By Robert Willmann
Update, 10 April 2019, 4:25 p.m. central time: The second day of the interview of former FBI general counsel James A. Baker has been released. The interview was on 18 October 2018, and the transcript is 152 pages–
https://dougcollins.house.gov/jamesbaker
https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/Baker%20Day%202%20Redacted.pdf
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Congressman Doug Collins (Repub. Georgia) has released two more transcripts of committee interviews of people about the attempt to de-legitimize the election and inauguration of an elected president, and to create conditions for his removal. They can be viewed and downloaded for reading.
The transcript of James Baker is the first day of at least a two-day session.
Interview on 5 June 2018 of Bill Priestap, the assistant director in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Counterintelligence Division, 219 pages–
https://dougcollins.house.gov/Priestap
Interview on 3 October 2018 of James A. Baker, the former chief counsel of the FBI, 152 pages, day one–
https://dougcollins.house.gov/baker
https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/BakerRedacted.pdf
James Baker was the main in-house lawyer for the FBI, and as he says at the beginning of his testimony, he supervised around 200 FBI lawyers plus 100 additional "professionals". This means that he was also the supervisor of the socially versatile former FBI attorney, Lisa Page.
"Question: And the first week of May 2018, is that contemporaneous or around the time that you resigned from the FBI?
Answer [by James Baker]: Yes.
Q: Prior to you assuming the duties of senior strategic adviser, what was your position at the FBI?
A: General counsel.
Q: And how long did you occupy that position?
A: From January 2014 until January 2018.
Q: What exactly does the general counsel at the FBI do? It's my understanding that you in that capacity would be the chief legal officer for the FBI. Is that correct?
A: That's a fair way to say it, yes. And also the head of the Office of General Counsel?
Q: And as head of Office of General Counsel, you supervise a cadre of lawyers and support staff?
A: About 300 people altogether. About 200 lawyers and 100 other professionals.
Q: And the general counsel's office is responsible for providing legal advice to the rest of the FBI?
A: To the entire FBI on all of the matters that the FBI works on, in coordination with the chief division counsel who are FBI lawyers deployed in the various field offices around the country. There's around 130 of those deployed in all field offices."
Representative Collins previously released transcripts of interviews of Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, George Papadopolous, and Bruce and Nellie Ohr. Those transcripts were cited here at SST on 29 March 2019–
