Trump Cites Misleading Right-Wing Story On Missing FBI Texts Contradicted By His Officials [View all]
Source: The Hill
12/15/2018 10:31 pm ET
Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General said missing — then recovered — texts from fired agent Peter Strzok were due to technical problems.
By Mary Papenfuss
President Donald Trump on Saturday angrily cited a story by a right-wing outlet claiming that some 20,000 texts by a former FBI agent and bureau lawyer were intentionally erased by an official of the Justice Department before its inspector general could examine them. But that account has been contradicted by his own administration— the Office of the Inspector General.
The OIG determined that the texts were initially missing due to faulty technology, not malicious intent. More than 20,000 texts have been recovered, according to an OIG report issued this month.
The report determined that there was “no evidence” that since-ousted FBI agent Peter Strzok and his girlfriend, lawyer Lisa Page, “attempted to circumvent” the FBI’s data-retention policies.
The conservative Federalist wrote Saturday that a DOJ official “wiped clean” and “destroyed” the texts between Strzok and Page, who had shared their dislike of Trump in messages while investigating Hillary Clinton’s missing emails — and Russian interference in the presidential election. Strzok was fired this year because of the messages. Page left on her own.
Read more: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-cites-misleading-story-about-missing-fbi-texts-contradicted-by-his-own-officials_us_5c15a1d9e4b049efa752e06d
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