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Senator Ron Johnson’s Surprise Report

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Senator Ron Johnson put out the following surprise release containing a report on the Clinton Email Investigation along with a vast supply of newly-released FBI texts:

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released a majority staff report Wednesday titled “The Clinton Email Scandal And The FBI’s Investigation Of It,” along with text messages between two agents that shed light on the investigation.

The report details the congressional investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server and the oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s involvement with their investigation of Secretary Clinton’s private server.

The report outlines how information available to the committee at this time raises serious questions about how the FBI applied the rule of law in its investigation. The majority staff report found that:

  • The FBI did not use a grand jury to compel testimony and obtain the vast majority of evidence, choosing instead to offer immunity deals and allow fact witnesses to join key interviews.
  • There were substantial edits to former FBI Director James Comey’s public statement that served to downplay the severity of Secretary Clinton’s actions, and that the first draft of the memo was distributed for editing two months before key witnesses were interviewed.
  • Director Comey stated that he had not consulted with the Justice Department or White House, when text messages among FBI agents involved in the investigation suggest otherwise. Two key investigators discuss an “insurance policy” against the “risk” of a Trump presidency, and “OUR task.”
  • Messages discuss “unfinished business,” “an investigation leading to impeachment,” and “my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.” The messages strongly underscore the need to obtain still-missing text messages and other information regarding the FBI’s actions and investigations into the Clinton email scandal and Russian involvement in the November 2016 election.
  • Senior FBI officials—likely including Deputy Director Andrew McCabe— knew about newly discovered emails on a laptop belonging to former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner for almost a month before Director Comey notified Congress.

The full press release along with links to FBI text messages and letters from Senator Johnson can be found here.

Document Pdf links:

Majority Staff Report: The Clinton Email Scandal and the FBI’s Investigation of it – 25 pages

Appendix C – Correspondence – 194 pages

Appendix C – Documents (Incld FBI Text Messages) – 502 pages

FBI text messages begin on page 29 of Appendix C – Documents.

What appears to be newly released FBI text messages begin on page 119 of Appendix C – Documents.

Outbox = Lisa Page

Inbox = Peter Strzok

Embedded Majority Staff Report – Courtesy The Conservative Treehouse:

Senator Ron Johnson Interim Report – The Clinton Email Scandal and the FBI’s Investigation of It by The Conservative Treehouse on Scribd

From the Executive Summary:

Because of the Justice Department and the FBI’s unusual management of the investigation and intrusion into the electoral process, charges of politicization arose from both sides of the political spectrum. The Office of Special Counsel ultimately initiated a Hatch Act investigation into FBI Director James Comey’s public statements about the Clinton investigation. The Justice Department Office of Inspector General (DOJ OIG) also initiated an investigation into Director Comey’s actions.

The DOJ OIG’s investigation led to the discovery of the text message exchanges between FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page. When presented with the content of these text messages, Special Counsel Robert Mueller immediately dismissed DAD Strzok from his investigative team.

The Committee was not notified of the text messages between Strzok and Page by an official federal government source, but only learned of them from news reports. On December 6, 2017, Chairman Johnson and Chairman Grassley sent a letter to the Department of Justice requesting the text messages. The Justice Department produced a first tranche of text messages on December 12, 2017, and a second tranche on January 19, 2018.

Although sometimes cryptic and disjointed due to their nature, these text messages raise several questions about the FBI and its investigation of classified information on Secretary Clinton’s private email server. Strzok and Page discussed serving to “protect the country from the menace” of Trump “enablers,” and the possibility of an “insurance policy” against the “risk” of a Trump presidency. The two discussed then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch knowing that Secretary Clinton would not face charges—before the FBI had interviewed Secretary Clinton and before her announcement that she would accept Director Comey’s prosecution decision. They wrote about drafting talking points for then-Director Comey because President Obama “wants to know everything we’re doing.” Strzok and Page also exchanged views about the investigation on possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign—calling it “unfinished business” and “an investigation leading to impeachment,” drawing parallels to Watergate, and expressing Strzok’s “gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.”

The text messages raise several important questions that deserve further examination:

• Whether, and the extent to which, any personal animus and/or political bias influenced the FBI’s investigation;
• Whether, and the extent to which, the Obama Department of Justice or White House influenced the FBI’s investigation; and
• Whether, and the extent to which, any personal animus and/or political bias influenced the FBI’s actions with respect to President Trump.

This report is not intended to answer these questions, but to demonstrate that the information received warrants further inquiry to examine possible bias and wrongdoing within the FBI and the Justice Department.

Some Twitter responses and observations:

Happy Reading.

 

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