Posted on 05/24/2022 6:33:50 PM PDT by blam
Today in the Michael Sussmann trial, we received additional information regarding the FBI leadership’s involvement in the opening – and execution – of the Alfa Bank/Trump investigation. This included FBI Headquarters not approving an FBI agent’s repeated requests to interview the sources of the Alfa Bank “materials.”
But first we’ll start with the examination of Trisha Anderson.
Anderson is currently the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel. Back in 2016, she was an FBI deputy general counsel and reported directly to then-FBI general counsel James Baker.
The purpose of her testimony was to prove-up her notes from a September 19, 2016 meeting she had with Baker, where Baker discussed his meeting with Michael Sussmann. (The notebook was necessary because Anderson didn’t recall the meeting itself.)
Anderson stated she knew of Sussmann prior to September 2016 but denied knowing he was an attorney for the DNC. In response, she was presented with an intersting e-mail discussing an FBI meeting with Sussmann, the DNC CEO, Shawn Henry of Crowdstrike, and another FBI official (Cyber Division’s James Trainor) to take place on June 16, 2016:
For reference, that meeting took place two days after the DNC announced on June 14, 2016 that it had been a victim of Russian hacking and over a month before the DCCC said it had been hacked by the Russians.
Curtis Heide
Back in September 2016, FBI Special Agent Curtis Heide was assigned to the Alfa Bank “investigation in a co-case-agent capacity.” His trainee, FBI Agent Allison Sands, was the lead investigator on the case. The case came from FBI Headquarters in DC – specifically from Joe Pientka. While Heide understood the Alfa Bank allegations came from an “anonymous source,” Heide never learned the identity of that source:
The Alfa Bank opening communication drafted by Heide said it was opened as a “Full Field Investigation.” He was “ordered” to open the investigation by FBI headquarters:
Pientka made clear that the opening of the investigation was demanded by the FBI’s 7th Floor – including Director Comey – at the behest of Bill Priestap.
This is the type of investigation, as Heide said, that “employs all of our resources.” As Agent Heide explained:
“In order to open a full field investigation, we would need specific and articulable facts that a threat to U.S. national security has occurred or there’s been a violation of federal law.”
This is in contrast to lower investigative levels – those for which the Alfa Bank allegations would be more appropriate – which “allows limited investigative techniques to see if an allegation or an investigation is warranted.”
As to some of the Alfa Bank allegations brought by Sussmann?
Q: Now, Agent Heide, what, if anything, did you find regarding these allegations and the purported findings in this white paper?
Heide: We were not able to substantiate any of the allegations in the white paper.
The FBI’s Cyber Division also discounted the Sussmann white paper:
Heide: The cyber division “were also unable to substantiate any of the allegations in the white paper, and they deemed that the information provided was not in accordance with how the Russians would conduct cyber activities.”
In fact, Agent Pientka (whom we have long-criticized) relayed the Cyber Division’s conclusions to Heide, stating:
.
Relatively early on in the investigation – on September 26, 2016 – Agent Heide sent a message to Pientka, requesting an interview of the source of the Alfa Bank white papers. By that time, Heide knew the white paper was bunk. He received no response from Pientka. He repeated this request on October 3, 2016. Agent Heide’s requests were rebuffed by his liaison at FBI headquarters:
Regarding Heide’s background – he supported “the initial efforts of Crossfire Hurricane” and was involved in the George Papadopoulos case. He said he is currently under an administrative investigation by the FBI for intentionally withholding classified information in a Carter Page FISA warrant.
When asked about the details of his involvement in the FISA applications, Heide said he “didn’t author any of the affidavits or any of the materials related to the applications in question.”
Then there’s the testimony regarding another FBI confidential human source. According to today’s transcripts, another person provided information to the FBI regarding the Alfa Bank allegations:
Who is this CHS? Someone with media connections (or someone in the media) close to the Joffe researchers with a political interest in the Alfa Bank allegations.
The significance of this is two-fold. First, we have another source that needs to be identified. A source that is seemingly close to the Joffe “researchers” with politics that likely lean left.
Second, not interviewing sources – and not providing information of the sources to the investigating agents – is part of Sussmann’s defense. Agent Heide admitted they didn’t interview Dagon. During their case in chief, and during closing, Sussmann’s attorneys will argue that it was the FBI, and not Sussmann, who prevented inquiry into Sussmann’s sources.
More to come once we get the afternoon transcript…
Bump
p
October 2016 : (Papadopoulos tells FBI informant that the Trump campaign was not involved in the alleged hacking of the DNC server)
Former Trump-campaign adviser George Papadopoulos in October 2016 denied the campaign was involved in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee earlier that year, in a conversation with a confidential FBI source. The conversation has already been referenced in Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report of FBI abuses of the Federal Intelligence Surveillance act. The conversation was not included in the FBI’s application for a FISA warrant against former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page, and Horowitz wrote that the omission was one of several instances in which the FBI failed to include evidence contradicting the need for a warrant.
-—— NationalReview
That June 2016 meeting with DNC CEO Amy Davey... same month Seth Rich was murdered? According to another thread, Dacey was involved with the government workers union SEIU
“Dacey was Director of Government Relations at the Service Employees International Union
Resigned 1 month after Seth Rich was murdered.”
I think the reason given for her resignation was the leak that she said something along the lines of Sanders being an atheist rather than a Jew would make it easier to go after him in Kentucky, etc.
That June 2016 meeting with DNC CEO Amy Davey... same month Seth Rich was murdered? According to another thread, Dacey was involved with the government workers union SEIU
“Dacey was Director of Government Relations at the Service Employees International Union
Resigned 1 month after Seth Rich was murdered.”
I think the reason given for her resignation was the leak that she said something along the lines of Sanders being an atheist rather than a Jew would make it easier to go after him in Kentucky, etc.
Dacey was also a John Kerry campaign staffer and worked in some group backed by Kerry.
Speaking of 7th floors.. not just the Doj or FBI. The 7th floor of the State Dept was resistance country, too, under Clinton.
I think the Wash PO article was the one by Ellen Nakashima...
The SEIU was long a Communist Party union, created from their old District 65 Distributors Workers Union and their Local 1199 Hospital Workers Union (which merged into the new SEIU).
Color them Pink!
8. Nakashima is one of the WaPost’s “hit” and/or cover-up reporters, a female equivalent of their E.J Dionne and the other guy who is even worst. Can’t think of his name but is the worst of them all.
bkmk
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