by WorldTribune Staff, September 11, 2018
Documents show FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page discussed a “medial leak strategy” to undermine President Donald Trump in the spring of 2017 while Strzok was heading up the investigation into alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, a congressman said.
“Our review of these new documents raises grave concerns regarding an apparent systemic culture of media leaking by high-ranking officials at FBI and DOJ,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, North Carolina Republican.
Meadows, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, made the comments in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in which the congressman said a House task force had just received a new shipment of documents from the Department of Justice.
The Meadows letter to the Justice Department was first reported by investigative journalist Sara Carter.
In an April 10, 2017 text message to Page, with whom he was also having an affair, Strzok said: “I had literally just gone to find this phone to tell you I want to talk to you about media leak strategy with DOJ before you go.”
In his letter to the DOJ, Meadows also cited an April 12, 2017 text in which Strzok congratulates Page on a job well done while referring to two derogatory articles about Carter Page. In the text, Strzok warns Page two articles are coming out, one which is “worse” than the other about Lisa’s “namesake”. Strzok added: “Well done, Page.”
“Review of these new documents suggest a coordinated effort on the part of the FBI and DOJ to release information in the public domain potentially harmful to President Donald Trump’s administration,” Meadows wrote
The letter notes that the two text messages in April 2017 were during the same time frame as the FBI and DOJ officials were having conversations with reporters. During that time the Washington Post “broke a story on the Carter Page FISA application on April 11, 2017, setting off a flurry of articles suggesting connections between President Trump and Russia,” Meadows said.
Meadows is also demanding that the DOJ turn over more emails and text messages of other senior DOJ and FBI officials.
“In light of the new information, our task force is requesting to review text messages, emails, and written communication form FBI and DOJ officials Stu Evans, Mike Kortan, and Joe Pientka between June 2016 to June 2017,” Meadows said in the letter. “To be clear, we are not suggesting wrongdoing on the part of Evans, Kortan, and Pientka- and, in fact, previously reviewed documents suggest that some of these individuals may share the committees’ same concerns.”
“However, these additional documents, with an emphasis on communication between the aforementioned individuals and Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, Bruce Ohr, and Andrew Weissmann, would provide critical insight into the backdrop of the Russia investigation.”
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