Posted on 12/13/2018 8:39:10 AM PST by yesthatjallen
A federal watchdog has found no “discernible patterns” regarding the content of text messages exchanged between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that were not collected and maintained by the bureau's systems, according to a new report.
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Inspector General released a partially redacted report Thursday detailing how the office was able to recover previously lost text messages exchanged between Strzok and Page.
The inspector general (IG) report states that the messages later found to be maintained in different sources "included some political content, some work-related content, and some personal content."
Republicans were initially outraged when it was revealed that texts between the two were missing, fueling attacks from the White House toward the FBI.
Texts Strzok and Page exchanged have sparked a Republican effort to investigate potential bias within the DOJ against President Trump after some of the messages indicated an opposition to Trump.
Strzok and Page, who were romantically involved at the time of the texts, have both appeared before congressional investigators as part of the probe, and Trump has also repeatedly attacked them to allege bias in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
Strzok, who was a senior counterintelligence agent, was removed from Mueller’s team after the texts were revealed and was fired from the FBI earlier this year.
Page, who temporarily worked for the special counsel in her role as an FBI attorney, also departed the bureau in May.
The FBI has previously said that it was unable to retrieve all of the texts from Page and Strzok due to bugs within their system that prevented some messages from being collected.
The Justice Department's inspector general noted in its report Thursday that FBI agents have been given newer technology – Samsung Galaxy S7 and S9 phones – in an effort to address some of those issues.
The FBI said in a response to the inspector general report that, after conducting research into the current collection methods, it “believes that no single root cause exists, but rather that several contributing factors, independently or in combination with other factors, may affect collection capability.”
“The FBI accepts the fact that not all texts between Ms. Page and Mr. Strozk were collected by the FBl's text collection tool but appreciates and agrees with the OIG's conclusion and explanation that the content of text messages exchanged between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page did not appear to be a factor in their collection, or lack thereof,” the FBI response reads. “Further, the OIG did not find that the gaps in collection were intentional on the part of the FBI or any FBI personnel.”
The report also stated that the inspector general’s office could not recover text messages iPhones issued to Strzok and Page while they worked on the Mueller investigation.
The report says that Strzok turned over the iPhone to the DOJ once he was pulled from the special counsel’s team.
However, Strzok’s phone was reset to factory settings and reissued to another agent, meaning that it “did not contain data related to Strzok’s use of the device.”
A records officer for the special counsel’s office told the inspector general that Strzok’s phone was reviewed for texts after it was returned, and it was “determined it contained no substantive text messages.”
The report states that Page’s iPhone used for the Mueller probe was not located until September 2018. While it had not been reissued to another official, it had been reset to factory settings — a routine practice within the department — and “did not contain any data related to Page’s use of the device.”
Unlike Strzok’s phone, Page’s device was not reviewed by the special counsel’s records officer for possible records that would need to be kept.
It’s unclear if the two had even exchanged texts on the devices; the report states that both had continued to use Samsung phones issued to them as FBI employees while they worked for the special counsel’s office.
The inspector general report released Thursday stated that the office was able to retrieve 20,071 text messages from Strzok and Page’s Samsung devices altogether. Not all of those texts were sent between the pair, with some having been exchanged with other figures.
Oh, so it’s all innocent, and no one should get punished, huh.
Give me an F-ing break.
These agencies were once held in the highest esteem
and respect — before they began to PRAY to the
DNC Cow with treason and sedition - and then
continue to cover it up.
Trust, once lost ....
Office of the Inspector General
U.S. Department of Justice
Report of Investigation:
Recovery of Text Messages From
Certain FBI Mobile Devices
https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2018/i-2018-003523.pdf
So “no clear pattern” means “cherry picked.”
MSM will claim “nothing to see,” but that’s not the case - actually the opposite, imo.
Well, sure. Of course...
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
The “Just Us” Dept. is DISGUSTING!!! TOTALLY CORRUPT AND DISGUSTING!
Of course there isn’t.....but I see a pattern....
They may not have found a pattern of Strzok and Page conspiring to take down Trump but that doesn't mean they weren't trying.
The FBI and DOJ admit there are gaps and missing texts.
Unless missing texts are discovered this is another brick wall.
And who knows if any texts have gone missing during the course of investigating.
an IG’s job is to protect the agency, not to pursue justice.
You are telling me the Derp State Obama Buddy Huber didn’t find anything? I could have told you that
Qtards heads exploding all over the internet right now.
And who knows if any texts have gone missing during the course of investigating.
That is Mueller’s job, why do you think the Derp state wants to protect him so badly?
Does it not become clearer why EVERY terrorist
either works with, or was “followed” by, these malignant
scoundrels who micturate upon the public and our
ELECTED President????
We investigated ourselves and found that we did nothing wrong.
OIG detected no pattern in their inability to collect all of the texts.
It does NOT mean there was no pattern of BIAS in Strzok/Page texts.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.