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Matt Zapotosky
National security reporter covering the Justice Department
As president of the United States, President Trump used the platform to launch a fresh round of assaults on the FBI and Justice Department.
Trump – apparently seizing on allegations leveled the night before by one of his conservative allies in Congress FBI officials who have become infamous for anti – Trump trading texts: Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
The president repeated a claim from Rep. Mark Meadows, NS, who works with the "media leak strategy" to undermine his administration, then blamed the office and the Justice Department for inaction on the matter.
The claim from Meadows is debatable; Strzok's attorney said his client's reference to a "media leak strategy" was an effort to stem unauthorized disclosures of information. Both Strzok and Page have left the FBI; Strzok was fired over his anti-Trump texts.
"New Strzok-Page texts reveal 'Media Leak Strategy.' @FoxNews So terrible, and NOTHING is being done at DOJ or FBI – but the world is watching, and they get it completely," Trump wrote.
[How anti-Trump texts ruined the career of the FBI’s go-to agent]
Trump interspersed messages on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with his thoughts on the Justice Department. Apparently quoting from a segment on Fox News, he's tweeted at 7:08 am, "We have found nothing to show collusion between President Trump & Russia, absolutely zero, but every day we get more documentation collusion between the FBI & DOJ, the Hillary campaign, foreign spies & Russians, incredible. "
A minute later, he retweeted a message about his 9/11 proclamation, adding the hashtags, "#NeverForget # September11th." Next he tweeted about the "media leak strategy." After that, he suggests – apparently derisively and again quoting Fox News – that his Justice Department "would be able to go out of its way". Eric Holder, President Barack Obama's Attorney General.
Holder fired back: "This is not a day for the usual unhinged Trump politics. This is a day to remember the innocent Americans we lost and the brave first responders who gave their lives. "
Trump's tweet about the "Media Leak Strategy" Referred to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein on Monday alleging a "systemic culture of media leaking" among high-ranking Justice Department and FBI officials. The letter reveals previously undisclosed messages between Strzok and Page, who were involved in the investigation of the interference of the 2016 election and the probe of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
Trump has gone out of his way to discredit the Russia probe.
Meadows alleged in the letter, first reported by journalist and Fox News contributor Sara Carter, that Strzok texted Page in April 2017: "I had no idea how to do this. before you go. " Meadows' staff has sparred with the Justice Department for access to materials on Strzok and the Russia investigation, and has recently been published.
By itself, the text is difficult to interpret. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then-Director FBI Director James B. Comey had been told to crack down on leaks, and investigating such disclosures if they had been classified as Strzok's job as a counterintelligence agent. Aitan Goelman, Strzok's Attorney, says that is what Strzok was referring to.
"The term 'media leak strategy' in Mr. Strzok's text refers to a department-wide initiative to detect and stop leaks to the media," Goelman said in a statement. "The President and his enablers are once again peddling unfounded conspiracy theories to mislead the American People."
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, released other text messages from the same day, which seems to show. The lawmakers accused Republicans in Congress of selectively publicizing messages "to fabricate conspiracy theories to protect President Trump."
We shall not know how many times we will not be able to do this. Trump will take over the position of the executive director rather than the executive director. President's personal defense counsel, "the lawmakers wrote.
"Truth About Donald Trump's Administration."
On April 12, two days after the "media leak strategy" text, Meadows wrote that Strzok warned Carter Page and wrote, "Well done, Page." It was unclear to which "Page" he was referring. Meadows did not release the specific texts. The Washington Post on April 11 reported that Carter Page had been the subject of a secret court order FBI to monitor his communications.
It would be better if it were incorrectly listed as "Well done, Page" text – which was actually the case of April 22. Democrats suggested Carter Page, goal in New York Times review of how Comey handled the Clinton and Russia investigations.
Meadows also noted that Andrew Weissmann, who now works on the subject Robert S. Mueller III's team, had met with reporters from the Associated Press in that same month for a discussion about forming Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. An FBI agent has previously testified that investigators have informed the reporters that they have the right track.
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