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Bill PriestapE.W. "Bill" Priestap is the FBI Deputy Director for Counterintelligence in the Obama and Trump administrations. As head of FBI counterintelligence, Priestap would have to sign off on the use of FusionGPS (aka: Bean LLC, aka, Glenn Simpson), Crowdstrike, and/or any FBI contractor who was allowed access to, or received information from, the FBI database.[1] Priestap would have needed to authorize Peter Strzok to engage with Christopher Steele over the Steele dossier. Priestap would have to approve the underlying documents that were used for both FISA applications (June/July and Sept/Oct). Priestap would be the person to approve of paying, or reimbursing, Christopher Steele for the Steele dossier used in the FBI counterintelligence operation and subsequent FISA application. Former FBI general counsel James Baker (DOJ) who accepted the fraudulent materials from Hillary Clinton attorney Michael Sussmann and passed them on to FBI agents for investigation, is cooperating with Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of Russiagate, along with Priestap, who provided prosecutors contemporaneous notes about what led the bureau to open an investigation into the allegations Trump used Alfa Bank as a conduit between his campaign and Russian President Vladimir Putin to steal the election.[2] Priestap was agent Peter Strzok's immediate boss; however, it is unknown how much influence Priestap held over the activity of Strzok. Released text messages indicate Strzok was reporting more to Andrew McCabe during both the Clinton email whitewash and Trump FISA abuse operations. Priestap is the only central character within the Obama-era FBI leadership apparatus that remains entirely intact despite his central role in the counterintelligence operation against candidate Donald Trump, giving indications that Priestap is cooperating with the Inspector General and prosecutors' investigations into the Obama administration's criminal misconduct.[3] It is highly likely Priestap has been cleared for any intentional wrongdoing and has no issues cooperating with the FBI's Inspection Division and Inspector General investigators. Because of the importance of his role, Priestap likely knows the full context of how the FISA Title-1 application against U.S. person Carter Page was assembled and used. Priestap is also mentioned in the Nunes FISA memo contradicting the claims of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, John Brennan and James Clapper. On June 5, 2018 Priestap testified in a closed door hearing to the joint House Judiciary and Oversight committee. Curiously, only Reps. Jim Jordan (R), Mark Meadows (R), and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D) were allowed to attend. Chairmen Trey Gowdy and Bob Goodlatte did not attend. Jim Jordan said, "There was a number of times, I would say maybe four different times in that, where he would have the words, 'Peter Strzok' and 'expert' in the same sentence. It has kind of confirmed what I've suspected for a long time, that Strzok was a central figure in all of this — the Clinton investigation and the Russia investigation."[4] References
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