Who is Bill Priestap?

Bill Priestap is the head of the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Division.
Per Comey’s testimony, Priestap was the individual responsible for making the decision not to inform Congressional leadership – the Gang of Eight – about the July 2016 FBI Russia-Trump Investigation.
Priestap is not a household name, but he held a pivotal role in the FBI’s exoneration of Clinton, the subsequent Trump-Russia Investigation and surveillance of the Trump Campaign.
Bill Priestap presented the FBI’s contributions to the early 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, or ICA – Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent Elections – to the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 21, 2017.
Bill Priestap has been copied on virtually every significant email – including FBI Director Comey’s exoneration of Hillary Clinton. Priestap is referenced on the Strzok/Page texts hundreds of times.
We know the following (expanded timeline and details at bottom):
  • Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr and FBI Agent Peter Strzok both have ties to Fusion GPS and Richard Steele.
  • Fusion and Steele are being paid by the Clinton Campaign.
  • Strzok personally helps to exonerate Clinton in the email investigation.
  • Ohr has known Steele since 2006.
  • Ohr’s wife was employed by Fusion GPS.
  • The Steele Dossier uses uncorroborated information from the Clinton Campaign and Circular Reporting.
  • Ohr provides the Trump Dossier to Strzok who uses it to start the FBI Investigation into Russia and the Trump Campaign in July 2016 (per March 20, 2017 testimony by Comey).
  • The Dossier is used by the FBI to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump Campaign.
  • Strzok personally interviews Mike Flynn w/out notice.
The two individuals with direct supervisory authority over Bruce Ohr and Peter Strzok:
Sally Yates and Bill Priestap, respectively.
Bruce Ohr reported directly to Yates.
Peter Strzok reported directly to Bill Priestap.
To recap – Bill Priestap:
  • Was – per Comey – the individual responsible for making the decision not to inform Congressional leadership – the Gang of Eight – about the July 2016 FBI investigation.
  • Was directly involved in the surveillance and investigation of Michael Flynn.
  • Oversaw the activities of FBI Agent Strzok. Strzok was involved in all facets of the Clinton investigation and interviewed Flynn.
  • Gave approval for the use of the Trump Dossier.
  • Gave approval of background documents used in FISA warrant preparation.
  • Was responsible for preparing and presenting the FBI’s Russian Assessment.
Consider the following.
Individuals directly below Priestap (Strzok) and directly above Priestap (McCabe) have been ensnared and exposed by the Inspector General’s Investigation:
  • Comey has been fired.
  • Strzok is off Mueller’s team and has been demoted. He is on the verge of being subpoenaed by Congress.
  • Bruce Ohr has been demoted – twice.
  • McCabe was recently forced to resign. McCabe is also on the verge of being subpoenaed by Congress.
  • FBI top counsel James Baker was effectively fired in January.
  • Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand – the number three official behind Deputy AG Rosenstein – quit two days ago.
  • Michael Kortan – FBI Asst. Director Public Affairs – quit three days ago.
  • David Laufman – DOJ National Security Division, Deputy Asst. Attorney General in charge of counterintelligence – quit four days ago.
So where is Bill Priestap?
And why aren’t you hearing his name daily?
Because someone has almost certainly been speaking with him.
There have been two earlier indications that Priestap has flipped and is cooperating with ongoing investigations by the Inspector General and Congress.
Representative Chris Stewart’s reaction was the final confirmation.
It is now virtually certain.
Bill Priestap is a cooperating witness. And Bill Priestap knows – quite literally – everything.


Career[edit]

Priestap joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1998, and he was appointed as assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division in 2015.[2][3]
In June 2017, Priestap told the PBS NewsHour program that Russian intelligence "used fake news and propaganda and they also used online amplifiers to spread the information to as many people as possible" during the 2016 United States presidential election.[4]
In the Nunes memo, released in February 2018, Priestap suggests the Trump–Russia dossier had not been completely investigated prior to their application for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to surveil Carter Page, former foreign policy adviser in Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential campaign.[5][6]

Personal life[edit]

Priestap is married to Sabina Menschel, the current head of the Washington, D.C., office of Nardello & Co, a detective agency. Menschel's father, Richard Menschel, is a Goldman Sachs investment banker, philanthropist and Democratic donor, as is her uncle Robert Menschel.[7] His mother-in-law, Ronay A. Menschel, was a Democratic deputy mayor of New York City under Ed Koch.

See also

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