Has Peter Strzok testified before a Durham grand jury?

And - what Durham has collected thus far

The Evidence Thus Far.

In this post I’ll be detailing the evidence, testimony, and documents we know – or can assume – Special Counsel John Durham has obtained during his investigation.

By no means is this an exhaustive list; certainly, he has more information, documents, correspondence, etc. than we realize. There are unknown witnesses who have testified before a grand jury or have been interviewed by Durham’s team. There are issues he’s investigating out of the public knowledge. His investigation is remarkably tight-lipped. As far as we know, they aren’t leaking to the press for publicity or to put pressure on their targets. (Compare that to the likely leak from Special Counsel Mueller’s team that they had enough evidence to charge Flynn’s son, which was reported just as they were trying to get Flynn to plead guilty to the false statements charge.)

Some of this information is organized by category. At other times it is organized by entity or Defendant. Sometimes both. For research purposes, I will probably come back to this and provide updates so we have a running list of what has been done.  

Here is what we know so far.

Grand Jury Testimony. The following witnesses (some identified by name; others given general descriptions in Durham’s filings) have testified before a grand jury. The Government’s Discovery Update in the Sussmann case, filed 1/25/2022, provides much of this information.

1. Former FBI General Counsel James Baker.

2. A former FBI Assistant Director for Counter Intelligence. We are confident this is Bill Priestap, to whom Baker relayed the Alfa Bank materials after it was provided by Michael Sussmann. See Baker’s 10/3/2018 House testimony at page 100.

3. Peter Strzok (likely). The 1/25/22 Sussmann filing by Durham states there has been grand jury testimony by “A former FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence.” We conclude this is probably Peter Strzok. Baker testified that he might have contacted “Pete Strzok or Bill Priestap” after receiving the documents from Sussmann.  See Baker’s 10/3/2018 House testimony at page 99. Strzok wrote that he had a “minor role” in these events. We asked Strzok about this; he hasn’t responded.

4. Daniel Jones (likely). Back in October 2020, Dexter Filkins with the New Yorker reported that Durham had “asked” Jones to give testimony before a grand jury. Jones is a former staffer for Diane Feinstein who, per the Daily Caller, secured $50 million in funding to investigate, with Fusion GPS and Steele Russian interference with the 2016 election.

5. Charles Dolan (likely grand jury). Dolan is the Clinton ally “source” of Steele primary subsource Igor Danchenko. We conclude he has testified before a grand jury based on statements within the Danchenko indictment (such as Dolan stating the Clinton Campaign did not direct his interactions with Danchenko and other Russian nationals).

6. An FBI Special Agent who served as case agent for the FBI’s Alfa Bank investigation. Identity currently unknown.

7. An FBI Headquarters Supervisory Special Agent assigned to the Alfa Bank investigation. Identity currently unknown.

8. Eight current and former employees of the CIA (identified as “Agency-2” in the Sussmann indictment) have been interviewed. This would likely include Caroline Krass, a John Brennan ally who was the CIA General Counsel at the time. Two current CIA employees have testified before the grand jury.

9. Eight current and former employees of Neustar (identified as “Internet Company-1” in the Sussmann indictment) have been interviewed.

10. Four current employees of Packet Forensics, LLC and VOSTROM Holdings Inc. have been interviewed (Likely “Internet Company-2” and “Internet Company-3” in the Sussmann indictment.)

11. The former chairman of Perkins Coie. (Interview.)

12. A former employee of the Clinton Campaign. (Interview.)

13. Four current and former employees of Georgia Tech. (Interview.)

14. An employee of Rodney Joffe. (Interview.)

Some observations about the grand jury testimony:

First, by no means is that a comprehensive list. Durham’s scope covers more that what some of these witnesses can offer – such as whether he continues to look into the activities and investigations of the team working for Special Counsel Mueller.

Second, the testimony of Peter Strzok and Bill Priestap is obviously significant. The subject matter of that testimony is the relevant question. Was it limited to the Alfa Bank allegations, or did Durham dig deeper?

We should operate under the assumption that it’s the latter and that both Strzok and Priestap were asked about the inception of Crossfire Hurricane. According to the 2019 IG Report, “Priestap authorized the opening of Crossfire Hurricane” and advised against providing defensive briefings to the Trump campaign. Priestap also approved all of the confidential human source operations against the Trump campaign – which would include the use of informant Stefan Halper.

Strzok was involved in these early stages as well, having received information from the Australians regarding the Papadopoulos/Mifsud conversation that occurred in May 2016 (review the FBI’s summary of their Mifsud interview here) and being privy, according to Strzok, to the FBI’s purported “strong corroborating information indicating that senior officials in the Russian government were responsible for directing attacks on the 2016 U.S. elections, including the hack of the DNC.” It was Strzok who “drafted and approved the opening” Electronic Communication for Crossfire Hurricane. He eventually “managed Crossfire Hurricane.” Strzok also approved the individual investigations of Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, and George Papadopoulos. (Of course, this is just a summary of Priestap and Strzok’s involvement in the issues Durham is investigating.)

With that information in mind, recall that in 2019, the otherwise tight-lipped Durham cast doubt on the predication and opening of Crossfire Hurricane after the IG Report was released.

