Thread by @kyledcheney

In the last 36 hours, DOJ has:

-Declassified a doc GOP lawmakers sought about the Steele Dossier
-Provided internal FBI messages to Flynn legal team
-Released an interview with one of the Flynn case agents
-Released questionable evidence of ballot irregularities in Pa.

The case agent, William Barnett, is a case-study in contradiction. He says he worried that there was groupthink among Mueller team — yet they often included him (and his converse opinions) in Flynn-related matters and processes.

courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

Barnett also said he raised internal questions about the Flynn case but viewed the other three prongs of Crossfire Hurricane as legit and did believe that Flynn lied in his FBI interview — to protect his job rather than cover up something Russia-related. courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

Barnett also undercut an earlier filing from the Flynn team that suggests FBI officials bought liability insurance because they feared fallout from the Flynn matter.

Barnett says discussions of insurance were likely unrelated to Flynn bc they predate the case becoming public.

And that earlier Flynn team filing also included an obvious error:

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1309255040998268931

Overall though, there's a concerted effort to get more material into the public record — some of which would have reasonably been expected to be part of the Durham investigation yet now appears to packaged for public release by DOJ without any accompanying indictments.

BARNETT also pushed for an interview with Flynn in late 2016, calling it an "easy lay-up" that Flynn wouldn't view as suspicious because he was part of an incoming administration. Barnett said he viewed this as a formality toward closing the case.

NEW: An FBI agent who formerly worked with Mueller’s team told DOJ last week he believed Flynn lied to the FBI to save his job, not cover up a Russia operation. But the interview is a series of contradictions.

w/ @joshgerstein

politico.com/news/2020/09/2…

It’s part of a slew of new docs dumped by DOJ to Flynn’s team as they prepare to argue next week for the dismissal of the case against him. And it comes as DOJ has dumped info in a series of other sensitive matters into the public domain. politico.com/news/2020/09/2…

BARNETT's testimony also cut against what has been billed as a bombshell revelation in docs released by Flynn's team just hours earlier: That FBI agents bought liability insurance because they were worried about fallout from Crossfire Hurricane.

politico.com/news/2020/09/2…

DOJ asked Barnett about internal FBI messages referencing a rush to buy insurance. Barnett said he didn't believe that was related to Flynn because it didn't work with the timeline of events.

He said he always urges colleagues to have liability insurance. politico.com/news/2020/09/2…