Republicans Grill FBI agent who said he would "stop" Trump

(WASHINGTON) – An FBI agent who has been working on separate investigations into the Democratic Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump campaign has been standing behind closed doors for more than 11 hours on Wednesday as GOP deputies stepped up their efforts . .

Peter Strzok exchanged anti-Trump texts with a colleague, FBI attorney Lisa Page, who both worked on the Clinton Inquiry and briefly on the investigation of Special Adviser Robert Mueller on the links between Trump's campaign and Russia. House Republicans have seized on the texts as part of the investigations on the Department of Justice, the FBI and the decisions made during the 2016 presidential election. In one of the texts, from 39, In August 2016, Strzok wrote: "We will stop him", referring to a potential electoral victory of Trump.

The barrage of GOP criticism against the Justice Department comes just a few months before the midterm elections, and amid intense sparring between parties over the role of the FBI in the Russian probe. The House must vote Thursday on a resolution asking the department to hand over thousands of documents that Congress requested before July 6.

Strzok's interrogations by legislators on the Chamber's judicial system and the government's oversight and reform committees began before 10 am on Wednesday and ended after 9 pm The last two hours took place in a small clbadified session after lawmakers declared that Strzok had refused to answer sensitive questions about the FBI's internal protocols and the Russian probe, among other issues.

Republicans outside the interview did not seem convinced by an internal Justice Department report released earlier this month that detailed Strzok's and Page's texts, but found no evidence that bias influenced the decision not to charge Clinton. .

Rep. Trey Gowdy, RS.C., the chairman of the monitoring group, said in an interview that the bias is "pervasive" and "impossible to separate." Rep. Mark Meadows, RN.C., one of the most vocal critics of the Department of Justice, said midway through the interview that even though it is possible that the individual bias of Strzok does not affect the Clinton inquiry, he believes that "what we find is that the text messages are indicative of other decisions taken or not." The opening of the investigation on Russia "in the summer of 2016.

Frustrated Democrats have called the interview a joke. In a statement after the end of the interview, Maryland MP Elijah Cummings, the Democratic's highest-ranking watchdog, and New York's deputy Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic's highest on the judicial panel, suggested that They had not learned anything new. Republican Presidents release the unclbadified portion of the transcript of the interview so that people "can see the desperation of Republicans for themselves."

Cummings and Nadler said in a joint statement that they had just finished the interview, and "as today 's transcript will be clear, Republicans are desperately trying to find something – n & rsquo; No matter what – to undermine the investigation of the special adviser Mueller on the Trump campaign.Unfortunately for them, they have completely failed today, and their interview with Mr. Strzok will not help them. misguided mission. "

Lawmakers leaving the interview said that Strzok had expressed regret for the text messages and that FBI agents often had political opinions but that they had no bearing on their decisions.

Strzok was recently escorted from the FBI building as his disciplinary process goes through the system, his lawyer said. He "remains a proud FBI agent" who wants to serve his country but has been "the target of unfounded personal attacks, political games and inappropriate leaks of information," according to a statement released last week by Aitan Goelman's lawyer.

A seasoned counter-intelligence agent, Strzok played a leading role in the investigation into whether Clinton illegally mismanaged clbadified information using a private email server while was secretary of state. Later, he joined the Mueller team investigating Russian electoral interference, but was rebadigned last summer after the discovery of anti-Trump messages that he had traded with him. FBI lawyer. Page had already left the Mueller team when the messages were discovered and has now left the FBI.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump criticized the interview in camera with Strzok, saying it "should be shown to the public on live television, not an in camera hearing that no one will see ".

The chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House, Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., Said towards the end of Mr. Strzok's interview that the council had ordered the witness not to answer many of the questions asked. Goodlatte said that he would soon hold a public hearing and that "I hope he will be more available at that time".

The Strzok interview is one of the events this week where House Republicans criticize the Department of Justice. In a controversial session on Tuesday, the GOP-led legal group approved the resolution asking the department to provide documents, despite an existing agreement to do so that was announced by the president's office Paul Ryan during the weekend.

Meadows and Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio were behind this resolution, which would not be enforceable, but would send a strong message to officials of the Department of Justice.

Justice and the FBI have already issued more than 800,000 documents to congressional committees, but summonses from the Justice and Intelligence committees are asking for additional documents. Legislators have threatened to scorn senior officials of the Ministry of Justice or dismiss them if the documents are not handed over.

On Thursday, FBI director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will appear at a public hearing to testify about both investigations and documents that Republicans are looking for. Goodlatte said that he intended to use Thursday's hearing to question Wray and Rosenstein on compliance with requests and that he encouraged "the others to do so." even".