I didn't remember seeing any news about him leaving the FBI , which is why I was asking.
As it turns out, though, there were a number of news oulets that reported that he was retiring. The stories were from Dec. 4, 2018, and they all reported he was leaving "after 20 years of service" on Dec 31st.
He's cashing out. After 20 years and at age 50+ at the FBI you get the full boat pension. Nice for him.
A while ago I looked at a list of all of the resignations and retirements and firings that a Freeper had provided. Quite a few were claimed as "FIRED", but the official story was "resigned". I tried to dig into them, and what I saw was that, with one or two exceptions, there was a lot of support for the idea that most of them had left in a rush to avoid getting fired, and under were a serious cloud, or forced out.
Bill Priestop may be another of those, but being eligible to retire makes it tougher to make that call.
Here are a few of the stories:
From the CT article:
The enigma man, E.W. Bill Piestap is retiring from the FBI. Bill Priestap is the FBI Asst. Director in charge of all counterintelligence operations. Priestap was FBI Agent Peter Strzoks boss; he was also at the epicenter of the story surrounding every action taken by the FBI in the Clinton investigation and the Trump campaign investigation.So, at best he was pushed out, which is great. His departure completes the cleansing of the FBI of the almost the whole set of people involved in Spygate. That's a nice achievement for us citizens.Bill Priestap was copied on every email of consequence including the writing of the Clinton exoneration talking points delivered by FBI Director James Comey. Priestap was the central figure on the FBI side of both Clinton and Trump operations. Bill is mentioned in hundreds of text messages sent by Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
In short, Bill Priestap was everywhere except where you would most likely expect to find him, in media discussion. The timing seems curious though the Wall Street Journal goes to great lengths to describe the timing as a mere happenstance due to his 20-year service anniversary and the opportunity to retire with full benefits:
From the WSJ:On the home-front: FBI Director of Counterintelligence Bill Priestap is married to Sabina Menshell a self-employed consultant with a history of donations to Democrat candidates, specifically to Hillary Clinton.After Mr. Priestaps departure, none of the high-ranking bureau officials involved in the two investigations will remain with the bureau. FBI director James Comeywas fired by President Trump last year, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was later dismissed by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his contacts with the media, days before he was eligible to retire with benefits.
Bills wife Sabina comes from a Goldman Sachs connected family, which must be why Bill and Sabina can afford to live in a $3.2 million home in Washington DC.
But, like all powerful swamp creatures, he managed to take his full pension with him, and his reputation is intact in so far as he was never publicly accused of any wrongdoing by anyone who matters.
He will probably land a nice high six figure job as a reward for his service to the nation in the near future. Maybe he will follow Brennan to CNN or NBC.
Those of us hoping for some real justice and accountability will just have to keep waiting.