Posted on 12/13/2018 8:39:10 AM PST by yesthatjallen
A federal watchdog has found no “discernible patterns” regarding the content of text messages exchanged between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that were not collected and maintained by the bureau's systems, according to a new report.
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Inspector General released a partially redacted report Thursday detailing how the office was able to recover previously lost text messages exchanged between Strzok and Page.
The inspector general (IG) report states that the messages later found to be maintained in different sources "included some political content, some work-related content, and some personal content."
Republicans were initially outraged when it was revealed that texts between the two were missing, fueling attacks from the White House toward the FBI.
Texts Strzok and Page exchanged have sparked a Republican effort to investigate potential bias within the DOJ against President Trump after some of the messages indicated an opposition to Trump.
Strzok and Page, who were romantically involved at the time of the texts, have both appeared before congressional investigators as part of the probe, and Trump has also repeatedly attacked them to allege bias in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
Strzok, who was a senior counterintelligence agent, was removed from Mueller’s team after the texts were revealed and was fired from the FBI earlier this year.
Page, who temporarily worked for the special counsel in her role as an FBI attorney, also departed the bureau in May.
The FBI has previously said that it was unable to retrieve all of the texts from Page and Strzok due to bugs within their system that prevented some messages from being collected.
The Justice Department's inspector general noted in its report Thursday that FBI agents have been given newer technology – Samsung Galaxy S7 and S9 phones – in an effort to address some of those issues.
The FBI said in a response to the inspector general report that, after conducting research into the current collection methods, it “believes that no single root cause exists, but rather that several contributing factors, independently or in combination with other factors, may affect collection capability.”
“The FBI accepts the fact that not all texts between Ms. Page and Mr. Strozk were collected by the FBl's text collection tool but appreciates and agrees with the OIG's conclusion and explanation that the content of text messages exchanged between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page did not appear to be a factor in their collection, or lack thereof,” the FBI response reads. “Further, the OIG did not find that the gaps in collection were intentional on the part of the FBI or any FBI personnel.”
The report also stated that the inspector general’s office could not recover text messages iPhones issued to Strzok and Page while they worked on the Mueller investigation.
The report says that Strzok turned over the iPhone to the DOJ once he was pulled from the special counsel’s team.
However, Strzok’s phone was reset to factory settings and reissued to another agent, meaning that it “did not contain data related to Strzok’s use of the device.”
A records officer for the special counsel’s office told the inspector general that Strzok’s phone was reviewed for texts after it was returned, and it was “determined it contained no substantive text messages.”
The report states that Page’s iPhone used for the Mueller probe was not located until September 2018. While it had not been reissued to another official, it had been reset to factory settings — a routine practice within the department — and “did not contain any data related to Page’s use of the device.”
Unlike Strzok’s phone, Page’s device was not reviewed by the special counsel’s records officer for possible records that would need to be kept.
It’s unclear if the two had even exchanged texts on the devices; the report states that both had continued to use Samsung phones issued to them as FBI employees while they worked for the special counsel’s office.
The inspector general report released Thursday stated that the office was able to retrieve 20,071 text messages from Strzok and Page’s Samsung devices altogether. Not all of those texts were sent between the pair, with some having been exchanged with other figures.
They're busy trying to figure out how this fits into 'The Plan'.
And they will find an explanation of how this is part of 'The Plan'.
They’re busy trying to figure out how this fits into ‘The Plan’.
The problem with ‘The Plan’
There is no plan.....
But don’t tell them that.
This. We will never get the satisfaction of watching Qtards admit they were hoodwinked.
Huber, Horowitz, Sessions are SES. You will never see justice administered by them. see tagline.
If I was caught doing illegal work for the DOJ and FBI, I would do the same thing.
Who is really afraid of the GOP-e?
I still say McCain, Graham, Flake, Romney and Ryan either knew about the spying on Trump or were actively involved.
Turtle decided to block the investigation to keep from loosing the Senate.
I also believe that there is a NSA-Mormon Church connection coverup on how the NSA facility in UT was funded and financed.
Why did 9-11 happen.. or was allowed to happen? They couldn’t interpret data? Were denied or denied access to others who could have acted?
It’s not like they don’t have the toools or the clues, they are just too dumb to fit it all together.. or is it intentional?
Boobocraci-crats get people killed and then point their fingers at the victims and blame them for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The DOJ is dirty from the AG’s office to the newest recruit class & is in need of a housecleaning that will make one of Stalin’s gulag & mass grave filling purges look like a Sunday school kindergarten class singing Jesus loves me!
The tremendous quantity of incompetence within ALL government is what permits those truly EVIL individuals within to act as they do with impunity.
Merry Christmas, Norm
The Keebler Elf Gang strikes again...
Here, would you like some milk wif dem cookies? /s
So “no clear pattern” means “cherry picked.”
+++++
I think it means that the Inspector General agreed that there was no conspiracy to withhold or hide the Text Messages.
While this in most likely not the case it needs to be emphasized that none of their statements relate to the possibly damaging content of those messages that were political.
My take.
Is this IG a known dishonest person? If he wasn’t...he is now.
Qtard cult lingo.
I tire of it.
The patterns of cover-up are just never clear.
Got it.
yeah i believe this and i have bridge to sell you and a fbi building..
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