Newly released text messages reveal anti-Trump FBI agent knew outcome of Clinton probe in advance
Jan 21, 2018 6:03 pm
The FBI agent who was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia probe and his mistress, an FBI lawyer, appeared to know the FBI wouldn’t recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton before the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s email server ended.
What happened?
Newly released text messages given to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee late Friday appear to show that senior FBI agent Peter Strzok and his mistress, Lisa Page, knew Clinton wouldn’t be prosecuted in advance of then-FBI Director James Comey decision.
The text messages also show that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch knew Clinton wouldn’t be charged, despite Lynch’s recusal and Comey claims that the didn’t coordinate his decision with anyone in the government.
The exchanged happened on July 1, 2016, one day before Strzok personally interviewed Clinton for the investigation. The couple was discussing Lynch’s decision to recuse herself from the investigation.
“Timing looks like hell,” Strzok told Page.
“Yeah, that is awful timing. Nothing we can do about it,” she responded, later adding: “It’s a real profile in couragw [sic], since she knows no charges will be brought.”
Four days after that conversation, Comey stood before the nation and announced his decision to not recommend criminal charges against Clinton.
Pressure to finish
Text messages released to Johnson’s committee also revealed Strzok’s enthusiasm to finish the Clinton investigation when it was apparent then-GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump would become the GOP nominee.
“It’s going to be a Clinton Trump race. Unbelievable.” Page texted Strzok on May, 4, 2016.
“Now the pressure really starts to finish MYE,” Strzok responded. According to the Daily Caller, “MYE” is a reference to “Mid-Year Exam,” the FBI’s code word for the Clinton email probe.
It was also revealed over the weekend the FBI “failed to preserve” five months of text messages between Strzok and Page. But what’s most significant about that is the period of missing messages: Dec. 14, 2016, to May 17, 2017.
The Trump-Russia investigation, which Strzok was removed from over his extramarital affair with Page, was heating up in mid-December while Mueller was appointed on May 17, 2017.
According to Fox News, the Department of Justice and FBI are required to turn over the remaining 9,000 text messages to congressional investigators by Thursday.
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