https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/Priestap%206.5.18%20Interview%20Transcript_Redacted.pdf

PART (1)

Mr. Jordan. I will try to be quick. I want to direct Mr.

Priestap to some questions from Congresswoman Stefanik to Mr. Comey

in front of the House – I want to direct Mr. Priestap to some questions

from Congresswoman Stefanik to Director Comey at the March 20th

Intelligence public hearing. And it's those two pages, if you can get

that to him.

Mr. Priestap. Yep.

Mr. Jordan. I'm going to read this. I'll start with Ms.

Stefanik.

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

"Thank you, Director Comey and Admiral Rogers, for your testimony

today. My first set of questions are directed to Director Comey.

"Broadly" – and you can follow along – "Broadly, when the FBI

has any open counterintelligence investigations, what are the typical

protocols and procedures for notifying the DNI, the White House, and

senior congressional leadership?"

Mr. Comey responds, "There is a practice of a quarterly briefing

on sensitive cases to the chair and ranking of the House and Senate

Intelligence Committees. And that also involves a briefing of the

Department of Justice, I believe the DNI, and some portion of the National Security Council at the White House."

Follow me?

Mr. Priestap. Yes, sir.

Mr. Jordan. So Ms. Stefanik says, "So if that is quarterly – "

Mr. Comey jumps in and says, "We brief them before Congress is

briefed." So there is a briefing with DNI and the White House prior

to talking to senior House and Senate leadership in the intelligence

areas.

"So it is quarterly for all three – senior congressional

leadership, the White House, and the DNI?"

Director Comey: "I think that is right. Now, that is not by

practice, not by rule or written policy, which is why, thanks to the

chair and ranking member giving us feedback, we are trying to tweak

it in certain ways."

Ms. Stefanik: "So, since in your opening statement you confirmed

that there is a counterintelligence investigation currently open and

you also referenced that it started in July" – they're obviously

referring to the Trump-Russia investigation – "when did you notify

the DNI, the White House, or senior congressional leadership?"

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PART (2)

https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/Priestap%206.5.18%20Interview%20Transcript_Redacted.pdf

Good question, Mr. Comey responds. "That is a good question.

Congressional leadership, sometime recently they were briefed on the

nature of the investigation in some detail, as I said. Obviously,

Department of Justice had been aware of it all along. The DNI, I don't

know when the DNI's knowledge was of it because we didn't have a DNI

until Mr. Coats took office, and I briefed him his first morning in office."

"So just to drill down on this," Ms. Stefanik says, "if the open

investigation began in July and the briefing of congressional

leadership only occurred recently, why was there no notification prior

to the past month?" referring to March.

"I think our decision was it a matter of such sensitivity that

we wouldn't include it in the quarterly briefings."

Ms. Stefanik says, "When you state 'our decision,' is that your

decision? Is that usually your decision, what gets briefed in those

quarterly updates?"

Mr. Comey's response was, "No. It is usually the decision of the

head of our Counterintelligence Division."

All right. So is that accurate, the way Mr. Comey described how

this – how Congress was first notified of the Trump-Russia

investigation?

Mr. Priestap. I assume it was. Mr. Comey was involved in those

notifications, I was not.

Mr. Jordan. But let me ask you this. Was Mr. Comey – the last

statement I read. "It is usually the decision of the head of our

Counterintelligence Division." Is that you?

Mr. Priestap. Yeah. I'm the head of the Counterintelligence

Division.

Mr. Jordan. So it seems, the way I read this, Mr. Comey seems

to say, you made the decision not to brief Congress. You instructed

Mr. Comey not to brief Congress. Is that accurate?

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PART (3)

https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/Priestap%206.5.18%20Interview%20Transcript_Redacted.pdf

Mr. Priestap. I don't instruct Mr. Comey, nor did I ever instruct

him to do anything.

Mr. Jordan. So why would Mr. Comey testify the way he did then?

I think it was our decision – he says, no, it's usually the decision

of the head of the Counterintelligence Division, not his, when Congress

gets briefed.

Mr. Priestap. When Congress gets briefed?

Mr. Jordan. Mr. Comey's response was it is usually the decision

of the head of the Counterintelligence Division when they decide not

to brief Congress on a sensitive counterintelligence investigation.

