Posted on 01/21/2018 11:49:50 AM PST by billorites
The FBI “failed to preserve” five months worth of text messages exchanged between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the two FBI employees who made pro-Clinton and anti-Trump comments while working on the Clinton email and the Russia collusion investigations.
The disclosure was made Friday in a letter sent by the Justice Department to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC).
“The Department wants to bring to your attention that the FBI’s technical system for retaining text messages sent and received on FBI mobile devices failed to preserve text messages for Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page,” Stephen Boyd, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the Justice Department, wrote to Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of HSGAC. (RELATED: FBI Agents Discussed ‘Insurance Policy’ Against Trump Win)
He said that texts are missing for the period between Dec. 14, 2016 and May 17, 2017.
Boyd attributed the failure to “misconfiguration issues related to rollouts, provisioning, and software upgrades that conflicted with the FBI’s collection capabilities.”
“The result was that data that should have been automatically collected and retained for long-term storage and retrieval was not collected,” Boyd wrote.
Strzok and Page were significant players in the Clinton and Trump investigations. As deputy chief of counterintelligence, Strzok oversaw the Trump investigation when it was opened in July 2016. Weeks earlier, he had wrapped up his work as one of the top investigators on the Clinton email probe.
Both worked on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation until July 2017.
But Strzok was removed after the Justice Department’s inspector general discovered text messages he exchanged with Page, with whom he was having an affair, in which both expressed strong criticism of Trump.
In one text, Strzok called Trump and “idiot.” In another, he said “F Trump.”
In another more cryptic exchange, Strzok spoke of an “insurance policy” that the FBI sought to take out in case Trump defeated Clinton in the election.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strzok wrote to Page on Aug. 15, 2016.
“Andy” was a reference to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
“It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40,” Strzok added. Republicans have questioned what Strzok meant by “insurance policy.”
Page left the Mueller team prior to the discovery of the texts.
Johnson expressed concern over the missing text messages, which were sent during a key period of the Russia investigation. During that time frame is when the Steele dossier was published by BuzzFeed News, when Strzok participated in a Jan. 24 interview with then-national security adviser Michael Flynn, and when James Comey was fired as FBI director.
The end date of the missing Strzok-Page texts is also significant. That’s because May 17 is the day when Mueller was appointed to take over the FBI’s probe of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.
“The loss of records from this period is concerning,” Johnson wrote in a letter sent Saturday to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Along with its disclosure of the missing text messages, DOJ’s Boyd handed over 384 additional text messages exchanged between Strzok and Page.
Stephen Boyd thinks we are all so stupid. And there he sits in his cozy Justice Dept job covering his *ss and the *sses of McCabe, Comey, Lynch, and those of so many others.
These people cannot be allowed to sit on the government payroll and then escape to a government paid retirement. An example needs to be set of harsh penalties including revocation of pensions.
Isn’t it lucky for the FBI that the NSA has a complete record then!
Call in the U.S. Marshalls, start putting people in the pokey until they comply with the law.
"I will make it my highest priority to restore the public's confidence in the FBI and to re-earn the faith and trust of the American people.''"
- Weasel Mueller
I haven’t seen that before. I wonder if it’s legit. Have to presume it’s not.
How EXPECTABLE.
FBI: Oopsies! Our bad!
Can anyone help me here?
Is the FBI an autonomous division of our Constitutional government?
Or is it answerable to the Executive?
The Legislative ?
The Judicial?
Which has the authority to kick some royal FBI butt?
We don't need explanations or excuses.
Just some serious fines, forfeitures and serious jail time!
We better figure that out soon... or soonest!
PUNISHMENT!!
If I were to destroy evidence like the FBI it would be a Felony and my freedom would be taken away along with societal trust in the form of loosing my voting rights and rights to own or use a gun for life.
So... many FBI agents need a new line of work when they get out of jail right?
Of course this is not just destruction of evidence, this is a much more serious charge of sedition ...
Lois Lerner, IRS chief, shrillary syndrome redux. A horrible liberal communicable disease. Take all electronics away from the fools.
It is only when career bureaucrats understand that not acting legally will destroy their career do they get ethics.
Weekend at Jeffy’s...
They should collected phones on day one.
I have not seen fully debunked but it’s not compelling the name of Steele in the doc should be “Christopher” or “Chris”, not “Michael”, suggesting it’s made up.
Thank you, Stephen W. The Freeper ladies tend to get all worked up and panicky after so many years of losing. They have to be reminded that the president and his attorney general are no fools and know everything we know and a whole lot more. They think all this should have been wrapped up long ago like a 50-minute Perry Mason episode.
Weasel Comey apparently just got a Gig teaching Ethics at his Elmer Matter.
How Kool is that?
Bet the NSA has them
I saw that comment as well, at the source, and was reviewing the thread now to see if anyone here discovered it. THANKS.
A good reminder that it was Obama who unleashed the British for 90 days in, and it was Susan Rice who delivered the cause to the Brits.
All of it captured in living color, on hard copy evidence. Delighted you include the doc link.
They're either willing to take the heat, thinking they still control the narrative, or They're deliberately sticking their thumb in Trump's eye.
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