HEADS WILL ROLL: Gowdy Secures Three Agents to Testify Against the FBI
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According to reports, Trey Gowdy and Bob Goodlatte have secured three FBI agents to testify on the FBI’s mishandling of the Hillary Clinton email probe, shortly after the explosive IG report is released.
One of the agents testifying, John Giacalone, reportedly quit the FBI in protest over how the higher-ups were obstructing the Hillary email investigation.
A joint investigation run by the Judiciary and the Oversight and Government Reform committees has set three witness interviews for June, including testimony from Bill Priestap, the assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, and Michael Steinbach, the former head of the FBI’s national security division.
Multiple congressional sources confirmed Priestap’s interview. Steinbach confirmed to The Hill that he would be appearing.
The third witness is John Giacalone, who preceded Steinbach as the bureau’s top national security official and oversaw the first seven months of the Clinton probe, according to multiple congressional sources.
Priestap, in particular, has come under fire from conservatives.
As the head of the FBI counterintelligence division, he held a pivotal leadership position in both the Clinton and Russia probes and was in a supervisory position over counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, whose text messages criticizing Trump and other political figures during the 2016 presidential race have been the focus of a maelstrom of scrutiny from the right.
Republicans are ramping back up the controversial investigation amidst what has become a direct assault by a number of conservatives on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia.
President Trump‘s allies on Capitol Hill have alleged widespread misconduct within the FBI and the Justice Department during the 2016 election and say it is evidence of systemic bias against the president.
The allegations have spawned a number of counter-investigations and thrust a host of formerly anonymous FBI and Justice Department career officials into the limelight.
The joint Judiciary–Oversight review — led by chairs Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), respectively — is centered on the bureau’s decisionmaking in both the investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of State and the investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
But its progress had stalled in the months since it was first announced.
Since October, the panel is believed to have interviewed only two witnesses — of about 20 potential witnesses — infuriating conservative members who are eager to uncover what some have characterized as “corruption.”
All three interviews are scheduled separately. Priestap will appear in the first week of June, Giacalone in the second and Steinbach in the final week of the month, according to the congressional source.
Democrats have derided the probe as a partisan exercise designed to shield Trump by muddying the waters around the federal investigation into his campaign.
Gowdy has described the investigation as a serious inquiry into the bureau’s conduct during the Clinton investigation — also under the microscope of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz — rather than an effort to re-litigate the decision not to bring charges against the former secretary of State.
Horowitz is slated to release his own report imminently, raising some question about whether he will pre-empt the interviews.
The inspector general earlier this spring released a report from a completed portion of the investigation that was deeply critical of former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, a top target of conservatives alleging wrongdoing at the Justice Department.
The Judiciary–Oversight inquiry is running on parallel tracks to an investigation spearheaded by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who has zeroed in on what he describes as surveillance abuses by the Justice Department and the FBI during the election.
But the two investigations — alongside similar probes from a handful of Senate Republicans — share many of the same targets, including Strzok.
Although lawmakers have clamored for Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page to testify, neither Strzok nor Page is expected to appear before the committee in June.
But as his subordinate, Strzok would run decisions by Priestap, his text message exchanges with Page show.