Posted on 08/21/2022 9:43:01 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A cache of Russiagate documents President Donald Trump wanted released during his final days in office contained information about a pair of former leading FBI officials infamous for their private exchanges disparaging Trump, according to a new report.
Never-before-seen text messages between ex-FBI special agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, as well as unreleased information about the FBI's investigative steps, were part of this binder of Crossfire Hurricane investigation materials, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had a plan to give the binder to at least one conservative journalist, but he backed off when Justice Department officials warned that circulating these messages from Strzok and Page could put officials in jeopardy of being sued over privacy law violations, sources told the news outlet.
JIM JORDAN SAYS 14 FBI WHISTLEBLOWERS HAVE COME FORWARD
There remains an air of mystery about the documents covered by Trump's 11th-hour declassification memo issued on Jan. 9, 2021, at the end of his administration. In it, Trump declared he declassified materials in the binder and ordered the attorney general to implement the redactions proposed in the FBI’s Jan. 17 submission and "return to the White House an appropriately redacted copy."
This order, Meadows wrote in his 2021 book The Chief's Chief, would help ensure transparency in special counsel John Durham's criminal inquiry into the Trump-Russia investigation that began with Crossfire Hurricane. "I am confident that President Trump's order will provide much needed clarity and remove any excuse for the final Durham report to remain in a classified vault," he wrote.
However, there has yet to be a full disclosure in the 19 months since Trump left office, leaving the fate of Trump's declassification order in the hands of President Joe Biden's administration. "That order, if it exists, can be overruled now by Biden," noted national security lawyer Bradley Moss.
Details about the binder were nestled in the lengthy New York Times report, which generally covered the chaotic final days of the Trump White House and was published in the aftermath of an FBI raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, in which agents seized documents, including "highly classified" ones, that were not sent to the National Archives and led to a Justice Department review.
A source is cited saying Russia investigation documents were not among the materials taken during the FBI's search of Trump's Florida residence.
Kash Patel, who held high-ranking positions in the Trump administration and has since become one of Trump's representatives to the National Archives in this document dispute, said last weekend that Justice Department officials appeared to be maneuvering to block the disclosure of documents from the Russiagate controversy.
Because there appears to be an "ongoing" counterintelligence investigation, he argued, "you will never be allowed to see the Russiagate docs or any other docs that President Trump lawfully declassified, and they will hide it from the public," Patel told Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo. Patel previously claimed on Jan. 20, 2021, Trump's final day in office, that "99%" transparency had been achieved, but last Sunday, he pared back that estimate to 60%.
Text messages between Strzok and Page, in which they displayed a negative opinion of Trump, were uncovered over the course of the Justice Department inspector general's investigation into the DOJ and FBI's conduct during the investigation into Hillary Clinton's unauthorized private email server, which she used while secretary of state.
The messages between Strzok, who played a key role in opening the Crossfire Hurricane investigation in 2016 and interviewed retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn in January 2017, and Page, have fueled claims by Trump and his allies accusing the Justice Department and FBI of political bias — claims that continue to this day with the Mar-a-Lago raid.
A text message sent by Strzok to Page in August 2016 mentioning an "insurance policy" is integral to what Republican investigators have long suspected to be part of a so-called plot to undermine then-candidate Trump — a view rejected by ex-top FBI brass involved in the matter. Strzok and Page, who were romantically linked, have filed separate lawsuits against the Justice Department and the FBI for alleged wrongful firing under political pressure and violating the Privacy Act with the release of nearly 400 of their text messages, respectively.
A Justice Department inspector general report said thousands of text messages were recovered from their work phones as part of a review of a gap in messages sent between December 2016 and May 2017. The watchdog found technical problems were at fault for the missing messages, not any intentional erasures. Both Strzok and Page were members of special counsel Robert Mueller's team for a time. Strzok was removed from the team upon the discovery of their anti-Trump texts and fired from the FBI in 2018; Page resigned from the bureau also in 2018.
Well, if this is true, I hope they were smart enough to have multiple copies.
how could texts on their work phones be a privacy issue
the fbi invaded maralago cuz of the strozk/page texts according to the NYT?
i smell a red herring
they went to get evidence of their crimes and bury them in an “ongoing investigation”
Trump was way ahead of them
the stuff incriminating the fbi
are in Ivana’s coffin
Yes. No excuse otherwise.
In a Ludlum or other novel a mysterious woman would say "There was a copy made before the renegade agents' raid and I know where it is." Shots fired through the restaurant window and the woman dies but utters a last word that will lead to the location.
