>>192819
cont...
In fact, just weeks before that interview, the FBI agents in the Washington Field Office filed a memo arguing an investigation into Flynn should be closed after investigators had found “no derogatory” information to suggest Flynn committed a crime or posed a national security threat because of his contacts with Russian government officials, Just the News previously reported.
The files show the plan was to provide Flynn with a defensive briefing so he could be aware of potential pitfalls with Russians as he started in his new job in the White House. But then the lead agent in the larger Russia case, Strzok, intervened to stop the case from being closed and pivoted the discussion toward seeking an interview with Flynn, FBI text messages released in 2020 show.
The messages show that shortly after Strzok’s intervention, the discussion pivoted from closing the case to seeking an interview with Flynn. However, then-Assistant Director for Counterintelligence William Priestap, one of the FBI’s top counterintelligence officials, appeared to be concerned the FBI was being unfair to Flynn.
Handwritten notes that a federal court released in April 2020 show Priestap harbored concerns in early January 2017 after a meeting inside the Obama White House that the FBI was “playing games” with the Flynn investigation and may have been trying to use the interview to “get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”
Strzok proceeded to interview Flynn anyway.

There were several other issues with the way the FBI under Director James Comey handled the case against Flynn, Just the News previously reported.

FBI officials debated whether they could avoid, disguise or slip in the required FBI admonition against lying to agents at the start of Flynn's interview to keep him off guard. “It would be an easy way to just casually slip that in,” Page texted during the discussions.
The FBI agents who interviewed Flynn, including Strzok, did not believe Flynn intended to lie or be deceptive in his interview. “Strzok provided his view that Flynn appeared truthful during the interview,” a memo from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team later stated.
The FBI agents who interviewed Flynn indicated in a draft report that Flynn did not directly deny talking to Kislyak about sanctions, as he was accused by Mueller. Instead, they noted, he couldn't remember, wasn't sure and even conceded it was possible.
Justice Department officials immediately did not believe Flynn could realistically be prosecuted under the Logan Act – a 1799 law that prohibits private citizens from conducting unauthorized diplomacy – for his conversations with Kislyak. Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe testified he was told such a prosecution was a "long shot," and former Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord "said that upon learning of Flynn’s phone calls with Ambassador Kislyak, a Logan Act prosecution seemed like a stretch to her,” DOJ memos say.
Senior Justice officials expressed concern and alarm at the way the FBI was treating Flynn, including trying to interview him without the normally required notification to the Trump White House.
According to Justice Department officials and Flynn's lawyers, the majority of the above evidence was withheld from the courts and Flynn's legal team for years despite repeated orders that all exculpatory Brady materials, i.e., evidence of innocence, be produced.