After seeing Reines mock Flynn's resignation for supporting pizzagate on Twitter, instead of mocking ties to Russia, I decided to look into him:

Background

Philippe Reines was a Senior Advisor to Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State from 2009-2010. He was promoted to position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Strategic Communications in 2010 under the Obama administration. He's currently the director of Beacon Global Strategies, Washington, DC-based strategic advisory firm specializing in matters of international policy, foreign affairs, national defense, cyber, intelligence, and homeland security.

Hastings email inquiry for Reines

In 2012, Buzzfeed posted an article (http://archive.is/ahpZX) of Philippe Reines responding to an investigative reporter's inquiries on the failure at Benghazi. Michael Hastings (investigative reporter) opens with a question:

Hastings: A few quick questions for you. Why didn't the State Department search the consulate and find AMB Steven's diary first? What other potential valuable intelligence was left behind that could have been picked up by apparently anyone searching the grounds? Was any classified or top secret material also left? [...] Your statement on CNN sounded pretty defensive--do you think it's the media's responsibility to help secure State Department assets overseas after they've been attacked?

Reines responds with passive aggressive tone mocking Hasting's character and motives. Hasting's responds:

Hastings: [...] Thankfully, it was CNN--and not Al Qaeda or some other militia--that found it and was able to return it to the family. That CNN used portions of the material in the diary they found at the scene--material that appears to contradict the official version of events that State/WH has been putting out--is completely in line with practices of good journalism. [...] The misinformation here seems largely to be coming from State and the administration. The defense that the administration has offered that there was no intelligence warning of an attack is weak. If there was no intel, then clearly the CIA and other intel agents stationed in Benghazi weren't doing their jobs well. If there was intel, then we have some kind of cover-up--whether out of incompetence or ass covering before the election or just the trauma of losing four good men, it's hard for me to say at this point.

Hastings seems to be on the right lead following Benghazi, so Reines responds:

Reines: Why do you bother to ask questions you've already decided you know the answers to?

Hastings: Why don't you give answers that aren't bullshit for a change?

Reines: I now understand why the official investigation by the Department of the Defense as reported by The Army Times The Washington Post concluded beyond a doubt that you're an unmitigated asshole. How's that for a non-bullshit response? Now that we've gotten that out of our systems, have a good day. And by good day, I mean Fuck Off

Hastings: Hah--I now understand what women say about you, too! Any new complaints against you lately?

Reines responds in a defensive manner:

Reines: Talk about bullshit - answer me this: Do you only traffic in lies, or are you on the ground floor of creating them? And since Fuck Off wasn't clear enough, I'm done with you. Inside of 5 minutes when I can log into my desktop, you'll be designated as Junk Mail. Have a good life Michael.

This email communication occurred on Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 1:48 PM.

John O. Brennan's Authority to Perform Secret Raids and Benghazi

John O. Brennan was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from March 2013 to January 2017. Brennan was the director who was speaking Arabic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VQbAhqHoAo) demonstrating the "Beauty of Islam".

According to the NYPost:

"Obama gave his chief counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan, who is now the nominee to be the next leader of the CIA, a blank check. Brennan could do just about whatever he needed to do in North Africa and the Mideast, contend Murphy and Webb. Brennan chose to conduct a dangerous classified war without looping in Stevens, who paid with his life for his ignorance, according to the book."

“The overrunning of the consulate and the killing of the two [Navy SEALs] must have come as a shock to” then-CIA chief David Petraeus, Murphy and Webb say. Petraeus had been cut out of the loop as Brennan passed up to Director of Central Intelligence James Clapper “the bare minimum of information needed to keep these secret missions legal.”

This was published around 5 months after the Benghazi attacks: https://nypost.com/2013/02/10/the-secret-war-behind-benghazi/

9 Months Later (June 2013)

9 months after the original communications with Reines, or around 10 months after Benghazi attacks:

• On June 18, 2013, Hastings died in a single vehicle automobile crash in his Mercedes C250 Coupé at approximately 4:25 a.m. in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. A witness to the crash said the car seemed to be traveling at maximum speed and was creating sparks and flames before it fishtailed and crashed into a palm tree. Video from a nearby security camera purportedly shows Hastings' vehicle speeding and bursting into flames
• WikiLeaks announced that Hastings had also contacted Jennifer Robinson, one of its lawyers, a few hours prior to the crash, and the LA Weekly reported that he was preparing new reports on the CIA at the time of his death.
• His widow Elise Jordan said his final story was a profile of CIA Director John O. Brennan.

March 2015

Turns out, Philippe Reines was using a private email account to conduct SoS matters to avoid FOIA requests. Reporters here are asking Reines questions about why he will not release FOIA requests related to Michael Hastings. Clearly, reporters are worried what will happen to them if they don't "fall in line". Maybe that's how Buzzfeed's investigative reporters swung to become Obama/Clinton's propaganda lapdog so easily.

(Needs more research)

Source: http://gawker.com/so-philippe-reines-sent-us-an-email-1689406566

Flynn Controversy

There are some rogue insiders at the White House/CIA/FBI who are leaking information about Trump insiders. Whether they are blackmailing people like Flynn for believing in pizzagate, Reines posted a cocky tweet that Hillary's social media team responded to:

Dear Mike Flynn & Mike Flynn Jr.,

What goes around COMETS around.

And given your pizza obsession...

https://jobs.dominos.com/dominos-careers/ …

xo

Philippe

• https://twitter.com/philippereines/status/831356816609116160

Hillary responds:

Philippe's got his own way of saying things, but he has a point about the real consequences of fake news...

• https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/831377792893849600

Why would Hillary use a "debunked conspiracy theory" to poke at the downfall of Flynn? It would be smarter to use the Russian hacking or 17 intelligence agencies playbook card. This comes off as a threat that anyone who tries to cross the shadow government will suffer consequences. Clearly, Reines still holds some power inside the Department of State.