If one is building a RICO case on a group of bad actors, then one lets them have enough rope to hang themselves. Letting them steal an election and then cover it up is a little excessive rope, but maybe these is bigger than we thought and the extra rope is needed. Mike Lindell just filed a motion to void a protective order on election data collected during the 2020 General Election that shows the election being stolen. Data that he has in his custody. Stay tuned. It is going to get exciting.
Trump declassified everything yet didn’t release any of it. Big mistake
Right under their nose?? The Old Post Office??
I think Durham would have a set. And all this kerfuffle about who has authority to declassify? Pres. Trump was CIC. Who would have authority over him? Who would have authority to say to Trump, “you can’t classify/declassify that without my say so”? Surely not some bureaucrat at the National Archives. Not the AG. Not Congress. Not a judge. Do the idiots in the press ever ask this question?
“I think Durham would have a set.”
I was going to say the same thing.
I wonder… I still think Durham is Deep, DEEP state doing the bidding of the Jihad Junta. I just don’t trust him, he has been at this for years and what have we to show for it? This, especially when everything is so blatant… I hope I am wrong.
Its all truly sickening.
My first scoutmaster was on the the battleship California at Pearl Harbor and survived. My second scout master was a full bird Army Colonel that ran a mash unit in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. My third scout master was in the German Hitler youth and his grandparents brought him to the U.S. before the war to get him out of Germany and he was a Korean War veteran. My last scout master was my father master Gunnery Sgt., Korean War vet, and drill instructor at Camp Pendleton 9th Marines. His cousin was a Marine killed on Guam when the Japanese at night charged the airfield and killed Marines in their bunks and he is buried in Hawaii at the Punch Bowl on the same row as the famous WWII correspondent Early Pyle. My mothers uncles include a 1st Marine who fought on Gradual Canal and his brother who landed at Utah beach with the Fourth ID and received two bronze stars including one for crossing the Muers River under fire in Belgium to help Pattons third Army reach Bastogne. All these men are shouting from their graves at what has happened to our Republic!
Twice I have had to swear an oath tp preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. The first time working for Hughes Aircraft and training the first F/A-18 pilots when I had a top secret clearance. The second time working for a public agency the largest water district in the world. Everyone that works for the government takes that oath. Why have so many become so corrupt? Are there any honest people left in government service? Their oaths were meaningless. Do these people in Washington think the American people will stand for this blatant political corruption? Liz Cheney, Pelosi, Schumer, Shiff, so many countless terribly bad lying and dishonest people. Where are all the whistle blowers that stand by and do nothing?
The DOJ said they needed to study everything and redact anything that could harm them, err... I mean the US.
Of course, it was just a ruse.
They were up to their eyeballs in the coup and these documents prove it.
The Demonrat’s source, inside Mar-A-Lago (probably Secret Service) maybe, overheard that the documents were going to be released.
That’s the reason for the raid.
Maybe they think they ARE the U.S. in the same way Fauci thinks he is Science. These people are raging narcissists with endless egos and truly believe they are untouchable and entitled.
Big mistake.
Why? Because you want to see it all?
One has to believe there is a plan. The man has been steps ahead of them at every turn.
Did he play them to identify a snitch? Did he bait them into doing what they did, so now he goes after them and gets Discovery in a case?
He released his lawful order declassifying all of it. Ergo, none of it was classified. He was cooperating with them.
One could think that the amateurs completely jumped the shark on this in their panic to find and hide info.
Judicial Watch is suing for the affidavit. Have they ever lost?
The affidavit reveals everything. They’re going to be forced to show their hand. And I doubt it’ll be a good one.
This. We have let this get WAY out of hand, and it is actually going to require totally humiliating the oligarchy of wannabe royalty in order to set things right again.
The fact that the FIB got utterly c*ckblocked when they cracked open Trump’s safe and found NOTHING inside tells you all you need to know.
He knew they would pull something like this. He was ready for it. Whatever it is they wanted, they did not get.
How can these things exist and they not be leaked or revealed? If things have gotten that bad, they won’t make any difference anyway.
“Never-before-seen text messages between ex-FBI special agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, as well as unreleased information about the FBI’s investigative steps, were part of this binder of Crossfire Hurricane investigation materials, the New York Times reported on Saturday.”
Love letters from the 7th floor of the FBI, sounds like top secret national security paperwork to me./s
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