Yesterday I wrote about some newly revealed text messages between FBI Investigator Peter Strzok and his girlfriend Lisa Page. The texts strongly suggest AG Loretta Lynch knew the outcome of the Clinton email investigation before it was announced by FBI Director Comey. Those text messages were part of a letter sent by Sen. Ron Johnson to current FBI Director Christopher Wray. That letter, which was published today by CNN, also included several other text exchanges, including one in which the pair discuss candidate Trump becoming Hillary’s opponent in the general election and how that would increase pressure to wrap up the Clinton email investigation.
Ted Cruz dropped out of the presidential race on May 3, 2016. That left Donald Trump as the only remaining GOP candidate, setting up the Clinton-Trump showdown in November. Strzok apparently learned this the next day from Lisa Page. He replies to her with a reference to the Clinton email investigation, specifically the need to “finish” it:
Ms. Page: And holy s**t Cruz just dropped out of the race. It’s going to be a Clinton Trump race. Unbelievable.
Mr. Strzok: What?!?!??
Ms. Page: You heard it right my friend.
Mr. Strzok: I saw trump [sic] won, figured it would be a bit.
Mr. Strzok: Now the pressure really starts to finish MYE….
Ms. Page: It sure does. We need to talk about follow up call tomorrow. We still never have.
The letter from Sen. Johnson clarifies that “MYE” was short for “midyear exam” which was the FBI case name for the Clinton email investigation.
No doubt there were many people surprised that Trump had locked the nomination. But these are people directly involved in the email investigation into the opposing candidate. The fact that Trump’s win immediately prompts Strzok to think about the pressure to wrap up her investigation could be political realism, partisan animus, or both. It’s hard to tell.
Frankly, there doesn’t seem to be any clear line between trash-talking Trump and handling official business. One flows into the other seamlessly. A text message that starts with a partisan political observation quickly becomes a discussion of the Clinton investigation. Was the “follow up call” Page brought up work-related or was that personal. That fact is, it could be either.
The Hill reports that some Republicans are calling for a Special Prosecutor after the FBI revealed that six months of Strzok-Page texts (from Dec. 2016 to May 2017) are missing because of a technical glitch on their FBI phones.
First the IRS destroyed emails pivotal to our investigation of their political targeting.
Now the FBI "failed to preserve" texts between Peter Strzok & Lisa Page following the '16 election.
The time for a second special counsel is now.https://t.co/BonrBlsJsB
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) January 21, 2018
Unreal. We've been asking for the remaining text messages between anti-Trump FBI agents (and former Mueller team members), Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. The FBI now says the texts are "missing."
If it wasn't already clear we need a second special counsel, it's abundantly clear now https://t.co/nvpNY4s4QV
— Mark Meadows (@MarkMeadows) January 22, 2018
Today Rep. Lee Zeldin called for efforts to recover the missing texts and also suggested he didn’t believe quite they’d been lost:
Congress needs to (1) subpoena from the cell service Strzok & Page text messages; & (2) request FBI perform full forensic exam of their employees' phones to see if they can recover the messages. Let the line shine brightly on the truth!
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) January 22, 2018
Color me skeptical that the Strzok-Page texts are actually "lost". I'd predict they are a million times more likely to fall under the categories of "revealing" & "damaging" instead of "lost". In this order, what's needed is transparency, accountability, & regaining public trust.
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) January 22, 2018
Politically inconvenient emails do seem to vanish when Hillary Clinton is involved. Given the blatant partisanship we’ve seen in the texts we do have, I have little doubt the missing exchanges would also prove to be revealing.
