GOP Push to Investigate FBI Frame Job

New evidence indicates that former national security adviser Michael Flynn was the subject of a politically-motivated FBI frame job. Now, Republican lawmakers want answers.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) are calling on FBI Director Christopher Wray to release more information relating to the bureau’s investigation into Flynn. Specifically, the GOP legislators want to question FBI Agent Joe Pientka. Pientka was present at a January 2017 White House interview where agents discussed their motivations for pursuing the Flynn investigation. Internal FBI documents released last week put the interview at the center of a growing controversy surrounding the FBI’s handling of the case.

The said documents that surfaced that seemed to indicate that the bureau’s investigation into the former national security adviser may have been conducted improperly. In January 2017, a group of FBI agents met at the White House to discuss the Flynn case. These agents openly questioned the investigation’s motives and objectives. Handwritten notes from the FBI’s former head of counterintelligence, Bill Priestap, seem to indicate that the bureau was more interested in attacking Flynn than finding the truth.

“What is our goal?” one section of the notes read. “Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” it added. Meanwhile, another note read, “If we’re seen as playing games, WH [White House] will be furious.”

An FBI Frame Up?

The memos outline what seems like a brainstorming session between the agents who met to discuss the case that day. They explore several options for pursuing the Flynn investigation and weigh out the pros and cons of each. The notes seem to indicate that the investigators had ulterior motives for pursuing a case against Flynn. It also implied that they weren’t concerned whether or not he was guilty.

Other documents unsealed last Thursday revealed that disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok pressured agents to keep the Flynn investigation open. This happened despite a glaring lack of evidence. Strzok garnered national attention for sending a series of Trump-bashing text messages from his FBI-issued cell phone. He sent the said texts all while working as an investigator for the Mueller probe. He was fired in August 2018 for unrelated personal conduct violations.

The Justice Department released the controversial documents last week after a federal judge unsealed them. Many Republicans already believed the former national security advisor was treated unfairly. However, the documents have sparked renewed interest in the case. Flynn pled guilty to making false statements to FBI agents in 2017, but his legal team wants to withdraw his guilty plea as the result of the FBI’s “egregious” misconduct.

Push for Investigation

Reps. Jordan and Johnson want to conduct interviews with both Prientka and Priestap in order to investigate the incident. In a letter to FBI Director Wray, the two lawmakers pressured the director to release all information relating to the Flynn case. The Republicans also said they want the FBI to “explain why the Committee and the American public are learnings of the FBI’s misconduct with respect to LTG Flynn from court filings rather than from you… [and] explain whether you or any other member of the FBI’s senior leadership prevented or delayed the disclosure of additional exculpatory information to LTG Flynn and his legal team.”

Constitutional abuse at the highest levels of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency seems like it would be news-worthy. However, the case has received relatively little attention from the mainstream media. Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley wrote about the media’s unapologetic bias on Twitter. He said: “There was a time when networks like MSNBC and CNN argued for civil liberties and against such abuses. Now, because such principles would benefit Trump, there is just a shrug with a common mantra ‘everyone does it.'”

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