Posted on 08/21/2022 9:43:01 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A cache of Russiagate documents President Donald Trump wanted released during his final days in office contained information about a pair of former leading FBI officials infamous for their private exchanges disparaging Trump, according to a new report.
Never-before-seen text messages between ex-FBI special agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, as well as unreleased information about the FBI's investigative steps, were part of this binder of Crossfire Hurricane investigation materials, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had a plan to give the binder to at least one conservative journalist, but he backed off when Justice Department officials warned that circulating these messages from Strzok and Page could put officials in jeopardy of being sued over privacy law violations, sources told the news outlet.
JIM JORDAN SAYS 14 FBI WHISTLEBLOWERS HAVE COME FORWARD
There remains an air of mystery about the documents covered by Trump's 11th-hour declassification memo issued on Jan. 9, 2021, at the end of his administration. In it, Trump declared he declassified materials in the binder and ordered the attorney general to implement the redactions proposed in the FBI’s Jan. 17 submission and "return to the White House an appropriately redacted copy."
This order, Meadows wrote in his 2021 book The Chief's Chief, would help ensure transparency in special counsel John Durham's criminal inquiry into the Trump-Russia investigation that began with Crossfire Hurricane. "I am confident that President Trump's order will provide much needed clarity and remove any excuse for the final Durham report to remain in a classified vault," he wrote.
However, there has yet to be a full disclosure in the 19 months since Trump left office, leaving the fate of Trump's declassification order in the hands of President Joe Biden's administration. "That order, if it exists, can be overruled now by Biden," noted national security lawyer Bradley Moss.
Details about the binder were nestled in the lengthy New York Times report, which generally covered the chaotic final days of the Trump White House and was published in the aftermath of an FBI raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, in which agents seized documents, including "highly classified" ones, that were not sent to the National Archives and led to a Justice Department review.
A source is cited saying Russia investigation documents were not among the materials taken during the FBI's search of Trump's Florida residence.
Kash Patel, who held high-ranking positions in the Trump administration and has since become one of Trump's representatives to the National Archives in this document dispute, said last weekend that Justice Department officials appeared to be maneuvering to block the disclosure of documents from the Russiagate controversy.
Because there appears to be an "ongoing" counterintelligence investigation, he argued, "you will never be allowed to see the Russiagate docs or any other docs that President Trump lawfully declassified, and they will hide it from the public," Patel told Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo. Patel previously claimed on Jan. 20, 2021, Trump's final day in office, that "99%" transparency had been achieved, but last Sunday, he pared back that estimate to 60%.
Text messages between Strzok and Page, in which they displayed a negative opinion of Trump, were uncovered over the course of the Justice Department inspector general's investigation into the DOJ and FBI's conduct during the investigation into Hillary Clinton's unauthorized private email server, which she used while secretary of state.
The messages between Strzok, who played a key role in opening the Crossfire Hurricane investigation in 2016 and interviewed retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn in January 2017, and Page, have fueled claims by Trump and his allies accusing the Justice Department and FBI of political bias — claims that continue to this day with the Mar-a-Lago raid.
A text message sent by Strzok to Page in August 2016 mentioning an "insurance policy" is integral to what Republican investigators have long suspected to be part of a so-called plot to undermine then-candidate Trump — a view rejected by ex-top FBI brass involved in the matter. Strzok and Page, who were romantically linked, have filed separate lawsuits against the Justice Department and the FBI for alleged wrongful firing under political pressure and violating the Privacy Act with the release of nearly 400 of their text messages, respectively.
A Justice Department inspector general report said thousands of text messages were recovered from their work phones as part of a review of a gap in messages sent between December 2016 and May 2017. The watchdog found technical problems were at fault for the missing messages, not any intentional erasures. Both Strzok and Page were members of special counsel Robert Mueller's team for a time. Strzok was removed from the team upon the discovery of their anti-Trump texts and fired from the FBI in 2018; Page resigned from the bureau also in 2018.
