Byron York:
Department of Justice to explain why they kept the committee in the dark over the reason Special Counsel Robert Mueller kicked a key supervising FBI agent off the Trump-Russia investigation.
Stories in both the Washington Post and New York Times on Saturday reported that Peter Strzok, who played a key role in the original FBI investigation into the Trump-Russia matter, and then a key role in Mueller’s investigation, and who earlier had played an equally critical role in the FBI’s Hillary Clinton email investigation, was reassigned out of the Mueller office because of anti-Trump texts he exchanged with a top FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was having an extramarital affair. Strzok was transferred to the FBI’s human resources office — an obvious demotion — in July.
The Post reported that Strzok and Page exchanged text messages that “expressed anti-Trump sentiments and other comments that appeared to favor Clinton.”
Word of the messages and the affair were news to Nunes, even though the committee had issued a subpoena that covered information about Strzok’s demotion more than three months ago. The committee’s broadly worded subpoena for information related to the so-called Trump dossier went to the FBI and FOJ on Aug. 24. In follow-up conversations on the scope of the subpoena, committee staff told the FBI and DOJ that it included information on the circumstances of Strzok’s reassignment.
On Oct. 11, Nunes met with deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein. In that meeting, Nunes specifically discussed the committee’s request for information about Strzok.
In an Oct. 31 committee staff meeting with the FBI, bureau officials refused a request for information about Strzok.
On Nov. 20, the committee again requested an interview with Strzok. (Three days earlier, on November 17, Strzok met with the Senate Intelligence Committee.)
On Nov. 29, Nunes again spoke to Rosenstein, and again discussed Strzok.
On Dec. 1, the committee again requested to speak with Strzok.
After each occasion, the FBI and DOJ did nothing. Now, in what appears to be an orchestrated leak, both the Post and Times published the reason for Strzok’s demotion, along with concerns that the revelation might help President Trump. “Among federal law enforcement officials, there is great concern that exposure of the texts they exchanged may be used by the president and his defenders to attack the credibility of the Mueller probe and the FBI more broadly,” the Post reported. The Times reported that “the existence of the text messages is likely to fuel claims by Mr. Trump that he is the target of a witch hunt.”
Well, yes. It will be of concern to Trump’s defenders, and to defenders of fair investigations generally, that such an important figure in both the Clinton and Trump probes privately expressed bias. It will be important for investigators — and the public — to see Strzok’s and Page’s texts to assess the extent of the problem. But in any event, Nunes is extremely unhappy — not only with the revelation of bias but with the FBI’s resistance.
“By hiding from Congress, and from the American people, documented political bias by a key FBI head investigator for both the Russia collusion probe and the Clinton email investigation, the FBI and DOJ engaged in a willful attempt to thwart Congress’ constitutional oversight responsibility,” Nunes said in a statement Saturday afternoon. “This is part of a months-long pattern by the DOJ and FBI of stonewalling and obstructing this committee’s oversight work, particularly oversight of their use of the Steele dossier. At this point, these agencies should be investigating themselves.”
To add insult to injury, at just the moment the leaked stories appeared, the Justice Department out of the blue notified Nunes that it would meet some of the committee’s demands for information that it had been refusing for months. That didn’t make the chairman happy, either.
Mere days before Gen. Michael Flynn was sacked as national security advisor, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe gathered more than a dozen of his top FBI disciples to plot how to ruin Flynn’s aspiring political career and manufacture evidence to derail President Donald Trump, according to FBI sources.
McCabe, the second highest ranking FBI official, emphatically declared at the invite-only gathering with raised voice: “Fuck Flynn and then we Fuck Trump,” according to direct sources. Many of his top lieutenants applauded and cheered such rhetoric. A scattered few did not.
His wife was slushed 700K for her failed campaign from Hillary.
Peter Strzok, a former deputy director for counterintelligence at the FBI who was removed from the staff of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III earlier this year, after Mueller learned that Strzok had exchanged anti-Trump texts with a colleague. Which colleague?
A .Sedition
B. Attempted coup
C. Witch hunt
D. All of the Above
Wait… what? A guy is having an extra-marital affair on the job, lets his political biases impede investigations and he is transfered to… HR?
No, really… what did they do with him?
The FBI and DOJ are definitely in need of a shake-up… to shake out and sweep away the garbage left by the Obama administration that has turned them into liberal political weapons.
