FBI Agents: We Were Lied To About Where the Clinton Alfa Bank Hoax Came From; Other FBI Agents Told Us It Was DOJ-Originated Intelligence

So the FBI was in on the Hillary Clinton cover story, too.

The Chicago FBI agents figured out quickly that the data was overblown and the possibility of Trump's organization communicating with the bank server was nearly impossible because of firewalls.

It turns out that the "connection" was a hotel and hospitality marketing firm sending out spam emails. Trump runs hotels, as you may have noticed.

The Bulwark's ace computer scientist Tim Miller isn't convinced. He says there's still no good explanation for those "pings," using the very sophisticated jargon of a know-nothing blogger.

Because the information was so hinky, "didn't pass analytical merit," and didn't show "a covert communications system," agents prevailed on their boss to ask the 7th Floor at the FBI headquarters if they could be read in on who provided the flash drives, white papers, and other documents purporting the link. The brass who claimed the information came from the DOJ and said as much in the official referral to investigators. The Sept. 24, 2016 referral never mentions Michael Sussmann.

Agent Ryan Gaynor served as the liaison between Chicago agents and the home office in the beltway. He testified that, had he known that the provenance of the information was Hillary Clinton's campaign lawyer, it could have "impacted the way I viewed the close hold."

Assistant Special Counsel Andrew J. DeFilippis introduced emails demonstrating how the agents desperately wanted to know who had tossed this turd into the lap of the FBI and expected them to polish it.

In one Oct. 3, 2016, email, agent [Curtis] Heide wrote to Gaynor, "We really want to interview the source of all this information. Any way we can track down who this guy is and how we're getting this information?"

Supervisory Special Agent Daniel Wierzbicki followed up: "An interview with the source of information ... may allow us to understand the 'what' and 'why' of the white paper."

Request denied.

The request was denied because the decision whether or not to give out information that is being closely held depends on whether or not the information being withheld would help the investigation. Gaynor is saying he didn't know Sussman's relationship with the Clinton campaign, therefore he did not know that this information would be very helpful in evaluating the authenticity of the tip. (That is: that the tip was oppo-research bullshit.)

That information was withheld from him, and so he could not make a truly informed decision on whether or not he should tell his agents that the information came from Michael Sussman. By hiding the fact that Michael Sussman worked for Hillary Clinton -- which the FBI brass knew by this point -- they crippled the ability of FBI agents to evaluate his tips.

Which was almost certainly their intention in withholding it.

More from the New York Post:

FBI agents probing since-debunked claims of a secret back channel between Donald Trump and a Russian bank believed that the allegations had originated with the Department of Justice -- when in fact they came from Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann, who had shopped them to the bureau's then-general counsel days earlier.

In the latest revelation to emerge from Sussmann's trial in DC federal court on a count of lying to the FBI, special counsel John Durham's prosecutors revealed that investigators had received an electronic communication citing a referral from the DOJ "on or about" Sept. 19, 2016, the same day Sussmann met with James Baker, then the FBI's top lawyer.

The document, a record of the investigation being opened by agents Curtis Heide and Allison Sands and dated Sept. 23, 2016, did not mention Sussmann as the source of the allegations.

"In that referral, the DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE provided the FBI with a white paper that was produced by an anonymous third party," the communication said, before adding: "According to the white paper, a U.S.-based server that is owned by the TRUMP ORGANIZATION has been communicating with the Russian-based ALFA BANK organization in Moscow, Russia."

The document was circulated to several top FBI officials -- including Peter Strzok, who oversaw the probe of Clinton's email server as well as the Trump-Russia investigation, and was famously fired from the bureau in 2018 after the emergence of text messages he sent to his colleague and mistress Lisa Page in which he vowed to help "stop" Trump from winning the White House.

Sands, who testified late Monday afternoon, told jurors that she believed Heide had told her the referral came from the Department of Justice.

The error was seized on by Sussmann's defense attorney Michael Bosworth, who grilled Sands about whether Heide had lied to her -- or if someone had lied to him about the source of the material.

"You haven't been interviewed in that [Durham] investigation?" Bosworth asked at one point. "No," Sands responded.

Testifying for the prosecution Monday, FBI agent Ryan Gaynor revealed that bureau honchos shielded Sussmann's identity from field agents who investigated the claims of a link between Trump and Alfa-Bank as part of a longstanding practice known as a "close hold."

Gaynor told prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis that the decision to hide where the information originated was made by top leadership at the FBI before the Alfa-Bank material was given to the Chicago field office.

Agent Heide is seen in the above reports seeking information about Sussman.

But he is also reportedly being investigated for having withheld exculpatory information in a FISA filing, information that would have alerted the court that the warrant should not be issued:

Sean Davis Retweeted @JakeGibson - 4m

Revealed in Sussmann trial today: FBI Agent Curtis Heide is being investigated in FBI internal probe of Crossfire Hurricane. Heide confirmed that he is being investigated for withholding potentially exculpatory information in a FISA court application.

Posted by: Jane D'oh

Update: Sexton just posted about the investigation into Heide allegedly withholding exculpatory information.

From CNN:

He said he was specifically being investigated for potentially withholding material from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees wiretaps against Americans. The material in question was a "recording from one of the subjects" of the FISA applications, Heide said.

Heide denied under oath Tuesday that he intentionally withheld any exculpatory information.

That's as specific as it gets.

posted by Ace at 04:25 PM

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