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What's next in the investigation of those missing FBI texts
Washington Examiner ^ | 1/23/18 | Byron York

Posted on 01/23/2018 2:42:41 AM PST by markomalley

Congressional investigators believe they are barely beginning to answer the questions raised by the text messages between the FBI's Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. For several reasons:

1) Strzok and Page were more prolific texters than anyone knew. In a statement late Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said FBI investigators have found "over 50,000 texts" in their review of Strzok-Page communications.

2) Even with all those texts, the FBI says it cannot find the couple's messages between Dec. 14, 2016, and May 17, 2017 — a critical time in the Trump-Russia affair. It's probably safe to say there is not a single Republican on Capitol Hill who does not view this as a fishy set of circumstances and does not believe Congress should step up its investigation.

3) Strzok and Page didn't just text each other on their FBI-issued Samsung phones. At times in the text exchanges that have been released, either Strzok or Page suggested that they switch over to iMessage — suggesting they might have used personal, Apple phones to communicate about FBI business in addition to their bureau-provided phones. In a letter to the Justice Department Saturday, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., asked whether the FBI had "conducted searches of Mr. Strzok's and Ms. Page's non-FBI-issued communications devices or accounts."

4) Strzok and Page emailed each other on Gmail. Johnson's letter noted a Nov. 10, 2016, text from Page to Strzok that said: "Hey without thinking I replied to the email you sent me on Gmail. But it went to your Verizon. So please clear. Let me know if you want me to send it again somewhere else." On Oct. 4, 2015, Johnson noted, Strzok texted Page to say, "It's going to be ok at work. And haven't emailed you here, although I just did on gmail." Look for Congress to get in touch with Google in an attempt to see those emails.

5) The texts are filled with cryptic messages. Strzok and Page communicated in a sort of shorthand that was heavy on gossip and filled with references to whatever was happening in the office on any particular day. Amid that, there were many passages that might refer to the presidential race and the Trump-Russia investigation. The latest to catch Republican eyes is the "secret society" text from the day after the 2016 election. "There is a text exchange between these two FBI agents, these supposed-to-be fact-centric FBI agents saying, 'Perhaps this is the first meeting of the secret society,'" noted Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., on Fox News Monday night. But nobody knows if "secret society" represents something important to the investigation or something entirely innocent. Republicans might be on to something, or they might be mistaken.

In his statement Monday, an apologetic-sounding Sessions vowed to "leave no stone unturned" in searching for the missing texts. The Justice Department will "use every technology available to determine whether the missing messages are recoverable from another source," Sessions said. "A review is already underway to ascertain what occurred and to determine if these records can be recovered in any other way. If any wrongdoing were to be found to have caused this gap, appropriate legal disciplinary action measures will be taken."

A skeptical and suspicious Congress is waiting to see what Sessions finds.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: 201510; 20151004; 201611; gmail; lisapage; strzok
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To: tgusa

tar, feathers- and lime. you forgot the lime. ( so they don’t stink)


21 posted on 01/23/2018 3:48:59 AM PST by goldendelicious
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To: NTHockey

When did they find time to work?


22 posted on 01/23/2018 3:49:27 AM PST by blackdog
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To: blackdog

I see the missing period as pretty important - through Jan 20th and then afterwards. McCabe and Strzok tricked Gen Flynn into a plea based on “I don’t recall”- the same phrase that exonerated everyone over the past 25 years. The slip ups in those text messages through February will ensnare the Obama people. Get Bill Binney if you want, enlist Admiral Rogers if we must, but GET those messages.


23 posted on 01/23/2018 3:51:29 AM PST by major-pelham
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To: markomalley

So just how did investigators find 50,000 texts between Strzok and Page when five months are missing? And please don’t insult our intelligence by telling us that they can’t be recovered - especially after the DOJ IG told us that he has them...


24 posted on 01/23/2018 3:58:21 AM PST by ManHunter (You can run, but you'll only die tired... Army snipers: Reach out and touch someone)
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To: markomalley

I’ve thought on this some.

Most of us use SMS services that are provided by a wireless carrier like Verizon. I believe it to be a virtual certainty that all messages from these commercial SMS services are swept up by the NSA and available for searching for some period of time. I think you can also assume your emails on public servers like gmail and all your cell phone calls and voicemails are also swept up.

I have to question whether any federal agency uses a commercial SMS service from a national carrier for official business. Doing so would preclude virtually all communication between each other that has any classified, grand jury, confidential, ongoing investigation type information being transmitted.

It seems more likely to me these investigative and spook type agencies would use a private app that sent encrypted messages from a cell device over a commercial cellular network through a tightly secured firewall onto a server farm under the full control of the agency with no intermediate or local storage of data.

In short, the FBI could make those 6 months of text messages disappear if they wanted to. Individuals may subvert these controls and use personal or burner phones and there might be some data stored somewhere from these devices. Hard to imagine a Sr. Director of Counter Intelligence for the FBI is that stupid, although he was thinking with his small head during this time.


25 posted on 01/23/2018 4:02:04 AM PST by IamConservative (Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.)
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To: NTHockey
When did they find time for sex?

