Top Senate and House Democrats said an FBI investigator’s newly revealed text pledging to stop President Trump from winning the 2016 election are not evidence of investigatory bias against Trump.
“They showed bad judgment in writing those things,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said at a press conference Thursday. But he added, “They kept them from affecting their judgment and decisions.”
A newly released Department of Justice Inspector General report revealed texts from FBI investigator Peter Strzok to his FBI girlfriend in which he pledged to stop Trump from becoming president.
Democrats said they were not concerned about the pledge, which Strzok made to FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was romantically involved and who shared a dislike of then-candidate Trump.
At the time, Strzok was investigating the Trump campaign for possible collusion with Russians. He was removed from the case but is still employed by the FBI.
Nadler was joined by top Senate and House Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. The group held a press conference to respond to the IG report.
Schumer called the Strzok comments “nothing new,” and pointed out he was removed from the investigation. “Strzok has made many bad comments.”
The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, said the Strzok texts indicated the agent “might be willing to take official action to impact a presidential candidate’s electoral prospects.”
[Trump: Peter Strzok should’ve been fired ‘a long time ago’]
Nadler pointed out that Horowitz concluded the exchange does not show evidence of a tainted Trump probe.
“The reports specifically finds whatever the political opinions are of Strzok and Page in emails between the two of them, they did not bring that bias in any way to the investigation.”
Nadler said he does not think Strzok should be fired.
“My personal opinion is no,” Nadler said. “We don’t know the political opinions of other people.”
He pointed to the part of the report that found Strzok and Page sought a grand jury probe and subpoenas of Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server.
“In some instances, Strzok and Page were more Hawkish against Hillary’s side than the decisions that were ultimately made.”
Nadler said the report “specifically finds whatever the political opinions are of Strzok and Page expressed in emails between the two of them, they did not bring that bias in any way to the investigation.”
