Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Tuesday that some of the unnamed, anti-Trump FBI agents in a report on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server may have also worked on the investigation into whether President Trump collaborated with Russia during the election.
Horowitz released a report last week that revealed communications between five FBI personnel that Horowitz said “cast a cloud” over the Hillary Clinton email investigation and caused damage to “the FBI’s reputation for neutral factfinding and political independence.”
Two were named previously, FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, but the others, two FBI agents and one FBI lawyer, were not named.
When House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., asked Horowitz if he found any other FBI agents or FBI attorneys who manifest any animus or bias against President Trump. Horowitz said, “two agents, one attorney.”
“Were they working on either the Russia investigation or the Russia probe?” Gowdy, R-S.C., asked.
“I believe two of the three were, but I’d have to just double check on that,” replied Horowitz.
Two of the unnamed agents, “Agent 1” and “Agent 5,” were caught sending messages in August 2016 that made it clear they opposed the soon-to-be-elected Trump.
“I find anyone who enjoys [this job] an absolute f—ing idiot. If you don’t think so, ask them one more question. Who are you voting for? I guarantee you it will be Donald Drumpf,” Agent 1 sent.
They again bashed Trump in a September exchange, calling his supporters “retarded.” “Agent 1” and “Agent 5,” according to the IG report “were in a relationship at the time and are now married.”
Agent 1 was one of two FBI agents who interviewed Clinton in July 2016, and was one of four FBI agents in charge of the day-to-day activities of the investigation. Agent 5 was a part of the “filter team” to determine what privileged communications were part of the material obtained by the FBI during the investigation.
It is unclear from the IG report if they ever had a role in the Russia investigation, which began in July 2016, and Mueller took it over in May 2017.
The one FBI attorney, named as “FBI Attorney 2” in the report, sent anti-Trump instant messages to other FBI officials, including one that read: “As I have initiated the destruction of the republic… Would you be so kind as to have a coffee with me this afternoon?”
Another message read: “I’m clinging to small pockets of happiness in the dark time of the Republic’s destruction.”
The FBI attorney worked on both the Clinton investigation and the Russia investigation before Mueller’s appointment in May 2017, but left Mueller’s team in February, the IG report said.
All the FBI unnamed personnel said they thought their communications were private, and often said the messages were in jest or a means to blow off steam.
“The employees exchanging text messages and instant messages are trained law enforcement agents or attorneys, and should have known that these messages were potentially subject to release in response to FOIA requests, subject to disclosure in civil litigation, or discoverable as impeachment evidence even in the absence of the OIG investigation,” the IG report said. “At a minimum, we found that the employees’ use of FBI systems and devices to send the identified messages demonstrated extremely poor judgment and a gross lack of professionalism.”
Yet still, the IG report concluded that none of the decisions in the investigation were influenced by that bias.
The FBI personnel remain unnamed, and FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday they will remain that way.
