Kevin Clinesmith, who has pleaded guilty in the Durham probe, submitted the request on behalf of the FBI/Mueller team in August 2017 for transition records for Flynn and 12 other transition officials, including Pompeo and Kushner.
A GSA official got the ball rolling on Feb. 15, 2017, after a news report about Flynn resigning.
There was no official confirmation that the FBI was investigating Trump campaign or Flynn at the time, but a GSA lawyer inquired about whether to preserve transition records
The same official later emailed FBI and DOJ lawyers and acknowledged that the transition records were not property of GSA. The official also said he told the Trump campaign that the docs would be destroyed after transition period.
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I'm a few minutes behind on the Comey hearing -- first note -- Graham says "Igor" was the Steele source. He's naming Igor Danchenko
Graham reads into the record a letter from the DOJ Office of Intelligence attorney who put together the Carter Page FISA saying that he/she would not sign it today knowing then what they know now.
Comey says he doesn't know how much time FBI spent trying to validate the dossier.
Strzok-Page texts released in the Flynn case last week have a new clue. "Typhoon" is unredacted in this new batch. That's FBI's code for @GeorgePapa19.
Page tells Strzok on May 10, 2017, they need to "lock in" the case in a "formal chargeable way."
Timeline is interesting...
Because Papadopoulos was later charged for an interview he gave FBI several months earlier. So what was their plan to lock him in in a "chargeable way" after that text, and why would they need to?
Page was asked about the text in her House testimony. She said she couldn't remember who they were talking about (I'd always assumed it was Manafort).
She said she thought she might have been saying they needed to admonish the target with a 1001 warning against lying.
Watching Ben Wittes' Zoom conference with Peter Strzok, will put observations here:
The question I've submitted -- doubt it will get asked -- is whether Strzok/FBI considered simply asking Papadopoulos early on about what he allegedly told Downer. If he shared that with an Australian diplomat, perhaps he'd have shared it with FBI, too.
Wittes asks @JerryDunleavy's question about Strzok's inconsistency about what prompted Downer to contact the U.S. government regarding Papadopoulos....
A look at Peter Debbins' work after 2011, which is the end date for an indictment accusing him of spying for Russia.
Neil Kent, a Cambridge professor, tells me he invited Debbins to the board for an academic journal because of his top-secret clearance. dailycaller.com/2020/08/22/pet…
Former CIA station chief @danielhoffmanDC says GRU would have continued to want to use Debbins to collect any classified information he could, or just to keep tabs on his network.
GRU "encouraged" Debbins in 2010 to seek a job with the US government after leaving Army.
Debbins said he worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, as well as at Fort Media, where National Security Agency is headquartered. Unclear whether these were the same jobs.
(Snowden worked at Booz Allen when he stole classified info)
NEW: Bill Priestap has received far less scrutiny than his Crossfire Hurricane colleagues, though that might change.
He withheld key information about Steele and the dossier from Senate Intel, the Crossfire Hurricane team, and possible the CIA. dailycaller.com/2020/08/16/bil…
The IG report says Priestap and Strzok were told by former Steele colleagues in Nov/Dec 2016 that he displayed bad judgement.
Priestap withheld that info from the Crossfire team (and thus, FISA) because of an agreement with MI6.
Not only did Priestap withhold the derogatory info from FBI, he told a CIA analyst working on the Intelligence Community Assessment that Steele was "reliable."