EXCLUSIVE: BILL PRIESTAP, the FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, (fmr. boss of PETER STRZOK) visited LONDON in the middle of May 2016

This previously undisclosed visit may have taken place the same week that ALEXANDER DOWNER met with GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS

THREAD

Yesterday it was exclusively reported by @KatieBoWill and @Olivia_Beavers in @thehill that PRIESTAP has been called to testify before Congress: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/389189-house-gop-sets-three-fbi-interviews-in-clinton-probe

PREISTAP previously only testified briefly before @senjudiciary on July 26 2017: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/07-26-17%20Priestap%20Testimony.pdf

What wasn't in that @thehill story is that PREISTAP's upcoming testimony is **also related to this undisclosed visit to London**, and that **this London visit was not even known to Congressional investigators until this month**

N.B: I discovered PRIESTAP’s visit to London earlier this month but did not report it in order to not risk interference with the House investigations. But after being told that mainstream media will break the story very soon anyway, I’ve decided to post it here #HuberTwitterWin

Okay, how do we know BILL PRIESTAP was in London? First, it has been known for months he was "out of town" in Mid May 2016, as this was released by the FBI as part of the Clinton email investigation. In this email PRIESTAP comments on @Comey's exoneration statement of H Clinton

"Out of town" means LONDON, sometime between May 9-13 2016

This is based on pairing this email from PREISTAP with a text message from PETER STRZOK to now resigned FBI employee LISA PAGE (Special Legal Counsel to fired Deputy & Acting FBI Director ANDREW MCCABE)

How do we know this may be the very same week that ALEXANDER DOWNER met with GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS? Remember: this meeting was supposedly the key "spark" that *began* the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign (until the STEFAN HALPER spy allegations )

It was the @nytimes that broke the DOWNER/PAPADOPOULOS meeting on Dec 30 2017. BUT: exactly when it took place was *deliberately obscured* as “three weeks previously” to a meeting between PAPADOPOULOS and JOSEPH MIFSUD: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/us/politics/how-fbi-russia-investigation-began-george-papadopoulos.html

Whoever the FBI/DOJ sources were spinning that yarn for the @nytimes, they didn’t want to give an exact date for the DOWNER meeting. Was this to obscure that PRIESTAP was there at the very same time?

Since then, @ChuckRossDC has done exclusive reporting the DOWNER & PAPADOPOULOS meeting at Kensington Wine Rooms, narrowing it down to "around" or "on" May 10 2016: http://dailycaller.com/2018/04/25/alexander-downer-george-papadopoulos-mueller/

If May 10 is accurate: PRIESTAP was in London at the exact same time

I'm sure it is just yet another coincidence that the head of the FBI's counterintelligence division was in London at the same time a meeting took place in London which led to the opening of the most significant counterintelligence investigation in recent U.S. history

More reasons why this London visit may be significant. PRIESTAP has been speculated to be a co-operating witness for @JusticeOIG HOROWITZ. A statement from PRIESTAP appears in the @DevinNunes memo, but as he hasn't testified to the @HouseIntelComm, that must come from the IG

Also, unlike many in the FBI who have resigned or been fired recently, PRIESTAP is still working live cases. For example, he had a quote in a recent @TheJusticeDept press release on a classified leak case (HT @TheLastRefuge2): https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-fbi-special-agent-pleads-guilty-leaking-classified-national-defense-information

So, some see PRIESTAP as a potential "white hat" working to expose DOJ/FBI abuses behind the scenes with the IG. If during his visit to London PRIESTAP was somehow involved in initiating the FBI counterintel investigation in the first place & didn't disclose this, that's in doubt

Alternatively, PRIESTAP could still be co-operating with @JusticeOIG HOROWITZ (whose investigation is secret & almost certainly doesn't leak), and has told the IG all about the London trip. It may just be the public and Congress that don't yet know ( @drawandstrike hang in there)

"White hat" theory does have other issues: PRIESTAP controversially altered the @Comey exoneration statement of H Clinton, changing a reference to her emailing “the President” ( @BarackObama) from the territory of a "sophisticated adversary", to only “a senior government official”

SUMMARY

What was one of the FBI's top counterintel officers doing in London in mid-May, if the FBI counterintel probe supposedly didn’t open until Jul 31 2016 & the FBI didn’t receive the Downer “tip” *until* July? At the same time DOWNER is chatting to PAPADOPOULOS?

/ENDS

N.B: Spoiler for a future post: Hilary Clinton sent that email to PRESIDENT OBAMA from RUSSIA, via her insecure email system. Yep. Oh, and the reference to "a senior government official" (Obama) was removed entirely from the final statement by @Comey. For no valid reason!

N.B 2: Thanks to @Jim1981T and @shadowfax_82 for assistance with this post, as well as several others (you know who you are). Oh and Congress? I can see why @JusticeOIG HOROWITZ doesn't turn over documents to you guys, some of you over there are leakier than the titanic!