Just when special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe appeared to be picking up steam, a report on the anti-Donald Trump text messages between two senior FBI officials affiliated with both Mueller’s investigation and the probe into Hillary Clinton’s emails has led to the launch of a Justice Department ethics investigation.
According to the Washington Post, a review of the text messages between senior FBI agent Peter Strzok and senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page show that the pair had frequent discussions about their political views, which included their mutual dislike of then-presidential candidate Trump and their fear that he would win the election.
The texts were turned over to lawmakers Tuesday night and are now the subject of an ethics investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general. Among the anti-Trump comments shared between the two, both called Trump “an idiot.”
When Strzok’s bosses learned of his text messages with Page, he was removed from his position as top agent on Mueller’s team in late July. Page, who also worked with Mueller’s team, left her position earlier in July for unrelated reasons.
Strzok and Page were involved in the FBI’s probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. During that time, they were also involved in an extramarital affair, according to the report. The Post reports that the affair was less of a concern than the text messages the two exchanged during that probe in which they disparaged Trump and seemed to favor Clinton.
The exchanges between the two are reported to be mostly expressions of their disgust with Trump.
On Election Day, Strzok sent Page a text that read, “OMG this is F*CKING TERRIFYING.” He included a forwarded story that said Clinton could lose the election, to which Page replied, “Yeah, that’s not good.”
Days later, Page sent a text to Strzok that said she had purchased a copy of All the President’s Men, a book about Richard Nixon and Watergate. She told Strzok, “I needed to brush up on Watergate.”
Just what this revelation and the subsequent investigation will do to Mueller’s investigation remains to be seen, but it would not be out of the question for there to be allegations of bias.
We will just have to wait and see.
Read more at the Washington Post.