@Bill… Deplorable Me: Yes HR, ” Applicant for a FBI agent gets that most important interview question, “How do you feel about the President? ”
He should be riding a desk in some backwater too small for a McDonalds.
Geewhiz how did the President know Flynn lied to the FBI? What a hoot it must have been to get Flynn fired.
@kitt: I’m sure they all reacted like Joy did. The damage Obama did to our government is immeasurable and needs to be repaired as quickly as possible.
His first attempt resulted in a special investigator. That hired Hillary donors that searched for a year to catch Flynn on a process infraction.
First rule of regime change Trust no one, maybe Flynn had good reason to lie to Pence, perhaps even to protect him.
With the deep state so entrenched with Obama and Clinton loyalists the only way might be wipe out the entire departments and start over CTRL ALT DELETE the result could be purging good guys.
You’re complaining because Mueller removed a person who may have had an anti-Trump bias from the investigative team, and had him demoted? No, that’s not really it.
Yep. There we go. That’s precisely what they want to do. Strzok isn’t really the issue.
@Greg:
Complaining he was allowed to operate withing the FBI at all. The job of the FBI is not to reinforce the fallacy that liberalism is good or attack Republicans, it is to UPHOLD THE LAW.
Before Mueller’s credibility can be attacked, it has to be FOUND first.
The Fbi just a non-political arm of justice, or it was meant to be
@Bill… Deplorable Me, #7:
Mueller has integrity and credibility—two things that the man in the White House is totally lacking. This point is lost on those who can’t seem to figure out that Donald Trump lies constantly.
Mueller is a political hack ambulance chaser, he was an appointee did not work his way up through the ranks, he a a fake and a fraud. The 2nd worst FBI director ever.
@Greg:
Yeah… that’s why he had this guy on his team, because of all his integrity and desire for a fair and efficient investigation. He has so much credibility, he only investigates Republicans while ignoring Democrats with the same, but on a larger scale, infractions. So much integrity and credibility that he cannot look into the Uranium One scandal because HE is in the middle of it.
There is no possible doubt that Trump’s one and only goal is to repair that horrific damage left behind by Obama. That is all the integrity and credibility that is needed.
@Bill… Deplorable Me, #11:
Mueller doesn’t live in Trump’s shallow, amoral, unprincipled reality-television world. He doesn’t even respond to Trump’s Twitter attacks. He has not only integrity, but organizational and investigative capability. Trump’s enemy isn’t Mueller. Trump’s enemy is the truth. His problem with Mueller is that Mueller knows how to get to it.
@Greg: Trump’s enemy is the leftist ideology that believes every means justifies the ends and Mueller is either a willing participant or a foolish dupe of that movement. If Mueller wanted a fair, bias-free investigation that intended to get to the truth, no matter what the outcome, he would not have packed it with Obama/Clinton donors and sycophants like Strzok. He would have laid down the law that ideology has no place in the investigation instead of tolerating it as long as it was anti-Trump.
But, what his lopsided crew proves is that not only was there no collusion but there was NOT A SINGLE HINT of collusion.
Mueller didn’t pack anything with anybody. He removed Strzok from the investigation this past August and had the man demoted. Strzok had only been part of Mueller’s investigative team for a matter of weeks. Obviously he wasn’t selected because of any anti-Trump bias; that’s the reason he was dismissed.
In the end, it will all come down to who did what, and the evidence that demonstrates the truth of it.
@Greg:
What was he doing there in the first place? It took the IG to expose Strzok and force Mueller’s hand. Strzok’s resume’ should have excluded him from any consideration for being a part of a non-biased investigation. It appears bias is the goal.
The time frames don’t support such conjecture. Nobody forced Mueller’s hand. Strzok was gone when Mueller became aware of the problem—the problem being largely a matter of appearances. The fact that Strzok dislikes Trump doesn’t change the nature of the testimony or evidence. Occasionally investigating people you don’t like probably goes with the job.
@Greg:
It changes the nature of the investigation; it changes it from an investigation to a witch hunt, which it all it has been. Rabid liberals have proven they do not posses the capacity to be non-biased and NONE should be allowed to be anywhere near this investigation. Strzok proved his bias in the Hillary email “investigation” so no one seeking a fair investigation of Trump/Russian collusion would include such an ideologue… especially knowing there was no collusion in advance, as they did.