It’s funny how quickly journalists can get to the bottom of a story when it suits. As Twitchy reported, a handful of Republican congressmen have raised questions about text messages between the FBI’s Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, one of which referred to a “secret society.”
We’ve said in previous posts that it could be nothing, and it looks that way Wednesday night — not that we’d mind if the FBI would stumble upon those months of missing texts.
ABC News obtained the full text of the message, and it looks like this:
SCOOP: @ABC obtains the full text message between FBI officials referencing a “secret society” within FBI. Was it in jest? https://t.co/RbdZQonNfN
— Mike Levine (@MLevineReports) January 25, 2018
Lawmakers have refused to publicly release the full text message, sent the day after Trump won the 2016 presidential election. But ABC News has obtained a copy of the one message that Republicans appear to be citing, and it’s unclear if the message’s reference to a “secret society” may have been made in jest.
“Are you even going to give out your calendars? Seems kind of depressing. Maybe it should just be the first meeting of the secret society,” FBI lawyer Lisa Page wrote to senior FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was working on the FBI’s probe of Russian meddling in the presidential election and would later join Page for a brief period on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
Also in the Nov. 9 exchange, Strzok told Page he had been fighting on and off all night: “Election related. Which is also godawful bad.”
Here is the "secret society" exchange that I have in my notes. DOJ didn't permit reporters to keep copies of the texts (filed a foia for them, though). I converted UTC to EST. pic.twitter.com/4EkK4grUNv
— Del Quentin Wilber (@DelWilber) January 25, 2018
OK … but what about the bit about giving out calendars? That’s where The New York Times and its source, a Democratic congressional aide, come in.
Some context about the “secret society” at the FBI 1/2 https://t.co/17xscE0N9N
— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) January 25, 2018
The FBI team had bought Russia-theme calendars to give out to the agents and analysts investigating Russia’s interference in the election, and in light of the election results, Mr. Strzok was making a dark joke about the gag gifts. 2/2 https://t.co/17xscE0N9N
— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) January 25, 2018
See, it was just a dark joke about gag gifts. For some reason, that explanation doesn’t give us any extra confidence that Strzok and Page were approaching their jobs with an unbiased detachment.
Now our question is, can that Democratic congressional aide leak a little bit more about some of the other texts, such as the one where Strzok said, “You and I both know the odds are nothing,” apparently in reference to the collusion investigation.
Republicans might be barking up the wrong tree with the “secret society,” but if the mainstream media can dig up sources this quickly, we’d like to hear more about these texts. Look how quickly ABC News was able to bring that one to light.
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Update:
The Washington Examiner’s Sarah Westwood, who has examined some of the Strzok texts herself, makes a good point about the “Republicans pounce” tack:
Hmmm… the headline on this story about the Strzok texts starts w/ the classic "GOP LAWMAKERS SEIZE." You have to read to the 14th graf to find: "newer messages appear to show the pair’s personal political views affecting their investigatory work." https://t.co/ZsTnginpXL
— Sarah Westwood (@sarahcwestwood) January 25, 2018
That question’s still firmly on the table.
Related:
Did Peter Strzok suspect ‘there’s no big there there’ in the Russian collusion investigation?
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