A high-level FBI agent demoted after his anti-Trump bias was revealed had sent a disturbing text message regarding a potential plot against then-candidate Donald Trump.
In the text message, Peter Strzok writes about a path suggested by FBI lawyer Lisa Page that would ensure “there’s no way he gets elected.”
However, Strozk says that “I’m afraid we can’t take that risk.” He also said that “It’s like an insurance policy in unlikely event u die be4 you’re 40,” implying that it was all but certain that Hillary Clinton would win the election.
According to the message, Page had made the suggestion in the office of Andrew McCabe, referred to as “Andy” in the message, who was the Deputy Director of the FBI at the time.
It is unclear what the path that Page suggested referred to exactly, but it raises ethical concerns involving FBI agents as well as McCabe. McCabe became the acting FBI director earlier this year after Trump had fired FBI Director James Comey.
Strzok was fired by Special Council Robert Mueller earlier this year after around 10,000 text messages between Strzok and Page were discovered. They were allegedly involved in an affair.
The messages were sent between Aug. 16, 2015, and Dec. 1, 2016.
The revelation is concerning as Strzok played a key role in both the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to send classified information, and the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The Hill reported on Dec. 4 that Strzok changed key language in the conclusion of the Clinton email investigation.
Strzok changed the language on the Clinton email case from “grossly negligent,” which would have been a crime, to “extremely careless.” Changing the phrase may have exonerated Clinton.
Deep State
Trump has long criticized the so-called deep state for opposing him and his presidency.The deep state refers to the bureaucracy of permanent and un-elected officials in branches across the U.S. government.
What is known so far is that officials have engaged in selective leaks in an attempt to damage Trump’s presidency.
Congress is currently investigating whether the surveillance requests were made based on information contained in the so-called Trump dossier.
The dossier relied almost exclusively on Kremlin-linked sources, and its information was “salacious and unverified,” according to former FBI Director Comey speaking before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on June 8.
Last week it was revealed that the wife of a high-ranking Department of Justice official worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 elections.
Bruce Ohr lost his position as associate deputy attorney general after it was revealed that he had concealed his meetings with Glenn Simpson, founder of Fusion GPS, and Christopher Steele, a former British spy hired by Fusion GPS to produce the dossier.
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