Interviews. Our next focus will be the interviews Durham and his team have conducted. For the most part this relies on court filings; again, this list is not exhaustive. Some of these people have also testified before a grand jury. These include:

1. Durham’s interview with Steven Schrage – who previously worked under Stefan Halper. This includes Durham’s review of records and recordings relating to Halper (confirmed here at Matt Taibbi’s Substack).

2. Baker, Strzok, and Priestap.

3. More than 24 current and former FBI employees. This would likely include testimony from FBI Agent William Barnett, who believed Mueller’s focus on Flynn was “used as a means to ‘get Trump.’”

4. Joseph Mifsud. Recall Barr and Durham’s trip to Italy.

5. A former chairman of Perkins Coie.

6. A former employee of the Clinton Campaign.

7. Two former employees of DARPA (identified as Agency-1 in the Sussmann indictment) have been interviewed. This NYT article explains DARPA’s relationship with Georgia Tech, and how Georgia Tech researchers worked with Rodney Joffe.  

8. Current and former employees of the CIA.

9. A February 12, 2021 interview with Georgia Tech researcher Angelos Keromytis. Confirmed through a FOIA by RyanM.

10. Current and former employees of Neustar, Packet Forensics, LLC and VOSTROM Holdings Inc. One employee of Rodney Joffe.

11. Charles Dolan.

Documents/Evidence/Grand Jury Subpoenas for Records. Then we get to the documents Durham possesses. While this is not an exclusive list, court filings confirm he has the following records (or records from the following persons/entities):

1. The Clinton Campaign. Grand jury subpoenas for documents were issued to the Clinton Campaign as recently as September 2021. Source: CNN. Durham already possesses at least some Clinton Campaign records. Recall that Durham has stated the Clinton Campaign and “multiple former employees of that campaign” are in “matters before the Special Counsel.”

2. Hillary for America. In the January 25, 2022 filing in the Sussmann case, Durham cites to having received documents from “a political organization.” We believe this is Hillary for America, which helped pay for the Steele dossiers.

3. Perkins Coie. Durham already has Perkins Coie billing records, notes, and e-mails. The e-mails include correspondence with Fusion GPS and the Clinton Campaign.

4. Neustar, Packet Forensics, LLC, and VOSTROM Holdings Inc.

5. Georgia Tech.

6. Baker’s two phones (previously in possession of OIG).

7. Mifsud’s phones.

8. A public relations firm that advised Perkins Coie about Sussmann’s meeting with Baker.

9. Phone logs for Baker and Priestap. Likely Peter Strzok phone logs as well. Phone logs from eight current or former FBI employees. Phone logs between Sussmann and FBI personnel.

10. Nearly 400 e-mails between Perkins Coie and the FBI.

11. FBI/CIA notes regarding the Sussmann 2016 and 2017 meetings with the agencies’ general counsel.

12. Internal FBI e-mails and messages. The Sussmann filing states Durham has these relevant to Sussmann, lending a credible belief that Durham directed the FBI to produce internal messages/e-mails relating to his other areas of inquiry.

13. Records/documents/evidence collected by IG Horowitz in his review of the Carter Page FISAs.

14. Records/documents/evidence relating to the OIG matter presented by Sussmann and Joffe.

15. FBI Inspection Division Materials. Durham has requested, but not yet received, “the interview reports and associated documents for a number of current and former FBI personnel who were interviewed by the Inspection Division” relating to Crossfire Hurricane.

16. All FISA records relating to Danchenko’s “Russian Sub-Srouce-1,” identified as Olga Galkina. Chuck Ross reported: “The IG report indicates that the FBI had Section 702 coverage on Galkina, which would have allowed the agency to surveil her communications.”

Igor Danchenko (Steele’s primary subsource). Based on the Danchenko indictment and later court filings, it appears that Durham was able to collect the following documents and communications from or relating to Danchenko:

1. All FBI interviews with Igor Danchenko. The significance of this? The DOJ Inspector General apparently was not provided with all these interviews.

2. Danchenko’s communications (texts, e-mails, etc.). This includes (1) Danchenko’s correspondence with Christopher Steele; (2) his correspondence with Charles Dolan, who we would learn was Danchenko’s source; (3) his communications with his subsource Olga Galkina.

Fusion GPS/Christopher Steele. Finally, we get to Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele. Based on what we have reviewed, Durham possesses:

1. Fusion GPS correspondence with Perkins Coie.

2. Fusion GPS internal discussions about Trump/Russia research.

3. Fusion GSP interactions with the press.

4. Fusion GPS correspondence with Rodney Joffe.

5. Fusion GPS invoices/payments.

6. All of Christopher Steele’s correspondence with his sources, including Igor Danchenko. For background, here are our reports on the Fusion GPS e-mails and Fusion’s efforts to conceal the e-mails. 

But wait, there’s more.

Durham is reportedly looking into the FBI’s investigation of the Clinton Foundation and into the investigation run Special Counsel Mueller - which may include their representations to various courts and the destruction of evidence/government property by Andrew Weissmann, et al (the phone wiping controversy). Whether those areas of inquiry produced anything of note remains to be seen.

Finally, all of what we described likely encompasses millions of pages of documents. Durham will produce over half a million pages of documents in the Sussmann case alone. And the investigation includes more records and more testimony than we are aware. While we prefer to see results, perhaps the scope can inspire confidence. Perhaps.

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