Judicial Watch: DOJ, Mueller 'Wanted to Hide the Truth' on How Agent Strzok's Biases Have Compromised Clinton and Collusion Cases
(CNSNews.com) -- Judicial Watch, a government watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the FBI for records about the reassignment of FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, who was removed from Speical Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 presidential campaign apparently because of anti-Trump and pro-Clinton texts he shared with his mistress, Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer who also briefly worked on the Mueller team.
"It is disturbing the FBI has stonewalled our request about the Mr. Strzok demotion for four months," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
"One can only conclude the FBI and Justice Department (including Mr. Mueller's operation) wanted to hide the truth about how Strzok's and Page's political biases and misconduct have compromised both the Clinton email and Russia collusion investigations," said Fitton.
Both Strzok and Page worked at the FBI under FBI Director James Comey, who exonerated Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her illicit use of a private email server and mishandling of classified government documents. Comey was fired by President Donald Trump on May 9, 2017.
At the FBI, Lisa Page -- who started an affair with Strzok as early as 2015 -- worked in the office of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who worked under Comey. The Mueller special counsel investigation was launched on May 17, eight days after Comey was fired. McCabe helped oversee the FBI's investigation (2015-16) into Clinton's illicit use of a personal email server.
Andrew McCabe is married to left-wing Democrat Dr. Jill McCabe. She was urged to run for a state senate seat in Virginia in 2015 by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a long-time Clinton ally, shortly after Clinton's email scandal was uncovered.
In late 2015, a McAuliffe-led PAC, Common Good VA, paid Jill McCabe $467,500. In addition, a second Democratic PAC paid Jill McCabe $292,500.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, Andrew McCabe did not disclose those payments to his wife on his 2015 financial disclosure forms. Also, as Judicial Watch has discovered, Andrew McCabe did not recuse himself from the Hillary Clinton email investigation until one week before the 2016 presidential election, despite McCabe's ties to McAuliffe, a Clinton ally, and the Democratic PAC that was paying his wife, Jill McCabe.
Last week, it was reported that Andrew McCabe, 49, would resign from the FBI in February or March of 2018, when he would be eligible to receive his full pension and benefits.
Judicial Watch's FOIA lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks the following information:
-- "All records regarding the assignment of FBI Supervisor Peter Strzok to the special counsel’s investigation led by former Director Robert Mueller.
-- "All records related to the reassignment of FBI Supervisor Peter Strzok from the special counsel’s investigation to another position within the FBI.
-- "All SF-50 and/or SF-52 employment forms, as well as all related records of communication between any official, employee, or representative of the FBI and any other individual or entity."
According to news reports and the House Oversight Committee, Peter Strzok was removed from the Trump-Russia "collusion" investigation after texts he exchanged with Lisa Page were discovered over the summer. Those texts demonstrate that both Strzok and Page despised Donald Trump and wanted Hillary Clinton to win the presidential election.
In the texts, for instance, Page refers to Trump as an “enormous douche,” a “loathsome human” who “should go F himself.”
Strzok says “F TRUMP,” he is a “f***ing idiot,” and his supporters are “PATHETIC” and “DOUCHEBAGS.”
Page also says to Strzok, maybe “you’re meant to protect the country from that menace [Trump],” and he replies, “we’re both very fortunate” and “I can protect our country at many levels.”
In an April 2, 2016 text to Strzok, Page wrote, “So look, you say we text on that phone when we talk about Hillary [Clinton] because it can’t be traced….”
Also, Strzok texted Page on Aug. 15, 2016, “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s [McCabe] office – that there’s no way he [Trump] gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
Strzok was one of the FBI agents who interviewed Clinton in the email server case. He is also the agent who rewrote part of James Comey's exoneration of Hillary Clinton, replacing the words "grossly negligent," a legal term, to "extremely careless" in regard to Clinton's mishandling of classified documents.
Strzok’s wife, the pro-Clinton Melissa Hodgman, was promoted to Associate Director of Enforcement at the SEC by President Barack Obama in late 2016, after the FBI found Clinton emails on convicted felon Anthony Weiner’s laptop.
According to Judicial Watch, FBI agent Peter Strzok "is suspected of being responsible for using the unverified dossier to obtain a FISA warrant in order to spy on President Trump's campaign." The dossier was in part paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the company Fusion GPS to ex-British spy Peter Steele.
It was revealed earlier this month that Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr's wife, Nellie Ohr, was hired by Fusion GPS to help "with its research and analysis of Mr. Trump." Bruce Ohr reportedly met with Fusion GPS officials at the Justice Department. He also reportedly tried to conceal these meetings and after this was discovered he was demoted and moved to a different office in the DOJ.
According to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Bruce Ohr, during the 2016 presidential campaign, met with ex-British spy Christopher Steele, who wrote the salacious dossier on Trump. Ohr also reportedly met with Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson after the election.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a member of the House Oversight Committee, said earlier this month, Peter Strzok is “the guy who took the dossier, I believe, or part of the team that took the dossier and took it to the FISA court. It's the dossier that was paid for by the Democratic National Committee. Paid [ex-British spy] Christopher Steele who paid Russians to put this false op together. He [Strzok] is the one I think who was working with others to put this together and take it to the court. That's what we need to know."
"That dossier was used as a basis for getting warrants to spy on Americans associated with Donald Trump's campaign," said Jordan.
"This is why we need a second special counsel which we called for months ago," he said. "[E]very time we learn more, it just reinforces the idea that we need that second special counsel."
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