More Insight Into The Crossfire Hurricane Case Opening
Stephen McIntyre has a very interesting twitter thread that in a sense extends commenter Mike Sylwester's remarks regarding the transmittal of the Downer/Papadopoulos "information" from the FBI Legat London through the Philadelphia Field Office--which I commented made no sense under any scenario--to Cyber Division at FBIHQ.
What I've done here is simply paste in from Thread Reader App McIntyre's own text. However, if you follow the link below what you'll find is that, as he says, in his tweets he has cross referenced the (frustratingly redacted) Strzok/Page texts. Those texts offer a sort of running commentary on events at FBIHQ leading to the opening of Crossfire Hurricane. You'll need to follow the link to see those.
A point worth mentioning. McIntyre states that Horowitz says that Crossfire Hurricane was opened by the FBI's Criminal Division. However, on p. 89 of the full pdf of the report we read:
On July 31, 2016, the FBI opened a full counterintelligence investigation under the code name Crossfire Hurricane "to determine whether individual(s) associated with the Trump campaign are witting of and/or coordinating activities with the Government of Russia."
I think McIntyre is getting this wrong. Consider:
1) Strzok, a CI official, wrote the EC that Bill Priestap (top FBI CI official), used to open the case;
2) Strzok continued to supervise the case, under the CI command structure headed by Priestap;
3) The obvious reason for opening Crossfire Hurricane was to get a FISA--Foreign INTELLIGENCE Surveillance Act;
4) Comey testified to Congress that Crossfire Hurricane was an Enterprise CI Investigation--which makes perfect sense to me, given that CI officials at FBIHQ seem to have handled it from beginning to end.
THREAD: cross-reference Strzok texts to Horowitz during origin of Crossfire Hurricane .
July 28- Legat in London sends information to Philadelphia Field Office, who sends to Cyber Section Chief at FBI Headquarters. Strzok involved almost immediately.
2/ Strzok-Page exchanged numerous texts in morning of July 28 (mid-day in London), all redacted. There is gap in texts during day, so probably some others.
3/ gap in Strzok-Page texts from noon July 28 to 6:40 pm July 29. This was first day that they were assimilating information from Legat.
4/ FBI officials deliberated from Jul 28 to Jul 31. Described in Horowitz, pdf 84-86 (snail pages different).
5/ in evening Jul 29, exchange between Strzok-Page. A redacted exchange early in evening.
6/ in morning Jul 30, Strzok and Page discuss responding to email from REDACTED. Strzok says that they plan to respond verbally and follow up with written notice, but neither until they "come to final agreement about what we're turning over"
7/ further Strzok-Page exchange on Jul 30 morning appears to be about residual tasks on Clinton email (MYE).
8/ at this time (and I should have posted this upthread), FBIHQ has not talked to Downer or Thompson, and was relying on embellishment by Dibble and/or Legat, excerpt of which are in Horowitz
9/ on Jul 30, while opening of Crossfire being deliberated, Strzok and Page had racist exchange about Russians. Hint in exchange that Strzok's trip to London is being planned; he's trying to get Lisa to come along for more convenient sex. Op directed by Andy [McCabe]
10/ Horowitz confirmed that Crossfire Hurricane was officially opened on (Sunday) Jul 31 by Priestap with specific concern about whether "someone on Trump campaign" had "accepted" "offer from Russia".
11/ in Downer's interviews, there is NO mention of Russia making an "offer" to anyone in the Trump campaign. That notion appears to be embellishment by Dibble of State Dept or FBI Legat in London, but this embellishment has far-reaching consequences.
12/ there is a gap in Strzok text from 12:36 pm to 7:10 pm Jul 31. Their evening text, previously surmised to be Crossfire Hurricane, is now conclusively proven to refer to the opening of Crossfire Hurricane.
13/ Horowitz disclosed that Crossfire Hurricane was opened by Criminal Division (CD) as a possible violation of FARA. While this form of opening did not preclude national security reasons. it's interesting that it opened as criminal case, not counterintelligence.
This appears to be incorrect.
14/ Strzok and Pientka (SSA1) traveled to London on Aug 1.
15/ I missed this in thread: on July 29, the FFG information was discussed in a meeting with McCabe, as well as Carter Page and Manafort - both of whom are thus shown to be persons of interest to senior FBI officials PRIOR TO opening of Crossfire Hurricane on July 31
16/ Strzok arrived in London on Aug 1. Checked in with Lisa at 4:07 pm. Lisa tells him that McCabe "cancelling their brief" as he "wants it first". Seems to be something to do with Bill [Priestap], nominally in charge.
17/ on Aug 2, Priestap and Intel Section Chief (anyone know name?) briefed NSD lawyers, including Laufman and Toscas.
18/ under FBI policies, FBI was required to provide written notice to NSD. Horowitz observed that FBI placed notice memorandum dated August 3 in the file, but didn't send it to NSD (which had no record of receiving it.) FBI purported to excuse on basis of oral briefing
19/ also on Aug 2, Strzok, Pientka &Intel Section Chief received notice that an FBI source contacted by an investigative firm (Fusion GPS) working for Democrats who were investigating links between Trump and Russia. CH team thus had early notice of potential DNC involvement
Dan Bongino argues that Footnote 461 may actually be referring to Steele and Orbis. Thus:
461 The only express direction we found that McCabe gave regarding the use of a CHS concerned a former FBI CHS, who contacted an FBI agent in an FBI field office in late July 2016 to report information from "a colleague [Steele?] who runs an investigative firm [Orbis?] ... hired by two entities (the Democratic National Committee [DNC] as well as another individual ... [who was] not name[d]) to explore Donald Trump's longstanding ties to Russian entities." The former CHS also gave the FBI agent a list of "individuals and entities who have surfaced in [the investigative firm's] examination," which the former CHS described as "mostly public source material." ...
It seems frankly unclear, but one way or another McIntyre's take is right: the FBI had every reason to know that the Clinton campaign was involved.
20/ Intel Section Chief is Moffa according to @Fool_Nelson, a reliable analyst. I wonder why he isn't named.
21/ on Aug 2, Strzok checks in with Lisa. Key redactions. Lisa worries about how they're going to "protect" their information from Congress.
22/ FBI and Australians appear to have been haggling about terms under which Australia is making officials available to FBI. Strzok worries that OGC will ask for something that will prevent interview with Downer.
23/ In early US afternoon, Moffa and REDACTED (wonder who) standing by with Lisa. Meanwhile, Strzok seems to be annoyed by email from NSD lawyer Laufman who, together with Toscas and others, had been briefed earlier on Aug 2 by Priestap and Moffa (Intel Section Chief).