Within recently released transcripts of documents by Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham there is a deposition by FBI Supervisory Special Agent 1, Joseph Pientka.
SSA Pientka has always been a little bit of an enigma because his name, exclusively, has been redacted from every official government document within the full investigation of DOJ and FBI misconduct. Even in tangential court documents (Flynn), related to Joseph Pientka and Peter Strzok’s investigative collaboration, Pientka is ALWAYS redacted from everything. The system in DC essentially ‘ghosted’ him in all things. Now, the nature of that motive is surfacing.
If the recent Senate transcripts are an indication of SSA Pientka’s side of the stories, it would appear the testimony and truthfulness of Pientka’s statements would be adverse to the interests of EVERYONE who framed the Trump-Russia narrative.
Within his testimony; and if we accept it is likely consistent with internal investigative statements to the IG and others; it appears Pientka realized the activity of the FBI was intentionally taken to hide the truth of how intelligence was weaponized against the Trump administration.
Joseph Pientka wanted to investigate Chris Steele in November of 2016 because he knew something was sketchy. Following the use of Chris Steele to get the FISA warrant on Carter Page -and by extension the Trump administration- Pientka wanted to explore the motives of Steele and the contacts he was using to push his narrative. That’s where FBI Director of Counterintelligence, Bill Priestap, steps in and stops Pientka.
“I recognized the significance of his reporting, the use in a FISA application. I had questions about our intel validation was ongoing in the Counterintelligence Division, and all of that contributed to my professional disagreement.”
[…] “My request was to the FBI director of intelligence for them to do what is considered an enhanced validation review, something outside and independent of the Counterintelligence Division.”
Pientka said that he was told that the enhanced review was “turned off” at Priestap’s direction, which led him to request a transfer off of the Crossfire Hurricane team.
“I had a professional disagreement with stopping the enhanced validation review,” Pientka said.
“This was a concern that you were so passionate about that it made you terminate your association with the case, the team, and go back to the Washington Field Office?” a Senate staffer asked Pientka.
“It was,” he replied. [Daily Caller, Chuck Ross]
Pientka wanted to explore the motives of Steele and the contacts he was using to push his narrative. FBI Director of Counterintelligence, Bill Priestap, steps-in and stops Pientka.
Bill Priestap did not want SSA Pientka to do a deep dive on Steele’s objectives, and as a result Pientka asked to leave the Trump-Russia investigation. Quite simply Pientka didn’t want anything to do with it… or what the FBI “Crossfire Hurricane” team was doing.
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Supervisory Special Agent Joseph Pientka III was first identified by Senator Chuck Grassley in May of 2018 as the second FBI agent involved in the 2017 interview of Lt. General Michael Flynn.
Frustrated by the FBI stonewalling his Senate inquiry, Chairman Grassley dropped the revelation publicly on May 11th, 2018, in a letter to the FBI.
[…] the Committee’s oversight interest in the underlying documents requested more than a year ago now outweighs any legitimate executive branch interest in withholding it. So too does the Committee’s interest in learning the FBI agents’ actual assessments of their interview of Lt. Gen. Flynn, particularly given the apparent contradiction between what then Directory Comey told us in March 2017 and what he now claims.
[…] In addition, please make Special Agent Joe Pientka available for a transcribed interview with Committee staff no later than one week following the production of the requested documents… (link)
The FBI never produced Supervisory Special Agent (SSA-1) Joe Pientka for Chairman Grassley’s committee, and the conflict between the Senate Judiciary Committee and the FBI was never reconciled. (The DOJ/FBI made it to the safety of the mid-term election.)
Additionally, every single document containing information about the investigative activity of FBI agent Pientka has kept his name redacted. Not a single DOJ/FBI document has ever included his name.
However, around two months after Grassley outed his identity; we discover from the Inspector General that the DOJ-NSD (National Security Division) admitted to the FISA court that Agent Pientka was significantly less than forthcoming with “factual omissions” in the Title-1 surveillance application he assembled against Carter Page.
While the IG report doesn’t name SSA-1 as Joseph Pientka, all documentary evidence supported that Pientka was indeed SSA-1. [This was also confirmed by Fox News reporter Gregg Jarrett writing an article about SSA-1 Pientka, and by Jarrett being contacted by the FBI as soon as he outed the agent.]
In addition to the Flynn interview, the Inspector General Report notes the importance of SSA-1 as he pertains to the FISA application.
FBI Supervisory Agent Pientka’s lies and omissions to the FISC were material – and made under penalty of perjury. He knew the dossier was fraudulent. He knew about witness denials. In short, Pientka was willfully blind to the court about the FISA application’s accuracy.
After the FISA Court was notified in about the issues (July 2018), and before the IG report outlining the conduct of SSA1 was complete (Dec. 9, 2019)… sometime in mid 2019 Joseph Pientka was promoted by FBI Director Christopher Wray and transferred to the San Francisco FBI Field Office
Pientka bailed out and went to work in the San Francisco Field Office. The DC insiders then worked to keep Pientka far away, and put into place a network operation to keep him hidden. Even his arrival at the San Francisco Field Office was scrubbed after CTH noted there was a brief mention of his new position: BEFORE:
AFTER:
If the current statements made by Pientka had been made public, there is a strong likelihood the entire Trump-Russia narrative would have collapsed.
Throughout 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, SSA1 Pientka was in position to bring a lot of sunlight to the corrupt intents of the DOJ, FBI and the Robert Mueller team.
It now appears that after Joseph Pientka realized the FISA application was fraudulent; and after he notified the FBI and Mueller Team he was not willing to go along with the fraud and corrupt intent; he was ostracized and shipped to San Francisco.
From the testimony he gave on Tuesday August 27, 2020. He was still there…
Just like FBI Special Agent in Charge, Brian Dugan (ie. the James Wolfe investigation), there are FBI agents who could destroy the network of corruption that was taking place within the DOJ and FBI from 2015 (Strzok et al) though 2019 (Mueller et al). This is not up for debate.
Keep in mind, as a personal commitment to the truth; and out of an abundance of granting the benefit of the doubt to the Department of Justice; I have personally walked through lead John Durham investigator, William Aldenberg, on the location of each of these potential whistle-blowers and the evidence they possess.
Both FBI SSA Joseph Pientka and FBI SSIC Brian Dugan hold information that is ultimately connected to the larger operations… which also touches deeply into the Senate Intelligence Committee motive and the Mueller probe motive. The information is silo’d and segmented, but CTH pulled each part out of the individual compartments and handed it to William Aldenberg (John Durham’s lead investigator).
To date, nothing has been done…
