(PresidentialHill.com)- One of the FBI agents who testified in former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann’s trial acknowledged during cross-examination that he was under investigation for omitting exculpatory evidence from a FISA application as part of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the phony Trump/Russia collusion claims.
Agent Curtis Heide confirmed in his testimony last week that he was under investigation by the FBI for “not identifying exculpatory information related to one of the Crossfire Hurricane investigations,” namely the investigation into former Trump campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos.
In December 2019, the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General reviewed the FISA applications submitted as part of Crossfire Hurricane and found 17 “significant” errors, omissions, and inaccuracies. The IG report also harshly criticized the FBI for relying on the discredited Steele dossier in the FISA applications.
During cross-examination, Heide acknowledged he was investigated, but denied that he intentionally hid the evidence to keep the investigation going, characterizing the errors in the FISA application as “typos.”
The defense bringing up Heide’s past misdeeds is not surprising given how damaging his testimony was to Sussmann and the FBI.
In his testimony, Heide, who was one of the two case agents assigned to investigate the bogus Alfa Bank oppo-research, said the bureau’s top brass were the ones pushing for the investigation.
Two days after Sussmann met with FBI counsel James Baker, Joe Pientka, the FBI agent supervising the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, sent Heide an instant message letting him know that the brass was “fired up” about the Alfa Bank allegations and not opening an investigation was not an option.
Heide testified that it didn’t take long for him to determine that the Alfa Bank allegations were bogus. In an October 3 email, Heide asked to interview the unnamed source behind the allegations because he believed the claims were unfounded. But his superiors wouldn’t allow Heid to interview Sussmann
Two weeks after opening the investigation, Heide believed the Alfa Bank allegations were unsubstantiated. But the top brass at FBI headquarters ordered the investigation to continue.
On Tuesday, the jury packed with Clinton supporters and Trump-haters acquitted Michael Sussmann of lying to the FBI.
