In a batch of newly released text messages, it appears two high-ranking FBI officials were worried about investigating Hillary Clinton’s illegal use of a private e-mail server for fear that she would become president and seek revenge on the bureau.
On Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released a batch of text messages between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page throughout the course of the 2016 election. The two were allegedly having an affair.
On February 25, 2016, Page sent Strzok the following message when discussing the appropriate number of DOJ and FBI personnel that should be assigned to the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private, unsecured e-mail server during her tenure as secretary of State.
“One more thing: she might be our next president. The last thing you need us going in there loaded for bear. You think she’s going to remember or care that it was more doj than fbi?”
Strzok replied: “Agreed. I called Bill and relayed what we discussed. He agrees. I will email you and [redacted] same.”
While testifying under oath, former FBI director James Comey said he did not know that then-candidate Clinton would not face any changes before the bureau interviewed her. Other released text messages appear to contradict that statement.
Just days before Comey recommended that the Justice Department not press charges against Hillary Clinton, then-attorney general Loretta Lynch secretly met with Bill Clinton aboard a private airplane on a tarmac in Arizona. Around the same time, it was widely reported that if Hillary Clinton won the election, she would keep Lynch on as AG, which caused many to speculate about the the meeting.
You can read the entire batch of text messages here.
