The missing text messages between FBI special agent Peter Strzok and FBI counsel Lisa Page have been turned over to Congress by the Department of Justice, and we've obtained a copy courtesy of The Daily Caller.
Strzok and Page were in an intimate relationship at the time.
The alleged missing texts, due to some alleged FBI technical failure, occurred between December 16, 2017 and May 23, 2017, and comprise 49 pages of approximately 300 text messages.
The DOJ released the texts on Thursday evening.
According to The Daily Caller:
Many of the text messages in the 49 page release are shorthand and are not entirely clear to the outside interpreter. The congressional committees that obtained the messages Thursday will likely siphon through them to see if, as GOP lawmakers currently believe, there is any evidence of political bias on the part of Strozk and Page.Strzok was the chief investigator during the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and, notably, watched over the FBI’s investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election.
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A number of the text messages released thus far between Strzok and Page have caused congressional Republicans to raise their eyebrows.
For example, Strzok told Page that he wanted to have an “insurance policy” in the off chance that Trump defeated Clinton in the 2016 election.
Earlier this month, in a letter, House Republicans called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray and U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah John Huber to investigate Strozk and Page, as well as former FBI Director James Comey, Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Andrew McCabe for “potential violation(s) of federal statues.""With regard to top counterintelligence FBI agent, Peter Strzok, and senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page, we raise concerns regarding their interference in the Hillary Clinton investigation regarding her use of a personal email server," the letter read.
The letter then points to a Wall Street Journal report that indicated that texts from Strzok to Page referenced "senior officials had decided to water down the reference to President Obama to 'another senior governmental official.'"
The letter referred Strzok and Page for potentially violating 18 USC 1505 and 1515b.
We'll see if anything comes out of this, but if it does, these are pretty small fish in a pond of big ones. Still, any justice brought in the matter is justice that was left undone for some time. It will be welcome.