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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.
Yet, this is not the first time that the President and Republican lawmakers focus on texts without context.
CNN's Jeremy Herb, Manu Raju, Tammy Kupperman and Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.
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