Two senior FBI officials on Clinton, Trump probes exchanged politically charged texts disparaging...

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post



Two senior FBI officials on Clinton, Trump probes exchanged politically charged texts disparaging Trump

By Karoun Demirjian and Devlin Barrett December 2 at 11:34 AM

The former top FBI official assigned to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election was taken off that job this summer after his bosses discovered he and another member of Mueller’s team had exchanged politically charged texts disparaging President Trump and supportive of Hillary Clinton, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

Peter Strzok, as deputy head of counter-intelligence at the FBI, was a key player in the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server to do government work as Secretary of State, as well as the probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.

During the Clinton investigation, Strzok was involved in a romantic relationship with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who worked for Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The extramarital affair was problematic, these people said, but of greater concern among senior law enforcement officials were text messagesthe two exchanged during the Clinton investigation and campaign season, in which they expressed anti-Trump sentiments and other comments that appeared to favor Clinton.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/two-senior-fbi-officials-on-clinton-trump-probes-exchanged-politically-charged-texts-disparaging-trump/2017/12/02/9846421c-d707-11e7-a986-d0a9770d9a3e_story.html

---

Mueller Removed Top F.B.I. Agent Over Possible Anti-Trump Texts

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT, MATT APUZZO and ADAM GOLDMANDEC. 2, 2017

WASHINGTON — The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, removed a top F.B.I. agent from his investigation into Russian election meddling after the Justice Department’s inspector general began examining whether the agent had sent text messages that expressed anti-Trump political views, according to three people briefed on the matter.

The agent, Peter Strzok, is considered one of the most experienced and trusted F.B.I. counterintelligence investigators. He helped lead the investigation into whether Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information on her private email account, and then played a major role in the investigation into links between President Trump’s campaign and Russia.

But Mr. Strzok was reassigned this summer from Mr. Mueller’s investigation to the F.B.I.’s human resources department, where he has been stationed since. The people briefed on the case said the transfer followed the discovery of text messages in which Mr. Strzok and a colleague reacted to news events, like presidential debates, in ways that could appear critical of Mr. Trump.

A lawyer for Mr. Strzok declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department said that “we are aware of the allegation and are taking any and all appropriate steps.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/us/politics/mueller-removed-top-fbi-agent-over-possible-anti-trump-texts.html?emc=edit_na_20171202&nl=breaking-news&nlid=57435284&ref=headline

[janx]

1. I just finished reading this--this is news?

Oy. The right wing talking heads are going to have a field day with it though.

[underpants]

5. Yeah the fact that he was taken off the team will never be heard

It will be on Fox and then Trump will tweet it and then the rest of MSM will carry the water.

[janx]

7. And that will be only the beginning.

Just wait until it hits the echo chambers and grows tentacles.

[dlk]

2. Were These Supposed to be Private Texts Made on Personal Time?

Are only pro-Trump opinions allowed?

[still_one]

3. Regardless, it was Comey's hatch act violation that helped propel trump into the WH. Hillary was

ahead in most polls by around 4 to 5 points before Comey sent the letter to the republicans in Congress. It was after that event that the polls immediately dropped to dead even, helped of course our illustrious media falsely characterizing it as "the email investigation was being reopened", and parading every right wing politician across their screen to propagate that lie.

[StevieM]

6. I think she was up by even more than that. And that was after Comey's July press conference.

She would have had a huge lead had it not been for Comey's repeated violations of the Hatch Act.

[still_one]

8. I am still angry about that Stevie

[liberal_patriot_md]

13. What I want to see

Is the texts and communications between the agents working on the Wiener case that made the October email story possible. The ones who “discovered” additional emails, that turned out to be nothing. Surely there was no bias there. s/

[Solomon]

4. Mueller did the right thing. The integrity of his investigation must be protected at all costs.

It's a shame to have to lose experienced intelligent investigators who apparently know up from down and right from left, but you can imagine the firestorm this kind of disclosure would have caused down the road. We can't afford to give the Trump cult any excuses whatsoever.

[angstlessk]

10. Not only right from left, but right from wrong!

THEY knew more about trump than even his most ardent opposition, and they probably couldn't help themselves!

[DeminPennswoods]

12. Agree 100%

nt

[Lulu KC]

9. He did the right thing

but does anyeone else wonder why this is suddenly in the news today when it happened in August? it will be turned into "Mueller team anti-Trump" "Lock Mueller up" in seconds. Why, WP and NYT? Like there's nothing else going on?

[forgotmylogin]

14. Right wingers scraping for any shred

of allegations damaging to Mueller just now found it and got it some attention?

It actually makes Mueller look more non-partisan if he moved someone who was investigating 45 off the team after they publically expressed anti-T sentiments.

This is how you're supposed to do it. If he *hadn't* moved this person to a non-investigative role, then maybe this might have actual traction showing "bias".

[L. Coyote]

11. Let's see those e-mails. I want to know what they say.

And I'm sure they have a factual basis for disparaging Trump given what the FBI knows about him. If they were stating facts or reflecting opinions based on facts, they shouldn't get screwed over at work by their boss.