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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/may/23/fbi-official-struggles-recall-key-details-sussmann/

FBI official struggles to recall key details in Sussmann case, dealing blow to prosecution

washingtontimes.com/news/2022/may/23/fbi-official-struggles-recall-key-details-sussmann

By Jeff Mordock

Prosecutors in the criminal case against former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann were stonewalled Monday by their own witness, a former top FBI official, who struggled to recall key details about the bureau’s 2016 meeting with the defendant.

The witness, Bill Priestap, the FBI‘s former counterintelligence chief, said he couldn’t remember events that occurred roughly six years ago.

When he was shown notes he took about those events, Mr. Priestap said he didn’t remember taking the notes, why he took them, or if he showed them to anyone.

Mr. Sussmann is charged with one count of lying to the FBI during a September 2016 meeting with FBI General Counsel James Baker. During the meeting, Mr. Sussmann passed along information promoting a false theory that the Trump Organization’s servers were secretly communicating to Russia’s Alfa Bank, which has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Prosecutors say Mr. Sussmann deceived the FBI by telling Mr. Baker verbally and in a text message that the meeting was not on “behalf of any client.” They say he was acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign to sabotage former President Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Mr. Priestap took the stand to detail his conversation with Mr. Baker after the Sussmann meeting. However, he repeatedly struggled to remember events, including discussions with Mr. Baker about the Alfa allegations.

“I don’t recall at the time who gave me the information or what he did with it,” Mr. Priestap told the court.

When asked why he wrote an email to then-FBI Director James Comey about the Alfa Bank allegations, Mr. Priestap again said he wasn’t sure.

Prosecutors nudged Mr. Priestap to say it was “important” for Mr. Sussmann to fully disclose his ties to the Clinton campaign. Mr. Priestap told them it would have been part of several factors the FBI would have considered when reviewing his information.

“I’m struggling on your use of the word ‘important,’” he told federal prosecutor Michael Keilty. “It’s a motivation that is relevant, but not the only factor.”

Mr. Keilty continued to prod Mr. Priestap to discuss how the defendant’s connections would have influenced the FBI‘s analysis of the Alfa Bank information. But Mr. Priestap resisted, saying it was “relevant, not dispositive.”

“It is something the FBI should look into further,” Mr. Priestap said. “It considers a variety of factors before deciding what, if anything, to do with the information.”

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.

Anonymous ID: 417711 May 23, 2022, 9:21 a.m. No.16327103 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>7173

>>16327088

Bill Priestap

near-zero US coverage

google

Anonymous ID: 417711 May 23, 2022, 9:29 a.m. No.16327157 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>7171

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2018/02/08/the-enigma-man-e-w-bill-priestap/

''The Enigma Man – E.W. "Bill" Priestap…''

theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2018/02/08/the-enigma-man-e-w-bill-priestap

February 8, 2018

''For over ten months we have been asking about one FBI official who has been mysteriously missing from the story within the DOJ/FBI ‘Small Group’ activity in the Counterintelligence operation, his name is E.W. “Bill” Priestap.''

Bill Priestap is the FBI Asst. Director in charge of all counterintelligence operations. Priestap was FBI Agent Peter Strzok’s boss; he is also at the epicenter of the story surrounding every action taken by the FBI in the Clinton investigation and the Trump campaign investigation.

Bill Priestap was copied on every email of consequence including the writing of the Clinton exoneration talking points delivered by FBI Director James Comey. Priestap is the central figure on the FBI side of both Clinton and Trump operations. “Bill” is mentioned in hundreds of text messages sent by Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

In short, Bill is everywhere – except where you would most likely expect to find him, in media discussion.

Priestap is so important that during FBI Director James Comey’s March 20th, 2017, congressional testimony Director Comey told congress it was Bill Priestap who recommended that congressional oversight should not be notified of the ongoing counterintelligence operations. Priestap’s instruction was so important that despite the statutory rules violation FBI Director Comey followed his recommendation and kept congress in the dark.

As FBI Director of counterintelligence Bill Priestap holds a very important position and is one of the few people authorized to sign-off on FISA applications to the FISA court.

Stunningly, everyone around Priestap has been removed or resigned from their position; yet Bill Priestap remains.