I don't think they 'cheated' on their spouses in the classic sense.

In lieu of sex, they rubbed iphones and blackberrys together, and excitedly watched as sparks flew into the night.

She used his dildo on her robot and then they slept, dreaming of hildabutchbitch as queen.

26 posted on 01/23/2018 4:04:43 AM PST by USS Alaska (Kill all mooselimb, terrorist savages, with extreme prejudice! Deus Vult!)
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To: ManHunter

They love to insult our intelligence. How often has this type of excuse been used - messages lost, computer crashed, nothing can be retrieved, etc. Now is Sessions going to lead an “investigation” or has he received his deep state marching orders to delay, hide and destroy evidence, and generally make sure that the truth is never revealed?


27 posted on 01/23/2018 4:04:54 AM PST by Truth29
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To: markomalley

What’s next?
You have to ask?

A shrug of the shoulders and a mumbling “guess thar ain’t nothin’ we can do ‘bout it” and the story fades.


28 posted on 01/23/2018 4:07:15 AM PST by Skooz (Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
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To: markomalley
A skeptical and suspicious Congress is waiting to see what Sessions finds.

Sessions couldn't find his rear end with both hands and a flashlight.

29 posted on 01/23/2018 4:12:26 AM PST by Rocky (I have principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others. - Groucho Marx)
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To: markomalley

Since Rush mentioned it several days ago, I’ve been asking friends and associates if they’ve heard of a company called Fusion GPS. So far nobody has. So all this Deep State, missing texts, 4-page memos, FBI/DNC/DOJ corruption isn’t reaching critical mass.


30 posted on 01/23/2018 4:26:25 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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To: Skooz

You are really living in a pre Trump World.


31 posted on 01/23/2018 4:47:24 AM PST by MNDude (Q)
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To: Former Proud Canadian
Before the election the conspirators were attempting to turn the election to Hillary

At first I was like:

But then I was like:


32 posted on 01/23/2018 4:53:27 AM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: markomalley

What if the “missing” messages are being kept “missing” because they involved discussion of more “drastic” measures against Trump? “Q” is hinting at this in his/her latest post.


33 posted on 01/23/2018 4:53:46 AM PST by montag813
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To: markomalley
What's next in the investigation of those missing FBI texts

Peter Strzok to a black site in Central Asia, hopefully.


34 posted on 01/23/2018 4:56:12 AM PST by Jim Noble (Single payer is coming. Which kind do you like?)
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To: goldendelicious

Good point! :-)


35 posted on 01/23/2018 4:58:20 AM PST by tgusa (gun control: hitting center of mass)
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To: Former Proud Canadian; Noumenon; Travis McGee
This is treason. The conspirators need to go to jail for a long time. Bonus question: Why are they all still employed by the federal government?

Because the coup is not over, all of its forces have not been deployed yet, and the outcome is very much in doubt.

This has gone WAY beyond "going to jail", which implies that these activities can be suppressed by "the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the Marshals by law".

This will either be ended by force or by a communist takeover of the Washington government.

36 posted on 01/23/2018 5:00:28 AM PST by Jim Noble (Single payer is coming. Which kind do you like?)
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To: markomalley
Strzok and Page emailed each other on Gmail. Johnson's letter noted a Nov. 10, 2016, text from Page to Strzok that said: "Hey without thinking I replied to the email you sent me on Gmail. But it went to your Verizon. So please clear.

The saving grace in all this evil doing is it appears FBI agents are so stupid as to believe erasing a Gmail message makes it go away. Hopefully the same caliber of idiot is involved in the erasure (i.e. the "glitch") of the Strzok and Page messages. So they'll think they destroyed the messages, but they still exist.

It is disturbing, in fact infuriating, to think the FBI can dismiss the destruction of the messages from these two agents as a technical "glitch". A technical glitch which just happened to affect these very two agents out of the thousands of FBI agents at the very time-frame that was critical. That excuse is beyond insulting. it is criminal.

37 posted on 01/23/2018 5:04:22 AM PST by Flick Lives
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To: major-pelham
The slip ups in those text messages through February will ensnare the Obama people. Get Bill Binney if you want, enlist Admiral Rogers if we must, but GET those messages

You don't get it.

Finding "the evidence" does not matter, for two reasons.

First: The coup plotters are still active and control much of the Federal government. They have not deployed all of their forces. They have made it clear (crystal) that they will not follow orders. No prosecution is possible under these conditions.

Second, and more important. Most of the Hillary voters, all 66 million of them, APPROVE of the coup and would support, most of them, an escalation to force-on-force. This cannot be deterred or prevented by pieces of paper in a courtroom.

38 posted on 01/23/2018 5:06:01 AM PST by Jim Noble (Single payer is coming. Which kind do you like?)
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To: Candor7

Amen


39 posted on 01/23/2018 5:10:22 AM PST by Thibodeaux (2018 is looking good)
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To: markomalley

Release the freakin memo.


40 posted on 01/23/2018 5:14:02 AM PST by wardamneagle
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