Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Special Counsel Robert Mueller were told in July that two FBI officials working on Mueller’s Russia probe had exchanged a number of anti-Trump text messages throughout the 2016 campaign, according to the Justice Department’s watchdog.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz revealed the information one day after Fox News obtained more than 375 of the messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. The messages were published ahead of Rosenstein’s Wednesday appearance before the House Judiciary Committee.
Strzok, a former deputy to the assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, was fired by Mueller and reassigned to the FBI’s human resources division after the exchanges with Page were discovered. Page was briefly on Mueller’s team, but has since returned to the FBI.
In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Horowitz said his office requested text messages from the government-issued phones of several FBI employees involved in the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
Strzok played a key role in the email probe, changing former FBI Director James Comey’s early draft language about Clinton’s actions from “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless” and conducting the FBI interview of Clinton over the July 4 weekend in 2016.
According to Horowitz, “politically-oriented” text messages between Strzok and Page were found in his office’s initial search. That led to the watchdog requesting all messages between the two through the end of last November. Those messages were produced by the FBI on July 20 of this year and Mueller and Rosenstein were informed about them a week later, on July 27.
The following day, Horowitz’s office requested additional messages between Strzok and Page between December 2016 and July 28. Those messages were received on Aug. 10.
In all, more than 10,000 messages between Page and Strzok were turned over to the Justice Department watchdog. They included discussions of how to “protect the country from that menace,” referring to President Trump.
One of the most notable messages, from Aug. 15, 2016, came from Strzok.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” said Strzok, apparently referring to then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
I see that the Windbag City(Chicago)Trump is not welcome well who give a darn about what they think is the city run by outlaws and crinimals it certianly has’nt changed much from the days pf Al Capone its still run by the mob and their idiot mayor belongs in prison and besides the name Chicago is dirived from a indian word meaning Stink,Skunk and Bad Smell and the stench from their City Hall would gag a skunk and make a vulture puke
It’s pretty difficult to maintain faith in an organization that takes people that have been, in addition to maintaining an extra-marital affair, exchanging anti-Presidential seditious texts, rife with profanity, on GOVERNMENT PROVIDED PHONES and puts them in HR!!
I doubt that these are the only people within the FBI and DOJ that are incapable of tamping down their hatred of conservatives and infuse that within their “investigations”, but they may have been the only ones stupid enough to document it. Although, the brash arrogance of liberals who believe rules and laws don’t apply to them and that the government and media will always have their backs should not be underestimated.
8/26/16 Strzok – “Just went to a southern Virginia Walmart. I could SMELL the Trump support…” This is why I DESPISE the Swamp, all the political ingrates, those Elites that think they are superior to other citizens. If the economy were better many people would not be dependent on Walmart for shopping and their wonderful part time jobs available there. If found guilty of their crimes, it would be nice to see them sentenced to work at Walmart for a year and live on that income. Walmart is the #1 employer in several states. Let these privileged people drink in the “smell” of honest hard work. Besides, I am sure there will be people with college degrees for themto talk to who just can’t find a job.