Occam’s Razor
If not for the “Wuhan Virus”. Trump would still be president. Once that is understood, everything else fits.
Interesting theory. Maybe Ivana was actually cremated.
I dont think it’s a cemetery. Ivana is buried on the golf course at Bedminster.
I think in a lot of cases they are so arrogant and frankly, disturbed, that they think they are saving the country from the evil that is Pres. Trump and white supremacists.
We can start by mocking and belittling them. This type of personality can not tolerate ridicule. They go ballistic and their egos are shattered. It won’t take much so let’s start now doing our part to save America. Laugh at an Elite today ; )
Correct. Remember, it was the coverup that drove Nixon from office. Here, the roles are reversed. Mar a Lago is the headquarters, and the FBI is the one who broke in (once again, with an illegally obtained and executed warrant) and who is now in the process of covering up their own crimes.
Defund. Disperse. Do not replace.
FBI Texts reveal disgraced FBI agent told lover ‘we’ll stop’ Trump
By Bob Fredericks
June 14, 2018 1:12pm Updated
A top FBI agent involved in the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails told a colleague in 2016 that “we’ll stop” Donald Trump from becoming president, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general.
The explosive comment came during an exchange of text messages between agent Peter Strzok and his lover, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, in August 2016, IG Michael Horowitz’s report revealed Thursday.
“[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Page texted Strzok.
“No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it,” Strzok responded.
Despite the stunning anti-Trump comments, Horowitz said he found no evidence that the pair’s political views carried over into their work on the investigations into Russian election meddling and Clinton’s improper use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state.
“We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative actions we reviewed,” Horowitz said in the report.
But, he added, “The conduct by these employees cast a cloud over the entire FBI investigation.”
Special counsel Mueller removed Strzok from the probe into the Trump camp’s possible collusion with Russia after the texts were discovered, and Page has since left the FBI.
Despite the IG’s conclusion that their personal views did not influence their work, the White House and GOP lawmakers pounced on the revelation as proof that the FBI was permeated with Trump haters.
“I think it points out the political bias that the president’s been talking about . . . and we’re glad they’re looking into it,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
Sen. John Kennedy said on Fox News, “In Louisiana, we call that bias, we don’t call that objective.”
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina said in a statement that the report shows “an alarming and destructive level of animus displayed by top officials at the FBI.”
“Peter Strzok’s manifest bias trending toward animus casts a pall on this investigation . . . His bias impacted his decision-making and he assigned to himself the role of stopping the Trump campaign or ending a Trump presidency,” Gowdy said. “This is not the FBI I know.”
But Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan Goelman, defended his client’s work at the FBI.
“After a yearlong investigation that included a review of millions of communications and interviews of scores of witnesses, the IG concluded that there is no evidence that the political views of Special Agent Strzok and others in the FBI impacted the handling of the Clinton e-mail investigation,” Goelman said in a statement to Fox News.
“As the report notes, Special Agent Strzok, in particular, was consistently thorough and aggressive, sometimes to the point that put him at odds with senior officials at the Department of Justice.”
PRAY THAT THE COUP PLOTTERS ARE PUNISHED!
PRAY THAT THE COUP PLOTTERS ARE PUNISHED!
CPAC stages play based on ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok
and ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page’s adulterous love texts
Anthony L. Fisher, Insider, Feb 27, 2020, 7:08 PM
“FBI Lovebirds,” a play based on the texts between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, opened CPAC.
During the 2016 election, Strzok and Page were having an affair, and exchanged texts critical about then-candidate Donald Trump.
Trump and his allies have cited the texts as evidence of a “Deep State” conspiracy to keep him from winning the election, or maintaining the presidency after he won.
Dean Cain, who played Superman in the 1990s ABC show “Lois and Clark,” played Stzok, while Kristy Swanson, best known for playing the titular character in the original 1992 “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” film, performed as Page.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — The Conservative Political Action Conference’s Thursday afternoon session kicked off with a staging of “FBI Lovebirds,” a play based on the texts between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page that have become something of an obsession to President Donald Trump and his supporters.
