Two FBI agents who were assigned to the special counsel on Russia, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, had texted each other during the 2016 campaign about protecting the country against Trump, according to reports.
One of them, Strzok, had also led the FBI’s Clinton email investigation, and watered down language that might have brought criminal charges for Hillary Clinton.
Strzok cryptically referred to a potential idea to thwart Trump’s election during a meeting in FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s office in August 2016.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strzok wrote to Page.
“It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely sent you die before you’re 40,” Strzok wrote in his August 15, 2016 text.
Earlier that month, on August 6, Page, who left the special counsel earlier this year to return to the FBI, had texted Strzok: “Maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace.”
advertisement
“I can protect our country at many levels,” Strzok replied.
The anti-Trump text messages were uncovered during a Justice Department inspector general investigation into whether political influence affected DOJ decisions during the campaign. It was also uncovered that the two were engaged in an extramarital affair.
There were also pro-Clinton text messages as well.
“God Hillary should win 100,000,000 – 0,” Strzok wrote in March 2016.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) on Wednesday called the messages “deeply troubling.”