Mr. Priestap. So let me try to provide some context here. But,

again, I never once told Mr. Comey what to do. Mr. Comey is a man who

made his own decisions.

The Counterintelligence Division of the FBI generally on a

quarterly basis briefs the chair and ranking of House and Senate Intel

Committees.

Mr. Jordan. Yes.

Mr. Priestap. It's my understanding that we do that because we

have an obligation to keep those committees apprised of significant

intelligence failures or significant intelligence successes.

So, thus, on the regular basis in which they are briefed, they

aren't so much case briefings as what we are providing them, again,

are significant intelligence failures or successes.

We do not – and again, I can't say it in this setting, but please

believe me, we have thousands of counterintelligence investigations.

The FBI and the Counterintelligence Division does not brief Congress

every time we open a counterintelligence investigation.

Mr. Jordan. I guess what I'm asking, Mr. Priestap, is who made

the decision not to brief Congress in this particular instance?

Mr. Priestap. Mr. Comey.

Mr. Jordan. Mr. Comey says, "It's usually the decision of the

head of our Counterintelligence Division." I'm not saying – Mr.

Comey's words are it's usually your decision. And I'm asking, is that

the case here?

Mr. Priestap. I think what Mr. – I don't know what was going

through Mr. Comey's mind. But I think what he's getting at is, it's

the head of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division who usually provides

the quarterly briefs to the chair and ranking of SSCI and HPSCI, and

who usually decides on the content of those briefings.

Mr. Jordan. So that's usually you?

Mr. Priestap. Yes.

Mr. Jordan. You usually provide that briefing to the ranking

member and the chair of the respective House and Senate Intel

Committees?

Mr. Priestap. Yes.

Mr. Jordan. And in this situation you decided not to do that

briefing and tell them about the Trump-Russia investigation?

Mr. Priestap. I try to tell them about significant intelligence

successes and significant intelligence failures.

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PART (4)

https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/Priestap%206.5.18%20Interview%20Transcript_Redacted.pdf

Mr. Jordan. This is kind of a unique case and you didn't tell them. And according to Mr. Comey, he told Director Coats, day one,

it was so darn important that Mr. Coats gets sworn in, and he says,

I'm telling him today.

And yet, Mr. Comey's testimony here to Congresswoman Stefanik is,

we didn't tell Congress right away, we told Director Coats right away,

we didn't tell Congress like we normally do every quarter. That's Mr.

Priestap's decision, and he decided not to do it.

Mr. Priestap. With all due respect, I wouldn't even have known

how to characterize it at that time as a significant – I mean, what

am I briefing? Success? Failure? There's – it's such in its

infancy that I don't know what I would tell the chair and ranking.

Mr. Jordan. Maybe that you opened a counterintelligence

investigation into one of the major parties' campaign. You don't think

that's significant?

Mr. Priestap. Is that a success or a failure?

Mr. Jordan. I'm not saying it's either. I'm just saying it's

important. And so important that Mr. Comey told Director Coats day

one.

Mr. Priestap. Oh, but absolutely. But Mr. – DNI Coats was the

director of the intelligence community, not a congressional committee.

Mr. Jordan. Okay. Last question.

So is it – is Mr. – again, I guess, it seems to me Mr. Comey

is saying when he says it's not – you said it's his decision.

Mr. Priestap. Absolutely.

Mr. Jordan. But he says it's our decision. And usually – when Ms. Stefanik asks him: Is it your decision or our decision? He says

it's usually your decision, you as the counterintelligence head. And

that's not accurate. You're saying that's not accurate. You're

saying it's all his decision.

Mr. Priestap. What I am trying to say is that I do not speak for

the Director of the FBI. Only he can speak for him. I can speak for

the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI.

Mr. Jordan. It seems to me he's speaking for you here.

Mr. Priestap. And he can. He's the boss' boss' boss.

Mr. Jordan. Okay. Thank you.

Mr. Parmiter. Thank you, sir.

Mr. Ettinger. Do you want to mark that exhibit?

Mr. Parmiter. Absolutely. I apologize in advance. This might

seem a little disjointed. I just want to cover a few topics here.