The Department of Justice released 90 pages of text messages late Tuesday night, many harshly critical of candidate Donald Trump, that were exchanged between an FBI lawyer and an agent who was later assigned to Robert Mueller's special counsel team.
e-mails were exchanged between Peter Strzok, one of the top FBI agents assigned to the Mueller investigation, and Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer. The two were romantically involved.
When Mueller learned of the e-mails last summer, he removed Strzok from the team.
One message sent by Page to Strzok on March 4, 2016, reads, "God trump is a loathsome human," according to a transcript obtained by NBC News.
Later that year, in August, shortly after Trump secured the Republican nomination, Page sent Strzok an article on Trump's fumbling to understand Russia's annexation of Crimea, adding: "Jesus. You should read this. And Trump should go f himself."
Strzok responded that he liked the article "And F Trump."
Strzok told Page on July 14, "It's clear he's capturing all the white, poor voters who the mainstream Republicans abandoned in all but name in the quest for the almighty $$$$."
In other messages, the couple shared pro-Clinton views. Strzok told Page in March, "God Hillary should win 100,000,000-0."
Strzok then praised Clinton's nomination in July: "Congrats on a woman nominated for President in a major party! About damn time!"
So that was the story a few days ago.
Now keep in mind that these are not emails sent back and forth on the FBI's official accounts, these are private texts between two people in a relationship.
Also keep in mind when Mueller learned of them he had this agent removed immediately.
But if you think that is going to placate the Right Wing, well then you have simply not been watching enough Fox News.
Courtesy of Politico:
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley demanded answers Thursday about when top Department of Justice officials became aware of anti-Donald Trump text messages sent in 2015 and 2016 by top FBI officials, including one senior agent involved in the investigation of any Trump campaign connections to Russia.
"The limited release of 375 text messages between Mr. Peter Strzok and Ms. Lisa Page indicate a highly politicized FBI environment during both the Clinton and Russia investigations," Grassley wrote in a letter to deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to lead a criminal probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Right on cue.
Now Democrats have been wondering why we are seeing these texts in the first place, as they are private and should probably have remained an internal FBI matter.
Courtesy of Politico:
Democrats pressed the Justice Department on Thursday to explain why it released salacious, anti-Donald Trump text messages exchanged between two FBI employees who are still under investigation for their work on the Russia special counsel investigation.
As it turns out the DOJ was not really behind the early release of the texts. At least not officially:
The Department of Justice acknowledged in a statement on Thursday night that copies of private text messages exchanged between two former special-counsel investigators were disclosed to certain members of the media before they were given to Congress, even though those disclosures "were not authorized."
Sarah Isgur Flores, a DOJ spokeswoman, told Politico that the text messages exchanged between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were given to key members of the House Judiciary Committee the night before Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's public testimony on Wednesday.
The DOJ's Public Affairs division shared the same messages with a group of reporters after they were shared with the lawmakers, Flores said. But some members of the media "had already received copies."
"As we understand now, some members of the media had already received copies of the texts before that — but those disclosures were not authorized by the department," she said.
So why did these private texts even get released in the first place?
Courtesy of Business Insider:
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz on Friday said the Justice Department was "forced" to release private text messages exchanged between former special counsel investigators Peter Strzok and Lisa Page because House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes "was about to subpoena them."
During an interview, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo had asked Gaetz, a Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee who has introduced a resolution to remove special counsel Robert Mueller from his post, what he knows about the ongoing investigation that has led him to believe it has been tainted.
"What do you know that Rod Rosenstein does not?" Cuomo asked, referring to the deputy attorney general.
"Well, Chris, all the American people can see the text messages that were forced to be released 'cause Devin Nunes was about to subpoena them," Gaetz said.
Nunes, and a number of the House Republicans, have been desperately searching for a way to derail Robert Mueller and his investigation, and they are willing even to subpoena private texts between a man and his girlfriend to do it.
Is it a smoking gun.
No, especially since this Strzok guy also made nasty remarks about Bernie Sanders and former Attorney General Eric Holder.
But the Republicans don't necessarily need a smoking gun, they just need enough to create doubt in the minds of some Americans so that Mueller can be canned and they will believe it was completely justified.
And they are already starting to put those wheels in motion.
Source http://ift.tt/2kzhfZr
