The House Republican, Without Evidence, Suggests New Text Shows Bad Conduct Of Former FBI Officials



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Representatives of Republican Mark Meadows of North Carolina said Monday that text messages recently uncovered between Strzok and Page on a "media leak strategy with the DOJ" suggested a "coordinated effort" by the FBI and the judiciary . Department for "publishing information in the public domain potentially harmful to the administration of President Donald Trump."

Special adviser Robert Mueller has dismissed Strzok from his team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 elections last summer, after an internal investigation revealed a wealth of private text messages with Page showing their contempt for Trump. In turn, the president and his allies at Capitol Hill seized these messages, sometimes pushing claims without providing any evidence to back them up, ostensibly to discredit the special advocate's investigation.

CNN did not get the full package of Meadows' last batch of text messages but, according to a letter from Meadows to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Strzok texted Page on April 10, 2017 to say, "I want you talk about media leak strategy with DOJ before you leave. "

In his letter, Meadows also cites additional text exchanges and a current article on Trump's former foreign policy advisor, Carter Page, which presented little context.

Strzok's lawyer, Aitan Goelman, challenged Tuesday the characterization of Meadows in a statement to CNN and accused the president "and his facilitators" of "peddling unfounded plot theories to mislead the American people."

"The term" media leak strategy "in Strzok's text refers to a department-wide initiative to detect and stop leaks in the media, Goelman said.

The president however quickly expressed dismay on Tuesday and accused the Justice Ministry of his inaction. In a tweet quoting Fox News, the president wrote: "The new Strzok-page texts reveal a strategy of media leakage." Trump tweeted: "So terrible, nothing is done at the DOJ or the FBI – but the world is watching it altogether."

Strzok was fired from the FBI last month for his conduct and Page resigned in May.

According to a justice official, the latest text messages made available to legislators in early August are part of a second installment of a critical deadline from December 2016 to May 2017.

Yet, this is not the first time that the President and Republican lawmakers focus on texts without context.

In January, conservatives speculated on a "secret society" harmful to the FBI after an exchange of texts, and then learn that it was a gift of calendars on the theme Vladimir Putin that one of the employees was buying for those who were working on first stage of the investigation in Russia.
In February, a Republican senator drew attention to a September 2016 text in which it was written: "Potus wants to know everything we do," claiming without any evidence that President Barack Obama had asked for information about the FBI investigation. Hillary Clinton manipulated classified information.
And finally in June, Trump tweeted "SPYGATE is in effect," citing text messages between Strzok and Page and suggesting that a Trump campaign survey began in December 2015.
A review of CNN texts between former FBI officials found no evidence to support Trump's claims that the Trump-Russia investigation began in December 2015.
However, the Inspector General of the Department of Justice released a scathing report this summer that clearly indicated that the texts "negated" the credibility of the Clinton electronic investigation, even though the views of both former public servants Did not directly affect the specific investigations of prosecutors.

CNN's Jeremy Herb, Manu Raju, Tammy Kupperman and Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.

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