The explosive transcripts from former FBI General Counsel James Baker answers a big question I have been asking for almost a year now:
"Why FBI Special Agent Joseph Pientka Is The DOJ's Invisible Man"https://t.co/O2dyQ2ohW3— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) January 23, 2019
The James Baker transcripts provided numerous bombshells, but in this column I mention only two of them, and then focus mostly on they second one: why the FBI went to the trouble of disassociating from Fusion GPS while creating a secret backchannel to that propaganda shop. pic.twitter.com/ILlBVHDhoT— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) January 23, 2019
For a period of over a year, FBI personnel were meeting directly with Christopher Steele & Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS.
And then all of a sudden, shortly before the 2016 election, for some reason, the FBI made a show of severing all ties to Fusion, stopping payments to Steele. pic.twitter.com/dXbwBGg0A8— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) January 23, 2019
But this severing of ties and 'firing' of Steele as a paid contractor wasn't *real*.
Behind the scenes, the FBI was *still* meeting with/accepting "evidence" from Fusion GPS thru Bruce Ohr, would then visit the FBI to deliver it to Pientka, who would pass it on in 302 forms. pic.twitter.com/wGrRA68V5x— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) January 23, 2019
So why was Bruce Ohr selected to be this new middleman between Fusion GPS and people running the Trump-related investigations at the FBI?
Because he could launder the info by claiming he received it during bona fide intelligence briefings thru the FBI's NSD. pic.twitter.com/xugTgiIKqD— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) January 23, 2019
That leads me to conclude this: Bruce Ohr's handwritten notes - seen by @jsolomonReports, who has discussed what they contain - makes it clear this Trump/Russia info was coming straight from Steele/Simpson at Fusion GPS.
But for PIENTKA'S 302's to admit that....— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) January 23, 2019
Pientka writing down in the official record [which is what FD-302 forms are] that all this post-election Trump/Russia stuff was *still* coming to the FBI straight from Fusion GPS would *defeat the entire reason* for establishing this backchannel in the first place. pic.twitter.com/i803PIzO3D— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) January 23, 2019
So this is why I *strongly suspect* that when DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz's investigators compared Ohr's notes with the official record of how this info got into McCabe/Strzok/Comey's hands at the FBI, they noticed the claimed sources of this info DO NOT MATCH.— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) January 23, 2019
A whole lot of people assume the IG's office isn't really doing anything and maybe sorta kinda hasn't even *interviewed* Pientka yet.
That's looking at this exactly backwards.
Oh, they interviewed him all right, extensively. But what they found was SO EXPLOSIVE... pic.twitter.com/QzTmbXY975— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) January 23, 2019
Pientka has now been revealed to be at the center of the beating heart of not just 1 big scandal in the FBI, but TWO big scandals:
1) the @GenFlynn prosecution
and
2) The secret Fusion GPS/FBI backchannel.
OF COURSE they've got him under oath on both of these.— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) January 23, 2019