Two FBI officials who over 50,000 texts criticized President Trump and questioned the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email server also crudely slapped Congress, according to newly declassified secret text messages.
In a blistering letter to the FBI from the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee demanding an end to frivolous redactions of the texts, new texts were revealed in which agent Peter Strzok and FBI official Lisa Page ripped Congress and made a reference to the Obama White House “running this.”
Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson expressed anger in his letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray over the texts and hit on Congress.
[Previous coverage: Previously lost Peter Strzok, Lisa Page texts leaked to media]
“In a text message dated October 25, 2016, Peter Strzok revealed the unfortunate attitude that some individuals at the highest levels of the FBI appear to have toward Congress,” wrote Johnson in the letter released Tuesday.
In the texts, he revealed that Page wrote, “Congress. Too hard to write.”
Strzok responded: “Got it. F them.”
Said Johnson, “That attitude and the slow-walked inadequate response to my May 11th letter are completely unacceptable. Moving forward, I expect more complete and expeditious responses to my oversight requests, or I will be forced to conclude that Mr. Strzok’s attitude is more widespread and that the FBI intends to obstruct this committee’s constitutional responsibility. I sincerely hope I never reach that conclusion.”
In that May 11 letter, Johnson said that “excessive redaction of documents” has hindered his committee’s investigation into the texts. In his new letter, Johnson said that despite FBI promises, the redactions continue.
He did note that the FBI is allowing his committee staff to look at “less redacted material” in private at the Justice Department.
He said that his staff has found “questionable redactions” in those reviews, including the names of key officials he would like to interview and a reference to the White House by the FBI officials looking into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and Clinton email server.
Johnson noted that in one email Strzok wrote,”And hi. Went well, best we could have expected. Other than L.C.’s quote, ‘the White House is running this.’” There was no context provided.
Johnson wrote to Wray that he is not going to give up his demands for cleaner texts. “My request to you outlined particularized concerns with the FBI’s role in reviewing documents that are responsive to congressional oversight requests. It asked straightforward questions that must be answered by the FBI—not the Department of Justice—and ought to be easy to answer. As I explained to your representative on June 7, I will not end my committee’s oversight into these matters until all of our questions have been answered and the public’s confidence in the FBI and the Justice Department has been fully restored.”
