https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1205262775360069632.html

A short thread by Techno_Fog about SSA 1, Pientka.

https://threader.app/thread/1205476077730226176

Thread by Professor Cleveland about a particular finding in the IG Report concerning General Flynn. It relates to the 'plot' to ambush Flynn in January 2017, & when reading the thread, linking to review the 2 articles referenced in the thread is helpful. The schemers were clearly hiding exculpatory material. It's good fodder for Sidney Powell's Team.

hmm. All of this time I kind of thought Pientka was a white hat or at least a gray hat because he has not been fired or resigned. Now it is clear he's a black hat who should be referred to OPR for sanctions including termination.

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Thread by Professor Cleveland about a particular finding in the IG Report concerning General Flynn. It relates to the 'plot' to ambush Flynn in January 2017, & when reading the thread, linking to review the 2 articles referenced in the thread is helpful. The schemers were clearly hiding exculpatory material. It's good fodder for Sidney Powell's Team.

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Also in August 2016 was the time frame where Flynn's company, FIG, was negotiating the contract with the Dutch company with hidden ties to the Turkish government. Was that also a set-up organized by the FBI/CIA?

I think that is a very distinct possibility that the Turkish stuff was a back-up plan to get Flynn. One way or another.

Would he also be subject to criminal prosecution as well?

akm91 said:

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Would he also be subject to criminal prosecution as well?

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Who? Pientka? Yes, I think he does have criminal exposure here from what we know now.

Thanks. I hope Durham nails that POS along with others that abused the power given to them to protect and serve.

aggiehawg said:

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akm91 said:

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Would he also be subject to criminal prosecution as well?

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Who? Pientka? Yes, I think he does have criminal exposure here from what we know now.

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Did we ever discover if Pientka is still an FBI employee?

Why FBI Special Agent Joseph Pientka Is the DOJ's Invisible Man Brian Cates

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So now the $56,000 question: What do the FD-302 forms Pientka filled out actually say about where the Trump-Russia allegations came from? Do the interview forms admit the allegations were coming from a politically motivated propaganda shop, or do they claim the information came from politically neutral intelligence sources?

I've no doubt that at some time in the past year and a half, the DOJ Inspector General's office sat Pientka down for extensive and detailed interviews about his dual roles in both the Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn affair (he and Strzok interviewed Flynn), and with the Fusion GPS backchannel to the FBI. What he told them must have been incredibly sensitive, since nobody has publicly seen or heard from Pientka all this time, even though House and Senate committees have requested that the DOJ produce him for testimony. Whatever Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz's investigators discovered in their interviews with Pientka, they are keeping a very tight lid on it.

As far as is publicly known at this time, Pientka is still employed by the FBI and still working there every day. It appears to me that nobody is going to be allowed to hear what he has to say or see his FD-302 forms until Horowitz is finished with his Spygate report and any ongoing investigations inside the DOJ have reached their conclusion.

Until we reach that point, Pientka is going to continue to be the DOJ's "Invisible Man."

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Did we ever discover if Pientka is still an FBI employee?

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My assumption is a stickler for detail like Horowitz would include the word "former" if he wasn't still an employee.

https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/sanfrancisco

What are we supposed to be looking at there?

indy 00 said:

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https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/sanfrancisco

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Bingo! San Fancisco FBI Field Office.Thanks.

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Assistant Special Agents in Charge

• Craig D. Fair
• Bertram R. Fairries
• Marina A. Mayo
• Sid Patel
• Joe Pientka III
• Scott Schelble
• Sanjay Virmani

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Asst Special Agent in Charge

aggiehawg said:

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What are we supposed to be looking at there?

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Appears to be the answer to the question about Pientka's employment by the FBI. He's listed as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge.

edit: boy am I slow

Didn't scroll down far enough.