FBI Director James Comey was fired;

Asst. FBI Director Andrew “Andy” McCabe was removed;

FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker was removed;

FBI Attorney Lisa Page was removed;

FBI Agent Peter Strzok was demoted;

FBI Special Agent, Chief of Staff, James Rybicki resigned.

Yet somehow, even through today, FBI Director of Counterintelligence Bill Priestap remains.

''E.W. “Bill” Priestap is an enigma.''

Your thoughts?

.

>>16327157

Q1288

Q !xowAT4Z3VQ ID: 5086f0 No.1218147📁

Apr 27 2018 22:40:01 (EST)

Focus only on the FBI [for now].

Jim Rybicki, chief of staff and senior counselor - FIRED.

James Baker, general counsel - FIRED.

Andrew McCabe, deputy director - FIRED.

James Comey, director - FIRED.

Bill Priestap, Head of Counterintelligence and Strzok’s boss - Cooperating witness [power removed].

Peter Strzok, Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence - cooperating witness [power removed].

Lisa Page, attorney with the FBI's Office of the General Counsel - cooperating witness [power removed].

Conspiracy?

Think about the above.

Only the above.

Get the picture?

Q

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/12/how_husbands_and_wives_figure_in_the_latest_government_scandal_revelations.html

''How husbands and wives figure in the latest government scandal revelations''

americanthinker.com/blog/2017/12/how_husbands_and_wives_figure_in_the_latest_government_scandal_revelations.html

December 16, 2017 By Frank Friday

There's a nice post on Thread Reader identifying the man at the center of all the Trump-Russia-dossier crap: Bill Priestap, Peter Strzok's boss and James Comey's confidant. He knows everything and would have made any decision to pay for the Fusion GPS dossier. Oddly, he has escaped media scrutiny so far.

''The one thing they sort of miss on is his wife, Sabina Menschel, who is not just some consultant, but the current head of the D.C. office of Nardello & Co. That's the top private-eye firm in the Beltway.''

So the man the FBI has keeping all its secrets is married to the top private snoop in Washington.

It would be revealing, no doubt, to see what Democratic-affiliated law firms and media shops in D.C. use Nardello. Let's hope congressional investigators are looking into this. Ms. Menshel, by the way, is the daughter and niece of Goldman Sachs zillionaire brothers Richard and Robert Menshel, big-time Democrat donors.

A long time ago, a friend of mine who once worked in the intel community in D.C. told me all the agencies were just absolute cesspools of nepotism, and pretty much everybody advanced by playing leap-frog along with a spouse through the system. Use your connections to get your wife a better slot somewhere in the alphabet soup, then she does the same for you. A few detours on the way to congressional staffs, or well connected private law and media firms, can be part of the track as well.

That's how we got everyone from Bruce and Nellie Ohr to Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson. No surprise at all that Hillary Clinton's attorney is the super-connected Beth Wilkinson, married to NBC's David Gregory and an alumna of the Web Hubbell DOJ and the Jamie Gorelick Fannie Mae – you know, the same people in James Comey's FBI. Peter Strzok may have a variation on the game, using his mistress Lisa Page as his ladder-climbing pal in the DOJ.

The current situation was made worse by the poor job George W. Bush did in bringing his people to the DOJ. You may remember the hassle he got with every U.S. attorney he tried to replace and with every non-Ivy League lawyer he wanted in Washington. Having Alberto Gonzales as attorney general didn't help. So the normal partisan house-cleaning and turnover that should have happened in eight years of Bush did not occur.

We also have the swamp fighting furiously for every important federal job to be credentialed and not made "political." What sort of person benefits from that? The Lois Lerners of the world – connected East Coast liberals. There are 80,000 IRS employees but only two appointed by the president.

It is an irony worthy of a Charles Murray book that the liberal D.C. Democrats, who have done so much to destroy the American family in general, have made family ties their secret weapon for staying power in Washington, no matter who wins the elections.

Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, Ky.

The one thing they sort of miss on is his wife, Sabina Menschel, who is not just some consultant, but the current head of the D.C. office of Nardello & Co. That's the top private-eye firm in the Beltway.

So the man the FBI has keeping all its secrets is married to the top private snoop in Washington.