by Renee Parsons<\/p>\n
We now know that, before Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration on January 20, 2017, the FBI had the ouster of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the President\u2019s National Security Adviser, in its sights.\u00a0 <\/span>By February 13th<\/sup>, Flynn was out the door<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Think about it.\u00a0 <\/span>Why was Flynn\u2019s removal of the utmost importance to the FBI, more vital than removal of any other cabinet officer like the Pentagon or State Department.\u00a0 <\/span>So crucial was it that they created a specific strategy willing to embrace prosecutorial misconduct and agency malfeasance to take Flynn down.\u00a0 <\/span>Prosecutorial misdeeds are nothing new to the FBI as they have a well founded history of corruption<\/a> over the years with its warts now publicly displayed.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It does not take a poli-sci major to figure out that Flynn\u2019s immediate removal from the Administration was essential to undermining Trump\u2019s entire foreign policy initiatives including no new interventionist wars, peace with Russia and US withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan.\u00a0 <\/span>In retrospect, the entire fraudulent Russiagate conspiracy makes sense when viewed from the perspective of an effort to rein in Trump\u2019s foreign policy goals of which Flynn would have been a necessary, integral part.<\/p>\n The question is where did the first glimmer of setting up Flynn originate?\u00a0 <\/span>Who had the most to gain by disrupting Trump\u2019s foreign policy agenda?\u00a0 <\/span>A number of suspects come to mind including the evil Brennan\/Clapper twins, a bureaucratically well placed neo<\/span>con, an interested foreign entity like Israel or somewhere deep within the dark bowels of the FBI, all of which are in sync with the Democratic leadership and its corporate media minions.<\/p>\n At the time, the Washington Post, a favorite CIA organ, was reporting that Flynn had \u2018hinted\u2019 to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that Trump might be willing to \u2018relax\u2019 sanctions against Russia.\u00a0 <\/span>It was then claimed that Flynn had \u2018misled\u2019 VP Pence by denying that he had had a conversation regarding sanctions with Kislyak. None of it was true.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With Flynn removed, Trump never regained his footing on foreign policy\u00a0 <\/span>\u2013 which no doubt was exactly as intended; thereby opening the door for the likes of Jared Kushner to assume the role of \u2018trusted adviser.\u201d<\/p>\n Let\u2019s examine how the FBI eliminated Flynn:<\/p>\n In August, 2016, an FBI \u2018strategic intelligence briefing\u2019 was conducted for\u00a0 <\/span>candidate Trump with Flynn as his national security adviser in attendance.\u00a0 <\/span>The briefing, which was not a traditional \u2018defensive\u2019<\/a> briefing in which a presidential candidate is alerted of a foreign government\u2019s effort to intercede in their campaign, was led by an anonymous \u201cexperienced FBI counter intelligence agent<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>According to the IG Report on FISA abuses<\/a>, at that time Flynn was already a \u201csubject in the ongoing Crossfire Hurricane investigation.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n The IG Report confirms that, after the election, top FBI officials discussed \u2018<\/i>interview strategies<\/i><\/span>\u2019 regarding how to set Flynn up in an ostensibly innocent\u00a0 <\/span>conversation.\u00a0 <\/span>Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe arranged the meeting with the goal to walk Flynn into a well laid trap without informing him that there was a criminal investigation underway or that he was a target.\u00a0 <\/span>Such a procedure is called \u2018entrapment\u2019 and considered illegal\u00a0 <\/span>See Clint Eastwood\u2019s new film Richard Jewell<\/i> for details on the FBI\u2019s entrapment techniques.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On January 24, 2017, four days after the Inaugural<\/span>, Peter Strzok, former FBI Chief of counterespionage and the same unnamed SSA1 (Supervisory\u00a0 <\/span>Special Agent) who led the August briefing met with Flynn for a friendly chat, more popularly referred to as the Ambush Interview.\u00a0 <\/span>At that time, either one or both agents took handwritten notes while neither provided the usual heads-up about penalties for making a false statement – since that would have tipped their hand.\u00a0 <\/span>Since Flynn believed this was an informal visit, he did not feel the need to have an attorney present or inquire why, if this was a friendly get-to-know chat, the need to take notes. \u00a0 <\/span>That conversation led to Flynn being charged with \u2018lying to the FBI\u2019 regarding his conversation with Kislyak.