FBI Agents Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka interviewed National Security Advisor Michael Flynn on January 24, 2017. According to documents presented in the court case, agent Peter Strzok did the questioning and agent Joe Pientka took most of the notes.

Following the interview agent Pientka then took his hand-written notes and generated an official FD-302; an FBI report of the interview itself.  There has been a great deal of debate over the first draft, the original FD-302 as it was written by Joe Pientka.  In the case against Flynn the DOJ prosecutors never presented the original Pientka 302.

Recent evidence from Brady material turned over to the defense by auditing attorney Jeff Jensen showed FBI lawyer Lisa Page and FBI Agent Peter Strzok rewriting, editing and shaping the 302 on February 10, 2017, more than two weeks later:

Lisa Page is “pissed off” because Peter Strzok previously edited the 302 and she says he “didn’t even attempt to make this cogent and readable.”

Peter Strzok replies back to Lisa Page that he was “trying to completely re-write the thing so as to save Joe’s voice”, because Joe Pientka was the actual author.

Peter Strzok is re-writing the interview notes of Pientka in order to construct the framework to accuse Flynn of lying. Lisa Page is editing the re-write to make it more cogent and readable.

The question has remained: Where is the original 302 report as written by Pientka?

While the question(s) around the missing original 302 have yet to be reconciled, one possible path to discover its location and a copy of its original content lies in the testimony of Sally Yates.  Former DAG Sally Yates testified to congress that after the Flynn interview DOJ-National Security Division:

“received a detailed readout from the FBI agents who had interviewed Flynn.”  Yates said she felt “it was important to get this information to the White House as quickly as possible.”

Yates is describing the Pientka 302.  The Pientka 302 could have been received at the DOJ-NSD later in the evening of January 24th, or perhaps the morning of the 25th.  Either is possible because Yates was having meetings about the topic. (more…)

President Trump and members of the White House coronavirus task force delivering an update on COVID-19 testing from the Rose Garden.  Anticipate start time 4:00pm ET.

White House Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream – RSBN Livestream Link

(more…)

In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Kayleigh McEnany Twitter @PressSec

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Senator Tom Cotton appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss recent reporting showing cell phone in/around Wuhan China showed road-blocks and/or a containment zone was mysterious set up in October of 2019.  The suspicion is that China knew the virus had escaped the Wuhan bio-lab and was taking effort to contain the spread of the virus.

.

These suspicions fall on the heels of additional confirmation that Beijing asked the World Health Organization not to reveal human-to-human transmission of the virus at the same time.

Stay big picture. After three years of Beijing losing the geopolitical confrontation to President Trump…. Think about what you know of the aggressive Communist and zero-sum disposition of China. Keep in mind these new reports from intelligence research are pointing to a biologic release in/around October of 2019.   Now consider this timeline overlay…

(more…)

White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro appears for an interview with Maria Bartiromo.  As a China hawk Navarro outlines the economic damage from a perspective where China needs to be held accountable.

One of the ways to hold Beijing accountable is to retract all U.S. business interests and decouple from China.  The White House is currently using a task-force approach to assemble the background evidence.  Once assembled, many people suspect President Trump will initiate very strong policies against China (including tariffs) simultaneously timed with tax incentives for U.S. companies to return manufacturing back to the U.S.

.

If you think about the economic vulnerabilities currently carried by China, it is entirely possible for USTR Lighthizer, Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary Ross and Peter Navarro to structure serious financial punishment upon the Red Dragon.

At no time in the past twenty years has Beijing been more vulnerable to an economic adversary.  At the same time, there has never been a more strategic economic adversary in the oval office. This is a conspicuously remarkable moment in history.

(more…)

Trey Gowdy appears purple-tied on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the ongoing DOJ/FBI revelations from document releases related to the Michael Flynn prosecution.

After numerous appearances in 2018 and 2019 proclaiming the integrity of Robert Mueller, IG Horowitz and FBI leadership, Trey Gowdy now holds a divergent perspective. Perhaps because he is now a paid Fox contributor, Ms. Bartiromo never asks Gowdy to reconcile previous assertions against current information.  Additionally, Gowdy says there’s no reason to take the investigation to former President Obama because the current spotlight reaches high enough. WATCH:

(more…)

A very interesting dynamic all things considered.  During a recent interview Vice President Mike Pence says he would welcome former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn back into the administration:

“Gen. Michael Flynn is an American patriot,” Pence told Axios in an interview. “And for my part, I’d be happy to see Michael Flynn again.”

And with that in mind, it’s worth taking all the current information and reviewing the fully cited (soup-to-nuts)  background of how the Pence -vs- Flynn ‘lying’ narrative was created.

♦In mid-December 2016 the Obama administration was deploying a full-court-press using their media allies to promote the Russia conspiracy. However, despite their extreme public proclamations DNI Clapper & CIA Brennan were refusing to give any specifics to congress.

The hard narrative was that Russia interfered. That was the specific push from within the Obama intelligence apparatus writ large. All IC officials, sans Mike Rogers (NSA), had a self-interest in pushing this narrative; after all, it was the defensive mechanism to justify their illegal spying operation and block Trump. This was their insurance policy.

The media was doing their part; and using the information leaked to them by those who were part of the 2016 operation(s) began battering the Trump transition team every hour of every day with questions about the Russia hacking narrative; thereby fertilizing the seeds of a collusion conspiracy.  The Trump-Russia narrative was relentless.

(more…)

Michael Flynn’s defense counsel Sidney Powell appears on Fox New with Maria Bartiromo to discuss events after the DOJ has decided to withdraw the prosecution and drop the case.

In the background of the document releases Mrs. Powell outlines the sequence of events in early January where DNI James Clapper briefs President Obama on the Flynn call with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and that’s the origin of President Obama’s discussion on January 5th with Deputy AG Sally Yates and FBI Director Comey.

.

Two years ago CTH first outlined how the classified section in the mysterious Susan Rice memo-to-file was likely because Lt. Gen. Flynn was outlined as a target in the January 5th discussion; the redacted paragraph is specifically about Flynn. Two years later that memo has still not been declassified.

(more…)

HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the events of the past week.  Within the interview Nunes discusses the 53 released House transcripts from their Trump-Russia investigation and outlines how the Trump-Russia fraud transfers into the Flynn case.

It’s now May of 2020.  The presidential election is six months from now.  Devin Nunes has confidence the DOJ will take action based on an investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham.  It’s now May of 2020.  CTH remembers James Wolfe.

(more…)