Republicans press top FBI official on Strzok’s role in federal probes

A top FBI official who oversees the bureau’s counterintelligence division faced questions from lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday about the role of FBI agent Peter Strzok in federal probes, The Hill has learned.

Lawmakers and congressional staff questioned Bill Priestap behind closed doors for several hours as part of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees’ joint probe into the FBI’s decisionmaking during the 2016 election.

Republicans have been eager to talk to Priestap about his involvement with the bureau’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as its probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as secretary of State — two high-profile investigations where he served in key leadership roles.

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Priestap was also in a supervisory position over Strzok, whose text messages criticizing President Trump and other political figures during the 2016 presidential race have become a flashpoint among conservatives critiquing federal law enforcement officials’ actions.

“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,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), an ally of Trump who serves on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters.

“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,” added Jordan, who is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

Allies of the president have alleged widespread misconduct within the FBI and the Justice Department during the presidential election, pointing to exchanges between Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page as further proof of bias against Trump.

“They are trying to get Priestep to basically explain how the organization and pieces work together, and what was Strzok’s role in all of that,” one source familiar with the hearing told The Hill.

Republicans are also eager to have Page and Strzok to testify before their committees.

“Peter Strzok is obviously a key witness that we need to talk to,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a close ally of Trump who serves on the Oversight committee.

Strzok’s interactions with Page were the subject of criticism by Trump as recently as Tuesday night, when the president included them in a tweet referencing his broader unsubstantiated allegations of political bias by law enforcement during the election.

Wow, Strzok-Page, the incompetent & corrupt FBI lovers, have texts referring to a counter-intelligence operation into the Trump Campaign dating way back to December, 2015. SPYGATE is in full force! Is the Mainstream Media interested yet? Big stuff!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2018

Priestap was also apparently involved in the controversial decision by then-FBI Director James Comey to call Clinton’s handling of her emails “extremely careless” and not the potentially criminal “grossly negligent” during the election.

According to records released earlier this year by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Priestap reviewed and provided edits to the statement Comey gave in July 2016 announcing that he would not be recommending charges against Clinton, then the Democratic presidential nominee.

Trump and other Republicans have pointed to the wording change and the revelation that the FBI chief began drafting the statement before he had interviewed Clinton herself as proof that the FBI was trying to protect Clinton from prosecution.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), however, said he felt that Priestap didn’t say anything that would indicate there was “political bias that motivated the Hillary Clinton email investigation.”

Priestap “completely” backed up everything that Comey said, according to a source familiar with his testimony.

Only three lawmakers — Jordan, Meadows and Krishnamoorthi — attended the hearing, which took place on the first day after a weeklong recess.

Priestap’s interview comes after the joint House investigation stalled for months after being first announced.

Republicans are now ramping back up a probe that Democrats have described as a partisan attempt to protect Trump from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Priestap’s interview was the first of three that the House panels have scheduled for this month.  

Lawmakers also plan to interview Michael Steinbach, the former head of the FBI’s national security division, as well as John Giacalone, who preceded Steinbach as the bureau’s top national security official. 

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is also expected to soon release his own report on FBI conduct during the Clinton investigation, raising some question about whether he will pre-empt the two other interviews.