Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, teamed up with Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to write a letter Tuesday about those five months of missing text messages between the FBI’s Peter Strzok and Lisa Page — five crucial months covering the Trump transition and the opening of the Mueller probe.
How did the FBI lose 5 months of text messages between employees? Read the letter to @FBI Director Wray asking questions about alarming FBI activities here:https://t.co/qHzjpX8p5z pic.twitter.com/3Xb9ZJ54JO
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) January 22, 2018
Sen Johnson writes to Justice Dept inspector general. Wants answers about this letter, from 12/13/17, that seemed to say IG had *all* Strzok-Page texts. https://t.co/Zyc2miiMtJ pic.twitter.com/Us9W19j0OX
— Byron York (@ByronYork) January 23, 2018
At issue: Johnson says he received a response in December suggesting that the Justice Department inspector general had “received all text messages between Ms. Page and Mr. Strzok from November 30, 2016 to July 28, 2017.”
However, in January, the Justice Department dumped 384 pages of text messages on Congress with a cover letter explaining that “the FBI’s technical system for retaining text messages sent and received on FBI mobile devices failed to preserve text messages for Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page from December 14, 2016 to approximately to May 17, 2017.”
So which is it? “These statements … need to be reconciled,” Johnson writes.
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Johnson was on Fox News Tuesday night to promote the letter.
.@SenRonJohnson on missing text messages in Russia investigation: "This is all about making sure that whatever information's out there is preserved…" #SpecialReport https://t.co/aYCR0l9iv5 pic.twitter.com/NLVIcdZelS
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 23, 2018
He also gave a little more information about that “secret society” that was mentioned in the texts released to Congress and that caught the attention of Trey Gowdy and John Ratcliffe.
https://twitter.com/StarChamberMaid/status/955941561790906368
.@SenRonJohnson on alleged 'secret society' mentioned in @FBI agents' texts: "That 'secret society' – we have an informant that's talking about a group, they were holding secret meetings offsite." #SpecialReport https://t.co/0NPVFhqWiY pic.twitter.com/NaXelnfaJP
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 23, 2018
Enough! Clean house and prosecute. https://t.co/iBOnW9fck3
— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) January 23, 2018
A conspiracy to bring down a president. Clandestine meetings held somewhere in the DC area; Maybe a cozy home in Virginia.
Folks, this isn't the plot line for a Clancy or Flynn knock-off. It's real life. https://t.co/xrwN8huO7J
— id est (@idestINT) January 23, 2018
What were they discussing?
What happened to all the texts?
What are they trying to hide?#ReleaseTheMemo https://t.co/9fcOddFj0k
— rockin lady ⭐️ (@rockinlady) January 23, 2018
So the gap in Strzok-Page texts begins right after their "secret society" discussion and ends just as Robert Mueller is being appointed Special Counsel. I'm sure it's nothing.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) January 23, 2018
This is a problem https://t.co/ynRNp1BOib
— Don Garlinger (@DonGarlinger) January 23, 2018
Related:
Secret society? Congressman says texts show manifest anti-Trump bias among top FBI officials