So Pientka was sent to human poop city. I'll take that as a demotion. Not as big as Strzok being sent to a cubicle in HR to cool his jets but still being banished from the upper floors of the Hoover Building is a tell.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/12/13/christopher-steele-russian-oligarch-fbi/

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• FBI agents who investigated the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia did not know at the time that dossier author Christopher Steele was working for a Russian oligarch.
• FBI and Justice Department officials told the DOJ inspector general that the information was significant to Crossfire Hurricane, the name of the Trump-Russia probe.
• Steele worked for lawyers for Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire aluminum magnate.
• Stuart Evans, a DOJ attorney, told the IG that government officials would have "wanted to dive into" the Steele-Deripaska links had they known about it during the investigation.

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You can read the above article, but it is basically an extraction from pps. 193-194, which you should read because it illuminates a point I want to make:

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The Intel Section Chief told the OIG that the FBI's efforts to identify possible Russian disinformation in the Steele election reporting included trying to corroborate the reporting, learning as much as possible about Steele's sub-sources, and fully assessing Steele. According to an FBI memorandum prepared in December 2017 for a Congressional briefing, by the time the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was transferred to the Special Counsel in May 2017, the FBI "did not assess it likely that the [Steele] [ election reporting] was generated in connection to a Russian disinformation campaign." Priestap told _us that the FBI "didn't have any indication whatsoever" by May 2017 that the Russians were running a disinformation campaign through the Steele election reporting. Priestap explained, however, that if the Russians, in fact, were attempting to funnel disinformation through Steele to the FBI using Russian Oligarch 1, he did not understand the goal. Priestap told us that what he has

tried to explain to anybody who will listen is if that's the theory [that Russian Oligarch 1 ran a disinformation campaign through [Steele] to the FBI], then I'm struggling with what the goal was. So, because, obviously, what [Steele] reported was not helpful, you could argue, to then [candidate] Trump. And if you guys recall, nobody thought then candidate Trump was going to win the election. Why the Russians, and [Russian Oligarch 1] is supposed to be close, very close to the Kremlin, why the Russians would try to denigrate an opponent that the intel community later said they were in favor of who didn't really have a chance at winning, I'm struggling, with, when you know the Russians, and this I know from my Intelligence Community work: they favored Trump, they're trying to denigrate Clinton, and they wanted to sow chaos. I don't know why you'd run a disinformation campaign to denigrate Trump on the side.

As discussed in Chapter Four, Steele performed work for Russian Oligarch 1 's attorney on Russian Oligarch 1's litigation matters, and, as described later in Chapter Nine, passed information to Department attorney Bruce Ohr advocating on behalf of one of Russian Oligarch l's companies regarding U.S. sanctions.348 Priestap, the Intel Section Chief, and other members of Crossfire Hurricane told us that they were unaware of Steele's connections to Russian Oligarch 1, who was the subject of a Crossfire Hurricane case, and that they would have wanted to know about them. 349 Priestap, for example, told us "I don't recall knowing that there was any connectivity between [Steele] and [Russian Oligarch 1]." Priestap told us that he believed it was "completely fair" to say that the FBI should have assessed Steele's relationship with Russian Oligarch 1.

Stuart Evans, NSD's Deputy Assistant Attorney General who oversaw OI, stated that if OI had been aware of the information about Steele's connections to Russian Oligarch 1, it would have been evaluated by OI. He told us: "Counterintelligence investigations are complex, and often involve as I said, you know, double dealing, and people playing all sides .... I think that [the connection between Steele and Russian Oligarch 1] would have been yet another thing we would have wanted to dive into."350

