(CNSNews.com) – “For months, we’ve seen evidence suggesting FBI/DOJ leaked to the media for their own purposes. TODAY, we have a new text,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) tweeted Monday night.
Meadows said the newly released texts from former FBI Agent Peter Strzok to former FBI attorney Lisa Page suggest a “coordinated effort” by FBI and Justice Department officials to leak information potentially harmful to President Donald Trump’s administration.
In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Monday, Meadows released the following April 2017 text exchanges, saying they would lead a “reasonable person” to question whether the FBI’s goal was to investigate wrongdoing – or to place derogatory information in the media to justify the ongoing Trump-Russia probe.
April 10, 2017: Peter Strzok contacts Lisa Page to discuss a “media leak strategy.” Specifically, the text says: “I had literally just gone to find this phone to tell you I want to talk to you about media leak strategy with DOJ before you go.”
April 12, 2017: Strzok congratulates Page on a job well done while referring to two derogatory articles about Carter Page. In the text, Strzok warns Page that two articles are coming out, one that is “worse” than the other about Lisa Page’s “namesake” [Carter Page]. Strzok tells her, “Well done, Page.”
“While these two text messages alone are troubling enough, events surrounding these interactions call the motives of the investigative team into question,” Meadows told Rosenstein.
The new Strzok-Page texts are part of a new document release from the Justice Department.
Meadows noted that while Strzok and Page were texting about media leaks on April 10-12, 2017, the Washington Post broke a story on the Carter Page FISA application on April 11 – “setting off a flurry of articles suggesting connections between President Trump and Russia.”
According to Meadows: “Other documents indicate DOJ officials, specifically Andrew Weissmann [now part of the Mueller team] participated in unauthorized conversations with the media during this same time period.”
Meadows noted that during congressional iinterviews with Strzok and Page, FBI attorneys kept saying the witnesses could not answer questios about ongoing investigations. “However, documents strongly suggest that these same witnesses discussed ongoing investtigations multiple times with individual outside of the investigative team on a regular basis.”
Meadows is now asking Rosenstein – who signed one of the Carter Page FISA application renewals and also appointed Robert Mueller as special prosecutor – to review text messages, emails and other commuications from various FBI and DOJ officials that might “provide critical insight into the backdrop of the Russia investigation.”
President Trump tweeted about the DOJ/FBI leak strategy on Tuesday morning:
New Strzok-Page texts reveal “Media Leak Strategy.” @FoxNews So terrible, and NOTHING is being done at DOJ or FBI – but the world is watching, and they get it completely.
And: “We have found nothing to show collusion between President Trump & Russia, absolutely zero, but every day we get more documentation showing collusion between the FBI & DOJ, the Hillary campaign, foreign spies & Russians, incredible.” @SaraCarterDC @LouDobbs
