FBI running internal investigation into its own Trump-Russia probe 'Crossfire Hurricane'

The news of the internal review came during testimony from FBI Special Agent Curtis Heide Tuesday during the trial of Michael Sussmann — the first trial out of Special Counsel John Durham’s years-long investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.Heide confirmed during testimony that he is being investigated for withholding potentially exculpatory information in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.Heide said Tuesday that the exculpatory information in question was a "recording from one of the subjects."SPECIAL COUNSEL JOHN DURHAM'S PROSECUTION OF MICHAEL SUSSMANN: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW (REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson)Fox News first reported in 2019 that Durham’s review was zeroing in on transcripts of recordings made by at least one FBI confidential human source who met with Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos overseas in 2016, specifically looking at why certain "exculpatory" material from them was not presented in subsequent applications for FISA warrants against Page.A source, in 2019, told Fox News that the "exculpatory evidence" that could be included in those transcripts, which were declassified and released in April 2020, was Papadopoulos denying having any contact with the Russians to obtain the supposed "dirt" on Clinton.Fox News obtained the declassified transcript of the secretly recorded meeting in April 2020. The transcript revealed the confidential human source pressed Papadopoulos on whether the Trump campaign was involved in Russian election meddling — something that, the transcript shows, Papadopoulos emphatically denied.DOJ’S RUSSIA PROBE REVIEW FOCUSING ON 'SMOKING GUN' TAPES OF MEETING WITH TRUMP AIDE: SOURCESIt is unclear if this is the "exculpatory" information Heide is under investigation for omitting from the FISA warrant applications.The transcript, however, is of a more than 4-hour long conversation betweenPapadopoulos and a confidential FBI source on Oct. 31, 2016. The official, at the time, told Fox News that the transcript was just one of a series of productions that the Justice Department made in the wake of DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on his review of misconduct of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).Horowitz wrote in his report, released in December 2019, that "the FBI did not inform of these conversations at the time they occurred" and the "FISA renewal applications on Carter Page did not include these statements."FBI LEADERSHIP WAS 'FIRED UP' ABOUT ALLEGED SECRET CHANNEL BETWEEN TRUMP-RUSSIAN BANK: SUSSMANN TRIALThe transcripts had been classified, but were declassified under former President Trump’s May 2019 move to approve declassification of documents related to the surveillance of his campaign during the 2016 election.The FBI obtained FISA warrants against Trump campaign aide Carter Page. It was authored by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, and paid for by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee through law firm Perkins Coie — where Elias and Sussmann were employed.Sussmann has been charged with making a false statement to the FBI when he told Baker in September 2016, less than two months before the presidential election, that he was not doing work "for any client" when he requested and attended a meeting in which he presented "purported data and ‘white papers’ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communicates channel" between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin.Durham’s team alleges Sussmann was, in fact, doing work for two clients: the Hillary Clinton campaign and a technology executive, Rodney Joffe.