Dem Lawmakers LIVID Over Unauthorized Release of Damning FBI Texts

Responding to outraged Democrats on Thursday, the Department of Justice confirmed that texts between two FBI agents bashing Donald Trump were leaked to the media before members of Congress and that the release was not authorized.

Rep Jerrold Nadler

Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerrold Nadler and two other Democrats confronted the Justice Department on Thursday demanding answers as to why the damning  text messages between FBI employees working on the Russia witch hunt were made public.

According to a report from Politico, the angered Dems are seeking a full review of DOJ’s decision making that lead to roughly 375 texts between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page being leaked on Tuesday.

In a letter sent to DOJ Public Affairs Director Sarah Isgur Flores, the Democrats demanded to know the names of the DOJ officials who had evaluated the messages for release, names of those at the DOJ who approved the media sharing the messages as they were still being delivered to Congress, and which reporters were present at the Tuesday evening briefing. They also sent a letter with similar demands to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

“As we understand now, some members of the media had already received copies of the texts before that — but those disclosures were not authorized by the department,” Flores said in a statement to Politico.

The shocking text messages between Strzok and Page, who were also having an affair, have lead many to question the integrity of the FBI and their handling of both the Russia probe and the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office – that there’s no way he gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strzok texted on Aug. 15, 2016. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”

Many Republican lawmakers believe that “Andy” meant FBI Deputy Director  Andrew McCabe.

“This [text] is the one that concerns me the most,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday. “Andy is presumably Andrew McCabe … and this text is very troubling because it suggests that they’re doing something, they have a plan to take action to make sure that Donald Trump does not get elected president of the United States at the highest levels of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Chuck Grassley had similar concerns.

“Some of these texts appear to go beyond merely expressing a private political opinion, and appear to cross the line into taking some official action to create an ‘insurance policy’ against a Trump presidency,” Grassley wrote in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. “Presumably, ‘Andy’ refers to Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. So whatever was being discussed extended beyond just Page and Strzok at least to Mr. McCabe, who was involved in supervising both investigations.”

He added that “any improper political influence or motives in the course of any FBI investigation must be brought to light and fully addressed. “Former Director Comey’s claims that the FBI ‘doesn’t give a rip about politics’ certainly are not consistent with the evidence of discussions occurring in the Deputy Director’s office around August 15, 2016.”

Fox News reports that Grassley requested the Justice Department turn over records by Dec. 27 relating to “the conversation” that allegedly occurred with Strzok and Page in McCabe’s office, and all records relating to McCabe’s communications with Strzok and Page between Aug. 7 and Aug.  23, 2016.

Other texts included calling then-candidate Trump a “loathsome human” and a “menace.”

 

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