Footnotes:
349 The Supervisory Intel Analyst and SSA 2 told us that they did not recall reviewing information in Steele's Delta file documenting Steele's frequent contacts with representatives for multiple Russian oligarchs in 2015. The Supervisory Intel Analyst explained that he did not recall doing a "deep dive" on Steele's past history as a source and relied in part on Handling Agent 1 for information about Steele. The first access of Steele's Delta file by a Crossfire Hurricane team member (the Supervisory Intel Analyst) occurred on November 18, 2016, after Steele had been closed as a CHS and a month after submission of the first Page FISA application. As described in Chapter Five, the FISA application relied in part on Steele's reporting. In Chapter Four we noted that Steele's frequent contacts with Russian oligarchs in 2015 had raised concerns in the FBI Transnational Organized Crime Intelligence Unit. SSA 1 told us that he was unaware of these concerns, but said he would have found this information useful and would have wanted to know about it while supervising the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Handling Agent 1 expressed surprise that the Crossfire Hurricane team did not access Steele's Delta file earlier. He said that the team should have "turned the file upside down" looking for information 2 months earlier and that he assumed that some members of the team had thoroughly reviewed the file.

350 (Large paragraph mostly redacted)

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Another abject failure on the part of Priestap.

My point about the above: Maybe the Russians actually wanted HRC to win. No one in Crossfire Hurricane appears to have ever considered such a possibility. Why??? Because they were all in bed with HRC & wanted her to win = they were biased. You see how bias affects your thinking?

It's shocking the entire organization never even seemed to have considered the possibility, and made many assumptions based on that.

MouthBQ98 said:

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It's shocking the entire organization never even seemed to have considered the possibility, and made many assumptions based on that.

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Meanwhile, we're shocked they would think Putin would prefer Trump to Clinton. Goal #1 was to sow discord. The primary way to do that would be to support the guy who isn't going to win. They confused the support to sow discord for actual support.

I've never understood why Putin wouldn't prefer hillary or at least be impartial. He knows she can easily be bought through "donations" to the CF. Many of the libs believe Trump is in debt to Putin and thus controllable by Putin. They never consider or acknowledge that State was for sale while she was there.

Won't matter when Durham comes a knocking.

Well, crap.

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The FOIA request sought the following:

All records regarding, reflecting, or relating to any orders, opinions, decisions, sanctions, or other records related to any investigation or finding by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), any other court, any state licensing bar, any disciplinary committee, or any other entity, that any attorney violated the FISC Rules of Procedure or applicable Rules of Professional Conduct in connection with the Carter Page FISA application and renewals or the

Section 702 violations the government orally advised the FISC about on October 24, 2016; All records regarding, reflecting or related to any orders, opinions, decisions, sanctions, or other records finding by the FISC, any other court, any state licensing bar, any disciplinary committee, or any other entity, that any attorney violated or did not violate FISC Rule of Procedure 13, specifically, in connection with the Carter Page FISA application and renewals or the Section 702 violations the government orally advised the FISC about on October 24, 2016; and All records regarding, reflecting or related to any referral or complaint made to any attorney disciplinary body for conduct related to the Carter Page FISA application and renewals or the Section 702 violations the government orally advised the FISC about on October 24, 2016.

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Specifically, the FBI informed Plaintiff that it was "unable to identify records responsive to" the FOIA request. Id. Because the search requested by Plaintiff in the FOIA request and the Complaint has been conducted, Plaintiff's claim is now moot.

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Pleading

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Just days after it was sharply rebuked for its conduct in the Russia collusion investigation, the FBI is declaring it possesses no records of any disciplinary action taken against lawyers who pursued a deeply flawed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant targeting the Trump campaign.

The declaration was made Thursday in a U.S. District Court motion seeking to dismiss an open records lawsuit brought by the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm that frequently argues cases before the Supreme Court.

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John Solomon article on this

aggiehawg said:

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John Solomon article on this

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Perhaps there will be some now?

Where the hell are the judges on this? Can you imagine doing what they did to a federal judge? Altering a document so it means the opposite of what was said? Telling the court the sub-source seemed honest and credible, while failing to disclose the sub-source actually said the majority of information was false?

Wray is starting to look pretty swampy.

How could the lawyer that changed the e-mail not be in trouble?

FriscoKid said:

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Wray is starting to look pretty swampy.

How could the lawyer that changed the e-mail not be in trouble?

