, 2017, Lt. @GenFlynn, then-#NationalSecurity adviser to President Trump, was interviewed by both #Strzok and #Pientka about two conversations that #Flynn had with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak in Dec 2016. washingtonpost.com/world/national…

According to court docs from the @GenFlynn case, Deputy @FBI Director #AndrewMcCabe and other officials “decided the agents would not warn Flynn that it was a crime to lie during an FBI interview because they wanted Flynn to be relaxed.”

Read: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5526…

It was during this interview that @GenFlynn reportedly lied to the @FBI.

Details about #Flynn’s phone conversation with Kislyak were leaked to the media on Jan. 12, 2017.

Flynn ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI regarding the conversations with Kislyak.

It remains unknown to this day who leaked @GenFlynn’s classified call—a felony violation.

Notably, The @WashingtonPost reported on Jan. 23, 2017, that the @FBI found no evidence of wrongdoing in #Flynn’s actual call with the Russian ambassador. washingtonpost.com/world/national…

@GenFlynn @washingtonpost @FBI While the #IGReport does not discuss the case of @GenFlynn in great detail, it details #Pientka’s involvement with the defensive briefings made to the Trump campaign in August 2016.

#Horowitz noted that “we found that SSA 1 [Pientka] was selected to provide the FBI briefings, in part, because Flynn, who was a subject in the ongoing Crossfire Hurricane investigation, would be attending the Trump campaign briefing.”

When asked about this, #Pientka told #IGHorowitz that “one of the reasons for his selection was that ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence, at the time headed by DNI #JamesClapper] had informed the FBI that one of the two Trump campaign advisors attending the…

…August 17 briefing would be Flynn. He further stated that the briefing provided him ‘the opportunity to gain assessment and possibly have some level of familiarity with [@GenFlynn].”

When the IG asked #Pientka to elaborate on the use of the term “assessment,” Pientka said:

@GenFlynn According to the #IGReport, Pientka was “the only FBI representative at the ODNI briefing on August 17, 2016, which was attended by Trump, Flynn, and another Trump campaign advisor.”

According to the #IGReport, Pientka drafted an Electronic Communication documenting his participation in the defensive briefing to the Trump campaign and added it to the #CrossfireHurricane investigative file.

Interestingly, #Pientka told #Horowitz that “he did not memorialize in writing the briefing he participated in of candidate Clinton and her national security advisors because the attendees did not include a subject of an FBI investigation, and because there was nothing from the…

…other briefings that was of investigative value to the Crossfire Hurricane team.”

/END/