The controversial messages came during the 2016 election, which Trump and his allies have cited as evidence of a “Deep State” conspiracy to keep him from winning the election, or maintaining the presidency after he won.
Strzok and Page were having an affair and exchanged messages that were critical of Trump.
Among the most controversial of the texts was Strzok’s response to Page’s query asking if Trump could be elected. To which Strzok replied, “No, we’ll stop it.”
Strzok later said the remark was “off the cuff” in a moment of anger at Trump over his insulting of deceased Army Capt. Humayun Khan’s bereaved parents. Khan’s father gave a stirring speech at that year’s Democratic National Convention, condemning Trump’s proposed “Muslim ban.”
During the texts with Strzok, Page also said, Hillary Clinton “just has to win now,” and “This man cannot be president.”
The texts were made public in December 2017, and resulted in both Strzok and Page being removed from their posts as part of then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Strzok was eventually fired by the FBI, while Page left her position in May 2018.
Page has since sued the FBI and the Justice Department for what she says was an invasion of her privacy.
At a rally in October 2019, Trump mocked Page by performing a fake orgasm from the stage at a rally in Minneapolis.
“Lovebirds” CPAC play
Kristy Swanson, Bruce Nozick, Dean Cain in “Lovebirds” at CPAC, February, 27, 2020. Anthony Fisher/Insider
Strzok and Page were played by actors who made their names in the early 90s as “Superman” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
Dean Cain, who played Superman in the 1990s ABC show “Lois and Clark,” played Stzok, while Kristy Swanson, best known for playing the titular character in the original 1992 “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” film, performed as Page. Two other actors, Bruce Nozick and Tommy Gissendanner, played composites of members of Congress who later questioned Strzok in a July 2018 congressional hearing.
Both Cain and Swanson hammed it up, playing up the “smug DC elite” factor, as well as the inherent absurdity of two grown adults in national law enforcement positions reading their candid text messages allowed.
The actors read from scripts with long pauses between each others “texts.” The CPAC crowd seemed to enjoy the novelty of the actors announcing their emoticons (”smiley face,” “wink”), acronyms (OMG) and multiple exclamation marks as part of the dialogue.
But after some smatterings of applause and laughter, the energy in the room flagged, perhaps because the audience expected more steamy content and explicit plotting against Trump than the texts actually provide.
One line in particular that received a lot of applause was Strzok’s text reading: “Just went into a Southern Virginia Wal-Mart, I can smell the Trump support.”
During a Q and A session following the performance, Cain was asked how he could inhabit Strzok so well. Cain, like Swanson a vocal conservative, replied, “Well, I’ve played Scott Peterson.”
The actors and creators also revealed they had visited with President Trump at the White House today, with Cain adding that he thought Trump had performed better than they had — an apparent reference to the fake orgasm the president used to mock Page last year.
Cain added that he thinks Strzok and Page thought they were doing something that was “heroic” and “in the best interests of the country,” though Cain added it was “unconstitutional.” Swanson told an audience member that unlike Strzok and Page, the heroes that she and Cain previously played “weren’t arrogant.”
Writer and director Phelim McAleer, who produced the documentaries’ “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” and “FrackNation,” wrote and directed the play.
He told Insider after the performance, “It’s a tragic love story that was an international political drama, not just on top of it but running through it as well. And you’ve got Donald Trump.” McAleer says he’s looking to raise funds to stage the play for a few weeks in New York.
P
I can guarantee you DJT probably has multiple copies uploaded to a cloud/server in multiple countries...out of the reach of the Demon Rats.
Since they are declassified, no law is broken.
I read that the area (of the golf course) is a designated cemetery for Trump family members, and, is now a tax free zone (that NJ cemetery land is tax free).
Nailed it.
Surprise, surprise!
Well then, Trump should just release them. No way he and his attorneys don’t have copies.
Wait ‘til we hear that TPTB are skulking around that cemetery one night soon. LOL!
I think Trump turned all or most of that stuff over to Durham.
Exactly.
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