Republicans Grill the FBI agent who said he would "stop" President Trump on the text message

(WASHINGTON) – An FBI agent who worked on separate investigations into the Democratic campaign Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump defended behind closed doors for more than 11 hours on Wednesday while GOP lawmakers intensified their efforts. Peter Strzok exchanged anti-Trump texts with a colleague, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who both worked on the Clinton Inquiry and briefly on the investigation of Special Advisor Robert Mueller on the links between Trump's campaign and Russia. House Republicans seized on the texts as part of investigations on the Justice Department, the FBI and the decisions made during the presidential election of 2016. In one of the texts, Strzok wrote, starting from august 2016, "We will stop", in reference to a potential victory of Trump

The barrage of criticism of the GOP against the Justice Ministry arrives a few months before the middle elections, and in the midst of an intense struggle between the parties over the role of the FBI in the Russian probe. The House is expected to vote on Thursday a resolution demanding that the ministry hand over thousands of documents requested by Congress by July 6.

Mr. Strzok's questions about the judiciary in the House and the government oversight and reform committees began Wednesday. finished after 9 pm The last two hours took place in a small clbadified session after lawmakers said that Strzok had refused to answer sensitive questions about the internal protocols of the FBI and the Russian probe, among other issues

. Apart from the interview, an internal Justice Department report released earlier this month did not convince the text details of Strzok and Page, but eventually found no evidence that a bias influenced the decision not to indict Clinton. Trey Gowdy, RS.C., the chairman of the monitoring group, said in an interview that the bias is "ubiquitous" and "impossible to separate." Rep. Mark Meadows, RN.C., one of the most outspoken critics of the Department of Justice, said midway through the interview that even though it is possible that individual bias from Strzok does not affect the Clinton inquiry, he believes that "what we find is that the text messages were indicative of other decisions that were made." 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. To be clear, House Republicans are desperately trying to find something – no matter what – to undermine Special Advisor Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign. Unfortunately for them, they have completely failed today, and their interview with Mr. Strzok will not help their misguided mission. "

Lawmakers leaving the interview said that Strzok had expressed regret for the text messages and said that they do not affect their decisions.

Strzok was recently escorted from the FBI building while "His disciplinary process is going through the system," said his lawyer, "He remains a proud FBI agent" who wants to serve his country but has been "the target of unfounded personal attacks, political games and leaks. "inappropriate information," according to a statement issued last year by attorney Aitan Goelman., Strzok played a leading role in the investigation into whether Clinton illegally misbehaved managed clbadified information through his use of a private mail server while she was secretary of state.Later he joined the Mueller team investigating the l & # 39; Russian electoral interference but has been rebadigned last summer after the discovery of anti-Trump messages that he had exchanged with the FBI's lawyer. The page had already left the Mueller team when the messages were discovered and has now left the FBI.