Tag: Text messaging

Citing a "high-level source," Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul charged in a bombshell Twitter post late Wednesday that anti-Trump ex-CIA Director John Brennan "insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier" be included in a classified intelligence community report on Russian interference in the 2016 elections -- a decision that ultimately lent credibility to the dossier and may have played a key role in fomenting unfounded fears of Russia collusion for two years. Fox News had not independently verified Paul's source, and Brennan has not replied to Fox News' requests for comment. Fox News is told Paul's tweet specifically accused Brennan of pushing to incorporate the dossier into the January 2017 official intelligence community assessment (ICA) from the FBI, CIA, and NSA that Russia worked to interfere in the 2016 election. Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper previously testified that the dossier was not ultimately used in the ICA at all. CNN reported on Jan. 12, 2017, based on anonymous sources, that intelligence officials briefed Trump on Jan. 6, 2017 with a "synopsis" of the contents of the dossier, which was written by ex-British spy Christopher Steele. Among the claims in the discredited dossier were that the Russian government had humiliating and compromising information concerning Trump. Just nine days before the FBI applied for the warrant to monitor Page, bureau officials were battling with a senior Justice Department official who had "continued concerns" about the "possible bias" of a source pivotal to the application, according to internal text messages obtained last week by Fox News. Fox News is told the texts were connected to the ultimately successful Page application, which relied in part on information from Steele. In its warrant application, the FBI incorrectly assured the FISA court on numerous occasions that other sources independently corroborated Steele's claims but did not clearly state that Steele worked for a firm hired by Hillary Clinton's campaign. “I don't know if I received bad information, but I think I suspected there was more than there actually was,” Brennan told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” He added: “I am relieved that it’s been determined there was not a criminal conspiracy with the Russian government over our election."

NBC News reached out to Berchem for comment after obtaining a copy of a memo she wrote about the text messages. In a statement to NBC News, Berchem, a partner in the law firm Akin Gump, said: “I understand that President Trump and the U.S. Senate have ordered an FBI investigation into certain allegations of sexual misconduct by the nominee Brett Kavanaugh. After getting no response, she resent the summary on Monday morning along with screenshots of certain texts that she thinks raise questions that should be investigated. Berchem's texts with Yarasavage shed light on Kavanaugh’s personal contact with friends, including that he obtained a copy of a photograph of a small group of friends from Yale at a 1997 wedding in order to show himself smiling alongside Ramirez 10 years after they graduated. He flagged two texts in particular In a series of texts before the publication of the New Yorker story, Yarasavage wrote that she had been in contact with “Brett's guy,” and also with “Brett,” who wanted her to go on the record to refute Ramirez. According to Berchem, Yarasavage also told her friend that she turned over a copy of the wedding party photo to Kavanaugh, writing in a text: “I had to send it to Brett’s team too.” Bob Bauer, former White House counsel for President Barack Obama, said: "It would be surprising, and it would certainly be highly imprudent, if at any point Judge Kavanaugh directly contacted an individual believed to have information about allegations like this. Further, the texts show Kavanaugh may need to be questioned about how far back he anticipated that Ramirez would air allegations against him. Kavanaugh told the Senate Judiciary Committee under oath that the first time he heard of Ramirez’s allegation was in the Sept. 23 article in The New Yorker. According to the information Berchem provided, Ramirez tried to avoid Kavanaugh at that wedding of their two friends, Yarasavage and Kevin Genda. Ramirez, “clung to me” at the wedding, Berchem wrote to Yarasavage in a Sept. 24th text message.

Peter Strzok, who played a leading role in the FBI investigations into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, testified publicly for the first time on Thursday before a joint hearing of the House judiciary and oversight and government reform committees. We’ll stop it.” Strzok said he regretted the text messages – which were exchanged on work phones – and acknowledged they created the perception of bias. Bob Goodlatte, the Republican chairman of the House judiciary committee threatened to hold Strzok in contempt of Congress if he did not answer the question. The exchange concluded with Strzok delivering a forceful defense of himself and the integrity of the FBI. “At every step, at every investigative decision, there were multiple layers of people above me, the assistant director, executive assistant director, deputy director and director of the FBI, and multiple layers of people below me, section chiefs, supervisors, unit chiefs, case agents and analysts, all of whom were involved in all of these decisions,” he said. “They would not tolerate any improper behavior in me any more than I would tolerate it in them. One Democrat said the Republican lawmaker “should take his medication”. When the room calmed down, Strzok replied: ”I have always told the truth.” He added that Gohmert’s question about someone he acknowledges hurting revealed “more about your character and what you stand for”. Democrats have called the hearing a “politically motivated charade” and an attempt by Republicans to undermine Mueller’s Russia investigation. The hearing comes one month after the release of a 500-page inspector general’s report, which concluded the pair’s text messages “cast a cloud” over the investigation into Clinton’s email server.

"He's not ever going to become president, right? That exchange is now the focus of a Republican campaign to discredit the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation that threatens Trump. When Trump defeats Clinton in the November 8 election, both are deeply upset. Republicans say the messages are clear evidence of FBI bias. Beginning late last year, Trump has focused his counterattack against Mueller and the bureau on "the incompetent & corrupt FBI lovers." "Public opinion has turned strongly against the Rigged Witch Hunt and the 'Special' Counsel because the public understands that there was no Collusion with Russia (so ridiculous), that the two FBI lovers were a fraud against our Nation & that the only Collusion was with the Dems!" They also reveal that Strzok and Page wanted a more aggressive probe into Clinton, and that Strzok originally balked at joining the Mueller team because he did not think there was real evidence of collusion. In June the inspector general found no link between their political views and the direction of the two investigations. Page says in an abrupt message "Please don't ever text me again." When Mueller learned of the affair and texts, in mid-2017, he quickly cut Strzok from his team.

The Department of Justice has recovered missing text messages between anti-Trump FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the DOJ’s inspector general said Thursday. In a letter sent to congressional committees, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said his office “succeeded in using forensic tools to recover text messages from FBI devices, including text messages between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Fox News’ Sean Hannity had reported Wednesday that the Department of Justice had started to recover some of the texts. More than 50,000 texts were exchanged between Strzok and Page, Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed Monday. The texts are believed to have taken place during the course of a romantic affair. Sessions had pledged to figure out how some of their texts went missing. Republicans, arguing some top officials at the FBI are politically biased against Trump, have seized on the texts. “We learned today about information that in the immediate aftermath of [Trump’s] election, that there may have been a secret society of folks within the Department of Justice and the FBI -- to include Page and Strzok -- that would be working against him,” Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, said Monday on Fox News. In another infamous message, Strzok appeared to make reference to an “insurance policy” against a Trump win. “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.