Posted on 07/14/2018 8:49:56 AM PDT by jazusamo
If you watched disgraced FBI Agent Peter Strzok bob and weave around the truth in his testimony to Congress this week you will understand our difficulty in getting Strzok’s official communications out of the FBI/Justice Department.
We don’t give up, however, and we are succeeding.
We just released 87 pages of records from the Department of Justice revealing former top FBI official Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page’s profanity-laced disdain for FBI hierarchy and policies. The DOJ, meanwhile, is resisting our request for a court order to preserve all responsive Page-Strzok communications.
Strzok and Page’s anti-Trump text messages became center-stage amid allegations of bias at the bureau, and both were subpoenaed to testify before the House Judiciary and the Oversight and Government Reform Committees.
We obtained the documents through a January 2018 Freedom of Information (FOIA) lawsuit filed after the DOJ failed to respond to a December 4, 2017, FOIA request ( Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:18-cv-00154)). The lawsuit is seeking:
The new emails came in response to a May 21, order by U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton for the FBI to begin processing 13,000 pages of previously undisclosed records exchanged exclusively between FBI officials Strzok and Page between February 1, 2015, and December 2017. The first 500 pages of records are to be processed by June 29, 2018. This process will take over two years to complete.
Emails between Strzok and Page include conversations about a change in FBI policy that eventually would allow companies to discuss National Security Letters , which are secret non-court issued subpoenas for records:
From: Strzok, Peter P. (WF) (FBI)
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2015 3:34 PM
To: Page, Lisa C. (OGC) (FBI)
Subject: FWD: FBI to Allow Companies to Reveal When They Receive National Security Letters
Sigh…are you f’ing kidding…
From: Page, Lisa C. (OGC) (FBI)
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2015 3:36 PM
To: Strzok, Peter P. (WF) (FBI)
Subject: RE: FBI to Allow Companies to Reveal When They Receive National Security Letters
Sigh. This is the third conversation I will have had with him or someone on his staff about this.
On February 9, 2015, in a discussion of an article about how the Department of Defense may have unwisely used an Arabic translator in a Guantanamo hearing who had also been used as a translator at a CIA black site, Strzok says, “I cannot begin to describe the amount of f*ckupedness if true…” Page replies, “I know. I heard about it on npr on my way home tonight. Multiple mentions of the FBI’s infiltration of defense teams last year too.”
On June 1, we filed a motion for preservation order in this case asking the court to order the Department of Justice to prevent both Strzok and Page from deleting any incriminating records of their communications. We argue that several of the text messages produced to Congress reference work-related communications between Strzok and Page through personal accounts.
We noted that in January , the DOJ told Congress that the FBI had neither requested nor searched information from the personal accounts of Strzok and Page. We argued:
In a January 25, 2018 letter to Senator Charles Grassley, Charles Thorley, Acting Assistant Director of the FBI, wrote, “FBI has not requested from Ms. Page or Mr. Strzok any information from their personal email accounts, nor has the FBI conducted searches of non-FBI issued communications devices or non-FBI email accounts associated with Mr. Strzok or Ms. Page….”
Under the law, “[a]n officer or employee of an executive agency may not create or send a record using a non-official electronic messaging account unless such officer or employee- (1) ,copies an official electronic messaging account of the officer or employee in the original creation or transmission of the record; or (2) forwards a complete copy of the record to an official electronic messaging account of the officer or employee not later than 20 days after the original creation or transmission of the record.”
Not until May did the FBI say it had written Strzok and Page letters asking them to preserve the communications but there have been no assurances that this was even done:
[Judicial Watch] has asked for copies of those letters and of any responses it has received from Strzok and Page. [DOJ] refuses to provide any evidence supporting this assertion.
Because [Judicial Watch] does not know specifically what [DOJ] asked Strzok and Page to do and what, if any, steps Strzok and Page are taking to ensure preservation, [Judicial Watch] is concerned [DOJ’s] mere requests to Strzok and Page are insufficient. [Judicial Watch] therefore is concerned records responsive to [Judicial Watch’s] FOIA request will be lost or not otherwise searched.
[Judicial Watch’s] request is nothing out of the ordinary. At least three other judges of this Court have granted such requests in the last 18 months.
We are in court successfully getting Strzok-Page documents thus far denied to Congress. Yet the Justice Department is stonewalling and even protecting Strzok and Page by battling our request for preservation order to ensure that no government documents are destroyed.
President Trump hit a home run with his nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The President stood up for the U.S. Constitution with this nomination. Judge Kavanaugh has a demonstrated record of applying the rule of law rather than legislating from the bench. His record shows that he will apply the U.S. Constitution as written and intended by our Founding Fathers.
This nomination is a great victory for constitutional government and a blow to politicized decision-making on the Supreme Court. We have too many politicians as it is in DC, and we certainly don’t need any more on the Supreme Court. Most Americans agree with Judge Kavanaugh that the Supreme Court should apply the law as it is written and leave the legislating to the people’s elected representatives in Congress.
The Senate should move quickly to work with President Trump to consider and approve Judge Kavanaugh. There is not much radical liberals can do to stop this excellent Supreme Court pick. We aren’t surprised by leftist smears, religious bigotry, and more threats of violence, but the votes are there for Judge Kavanaugh to be confirmed.
Please be sure to let your senators know what you think about the Kavanaugh nomination directly! You can reach your senators’ offices at 202-224-3121. Letters and emails work, too. All their contact information is available at www.senate.gov.
Ditto.
When he did his little simpering shimmy-shake my gaydar went off big time.
LOL. mine blew up and the needle flew across the room. The needle hit a large window and the glass broke and went flying. The broken glass killed my neighbors dog. My neighbor heard the crashing of the window and her dog yelping. She assumed our home was being burglarized, so she called 911.
I found myself barricaded in my own house with 20 well armed cops outside and it took me over an hour to get the hostage negotiator to surrender.
I buried the neighbors dog and asked her to never call 911 for me ever again. She asked what she should do if she heard noises coming from my property in the future. I told her not to worry as the noise would just be me out behind the barn hanging another Queer.
Bttt.
5.56mm
Without Judicial Watch and their FOIA lawsuits, the swamp would probably have won by now. I think that donations to JW are very worthwhile. I am glad that they have this level of resources, which I had not known until now.
Well darn. I had hoped my silly post of #42 would make you laugh.
Oh, it did! Never fear. I just couldn’t think of anything to say because you said it all. :)
In addition to my gaydar going off, my creep-o-meter broke, too.
;>)
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