As Twitchy told you, the Mueller probe suffered yet another potentially fatal blow when damning anti-Trump text messages between FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were revealed. Business Insider’s Natasha Bertrand, for one, seemed taken aback by the idea that the DOJ would share internal documents with reporters during an investigation:
Just in, statement from DOJ official: "We often provide information [to reporters] that we give to Congressional committees to avoid any confusion."
Me: Even amid an ongoing OIG investigation?
Official: Statement stands.https://t.co/v5pSPZduHP— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) December 13, 2017
More from Business Insider:
It is “highly unusual” for the DOJ to release correspondences that are the subject of an ongoing investigation to Congress, let alone to the press, a source on one of the congressional committees investigating Russia’s election interference told Business Insider on Wednesday.
The source emphasized that none of the leaks came from Capitol Hill, which obtained the texts from the DOJ separately on Tuesday.
“It’s appalling behavior by the department,” said Matthew Miller, a former DOJ spokesman. “This is an ongoing investigation in which these employees have due-process rights, and the political leadership at DOJ has thrown them to the wolves so Rosenstein can get credit from House Republicans at his hearing today.”
One source close to the process who requested anonymity to discuss internal DOJ deliberations said the texts were given to reporters in case they did not leak in time for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s public hearing on Wednesday morning.
“It is at least debatable whether it was appropriate to turn them over to the Hill in the middle of an ongoing investigation,” Miller said. “Under no circumstances was it appropriate to leak them to the press.”
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Just how “appalling” is it, though? Because according to ABC News reporter Mike Levine, this sort of thing isn’t unprecedented:
Deputy Atty General says reporters last night were shown anti-Trump text messages between FBI colleagues. Some are trying to paint this as “extraordinary” or extremely unusual move. Just for record, Obama DOJ did it too. I know ‘cause I was there.
— Mike Levine (@MLevineReports) December 13, 2017
Obama DOJ also invited reporters to DOJ to show them documents being sent to Congress.
— Mike Levine (@MLevineReports) December 13, 2017
Were those documents the subject of an ongoing OIG investigation?
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) December 13, 2017
Related to an ongoing OIG investigation? Yep.
— Mike Levine (@MLevineReports) December 13, 2017
Other reporters are backing up Levine’s on this:
— Devlin Barrett (@DevlinBarrett) December 13, 2017
☝?
— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) December 13, 2017
Huh.
https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/941030499493011457
https://twitter.com/davidharsanyi/status/941030799683538945
https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/941031254987767809
Good question. It’s almost as if media are OK with leaks when Democrats benefit. But that couldn’t be right, could it?
narrative busted. https://t.co/DZj5Ce3jmo
— Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) December 13, 2017
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Related:
‘Clown show’! NYT spin on hearing about FBI agents’ anti-Trump texts looks familiar
WATCH: Trey Gowdy goes OFF during hearing on FBI agents’ anti-Trump texts
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