Thread by @ClimateAudit

Remember when Gonna Graham said that he was going to "get to the bottom" of something or other. And was even going to call witnesses. I'll give a short thread from questioning of SSA1 (Pientka) to give you a flavor of the abject uselessness and failure of Gonna's process.

2/ On hand to ensure that Pientka didn't answer questions were eight (!) lawyers: three for Pientka personally, three from FBI and two from DOJ.

3/ when Committee counsel inquired about predication of Flynn investigation, Pientka lawyer directed him not to answer, so he didn't. Committee lawyer didn't object or inquire as to basis of refusal.

4/ next, Pientka was asked whether he had approved a memo closing Flynn investigation on Jan 4 - a document that is public. Pientka lawyer instructed refusal; no objection or demand to provide basis for refusal.

4/ next counsel asked whether Pientka had "become aware of phone calls" between Flynn and Kislyak. Same: Pientka lawyer directed him not to answer, so he didn't. Committee lawyer didn't object or inquire as to basis of refusal

5/ next, Committee counsel asked whether Pientka had discussion regarding Logan Act. Same. Pientka lawyer directed him not to answer, so he didn't. Committee lawyer didn't object or inquire as to basis of refusal.

6/ next, Committee counsel asked whether Pientka had ever worked a FARA case. Same result. Pientka lawyer directed him not to answer, so he didn't. Committee lawyer didn't object or inquire as to basis of refusal.

7/ next, Committee counsel asked whether Pientka had ever worked a Logan Act case. Same result. Pientka lawyer directed him not to answer, so he didn't. Committee lawyer didn't object or inquire as to basis of refusal

8/ the Committee counsel, in this interview like others, used much of his clock on "throat clearing" questions about Pientka's employment biography, while Democrats asked pro forma questions in which Pientka declined to challenge Mueller.

9/ there was, however, one small scrap of interesting information. Pientka resigned from Crossfire Hurricane in early January 2017 (transferring back to WFO) out of protest that FBI had shut down the standard validation review of Steele that Pientka had initiated.

10/ Horowitz report had observed that Pientka had sought validation information on Steele on Sep 19, 2016 - the VERY FIRST day that Crossfire Hurricane team learned of Steele information. And that Pientka never got an answer. Somers, Cmte counsel, asked about it.

11/ Somers asked what "efforts" were made to corroborate Steele. Pientka said that they sent team to interview Steele (in Rome), that he "initiated asset validation review" and that he met with Bruce Ohr.

12/ Pientka told Somers that talking to Ohr was the ONLY attempt that FBI made to verify Steele with prior clients (including Gaeta). But there was even more disquieting aspect to validation review.

13/ in early Nov 2016, right after Steele had been terminated for blabbing to Mother Jones, Pientka formally requested the validation review that he had not obtained pursuant to his unanswered Sep 19 email.

14/ Somers asked Pientka what happened to his validation request (this time without usual objections). Pientka said that Steele validation had been "turned off". (This is new information).

15/ Somers pursued this line of questions, asking clarification. Pientka explained that he had requested FBI director of intelligence to do an "enhanced validation review" "outside and independent of Counterintelligence Division". It was "turned off".

16/ Pientka said that validation review had been "turned off", according to Priestap and Strzok, out of "concerns about leaks". (Though needless to say, as Trump inauguration arrived, FBI leaks became a Niagara torrent.)

17/ Pientka told Somers that, notwithstanding the rationale given by Priestap and Strzok, he disagreed. A disagreement that, as we will see later on, led Pientka to disassociate himself from the operation.

18/ Somers expressed some consternation that FBI senior officials were so mistrustful of leaks from "trained and vetted" agents charged with enhanced validation that they "turned off" an important (and in this case, especially essential) validation procedure.

19/ Somers confirmed with Pientka that the validation procedure for Steele had been "turned off" and that Pientka had disagreed with that decision by his superiors.

20/ Somers then, rhetorically, expressed his incredulity that FBI was "willing to trade off .. validating [Steele]" because of "an internal problem at the FBI regarding leaks." Pientka: "Is that a question?"

20/ Pientka told Somers that he'd have to ask any further explanation from the persons who made the decision, which had come to him from Priestap via Strzok - both of whom had left FBI by time of Gonna Graham's interview.

21/ Somers clarified an important nuance. It was not that Priestap/Strzok had turned down Pientka's request for validation review. Rather, Pientka had set the process in motion and it was "stopped" by Priestap/Strzok.

22/ Pientka's formal involvement with Crossfire Hurricane ended in early Jan 2017. Somers asked why. Pientka said that he "asked to go back" to Washington Field Office.

23/ this is discussed more after digression in which Pientka explained that he didn't learn until Jan 11, 2017 (after off CH) that DNC was Steele's ultimate employer. And, even then, only because he had been contacted by an agent whose offer of a CHS had been turned down in Aug.

24/ now for a punch line: Somers asked Pientka why he had left such a big case, one squarely within his expertise. Pientka: "I had a professional disagreement with stopping the enhanced validation review". !?!

25/ Somers then asked what had changed FBI's mind when it eventually and subsequently undertook the validation review that it had refused to Pientka. Pientka: you'd have to ask the individuals who made the decision.

26/ Pientka confirmed that (at least from his perspective) the disagreement was with Priestap. Given that we now know that Priestap opened Crossfire on McCabe's direct order (not on his own initiative as Horowitz claimed), the source of turn-off order is a dig-here.

27/ Explaining the disagreement further, Pientka said that enhanced validation "is the process, this is what we do, this is what we always do" and that he had "questions" about the intel validation being done in Counterintelligence Division.

28/ Pientka said that Case Agent 1 (the much criticized Somma) and the still unidentified SOS supported Pientka's validation request (unsuccessfully).

29/ ultimately, according to Pientka, "this was a concern that [he was] so passionate about that it made [him] terminate [his] association with the case, the team, and go back to the Washington Field Office?"

Pientka: "it was".

30/ the Russiagate Hoax undermined Trump's entire term, and, yet only in final week of Trump's presidency do we learn that Pientka resigned from Crossfire in protest over refusal to do enhanced validation on Steele even AFTER Steele had been terminated as CHS for cause.

31/ there are other important aspects of Pientka's participation in Crossfire that were NOT explored in the interview, largely because Gonna Graham's inappropriately narrow focus on Carter Page FISA kept key Russiagate issues out of the sunshine.

32/ despite Pientka's resignation from Crossfire, he was Strzok's sidekick at key Flynn interview on Jan 24. Not a single question about that incident. When Somers tried to ask anything about Flynn, it was blocked by lawyers for bureaucracy.

33/ Pientka was also Strzok's sidekick in original Aug 2 interview with Australians Alexander Downer and Erika Thompson, on which ALL documents have been concealed. Somers didn't probe on this interview.

33/ shortly after Pientka's interview, Strzok went on national media tour and gave false information about what Downer had said in his interview with Strzok and Pientka - false information that was also in his about-to-be-published book.

34/ Pientka was generally reluctant to be overly specific in many recollections without access to refreshing notes - an accommodation insisted upon by his lawyers, but denied to Flynn, Papadopoulos and other Crossfire and Mueller targets. The precise wording of what Downer

35/ actually said to FBI - or at least the original notes and 302/EC on the Downer interview - continue to be shamefully concealed by incompetent Trump declassification. In Auten's interview, he pointed out risk of the "Telephone Game" in information that passes through

36/ through multiple sources and sub-sources, but FBI recklessly ignored such standard due diligence in rspect to the supposed Papadopoulos information. The continued concealment of Strzok/Pientka notes and report on their meeting with Downer is troubling.