FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were
concerned about being too tough on Democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton during the bureau’s investigation into her email
practices because she might hold it against them as president, text
messages released on Thursday indicated.
“One more thing: she might be our next president,” Page
texted Strzok on Feb. 25, 2016, in the midst of the presidential
campaign, in reference to Clinton.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley
released new messages between bureau officials Lisa Page and Peter
Strzok, who were having an affair and exchanged more than 50,000 texts
with each other.
(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
“The last thing you need [is] going in there loaded for
bear,” she continued. “You think she’s going to remember or care that
it was more [DOJ] than [FBI]?”
Strzok replied that he “agreed” and he had relayed their discussion with someone named “Bill.”
Strzok not only worked on the Clinton case, but was
assigned to the special counsel’s probe into Russia and the Trump
campaign after a number of anti-Trump texts were discovered on his
phone. Page also briefly worked on the special counsel investigation.
DOJ RECOVERS MISSING TEXT MESSAGES BETWEEN ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENTS STRZOK AND PAGE
Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said Thursday in a letter
to FBI Director Christopher Wray that the exchange, among others,
concerned him.
“The text messages that were provided raise serious
concerns about the impartiality of senior leadership running both the
Clinton and Trump investigations,” Grassley said.
FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were concerned
about being too tough on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary
Clinton during the bureau’s investigation into her email practices
because she might hold it against them as president, newly released text
messages indicate.
During the campaign, the FBI investigated Clinton’s use
of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Then-FBI
Director James Comey decided against recommending prosecution, but
faulted Clinton and her associates for being “extremely careless” with
classified information.
“It's clear that [Strzok and Page] did not want her
charged,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, a member of the House Intelligence Committee,
told
“Tucker Carlson Tonight.” He added, “They wanted her to be the president of the United States.”
Republicans, arguing some top officials at the FBI are
politically biased against Trump, have seized on the texts, including
one where Strzok and Page spoke of a “secret society” within the
Department of Justice and the FBI and Strzok spoke of an “insurance
policy” against a Trump win.
“The fix was in even before they interviewed the target of the investigation,” Gowdy, R-S.C., said.
New texts released by Grassley on Thursday also
indicated that FBI officials believed FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe
should be recused from the Clinton investigation because of his family’s
ties to Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is close with the
Clintons.
In an October 28, 2016 text exchange, Page told Strzok
that then- FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki thought McCabe should not
have participated in the probe.
“Rybicki just called to check in,” she wrote. “He very
clearly 100% believes that Andy should be recused because of the
‘perception.’”
“God,” Strzok replied.
New texts released by Grassley on Thursday also indicate
FBI officials believed FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should be
recused from the Clinton investigation because of his family’s ties to
Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is close with the
Clintons.
Asked by Page why McCabe should be recused now, if not before, Strzok said: “I assume McAuliffe picked up.”
McCabe eventually recused himself from the Clinton probe one week before the election.
“If McCabe eventually recused himself one week before
the election, why did he not do so sooner?” Grassley asked Wray in the
letter.
Grassley also told Wray he was concerned that Page and
Strzok were transmitting government records on personal systems
inappropriately. In a June 2017 message, Strzok wrote of typing a
document on a “home computer.”
The senator said Page and Strzok also referenced other
conversations “via iMessage, presumably on their personal Apple
devices.”
“It appears that Strzok and Page transmitted federal
records pertaining to the Clinton investigation on private,
non-government services,” Grassley said. “It is important to determine
whether their own similar conduct was a factor in not focusing on and
developing evidence of similar violations by Secretary Clinton and her
aides.”
The new messages surfaced the same day the Justice
Department’s inspector general said he recovered a number of missing
text messages between Strzok and Page.
Fox News has learned from U.S. government officials
that the inspector general recovered the texts by taking possession of
"at least four" phones belonging to Strzok and Page.