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Durham hasn't caught up with him yet?

He's the weakest link, IMO. He has exposure and thus incentive to squeal for the right immunity deal. (Maybe he already has and we just don't know it yet?)

Clinesmith's comments regarding destroying the republic show a remarkable hubris and lack of fear of the law, and any other federal employee.

So yes, I hope he has a little fear of Durham, I would!

VegasAg86 said:

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aggiehawg said:

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John Solomon article on this

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Perhaps there will be some now?

Where the hell are the judges on this? Can you imagine doing what they did to a federal judge? Altering a document so it means the opposite of what was said? Telling the court the sub-source seemed honest and credible, while failing to disclose the sub-source actually said the majority of information was false?

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Personally...I suspect the/some/all of the Judges are perhaps Obama appointments and thus complicit. That's why they remain silent/disinterested...but that's just me!

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Personally...I suspect the/some/all of the Judges are perhaps Obama appointments and thus complicit. That's why they remain silent/disinterested...but that's just me!

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I admit to being dumbfounded how Rosemary Collyer, who had no problem with writing a long opinion about how FISA abuse was occurring in 2017 (date of opinion not dates of odious conduct) hasn't had to be restrained from screaming about her personally being defrauded.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/horowitz-report-spotlights-fbi-agent-role-russia-probe-flynn

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...Then, on Sept. 23, 2016, Yahoo News published an article describing U.S. government efforts to determine whether Page was in communication with Kremlin officials. The article seemed to closely track information from one of Steele's reports. As a result, one FBI case agent who reported to Pientka believed Steele was the source, according to Horowitz.

Pientka apparently thought the same, as his notes from a Sept. 30, 2016, meeting said: "Control issues -- reports acknowledged in Yahoo News." When questioned by Horowitz's office, the agent explained he was concerned -- but not sure -- that Steele was the Yahoo News source.

The drafts of the Page FISA application, however, tell a different story. Horowitz found that until Oct. 14, 2016, drafts state that Steele was responsible for the leak that led to the Yahoo News article. One draft specifically states that Steele "was acting on his/her own volition and has since been admonished by the FBI."

These assertions, which could have pointed to political motivations by their source soon before the 2016 presidential election, were changed to the following: Steele's "business associate or the law firm that hired the business associate likely provided this information to the press."

Horowitz found no facts to support this assessment.

And, even after receiving "additional information about Steele's media contacts, the Crossfire Hurricane team did not change the language in any of the three renewal applications regarding the FBI's assessment of Steele's role in the September 23 article," Horowitz found....

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This is another biggy. If Steele was the source for the infamous September 23, 2106 Yahoo News article that was employed to validate Steele's Dossier assertions about Carter Pages activities in Moscow, then it was useless as it just represented circular verification -- so they disguised the source. But they had outed Steele as the source of the article in the early drafts of the FISA application.

You can read the pertinent sections in the IG Report describing this: pp 144-146 & 165-166. The above article referenced in the tweet lays the blame solely on SSA 1 = Pientka. However, if you read the pages I reference from the IG Report, you will find another familiar character who had his/her fingers deep into this pie = Case Agent 1. (see my earlier posts)

I am going to stick my neck out & make an assertion: Case Agent 1 = Peter Strzok.

I have previously, and continue to question why the FISA judges are no where to be found in all this crap

Deepin theHart80 said:

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I have previously, and continue to question why the FISA judges are no where to be found in all this crap

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I assume refer to FISC judges in Horowitz' report?

They are in the Judiciary branch...not in Horowitz' territory.

SeMgCo87 said:

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Deepin theHart80 said:

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I have previously, and continue to question why the FISA judges are no where to be found in all this crap

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I assume refer to FISC judges in Horowitz' report?

They are in the Judiciary branch...not in Horowitz' territory.

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Good point.

I know the Chief Justice appoints the FISC judges, but do these judges report to the Chief Justice, in this case Roberts?