Additional text messages sent and received by disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok have been handed over to Congress, reports the Associated Press. In yet another twist to the Peter Strzok saga, the FBI failed to hand over a block of the agent’s text messages because they have gone missing.
AP reports:
But the department also said in a letter to lawmakers that its record of messages sent to and from the agent, Peter Strzok, was incomplete because the FBI, for technical reasons, had been unable to preserve and retrieve about five months’ worth of communications. New text messages highlighted in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray by Sen. Ron Johnson, the Republican chairman of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, are from the spring and summer of 2016 and involve discussion of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. They reference Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s decision to accept the FBI’s conclusion in that case and a draft statement that former FBI Director James Comey had prepared in anticipation of closing out the Clinton investigation without criminal charges.
On Monday, Rep. Lee Zeldin was the first House member to suggest a plan of action to locate the “missing,” text messages.
“Congress needs to (1) subpoena from the cell service Strzok & Page text messages; & (2) request FBI perform full forensic exam of their employees’ phones to see if they can recover the messages. Let the line shine brightly on the truth!” tweeted Zeldin.
Congress needs to (1) subpoena from the cell service Strzok & Page text messages; & (2) request FBI perform full forensic exam of their employees' phones to see if they can recover the messages. Let the line shine brightly on the truth!
— Lee Zeldin (@LeeMZeldin) January 22, 2018
Zeldin’s suggestions come as Congressional investigators express doubt about whether the FBI indeed lost the text messages.
According to Byron York of the Washington Examiner, Congressional investigators are deeply skeptical of the FBI losing the text messages:
“Very suspicious,” said one investigator about the news. “Hard to believe,” said another.
When asked to rate his trust of the FBI on a scale from 1 to 10, the investigator quickly answered, “Zero.”
Following reports of the FBI’s mystery “glitch,” Rep. Jordan Jordan (R-OH) is renewing his call for a second special counsel to investigate the former Mueller team member.
“First the IRS destroyed emails pivotal to our investigation of their political targeting. Now the FBI “failed to preserve” texts between Peter Strzok & Lisa Page following the ’16 election. The time for a second special counsel is now,” tweeted the Ohio lawmaker Sunday evening.