<\/p>\n After the interview, preparation of a 302 form is normal procedure.\u00a0 <\/span>A 302 is a summary of and a formalizing of those notes taken during the conversation.\u00a0 <\/span>It is those original 302 notes which are in dispute and which the FBI refuses to provide to either the Senate Judiciary Committee<\/a> or to Flynn\u2019s attorney<\/span>, Sidney Powell.\u00a0 <\/span>What does that tell you?\u00a0 <\/span>Powell believes, based on sworn witness\u00a0 <\/span>testimony, that the final 302 is not an accurate reflection<\/a> of the 302 notes or Flynn\u2019s statements of January 24th<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n It is curious that an SSA1 whose identity remained cloaked in secrecy throughout the entire IG FISA Report continues to be mentioned as a significant participant in the Bureau\u2019s Crossfire Hurricane<\/a> while his name remains redacted on official documents.\u00a0 <\/span>Disguising his identity<\/a> may simply be attributed to activities worth concealing.<\/p>\n In an unexpected turn, it was Sen. Chuck Grassley, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee who outed the SSA 1 as agent Joe Pientka<\/a> in his May 11, 2018<\/a> letter to the Bureau.\u00a0 <\/span>Pientka remains a central<\/a> figure in the FBI scam against Flynn as well as other clandestine activities identified within the Crossfire<\/a> operation – and there\u2019s more.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to Strzok, Pientka was \u201cprimarily responsible<\/i>\u201d as the \u2018note taker\u2019 and prepared the 302 report of the interview on which Flynn\u2019s prosecution is based<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span>Powell has challenged authorship since the final 302 version contains falsified statements never made in the original interview that are now being criminalized.<\/p>\n In a message to his paramour Lisa Page, Strzok thanked Page for her \u2018edits<\/i>\u2019 on the 302 regarding the Flynn – Kislyak conversation on sanctions <\/a>that never occurred while Strzok suggested that, at some future time, they discuss\u00a0 <\/span>a \u2018media leak strategy<\/i>.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n Soon after Flynn\u2019s resignation, a skeptical Grassley requested unredacted transcripts<\/span> of the Flynn \u2013 Kislyak conversation with the FBI repeatedly refusing to comply.\u00a0 <\/span>Grassley\u2019s May 11th<\/sup> letter confirms<\/a> that Comey was aware that Flynn had not lied regarding the Kislyak conversation and further points out the stunning revelation that Pientka was \u2018on detail<\/i>\u2019\u00a0 <\/span>as staff on the Judiciary Committee, presumably with the Democrats.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>For all his persistence, the FBI continues to rebuff Grassley\u2019s assertions for a transcript of the Kislyak conversation as well as demanding Pientka\u2019s presence \u201cfor a transcribed interview with Committee staff.<\/span>\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In response to an \u2018insufficient<\/i>\u2019 FBI reply, Grassley then let loose with a June 6th<\/sup> zinger<\/a> detailing a compilation of FBI lies, failures and hypocrisies too numerous to be articulated (but worth reading) here<\/a>. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While a review of the FBI\u2019s entire prosecution of Flynn raises considerable legal and ethical questions, the Bureau\u2019s consistent refusal to turnover evidentiary material is indicative of a deceitful agency protecting its own criminal behavior.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n *\u00a0 <\/span>Why is the FBI embedding an SSA1 with the Senate Committee that has legislative jurisdiction over its mission? \u00a0 <\/span>Does this strike anyone else like the tactic of a totalitarian state?<\/p>\n * \u00a0 <\/span>How does Flynn\u2019s case move forward without the FBI providing the necessary exculpatory documents legally required for every defendant?<\/p>\n * \u00a0 <\/span>How does a Congressional Committee provide effective oversight and accountability if they are continually stonewalled by the very agency within their legal authority?<\/p>\n *\u00a0 <\/span>How can the FBI ever be rehabilitated if Congress, fearful of a constitutional crisis<\/span>, has no political will to assert its proper authority and issue\u00a0 <\/span>a Contempt of Congress subpoena?<\/p>\n *\u00a0 <\/span>With the FBI out of control, Is this any way to run a country?<\/p>\n Renee Parsons<\/b>\u00a0 <\/span>has been a member of the ACLU\u2019s Florida State Board of Directors and President of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter.\u00a0 <\/span>She has been an elected public official in Colorado, an environmental lobbyist with Friends of the Earth and staff member in the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Renee is also a student of the Quantum Field and may be reached at @reneedove31.<\/p>\n